a forgotten draft from 06.06.07

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

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

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

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!

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!

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

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!

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!

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.

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