tranquility

My Illustration Friday entry for 'tranquility'.

To me there's nothing more tranquil than clear calm water. I just can't resist lying about on a jetty or in a little boat with my feet dangling over the edge in the water...daydreaming until the clouds have changed shapes a hundred times and my toes become prunes.

Just a quick one this week as I've been busy making my CDs for CD Swap 2.

first off the ranks

Eeeeeeeeeee! I'm so excited. I just got my first CD from CD Swap 2 from Erin the Knitterista.

It came packaged in a way that made me a bit embarrassed about the amount of planning and effort I've put into my CDs. It's got a fancy CD face print which matches the front cover, AND comes with a matching motif button (which I'll definitely be wearing out tomorrow). It had stickers on the front of the package and a little note from Erin on the back of an oversized Fruits postcard.


Okay, a bit too much description... Can you tell I'm excited? I haven't even listened to the CD yet, but needless to say I'm excited about that too.

I'd better pull my finger out. I haven't sent my CDs yet, but I picked the covers up from the printer today, and my playlists have been perfected. Just a few finishing touches and the actual posting to go now. It's all been great fun, stay posted.

the awe and newness of it all

Almost everyone I know believes that they alone have the special ability to somehow attract the nutcases on the train. This morning I encountered a man. Energetically he bounded into my carriage and sat across from me.

"I’m on a train!" he pronounced enthusiastically but slurred. I smiled politely and looked away. "WOW" he went on, "And it's a Tangara!" (a model of train that was new to Sydney about 15 years ago). The smile spread wider across his face as he started to bounce in his seat. Then he looked directly at me, "I'm lucky aren't I?"
I looked up.
"I'm on a train and I've got this!" He held up a small Coke bottle. Now chuckling I asked "What's in that?" expecting him to admit to a large splash of rum.
"Coke!" he replied as proud as punch, as though it was a drink strictly reserved for birthday parties.

I quickly realised he wasn't drunk or drugged-out, as I'm prone to expect on the trains.

"Ooooo, I've got Coke and I'm on a Tangara" he shrilled, still bouncing and now slapping his hand on his thigh too. "I am so lucky, aren't I?"

His excitement was pure and his joy completely contagious. "Yes, I reckon you are" I replied, now with a smile as large as his. And I meant it; envious of his ecstatic state compared with my on-the-train-every-day drone.

We exchanged a bit more of enthusiasm about his plans for the day, and then wished each other a good day as I got off the train. The wish was sincere and it worked, I kept my wide smile all day.

It was a rare experience in its loveliness, and I was left wishing I had the special ability to attract someone like him on the trains more often.

karma

My Illustration Friday entry for 'karma'.

Fi has been one of my very best friends ever since we first met in primary school. Now her vibrant life path has led her to Tibetan Buddhism. She is very dedicated to the faith, so much so that she is on her way to a three year retreat in France and then on to become a nun.

For years she worked at the main Tibetan Buddhism Centre in the city. During this time Fi's mum (the most devoted mother I've ever met) would tell us about the centre. With her beautiful diction she would say "The kitchen has a lot of ants and cockroaches, but you mustn't harm any of them because they believe in reincarnation here. So you see, the bugs could be migrating souls." Then she'd glance from side to side, lean in, lower her voice and continue, "But when nobody is looking I'll stomp on them." Finishing with a cheeky mischievous chuckle.

she had green contact lenses and a strange habit

Just met up with some friends for a couple of drinks in the afternoon sun, and got talking about flatmates. One of my friends is currently having a toilet paper standoff with her flatmate. Everyone in the world must have at least 5 great (or not so great flatmate stories). I won’t bombard you with all of mine all at once, but one of the nicer ones had a strange habit.

She was an excentric English woman in her early 40’s. She was stylish, very cool, easy to get along with, and although she never stopped snacking on exotic canapés, I never saw her eat a full meal. Her strange habit was that when the bottom of the shower curtain started to get a little dirty or mouldy, before any of us had a chance to wash it, she would simply trim the mouldy strip from the bottom. This happened a few times, until we were left with a shower curtain that only hung down as far as our chest. Didn’t serve its purpose very well at all, the bathroom floor was always swimming, and should someone accidentally burst in on you in the shower, embarrassment was unavoidable.

20 year old marino

Imagine for a moment, if you will, your fantasy jobs. They all seem great, but lets face it, in reality some seem like hard work (hairdresser, stage set builder/painter), some seem as though they'd be very difficult and testing at times (illustrator, interior decorator), and then others... well there are others that make me think "yeah, I could do that".
I could be a Colour Namer!

You know when you want to paint a wall and you go and collect those little colour sample cards. I have a stash of them; blue fury, apple's eye, cherry blossom, leak, lemon light, bok choy...

Well I think I'd like to give it a go. I've been practicing; drought lawn green, secondhand book page beige, too ripe tomato red, curried egg yellow, 80's eyeshadow blue.

I like to refer to the colour of my new gorgeously warm scarf as 'dirty sheep'.

Mum called me at work the other week, she was shopping and had come across some quilt covers on sale. Apparently they were a total bargain, so she was describing each one to me over the phone. "One is velvety in a 'deep mochaccino', the other one is more like a 'cafe-au-lait', and then there's one with little beads, and that ones is in a, umm, well I guess it's a 'milky latte' colour". (She obviously needed a coffee that day).

So clearly this highly attuned skill is genetic, passed through the generations on the mothers side of the tree. I'll be expecting any offspring of mine to be pointing at their crayons with a casual "chilly cheeks pink", "band aid beige", or the odd "kiddie pool water green".

metropolitan

My Illustration Friday entry for 'metropolitan'.

This week's illo was troublesome. I had difficulty with the theme (and the illo) because metropolitan just isn't a word that is used very often in Australia (at least not in Sydney). We don't have a metropolitan police department, metropolitan fire brigade, no metropolitan museums (art or history), no MOMA's, and no metro system like in Paris. We have a city police department, city fire brigade, city hospitals, city rail (which I spend a large percentage of my time waiting for), state library, and state and city museums and art galleries.

However, even though we don't use the word metropolitan, I am aware of what it means. I'm not sure if it's the same in other countries, but we are saturated in American culture; T.V, music, movies, tabloid gossip, news and sports. It got me thinking about all of the other words we hear a lot, but don't use; sidewalk, trash, trunk, subway, candy, condo...

Adding to this I'm always self conscious about the differences in spelling. So when you spot one of my posts or comments, please don't think I can't spell if I switch a 'z' for an 's', or squeeze a 'u' in here or there, I'm a stickler for tradition.

(Do Canadians use American or English spelling? English I imagine, but then again you're so close. How confusing.)