Film project

About a year or so ago, I bought all these rolls of film because I had been given this gorgeous SLR that was my mother's a few decades back. I never ended up taking very many photos, in part because I was so apprehensive about the manual focus on the camera. In any case, I have all these rolls of film leftover (and also one roll that I accidentally exposed) so I've decided to document my life (read: uni & coffee) adventures in disposable cameras/film.

What's up, doc?

I guess the title of this post is self-explanatory - I've been trying to type up a new blog post for a really long while now and it's taken me about 4 months but I'm finally here and updating! Granted, I'm cutting and pasting bits from old drafts but I want to sort of give an impression of the various states of being I was in over the last 130 or so days of my life.

In early January I wrote that I'd been enjoying life which, in the grand scheme of things, had been kind of super relaxed and wonderful and just generally, enjoyable. Some banal comment about coffee was made, and also some musings about spending too much money, working far too little and trying to garden, organise my life and house simultaneously.

More recently (early March), I started a post about being sorry that I had disappeared for so long and giving a bit of an overview of uni/Summer. I wrote that post as I sat by the Law building on campus, skipping yet another maths lecture (I very rarely go, it's quite worrying). Everything in that post is still relevant, though I won't post it. In it, I talked about the photo blog Tiantian and I started (PHOTOGA) which has been pretty inactive recently, though we definitely have plans to vamp it up. Soon. You can still head over there and download the curve, Mountain, I created which gives photos a lovely dreamy feel.

I'm being a really good uni student right now and working after hours although I guess I'm undermining my productivity by blogging. Whatever, this will get me back into the swing of things. In the meantime, be happy and healthy (I'm disgustingly ill right now) and I'll be back soon with trivial and probably meaningless photos.

Hiatus

High school really is ending. It's hard to believe but it is. The day that I've been waiting for for the last 4 years is finally so close I can almost taste it and yet, no cigar. It's bittersweet really. The end of an era. An astonishingly wonderful era.

Things are only made more real by the fact that I've realised only today, that I'm fast running out of time to prepare for my final exams and that college applications, which, for a long time, felt a lifetime away, are suddenly about to become overdue. I have some time though. My application isn't due until the end of November, but I'm hoping to complete it by the end of October. I apparently have enough time to compose this short little... nothing, though.

I'm severing all technological connections for a while. That means no facebook, no blogging. I've recently become addicted to twitter though, so you can follow me (@louweasel_) there. My friend Chloe and I also have a joke twitter (@real_llhoe) where we tweet our long time inner fangirl love Harry Styles (of Anglo-Irish boyband One Direction fame).

Until Nov. 3, kisses and all my love xxx

Photoga

(Click)

A friend asked me if I was a wannabe photographer the other day. I replied no, and I stand by that no. That said, Tiantian (who features quite frequently on this blog) and I have been talking about starting a photo blog for quite a while now, so last night we finally stopped being lazy and created our new blog, PHOTOGA.

We like to think of this new blog as a bit of a work in progress that will hopefully blossom during our university years, and also as a blog with a name that could double as a Vietnamese restaurant. If you're still reading, stop. And go visit our very empty new blog. <3

Plottier

There isn't really much to be said about my former 14 year old self. But what little there is to be said, this story does very well: Plottier. I've included a small excerpt but I definitely recommend you click through to read the whole thing, enjoy!

Kelvin Yu was not, perhaps, the most physically gifted male in his year group, to say the least. He was quite short and scrawny with a comically high voice, which amused itself by saying the word ‘like’ almost as often as the stereotypical brat often portrayed in American teen angst movies. His hair stuck up at all angles in a fashion that J.K Rowling would be proud of, and if he was to be reincarnated everyone believed that he was to be a mouse. The baby of his group, his skin was conceivably pale from the many hours of studying he had partaken in during his senior years of high school in order to achieve his UAI of 99.65. As it was, this was an astonishing fact, his tagline that he pulled out quite often to, really, any girl that he met...

You've got troubles and I've got them too

Since the culmination of trials (and possibly even earlier), my friend Alisha has been nagging at me to do a post about her - and our relationship. Which is why I've decided that 'loveliest' is an appropriate title; she is just so lovely (and a little bit of a[n amazing] gronk).

We have a funny little life story. We sat next to each other on the first day of year 7 on the bus to Orientation Camp and she told me about her phobia of winds, I squealed about something, and so began a four year long antipathy. At some point in year 11, during our weekly 9 periods of maths (more commonly known as mental anguish, torture, etc, we bonded over a hate for maths and similarly intense inability to solve mathematical equations.

Now she's all up in my grill and I can't imagine life without her craziness and millionaire boy drama.

She's the Asian. Not really.
(photo credit to Jem)

The time she went down my facebook wall liking everything until I un-friended her and blocked her.

She can rap 'Superbass'.

Busy and then some

Life is being incredibly stressful and things are soon about to get extremely hectic (and I mean this in the literal - not hectik - way) as trials are about a week away. I, being myself, have not studied yet though I have every intention of starting straight after this post and another post on my old blog, creatively titled: louise has a blog.

Our school had a talent quest today and I went in with the full intention of reading (and highlighting) some sheets for english. In the end, I was pleasantly surprised by all the acts and I'm pretty sure it was well worth my $2.50. The winner was truly amazing. A year 7 girl with some incredible hula hooping (it was more than just a single hula hoop around the waist) skill. Of course, I didn't have a camera with me and thus, have just one photo to share.

Closing performance.

on a whim

I love spontaneity. Spontaneous decisions lead to amazing adventures, adventures like the one I took with a friend after our last assessment task (not ever, but last in that block). We had initially planned to go revitalise our inner children and catch a ferry to Luna Park but as is life, it was closed and we were stumped as to what to do. Eventually we left school, deciding that we'd choose something on the bus - and we did. Katoomba. A gorgeous little sleepy town nestled some two hours and 110km away in the Blue Mountains.

We bought deliriously unhealthy food and stumbled onto the train just as it was about to leave, the two hour journey not nearly as long as what we imagined it to be. Like excited little children, we took excessive photos in a vain attempt to try to document our travels but for the fact we only had two phones, one of which (the one with the better camera, as it happens) was on the brink of powerlessness. When we stepped off the train, we were reminded instantly of how far away from Sydney we were, the temperature freezing and the clouds so low that we were literally walking in them though of course, we were also quite high up as Katoomba has an elevation of 1017m. Eventually we found our way and ambled down Katoomba St, exploring all the shops and discovering an amazing vintage store with incredible t-bars (they weren't my size, though they were my friend's) and wedding dresses and hats and antique and rare books.

We were more than a little pressed for time, and ended up sprinting unnecessarily back to the station to make the train back home, tea buns and waffles with ice cream in hand, arriving with 9 minutes spare.

Sydney might be great, most of the time, but adventures like these are always better.

I had a little fun with the editing.

ken

One the arguably best things ever happened today. As someone who usually doesn't interact with prominent people and has no burning desire to do so either, the chance encounter I had today with Ken Horler in Surry Hills was so lovely and I was genuinely pleased to have met and spoken to him, even if for a fleeting 10 minutes. For those who don't know (I didn't know until 1pm today either), Ken Horler is the co-founder of Nimrod Theatre in Sydney, now known as Stables Theatre. He and John Bell (of Bell Shakespeare fame) founded it together in the 70's in a period of increasing small-L liberal culture.

He greeted us (my friends and I were out and about for lunch) as we passed him with a surprising: 'my daughter went to your school' and left just as abruptly, something I felt kind of embodied his jovial and somewhat carefree nature - at least, that's the impression I got. He enquired about our university aspirations and told us about his own (he received his double degree from the University of Sydney, practising law for a while before converting to the dramatic arts) and made little quips about each of our short-term goals. He also had beautifully coloured leather shoes which I couldn't help but admire. I wish I had asked for a photo. Just as I was about to make the request, he had already turned and walked off, The Spectator swinging at his side. For future reference, I'm going to be bold and just ask, and also start talking to strangers because I think the notion of stranger danger is just generally unfounded.*

*Most abductions and assaults of children occur not with strangers, but with people known to the child.

Hello etc.

I feel like I should've welcomed you to my new blog or something but, I was so eager to post those two photos that I skipped the niceties entirely. Hence my somewhat belated welcome: Hi, it's so great that you've stumbled across my blog, hiding deep in the interwebs. I'm not entirely sure what the point of this blog is but let's just pretend it's an extended metaphor for life. After all, what is (the point of) life? Leave a little love - or hate - and have a lovely day!

I think I'm just going to post my photoshop adventures and of course, my life's adventures. Adventures which aren't really interesting or happening right now but will definitely, maybe, happen in November. By then I'm sure I'll have something slightly more meaningful to share.

Today's ANZAC Day and the weather is simply marvellous. It's very cool and very grey. Most of my friends are summer lovers which is understandable, given we live in Australia, but I've since converted to the dark side. Kind of literally because winter is always, always darker than summer. I posted about my love for winter on my old blog but I didn't really say very much except make assertions about winter's winning qualities. You can probably find it if you look hard enough.

I used to have a deep affinity for summer, or so my mother tells me. Whenever I complain about the sun nowadays, she tells me about my younger self and how I used to bathe in the sunshine, laying under the sun all day long, much to her horror because I'd end up with a tan that never seemed to fade (I'm Asian and apparently having fair skin is a quality quite revered). I can imagine myself loving the sun but I honestly think winter is just much more practical. Of course, my understanding of winter might be a bit flawed considering where I live and our winter's are by most comparisons, quite weak.

I've always said that in cold weather, you can pile on as many layers as you want to keep warm but you can't say the same for hot weather. There are only so many layers you can peel off before you're down to your underwear or, if you're particularly comfortable in your own skin, your birthday suit. There's also something incredibly warming about sitting inside on a rainy day and just looking at the rain fall. Everything just seems peaceful and still. And finally, footwear in winter. It always feels just that little bit more appropriate to wear heels - day or night - in cold weather than in summer. I always feel like my heels don't get enough wear and I'm pretty sure I wear them most between June-August.

It's also drizzling today and pretty much the perfect weather for a nice cup of tea or, in my case, a scalding hot cappaccino. It's the first cup of coffee I've had in what feels like years but is actually only just days (although enough to make about a week's worth) and already I can feel my coffee addition starting to gnaw away at my feeble determination to stop drinking its warm goodness.