b r a v e c r e a t u r e s

Last week was beautiful.

Stunning weather, light into the evening and the smell of spring in the air.

Then the weekend came and all that changed. Suddenly it was cold again - so cold in fact I got my first experience of snow in London. It was beautiful. I sat on my front stoop for about 30 minutes in the cold - rugged up and watching the snow fall softly on the streets of Marble Arch where I live.

Quiet and peaceful and cold - you wouldnt want it all the time, but for that one morning it was pretty magical.

As aways, the regular newsletter creates a flurry of email activity, which in turn takes me a while to respond to. I am working through it though.

One thing did strike me, and it was in the sig file from a mate in Australia. It does sum up how I feel about life and the absense of this thinking is central to the things that I am now very glad to have left behind in Australia*.

Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, Champagne in one hand - strawberries in the other, body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming WOO HOO - What  a Ride!

As much as I do love this phrase and see it as a philosophy, its exactly the sort of thing my mother would say - in fact I think she has sent it to me in the past. So I am continuing to sound like my mother. This is not HUGELY surprising, but it is a little disturbing.

* There are lots of other things from Australia that I am not glad to be without including (but not restrictred to) my dog Saxon, David "The Boy Friend" Chapman, Bitchie Barbie, Penny, Al, Avi, Sunday brunch at Ice and my Art work.

Ok people. Its April 1st - and London has turned on a 10 p piece. Grey winter is falling behind and spring is welling up all over the place.

Last night I was in Covent Garden at 7pm and the last of the sunlight had not yet faded. People were laughing, discussing dinner plans and enjoying the pulse of the city.

London is at last coming out from under its grey winter doona because suddenly the weather has turned and the days are long again. Summer is coming - hooray.

I have survived my first London winter, and all is right with the world. 

At long last I have written another letter to friends.

It's been a long time coming, but there has been so much life to live, I have had a little trouble chronicling it.

But here it is at last….  

I have had a bit of a break from travel.  To be honest, Rio was a little extravagant so I needed to let the cash build up again. But now I am back on my ramblings.

This time to Brussels.

Now everyone I told was a little puzzled that I was going to Brussels for Easter. Apparently its the Canberra of Europe - a manufactured capital city whose only real export is legislation. The difference here is that they ALSO export some of the best chocolates in the world.

Whats not to love?

After my trip to Canberra in 2006, I would have liked to take the time to see the European legislature - but it was a quick trip and over Easter so I didn't get a chance. What I did do was look around the old city and it's compact, charming and picture post card perfect. My tour guide also did a lot to make things great. Good conversation goes a long, long way to making me happy.

Apart from just seeing the city, another reason for my trip was La Demence, a regular party in Brussels. Apparently it was off the hook for New Year so I really wanted to go. Well worth the trip. Music, fab; crowd, handsome and international; venue, meh - a flat surface would be nice, and whats with the glass. the floor was COVERED in broken glass. Oh and the french in particular have no idea how to move through a crowd. They are way too pushy and use their elbows way too much. But all up I had a great time.

The best bit however was laying in my hotel room at the Be Manos on Monday morning, with the sun streaming through the windows and snow falling. While its horrible to be out in, for and Australian boy like me, this was one of the most romantic things I have ever seen.

Long story short - Brussels is well worth a quick visit, and La Demence is a great party. I am thinking of going back in July. Yes that good. 

If you are interested there are more pictures of Brussels in my dot mac web gallery. 

Life here in London has been so wonderful, its hard sometimes to reach back to a year or so ago when things were so bad. But just when you least expect it, the past reaches forward to remind you.

This morning I got an email from my ex, James to tell me that my wonderful dog, Saxon, has died - suddenly and unexpectedly.

Apparently he had been happy and not at all unwell. He had been coughing sometimes after eating or drinking for some weeks and had had a series of investigations including a gastroscopy and barium swallow without finding any problem.

On Monday night (11 Feb), about 15 minutes after his dinner on Monday he was found dead in the front garden. He was buried in his garden with his favourite blanket.

During the dark years of 2004-2006, Saxon was the brightest thing in my life. It was a tough decision to give him up, but having him stay with my ex's mother, who adored him, seemed like a really good decision for both him and me.

I have missed him, and still talk about him all the time. Its really sad to think that I can now never go back to play with him - but I have so many good memories of him that in some ways, while Iam still alive, part of him is too.

So I promised myself that I would write more this year again, and god damn it I will.

I am back from Rio, having had a GREAT time there, and despite feeling like crap from the stomach bug thats been going around in London, I headed out the the SPICE GIRLS reunion concert tonight with three friends.

And I had a really good time. And I am disturbed by the fact that I knew the words to ALL OF THE SONGS. Thats my slightly flakey eidetic memory for you again. Lyrics and plots/scrips for TV shows - I seem to be able to auto recall anything I have ever seen or heard. Not all the time, or on demand, but enough to be spooky.

Anyway the concert was fun. Incredibly staged and art directed - although little could cover up the fact that these girls really do have fairly marginal talent. Victoria Beckham in particular is unbelievably talentless.

No really. Can't sing. Doesn't dance. Walks like a truck driver in heels and zero stage presence. But the gilrs from Essex scream their guts out when ever she comes on stage. Amazing! Its the whole Cinderella thing I think, they are all thinking "That could be me - I am that talentless". Well good for her, she has made a little go a very long way.

I saw her on Ugly Betty the other night and, well, we can add "can't act" to the list.

Bless.

As for the others, Mel B/Scarey who I always thought had the best voice, seems to have not done much with it; Emma/Baby is sweet but again the voice hasnt hed up. I am actually surprised she hasn't parleyed her very good looks into an acting career - she did a pretty good job on Ab Fab; Geri the Media Whore did a good job of stealing the show - she has a combination of an ok voice and seemingly unlimed show mans ship; and Mel C/Sporty, who always has the most interesting voice, has turned that into a pretty spectacular set of pipes. She has had four albums since the break up and they are all very good.

All up the show was ok, without being amazing. There really wasnt much clever in it, but then did there need to be. The one thing that I thought was a disappointment was that they didnt focus on the Girl Power thing. The Spice Girls came along at the right time and cauught a social wave, they represented a new age of girls being more confident and empowered and while there music was marginal, the message they sent was a good and important one.

IF they are still coming to your town, and would want a camp, high colour night out, get along and see them. Relax and enjoy the tack - its worth it.