It’s cold outside and the paint’s peeling off of my walls

It’s awfully frustrating but I’ve been home sick with a sinus/throat infection for the past two days. I’m not exactly better, but I’m going to make myself go to uni tomorrow, just because there’s so much work to be done, aaaaaand tomorrow night I will be photographing The Dead Weather’s concert at the Powerstation! So for that, I will be forcing myself out of bed at 6.30am to catch the ferry in the cold, and resume daily routines until my evening of adrenalin-fueled excitement… just there mere thought of shooting Jack White and Alison Mosshart… ahhh she’s so sexy, I wish I could be her. Now, I don’t usually do the whole adoration, omg-I-want-to-be-you-you’re-my-idol thing, so this is saying a lot.

Anyway, all that just means there is guaranteed eye candy on here later this week. But what I really wanted to blog about was writing. The photos in this post shows my stack of 10 extra-large postcards that I wrote whilst on the 89th (I think?) floor of the Taipei 101 last month. For some strange reason, it made me feel reaaaally dizzy to look out the windows that day, and after about 15 minutes of feeling nauseous I gave up and resorted to becoming a spectacle at the postcard-writing benches. Appaaaarently my postcard writing efforts were enough to warrant a small crowd of Chinese tourists that decided to watch, look over my shoulder, and I swear a flash of light indicated someone (other than my friend who took these) had taken photos! The only real downside to writing on such huge postcards – asides from a sore hand, since I hadn’t written by hand at all since Nov/Dec exams – was the fact that it turned out the postage cost per postcard ended up costing more than the postcard itself. Absoluuute faaaailure. But I was glad to find out that everyone who received one was happy to be surprised by a shiny big postcard from me.

I’ve gone compleeetely off topic though. What I’d wanted to say was that, after two days of milling around at home doing next to nothing (I did practise upright bass for half an hour… but standing that long made me dizzy, boo), I concluded that I miss writing things. I don’t know where my know-all red notebook has gone. The one with pages crumpled by tears or torn our of rage. The one I wrote my most traumatic heartbreaks or ecstatic achievements in. And worse still, lately I’ve been feeling like my blog is a bit hollow. Towards the end of last year, I’d been shooting gigs or something of the sort virtually every week – so my blog entries became based around those. I never really blogged about anything controversial because I prefer those debates in person, with people I can interact with immediately. Nor have I sought advice via my blog, unlike many bloggers out there. So this left me thinking – what the heck does my blog consist of?! Well heck, I still haven’t answered it. But I think I’ll try to write more. More often. I can’t believe this has been a habit of mine for over half a decade.

Who ya fallin for, who ya fallin for? Whose lies?

These were taken in Taipei at Zhishan Park with a self-timer. It’s nearby the area I used to live in as a child, and our family used to go there a lot. I was very insistent (much to the frustration of my friend watching my mis-timings) that I must be the one to press the shutter and set it all up, haha.

University’s been hectic and sooo crazy – can you believe I’m taking six papers?!! For reference, the standard, average amount of papers that people take per semester is four. I thought I was mad enough when I decided to enroll in a computer science paper as my fifth, for the general education requirement, as most people put this off for a while. But I was really desperate for a non-music paper (for fresh faces… wow alliteration), and then later on decided it was now or never to take the double bass seriously as well, so enrolled in a 2nd instrument paper. Fingers crossed I pull through with decent grades!

Anyway, that’s the explanation for my lack of blogging, despite prowling the internet every night. I’ve been totally addicted to fashion blogs and looking at dream items of clothing that I could only afford if the decimal placing was moved a few places back. Not to mention, resuming my position working in a cafe once a week really puts in perspective of just how luxurious I’ve been lately – especially whilst I was on holiday. Minimum wage sucks, but it sure as hell beats the wages for students part-timing in Taiwan – which are about half of NZ’s!

The past two weeks have shot by so fast, my classes don’t even seem to last that long… but instead of at college, when I wished for classes to come and past quickly, I’ve been wishing that it was slower instead. As I’m supposed to be absorbing sooo many new things in all my jazz classes, the process of being taught, and expected to learn and immediately apply the new techniques or theory simply whizzes by too fast. Instead of wishing my spare, out-of-class time was longer for purposes of going out, etc, I’ve just wanted it, needed it to relax, and try and jam in some revision time. And to think I’m supposedly doing a “bum degree”. Fuck that. Reading 4 chapters a night for the next lecture is a heeeell of a lot easier than being expected to do 4 hours of practise.

I must go and tidy. I’ve swapped bedrooms and it’s still a wreck. And I’ve got a jam with some boys tomorrow that will hopefully result in a band of sorts… I will say more about it as soon as I’m sure. For now, there are just ideas, plans, plans and more plans in the brewing.

Start a few fires and have my way

I got an expensive haircut today: my sister’s hairdresser doesn’t work on Fridays and I was impatient, so I paid a little more for a “more experienced” (aka more expensive, and apparently more popular) stylist; which resulted in me having to wait for a whole 40 minutes from the appointment time I had made, before he finished with the previous client!

These are photos pre-cut. I can’t be bothered with any post-cut photos yet, oopsies.

I’m feeling rather strange about the fact that I watched two compleeeetely contrasting movies today: Nine and Valentine’s Day. Mum picked me up from the city as I finished uni slightly earlier on Fridays, and we managed to catch the only remaining screening time of Nine. As I hadn’t had lunch and was feeling peckish, we decided to be naughty and snuck in food from Burger Fuel – though I must say, I don’t think the Bacon Backfire (huuuge burger that has bacon, chicken and brie in it!) that we shared was half as good in the dark though… It’s just not quite the same as being able to see the yummy, unhealthy goodness ooze into your mouth… mmm.

Anyway, the movie itself – compleeeetely different from what I had expected. I was very curious about it, but wasn’t prepared to pay for it (and I actually didn’t), but the main reason I agreed to see it was because Mum really wanted to, and had no one else that was willing, haha. I think overall, I only mostly enjoyed the visual and audio appeal. I liked Fergie and Kate Hudson’s song and dances the most, but the entire movie was just a bit too frustrating for someone who isn’t exactly a musicals fan.

Then, just before, Charlotte and I caught a late screening of Valentine’s Day. Yes, yes, I know it’s almost a whole month after Valentine’s Day, but I don’t think that two girls catching a lovely, light-hearted movie at the end of a tiresome week needs any justifying!

In other matters, Mum caught this photo of me earlier today, which shows what I wore to uni: MinkPink singlet dress; grey slip (the singlet is freaking see-through!), Aqua Dr Martens; Mi Piaci Laine bag; Le Specs; and my good ol’ bass on my back – weighing me down all day week!

We share the same skies

I’m finally back! Actually, I’d arrived at 5am on Friday, and then was at the university merely hours later for my orientation day – resulting in about 38 hours of no sleep by the time I fiiiiiinally made it into bed.

I know, I’d intended to blog whilst on my holiday in Taiwan and Japan, but then my laptop broke within the first 2 days of arriving in Taipei, which royally screwed that plan up. I really should be sleeping now though – the first official day of university is tomorrow and I should try to kick my university career off with a decent night’s sleep… but knowing me, I will be browsing the web until I doze off eventually.

Asides from getting reacquainted with my bass (and any form of technique at all) after a whole month of being thousands of kilometres from it, the other hurdles I really need to tackle this week is my sheer nerves and anxiousness about starting uni itself. It’s exciting, yes, but I’m scared shitless at the same time – I’m doing Jazz Performance for goodness sakes! It’s a far cry from the would-have-been alternative… sitting comfortably unnoticed in a crowded law lecture and being able to do my own thing without putting myself out there – until I was read, at least. But now… I’m crapping out about having combo and improvisation classes, etc etc. Yikes.

In other matters, yesterday evening, the family decided to trade bedrooms – which equals bigger room for me, yay! The only (but huge) problem is that, now that we have fiiiinally moved the furniture contents of 3 bedrooms around, the wardrobes will remain unchanged until we can get it together enough to get everything back in the right places. Despite the bigger room, I still can’t see any carpet, simply because half of what I own is sprawled on the floor. Wish me luck with that…

And last, but certainly not least: Last night I attended The Cribs show at Juice Bar with a couple of friends. It was AMAZING. The best concert I’ve been to in a long time. The Jarman brothers (and yes, who could forget Johnny Marr) had amazing stage presence, everything was tight, energetic, a thousand times better than on record; and their shared vocals were done just so, so perfectly. The sweetest thing was, Ryan had a picture of Kate Nash stuck on his Gibson, under the strings, between the pickups – super cute! I’m just jealous that Gary (which one’s that? the hot bassist, of course!) who’s only 29 is married to a 42 year old! Granted, she’s meant to be pretty amazing (mixed an album of Elliot Smith’s, etc) but still… Gary was well worth the leg pain that comes with a barrier-less venue!

Anyway, I will endeavour to post about my trip in sections along with photos – when I eventually get around to sorting them all. For now, here are some shots that I’d taken on film. All unedited, directly from scans. It’s good to be back!

I’ll walk this modern tightrope… Where is home?

No, no, I’m not leaving civilisation for a year – I’m just off to Taiwan/Japan for a month, and that’s what my luggage looks like. 90% of what I’m taking consists of “western food goodies” and other New Zealand-produce like sheep wool scarves and boots. The 2x party packs of salt and vinegar chips are for my godmother, because apparently they don’t have s&v flavoured chips in Taiwan?! Plus, chocolate just makes a solid, relatively cheap gift – I mean, who doesn’t love chocolate?

Among the slightly less expected items were milo – I’ve got four heavy packs of those in there somewhere, for my mum’s friend in Kyoto who’s kindly offering me and my friend a place to stay next month when we fly over. And Ugg boots. Apparently they’re all the rave in Taiwan during their winter at the moment, and my godmother’s very picky and wanted NZ-made ones, with proper wool, instead of the cheaper, Made-In-China alternative.

I think the most annoying thing is the fact that my flight is at 11:45pm tonight – making today pretty redundant. Asides from my last minute packing and tidying my room, I haven’t really been able to do much today. Although, I think Charlotte’s coming around for goodbye hugs and to snip my fringe. It really, really needs a cut. But I’m too scared to do it myself!

I think the main upside to my luggage being occupied by edible and space-consuming gifts is the fact that after I arrive, my bag will become virtually empty, allowing me to go craaaazy with shopping; this is mostly important because university will be kicking off a couple of days after I return, and I don’t know how I am going to cope with mufti everyday for the rest of my life! Blog entries full of newly-bought goodies and yummy foods and sights from Taiwan/Japan soooon. If all goes well, by this time tomorrow I will have in my possession a very funky pair of somethings that I’ve lusted after for aaaages now, look out!

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