hongkongharrington

pie for me and pie for you

2008-06-24T12:35:00.004+10:00

I search and search for many things, vegan girls and onion rings...

I'm exploring the questionable reality of the internet, for shapes recognized as letters, then words and finally instructions. When followed these shapes I will find will become vegan pie.

A new vegan cookbook tempts me. Ngoh seung! Ngoh seung! It's called Sinfully Vegan.

I forgot about my other tattoo appointment. It was to be my second, but became the first, for I forgot the first first. Oh well! I must craddle my earnings for future excursions in far off places, with names I do not know. Panda bear's, minorities, spice...

Tomorrow I'm moving in with La-Ra for a few weeks. I will practice guitar with fever in every finger, for soon I play for the Melbourne film festival. My musical name, no longer the banner of Talking with Friends, now it is Brendan Ontario.

boom bop loop lop

bebs

Raw

2008-06-02T14:04:00.002+10:00

What's your favourite fruit or vegetable?

I'm sketching my newest project, a ring of fruits and vegetables to be tattooed on my chest. My last project, a scene of two robots fighting, would have been too expensive to get just now. The artist was quite good, but there is another in the same studio who'd be better suited to my love of science fiction.

On my list:

Broccoli
A Banana
Grapes
A Carrot
Cherries

candy

2008-06-02T12:12:00.002+10:00

New music:

El Perro Del Mar (Sweden) http://www.myspace.com/elperrodelmar
She & Him (M. Ward and Zooey Deschanel) http://www.myspace.com/sheandhim

My headphones are broken. I bought them some time last year. They're pretty in white and silver. Their sound quality is excellent so instead of wasting money on a new pair, I'll look to have them repaired. I'm not even used to walking to work without music, and that's only five minutes away.

At home, my scrolling thumb keeps coming back to The Beatles and Elliot Smith's, Roman Candle.
My guitar, neglected for much of the past several months is getting deserved attention. She sings with new strings and a clean face. She sleeps softly in a new hard case.

I'm listening to She & Him now. Their song, This is Not a Test, is golden. It's melody will rise many times in my head today. "I Thought I saw Your Face Today" would do well with many dance floor shoes.

I'm really hungry now. Off to eat I am, and maybe later to the new Indiana flick as at afternoon treat.

take care
bebs

for the yellow, mellow sunrays.

2008-05-18T14:54:00.003+10:00

Here we are my golden friends. Back from a long vacation, my pencil fingers scratch and scratch. I recently went to Sydney to see a girl I was once involved with in Hong Kong. She now lives in Beijing, studying Mandarin but was guided to Australia's mistaken capital city for an event she planned. This business of events is lovely. I wanted to see her so much. I was worried though, going to Sydney, seeing her again, and having those pesky insects fill my stomach. But, all was well. I behaved. I love her of course, but with more admiration than sexual attraction. Perfect.

Now, here in Melbourne, I dream of sky diving and an airline of affordable long distance flights.

the end
bebs

My Red Bean Day

2008-02-18T14:47:00.003+11:00

Wild... STRAWBERRIES!

Josh and I just came back from the city centre with a brand new copy of Pnau's latest masterpiece. It's blasting happily on our speakers now. WOOO!!
Pnau were one of my absolute favourite acts at Big Day Out. The joy of jumping around, crazily dancing and screaming my heart out to them is all coming back!!!

I love I love

Today I had something I haven't eaten in months. A RED BEAN BUN!
It was so scrumptious! Thank you Hongky style bakery! They also had those things I'd never eat but very much enjoy grimacing at, pork floss buns! and weird looking hot dog/sweaty cheese rolls. ewwwwwwww

Then just as I finished my red bean love affaire an Indian restaurant was at my side. I am now the proud owner of a mixture of curry and rice and a samosa. The latter is now on it's way to becoming something void of nutrient and I assume yummy taste too.
Nearly the best part of this curry mouth party is that it came with a plastic spork! How good is that?! I haven't seen a spork in ages.

Pirate's are back!

My mate's Danny and Greg, criminally known as the band, Seven Seas, are starting to gig again. Way to go you losers! You better be famous and have taken Vancouver under your pirate sails by the time I get there.

I've been working a lot more lately, leaving me pretty tuckered out for evening activities. But, I did manage to go to a masquerade party on Saturday night. My friend La-Ra invited me...even though she wouldn't be there till later. I wandered in at I guess an early time and met one of her friends Pia from Chile and a couple of her friends. I got along really well with one of them...I asked her name twice but forgot immediately, so sorted to my usual greeting, 'HEY!!' Anywho, I had an amazing time! The next day at work, however, was not so great. It was so busy! I went nine hours straight without a moments rest...so busy. I ended up hurrily washing dishes for the final two hours before gorging myself on nachos and slowly making my way home with a big slurpee in my hand...mmm cold!

Now I'm sitting here in my towel, eating curry and waiting for the final touches of sunlight on my boxers before I squirm into them. Then! I'm off to work for my first night shift. I'm going to blank out at the till I just know it! Smipsy's voice is in my head. Merry-go-round happiness!

bye!!!!!
see you sooooon darling

bebs

bed sheet ghost party!

2008-02-15T17:37:00.004+11:00

uber busy work! It was not stop running about, pouring pots, making coffee, serving, mistaking and FUUUUN!
Hamish the Indian fella in the kitchen made me a fabulous rice dish today. We're both veggo and he was making some for himself, so he made extra. What a nice fella! It was so freaking tasty but it took me over an hour to finish because of constant orders. The till crashed last night, thus resorting to it's old self, the old menu and old prices. Kira spent the day reinputing everything on our extensive menu. Because she was occupying the till I had to hand write all the orders for the kitchen and attempt to remember who ordered what drinks during the busiest lunch we've had in over a week. Making two mistakes I forgot to ring up a glass of wine, but the lady who ordered it was honest and came in to correct her bill. The other resulted in two extra open steak sandwiches. Kira, funnily enough, put Josh to work at the counter, listing all alcoholic beverages he had...she's hillarious. So, Josh being there, looking pretty, he received one free steak sango and the other went to the kitchen. After what felt like my longest shift yet, I was fricking elated to sit down, finish my cold rice dish (thanks hamish! it was soooo gooood) and have a pitcher (jug) of beautiful Coopers Pale.

Okay it's been a few hours since I started writing that last bit. I've been bited my mozzies twice on my left foot, on both hands and my right elbow. Frick!

I got to talk to my LOVELY DARLING! But I was pretty boring, being stupidly tired and thought I had to cut our time short to either help make dinner or buy dinner as I previously offered. But! The two, were shooting lines back and forth, having an argument that didn't need to happen. I'm really impressed how little those two squabble. I'm constantly taking hints from them...
anywho, two hours of sitting around doing fuck all left me hungry. So, I made myself a weird mix of fried rice, red pepper, potato and garlic. Yeah I know, gross. But it was soo goood! Their out having dinner now. I would have greatly preferred a coffee and an absurdly long conversation with mau bau. Ngoh gwa jew lei mau bau. stupid not being able to tell the future!
It's nearly ten o'clock......I'm ready for bed....sooooon!
Mau Bau is coming to stay at the month's end! I'm going to save!!!

okay, I was going to say other things but I'm pooped.

night darling:)
I wish I could control my own dreams
love
bebs

chopsticks

2008-02-12T11:53:00.000+11:00

It can happen so quickly, strings rusting with neglect, brushes dried without perpose. I haven't been playing or painting for over a week. Upstairs I picked up my guitar and started playing a riff, singing a few words but nothing clicked. Aside from a few brushes which are just acceptable, I need to do some serious shopping before dabbling with colours again. I may go out to buy some nice pencil crayons today, to prepare for my next tattoo. I love tattoo's and since my first five years ago I've been working on more and more illustrations. I'm happy I haven't rushed the process. I've met and know of a few people who upon discovering their love of body art, quickly covered themselves. Now, there's barely a spot left where new idea's could happily live. After a coffee and pint at my work yesterday morning, Josh and I visited the local tattoo shop, caroused through pictures of each artist's work and talked about prices. I was hoping to get something done late next month, but they're booked fully 'til late April or May. Good news for my credit card anyway. I'm just starting to save so I can pay off a big chunk of it. It's going to take a while! haha

A Sydney artist named, Fergus Brown just popped on the radio. I didn't hear the name of the tune but it was pretty captivating. Now I'm stuck trying to remember the name of a band I was obsessed with but have completly forgotten about since the death of my iriver.

Today's my second day off. I'm not used to having the house to myself. I really don't know what to do...i'm bored. I haven't felt bored in a long time. Back to work tomorrow though, so I should make use of today...be proactive and all that jazz.

I miss Hong Kong's packed streets. There wasn't any time to feel bored. There was always something to do, friends to hang out with.

ngoh gwa jew mau bau.
ngoh ho gwa jew lei.

monday giraffe race supreme!

2008-02-11T19:08:00.000+11:00

Kui sik gau bau.
Ngoh sik mau bau.

ho yah!

fuzzled

2008-02-11T00:27:00.000+11:00

I was planning on sleep but how could I possibly achieve such a feat without being a creep and adoring my darlings new photo's. So precious they are. I miss mau bau very much. She's so adorable.

Thank you darling for all your kind words:)

I've been reduced to gurgling and thoughts of my love.

this is all I can accomplish tonight.
my big sleepy smile is for you

bebby

curtailing curtains and words of affection

2008-02-08T19:30:00.000+11:00

Curtains rise on a scene. There's a long, white bar, a supposed bartender stands behind a till. A customer waits patiently on it's opposite side, having only just handed ninety dollars to the, once again, supposed bartender.
Begin!

I completly zoned out at work today, thinking of mau bau, whilst unfortunately poised at the till, with some fella's money in my hand. He interpreted my lost face and statue form as an inability to calculate his required change. Which, when I regretfully came to, I was very much incapable of performing the operation required of me. Luckily, he just laughed a lot telling me the correct amount. Being in no position to know what the hell was going on, I trusted his words and promptly handed the amount over to him. Well, nearly so... $16.60 was the destined amount. The sixteen dollars I could handle but the three twenty cent coins were in a whole other arena of higher understanding. Sixteen dollars, plus three fifty cent coins, "There you are. Sorry about that. I had a moment of relapse there." For some alien reason this fella standing across the till from me did not go away. In fact, he not only failed to go away, but was somehow under the unlawful impression that something else was funny enough to continue being exactly where he was. He chose to express this newly discovered source of humour in the form of laugher, which somehow transformed, but not entirely so, into the words, "Been in the country long?" accompanied with a forward moving hand, in which three fifty cent coins lived. The source had been discovered, rather, finally understood by mau bau distracted ole me. The curtains fell at my toes with the sound of two men chuckling. One, a dazed bartender, managing through a smile, to announce, "Actually, I have.".

Such is a moment in the life of a love filled artist.

fin

I have been day dreaming a lot about mau bau. It's so lovely.
I'm going to play CSS. I'll be right back.

That's better. Triple J, the radio station I usually listen to, started playing some atrocity, which through the graces of money and dozens of ass shaking, scantily clad women, each one looking nearly identical to their ass shaking peers, has escaped the aural refuse bin where it belongs. The need for CSS was immediate. Ho yah!

It smells like something's burning. I was just in the kitchen, noting the 'offness' of everything in it. So, it must be a neighbour's epicurian delights or my brain about to go loopy loopy love. I think that's a song title from the kiwi band, The Brunettes. They'll be playing part of the Laneway festival in a couple of weeks, along with Feist, The Stars, Broken Social Scene presents, Kevin Drew and lots of other worthy listens. I bought tickets for Steph, Josh and meeeeeeeeeeeeee ages ago, because it sells out so quickly.

What a good line from CSS, "Let's make love and listen to Death From Above."
Hey! if you like the band, Death From Above, you should check out, Kill Hannah. I've only managed to collect two of their tracks, both unlabeled, both awesome.

I feel so freaking honoured for mau bau to mention me in her blog:) wooooo! We're going to either constantly be insane together or adhere to a strict schedual of who's turn it is to be nutty butter, and who must reluctantly remain relatively composed for the outside world. If such a schedual must exist, I hope it comes in the form of pumpkin pie and vanilla icecream. This, I really hope is my first meal when I return to Canada. Plus, a giant pint of Alexander Keiths India Pale Ale. Not once has I seen it available during all my global traversing.

Fuck Yeah! It just starting pissing it down. Now I'm all wet after putting out the kiddy pool and two "specially crafted" styrofoam rain catching boxes. ho yah ho yah

These are my ideal breakup lyrics,

"So if someday we get to meet again,
In a car crash, plane wreak, or terrorist attempt
Or maybe next Thursday night,
Don't bother saying, 'hi'.
I'll be rude, I'll be rude, I'll be rude, woo-hoo!
I'll be rude, I'll be rude, I'll be rude, woo-hoo!
I'll be rude, I'll be rude, I'll be rude, woo-hoo!
Only with you! Only with you!

I really do love the sounds of CSS.

picture time everyone! be right back!
For today's images I went for the lighting that best shows my comfortable, quietly joyous disposition.

take care all

yours truly
bebs

lets play fair trade

2008-02-07T20:03:00.000+11:00

It's good to be happy. So obvious!

Well, I'm very very happy...extrodinarily so.

Work today was great. I'm feeling stupidly out of it now. Mau Bau is the reason....
Ho yah! Indian tonight. I did most of the prep but Josh is the true kitchen warrior. He decided on a rogan josh sauce and a melody of friendly veg.
ngoh seung sik mau bau.
ngoh wuih sik man bau! so soon. mwah ha ha.

Steph is chillin on the sofa taking sequents out of a dress she bought in Ireland. It looks way better now. Josh is cooking with a frenzy. I think my mum is working at her new job today at a book shop! So cool. My Pop's is probably working at the pub today. Here I am feeling pretty in black, checking out shoes online. My sis put me on to a fair trade brand called, No Sweat. They make a range of stuff but I'm only interested in shoes right now. All the running around I need to do at the cafe is leaving me with tender toes. Just as they should, my shoes are old with holes in their bums, their soles beginning to flap about and if it weren't for my wearing socks, my pinky toes would easily poke through. This is why I wear my orange socks a lot, so the holes are less noticable. Soon you shall perish my red shoe love afair.

I'm adding two fair trade sites to my, pony motion sickness, links section now. Have a look!

smipsy ho dut yee ah. ngoh gwa jui lei:)
hungry!

love
gau bau bebs

rain yuh huh

2008-02-06T23:07:00.000+11:00

quick the martians are coming!

hide the children!

uncage the birds!

I've been drinking champagne with Josh. I really freaking love how much aussie's drink bubbles. I'm celebrating the fact that I went for training today for WSPA and then tonight called up my team leader and quit! wooo I've never done that before. Though the perks would have been higher with WSPA, I'm already working at Wild Oscar's, where everyone has been so kind to me! I can drink! and more importantly I can use my developing bar tending skills during future travels. Very valuable they are indeed.

blast! I was just about to type that it's raining, thus I must run off to bed to fall asleep to the sky's most precious lullaby but it has stopped! damn you sky pee!

I had the dizzy pleasure of talking to my gorgeous twin today. I was very excited and kept biting my nails...a habit I've only very recently managed to break. so worth it though of course! I was a bit reserved though after working two jobs today and knowing that my sis and josh could hear my every word. In an effort to conceal my kooky, flirtatious words for her, I hid in the bathtub, pretending to run in the air and let the shower head drip on me. It was truely perfect. Thank you smipsy:)

Mum! if you're reading.... yes, she's asian, she's crazy and an artist! I hope you don't mind having insane, moody grandchildren. More insane and moody I mean, than your own BEAUTIFUL AND HIGHLY TALENTED offspring. I'm referring to steph and carrie of course:) Not I, who has somehow grown taller than my creators, yet still retains the psychological humour of a ten year old skunk in a bag of walrus'.

what am I going on about?
oh yeah...rain! come back you sky juice of love! I put the pool (little kiddie pool nat bought for our superb pool party) and two styrofoam boxes out to catch the rain. Last time, we collected enough to water our little, cute herbs for two days. SOOO GOOOD! especially when Australia is having it's worst drought in ages.

stupid sham-pag-na flute is dry. As any good artist knows, when at the risk of sobriety all endevours of creative ambition must close. So, I say farewell. You have my love and admiration always.

I do miss you.
creeeeeepy bebbie

sorry no picture 'til tomorrow. I'm pooped!
xoxo

It's raining again!
woooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

round trip nostalgia

2008-02-04T20:21:00.000+11:00

Trip One,

My Hong Kong, my tai wai. My role as an artist is to allow others to see how I interpret everything. This painting is for my years in hong kong and my favourite home there, in tai wai. From my bedroom window were mountains. I climbed them nearly every week. Under the mountains are the scores of apartment buildings, scenery and beside....balloons! My neighbour used to bring me a lot of balloons. Some were heart shaped, some looked like birds! Her name is Appple. She spells it with three 'p's. Thank you best neighbour ever.

Trip Two,

I found a new word! It wasn't hard of course...untill I tried to read it aloud and promptly was sitting back in my desk at St. Mary's elementary school.

"pulchritudinous"

Can you guess what it means? It's for my twin... though it fails to illuminate her.

umm...let's find a picture! Come now, I'll hold your hand if you're scared.

What?! "Crayon" means to depict. I looked it up because of the elementary school mention. I had a great childhood. I've had a great life:)! It's odd when words become hijacked and transform, especially from verb to noun, like crayon.

see ya friendly faces!
bebs

Garbage bag super ninja

2008-02-04T11:37:00.000+11:00

In the manga I'm obsessed with (I very much am in love with Bleach) there's a funny little character with a lisp. Now, I wonder if there's anyone with a lisp out there who can't say their own name, like Sara, Steven and such. What a cruel world! I think I'd have to change to something short and easy, like John, Bill or Bob. Yup.

Yesterday morning, I woke up just after seven not feeling too great. No, that's not it. I felt good. I still felt a bit drunk when I woke up, showered went to work and then CRASH! Setting up was a struggle indeed!

Saturday was meant to be a fairly quiet night. I harboured no secret longing for drunken shinanagans. But, somehow I ended up wearing a garbage bag tube top and a garbage bag skirt. There were other garbage bag people too...and music....and possibly five or six jager bombs in me along with beh tzou galore.

Somehow My body was able to disregard all of the abuse it welcomed Saturday night, until I finished work in the afternoon. Then, I really crashed. Oh boy did I ever.

That was yesterday. Today's start is far brighter, crafted from a good night's rest and soon to be spaghetti on toast.

Tonight, we're doing Mediterranian.

Humus!
Baba Ganoush!
Falafel!
Pita!

These words are hot sex to my ears. haha, I stole that visual from Rob, who's msn name I noticed is, "wasabi is like hot sex in my nose". Thanks dude.

Smipsy and I had a happy, long msn session last night. It was a gloriously hyper-active display of wit and bizarre twin affection.

oooo spaghetti on toast is sooo nearly here! ho geen ho geen

ming mm ming ah?

I'm working on two new songs at the moment. One is reminding me a lot of an interpol/beta band mix. When I practice I can hear the bass and drums in my head. The other song I'm using a little mix of spanish minor notes with surf strumming. It's starting to sound a bit like a lullaby for koala's.

That's all for now in this head o' mine:)
I may add more later.
PICTURE TIME!

bebs

"Out of gas and lost in space."

2008-02-01T18:38:00.000+11:00

Woah, I just left way to long of a comment on smipsy's blog. Ah well, I'm sure she'll love it.
So! What's new?

I gorged myself on nacho's after work today. I'm so full!
Yesterday, was my first pay day from Wild Oscar's. Everything is going so well. Dean the owner gave me a key a couple of days ago...oooo responsibility.
Now, since I got paid I finally have some cash to liberate my head and get a hair cut. I went to Dr. Follicals, around the corner from my flat. It's a hair dressers/record shop. They play awesome music and give you a free bottle of cooper's (mmm... beer) with your head choppin. The gal who cut my hair was extremely attractive as well, which is always nice. Eye candy!!! As with nearly every single other member of staff she had a lot of tattoo's full of colour and good taste.

Recap!
Great tunes.
Eye candy.
Free Coopers.
Cheap cut.
Lightened mop.
On my way home from work.

yes, these are all good things. I wish I had Mountain goats to listen to now. I need to buy some of their stuff. They have a new album out now, I think.

I broke my phone last night. For forty seconds or so I was starting to feel a thundering mood spreading, but then I just starting laughing. This time I'll just buy a cheap phone. No more of this expensive business. Actually, it still works. But the screen is completely fucked. It's one way all the way. The most inconvieniant part about the screen being broken has nothing to do with not being able to call or text anyone. It's the alarm clock I want! Plus I'm trying to save money to pay off a large chunk of my credit card. Blahblah boring...

I want to live in China. I want to live in India. I don't want to leave Australia. Stupid problem.
Oh! After I got my hair cut I went to the bottle shop for a six of coopers. Somewhere within that fifty feet I lost a fifty dollar note which was to be my allowance for the week. Fuck. haha I had enough for beer! so good.

Once I pay off some of my debt I'm going to take some Japanese or possibly Mandarin night classes. There are plenty of places in Melbourne where I could do this. The problem is choice. My Cantonese I've noticed is quickly disapearing. Where I lived in Hong Kong there weren't any other western faces around, save for my flatmate/hetero life mate, Rob. This meant that any time I went to the local restaurant, super market or really anywhere at all in Tai Wai I'd have to speak Cantonese. I loved it! The restaurant near my flat, which I frequented often, the staff always laughed when I ordered, tsim yu dow fu and dung ga feh. An amazing tofu dish and super sweet n' strong iced coffee. mmmm.

It's Friday! Are you in love? now I want to listen to The Cure. I think I will. Elvis Costello is reining supreme through the flat now. Good work Elvis.

The end.
Hello Coopers. Goodbye blog!
Today's picture was taken by me, as they all are, when I was in Yang Shou last year. My favourite place in China.

cheers!
burrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrennnnnndaaaan

Sleepy Bed Head

2008-01-30T12:08:00.000+11:00

This morning, I've been extra sleepy. I struggled to set up the cafe on time. I didn't think anyone else would be in this morning 'til half eleven, so I was surprised when Kira, the manager, appeared through the door just after ten, me knelt behind the bar with a sweaty fringe trying to get all the dirt off my shoes.

I haven't updated in a couple of days...I've been doing so well after my hiatus, it's time to keep it up. My blog is therapeutic.
I don't think I ever would have started this blog if I had stayed in Canada. My original intention was to use this as an outlit for keeping in touch with my mate's in Canada, now, it's more like a way to reduce the amount I talk to myself each day. Right now, I can hear my own voice in my head.... 'la la laaaa' oops, that was out loud.

Hey! The house behind me has a fig tree which partially hangs over my back fence. This was discovered by Steph and Josh the other day, so yesterday Josh and I used some gardening tools to snatch away six very delicious figs. Untill yesterday, I had never had a real fig before! They're so good!!! If only I could keep all the birds and bats out...
Saying, 'good' just reminded me of this Nick Hornby novel called, 'How to be Good'. It was hard to get through. Hmmm...maybe I didn't finish it. Oh well, I'm not a Horby fan I guess, save for High Fidelity.

Blah blah blah!!!!!!!!!

My Dirty Shoes.

Big Day Out was on Monday. It was awesome. It's been years since I last went to a big festival. I went to Rocket in Hong Kong in '05 and '06 but that's a pretty small deal compared to anything outside of Asia.
These are the bands I managed to catch throughout the day.

Rage Against the Machine
Bjork
Arcade Fire
Spoon
LCD Soundsystem
Pnau
Operator Please
Regurjatator
Midnight Juggarnauts
Battles
Silverchair

I'll start by proudly saying that I did not intend to watch Silverchair! It was an accident I swear! My poor ears must be hating me! I saw them once when I was a wee fella and they still played loud stuff. They very, very surprisingly played the old tune, Freak. Ah the nostalgia! And weren't so bad over all. My favourite acts of the day? well...

PNAU!!!!!!!
ACRADE FIRE!!!!!
BJORK!!!!!

In that order. Of course, a lot beer was sloshing around inside me by the time Rage and LCD soundsystem hopped on stage, thus making both extremely fun! But, the top three were just incredible. Spoon comes in fourth:) They had some tough competition and didn't play my favourite song! buggers
I'm very happy to have seen Rage and witness how fucking crazy people got during their set. Guys were climbing up skinny trees, on top of the 30 foot tall beer tent, and pretty much anything else that rose above their own drunken heads. It was fantastic. Josh, Steph and I hung back during Rage. We had no interest in getting crushed and had been dancing all day. Cut off time was ten and beer tickets needed to be put to good use, another reason for keeping away from the front lines.

Pnau played under a huge tent full of lights, GIANT! balloons and ten dancing maskots, from a rabid, pointy tooth strawberry, a happy sun, to a lightening bolt and other hilarious getups.

Bjork isn't just a musician. She really is a performance artist of the highest order. Closing with a song I only recently discovered, and immediately fell in love with, Declare Independence. She dedicated it to the aboriginal people of Australia, yelling the most prominent lines over the crowd, "Declare independence! Don't let them do that to you!" as massive clouds of plastic confetti burst from somewhere high above the singer's head and down onto the crowds'. The song was original written for the people of Greenland but works perfectly for any country and it's citizen's who disregard 'their' lands original inhabitants. Canada, America and Australia are always the first to pop in my head. But there are so many others. What do we do about it? Their world has been destoyed. We screwed up didn't we. Imagine if the world's ocean's were just a bit more trecherous. So much would be different.

My Addiction.

Rob was kind enough to tell me about a great website for manga's of all sorts. There are soooo many I've never even heard of and I really thought I was doing a good job of being an anime nerd lately. Ah well.
I've been catching up on one of my favs called, Bleach. I don't know what the title has to do with the storyline.....maybe at the end the main character says, 'fuck it' and drinks a load of bleach. That would be most disapointing! If you're reading this Kubo Tite, please don't get any ideas!
So, yup yup Bleach has been keeping me away from my bloggy love. I'm now switching to and fro my blog and Bleach...focus focus focus.

Sorry Kachun, Brent and Smipsy! This is such a long one. I think you're the only three that read this swirl of letters of mine. wooooooooooooaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh

For frosty Smipsy:
Wear fuzzy slippers on your hands and ears too:P yaaaaaaaaaaahh!

time to find some dandy pictures full of goodness and self rising yeast.
Enjoy:)

buga buga bebs

sweet dreams nice people

2008-01-26T22:36:00.000+11:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AUSTRALIA!!!!!!

2008-01-26T14:10:00.000+11:00

Last night involved mucho cervesa. Waking up at seven for work was a challange for my stomach but after I started going I didn't have a single moment of digestive relapse. My last post was created after consuming impressive amounts of a fantastic amber called Mountain Goat. No matter how many times I tell myself to stay away from communication devices whilst drunk I just never seem to uphold the noble idea.

Anywho!
It's Australia day today!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY AUSSIE LAND!! You're my new lovely home. Australia is such a beautiful country. I'm lucky enough to have had the pleasure of crossing a vast amount of it from Perth to Sydney:) The nullabor is soooo beautiful.

Now I'm free after a morning of work work work.
Big Day Out is in 2 days!

We're off to celebrate with the smiley sun and Coopers...my favourite aussie beer:P

have a lovely day everyone!
bebs

beeeeeer in meeeeee

2008-01-26T00:37:00.001+11:00

okay, sooooo I wrote a semi long post about my day and how crazy it was being thrown into the world of everything all at once. But! who cares about that boring business. I'm stuck in the world of candy floss, no cavities, crazy kid's names and smipsy! She's coming to melbourne. I'm elated!

Everything is my life is lovely.
I got another job today. Out of 19 people I was one of two hired. My interviewer said that she loved me! Obviously she was speaking in terms of personality:)
With this job I can work anywhere in Australia! so so so good. I'm a happy man indeed. Smipsy is coming. Now, all I need to do is not completely freak out thus scaring away my twin.

Ho yah!

ngoh ho hoi sum ah!!!!!!!

bebbbbbbbby

bright yellow ball

2008-01-24T20:23:00.000+11:00

My friend Smipsy isn't feeling very chipper today. I think we're so alike that it's rubbing off on me. She shouldn't be broken hearted. I felt the same when Sharon dumped me. For the first time since I started dating I was actually single and going through the motions of heart ache by myself. Then I met Urgyan. She's such a joy. We met in Hong Kong and loved every minute together. There was no bullshit between us. I was leaving for Australia, she for Beijing. I know we would be incredible together but there may never be a time when we can give it a try. I still have moments when I really need to distract myself or I could easily drop into a lovesick rut. That won't happen though. Sharon left me with the gift of control and a yellow flying v bass guitar. I'm a thoroughly happier guy after finally getting over Sharon, more patient, considerate and far more aware of how I spend my time. But! I'm cornering myself now aren't I. The point is that I would give the biggest hug ever to my sad friend, even/especially if she punched me in the stomach right after:)

Did you know that the memories you're able to access change depending on your mood? If your memories and the way you process information change with your mood, then when you're depressed you're actually a completely different person from when your angry or cheerful. Very interesting stuff. I very highly recommend a book called Quantum Psychology by Robery Anton Wilson. Becoming more aware of how I continually process information has been essential to controlling my moods. I'm a way freaking cheerier fella these days!!

Down to daily life:
Work this morning was tiring and wonderful. Three hours of constant bustle then home briefly before Josh and I headed into the city to busk. Literally, just as we were about to get off the tram I got a call from work and away we went again in the direction of home. A quick change into an old shirt and there I was at work painting the mens room for four hours. Noooowwww, I'm pooped! It was so freaking hot painting with no fresh air and the floor being heated by the constant flames of the kitchen below.

On tonight's menu....dumplings! Freshly made by Brendan, Josh and Steph.
It's time to dig in.
I've missed dummmplllinnngssssss.
If you were a dumpling I would gladly eat you. But you'd have to be some sort of mutant vegetable person so I could maintain my veggie ways.

Smipsy, a big hand licked high five to you ms. lovely!

cheers!
bebs:)

it's true, I really do

2008-01-23T13:10:00.000+11:00

sometimes I paint in my boxers

More tea!

My first day of work was easy breezy. I had to lug a bunch of stuff outside, sort out all the inner workings, clean tables, cut fruit, do a hand stand and drink a pint of Carlton. Two and a half hours of uh huh, okay, yep, no worries and ninja like stealth break beats.

Heath Leger died. I wish he didn't. He was going to teach me the secret of winning at Connect 4 every time. Jerk! Plus, I've enjoyed his performances. It's always a shame when someone of promise dies in their twenties. My twenties so far have been astounding. I'm incredibly fortunate to have the family I do and that includes my friends. The problem with meetings your best mate's in Hong Kong is that nearly no one stays put. Shaun and Gabe seem pretty solid there but rob's off being english at uni, kachun has pooped off to red sun territory and Danny and Gregles are being goofballs in Vancouver for a while.
Everyone please move to vancouver because you love me like a new born steak and that's where I'm going.

Playing with the idea of being a hair stylist for a while, I've decided to study the trade in Hongcouver. I want something of value that I can take with me during my on going adventures around the spice route.

I was exhausted after work but now I'm being powered by a tomato sandwich and tea. I'm addicted!!!!!!! I can't believe I used to dislike tomato's so much as a kid. Stupid kid tongues with their sensitive taste buds. I used to hate olive's too but my oh my are they ever good, pertaining that they're good olives and not...you know...bad olives.

Tilly and the Wall
Dr. Dog
Two Gallants
TV on the Radio
Kimya Dawson

...these are my new favourite aural friends. I've rediscovered Mountian Goats too. I plan on stealing style and fashion tips from all of these people.

hmmm...
Kachun! teach me Japanese.
Smipsy! Don't worry...I don't scare easily. We are twins. I'm way too excited for the day we make a collaboritive artist explosion. All we need is pipe cleaners a stop motion camera and a small room with three steps going nowhere.

I think that's it. yeah. I'm stuck into my blog these days...feeling grooovy.
Now to find a picture. wait here, I'll be right back.

I often paint in my boxers. they're just like shorts only softer.

busking time

breadan... nope...brenfast...nope...brendan...that's the one.

SUCH A GREAT DAY , I'M FEELING CAPITAL !

2008-01-22T17:02:00.000+11:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MY LOVELY NAT O!!!!!!!

raaa raaaaa! I couldn't sleep last night. My day of playing with html surviving on tea and tomato sandwiches may have been a bad idea....but they're both so damn good!

soooo, I set my alarm and managed to get out of bed, got dressed and filled my thermos with more tasty tea. A very healthy start I think. I found my way to an interview to be one of those lovely street people that everyone walks by, who try desperatly to tell us about why we should donate to green peace, amnesty and other charity jazz.
I found out that those people taking your info make 14-16 dollars ah hour. Seems pretty steep for a non-profit charity organization doesn't it?

BUT! I do need money. Off I went to the longest and most enjoyable interview I've ever had. 19 people, starting with a self intro, then two seperate debates. My debate was art vs essential services, like health care and education, a stupid debate but they obviously just wanted to see how we handle situations of conflict. I jumped on the side of art and happily shot down the other side. It's been a long while since I've had a proper debate! Then! They sent us out on the street for ten minutes to see how many people we could get to answer the question of which charity they'd most likely donate to given three options. Being in the centre of melbourne's business district it was a bit tricky stopping the marching suit people. Back to the board room to fill out a nice, long application involving paragraphs of green friendly answers. I was very tempted to write jokes about being a lumberjacks and eating bear pies whilst sitting in my new dolphin skin arm chair.... but no no no... bad brendan!! Nine people were sent home and the remainders, like promissing ole me, finished it all off with a two on one interview. Thirty-five minutes of questioning and I went on my hungry way towards home.

Almost forgot! I met a very cool gal at the interview with a head full of dreds, we exchanged mobile numbers and soon will hit the streets together for some sun filled busking. Me on guitar, she on le drums.

Planning to kick it myself with some wild haired, weird hearted guitar antics I popped back out with josh's giant djemb (west africian bongo drum) strapped on my back and my six strings of love in my hand. A slight detour to hand out a few more resume's before hitting the CBD I walked into a nice little spot called Wilde Oscar's and within five minutes I got the job!!
I'm being proped up now only by elation and anxious anticipation. I start tomorrow at nine:)

Finally....a job.

And! I've made a new friend. Her name is Smipsy. I swear to you she's real, though I've never met her it's obvious we're both kooky and playful with our words, being expressive and exuberant with artistic twist. It feels very childlike to announce a new friendship so concretly, but I'm still a kid after all. I hope I never feel embarressed for my honest ways.

Two bottles of bubbles and a gorgeous thai curry a la josh to celebrate and nouvelle vague on the stereo...
goooooooo! ! !

bebs

Baby Hands Up

2008-01-21T18:40:00.000+11:00

I noticed today that this blog o' mine has been running for a few years now. To celebrate I've spent the day tweeking a new blog template, as you hopefully have noticed by now. In the process of moving from old to new I lost all links to various blogs and little fun things. Some exploration had to be done to find my old and new friends. It was nice reading little biscuits from everyone's lives, learning of their progressions and being reminded of humours lost through Einstein's eyes.
I found one blog, a collaboration from old high school mates, writing about the world of music. It's all thoroughly amusing. I highly recommend having a look. I've added a link to their blog called Power, Corruption & Lies. Enjoy.

Tomorrow, I'll hit the streets again after having learnt a couple of new tunes. I hope to make about 50 dollars but I don't actually care much about the cash. My favourite part is the little conversations I get to have with people and the level of comfort that comes with playing in front of a passing audience. Being on the street with my guitar is also a terrific modivation to play a lot more than I normally would throughout the day.

a forgotten draft from 06.06.07

2008-01-21T18:38:00.001+11:00

sooooooooooooo, everything's going well.
I've gained some of the hearing back in my left ear, with the aid of a batch of antibiotics. I need to go in to a clinic sometime next week to get some blood work done. Nothing beats a good health check. I'm also doing it so I can see if I'm able to donate blood, something I've wanted to do for years, but with a near yearly arrival of a new tattoo i've always been unable to do so.

I was asked to join my mates' band, Dirty Dan and the Seven Seas (pirate rock music...they're amazing, really) I agreed, of course, so now their stage presence is getting more and more involved, with seven members (I think) I'll be the newest addition playing the melodica, backup vox and general tom-foolery. Their playing a show tonight for another Star crossed Tattoo's showcase, where I'll be playing spectator untill we have a few practices together.

My day's, I'm starting to see, are being booked in advance and I'm starting to feel a bit pressured to keep up appearences with different people. I'm not a popular guy and I never try to pretend that I am, but my "why not" mantra to most invitations is starting to get in the way with my precious 'sitting on my ass' time, even my lovely exercise filled thursday's when I typically ride my bike and go for a hike to Lion Rock are starting to be interrupted.
After my last serious relationship, I've searched for the same feeling I had then.....but it's clearly gone. There's no one around here who could make me want to be good in everyway. So, I've developed a very selfish attitude towards relationships and any dates that I do go on.

As a warning to anyone out there whom I may meet. I may see you once....we may get along....I may tell you that it'd be great to see you again......but the truth is that I just want to spend some time with my mates, and most night's go home to my quiet flat, let the rabbit's hop about me as I sit cross legged painting a picture.

Mental Medicine

2008-01-19T16:11:00.000+11:00

The last two days Josh and I have been hitting the Melbourne streets with a guitar and some other little noise makers, making enough to support our love of beer and fine food. The first day I was pretty anxious, so I was really glad to have Josh banging along on his bongo to a few tunes. I brought along my sketchbook and wrote, 'Trying to get back to Canada' in big blue letters and proped it up in my guitar case. I got a lot of smiles and I'm sure it helped to bring in a few dollars. In two hours we counted 42 aus dollars, a button, a lolipop and a piece of paper with a girls contact saying, "I've decided that I want to put you in a jar and take you home". ... the perfect ego boost.

Before going out I made a list of every song I could remember how to play, plus five covers which I've learnt recently. Having them all in front of me was like looking back on a golden path. Some songs I wrote about someone in my life, some when I was down or joyous, others when I was frustrated and trying desperately to push to a higher level. They were all there, looking just as anxious as I was about coming out into the world again.

Day two, there was a lot more competition. Friday afternoon, there was a busker, artist or homeless person on every single bustling corner. Three solid hours of playing later I had 53 dollars in my case. My sign came through once again, with some obvious Canadians throwing in some change shouting, 'Go Canada!'.

Tonight, Steph, Josh and I are heading out for a Canadian fix. We're going to see Caribou (the musician from Dundas, not the animal). Steph is out having a wander. Josh has just popped out to buy beer. I'm going to polish up on my Elvis.

bebs

yesterday

2008-01-07T13:59:00.000+11:00

Before I forget...

Two days of ear ringing...

On the second I saw Buck 65, on the third was The Go Team! who by the way, were just incredible! I've never seen a band so energetic, so crazy, so multi instrumental and still so together ever before.

There, that's better.

Yesterday, I got off my consistantly lazy ass and took josh's bike for a spin. I ended up in the Abbotsford Convent, which was a good thing because that's where I was hoping to land.

The Abbotsford Convent, was, as it's name 'hints', a convent. But on some year, some day and some moment prior to this one, the convent was saved from death by the melbourne community and transformed into a lovely gardens, artist haven, cafe, restaurant, market and on and on.

At the gates, I tied up josh's little bmx style bike and wandered the sun flavoured grounds for a while. It was very relaxing and after mentally removing everyone else there, it felt like I was back in the 1800's.

Proping myself up at a wooden picnic table I happily sipped some microbrewery beer that cost too much and dove into my sketchbook.

Last night I took Tolstoy out to the Great Britian Pub. This place has a great open mic on wednesday's and the decor is quite cool, with stripes of different victorian wallpaper and sofa's everywhere. The stage is a good size, people are supportive and the sound is great. Plus there's a basement bar that's open on the weekends where they usually play a great mix of mo town.
So, I'm reading Man and Master right now, and really enjoyed hanging out having a pint, drawn up in a bar stoole last night.

What should I do today?
Taking a number from my good friend Kachun, I'm going to start posting an image with each update. But, unlike him I will not publish each post in english and chinese. Sorry everyone.
okay, the picture wouldn't upload so...nothing today.

cheers
bebs

Grave digging ideas

2008-01-06T15:17:00.000+11:00

I haven't updated my blog since mid october, probably because so much has happened that it's easier to let things ferment into fond memories than document them.

I landed in Western Australia and spent a month in fremantle, working any cash in hand gig I could manage and finally made my way to my sis, Steph and her boyfriend, Josh's flat in Melbourne.

Their flat is perfect for painting, with it's high sky bound window's, a fresh breeze and open atmosphere I've thrown myself back into the world of painting. I had barely painted during the last two years in Hong Kong, lacking any solid inspiration worth developing, space and time. The last effort I made was some two years ago I bought a large roll of canvas and lugged this huge role around with me all night from bar to bar, then geneously forgot it in the taxi when I was at my doorstep. Buying that roll really put my finances to the test. Losing it was clearly something that needed to happen for me to take a good long break and have a good long dwell.

For the past month, Steph and Josh have been in Ireland visiting my parents for the holidays, leaving me to my own devices here in the house. It's been lonely at times, and I only recently noticed that I talk to myself a lot when I cook and paint, but generally I've enjoyed the last month.

The highlight of December was definately the little Hong Kong reunion in Sydney. I flew to Sydney to meet Natalie and Shaun at a flat right on bondi that lovely nat had organized. Later came Adriana and La-Ra and Shaun Mohan. I've never felt too comfortable spending much time on the beach. Probably because I'm incredibly white, burn quickly and can never find where I left my towel once I take my glasses off to go swimming. Right, so this reunion involved a lot of beer and beach and felt like home, surrounded by some of my best friends, I now have a love for the beach. The Australian surf can get pretty strong and extremely fun as well.

This week I'll post some photo's of my journey across Australia, Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney.

Happy new year everyone.
Brendan

desert glory: oz is beautiful!

2007-10-18T13:59:00.000+10:00

I've been keeping a journal of all the fun fun stuff I've done and seen so far. Today marks one full week on the road. But I have no time to write about anything now. In a couple of hours I'm heading out across the big nothing towards Melbourne. I should be kicking it with my sis, Steph and her boy toy Josh in a week and a half. WOoooo!!!!!

Take care all!
brendan

BYE BYE FREO!

2007-10-12T13:06:00.000+10:00

My ride will be here in a moment. I'm all packed once again. Why do I always need to pack when I'm hung over?
Take care all!

Last week in Freo

2007-10-09T18:28:00.000+10:00

Four days of digging, a day off, another day of digging, two days off, gardening today and working on the docks tomorrow...all cash in hand. This is how I've been surviving without using my bank account. I would normally be using it, but there's nothing in there in withdraw. Odd.....I could have sworn that I transfered ALL my money from my Chong Hing account to my Canadian account over two weeks ago. Wait! I did!
I hate Chong Hing. The last two times I've transfered money from my Chinese bank to my Canadian bank there's been some mysterious cause which delays the movement of cash. When this happened before I still had money in my pocket. But, this time I took everything out and wire transfered it to CIBC. Somehow it's still not there yet.

So, I'm still in Fremantle, an area of Perth which everyone calls Freo. There seem to be a lot of short names for things here, many of them ending in 'o's'. The music scene here is amazing. I've seen some great bands, the best I've seen in ages. The best so far has been, Felicity Groom and the Black Black Smoke. Great stuff. For anyone planning on passing through Perth anytime in the future, just give the city a couple of days, then stay in Freo and head to Mojo's in north freo. Last night I went to their open mic night and didn't play. I showed up around half eight with my guitar but the night's list was already packed. There were some great acts and really talented musicians. It's been so easy to settle in here in Freo.

I called a fella who placed an ad for a riding companion to Melbourne a couple of days ago, and now happily have a lift all the way along Australia's east coast all the way to Melbourne, nearly 4000km away. The fella driving is a German named Daniel. He has a station wagon in good condition and wants to camp pretty much the whole way to Mel. Gas and any camping expenses will be split between the three of us, Daniel, myself and some other German gal. Another guy at the hostil traveled with Daniel before and said he can be a bit of a pain, being very regiment in his plans. So, if he's too annoying, I'll hop out and hitch the rest of the way. With all the places we plan on visiting it should take about three weeks give or take.

Right then. So far I've met some very friendly people, picked oranges and lemons, done a load of gardening, seen some great bands and have been shedding away the layers of Hong Kong's air (big breath in...ahhhhh...).
Awesome.
My friend's in HK, James and Elodie have given me the number of a friend of their's living in Perth. I think I'll give her a ring soon.
ho yeah!

tartar
brendan

Hong Kong>Macau>Singapore>Australia!

2007-09-30T21:11:00.000+10:00

To start, I'll apologize for the massive gap in postings for the last while. It gets a bit boring to sitting down and typing about any little exciting thing that happens sometimes, that I just can't help but be lazy.

In my last post I mentioned that my working holiday visa for Australia had cleared. It didn't nearly as long as I thought it would.

I had the pleasure of quitting work last week. It was particularly wonderful because I know this time that I won't be going back into teaching for a long, long while.

Sooooo, after a slight confrontation with immigration (I over stayed on my tourist visa for the second time) I ended up missing my ferry from Hong Kong to Macau. I was due to fly out from Macau to Singapore for a one night stop over before heading out from Singapore to Perth in western australia, but by the time I managed to fill in all of immigrations forms, pay a small fine and run down to just catch the ferry, I had almost no time at all to get to the airport and check in before final boarding call. I hadn't even cleared Hong Kong yet, and already my trip was falling to shit.

I ran off the ferry and had to wait ten minutes in line to clear Macau's immigration officers, ran outside, jumped in the first taxi I saw and told the fella to floor it to the airport. At first he seemed to understand that I was in a hurry but it didn't take him long to drop down to 40km/h leaving me muttering horrible things under my breath. We pulled up to the airport, I threw some cash at the driver and looked at my watch to see that I had exactly 2 minutes to find my check in desk, sort out my luggage and get on the plane before the doors closed. At this point I had pretty much stopped entertaining the idea of getting on my flight, but with such a delay between my connecting flight in Singapore, I was hopeful for a new connection later in the day.

This next bit is for anyone who thinks nothing directly beneficial can happen to you from a bit of fog and rain. MY FLIGHT WAS DELAYED!

I've never been so relieved (aside from when I didn't wet myself on that bus trip years ago). I was in such a hurry that morning sorting out a load of stuff with the post office, that I didn't even have time to sit down and have a meal all day. My flight's delay meant that I had enough time to breath....aaahhhhh...eat...mmmmmm.....and change some cash into Singapore dollars...$$$...PERFECT!
An hour later when I stepped onto the plane I had a big stupid smile on my face, a full stomach and a few dollars to call my friend, Lae, in Singapore when I touched down.

Singapore is a beautiful place from what I saw of it, which was very very little. Lae and I had a nice dinner of cheese pizza and tea at her huge amazing flat! before heading out to a quaint drinking area, thankfully away from the city, where we drank for a few hours before the bars closed. I met my good friend Lae in Hong Kong, so naturally we were both accustomed to drinking at anytime and anywhere. After the bar scene we went to a 24 hour grocer and tried to buy beer. The cashier looked at me a little funny when I placed four cans of Tiger beer on her counter. "I'm sorry sir, it's against the law to sell alcohol after one o'clock", "...oh, really?".
She gave us a second funny look when we put back the booze and came back with a pack of fresh raspberries.

In the morning Lae and I worked on a piece she was writing for school. She just started at NYU's newest campus, doing her graduate study in film and it's demanding from what she showed me.
We hugged, kissed cheeks and I hopped in a taxi.

Part 2: Ozzy ozzy oi oi!

A friend of mine in Hong Kong told me to head straight to southern Perth to a place called Fremantle. I made it out of the airport, got a shuttle bus to the city, grabbed a train to Freo and was exactly where I wanted to go, and I had no idea where I was.

I asked a friendly looking gal where the closest backpackers was and she actually walked me right to it. I must have looked pretty lost with my big bag and a guitar. The backpackers was full and the fella inside gave me directions to another. I gave him my thanks, walked out the door and promptly got lost. Then there was some crazy bloke running around swearing his head off waving a stick in the air and occasionally hitting the ground with it. He was obviously piss drunk and pissed off. Feeling love in the air me and my feet went in the exact opposite direction from where the angry fella was, which quickly turned into the middle of nothing. I hadn't slept much in the past.....summer or so...so, I was knackered at this point and was happily walking into nothing at all with the intention of putting up my tent in the first field I stepped into.
Magically, a car pulled up with a magical gal and her magical boyfriend. She and her bf saw me wandering about, dead lost, and then verbally accosted by a monkey with a stick. These magical people having just finished work, drove me around to full hostel after full hostel before finding a home for me at a place called the Old Fire Station. "Just in case" they said and gave me their phone number, offered a couch and tour guide services. I gave them hugs goodbye and an embarrassing amount of thanks before finally finding my face in a bed.

Freo is an awesome place and I highly recommend it to anyone thinking that Perth is just too far to head and couldn't possibly be worth the time. There's a great music scene, the people are international, friendly and helpful. And! They support busking!

Tomorrow is my first day of work. I was laying on my ass today when an announcement came on saying that there was some labouring work to be done. I went down to the office and got a job in about two minutes. Some local fella is redoing his back garden and needs some fella's to dig and move things for him. It pays 13 an hour, which I'm told isn't that great. But, it's good enough for me for sure. Pick up and drop off are included and the house owner is even throwing lunch into the mix. I should only be doing it for a few days and that's just fine by me. Then, I plan on heading to a lovely little spot called Rottness island before heading south to spend some time with big trees and wineries.

ho yeah!
brendan

I GOT MY OZ VISA!

2007-08-11T16:56:00.000+10:00

I thought it would take at least a few more weeks, but my visa application has been accepted. It was so quick!

Oh I'm a happy fella.
Now all I need is my ticket to Perth once my online banking is up and running and then come late september I'm on my merry way!!!!

wooooooo!

Alex, My Long Lost Sister.

2007-08-01T19:47:00.000+10:00

So, I've one more lesson to go and a few hours to burn, then I'm off to the land of aeroplanes and baggage claims. Tonight, one of my best ever mates from Canada is touching down for nineteen days of fun under the Hong Kong sun.

We met back in highschool when Alex was organizing a bus trip for anyone who wanted to go to Edgefest, a yearly one day festival, that during those highschool days, was one of the coolest tickets around. It usually brought in 30,000 plus for the day, with three stages and big and unknown acts...........but the problem was distance. For most people in the greater toronto area like we were, the three hour drive north to the middle of nothing important was often a stress to organize. So, here comes alex, this gal I'd never seen before with the proposition of a bus full of friends making the pain of travel an adventure. Alex (Alley Cat) is the only person from those early highschool years whom I still talk to. There are other's of course, but she was the first to stick the whole way through. And...there's a very sound reason for it as well.....she's awesome.

Back to the past...
I've been keeping up with my running phase and have completely slacked off on biking, because my back rim is looking a bit too wavey to be readily recognized as belonging to the biology of a bicycle. Okay, well....it's not that bad, but it does need a few touch ups, especially in the rear brakes, which no longer exist.
Going for a run when I have the time a few nights a week is a real treat. Being so out of touch with the quick art of foot to ground I very very very easily tire out; on my bike those fun lovin'lactic acids take waaayy too long to make themselves known.
I've got into a whole system of jogging for ten minutes then sprinting as fast as I possibly can, for as long as I'm able before my lungs think it'd be a great idea to rival the sound of a 747 taking off.
This whole deal seems to work well for me. Sprinting is one of the greatest pleasures I've rediscovered in recent years.

Anywho, that's all pretty boring isn't it?

Yesterday I went off in the early morning after not much sleep from the previous night's music and debachery. Dirty Dan and the Seven Sea's played their last gig in hk before danny's departure to vancouver. Two thirds of the bowie knives played and after seven sea's I played my own stuff. It was a great night through out. Sunday night I played with shaun as well, opening for the seven sea's at a private cd release party. The cd sounds great by the way. So, if you're out in vancouver hunt down danny and greg. They'll both be there in a couple of weeks or less.

Crap, out of time again.
There's a prospect of an exhibition of my work in the next two months....it was chris jenkins birthday yesterday.......all is well.

yeah alex!
take care.
brendan

Mango Banana Pear!

2007-07-21T14:19:00.000+10:00

Listening to the Weakerthans at work, with their friendly simple chords and playful measuring cups of words, I'm enjoying my tasty fruit salad. For years I never really ate too much fruit and as a vegetarian that's obviously not a very wise thing to leave out of my diet. I never really craved fruit before, but over the last few months it's been on my mind more and more, to the point now that I've drempt of picking my own in Australia.
Somewhere outside Melbourne I'll be doing just that, thanks to an australian mate I work with here at Interkids. I'll live first with my sister and her boyfriend Josh in Melbourne until summer sprouts it's hot renewing lease for all those lovely apples, strawberries, olives and grapes of my dreams.
I'm busy now with Australian Immigration in HK trying to sort out a referal letter so that I can have my required chest x-ray as soon as possible. Ozzy land makes anyone who has spent more than three months in HK to get one because of the heavy air pollution. I've been told before that a day in Hong Kong is about the same as smoking 8 cigarettes. That's an average I'll be very happy to leave behind.

This chest x-ray will probably add an extra month to my oz visa application. So, I'm a bit worried that it won't clear before I'm meant to be kicked out of HK, on the 24th or September. My plan is now to buy a ticket to Australia for the 24th and then when my good friend Alex is here we can take a hastle free trip to either Shenzhen or Macau. With my ticket in hand I'll show immigration that 'yes!' I am in fact leaving this wonderful land. Then they'll happily stamp me with the usual three month tourist visa stamp, putting my new kick out date somewhere in November. I wouldn't stay nearly so long of course, I'll probably just need a couple of extra weeks. After this prefectly planned trip I'd swallow whatever charge the airline throws at me so as to change my australian ticket to a later date.
I think it'll work.
I'll be one hell of a happy fella when I don't have immigration bearing in my mind.

oh yeah. I bought some proper runners yesterday and went for my first run since highschool. It was gruelling and wonderful. I may have to do it again tonight.

back to work.
take care all!
bebs

back in town

2007-07-14T14:12:00.000+10:00

not dead not dead i'm not dead yet.

Well, it's been over a month since my last post. Sorry about that. A lot has happened since early june but i've left it so long now, that it's difficult to remember what any of that jazzy business was.

My sis, caroline came for just over two weeks. It was her first time this far east and I like to think that she enjoyed most of her stay. There was one day when she clearly was not having a good time.

We took a day trip to Shenzhen to do some shopping for her and get a cheap massage for both. I was really trying to find a particular massage place that I'd been to during my last visit in april, because the service was excellent, the two hour long japanese massage was incredible and it was really cheap! So after some hours of walking around and enjoying the sites I took us to some random joint, where, thankfully, I wasn't offered any sort of 'happy ending' massage. For anyone men who has never been to Shenzhen before I'll let you know now that it can be tricky at times to sort out the legitimate parlours from the illicit. I can't decide which i heard more when walking the streets, "hello dvd" or "hello you want girls". I left the proper comma out after hello because there really is no pause. They're not even questions either. They say it like if you had a slight speech problem and were greeting a business partner, when in desperate need of a washroom. Very quick......and progressively more annoying.

Anyway... I discovered that my sis really doesn't enjoy taking in the vibe of a city by just walking around it for hours. This (for anyone whom I may tavel with later) is my favourite way to get to know a place. The massage (after 'i don't know-ing' through a heavy fog of confusion) turned out to be for full body and collon. I'm sure you all know what a full body massage is but the latter is far different. It's basically a series of presure points to your belly. When I say 'pressure points' I don't mean the wonderful world of reflexology, it's more that someone is just putting a lot of pressure to a single point, which before felt fine, quickly turns to you considering that possibly she lost something important, like a wedding ring, in your intestines. The massage part was fairly relaxing.

For the rest of carrie's two week extravaganza we pretty much just went out and drank every night, ate a load delicious food and lost some money on the horses.

now now now...all is well. I've been sick for a week but am recovering steadily. I've pretty much readjusted to life at home on the sofa....with the rabbits and am loving it. I also have been playing a lot more of my own music. Last weekend, I had a solo show at a bar called kangaroo's. The response was mostly positive. And the night before I played a few tunes at my mate Greg's house party. Good times.

Last month, Shaun and I were hired to do some commercial, which we did. It paid well and was quite easy. Yesterday, I did a photo shoot with a local celebrity and i'll have to do the same thing for two more days in august....they also pay well.

oh yeah....hk immigration also told me that I must leave the country by september 24th and not come back for some time, probably a year.
haha...they've finally done it.

AND! alex is visiting in august...! woooooooo!!

Well, that's all for now.
take care all.
brendan

The occasional blues.

2007-06-03T02:36:00.000+10:00

I just got an invitation for a reunion from some of my elementary school classmates. After scrolling through the members list, seeing so many faces which, like my own, have changed drastically over the years I realize that i really do want to attend and get to know all those who've poked out of the soil during these nine years. So far away from home, I suddenly wish I were back in Canada.
Now, sitting in shaun's flat, he, gabe, ming, cora, my ex sin yee and rob are drinking steadily into another saturday's night, Lan Kwai Fong waits for our drunken arrival, where I'll use whatever cantonese I know to charm my way into someone else's life. In this beautiful city that has been my real home for four years, where I've really grown up I feel so completely distracted..... I miss canada. I miss my old ring of mates. Alex, CJ, Peter, Moir, Brent, Kayn...even sparcely decorated memories of Immures, Ruth, and the staircase fanatics. What are you all up to?
Would anyone care to pay for my ticket back to the hammer?....haha... oh how wonderful that would be. The last time I smiled at that old grey skyline was a year and a half ago.......two visits in four years. Now, not enough.

home home home home home hammer!

take care all
bebs

INTERVIEW!

2007-05-16T19:51:00.000+10:00

yooooooooo!

Just a quick pop in to say that my band, THE DAVID BOWIE KNIVES will be doing an interview tomorrow night for a big paper in Hk called The South China Morning Post. I'm not sure when the article will be posted, I'm just so excited that all these interviews and shows keep dropping down on us. Lovely!

There will also be some sort of photo shoot some time next week. Hopefully nothing big happens the day we're in the paper............that way we'll be the sexiest front page material they've ever had!

haha

cheers

brendan

My literary world

2007-05-15T18:21:00.000+10:00

Well hello there! Sorry for the lack of posting recently. I have all sorts of excuses but there's not any point going into them.

Life in the big apple...I mean Lychee (if New York is the big apple, than hk is the big lychee) is excellent. Regular exercise is keeping me focused, energetic, happy (or at least happily distracted) and I'm really enjoying most of my time in solitude.
Recently I've started re-reading old books, partly for the joy of knowing how good the book was the first read and more so because of my budget and not being able to afford spending valuable money on books instead of food. Sometimes I read certain passages and I remember how that certain string of words stirred some new idea or feeling. Re-reading the lives of some of my favourite characters makes me realize one thing. I'm incredibly easily influenced by the mood of a story, by narrative and location. Watanabe, the main character from Murakami's. Norwegian wood, had me feeling a bit down on saturday......then he traveled and described the remote country side of nothern japan, untouched snow and bright mountains. I was in such a good mood after reading about that!

Now I'm relaxing with, On the Road, and Dean has me, 'catching the bug' as the main character put it.

Finally, out of the literary world. I'm blowing off school for another year to start fulltime in fall 2008. Come september I'm moving to Australia where there's a promise of a girl, an adventure and family.

take care everyone.
brendan

Bungy a Go Go!

2007-04-23T19:00:00.000+10:00

There it is.........Macau tower. Home of the world's highest bungy jump.

five, four, three, two, ONE!

I couldn't even move. My feet were tied so tightly together that it was impossibe to take a proper step. So, bunny hoping and penguin walking til my toes pointed over the platform and into nothing but open air was... a scary feeling.

The jump master counted down... but I was still there. I was ready when he made it to 'one!' but not on my own accord. I expected that he'd give me a little push and then there'd be no turning back. I turned to the camera at my side and yelled "I'm terrified!". The kiwi jump master told me that eveything'd be fine. All I needed to do was stretch my arms out at my sides, look straight infront of me and let myself fall forward. But when you've got nothing but a 233metre drop in front of you, it's hard to just 'fall farward'.

haha...I asked for another countdown and on 'ONE!' I was on my merry way. I was so frieghtened waiting up there on the platform....looking down....but the instant I tipped forward I let out a big 'woooooooooo!!" and experienced the first free fall of my life and it was nothing but peacefull.

Ever since I was a kid I had been afraid of roller coasters and that sickly sinking feeling. It was only a few years ago that I really got my first taste of a roller coaster, when I was in China with friends and I loved it. I knew that bungy jumping would be the same but when I was up there waiting for my turn to plunge head first into a 233 metre fall, it's difficult to remember that you're there for fun.

Anyway, I'm really happy that I was so terrified before my first bungy jump (there will definately be more!). The fear of being up so high and going down so unbelieveably quickly made the jump more exciting and so complelely memorable.

After Irene, Josh and I finished up at Macau tower and thanked everyone that helped us with our jumps, we had a wonderful dinner at a cheap local place, wandered around and took the ferry home at ten. Immigration was a breeze yet again. Seeing as I've left the country three times this month they've never questioned my 'traveling' story. Piece of piss.

The three of us are planning on getting a big group together this summer, before Irene leaves for Germany, to do a load of jumps back to back. The first jump is pricey but the second and third are nearly half price...............and............the forth jump is FREE!!

So, the plan is to do three jumps each, one after another in a single day.

I'm excited already!

You've got to try it!

.hong kong harrington

Bungee Jump!

2007-04-21T13:40:00.000+10:00

Tomorrow, I love you. I love you, tomorrow.

Tomorrow myself, Irene and Josh (and anyone else who cares to join the party) will be heading off to Macau.
I've been to Macau over ten times and I really never do much when I'm there, aside from photography and long leisurly walks.

HOWEVER!!!!!

This time the three of us are going to jump off the Macau tower, plunging 250 metres, experiencing five full seconds of free fall on the world's highest bungee jump.

I can't stop thinking about it.
We were planning on going the last sunday of the month, so I wasn't bothered to think about it all that much. But just last night I got a text from Irene saying that she didn't want to wait any longer, so why not do it tomorrow.
How could anyone possibly say no?!

Now,my head is completely full of fantasy images, trying hard to imagine what a 250m bungee jump could possiblyfeel like. I've been to Macau tower before, so I know how incredibly high up 250m really looks. I'm starting to get faint just thinking about it.

I told Rob this morning, on our way to work, that I'm not sure if I'll actually be able to do it once we three get up there. He made a pretty good point though. As long as I pay for the whole deal, then there's no way I can allow myself to back out of it. I'm not going to waste my money that way!
So, all I really need to do is pay for the jump BEFORE checking how ridiculously fucking high up I'll be.....

That's my plan. Pay before I look....and bring a spare pair of pants for when it's all over.

woooooooooooooo!!
bebs

Yang Shou

2007-04-16T19:19:00.000+10:00

Let's get right too it.

China is awesome.

Dear China....yeah!

2007-04-02T19:17:00.000+10:00

A compass, t-shirt, toy dog and a two hour long japanese massage is exactly what I got in Shenzhen yesterday. I woke up sunday morning with a tender stomach from saturday's lang kwai fong excursion. Before heading north to cross the hong kong border with china, I went south to causeway bay, where my passport with a double entry china visa was waiting for me. Getting into China is always easy. All I had to do was take the train to lo wu station, pass through the usual stages of the cheerful immigrations department on both sides of the border and I was set for the day. Getting back into Hong Kong was and often is my only worry in immediate life. The fright of deportation back to Canada didn't hamper my day at all. It was sunny, the skies were clear enough and I was in a fantastic mood. Even my stomach was in a good humour and didn't bother me with the moans and groans of nausia, once I gladly walked past the infamous lo wu shopping centre with it's aggressive hoards of locals selling everything from wedding portrait services to pirated dvd's and prostitution.

I had never explored Shenzhen before, even though I'd been there several times already. I was always apprehensive about being theived, getting lost or just couldn't be bothered to walk around solo. Though it wasn't much of an adventure, coupled with my daily bike riding to new unreached places, I've begun entertaining solo backpacking as a much desired and realistic possibility for my post hk future.

Not knowing anything about the city, I started out by walking in a straight line directly away from immigration. The sun was still strong and my backpack was heating me well, so after walking for some time I stepped into a familiar hk clothing shop, 2%, with it's Japanese flavour, multi patterned clothing, mostly for women and a decent t-shirt collection for the fella's. There were three cute gals working inside, all of whom gave a little giggle at the tattooed foreigner walking through the door. One stayed behind the counter while the other two hung around behind me giggling about something. The braver of the two tapped me on the arm and started quickly asking me questions in mandarin. I had no idea what she was saying and told her so in Cantonese. I was a little surprised when I noticed that between the two of them they knew almost zero english but with broken mandarin and canto we still managed to hold a conversation. In true asian fashion we took a couple of pictures together, laughing all along and I bought a toy dog key chain for my virgo astrological sign. One of the two asked me if I thought she was beautiful. I gave a good laugh and answerd easily through a smile. She was gorgeous! Taking steps to the main question she eventually asked if I had a girlfriend. When I said that I didn't she called me a liar. She was single as well and I still can't understand why. She was funny, friendly, phisically was fantastic and was playfully affectionate. I had to leave shortly to exchange some of my hk dollars for RMB to buy my toy dog and stayed a few minutes more before leaving for good. Her name from mandarin sounded like Ma Li and we gave eachother a hug and a kiss on the cheek when I left. Why ma li....!? Why can't we speak the same language. haha.

Walking again, I passed by an outdoor adventure shop, bought a compass and made an awesome new friend. Jennifer's english was really impressive. It caught me off guard after my funny conversation in 2%. Every weekend the shop owner and some locals go for an outing, hiking up some mountain or climbing another. All around the shop were beautiful photographs that the owner had taken from different spots in China. I was really impressed by everything I saw there. Later this month I'll join Jennifer, the owner and a group of others for a weekend expedition.

I went into way too much detail with that 2% business and now I'm short on time before today's final lesson. Today children, we're learning about phrasal verbs and comparing cultures. Is hong kong a melting pot or a mosaic?

Right, well.... sometime between walking and making friends I had a legitimate two hour long japanese massage for about 20 canadian dollars. It was freaking amazing! Then more walking. Immigration was a breeze. The guy before me was taken away for questioning. He looked nepalese. So, the officer I went to looked tres tired and simply stamped my passport without even looking at me. Three more months!

On wednesday I'm going to Gwailin and Yung sho with my two lovely local ladies, pat and jas.
woooooooooooooooooo!!!

see you all there!
bebs

"I want to ride my bicycle. I want to ride my bike"

2007-03-21T21:00:00.000+11:00

I woke up much earlier than usual for a tuesday morning with recycled images of riding my dad's bike in Canada.

Then, I bought a bike.

I've put on about nine hours on it since it's purchase. Already I can feel the fatigue and enjoyment.

On Wednesday I had a biking adventure and was in a fantastic mood all day. But that night when sitting at home with rob I received a worrying phone call.
Our land lord, called telling us that he planned on selling the flat we were living in very soon, and that we'd have to leave at the end of our contract....April 28th. I'd have to move in with someone else again....likely my bandmate shaun, if he'd have me. Rob would probably be sleeping on sally's floor. The change of residence would be highly, highly unwelcome.
Just a few weeks ago our landlord came by the flat and I had a chat with him, where he agreed to allow rob and I to stay several months past our contract. His english isn't that strong so rob and I professed every possible argument we could (including our vebal agreement) illustrating exactly how screwed we'd be if he kicked us out to Rob's gal, Cora. She rang him right away leaving us two pacing about the flat telling each other how detroyed we'd be if we had to move out in just one month's time. There's so much we need to do before we can even consider moving and neiter of us has time enough to deal with it now.
Cora, being the smooth talker that she is, reminded our landlord of his agreement with me, told him that we need time to get the floor fixed and the rabbits would need new homes to boot.
Fifteen minutes were passed in high anxiety until Cora rang rob back telling us that we could stay.

A fifteen minute bout of depression in an otherwise glorious. After running over and over how screwed I'd be if I had to move again, then finding out that all was well, I was even more cheery than before.

Oh, I named my new yellow bike, Dave.

Dave is awesome.

Right! Our tv interview went really well last week. I was red faced, gabe stared at this shoes when he spoke and shaun swore a few times. Afterwards, we had a few more drinks and saw a few friends of ours play an acoustic gig at Mink.

This past Thursday my band played a gig at the wanch with Defiant Scum and Hungry Ghosts. The whole night was fantastic. A lot of our friends who haven't seen us play in ages seemed impressed with the new rock sound we've been developing. We played eight songs in total and in true rockstar fashion we were sweaty and shirtless by the end of it, jumping around, drinking beer and watching our mates sing along to the songs we wrote. At four o'clock rob, appple and I were at home bowling on the nintendo wii. Then I woke up. I evidently passed out when I went into my room to change. Good times.

cheers all
brendan

The David Bowie Knives invade your TV!

2007-03-13T19:29:00.000+11:00

The David Bowie Knives, aka, Myself, Shaun and Gabe will be on channel 27 tonight (hong kong cable) for an interview on the show, What's up After 8?
This is going to be a live interview and as far as I know anyone can call in and ask us a question during our 30 minutes on air.

No cable?Outside hk?

Apparently you can also watch online at www.tictv.com

Cheers everyone.

Brendan

Still holding

2007-03-05T19:32:00.000+11:00

Do you wish to proceed.
Yes.
To confirm your choice please repeat your answer after the beep.
"Yes"
Press '1' for English.

1

Press '1' for summary statement.
Press '2' for latest transactions.
Press '3' to change your account details.
Press '4' to report a damaged or stolen card.
Press '5' for teleportation five hundred meters above sea level.
Or hold the line to speak with a customer representative.

dee dee dum da doo da daa.....(holding)

(automated message) This call may be recorded to ensure customer satisfaction and prevent hill fires in northern Alberta.

(A real person) Hi, thank you for calling "_______ ___" and making us your choice today. May I have your full name and latest major transaction please.

(me) Hi, I'm Brendan Harrington. I think my last transaction was a couple of weeks ago. I deposited about 150 canadian.

(guy I was talking to) Alright Mr. Harrington. I have your account information in front of me here but unfortunatly your last transaction was not for 150 dollars. Perhaps you could double check your latest "_______ ___" statement and I'd more than happy to assist you.

(me) I'm at work. I don't have my statement with me.

(him) Alright, well that's okay. Can you recall your latest transaction?

(me) It should have been a deposite for around one something...maybe 250. It was last month anyway. I can't remember how much it was. I just need to renew my card. Can I just do that without giving my last transaction? I have my card number right in front of me if you need it.

(him) I'm sorry sir, I'd be more than happy to assist you, however, I'm sorry to say that we need your latest transaction information before we continue.

(me) So, should I keep guessing or....?

(him) ....

(me) 200 canadian?

(him) Okay, sorry for the delay sir. I'd like to thank you once again for calling "_______ ___" and making us your choice today. Now, how can I help you today?

(me) My card has expired and I'm living abroad....... (and so on)

-------
Oh the joy of dealing with customer representitives over the phone. I find great comfort in the fact that all I had to do was keep guessing the right number until he could help me.

So, other than having fun dealing with canadian bills life has been rolling on and over me at it's regular pace.
My band, the david bowie knives, played a gig last week in the middle of nowhere in ngau tau kok and it was a solid night of enjoyment. The venue was also a recording studio on one side and it reminded of this place I used to go to back in hamilton called The Transit Union Hall, only with a much better paint job and higher ceilings. The stage was quite good but the lights were a bit strong so it was next to impossible to see the frets of my bass. Save for a few quickly corrected mishaps I managed to keep on track through our six song set. We were recieved pretty well and made friends with the guys that run the studio called DM plus (I think) and a surprizing industrial gothic band called head hunter. The bass player I'm quite sure tried to kill himself after the show by kicking the hell out of a wall, before climbing up halfway out a window thirteen stories up. His friends quickly pulled him back down where he then kicked the wall to saity.

On tuesday, Shaun and I played three of our own songs each at this place called Mink on Hollywood road in central. I didn't know 'til I got there but free beer and 250 bones each was waiting for us just for playing a three song set, at a good venue, in front of a good crowd. I didn't play 'til half ten so I had two hours of waiting before I could take full advantage of my free beer. I usually set myself a two pint limit before playing and allow for a third during the set.

I've been really enjoying my first Tolstoi experience with Anna Karenina for the past couple of weeks. Since my book filled return from Ireland I've been making it my quest to read all the old classics I've wanted to over the years. So far I've crossed off Voltaire, H.G. Wells and Mark Twain. Anna Karenina will take me at least another few weeks at the pace I'm going. It's a two parter and there are a lot of names to keep track of. It's not a difficult read at all though, surprisingly, but I'm taking my time with it and as a result I keep thinking of the lives of Vronsky, Levin and Alexei Alexandrovitch more than what's going on around me. I've been catching myself living in the past recently and this is perceptibly not a healthy habit. Tolstoi is helping me come out of this unfavourable distraction with his world of farming, high society and russian military men. There are several quotes I've made note of so far, one reaffirms a conclusion I came too after Sharon dumped me in favour of education and solitude.
This is said by a childhood friend of a main character, Vronsky, regarding the relationship between ambition and women.

"Women are the principal stumbling-block in the way of a man's activity. It is difficult to love a women and do something at the same time. There is only one way to love with comfort and without hindrance, and that is-marriage."

take care all
have a drink for yourself
brendan

lunar new year

2007-02-21T20:53:00.000+11:00

Back to work after three days off to celebrate chinese new year. Tai Wai, where I live has been packed full of people since saturday night because of the famous, Che Kung Temple, which is just a minute down the road from my flat. Because of this busy business of celebrations, fire crackers, lion dances and generally just red and gold everywhere, it's taking me a lot longer than usual to get where I need to go.

Not much else has been going on really. I've been hanging out with gabe I lot more and it's reminding me of our chatteris days. We've been practicing kung fu in sha tin and playing a whole lot of nintendo wii.

Tuesday night I couldn't get to sleep so I ended up leaving my flat at midnight and made my way down to lan kwai fong. I met my good friend emily at a canadian joint, had a few pints and ended up pub crawling with three germans, a columbian fella and a gal from shang hai.
good times.

take care all
brendan

New moon. New face

2007-02-17T20:51:00.000+11:00

Happy chinese newyear everyone!
I'm sitting at work waiting for my final student of the day then the drinking begins. To be honest though, the drinking definately started last night. I met Irene at an artist bar called Joyce is not Here for some sangria, then made my way quickly through a load of beer with jenkins and shaun watching Beerfest. We ended up heading out to the fringe club to see a few bands play already completely drunk. After playing cards on the roof and enjoying a few more rounds plus music, I managed to get the bus home. I woke up this morning on my sofa....late for work. Everything around here is quite relaxed today as everyone seems to be in the holiday spirit. So, I've felt no consequences due to my wonderful lie in.
My stomach has been at me all day though. Hair of the dog, here I come.

cheers
brendan

oops

2007-02-10T13:28:00.000+11:00

This morning I just can't seem to shake that sleepy feeling. After having spent my friday night in central to watch a few bands at the edge and the shotgun she ra's at fringe club, I made my way home and layed down in my comfy bed....completely forgetting to set my alarm.

I missed my first lesson.

In case you were wondering...

2007-02-06T18:12:00.000+11:00

Finally, London.

2007-02-03T15:16:00.000+11:00

I have indeed made it back from england alive, but due to my crappy work computer I haven't been able to log on to blogger to update on recent adventures.

So, london was amazing. Rod and I went to a carnival where one ride gave us an amazing view of most on london at night, with the added pleasure of spinning around upside down to boot. It was fantastic.
After that we wandered around looking for a stand up comedy venue called The Comedy Store. We did. We went. It was packed and had a really intimate atmosphere. Aside from a few open mic night comedians I had never seen any stand up but it was obvious that the five people on stage were professionals, were outstandingly hillarious and possessed a remarkably quick wit. The whole show was improv with some added help from the audience yelling out ideas that those on stage had to work with.
In a fantastic mood, we hit up a near by pub, which carried it's very own lager called Samuel Smith. Excellent and not too pricey.
Earlier in the day we went to camden market and wasn't all that different from Kensington market in toronto, although much larger and there was more of a rock style to most of the clothes. Near the market was a fantastic bar that really reminded me of home and toronto called, End of the World Bar. Being a bit early though no bands were playing but the music was awesome. I realized yet again how out of touch I've become from new music. Hong Kong is virtually empty.

There's obviously a lot more to say but it's rare for anyone to have enough time to say it all. Somewhere in there we had dinner at a chinese restaurant. I ordered in cantonese and the waiter hadn't a single problem or raised eyebrow in understanding what I wanted.

London, I hope to see you soon.

cheers
bebs

Just a little more East

2007-01-03T23:49:00.000+11:00

well ireland's in the past now. I had an awesome time.
But, it's not the place for me. So, after hong kong I'm moving to vancouver for art school.

Yesterday after waking up at 5am I left cork behind and headed for london. I landed in stanstead and truly had no idea where I was. All I had was rod's address in Reading. After some confusion from switching about trains I finally made it to the right station, where I ran to the number 13 platform for the next train to Reading.
I made it to my train, threw down my bag and just sat down when the conducter came on announcing that this was a none stop train to Oxford........the doors closed only a few seconds after he said the word,'Oxford'.

All I had for breakfast that morning was toast and some apple pie and it was nearly noon already. My visit to Oxford was short but pleasant. I went to a near by restaurant and had a nice veggie pasta dish, then caught the right train back to Reading at one o'clock.

So, here I am now at Rod's place.
He has an awesome dog named charlie and there's a big penis shaped egg fryer beside me. What more could I need.
I know.
LONDON!

cheeeeeeeers
brendan

.sucks to your bird.

2006-12-26T12:25:00.000+11:00

The last few days have been my laziest in a long while. I've sat around accumulating body odour watching bad tv programs and eating. After being sick all day saturday from friday's pubs and clubs I've really been loving doing nothing at all. Feeling better now after a wonderful christmas dinner and having gotten ten new pairs of boxers, I'm once again ready to take on the irish world.

Merry christmas everyone.
To all you lovely people, I hope you're enjoying spending time with family and friends. Now, if we could only manage to gather in one spot..........then we'd be cooking.

werd!
brendan
bebs
harrington

lazy in ireland

2006-12-22T23:27:00.000+11:00

Happy birthday kachun! sorry to hear about your flight but all is well now I'm sure.

Here we are in cork everyone. What a great place.
I've been meeting uncle's, aunt's and cousin's that I didn't know existed or hadn't seen in fifteen years.

Christmas is just a few days away.

The last time I was here I was seven years old. My folks took us all around the place and one thing I remember clearly is when we visited Blarney Castle. My dad told me some horror story about some kid falling down to his death when he leaned back to kiss the famous blarney stone, so I was too afraid to do it. The rest of my family went through with it but I just couldn't manage. Yesterday however, the folks, caroline and I went up the long narrow staircase some hundred feet up to the top of the castle and I kissed the old bugger. Apparently, kissing the blarney stone will give you the gift of eloquence when speaking.
It's all a load of crap obviously but it was fun none the less.
Fifteen years late I finally kissed that damn stone.

Tonight: pub crawl with a load of my parent's friends and their kids.

Oh!
Congratulations Stephanie on getting your new job!
You've worked hard and deserve your comfy new editor's chair.

take care all.
brendan

news

2006-12-16T01:09:00.000+11:00

the only thing that sucks more than being dumped by the girl you love, is being dumped by that same gal through a text message, after you walked her to the train station, on the same morning that you woke up with a massive fucking hang over.

single again

I really wish i wasn't here now. I want to be in ireland relaxing.

Party on the 14th @ Rob+Brendan's in Tai Wai

2006-12-13T20:43:00.000+11:00

I went to a cafe with Sharon last night before we went to see a new chinese movie called, After this: Our Exile.
It turned out to be a pretty good movie even though there was one strange 40 something year old guy sitting next to me. There were loads of empty seats around the theater with perfectly giving an exceptable view of the screen but this local fello chose to sit right beside me. It was only half way through the movie during an exceptionally quiet bit that I heard he was listening to music or the radio. Odd. i could see little earphones on him and he kept making frogish grunts to clear his throat.
So.
Movie good.
Man Annoying.

Back to it then. Sharon mentioned when we were at the cafe that i hadn't seen her drunk (or drinking at all) in a long time. In an effort to change all that Rob and I are having people over at our place tomorrow night.

Party in Tai Wai tomorrow night. Bring drinks and a friend! It starts anytime around 9 o'clock.
call if you like. I lost everyone's phone number's with my last phone.
6201 6595

cheers!

Shopping

2006-12-13T18:01:00.000+11:00

Almost time for Ireland. Almost time for Christmas.
Figuring out what to buy people is something I'll never get used to.

beerling

2006-12-07T19:17:00.000+11:00

It turns out that beer is stronger than bowling and due to random finger injuries I didn't actually bowl much at all. Instead I made signs and sat on the floor rating everyone's performance.

It was great!

beer and bowling

2006-12-06T20:57:00.000+11:00

hello there, How nice of you to drop in and chat.

Less than two weeks till Ireland.
Less kids, more beer and family galore. I'm stoked.

I bought a nintendo ds for sharon as a christmas/anniversary gift. She seems to really love it, which makes me damn happy.

On tonight's agenda:
Sharon's out with friends and I'm off to sha tin after this last lesson for some beer with kachun, gabe and others...then....BOWLING!

sweet!

relax

2006-11-27T21:02:00.000+11:00

Yesterday was such a great day. I relaxed, watched Indian Jones and the Last Crusade (I had never seen it before. It's awesome) met Sharon in Kowloon Tong for some ice skating, had some gelato and pizza for dinner and in the morning I tried out some new cantonese and ordered one of my new favourite dishes from a restaurany near my flat. Generally, a very pleasant day.

Oh, Rob and I picked up a big spongy, alphebetical jigsaw mat for our floor. It's not really for us, rather the rabbits. We spent some time last night blow drying the floor where it's starting to stain for rabbit piss. Now the rabbit dwelling section of our flat is lovely and colourful.

Tonight. I want sake, chess and possibly a movie at home.

ahh..

flying VVVVVVV

2006-11-25T13:30:00.000+11:00

A couple of weeks ago my band played a charity gig at a youth centre in front of, you guessed it, a load of sixteen year olds. It was a surprisingly a great gig even though I managed to break my bass. Well, now I'm very happy to announce that I am now the proud owner of a brand new, pale creamy yellow, flying V, epiphone bass guitar. It's so good! I of course had no money to even consider getting a new bass. My AMAZING girlfriend, Sharon bought it for me.

Yes, that's right.
Sharon bought me the most beautiful bass guitar I've ever seen.

What she doesn't know however, is that she's bought herself some competition.
lol

oh me oh my

time to go la
bebs

vacation

2006-11-17T22:12:00.000+11:00

Booked!

My flight from hk to london is all set for the 18th-4th. Now, all I need is a connecting flight from london to cork.

And, I finally remembered to mail off some postcards that have been hanging around my flat for a few weeks. Sorry for the delay to everyone who's been expecting one much sooner.
If anyone else should want one just let me know.

that's all for tonight!
cheers
brendan

a beaver and a wedding

2006-11-09T23:57:00.000+11:00

what a lovely wedding

england or no?

2006-11-06T19:28:00.000+11:00

Here's the big one!

Does anyone read this thing? The answer usually would not matter because I enjoy keeping my blog. Now however, I need some feedback.

I'm going to ireland for christmas, and quite excited for it.
I have the chance to go to england for a couple of days after leaving ireland, before returning to hk.

should I go to london?
who the hell do i know that still live in london?
where do I sleep?

not sure not sure not sure
maybe i'll just save london for another time.

responses are welcome....quick....go!

halloween was grand

2006-11-04T15:16:00.000+11:00

Sweet corn and mashed potatoes!
Turnip Cake and spring rolls!

yummy food!

I'm not sure why but for the past five days I've had a really dry mouth. It's such a pain in the ass. I keep having to drink more water than usual, which i'm sure isn't all that bad, but the result is a near constant need to know where the closest toilet can be found.

Alright, for halloween gabe, rob, kachun, cora, sharon and I all dressed up and went to a house warming halloween bash for Roy and Andrew. There was plenty of wine and spirits. I stuck to carlsberg for most of the night. When we turned up there were already a lot of people, nearly all lacking a halloween get up. Rob was cheered when he walked in in his full body official scooby do costume. It really was awesome.
I bought a pirate costume that turned out to be too small for me, so I was showing a bit of belly, and the black pants were fairly transparent. nice.
Hong Kong has a long interesting history with pirates. Most of the outlying islands were established by famous pirates who avoided authorities in all eastern seas. Legends. Anyway, I'm positive that I was the gayest pirate to ever walk this land. I brought along a small air pump and a load of narrow balloon's as well and spent a good deal of the night making balloon animals, which was pretty fun.
Gabe was a massive inflatable fire truck. He was too big to even sit down or really move around the flat. When blowing it up with the balloon pump he looked like he was nearing his last breath. kachun was a far classier looking pirate and the gals, sharon and cora were matching chinese ghosts. They were wearing traditional red chinese dresses with long slits of each side, faces painted pure white, red lips and dark black makeup around the eyes. They were actually very freightening.
Taking the train from my place, where we all met, to Jordon was funny.
Some people just ignored ua like nothing at all was out of the ordinary. Others asked us questions or just laughed. As a rule Hong Kong people ignore anything strange or amusing and stare offensivly at more normal things, like western minorities or anything that you happen to be reading.

tartar
mr. harrington

noise and dusty rails.

2006-10-17T19:46:00.000+10:00

almost one month from my last update.
sorry

my girlfriend sharon is still in the country 'til late december-january.
my sis changed her mind again so she's staying in australia.
she changes her mind a lot. bad for work, good for life.

lately i've been joining the kids when they play with toys. animals and lego make me feel good. sitting on the floor is a must as well.

this past weekend was rockit festival. My band didn't make it. oh well. I went and had more fun than i could have expected.

Shaun has been payed off finally. I owe gabe a bit now but i've been grabbing extra classes this month so everything will be fine next month.

I'm daydreaming more. Doing less. I feel light in my chest. I can't wait for ireland.
I want a new adventure.

thank you
brendan

1 to 10

2006-09-20T19:48:00.000+10:00

1 hoppy's hoppin

2 the computer's still broken, so no pictures.

3 My folks have sold the house and will be leaving sometime before the second week of october.

4 Rod leaves tomorrow

5 About twenty friends are gathering tonight for dinner and drinks, seeing rod off and celebrating my 22nd b-day.

6 Sharon sadly leaves on sunday. I really don't want to see her go. This is truly the best relationship I've been in since ruth, and that's when I was 18.

7 My sis should be coming back to hk soon, though I really have no idea when.....only soon.

8 I've become quite content sitting around playing a video game called Burn Out lately. It's an ultra fast racing game....it's so fast that it feels like my eyes are trying to retreat into my face when I'm playing.

9 Our big gig is tomorrow night and it's been moved to a much better venue.

10 Instead of playing in ho man tin at some obscure bar, we'll now be rocking out in Amnesia in Central. Waaaay better!

Once again.... VENUE CHANGE! DO NOT GO TO THE RED DEVIL BAR.......WE'RE PLAYING @ AMNESIA!!!!!!!!!

,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.
Support your friends.
support the david bowie knives and maybe we'll get to make some noise at rockit festival this year. Ian brown will be there. He's a legend.

I stink. I need deodorant, gum and some cold medicine.

thank you to all you fine folks for the birthday wishes. You're all wonderful.

live long and prosper
brendan

90 days

2006-09-10T14:35:00.000+10:00

so many lady boys
so much food
so much fun
i feel good

I'll back in hong kong with a fancy stamp allowing me three more months. That gives me 'til december 29th, but by that time I'll already be in ireland...relaxing in a new home.
This was the one crutial visa run that would either destroy any chance of me staying here, or give me just enough time before Ireland, then one last stop in hk and then I'm home free.

My flight was delayed nearly three hours, so sharon and I spent the entire beautiful day in the phuket airport.
The trip was exactly what I needed....which was to get away from the city.
I'm still feeling very relaxed even now, back in the land of humidity, typhoons and rainstorms.

I would usually update with pictures but the computer at my flat won't even turn on anymore, and I've been too busy whilst at work to get a chance to sit down for ten minutes until now.

I got some bad news from back home on sunday night. I was pretty upset about the whole thing, but I'm more worried about my folks. They're good people and deserve a life without worry and sadness.
Anyway, I drank a bit too much that night (not too over board mind you) and being pretty tired from the late flight the previous night, I ended up passing out on my friend's sofa. I had to go to work the next day without showering or changing clothes and my stomach was a wreck. Its been very sensitive since my one regretful night in highschool when I landed myself in the hospital with alcohol posioning. It's been a long time since I haven't made it home. I'm usually pretty responsible when it comes to getting enough rest for the next day's activites.
oh well.
every once in a while ain't too bad.

I've got one more lesson today starting in a few minutes.
Typhoon signal #3 is up, and rainstorm signal red is going strong. That means high winds and over 50ml of rain fall each hour. That means wet shoes. That means this place shouldn't even be open.

My band The David Bowie Knives are playing tonight at the Wanch in wan chai.
Check us out.
I'll have an exciting band update for you all soon.

cheers!
bebs

on my way comrades!!!!

2006-09-06T06:36:00.000+10:00

son of a gun

i've just got home from a night of fun in tst.

My alarm just went off, which means I need to wake up. Oh OH OH i'm awake. I'm cooking my last pack of soup noodles now. It's half four. I'm drunk and I've got half an hour to pack, shower, eat noodles and get to the bus.

life is good my friends.
thailand awaits

YES!
Brendan James Harrington!!!

do it!

66

2006-09-05T22:48:00.000+10:00

I leave for thailand tomorrow morning. I just picked up my ticket in causeway bay tonight and now it's time to pack. I'll leave my lovely home in hong kong at five o'clock to get the bus to the airport. I'm a bit tired now but I'm still debating whether I should go to bed or not. If I go to bed I run the risk of not waking up in time to catch my flight. If I do stay up all night then I'll probably have a few drinks....cheap drinks. Budgeting constantly is starting to get to me. Most of the time I don't mind it, but something always comes up that soaks up a few dollars that I has been hoping to save.

Hoppy's feet and ear's have really dried out. When I get back on Saturday I'm going to take her to the vet, where they'll probably keep her for a few nights and give her some magical rabbit cream that'll make her happy again. She's been looking a bit down lately. Poor gal.

Four days and Three nights in Phuket.
I'll see you all on Saturday.

Moby Dick

2006-09-04T23:53:00.000+10:00

Lifted and worn
drift wood sails to a wider place
smooth blue grass and plastic wrappers catch
Turner's sky is doing fine.

..............

A bass drum hits
two hundred years ago, somewhere in the yellow sea
stories of a monster stir the sea bound man

Ishmael's son starts
the white whale:
"They say she took a harpooner's guide.
In her flat fin. She never sang.
She turned round and lifted two boats high from the sea
Everyone singin, she swallowed 'em hole."

cross your toes
bebs

My Thai Aeroplane

2006-09-02T12:26:00.000+10:00

I've got ten minutes!

It's saturday, I'm working and I feel good. I didn't get much sleep last night because the mosquitos always seem to find me. Those buggers. But, I feel very awake.

Listening to Interpol lately almost all the time. I took the bus home from central last night listening to old interpol with my eyes closed made me feel like I was on a roller coaster.

So, I'm going to thailand for sure now.
Sharon and I are flying straight into Phuket. We'll be staying in some fancy four star hotel in Patong for four days and three nights.
I am a bit nervous about the whole thing though because we leave on the sixth....the same day that my visa expires. I hope I get someone nice coming back through hk immigration. But, I know I can't let it bother me now if everything goes wry and I'm sent out of the country again. The decision to remain in Hong kong is not up to me, so why worry.

cheers
bebs

The David Bowie Knives

2006-08-31T17:02:00.000+10:00

Here we go again.
I need to leave the country by september sixth. The next available flight to Phuket is on the sixth. I'm cutting it way too close this time, but this is what happens when you don't have any options.

I've started a new bog called Hongkongbebs.

Though I do post pictures on this blog, I do so mainly to add a little spice to the plain black layout. This new one is strickly for photos. I'll update regularily and most photo's will be very recent. I've made a few posts already. The latest for my friend Adriana. I was meant to send some pics I took to her ages ago. This way is much more efficient than most others.

I also put up some photo's from when I was in British Columbia two summers ago. I like the one's I posted and figured I may as well share them with the internet world, instead of just having them sit around unnoticed on a hard drive.

If you have any requests for photos just let me know. I have loads of pictures of the hong kong gang out in various spots, including the famous Woodstone RIP and Dundas.

In music news. The new band formation is doing really well. Kachun seemed to completely lose interest in everything to do with doublethinks and general keeping in touch. So, gabe shaun and I are keeping the dream alive. We didn't want to keep the name Doublethinks because doublethinks was a four piece. Doublethinks could only be with Kachun. So we've adopted the name The David Bowie Knives.

Last night was our first ever show as an official three piece and it was probably the best response we've had from any audience. The applause and whistles were from unfamilar faces plus a few I don't get to see too often.
Cheers to everyone who came out to support us.
Tom and Paul of the Academy, Sholan and Annette of the Shotgun She-ras...Jenkins, Paddy, Rob...you're all very supportive. cheers.

The three of us loved playing together last night. We want to do it again soon.
Nothing beats that kind of sweat, noise and jumping around.

Our next David Bowie Knives gig is an important one. We're auditioning for Hong Kong's Rockit festival @ Red Devil Bar in Ho Man Tin (Near Mong Kok) on SEPTEMBER 21ST!
Come support us!

Plus...
That's the day after my birthday folks. So even if you don't give a damn about live music, at least join me for a celebratory drink.

On birthdays.
Happy Birthday Dad!!!
I had a drink just for you.

we put out fires with spades

2006-08-20T13:20:00.000+10:00

"At ten I shaved my head and tried to be a monk"
weezer... good bye you hacks! ooooooo!

how oh how are you my golden friend?

Let's be mashed potatos. We'll make with the mixing, though left a little chunky, peppered and basiled and served with carrots, we're a dish. That's how I like to think we could be.

The people here are good. They know how to jive.
Two nights ago I was rockin canadian club on the rocks, moving in a jazz club, a tiny place where the players find space where ever they can. A trumpet player behind me leaning against the wall, a straight backed asian women hitting keys at my left. It was a good night. I wrote this when I sat bumping my feet against the floor.
---

Characters. Gecko's full of characters, crawling along empasso walls. Hands in pockets, fingers tracing glasses, Asahi brimming lips.

Ella, dresscoat and shoulder pads, singing. She goes down and brings up all the right notes. An old jazz tune and she's dressed in black. A good night for sure.

...The drums in a baseball cap... trumpet an old shirt, pinstripes on top. Jazz baby! They jam, We swing!

A girl moving in her seat, some guy sleeping on a couch. Too much wine, not enough rythm, that's what killed him.
This dancing girl, a real piece of candy, smiles. Gums all free, she ain't got no secrets here! We're all just a foot tap-tapping. Cheers to her good looks!

CC on the rocks hitting my teeth. I had enough for dinner but not for drinks. Shaun's been taking care of me, even when I already owe him big. Drinks and a virginia cig, freshly rolled.

Watching Jazz musicians during a solo is like watching bee's guard their winter honey. I'm up somewhere standing on a ladder watching it all happen. They're working on a good buzz and my cheeks are numbing in time.

It may be my antenna but come on boys burn my ears! I'm aching. Too much blowing and not enough sweat. That's what makes good live jazz. Bending knees, hips n' shoulders swinging and sweat!

The voice is gone and the drums are going off to somewhere wanting of a damn good time. Now it's happening! I can barely see her fingers! where are those keys!
From Cm, then with a sharp, something like D following G... I can't keep watching...black and white stripes really moving, being pulled down by hungry fish.

My rocks are water. What a drink.
---

Plans are coming!
My visa was rejected.
routes open.

cheers
bebs

the kitchen sweats Part Two

2006-08-18T23:55:00.000+10:00

I thought I saw a girl carrying a big brown sofa. It was just a reflection of something else, looking out the train window. The lights inside are so bright, you see all sorts of things. Outside, people looking up see everything. Still, there was a girl at least.

Rob's work visa was rejected today; my answer will come soon. Be good news, I hope. I need to stay put 'til rent's paid in april.

Allow me passage mr. immigration man please.

i'm not leaving
i'm not leaving
i'm not through with this city yet you bastards

A going away poem

the kitchen sweats
cracking nuts, cooked noodles
let's sit to tea
no fruit fly's allowed

bebs

the kitchen sweats

2006-08-18T16:49:00.000+10:00

Our kitchen has been invaded by little fruit flys. There are so many of them at times that we've made a little game of it, seeing who can clap the most of them out of existence in a day.

Here's rob digging the purple shades.

Wednesday night Jas stayed over at the flat and it seemed that everyone had the next day off. So, naturally we needed pancakes to celebrate a thursday breakfast free of work. Jas took to the kitchen and came back over half an hour later with these. They looked more like mash potatos than pancakes, but they at least had the right taste.
She served them with jam and cream cheese.
Jam, Yes.
Cream Cheese, surprisingly...yes.

In the corner of the flat, hiding behind the shoes is the infamous Macau beer tower, the tallest standing structure in our 500sq ft. Construction soon to recommence.

eat noodles, be nice.
bebs

good enough to eat

2006-08-17T01:51:00.001+10:00

Yesterday was Gabe's birthday. The gang went bowling and I was there with my camera.

Here's the man of the hour...or more importantly, his stylish bowl. Gabe you're awesome. I hope you had a great birthday dude!

Gabe's inspiration, Sally, selecting the right size ball to rule the night with.

Rod's shiny victory shoes.

Rob bowls like he means it.

well I was going to post a load of pictures and write more, but I've been distracted. I shall see you all soon.

tartar
bebs

French Taps

2006-08-15T15:12:00.000+10:00

For the past two Sunday's Rod and I have gone out on adventures. Photography was the main focus just as it has been it my daily outings lately.

check it!

dance and be merry
bebs

east knows best

2006-08-12T12:27:00.000+10:00

sharon's back
shaun and I rocked the house at Joyce is Not Here in SoHo.
I managed to play ten or eleven songs and the response was good. The owner Joyce is a great lady. She bough me a shot of something strong during one of my songs, and a corona for shaun when he was playing. She loved his voice.

Today is my 8000 day birthday, so I'm treating myself to a night out. I'm hoping for dundas. It's been ages since I've had a good long night of drinking at a seedy hong kong kareoke bar.

I can't seem to stop sneezing and yawning. First thing I did this morning before my first class was buy some bakery food, along with a biog mocha soy milk, a bottle of water and a strong dose of cold coffee that I'm saving for midday.

One lesson down. Seven more to go.

My work visa is still being processed.
I have to leave the country soon.

Sharon and I have been talking about going to thailand or malaysia in early september.

I'M EXCITED!
wee hoo.

pictures coming soon

talk to you soon
love
bebs

and that's the way it is

2006-08-07T19:04:00.000+10:00

I've had a few complaints about the lack of visuals when I update my blog, so this is a little promise for all you wonderful people....I will post pictures soon!
I would regularly post a few pictures of recent events, but I usually only update this blog when I'm at work with a long long break. On this old box computer we teachers lack administrative access, so I'm not able to do much unless I'm at home...and whenever I'm at home I don't really feel like sitting down to my blog.

Rod and I went for a hike yesterday in search of Amar's Rock, which is on one of the eight mountains along the dragon's back that separates kowloon from the new territories. Tai Wai is fairly well in the middle of the dragon's back so all we had to do was walk around the corner from our flat and we could start our way up.
easy enough.

NO WAY!

At some point we took a wrong turn and our leisurely hike of not two hours turned out to be just over five. We didn't even make it to Amar's Rock. Instead, we ended up somewhere WAY better!
Lion's rock is incredible. I had no idea that such a broad view of Hong Kong even existed. So, I will post a few pics of from the adventures of Rod and Brendan very soon. maybe tonight.....probably not.

Right well, it was pitch black when we were coming back down the mountain, we didn't have any flashlights, the ground was pretty dewy wet or just plain steep, AND WE COULD HEAR MONKEYS!
Coming down from lion's rock the first thing we had to do was walk straight into the dark mouth of dense over growth, where the moon didn't have a single opportunity to share it's light, and when in the same spot last a monkey making odd noises was not four feet above me.
Rod, being the whimsicle fellow that he is suggested that I use the camera light on my mobile which luckily doesn't just flash but stays on. There were a few tricky spots on the way down when I was thankful that my camera light was desinged to be so unresonably bright.

About half a kilometre down we decided that the path which we came by would be way too tricky completly void of light, so we took a new path down the moon lit side of the mountain; one that would bring us down into kowloon, we didn't know where.

An hour later we were both laughing and couldn't be happier to be on flat ground. We found the first 7-11 in site and promptly bought water, a soft icecream and a bag of hot n' spicy crisps.
Glorious.

I swear I've never eaten so much in my life with such ease, when we found home at half ten.

ANIMAL NEWS

Hoppy's fur! I let her hair grow for ages so she'd look like a fluff ball and it worked. Last week, however, I had to chop it all off because she was getting massive dirty dreadlocks all behind her legs, under her chin, behind her ears and even on her feet. It took a while but she's now looking cute as ever sporting a new summer do.

NOT ANIMAL NEWS

It's cora's birthday today. HAPPY BIRTHDAY CORA!
It was Jenkin's birthday on the first. HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY JENKINS!
Gabe's birthday is sometime this month. HAPPY BIRTHDAY SOMETIME THIS MONTH GABE!
My wonderful pops has a birthday at the end of the month. HAPPY SOON TO HAVE A B-DAY POPS!

Once again I've lost track of time.
Once again it's time to go.
One more lesson.
One last hour.
Finally.

live long and prosper
bee

Second Level of Hell

2006-08-05T18:57:00.000+10:00

It sounds like another emo throwback album (maybe the reuniited weezer in ten years?) but it's not.

I was reading up on Dante's Inferno beacause one of my favourite books, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein or a Modern Promethius makes quite a few end note references to it, when upon a google search I found a quiz.
This quiz has been designed to let you know what your place in Dante's afterlife will be, and mine is the classy title of, THE SECOND LEVEL OF HELL.

Not bad, not bad.

Here's what the little test has to say about me according to my results.

You have come to a place mute of all light, where the wind bellows as the sea does in a tempest. This is the realm where the lustful spend eternity. Here, sinners are blown around endlessly by the unforgiving winds of unquenchable desire as punishment for their transgressions. The infernal hurricane that never rests hurtles the spirits onward in its rapine, whirling them round, and smiting, it molests them. You have betrayed reason at the behest of your appetite for pleasure, and so here you are doomed to remain. Cleopatra and Helen of Troy are two that share in your fate.

The Dante's Inferno Test has banished you to the Second Level of Hell!
Here is how you matched up against all the levels:

Level	Score
Purgatory (Repenting Believers)	Very Low
Level 1 - Limbo (Virtuous Non-Believers)	Low
Level 2 (Lustful)	Very High
Level 3 (Gluttonous)	Moderate
Level 4 (Prodigal and Avaricious)	Very Low
Level 5 (Wrathful and Gloomy)	Low
Level 6 - The City of Dis (Heretics)	High
Level 7 (Violent)	High
Level 8- the Malebolge (Fraudulent, Malicious, Panderers)	High
Level 9 - Cocytus (Treacherous)	Moderate

Take the Dante Inferno Hell Test

There were more than a few questions where I had to answer counter to what I wanted because of the wording of questions. There was one in the True or False section that stated something to the degree of, "God has all the answers".
I don't believe in God so I couldn't answer true or false, but as far as I'm aware the teachings of God swear that he is omnipitant. So of course I had to answer true. Being omnipitant is one of the characteristics or sort of qualifications of god being god.
Some of the other questions that lacked clarity dealt with sins and war. Like in the statement 'In war, the best idea is to bomb the hell out of the other country.' Well yeah that is usually the most efficient way of going about it, assuming that whomever's doing the bombing has the money to do so and assuming that the geography of the other country allows for the bombs, to provide the greatest saturation of destruction. So, I clicked the 'true' bubble. The test, I assume, took my answer as being sort of inhumane but really what the writers were posing tested whether I view war through efficient eyes or emotional.
True is efficient.
False is emotional.

Another one that bothered me asked if I repent for my sins. I don't belive in sins; morals are relative, so of course I don't repent for my sins. I'm willing to wager heavy that most pieous folk don't repent either. They regret and dwell with years of build up like a college dorm bathtub. Nothing's cleaned, only layered. Repenting is meant to cleanse but religious folk (namely the followers of western religions like christian's, baptist's, morman's and the like) don't repent at all. They busy themselves with other tasks so as to avoid guilt, and hope to god that things are sorted out later.

Alright I've obviously wasted too much time here.

My flatmates and I have downloaded and are nearly finished watching every episode of Smallville, and after so much quality Smallville time we're making a Smallville drinking game, similar to the Star Trek TNG version. Soon I shall post all the rules for drinky fun. I'm planning on experiencing the games whirlwind birth tonight.

Saturday here I come!
cheers
bebs

What's this??? Two new posts in the same month???!!!

2006-06-26T18:40:00.000+10:00

There I sat minding my own business on the busy monday morning train to work, when out of my pocket came a ring a ring from THE Stephanie Belbin. Now, oh yes, now I am counting the disgusting minutes until I'm free to leave this hellish school and meet the little darling Belbin for drinks.

Awesome Possum

HEY! NO WAY!

yesterday I had so much fun! I woke up feeling great after the previous night's activites (drinking in tai wai) with a lovely group of friends, plus an old face in the form of Nicky Leung. I hadn't seen Nicky since June 2004, so It was great spending time with her before she heads back to her studies in wisconsin come late next week.
Right! Yesterday, since we forgot to book the studio gabe and I gathered the troops for some fun on the beach. Myself, gabe, sally, kachun, shaun, nicky, jennifer, adam and chris made our way down to Shek O and had loads of fun swimming out hearts out, and digging holes with a vengence. Adam and I wanted to see if there were any points on the giant rock lined mountain that we could jump off of, so we promtly ran off to explore. Somehow we were gone for nearly two hours exploring before we made it back to our towels. We ended up finding one spot that would have been great to jump off of, but there was no way to check if the murky water below was filled with rocks, so we found somewhere with more reassurance. The rock we found was a good 200sq feet, and jutted out over a rockless bottom about twelve feet above the water.
Needless to say, we jumped off it many a time. Two local fellas caught sight of our exuberant activity and came over with a polaroid camera. I now have an over exposed (it was really sunny) polaroid of adam and I midway through the air, with rock to our left and nothing but water to our right. Classic. Because we were in mid jump, with the added sun the result is a picture that looks like it's from the Stand By Me era.

Natalie Belbin returns to Hong Kong this wednesday. Oh baby, it's going to be good. Rob and I plus Steph and Nat. Hillarity...........pure fun.

Speaking of great friends, I had a chance to talk to Alex on msn last week. I turned on my web cam and she got to see first hand the activites of my beautiful rabbits. Oh Alley cat where have you gone.

On fashion, my shoes are the best shoes a boy could ever want. But they're very quickly falling apart. They've had holes in the bottom of them for ages, but I only noticed last week that the soles are starting to pull away from the body of the shoe, and now, just one week later they're really giving way. lol, crap. I really do love these shoes, but I'll soon have to resort to my other pair and wait until they fall apart enough for me to love them too.

that's all for now everyone.
now be sure to have yourself a whacky day.

cheers
brendan the harrington

EVERYTHING FOR EVERYONE ! ! !

2006-06-21T14:32:00.000+10:00

Well well well, where the hell have you been ?

Sorry for the big gap since my last entry. I've been busy working six days a week, and the rest of the time I've mainly been lounging around at home. Home, by the way, is awesome. I've never lived anywhere in hong kong before that felt this much like a homestead. Most days after work all I can think about is how nice it's going to feel when I'm sitting my tired ass down on our big brown sofa, and play with my beautiful fat rabbit.

For all you elta readers out there I want you to know that I am writing this entry at THE internet cafe, AND I just had my fill of spaghetti man's wonderful spag and hash browns.
It was sooo gooood. That's all.

There are some interesting developements happening here in the east and back in the west. I'm happy to say that I've got a new job lined up and I'm beginnning the visa process now. Come the end of July I'll be working in tai po, which is only four stops on the kcr from my flat. Awesome. This will be the first time I'll actually work close to home AND I won't have to deal with the city! It's going to be so good.

On the western front the Harrington's are continually dispersing. Caroline is working at fort macmurray in northern alberta. Steph and Josh are working at some sort of hotel in ??? Vancouver??? I'm not sure of the location.
Steph, Josh........where the hell are you again?
Ian is still in the hammer slammer working and fighting like a champ, winning tournaments and enjoying himself.
I'm saving the best and biggest for last, because this one is good.
My folks are vacation now in vancouver, then northern bc and alberta to visit caroline and the other two scally wags. BUT!!! That of course isn't too riveting. What is however is that mum & pop have put the house up on the market and come this september they'll be living back home in Ireland.

That's right. As of september this year I'll be homeless in canada. When the lease ends on my currant flat in May 2007 I'm likly going to return back to canada. Whether I start school at Emily Carr or wait to start in Ireland, I'm not sure. All I know is that I really would like to head home for a few weeks right now. I'm not homesick at all, I simply want to hang out with everyone back home because I won't be able to do so for nearly another year.
plans plans plans
This sudden want has clearly been brought on by a recent visitor. Lovisa is a friend of my good pal Melissa who's now living in canada. Ms. Lovisa's parents live in hk, so she was back here for a month to spend time with them. Hanging out with her was an absolute blast, drinking absinthe and talking for ages in gecko lounge....going to work the next day not even having been home..... It's a shame she's gone now. I haven't really met too many new faces lately that were that much fun to hang out with.
Sin Yee and I have split up. I made the move, knowing that I'm much happier when I'm single. All I have to do now is keep my lips to myself, which I don't think'll be too tricky because I'm really not interested it meeting anyone else. I've got my rabbit, hoppy, so I'm damn happy.
Speaking of past interests....a blast from the past found me on myspace recently. Mandy Immurs. I'm writing a story about how we met now, then I'm going to mail it to her in exchange for a painting. To clarify, aside from a few kisses on the cheek we never had any sort of romantic relationship. She was just fun to hang out with. Chemistry.

Doublethinks is finally starting to kick back into gear now, just in time for shaun to leave for england for a month, gabe to canada for three weeks, and kachun's likely departure for india in august. fuck. I really want to get back on stage. What we've been working with in the studio has really helped our sound. For the past few months we've just been jamming non stop, not really working on any structured tunes or going over oldies. This combined with my guitar practice has really pushed my skills. I'm able to move much more freely walking all over the bass. I'm itching to get into the studio to record a few of my own gems as soon as I work out some drum work with gabe. Listening to too much beatles, iron and wine, elliot smith and neutral milk hotel has gotten me finger picking a lot more. I've moved down from mediums to lights, which, with the added bass practice is steadily turning my finger tips on both hands into crusty hard muffin tops.

Reading even more than usual has got me writing and working on stories everyday. I stole a great pen from Sin Yee the other day when she was watching the england vs. trinadad tobago match, and man does it move. It's got such a clean cut to it, so that even when I'm pumping out lines at top speed it's still not too messy. I'm aiming to document more of what has happened during the past three years, and what's likely to happen this year. Daily events, stories, people.........nothing too big new or crazy, but it feels good to get it all down.
Reading 'On the Road' now has got me liking the mixed autobiographical style. Plus, I'm day dreaming about hitch hiking across canada, diving into the states skipping most of the prarie provinces. I know I could do it without a lot of cash.
I've got twenty pages left and then I'm starting another Huxley novel, Eyeless in Gaza. I brought it with me today, knowing that I'll finish On the Road during my long break. Next week I'm going to try and find a small chain book shop in central. I've been going to their shop in tst and I really enjoy the selection, but I wasn't able to find Doors of Perception, which, as far as I know, is a sort of essay style interprative from Huxley's experiments with drugs.

Tomorrow is Shaun's birthday. He's either turning 27 or 28, I can never remember. Over the past year or so Shaun seems to have gotten much more carefree and laughs more than anyone else I know. He has also saved my ass many times by giving me a place to stay, rent free, loaning me cash whenever I needed, and of course buying me drinks all the while.
So, shauny baby, happy birthday. Thanks for everything. Tomorrow night the world is all yours, even more than usual. I'm going to steal a whiteboard marker from work and draw on your face. That's right.

ANNNNNNNNNNNNNNNDDddd,
Tomorrow is the day that the gas man comes! Which means that we can finally use our stove!!! Rob Rod and I have been living from our wonderful and tired oven for far too long. After 2pm tomorrow I will no longer need to bake my noodles in water, instead I'm going to drown everything I see in the cheapest oil park n' shop has to offer and fry it all up until I'm bigger than the fridge. THEN! then then then, I'm going to make enough KD and cheese to fill the bathtub with. AND! I can once again make soup! and TEA! and DUMPLINGS! and SO SO SO SO SO SOOOOOO much more!
I'm even going to heat my beer up in the wok...not because it'll taste better, BUT BECAUSE I CAN!

take care everyone!
b.bop. brendan.

The Sound of Music

2006-05-10T17:59:00.000+10:00

I had the opportunity not too long ago to play my first solo gig in HK. Nearly every spare moment I had in the nine days leading up to the gig I played through six songs, listening intently to how my voice really sounded (and not just how it sounds in my head) and tried hard to keep my strumming tidy.
The night of the show, opening up for the Shotgun She-ra's at Amnesia, my hands were shaking and I was worried that I'd forget the order of the lyrics, as a few tunes were quite new. I'm grateful to have had the support of my friends, particularily Charlie for noticing that I was a tad nervous, and buying me a beer because I couldn't afford one myself.

Anyway, the show went well. I made a load of new friends thanks to the She-ra's and Gabe's dancing and got a few compliments from people whom I didn't even know....which is always nice. (For anyone who hasn't seen Gabe do his thing, then you're definately missing out. It truely is a sight to see)

Since I was practicing so much for this gig long gone, I eased off for the following couple of weeks. Plus, I've only just finished moving from Central to Tai Wai, so now I have far more opportunity to relax and play.

The clock is cutting me short, so I must be off to gather my teaching materials.

The jist of this update is that I'm sitting at work, wishing that I were at home playing guitar. I bought new strings yesterday (they were badly needed) and I'm working on a new song that I'm really enjoying.

take care
brendan

na na na na na na na na MOVING!

2006-05-01T18:26:00.000+10:00

Moving + budget = less beer + less dumplings

.Doraemon Takes the Cake.

2006-04-04T14:10:00.000+10:00

la la la lawn mower!

Rob and I are going flat hunting again today (whenever he wakes up) and this will likely be the last time we do so. Tai Wai is a fantastic little spot and I can't wait to buy a bike and explore. I've been craving very badly the sensations that make bike riding so wonderful.

Work at interkids is fine and dandy, but I still need way more hours, plus, getting paid monthly always sucks. What's wrong with this city? Why can't they just pay bi-weekly like everywhere else on the planet?

I've been keeping in touch with a lot of people so far this time around. The last two years away I've been pretty much off the map when I came to speaking with anyone back home, but thanks to Gabe's computer I've been doing much better.

Thanks to my sis, steph, I have this crazy idea that growing a big red beard would be awesome. So I'm anxiously waiting for puberty to kick in to fill in a few patchy spots.

Oh yeah! This is hilarious. Thanks to my lovely friend Ming I had the chance to meet Giorgio Armani. Oh yeah........that's right!!
I just assumed the guy was dead, but apparently not.
Myself, Shaun and Rob dressed up a bit and went to this massive armani building in central last wednesday, and lined up with about eighty other people for his book signing of his tour through China.
The book is actually a bit odd, because it's more like a family vacation sort of thing, though the design and photography are fantastic. If you want to buy it it'll set you back $800 hk, or if you'd like a copy that reads,
"Dear Brendan:
Giorgio Armani" (his signature looks nothing like any of the letters in his name)
do let me know.
I seriously plan on selling it on ebay.
I had my photo taken with him. I've got my arm around him, as he does on me, and I've likely got a goofy smile on my face, though I've yet to see the actual photo.
As he was signing the book I stood in front of him. He looked up, I smiled politely, than he looked up again and touched his own ear lobes whilst saying, "very nice" and than flashed me his big weird smile. It's as though he has no upper lip. He smiles and it almost seems as though his top lip is curling under itself. Anyway, I politely said thank you, posed for the camera and went on my way.

All this happened at about one o'clock and whilst waiting in line I managed to drink two glasses of really expensive, incredibly lovely champagne. Then I went to lang kwai fong, had a pint with rob and went home to make some food.
speaking of which....

MUMSY! I miss your readily available food! Can you email me a few recipes.
I'd love to try my increasing culinary skills out on those corn patties, your tofu burgers, plus any sort of soup ideas you have....like your potato and leak soup, or the broccoli one you made before. I tried to make my own risoto yesterday, but ended up making an admittedly delicious curried rice dish instead, because I had no idea how to make risoto such as yours. So, you know what I like Mumsy.

In other news, I've made a few new friends, I've posted a couple of new pure Brendan tracks on my myspace account, my health is in excellent standing and I'm going to see Sigur Ros this friday. Why Sigur Ros are coming to Hong Kong is beyond my understanding, but none the less, I can't fucking wait. I'm sure it's going to be a superb show.

Here's what I've been listening constantly for the past three weeks:

My Morning Jacket
Emilyn Brodsky
Neutral Milk Hotel
Canada
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
Iron and Wine
You Say Party! We Say Die!
Sufjan Stevens
Mogwai (The new album, Mr Beast, is incredible.....buy it!)
Yeah Yeah Yeahs ('Show Your Bones' is a solid record. It makes for great music during dismal train rides)

Well, that turned out to be much longer than I expected.

LINKS GALORE!!
My myspace profile
The Doublethinks official site
No Terra Incognita: My music with Peter Wilson
Emilyn Brodsky's music
Canada's music

thank you and good night
.brendan the geek.

No way....an update!!!!

2006-04-01T19:12:00.000+11:00

Quick Update:

I made it back to hong kong in one piece. My flight took a while longer than I thought, but none of that matters now because I don't have to worry about planes for a while.
I've begun working at Interkids again, and I'm in the process of finding more work, as well as finishing my tefl cert.

Doublethinks is doing very well. We've been doing a lot of really interesting jam songs that go on for ages, and I can't wait to play in front of an audience again.

For those of you whom I've promised postcards to, you will indeed get them...just be patient.

I'm eating very healthy and spending way too much at the fresh markets, but it's totally worth it. Steph and Josh: Thank you so much for the "How it all Vegan" cookbook. It's fucking awesome. I bought a blender just over a week ago to help me along with making various oatmeal and rice milks, plus a load of veg burgers and soups. I just finished a massive pot of chili which I made last week. I made so much of it, and it tasted fantastic.

Rob and I have started looking for a place to live in Tai Wai. We've found one flat that seems quite good, but we're still going to look around one more time to make sure we can't find anything even better.

That's pretty much all for now.
Feel free to let me know how you're doing.

brendan the geek
p.s. I miss star trek: TNG

tell me where the light is

2006-03-04T06:56:00.000+11:00

WERD!!

toronto tastes better

2006-02-21T06:43:00.000+11:00

Well well well.
I had a great weekend at work, full of busy drunks and a load of running about.
Sunday consisted of me waking up far too early at 12:45pm. I was hoping to reach my usual 2pm wake up, but for some reason I awoke early red eyed and drousy. After four conscious hours I went down to the bus station and hoped on the next bus bound for Toronto.
Last night was quite entertaining. Josh and I furnished our stomachs with some delicious indian food. I tried the bindhi korma which I had never had before, and let me tell you, was it ever tasty! The Rich Indian Restaurant on Young definately passes the curry challenge. I may have to go there again today for the ultimate test. Do they make a killer Aloo Ghobi? I sure hope so.
Anywho, josh steph and I hung around at their flat for a while, and after an hour of sitting and chatting we all started to feel a bit fatigued. I brought up the point that I probably wouldn't be able to get to sleep until the early morning unless I got a bit drunk, so mr. josh and I headed off into the freezing fucking cold weather in seach of a good sunday night. Steph had had a long day at work so she was more than content saving her drinking strenght for whatever festivites arise tonight.
I'm rambling at bit...I know.

Well, after a few hours of sleep on steph's yoga mat with a cozy fleece blanket I dragged my sensitive stomach off the floor and out the door. I'm well used to going to sleep at 6am, but I not at all used to waking up so early.
I made it out the door feeling surprisingly alert and healthy and went on my merry way towards my destination.

The whole point of my toroto trip (besides just having fun) was to apply in person for my new birth cert so that I can get a new passport before leaving for hk. I was told by many that I would have to get to the birthcert office no later than seven o'clock if I wanted to get my application through that day. Well I have just one thing to say about their advice.....it sucked. There were only four people ahead of me!!!! Four!!! That's it!! ....idiots.
The office opened exactly at half seven, and I was literally walking out of the front door no later than 7:40am.
Actually I'm not at all bothered by being there so early, because I'm just plain happy that nothing at all went wrong. Plus, on the actual birth cert form it says that it takes five days to recieve your passport, if you have proof that you need that quickly. In fact it only takes three days, which means that I can get my passport sooner, and thus relax.

Beside me now is josh, and to his left in my big sis. We're sitting in a row like we're in a duck shooting game that you play at the carnival. We're off now to grab some grub grub. This morning we were discussing plans to go snowboarding next week. I've never been before and neither has the aussie.
oh baby, it's gonna be gouda.

take care comrades!

bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbrendan

doublethinks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2006-02-18T08:53:00.000+11:00

oh baby, the day of days has finally been confirmed. On the 15th of March I shall leave the great white north for the tiny eastern S.A.R. Hong Kong.

Doublethinks, drinks, cantonese, teaching, ladies, constant rush hour, markets, smells/stinks, noodles, aloe juice, cheap ass soya milk, buddist restaurants, studios, beach parties, umbrella's, and a whole lotta other stuff that's totally hk...........

....I'll be back for st.patty's day!

So, what this means is that if any of you fine young canibals wants to hang out, just let me know! That means you jamie! We need to collaborate on some noise. Holly cee, we need some wine!

cheers
honky honky honky honky honky honky.
26 days suckers!

I need a job

2006-02-15T08:30:00.000+11:00

later still

2006-02-11T08:27:00.000+11:00

Fuck crap shit ass balls

I've spent most of my sleep free hours today tearing apart and looking into every box which I could find. Every cupboard and drawer has been scrutinized.

Now that I've gotten all excited about going east again, thinking, "fuck yeah, I'll be back in Hong Kong by the end of the month!" the fact that I now have to wait 'til the second week of march just plain out sucks.

My birth certificate is missing in action, and unless I find it over the next couple of days, I have two options to obtain a new one. The first option is to apply on line, filling out all the proper documents, having all the right signitures, then I can wait 15 days for that s.o.b. to make it to my house.

Or

The second option is....
I go to toronto to some office that's probably going to take me ages to find, then I wait all day (literally the process takes all freaking day) in some office, where, if I have all the right papers and all the right signatures, I can obtain my new birth cert in 48 hours.

Option number two seems like the best route to me, but even if I go through the whole process on monday, I won't be able to pick up the birth cert 'til thursday. If, with my shiney new birth cert, I go down to the passport office on friday and wait in line all morning + afternoon, the whole process of obtaining my shiney new passport will take at least another two weeks. I'm fairly sure I can put an express on that, which I will, but I don't want to buy my ticket unless I know for sure that I'll have my new passport on time.
I could use my old one, but somehow I think that all those hong kong and macau stamps would be a bit of a deterent in regards to letting my illegal ass back into the country.

In the mean time I've got to work on my tefl and do a whole lotta job searching. Plus the extra time, though it will be passed in anxious waiting, will be a good opertunity to earn some extra cash.

Kachun, how's this sound? "Doublethinks Incorporated"
Let's turn our sound into a visa pumping business operation. You could list me as some sort of graphics designer, or maybe a sound engineer.

Let's think about it.

Lastly, Peter and I were working on a couple of tunes last night for our three week project, tentitivly titled, "Stoney Creek Incest" lol, we're still thinking about the name.

Here are some new pictures from last night.

and here are a few pics that I took during the day. As you can see, I spend a lot of time by myself, lol, so I didn't have anyone else to model for the lens.

that's all for now!
tartar ra ra ra,

oh yeah, what happened to the wanch?
cheers!

talking with friends

2006-02-09T09:01:00.000+11:00

I wanna wanna wanna rock and roll.

I saw a few groovy bands last night at the Underground.
The headliner had my booty shaking and my lips parted with delight.

Controller.Controller

I saw a gal I went on a few dates with last time I was back from HK in the summer of 2004. When we last parted ways I didn't bother to get any contact information from her, which as I found out last night, bothered her a bit.

OH yeah I joined the myspace army! Hazah! A friend of mine has been harrassing me to join for the past few months, so I caved and did it a few night's ago.
wanna be friends?
go to
www.myspace.com/talkingwithfriends
or
<"link link link">

Shaun, here's a picture of a lovely new record that I know you're interested in.
I've been buying lots of cheap records and having fun with them on my living room floor lately.
enjoy.

and now, an insider's look at doublethinks in the recording studio

that's all for now.
take it easy chumps!

book!

2006-01-30T17:17:00.000+11:00

Awesome! I just woke up, walked downstairs to an empty house and to my surprise was a package from labarinth books!

I ordered Aldous huxley's, Island, and Hakim Bey's, Temporary Autonomous Zone, from two seperate companies via amazon.com about two weeks ago, and I thought they would take a lot longer to get here. I was wrong!

I finished my last book Mark Twain's, The Prince and the Pauper two nights ago, and just last night began reading Mary Shelley's, Franinstein: or, a Modern Promepheus,

BUT BUT BUT now I MUST MUST MUST read what was in that lovely pale yellow package!

ISLAND!

Sweet loving!

And it's holly cee's birthday today!
And!!!
When I was visiting my sis in toronto she told me that she still had another box of books from uni/ her own collection in storage under the house. In that box supposedly is Margaret Atwoods, A Hand Maid's Tale, which though I haven't heard much of it is apparantly another classic to go in line with 1984 and Brave New World.

"If there is hope, it is in the Proles!"

I've got to work tonight at eight, which is alright in my eyes accept that my finger is still obviously broken. But I need the cash, because I keep having dreams about being in Hong Kong with all my old friends, and I can't wait to start playing with the band again.
Though I have to work I'm actually going to go do something with my life and head downtown to a couple of tattoo shops. I've finished the piece I want for my upper/outer left arm. Nice mice nice.

Oh yeah, I haven't been able to update for the past two weeks or so because my computer was and still is massively being fucking by viruses. Sometimes I can get on msn, sometimes I can't. Sometimes like right now, there's a massive lag between what I'm typing and what appears of the screen....which is highly annoying.

A short update. I really want to get back into the groove of things in regards to hk. I never thought I'd be away this long. but there's not much I can do about it. I'm paying off a lot of debt which rocks, but I'm also going to be pushing myself right back into it when I get back to hk.

Shaun, you're patience and generosity are astounding. I obviously didn't show you how incredibly appreciative I was at being able to stay at your place rent free for two months. You have no idea how much that helped me out. My only payment I can really offer you is that the shelves and pillows are yours if you want them. I can't actually remember what else I left with you, but said items are yours for the keeping.

In other news, I want to come back mid february. But realisticly I'm coming back whenever my new passport comes through, which I'm assuming is about the second or third week of february. It'll be nice to come back to hk with a blank passport. I have a sneaking suspicion that if I tried to get back in with the one I have now, they'd just take one look at it in immigration, then look at me, and then swiftly kick my ass back onto a plane bound for canada at my own expense.
And that my comrad's would suck!

Other news. I'm still working. I seem to have fractured or broken a bone in my right middle finger, but there's no way I can take a weekend off to let it heal, so I'm just going to have to deal with it, because by golly I needs the dough!

Kachun!!! Good work with the demo, it's finally there, and I still owe you some serious mula for everything. I'm incredibly enviously of you because you're going to be playing your own show in japan! One of these days I'll make it out there, and hopefully I'll be ready to play my own gigs when that day comes.

This break has been good for me. I've had a lot of time to relax, read, write, and improve my guitar tecnique.

---------------------
above is what I wrote last friday, but I couldn't publish any of it because my computer was driving me nuts with it's massive lag.

anyway, today has been hella good. I cut up my visa card......into a star shape. It was great.
I've been searching around for cheap tickets to hk and I think I've found what I need for about 5 or 6 g's HK.

So, tomorrow's plan is...

1) Wake up before 2:30pm
2) Go down to the passport office.....blarg!
3) Make an appointment at cottage 13 for some fresh ink.
4) read read read
5) ................
.........any suggestions?

Happy camping everyone!
Cheers!

Goodmorning 2006!!!

2006-01-09T10:18:00.000+11:00

I hope everyone's holidays rocked as much sock as mine did.
New years came and went. Sorry hong kong I slept through your countdown, though my dreams were with all of you.
Thankfully I didn't miss the ontarian stick to midnight. I was quite sober actually, and didn't get too drunk until the wee hours of the morning. I spent the evening at the lovely Alexandra's house with a lot of new faces, and of course a few classics.

The night before I went out to Kingdom to dance my ass off with Caroline (my sis) and a bunch of her friends. I met my friend Bre when I was there as well, and everyone had a wonderful time. I found out that my friend Bre's full name is quite similar to my own.
Mine being, Brendan James Harrington, her's, Breanna Jean Lewington.
Earlier in the week I went out for a few drinks with ex elta's Melissa and Laura, including mel's brother and a a couple of laura's friends from Mac. It's rare that I meet another fella with the name, 'brendan' usually I meet those with the american, brandon. Well, one of Laura's friend's name was incidentally, Brendan Harrison.

Two funny similarities.

Steph and josh have both found jobs in toronto, and just yesterday they were accepted for the flat they wanted to rent. So, next sunday they're moving up to toronto for a while, which is very good for me because I can visit the big T.O. and have a place to crash if I get a bit too inebriated.

I'm working regularily at the Slainte now, which is great because I'm no longer burning through what little savings I have.

I'm trying to find out what the best airline to fly with is, for a route back to hk. Prices are pretty high now, so I'm trying to find a sweet deal amoungst the money grabbing freaks living at the local travel agencies.

Well that's all for now, because dinner is ready and willing to eat.

Cheers!
bbbbbbbbbbbbbrendan!

A kiss on the cheek

2005-12-29T21:35:00.000+11:00

I went out dancing with holly cee tonight. It was mo-town night tonight, and I just finished writing a controversial email regarding something that happened tonight. I love that girl. She fights for her right to party.

Right now I'm talking to the lovely Crystal. I don't know what to think about her. She's full of funk and glory.

I was thinking of a solo project name today, seeing as I have a lot of my own songs that I'd love to lay down in the studio some day. The best name so far is.....

Dead Lover Saskatchewan

I like it.

Anyway, I had a great night dancing tonight, and now I'm talking to crystal about her old dorm room in UBC and reading some random girls live journal. I've never met this girl before but I will soon enough because she's friends with alex, and I'm spending new years with Al this year.

Two years ago I was in thailand with annie shaw from ancaster. We made a fort and missed the big countdown. Last year I spend new years wandering about the streets with rod and anders.

Last year I had the best christmas and new years of my life, both in hong kong.

I really don't think new year's is a big deal. I'm just interested in spending it with a few old faces.

It's almost six in the morning at my house now, and someone's in the washroom blowing their nose very loudly.

I love my life.

Lately I've been thinking about moving out to BC for a month or so, but I'm not sure. The only thing really directing me back to hong kong is doublethinks and the prospect of a new love.

I don't want to teach forever.

Oh yeah, my parents are moving back to Ireland. They've been in canada for the past thirty years but they're ready to get the fuck out of the cold, and into the rain. I think it's a great idea for them to move on. They're not sure when the big official day is, but it's likely going to be sometime within the next six or seven months.

vote NDP

Brendan

RELEASE THE TIGERS!!!

2005-12-21T06:43:00.000+11:00

Alright fella's, it looks like we've got some very odd competition.
I was browsing around this, "tinternet" thing and I somehow managed to find another band by the name of, doublethinks. And let me be the first to say...........WOW, lol, they are quite the odd bunch.

Check out a couple of their tunes, and a very memorable photo of the group here.
http://music.download.com/doublethink/3600-8691_32-100082425.html

I'm feeling much more focused today, though incredibly bored. This is the first time since I got home that I actually miss hong kong. I was thinking about hiring a load of the chinese international students in hamilton, and get them to walk in front of me, or push me out of the way as I'm about to step onto the bus........you know.....in the spirit of hk.

I hope you lazy doublethinks buggers have been practicing regularly, because I've been working my fingers off working on my guitar technique. I have yet to lay my hands on a bass guitar, but i've been practicing all the tastey doublethinks licks on my acoustic, the lovely, Ho Wing Ka.

I've hung out with melissa and ana (last years elta's) every so often. Last night Mel and I went down to the Underground to catch a local bands set. The hamilton, Underground, is far fucking superior to the vagabond style one in hong kong. In general the music scene here is going to be the only thing that keeps me alive.

I have to push myself to do any sort of work on my tefl programme. It's at the point now that I'm almost positive that I won't finish it all before I come back to everyone's favourite S.A.R.

My mate alex is back from uni today, so I'm going to give her a ring later and do the whole catching up bit.

I saw a band called, Bad Flirt play at the casbah last thursday and I really enjoyed their set. They weren't a really great band or anything, but they definately have a lot of potential, and some serious staying power. Seeing as the show was at the casbah and it's winter in the hammer, there weren't a tonne of people there, so I was able to hang around and talk with the band for a while afterwards. I've been plugging the doublethinks name quite a lot since I got back home, handing out our tasty little blueman cards very liberally.
Kachun, I can assure you that I'll have none left by the time I get back home to hk, and let me know if you've been getting anymore hits on the site from canada......that way I can know if i've just been wasting my time on lazy computerless buggers or not.

After talking with Bad Flirt for a bit I told them I'd meet them in toronto the next night for their gig at a place called, the bagel. I had no idea who I was going to go with, but I didn't really care. I'm used to traveling on my own, and for the most part during shows I don't talk anyway. So, any awkward moments that might come up during set changes I could just pass with the company of a book and a beer.

Sometime friday afternoon I made plans to meet my friend Holly in oakville for a few preshow drinks, and then we could make our way to TO for the nights musical festivities.
Yeah........that never happened.

Bad Flirt were playing their TO show with a band called Femme Generation, who are a lot of fun, playing a sort of indie dance rock style. I wanted to see FG quite a bit. I was definately in the mood to dance.

Alas, after hanging out at Holly's place for a bit (steadily doing away with a large bottle of red) we both felt too lazy to go anywhere, especially somewhere that we needed to take a couple of bused to get to.

I had a awesome night to oakville with holly cee, drinking wine, beer, and I even saw
two of my old friends matt and andrian. I have a lot of respect for those two jokers. They started dating in highschool and six years later they're still together. I'm not sure which that makes me feel more, frightened or amazed. Probably a healthy mix of both.

I have more to say but I don't think it's incredibly important, and the lovely alexandra just called me! I need to eat something quickly, brush my teeth, and then I'm outta here!!!

www.badflirt.com
www.femmegeneration.com/
http://www.theadambrown.com/

8000miles from my music
brendan

Too Tired to Write

2005-12-19T19:47:00.000+11:00

too tired to write. I've been working on my tefl course......writing essays. I think there are 26 essays in total, the majority of which are about boring technical english crap.

I tried to write an email to my friend crystal today, but I haven't been able to concentrate my thoughts into more than a few cohesive sentences. I also tried to update my blog more than a few times today but obviously not much has come out of that ambition.

Earlier today I watched some horrible/awesome movie called Tekwars, that was made by everyone's favourite william shatner. lol, it was so bad.

Anyway, my head's full of a lot of useless teaching jargon now, so it's time for this lanky bastard to hit the hay.

goodnight cruel world!
mr. harrington

Oh my head...

2005-12-14T05:47:00.000+11:00

Well, the pub crawl went off without a hitch. Now, four or five pubs later I'm left feeling pretty crappy, and I've got a job interview at the Slainte in a couple of hours. The Slainte is an irish pub downtown that gets quite busy during the winter months. I'm not looking for much really....I don't want much responsibility at all, so it would be ideal to be a bar runner for a bit.

Time to shower now.
cheers
brendan

Pub Crawl Tonight Baby!!

2005-12-13T06:48:00.000+11:00

I'm waiting now to go out our local/massive thirft shop, where I spend much of my allowance when I was younger. Value Village is the perfect place to find random t-shirts and the funkiest and funky pants. It's the sort of place where clothing finds a home to either those who can't afford to buy new clothes, or the young and lively who choose to not where all the big brands.

Friday night was very busy at the harrington house. From what I can remember I did nothing particularily special all day......I think I just hung around relaxing, reading and playing guitar. At night, however, my sister caroline came back from sarnia for the weekend. She's being working up there doing a co-op semester with esso canada, and still has to the 23rd before her contract is up. Caroline arrived home at about half five, and I quickly helped her move her stuff in the spare room, knowing that the other two would be home shortly. Steph and Josh came home about half an hour later with a load of bags, and the house quickly got much noisier. I think the last time all of us were together must have been four or five years ago. I stayed at home for an hour until my ride knocked on the door.

I bought a ticket to see Iron and Wine and Calexico at the Docks in toronto a few days earlier. Luckly an old friend, Steph say my msn name, which announced my wanting to see Iron and Wine...and also with good chance she was coming back from kingston the same weekend of the show. The last time I met Steph was probably the staircase a couple of summers ago, but neither of us could remember for sure.

Anyway, after getting a bit lost, and a call to montreal for someone to mapquest us back on track, we finally managed to find the docks. We hadn't missed much at all, as the show must have kicked off a bit later than schedualed. The Docks, for anyone who's never been there before, is in the middle of nowhere. Seriously, when you're driving down towards it's general area the buildings fall away and you can't help but feel you just purchased a joke ticket to a show thats never going to happen. Alas, after driving into the abyss for a while you do indeed reach the Docks.

It was an alright venue, though not particularly suiting for a fairly quiet artist like Iron and Wine. I had a lovely time watching a couple of bands, including one very unexpected though delightfully entertaining mexican artist. He must have been in his late forties, had long aging dark hair tied into a pony tail, and was boyterious and flamboyant to say the least. Awesome.

Saturday was steph's birthday, and caroline and I shared a laugh when we both looked at eachother with somewhat puzzeled faces asking, "did you get her anything for her birthday?" Of course the answer was, No. haha, It didn't even cross my mind to buy anything for my big sis's birthday. Oh well. I don't think she cared or even noticed. We had a great dinner that night, with the main course being my mother's famous home made lasagne. Steph had some of her friends come over for the festivities and it was a great night, full of booze, music and food.

Lauren and her boyfriend Ryan came over as well, which was great because I hadn't seen Ms. L in ages, and Ryan for much longer. I know the both of them from highschool though I never much spoke to Ryan, he's a nice guy, and the two of them get along famously. Ryan was driving so he had a drink, whilst lauren and I plentifully filled our wine glasses again and again. We caught up as best as we could. It's always tricky answering the question, "so, what have you been up to during the past year?" giving them enough detail to satisfy their query. I never feel much like talking about what I've been doing in Hong Kong, because really, no matter where you are it's always the same sort of routine. Time keeps on kicking, and before you know it your unpacking your sweaters for a visit home.

Last night I went out with Steph and Josh to the Casbah to watch a great local talent, Caribou. It's a three piece act but I think it's mainly just the one dude, who does most of the work. There were two opening acts as well. The first was a waterloo/dundas based act called Winter Equinox. They had a big post rock mellow flavour that did them well, though I wasn't too impressed by their whole set. The first two songs involved a lot of changing of instruments that gave me an ametuer choppy feel. The other tunes were much better, but they still just followed your standard song pattern of big, quiet, big, bang! or quiet, big, bang, quiet. Up and down, up and down, up and down.
The next act called, Holy Fuck were really good. The lead fella feed off his own querky, "i've done too much crystal meth" sort of stage presents, but all in all they did make a very interesting tune.
Crap, it's time to go to the wonderful value village.
So, to shorten this one up a bit, Caribou was fucking great, and I had the pleasure of running into my friend from hong kong, anna!! It was so nice seeing her again, and she looked great with her cool new short hairdo.

Alright, time to head out.
Cheers!
brendan.

I love Nintendo

2005-12-08T08:31:00.001+11:00