my painting...

Just a quick look at my Devil man's progress as of the last Materials & Ausdruck class...

This is just after applying yellow, ochre and brown in class 17 November 2008


And this is the next day; I went back to do a bit more on the face, and ended up attacking / creating the background, as well as doing his shirt...


Im getting a bit bored with the normality of this painting, so i think his eyes are going to be weird...

Wait and see!!

Skiing!

Thats right team, Sunday and Tuesday afternoon I spent on the slopes of Planai, in Schladming.

On Sunday, there was a lot of snow and thus a lot of bumps and my boots hurt a lot, and it was also very steep!.. BUT! After i loosened my boots, got used to these weird ski's, and stopped trying to impress the others and just have fun (ha ha) then I had a whale of a time!! Hamish, who had just completed a snowboarding lesson with Andi) and I chilled it for the last few runs, going down at our own speed, and eventually managing the whole (supermassive) run with no stops, bails (on his part) or snow plows (on my part!) WOOHOO!!!


Today however, there was the opposite of Sunday! (minus the steepness, that was still there...) The snow was all packed, it had been moved and flattened and smoothed, to the point where it was so icy, eeek!!!

I did a few runs with the others, who are all super good- Rogers the only one on my level, but he's a boy and pushes himself like crazy- so I toddled off in search of trails I wanted to ski... What a great idea!! I had whole runs to myself!! look!!



Oh!! And this is the ONE other skiier on the mountain worse than me!! Although I tie with Roger, because he bailed twice :P


Anyway! It was insane, and it was so lovely up there, it wasnt windy so it was quite warm, and I could trundle along at my own leisurely pace :D

So that was my first and second skiing experience in Austria, and I cant wait for more!! I plan on coming back a pro ;)

met a Kiwi...

Anna, Ky and I have just had coffee with this guy Hayden, from New Zealand!!

He's been living in Finland for the past 5 years, and his girlfriend is working here at FH. He found Anna through her iTunes playlist, thought that sounded like a Kiwi name, and so he messaged her on facebook!!

It was so great to talk to someone who knows where we come from- for example, i was about to explain what Netball was, until I realised he must know the sport!! YAY!!

He's also a photographer, and his stuff is pretty cool, so check it out- haydenlloyd.net :)

SNOW!

It has finally become a winter wonderland here in Salzburg!!!

We arrived home from Schladming last night, to find our little Puch paradise covered in a fairly thick coating of snow!! It is very, very beautiful! The snow is so light and fluffy and, to quote Anna, the flakes kind of float... We threw a few snowballs, just to get into the winter mood, then went to bed to dream of other winter lovelies, like snowmen, skiing and Glühwein :)

And this morning-- MORE SNOW!!! All the grass outside the building, and the volleyball courts, and the trees, all covered, white! So at 11:30 we went outside to frolic about in the snow!! It was so much fun, more snowballs, snow angels, snow fights, rolling Rita down the hill, snow wrestling, and funny photos! Its so so so great :D

I love Austria....

The Black Seeds, Live in München

WAHHHHH!!!!

Im not sure whether I mentioned this in earlier blogs, but about 6 weeks ago we found out The Black Seeds were doing a European tour!! Super excited, the Kiwi three in patriotic fashion decided to mission it up towards Munich to see our compatriots in concert.

AND BOY!! Was the journey worth it!!

It began like any other casual trip to Munich on a Thursday evening, with Robert dropping us at the Hauptbahnhof just in time to miss the 5:15pm train. We dined in Burger King, where I happened to mention how our night would probably end up full circle back in some fast food joint in some amount of hours...

We were very excited on the train, and to get in more of a party-atmosphere mood, cracked open our drinks that we had brought... Just as we took our first sips, a guy walked past, and, to my suprise, pressed this button to open the doors- They were electronic!! (This is after we had struggled to open four of them). So he stopped, smiled, then sat with us for the trip :) His name is Dimitri, he's from Munich, originally from Moscow, lives in Salzburg, studies Psychology, and the reason I know all this is because I like to talk to strangers :P


Upon arrival, we had befriended Dimitri enough to follow him to the Localbahn, where we happened to be going the same way. So we hopped on the train, then parted company some stops on, and went on our merry tipsy way to find Blumenstrasse...

After crossing dangerous roads and risking our lives (in a way...) we found 28b, and were so elated we ran inside, not realising how deserted this place was... After half a minute, the shortest, fattest, ugliest man this side of the Nile waddled up to us, yelling in German... Whatever Trevor!! We tried to talk to him and ask him for directions, but apparently, he was not only short and fat, but also deaf and ignorant!

We wandered on down the street, and asked some young, hip and all-round culturally-understanding guy where this place- Die Registratur- was. He pointed at the red lights almost directly across the road, AND WE WERE THERE!!!!!


AHHHH!!!! THE EXCITEMENT!!!!!! This club was so cool, the walls were covered in posters and it had this cool attitude about it, its quite hard to explain without hand gestures... Even the bathroom was funky, with big mirrors and really dark and punky (minus that weird punk smell)

The club was also great, it played Reggae music and the drinks were cheap, so we settled at the front of the stage, got chatting to some Kiwi's from Wellington (no Aucklanders there, suprisingly...) and occasionally remembered why we were here, and got all giggly and nervous!


AND THEN THE BLACK SEEDS JUST WALKED IN!!!! Through the crowd, and jumped up less than two metres away, onto the stage! If I reached out, I could have pulled down Barnaby's pants! (Not that I would, Kylea had firmly claimed him as her own...) Here is my proof!




So!!!! See what I mean!! They played such a great set, and they are SO super talented, with the percussion and the trumpets and saxaphones and the guitars and piano and drums AND singing great songs! :D :D :D

Their set was a great mix of their new album- Solid Ground- and then their old stuff. My favourites were all the ones from On The Sun, which completely reminds me of 6th form and summer and ahhhh, all good times :) I remember Tess and I used to cruise around to it all the time.

We had such a great time, I cant believe we actually made it there!! It was so surreal and we had such a good time grooving and singing and AHHHHH!!!! So here are more photos just to truly express how awesome they are, heh heh






ANYWAY!!!

This is not where the fun ends!! After the show was over, we busted a move to the toilet- Ich möchte zum Badezimmer gehen- and as we came out, we ran into Tim (the bassist- I think..) and then Nigel (the pianist) and had really good chats with them!! They were SO super Kiwi, "lyyke, yeuhh, we're frum Wellungtun, yeuh nah good toour so faur, yeuhh, nahh uts choice ayy" He he he :) We also did a "Kia ora" nod to Barnaby and a few others, which was ka pai!! Unfortunately, we were too happy, tipsy and excited to even think of taking photos, but oh well, we were also going for the cool, casual conversation look, not star-struck stalkers...

So, unfortunatley, all good things have to come to an end, as did this night. So we toddled off down the road to find somewhere to spend the other 5 hours we had in Munich until the first train home...

We met up with Dimitri and his friend who's name I've forgotten, and we drove around Munich to survey the party life at 2am on a Friday... Complete flop :P But we had a good time with our new friends in their Merc with good music, so we went to this bar called.... nope, forgotten... Anyway! There we had dinner (yes, at 2am...) and it was SO GOOD!!!!! I had steak, and I was happy, because we all know how much ich liebe Steak :P


After we parted company with Dimitri for the second time that night, it was only 3:30am, but Kylea and Anna were fading fast. A brief wander through the München Hauptbahnhof revealed to us that nothing was open at this hour, and so we plonked ourselves in the busy waiting room and attempted sleep. I ended up sleeping on the floor for about 20 minutes, until I got too cold, and woke to the sounds of what I thought was Kylea snoring like an old man! Turns out, it was the old man behind her...

At about 5ish, we went in search for the train, to maybe sleep on and not have to worry about missing it. It wasnt there, but!! Burger King was open!!! So ordered fries so we could legally sit there, and nibbled on them, when it occured to me that-- We'd done a full circle!! Bahahaha...

Once on the train, we all zonked out pretty quickly, as it was now after 6am and we were living into our hangovers... Dammit, thats not fun. Unfortunately, in the excitement of last night, we'd bought the wrong ticket home- it was one for between 9am and 3am (why you'd have different tickets for day and night, i dont understand) and the guy got all grumpy at me, and then just before we got to Salzburg, he took down my details!! So fingers crossed and hoping like hell that I dont get a fine, cos it wasnt out fault...

We arrived back at Urstein at 8:30 in the morning. Wandering back past the Fachhochschule, we saw Oriol, Javi and Lidia sitting in an early morning class. With a quick wave and a laugh, we toddled off to bed, to remember our amazing night in Munich...


-- ends --

Dad's Cooking... Part II

Sorry about Part I, I dont know what I was thinking! he he he...

SO! Last night, Dad cooked the most amaaaaaaaaazing dinner! Its one of his specialties, which in turn is one of my favourites- Lemon Chicken Pasta :D

He started the preparations at 3pm, when I toddled off to my three hour painting class with Anna. As I came back down the hall at 6pm, I got this wafting smell of amazing .... bolognese sauce?!?!! YUSSSSSS!!!!!

As I walked inside, I see pasta (good sign, but not spaghetti for the bolognese) and something that looks weird sitting in my fruit bowl... Then, Dad announces that he'd like to cook for all my friends!! I was thinking, great idea Daddy, however do you realise how many that is?? somewhere in the 45-50 person bracket... If not more :P So I skyped my adopted family and told them to cancel on BYO dinner, and bring a plate and fork :)

Roger drove Dad over to Spar to buy more pasta and chicken to feed the whole tribe, and I tidied up like a good little Hausfrau :)

Dad did an AMAAAAAAAZING job with the pasta, and he cooked it in the new Wok (which may or may not ever get used again!) and it was almost overflowing with the amount of food in it! (Refer to pic) ... And it smelt soooooo good!! We all enjoyed a glass of fantastic red wine too, which made it all even better... And the rest I can explain in pictures :)








The aftermath...

So, THANK YOU PAPPY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I LOVE YOU!!!!! THANK YOU FOR FEEDING MY FRIENDS!!!!!! THEY LOVED IT!!!!!!!

Dad's Cooking...

My name is Marcin

DADS IN SALZBURG!!!!!!!

YAAAAY!!!!!!!!!! DADS HERE!!!!!!!

Roger and I went this morning to pick him up-- had a few dilemmas (we left late, and missed the Flughafen/Airport turnoff, raced to get there by 9:20 and realised as we ran inside that the flight arrived at 9:40....)

So, he arrived safe and sound, and I could see him through the glass which was so cool, we did the whole silent-excitement hand gestures :P

After the meet and hug and introduction, we loaded the bags into the car and made our first move to Germany, to the amazing cheap supermarket. There, we had some bread roll thing with this sausage patty, which was suprisingly nice... We did the shopping, came back into Austria (haha), drove to Urstein, I loaded up my cupboards & fridge and Dad fell asleep on my bed. He looked exhausted, poor Pappy :(




He woke up at about 3pm, and we ran to catch the train to Europark. He had inspected all my crockery, and was dissatisfied with my one pan and one pot :P We went to Ikea and found a €5 Wok, and a "good" knife (still dont know what was wrong with my ones!) and two good bowls, yay!! Then we wandered round Europark, which is essentially a better-designed Westfield :P

We went into Interspar to get some herbs, and happened to stumble across the alcohol section... Where Dad proceeded to get me 4 bottles of delicious red wine, + 3 bottles of spirits- Jagermeister, Vanilla Vodka & Baileys!!! Dad asked what Roger was doing for dinner, because as we were locating the hotel, we drove past "Poseidon" restaurant, and Food-loving Roger went on about how much he liked Greek food... So I gave him a ring, and he came and picked us up and we went out to dinner.

It was so lovely in there, aside from the smokers... The whole place was beautiful and I was in great company! We ordered three entree's, with lots of little Greek bits and pieces, and very nice beer :) We also ordered another Gyros (Rogers fave) to share for a main, and, believe it or not, Roger's monster appetite was full! After dinner, we were going to have a wander around the Old Town, but I could see Dad was tired, and my headache was still lingering. So we all went to our respective homes, ready for tomorrow :)




At 8:25am, I woke up. DAMMIT!! I was supposed to be on the 8:22 train!! My phone had fallen off the table and the battery had fallen out... So, I got ready and made it onto the 9:22 train, then bused from the HBF to Reichenhaler Strasse, just through the tunnel from the Old Town! By the time I got there and hung about with Dad for a bit, it was 11:45, so instead of having breakfast, we did a bit of a tour around the Old Town, so Dad could get a feel for this beautiful city that I live in :)




Also, I had my NEW CAMERA!! The best Christmas present ever-- Nikon D60 Gold :D So I was shooting left right and centre, everything I saw :) It wasnt the best day, Saturday was super and we were lucky with the weather. Today is cloudy, and even though sometimes the sun comes out, as soon as you say it, its gone again... But thats ok, because we still had a great day, wandering out and about. I think we managed to walk most of the streets in the Old Town at least once! We went to Spaghetti & Co. for a yummy Italian lunch of Crema de Pomodore soup, Passionara Pizza and some amazing wine :)





We went up to the Museum de Modern Mönchsberg, the one on top of the hill. The exhibitions in the MdM were amazing, i LOVED "Two Mountains" by Balthasar Burkhard & Naoya Hatakeyama. Hatakeyama's photos were FANTASTIC! He shot the Bern Alps in Switzerland, and they are amazing. My favourite was this big white, seemingly empty photograph, then you see five little figures tramping in the snow!! So cool...

The other great thing about Mönchsberg was the view! You can see the clear difference between new Salzburg and the Old Town, its so great. We arrived at the museum about 4pm, and at 6pm we went for a coffee in the restaurant, and all the lights of Salzburg were on, and OH! It was so beautiful! Im really glad Dad got to see Salzburg bei nacht :)



After we came down from the Museum, we went back to Dads hotel where he gave me a very intense back massage, to fix me. I was in agony, but, at the end i was so happy and my headache was gone! He is amazing, and I promise I will never complain about your massages again Dad! :P

We went to Indigo for a light dinner, I was exhausted so I caught the bus then train back to Puch and got stuck into the presentation for Design Compilation that was due today... And it went well, then I had Materials & Ausdruck which also went well :D

Here are a few more pictures from the weekend to round off the blog :)










I love you Daddy! Thanks for coming, you're the best, all my love :)
xoxoxox