Wombles of Wimbledon

Today's random photo from my hard drive:

Some Aussie friends dressed as Wombles at a party. Crazy Aussies. (Wombles of Wimbledon are characters from children's books by Elisabeth Beresford. I had to Google it.)

That's Ben on the left and Toni-lee on the right. I've known Toni-lee for -- wow -- more than 12 years. We met through work in Melbourne, this rather dodgy company called ESA (Educational Systems Australia or some such generic name) that sold encyclopedias and children's books. At the time, we lived together in the funky neighbourhood of St. Kilda with some other young people, but we were "supervised"... she left first, and I left soon after... we still talk about those days and how cult-like the company was! Think brainwashing, think lots and lots of brainwashing! Ah, stories for another day, when I've got more time.

GMail

The more I use GMail, the more I like it. But I should've gone for gailmail@gmail.com, confusing or not. Or maybe even gmail@gmail.com. Can you tell it's Friday?

Cheap Flight to Amsterdam

Air Transat is offering a fare of $599 to Amsterdam ($700.05 inc. taxes) for next Friday, June 11. That's so cheap -- from Vancouver, anyway -- and so tempting. Argh.

Chicken Poxy But Happy

Cheryl took some vids yesterday of the twins, and are they ever active for being poxy! Catch the giggling and wiggling right here:

Giggling and wiggling 1
Giggling and wiggling 2

Even having the chicken pox isn't keeping these babies from smiling. Taken yesterday.

I'm Fascinated by the Weirdest Things

WMV, 1.5mb

Got this from Lina's journal, fromamouth.com, one of my favourite sites. This Swede blows me away with her art and skills -- drawing, photography, textiles, singing, she's so gifted it's enough to make one gag :P. Check her out, and don't let the registration put you off, it's worth every click and keystroke.

Lunchtime Swim

Note to self: at lunchtime when the weather's great, like today, go down to the pool and take a swim... it felt really good. I wasn't even distracted by the conversation going on between the three girls at poolside. They were talking in Russian.

Storyeum Fam Trip

Woo-hoo, I only went to the first Infodesk volunteer meeting for HI (Hostelling Intenational) the other day, and already we have a fam trip! Here's a synopsis:

"Storyeum is a multi-media, multi-sensory, storytelling experience set in a unique underground theatre in Vancouver's historic Gastown. Enjoy the engrossing, spectacular history of British Columbia; compelling dramas, humour and action brought to life by powerful performers, spectacular sets and spellbinding 21st Century entertainment technology."

Pinched straight off the Storyeum site. I don't know much about it, but it looks interesting.

Hundertwasser House

Here's a clickable JPG of the house.

Hundertwasser House, Vienna, built from 1983-86. Thanks to Kristin for bringing this interesting piece of architecture to my attention. You're going to take one look at this and go -- hey, this guy was on crack!

Sunset

The sunset earlier this evening.

Turned the exposure down a bit to bring out the colour intensity.

Scaling New Heights of Geekiness

If there was ever proof of my geekiness, this photo of my hotel room in London would be it. You know you're geeky when you carry more equipment than clothing on a trip.

Some of the equipment I was lugging around Europe: Canon A80 digicam, Canon CP-200 portable photo printer, scads o' photo paper, ink cartridges, iPod, 3 sets of 4xAA rechargeable batteries, battery chargers, USB and RCA cables, various plug adapters, Flashcards (2x256MB + 128, 64, 32, 16), ahhh!!!

I used the photo printer to make my own postcards in France and Spain, and in England I made an album of my best friend's wedding, as it was happening -- insta-album!-- that included photos of the preparations leading up to the Big Day, and photos of all the guests, beside their signatures and well-wishes, and I printed off extra copies of guest photos for them to take home.