MissLeonie.com

Before I resume the Italy Adventures, I want to link to a performance by the Sydney Theater Company featuring Cate Blanchett and Joseph Fiennes (found through CateBlanchett.net).

It’s called Minutes of a Separation, and it’s an incredible fusion of different forms of art and theatre - not quite a short film, not quite a live performance either. The music is magical, the background animation breathtaking, and the story precious. It’s got dance (on a wall no less), graphic design, a traditional monologue, surreal sequences of optical madness, and a disjunction of scale that turns the performance into a fairytale almost.

Most experimental theatre doesn’t strike a chord with me because it is estranging, but this combination of aerobatics and narrative, design and substance - it’s enchanting and it grabbed me. The piece is fairly short, so go and have a look if you have a bit of time to spare.

I’m back!

I’m hoping to write a few posts about my holiday to the Lake Garda region of Italy, but I’m a little tired and still trying to work out how I’m going to go about it. I had the best time, but the trip home was tiring and I’m still finding my feet and preparing to pour all my Italian Illy coffee energy into doing a good job on my dissertation.

I had the best time in Italy. The smells (sweet omnipresent oleander), the colours (terracotta and warm yellow houses, sage-green olive trees, turqoise-blue water), the views (lakes, mountains, sometimes both), the weather (sunny and at least 35°C), the food (pizzas, sweet sun-ripened tomatoes, limoncello)… I couldn’t have had a better time. Well, that’s a lie. I could have had a slightly better time if it hadn’t been so hot, so I could have visited Venice again. But really, dunking yourself in a swimming pool and a lake with a view of the Italian landscape is a damn good alternative.

I read three books from one of our two hammocks (tied between two olive trees), slept in it during siestas, watched the blackbird families scout for worms and a drink, let two curious kids have a go, looked up at the stars from it at night, then fell asleep in it until the daytime heat abated and I could transfer myself to my bed in our caravan. It was a fairly hammock-oriented holiday.

I took a gazillion photos, some of which I took with the intention of turning them into wallpapers and putting them up on the site. The rest of them will most likely appear on Flickr once I’ve had a good look at them.

Now, wallpapers. They’ll most likely be in widescreen format, although I haven’t completely made up my mind about that yet. I have a widescreen laptop myself, and I always struggle to find nice desktop images (though InterfaceLIFT has a good selection), so perhaps I’ll be able to help a few people out with the ones I make for myself. I may change my mind and put them up in a regular size and shape as well, but for the moment, here is the first one in widescreen format. It’s a picture I took at a botanical garden while on holiday. Click the small image for the full-sized (1280×800) wallpaper.

Now for the copyright-technical drivel (you can skip this if you just plan to use the wallpaper on your own computer, full stop): (more…)

But before I go, here’s a little project I’ve been working on:

It’s an exercise in a watercolour book based on original drawings from Edith Holden called Painting with Watercolours. I couldn’t find it on Amazon anywhere, but if you google “painting with watercolours the country diary”, there are plenty of hits and you might be able to find a cheaper price. It’s a cute little box that got me started when I first tried my hand at watercolour painting. It made it less overwhelming because the set contained the book, a sketchpad, pencils, a brush and paints. Everything you needed was right there, so you might as well start. I don’t use the paints or the sketchpad anymore, but the brush that came with it is quite good, and the book is good fun. I felt like painting again after picking up An Introduction to Watercolour for just £1.99 this afternoon. I suddenly remembered I had a half-finished sketch waiting for me, so I completed the sketch and started painting.

The above little drawing is a long way from finished, but I thought I’d post it up to show that I’m still at it, albeit it infrequently. The colours are more vibrant and fresh than in this photo, by the way.

Yesterday evening my housemate and I organised a very informal dinner party for our fellow students from the MA. It was great fun, and I’m happy to report that I don’t have RSI despite making enough dough for eight pizzas, and rolling out and topping said eight pizzas over the course of the night. I had a lovely time.

Today, I’m going to pack up a little suitcase so I can leave for the airport nice and early tomorrow. I’m flying off to Italy to stay with my parents (who are already there) for a week, so I won’t be posting. I hope everyone has a great week, and when I get back, there will be pictures!

I signed into WordPress today and look what I found! The wonderful Lanx has written up a post about this site and added me to her Favourite Webbies! I’m completely surprised and shocked in the very best way there is. Thank you so much! You’re very kind and I am blushing. I resemble the cherries from my last post.

Now, I just have to add that I can’t possibly take credit for the design, since this is pretty much the WordPress default. The only difference is that the top banner is all my work. I don’t know how to code CSS, so I can’t change anything at this stage, but I’m hoping to learn how to eventually.

Anyway, thanks again Lanx, and anyone reading this should totally pop over to her blog. She’s got some really interesting links, as well as incredible photos from a recent holiday. If you are stuck in the Northern Hemisphere, they’ll make you long for the summer you’ll never have, but in a good living-vicariously way. Her graphics are pretty awesome too. Go on, click the link. You know you want to.

Sometimes it really doesn’t take anything else.

I was at the supermarket looking for fruit, and I saw an employee printing discount stickers. I jokingly said, “I think I better wait until you’re done.” He laughed and said, “I’ll hurry,” and looked in my basket, sticking a sticker on my cherries. That’s how I ended up paying 50p for 350gr of cherries that originally sold for £3.99. I love a good bargain. And I love cherries.

About a month ago, I was at the airport far too early, waiting to fly home. I looked at the magazines and saw a quote by Chris Martin on the cover of one of them. Something along the lines of “To be honest, I didn’t like OK Computer at all when I first heard it.” Yes. Right-so. It’s not like anyone is going to believe you didn’t like what turned out to be Radiohead’s most successful album, but it’s nice to see you’re trying to sell your album on the strengths of the controversy of the rubbish that leaves your mouth, instead of the music.

And it’s a shame, it really is, because the album, except for Violet Hill - Lord knows why they picked that as a first single - is brilliant. It’s an incredibly moodful album. Yes, I just invented that word. Every song on the record is like a soundtrack, and I can see the film. It strikes a chord and conjures up images, and that’s rare.

So you sort of want to forgive the band for Chris Martin’s opening his stupid mouth because the album is so great, and then this happens. Chris Martin walks out of an interview because he’s “not enjoying himself” and he “just doesn’t really like talking about things.” What, was the lavish praise for the album getting to you?

He’s being a girls’ blouse, a little diva, and it’s completely uncalled for. The presenter is baffled and asks Will Champion if he’s upset him, because he didn’t mean to and all that, and Champion goes, “I don’t think so.” “Cause I don’t think I… said anything..” “No no, I don’t think so.” More love for Will Champion, who evidently understand that you can’t take for granted being a best-selling band. From the clip on that link, it doesn’t sound as though the presenter is being rude or even particularly daring in the kinds of questions he asked. But the Chris Poor Diddums Martin whinges and leaves anyway. Very poor show.

It looks like the money and the fame have gone to Chris Martin’s head. I, for one, don’t intend to add to his fortune so he can be obnoxious some more. I won’t be buying the new Coldplay out of principle. I’m disappointed and really not impressed.

PS. Before anyone asks - the full album was streamed on their MySpace page. So there, I legitimately and legally know I like the album without having purchased it.

While browsing YouTube for some music yesterday (I’m a little bored with the limited selection of music I’ve got in England), I came across some Jewel songs. Now, apart from the fact that the Foolish Games video - much like the song - is incredible, it triggered a memory in me that has made me chuckle all day.

I must have been about twelve at this particular holiday. We were in the south of France, at a campsite with archaic shower facilities. There were three showers in huge… rooms is the best word to describe them, I think. Certainly no cubicles. Tall walls shielded each showerer from curious glances. The walls didn’t go all the way up to the high ceiling, though, and so the acoustics were incredible.

One afternoon, I was singing softly. I’d been singing in the shower for a few days, starting out at a barely audible volume, and apparently growing more confident every day. As long as all three showers were in use, you couldn’t really hear me. It wasn’t like I was belting along to the Titanic song with a heart full of passion.

Now, one of the songs I liked to sing was, and you probably guessed it by now, Jewel’s Foolish Games. It must have been on one of the tapes I’d recorded for my walkman. [God that makes me feel old. Walkman!?]. Now, I was twelve, and I didn’t really speak English. I could make out some of the lyrics, but I sort of filled in the rest with non-words. It didn’t really matter, because I knew the melody, and the song was within my range. So I’m shampooing my hair, singing “You took your coat oooooff, and stood in the rain, you’re always crazy like that”, and sort of happily get through the entire song, when suddenly… I hear a second voice. I was singing a freaking duet.

For about three seconds I was mortified. They heard me! Then I thought, what the hell, I’m enclosed by walls. And we make a pretty good Jewel rendition pair. So I sung on happily.

Every time I started the song over, the second voice would join me in a matter of seconds. I never worked out who it was, and I have been very careful singing in public ever since, but it still makes me laugh. Both my initial response, and my little 12-year-old self shrugging it off thinking, sure, a duet, why not. Not to mention the second person who heard me sing, recognised the song, and thought she might as well hum along. What a pair. Heh.

I decided I could buy myself some cute dangly earrings after saving so much on thongs. I was still at the same shop, so it wouldn’t break the bank. I love earrings, but I tend to lose them or forget about them, so I haven’t got very many.

I bought four pairs, and I absolutely love them. They’re summery in a dangly, natural-looking kind of way. They make a wind chime sound when I walk or when the wind plays with them. They’re not too bling, or trying too hard to look like gold when they’re obviously not (trust me, there are plenty like that out there). They’re modest, happy, summery earrings. Accessories, instead of the main event. I like it.

PS. I’m totally in love with these and these. Dilemma.

The weather has been sunny and warm these past two days. I’m shell-shocked, because this is supposed to be England. Sunshine? Surely you jest.

Anyway, it’s great, but it also turns my attic room into an oven. Not the best place to study. So I went to the river this afternoon in a desperate bid to finally get some reading for the dissertation done. Reading about theories of humour is surprisingly unfunny, so I had to make it interesting.

I also got to trial run my new thongs (Aussie-English for flip flops, not underwear!). Primark. Two pounds. Cute. Unbelievably comfortable.

Why is it that I spent all of yesterday trying to find a decently prized yet cute pair of flip flops and the best I could find was an uncomfortable, so-so, £12 pair at Accessorize? I’m not about to spend that kind of money on fake Havaianas when it could buy me the real deal in Australia.