another weekend in torquay

its 9:30 in the morning on monday the 27th of october and my last assessment is in about half an hour or so. i dont ahve to take any tests or anything, just talk about my work and get some hopefully positive feedback. we shall see. but its a nice feeling being done. im pretty much all packed and well, just ready to get out of here. real glad i got that flight to burleigh tomorrow. the city has tired me and im ready to get my feet dirty with sand and not piss and beer from a pub floor. aside from that, this past weekend was pretty glorious indeed. i worked one last night in the kitchen at M.O.O- made 90 bucks in 4 hours, cooking. it was awesome. the next day i pasked up my room and then that night, my buddy benny drove the two of us over to Torquay for the weekend to stay with katey and tyler. got in a bit late, and then steve came after work, so he got in about 12. and then we called it a night to get some rest for the next day to come. saturday’s weather couldn’t have been compromised. the sun would peek out from the clouds here and there, but the temperature was just perfect, no wind or rain and we even got to take some boards out for some surfing. it was awesome. ive only been surfing twice and that was at the jersey shore, so im not positive if that counts or not. but being out there with a crew of your mates was awesome. made me realize why people love surfing. your having a blast trying to catch waves and at the same time can just chill out in the water and have a chat and a laugh. its the type of sport where you could sit there for a few hours having a great time, not catch a good wave all day, and well quite frankly not be bummed about it. it doesnt put that pressure of an audience or people trying to one up each other. nice feeling. im sure some of you know what im talking about, atleast i hope so.  but after our surf, we went for a little skate, hung out at the beach amd just had a relaxing day and night. dont think i saw a shadow all day, but it was nicer than there being sun, that would have been a bit too hot. sunday brought on the same weather, excpet for the addition of a really warm breeze, making our beach volleyball toss around and out swimming situation quite delightful. after that we grilled up some little burgers and chicken skewers. man that word does not look right.. skewers.. hmph. but it was a nice feed, well satisfying and ended withs oem dark chocolate timtams. we dont have them in the states, but they are these nice chocolate biscuit cookies with a bit of chocolate cream, covered in a dark chocolate coat. delicious i must say. if any of you have had them, you know where im coming from. ill bring some home if i remember.  well after the feast, we all headed back to melbourne, me and benny headed to our frined micheal’s radio show at RRR. you can actually check out the website at RRR.org.au. i have yet to check it out, but will most certainly do so when i finish writting this post. he played a great number of tunes, making for a lovely ending and beginning of the week and week to come.  good times here in the suburbs.   also a great night, 65 or 70 degrees im guessing, a bit humid, causing for a lack of sleep last night, which is leaving me feeling a bit seedy this morning. ill get through it though. well im going to get some brekky- only way to get your day going.  see you all soon

 .B

just one left

so i finished my sculpture installation today and its set for assessment tomorrow. Just one left, my hot glass assessmentm, which isn’t until monday and today is only wednesday. but im pretty set for that one, just need to finish up my sketch book and set up my pieces. im getting pretty excited to finish. i cant beleive the year is already over, well their school year here is over, i just get a few months off and head back to DU for winter term. which is probably going to kill me. riding and school work that isnt straight up studio work. aaaahhh. oh well im almost done. its only a year and half more of my life. well who knows. ill have to see if i get accepted into the BFA program or not. if i dont, im not too sure i want to stay in school- sorry to break it to ya mum and dad. but its the truth. i couldn’t bare taking some bullshit classes that im really not interested in. just couldn’t do it. but there are plenty of better alternatives… art school, culinary school.. no school… hah. anyways, ill stop talking nonsense. but im headed back to Torquay this weekend, its supposed to be 30 C on saturday, so im guessing thats in the high 80’s and there is a hole in the ozone over melbourne, so its pretty damn hot. today was pretty chilly- pants and hoodie and jacket. windy as well. weird weather here. not bad though, keeps things interesting. well im going to leave you guys with that, i need some dinner and a shower.  sianara… no idea how to spell that one

6 bucks and im in Torquay

So after glass class on wednesday, my teacher Ben, asked if i could assist him do some production work on thrusday afternoon. and he offered to pay me, which was rad, so of course i agreed. i told him he didn’t have to pay me, but if he really wanted to then, well that was fine. no complaints. so we blew about 7 pieces that day, he and some other chick sell them to stores. pretty good deal on his part, he gets to blow the glass and she does all the cold working. cold working is kind of a pain in the ass, if any of you know. tedious and not exciting. so i only helped him for a few hours and he ended up giving me 60 bucks! i was pretty stoked on that. its not everyday you get paid to do something you love right. oh and then later that night, i ended up in st. kilda meeting up with a buddy for drinks, and while im waiting in line, i get talking to this older guy, probably in his 30’s and i told him i was blowing glass and whatnot and he got real excited and wants to buy some for his mum. and i actually just got off the phone with him now and he said some of his buddies want to buy some as well! pretty sweet. but im just not sure how much to charge them.. ill have to ask my teachers or something. that would be rad to make a few hundred bucks form selling my work. should do it more often. well aside from that..

my friend katey who works at extreme in CO, she’s staying out here for a few months and lives over in a small beach town called Torquay, right on the great ocean road. its a nice place. but she came up for the night and i ended up taking the train back to hers the next day, which only cost 6 bones and included a bus trip from the geelong train station over to Torquay. cheap as! all together it was about an hour and 45 ride. nice views on the way too. It was soo nice to get out of the city, i cant take all the crowded busy paved building filled streets anymore. the small town brigette doesn’t belong in the city. its going to be real nice coming home. pretty stoked about thanksgiving too. it real weird being out and about in shorts and teeshirt in the middle of october, and its getting hotter. i couldn’t handle a warm christmas. strange. anyways, so she is renting this little summer condo with her friend tyler who is also from the states. the place is awesome! its right on the beach and is just like going to someone’s grandparents house with all the old boardgames, vintage furniture, a nice record collection, vhs collection, strange drawing and pictures hanging on the walls. it was grand. another great thing were the 2 sets of bunk beds in katey’s room. such a cozy little place. katey had to work, so i went and checked out this surf premier, not knowing anything about it, i walked in and it was about these 2 dudes from OZ who traveled to every state and attempted to surf. “Surfing 50 States”. it was hiarious. the guys ended up getting an ice cream truck from quicksilver or some other surf company. it kept breaking down, delaying their trip, but they ended up meeting all these great people in every state and surfing down stairs and potato fields, on dams, in freezing cold water. it was awesome. good humored kids as well. so after that, katey and i roamed the warm streets, met some randoms, went to a going away party. good night. next day was freezing though, well compared to the night and day before. it sucked. overcast, windy, and only about 60 or somsthing. but there was this market going on with food and music and crafts. pretty cool.  then we drove down the great ocean road for a bit, stopped at some beaches, ran in the water at one point. cold as, but a nice refreshing wake up. i really wanted to stay, but sunday was that DJ Spooky gig, which was rad. it was called Terra Nova Sinfonia Antarctica. he composed this music for a pianist, a violinist and a cellist. and in the background were these two huge screens showing this  film of antarctica, russians taking over the place, penguins, glaciers, charts of global warming and whatnot, and some random stuff. but it was all pretty amazing. i cant really explain it too well and my battery is about to die. so i better get going. sorry for the short ending here. you were probably getting a bit fed up with my typing at the moment.  ill write some more tomorrow… good night

.B

School’s out for summer, well almost

Just got out of my last class of the year, well for these kids its for the year, for me, well i have to go back in january. So i guess i have quite a while off. pretty good. its crazy though, out here, the art students are pretty much finished next week and then dont have to be back until march. MARCH. that’s almost half a year right there of no school. its crazy! anyways, i guess it hasnt hit me that im pretty much done. i have to finish up my projects for assessment and then im home free. back to the beach and relaxation and then back to the states. ill actually be home exactly 1 month from today, pretty stoked on that. cant wait to eat nice healthy meals in the loving company of my family, oh the good old days. speaking of dinner, i got invited to have a nice dinner tonight at my buddy ben’s. wonder what he’s going to be cooking up this evening. perhaps ill bring over some wine, that would probably be nice. hope you all are enjoying eating dinner with your mates, or your family.. its a nice concept.

so steve and i ended up driving around the other day and found ourselves at the Coburg Drive-in, cool little place. no one there really, i guess because it was a monday and it was a 10:20 showing of some random movies, well i have never heard of them. dont really get around to watching the tele. cant be bothered, and quite frankly i dont mind it one bit.  but we ended up seeing this movie evil eye- yea, dont bother going to see it, if you were. i mean it was kind of alright, but theee worst, well maybe second worse, ending ever conceived. man it was shit.  but i am going to some snowboard premier tomorrow night, so hopefully that makes up for the shit movie on monday, im sure it will. and then DJ Spooky on sunday, man im stoked for that one. Not sure if i’ve written about it, but he went to Antarctica and recorded the sound of glaciers and whatnot and is mixing it. not too sure on those details, but it can be checked out online, if anyone is interested.

hmm, so today my alarm either did not go off, or i just slept right through it. but either way i was an hour late for glassblowing which kind of bummed me out, because i love that class and i didnt get to blow in the morning. so i only got to make one piece today, but it was a good one. we got to work with color, seeing how we all finished our projects and it was the last day, so i made a nice white cup. good shape for the hand. ill bring that one home for sure. the other stuff, i guess we shall see. hopefully shipping doesn’t cost as much as a car. oh and i get to blow tomorrow morning and then help ben out, my teacher, in the afternoon. he even said he would pay me, which is pretty awesome  if you ask me. but anyways, im going to go, andrew is calling me on skype. hope your all in good health and getting excited for whats to come… whatever it may be.

.B

trip up to the gold coast

Im going to make this short, im feeling real tired and a bit of a sickness coming on. sore throat and muscles. not so good. but my trip up to the gold coast -or shall i say the little town of burleigh, was pretty awesome and out of control. i stayed with my buddy jono, the kiwi kid who i worked with about 6 years ago at club getaway. hadnt seen or heard from him since then, but he was the same awesome dude. his house was a street away from the beach and he lived with some  rad kids- on from NZ, well two including his girlfriend, some kid from virginia who i didnt meet because he left, they didnt like him very much, and another kid who is from NZ and cali. good mixture. oh and some other chick i think she was from Oz. cool cats for sure. but i got to go swimming numerous times everyday all around the place too. one day we went to a national park and jumped of cliffs and went down this natural water slide, another day we skated along this winding path through the bush, dodging trees and weaving corners coming out onto a little beach with a good current. that was pretty awesome. when i go back ill put up a video of us riding along that path. the whole place was great, jsut being able to walk and ride around town in your shorts and bathing suit top, not needing shoes, randomly jumping off bridges, hopping fences into hotel swimming pools. yea it was awesome. sunny freedom.  but the whole weekend wore me out pretty bad. maybe thats why im so sore and tired. anyways, i think im headed back up there for the remainder of my stay when school gets out in a few weeks. should be a good time. get some summer in before i head home to the snowy hills of winter. well my wrists are getting tired from typing and im starved. ill write again soon, and try to get some photos up right now. lets see how that works out.

.

B