Sent Packing

In an ideal world I would have an assistant who would pack my huge, ornate, art-deco trunks; with compartments for everything including silver-handled hairbrushes; on my behalf for my exotic traveling sojourns. Of course not only is this unrealistic but demonstrates that I read too many Agatha Christie novels when I was younger.

In the cold light of day of my assistant-less and ornate-trunk-less existence, I deal with packing for trips moderately well.

- I am not one to have my bags packed weeks in advance, I usually pack the night before I leave.
- I do write a list of what I am going to take to ensure that I don't forget anything and that everything is clean.
- I do have a tendency to want to take too many clothes and have harsh conversations with myself to offload unnecessary garments that I know I am deluding myself that I need, it's amusing to watch me arguing with myself - "no, I don't need three pairs of black pants."... "but, they are COMPLETELY different styles of pants!" - and so on.
- I do roll 90% of my clothes and pack them very tightly and still find this the absolutely best method for packing.
- Where possible; until they brought in the irritating liquid restrictions for carry-on luggage; I always tried to not take anything that would require checking any luggage. I was the master of carry-on and would zip in and out without having to wait for the luggage carousel a happy camper.
- The items that I forget to pack most regularly are pajamas and my tooth brush. The toothbrush because I always brush my teeth just before I leave the house, go into autopilot and put it back in the bathroom... arggh... fortunately toothbrushes are usually readily available.

Packing and even more so un-packing are one of my least favourite parts of traveling, but what can you do, the assistant and the ornate trunks won't become a reality any time soon.

Voice Automation, Does it Cut it?

Pretty much everyone finds automated telephone voices irritating.

At one point I deliberately avoided banking visa payments, as I found the automated 'helper's' voice so irritating it instantly put me into a bad mood.

Today, my interactivity with automated voices went a step further.

I am having my hair cut tomorrow. Low and below an automated voice rang me to confirm my appointment. How weird is it that setting up an automated system is easier than just getting someone to call, or sending me an email?

I just hope when I arrive tomorrow there isn't an automated hairdresser waiting for me, scissors poised.

Oui!...Paris Je T'Aime

After having wanted to for some time, I finally saw this film last night.

It features 18 stories of love, from the city of love, Paris, each set in a different part of of the city. Directed by 18 of the world's most impressive directors including Gus Van Sant, the Cohen Brothers, Wes Craven, etc.

The film has a ridiculously impressive and eclectic cast including Nick Nolte, Juliette Binoche, Steve Buscemi, Fanny Ardant, Elijah Wood, Willem Dafoe, Natalie Portman, Bob Hoskins, Gérard Depardieu and Marianne Faithful.

It has instantaneously become one of my all time favourite films, but that is hardly surprising. I have an incredible soft spot for and I am going to Paris next week; short film is one of my favourite genres; I am an admirer of many of the actors and directors; and most of all at heart I am a hopeless romantic.

Naturally, I preferred some of vignettes to others - the one with the Chinese Hairdresser was so bizarre I didn't like it at all - and so many of them made me a little teary that my house mate couldn't stop laughing at me.

One moment is my ultimate favourite, it's right at the end of the film, with the American woman who speaks French with an atrocious accent. Anyone who has ever traveled to a foreign city/country alone will completely understand what I mean and acknowledge how perfectly the moment was captured.

Oui, oui, oui.... Paris T'Aime!

Roadside Giants

There is something about Australia, Canada and the U.S that has inspired multitudes of communities, across all of these countries, to build 'giant' or 'big' roadside replicas of things to use as tourist attractions. Quite often they are food, which just adds to the oddness really.

I had a friend who was so fascinated by this phenomenon that he wrote his thesis on the very topic.

I personally have no great fondness or aversion to 'giant' roadside mascotts, except one. Anyone who is the slightest bit aware of how much I despise bananas can imagine my horror that a giant one exists, I don't care if it made out of fibre glass... ewwwww.. ick!

List of Australia's 'Big' attractions, click here.
List of Canada's 'Big' attractions, click here..

A horse of course!...

It's one of the oldest visual gags in the book, two people dressed in a horse costume.

It was immortalized in my mind when Mick Molloy and Tony Martin attempted to film inside the Job House material store on Bourke Street. After repeatedly being refused entry they attempted to enter the premises dressed as a horse not dissimilar to the one pictured above.

Such gags never fail to make me laugh but my questions is, has anyone ever worn this costume or been to party where someone else has?

Or is it ultimately a mythical comic-gag horse?

Business Time

The universe conspired yesterday so that within the space of a few hours two completely different friends showed me this clip by New Zealand comedy duo Flight of the Conchords.

You'll never think of business socks the same way again.

Brilliance!

Late Discovery of Calvin & Hobbs

We are all slow off the mark and take longer to discover or appreciate something that others have embraced for ages. Such is the case for me with the cartoon strip Calvin and Hobbs.

I was always a Peanuts fan, primarily because of Snoopy, and knew vaguely of the little boy and the tiger but paid scant attention. To my delight, a good friend lent me a book of Calvin and Hobbs comic strips yesterday and now I am a confirmed devotee.

Bill Watterson's Calvin and Hobbs cartoon strips show the antics of Calvin, an vividly imaginative six-year old boy, and Hobbes and his energetic and sardonic pet/toy tiger who only comes to life for Calvin and appears stuffed to everyone else. They were named after John Calvin, a 16th century French Reformation theologian, and Thomas Hobbes, a 17th century English political philosopher. The strip was syndicated daily from November 18, 1985 to December 31, 1995.

If you have not read Calvin and Hobbs comics I would highly recommend it.