Beach

I had every intention of going to the beach last Saturday, but without having written the date down in my diary I had signed up for work the night before I realised when the beach trip was happening. It's a shame really since every experience one way or another had to include egotistical men who have no idea what really happens in the real world and are used to getting their way through complaining enough. 

I wouldn't have minded a day at the beach after all this had happened as a way to unwind but my shift was in the middle of the afternoon and the second last of the day so there was nothing really left to do except for enjoy the burn and sting of a hot shower. Water and cleansing is so therapeutic physically and mentally, I almost wish I could have more than one shower a day sometimes- to clean my hair and prepare myself in the mornings as a remedial way to energise oneself and then finally before going to bed to feel comfy and adjust the correct temperature.

There seemed to be a bounty of straw and floppy hats going for a dollar each at the second hand shop I loitered in front of today but I do like the allure of a smartly structured and brimmed straw boater hat a bit more. I do like the occasional floppy hat usually in felt and if it can be helped with a feather in it since they are the most helpful one protecting oneself from the skin and you can still look feminine and gorgeous while wearing one. Hats can be so subjective sometimes and although I do want to shade my face from the sun... I have some sort of fashionable reputation to uphold you know.

I know that I was the disciple of water and it's soothing nature but I do think that soaking in moss-infested water is taking it a bit far- yes, yes it's all very artistic and probably represents the spread of some disease plaguing some sort of metaphorical cause but I can't really imagine a more traumatising experience then having moss cling to my skin. Water is meant to clean you, not to stain your lovely white dress as you float about in it with a peaceful and mundane expression on your face and act as a magnet for small aquatic vegetation.

When I imagine trips to the beach, I like to envision myself as some beauty wrapped in a shroud of modest sheer white material as well as spectacular and bright sunglasses and a wide brimmed floppy hat. My last trip to the beach encompassed cheap broke moccasins, a t-shirt in bright green, board shorts and a broad rimmed and daggy looking hat borrowed from my mother that made me look more like a childish version of the Grudge. Not exactly how I planned to look but I suppose we all build up impressions of ourselves that can be hard to live up to at times.

I have many a wonderful of memory of swinging on what was affectionately known as 'The Tarzan Rope' at my local pool and I think it has been a bit of a crime that I haven't been there in so long. I had weekly swimming lessons and it was indeed the only sport I was encouraged to participate in as a child, my brother prospered at it but I instead chose basketball instead. That choice has been the greatest mixed blessing of my life.

It hasn't been a great aspiration of mine to go the swimming pool with my boyfriend and cling to him for dear life but I was sort of looking forward to a beach trip with my sweetheart sometime this Summer. Well, with only a few weeks left and Valentine's Day just around the corner I may be able to persuade him to be sea bound but I doubt it. In the grand scheme of things, it's not that vitally important to me but it would be nice to have that ticked off in my mental Summer check-list.

One of the wonders of the beach and shoreline that I don't think I'll completely understand is the amount of caves, small little islands and moats speckled along a shoreline. Of course it completely captivates my imagination and makes me think of scenes from Hayao Miyazaki's Ponyo and Disney's 'The Little Mermaid'. One of my dear friends adores walking around and exploring nooks and crannies as well as climbing so it was fun running around after her last Summer as well on a few school camps. Ah, memories.

In order to think pure thoughts and be in a serene place of peacefulness, I think that pure, white linen clothing such a s a sundress maybe something gorgeous and showy such as this midriff piece worn by model Bambi could be worn to the beach. I rarely take a dip in the ocean and feel liberated by bathing in the water but I think I would be happy with strolling around yellow sand beaches, getting sand in my shoes and feeling the cold ocean spray and wind whip my bare skin. I'd love to have a midriff dress such as this, there must be something viable and close to this design handmade on Etsy...

Having a map/ network of train systems from a foreign land has been a small aspiration of mine but there's not a lot of available wall space in my room and I'm content to spontaneously decorating with magazine cuttings when the mood takes me. Instead I'll just buy some white sundresses and vintage lace pieces instead to satisfy my urge to get in touch with my inner hipster.

Fun in the Sun

The weather these last few days has been bringing me down, but at least I've had some time to spend with my friends and catch up as well as practically clean my room, though there's still not enough space to take my own self-portrait photographs yet. I would have thought that the transition phase from high school to university would have me spending more time at the beach but I guess I was never destined to be one of those cool, popular people who look good and enjoy having glorious tans as well as the side-effects of sun burn later in life.

There are other ways to enjoy water and the sun as well, particularly if you're a fish and water is a necessary part of your life. My mother has told me that the black goldfish pictured, a pop-eyed goldfish has the shortest life span of all goldfish since behind its eyes there are actually tumors. Then again, she also told me she once had a puppy and that was a lie so I can't exactly trust this woman 100%. It's a sad and cold day when your own mother lies to you about puppies and never takes you to the beach.

I haven't been to a water themed amusement park yet but there is a smorgasbord on the Gold Coast of Australia- another place I have yet to visit within my own country. In all fairness, it's a rather large country and my family aren't that keen on travelling around although I have been sent on just about every optional camp you can take at my school so there's something to be proud of there. Summer should be the peak time for these kinds of activities but all week I've been drinking tea, coffee and Milo in an effort to heat my body should my temperature dip uncomfortably.

Without beach towels I can imagine these two girls being a little uncomfortable but I guess it suits the dark and overcast sky hanging behind them on the horizon of the sand dunes. That's one thing I can be thankful for when avoiding the beach; there's no sand clinging between my clothes and in my sheets and I don't need to apply sunscreen when I'm indoors. If I sound like a boring person who just sits on the computer all day, it's because I am a boring person who just sits on the computer all day but at least I have good taste in fashion and photographs. For that one small detail, however unimportant it may be it's still something to take pride in.

Some of the greatest adventures in life revolve around taking risks in things you have little to no control over: from small business owning and managing, trading stock shares or simply sitting in an inner tube and floating down stream when surrounded by trees and wild forest all around. I prefer the later, but if the first two can earn me a bit of money I would be grateful for that too; even without having left home today I can discover hundreds of gorgeous fashion pieces and collections through the Internet and if I leave home I'm at risk of waltzing in to the shopping centre. These days nothing is really safe for a wallet these days, unless it's a money-pinching trip to the library.

If I had a greater interest in oceanographic studies and saw more underwater shots from a camera I may be interested in buying a casing for some of my cameras such as the Lomo LCA+. One of my university choices offered further studies into marine sciences which was my second choice behind following my childhood dreams of becoming a veterinarian. Between becoming a vet and a marine biologist, the first choice is more well-known and would have a higher demand and job security so I shall follow that. But you never know, I find out where I'll be studying next Monday and maybe in the years ahead of me I may find prowess among a unit of study I didn't previously foresee. Things will surely become more interesting as this year marches on.

Amongst or above, water seems to picturesque; or maybe it's just many fond associations of quenching thirst on a a hot Summer's day, bathing and cleaning oneself as well as keeping the liquid cold and delicious. From this bird's eye view shot and the angle we can see the crests and valleys as well as the river bending around and spreading out like veins from the heart pumping blood. I like the subdued colours, sometimes a photograph calls for the sharp contrast of bursts of exposure but the naturalistic pallet goes well with the shapes and subtle fading of the mountains into the sky horizon.

I did have my fun in the sun for about a week with my good pals from school and going down to the beach at Phillip Island and one of the activities we indulged in was going on a cruise using our kitty money and while I did take some good photographs from the boat and of the setting sun, I'm too lazy at the moment to properly upload them and share them on Facebook. The quality diminishes and I'm a bit over my own photo blog, I would rather focus my energies like a laser and make something excel than have a few blogs that are just so-so. I'm sick of being a jack of all trades, I want to be a master of something for once in my life.

Teenage Runaway

There are many means of running away from ones problems, my go-to method is to escape through fantasy by watching Doctor Who, reading books and also writing on this blog. There's also feeding my soul on things I can't buy but at times that one can get a bit overbearing and depressing. I can't really float on my back and close my eyes, although it would be poetic to enjoy a pool all to myself and pretend I'm being carried down an exotic river. There are however two things wrong with that scenario, A. is that I sink like a brick in water and can't float on my back all that well without expending a lot of energy and B. I don't own a private pool and the public pool is always full of noise and disruptions. Therefore meditation would be a pointless endeavour there.

For those of us blessed with coordination, style and natural swag we can skateboard away and travel to far off regions all by the use of a few little wheels attached to a board. How clever are we huh? Instead of a cosy knitted beanie though it may be a good idea if you're just starter out to wear a helmet and invest in a little safety gear though.

While I have never had mysterious and hard-to-decipher dreams in which I fly, I do sometimes look at the sky and imagine what it would be like to break the bounds of gravity and take flight. I imagine it would be very drafty and cold though at times and a lot of hard work if you didn't manage to read the air currents properly. It would be great though to take a holiday in the Winter and search for warmer weather just like migratory birds though, but maybe not too warm since I personally prefer the cold weather. But saying I'm leaving the Australian Summer for Winter somewhere else just seems a bit... odd though. It seems that normal people always love the Summer but I'm more about warm hoodies and drinking hot cups of cocoa. Plus nearly all of my pets died in the Summer so I have a mean and long grudge against it.

Never in all my life did I have the fantasy of running away to the circus although I do love the big lights and the clashing of red and yellow together. There's so much to photograph when a carnival/ show comes to town and in my neck of the woos it's only at one time of year. Maybe I could double my pleasure by going to the Easter show in Sydney this year and then waiting around for the Melbourne show in September when it comes around. These kinds of activities are always boring and lame when you're by yourself and I'm rather pleased to say that last year when I 'ran away' to the show for just one day I had a Diana F+ camera around my neck and a giant teddy bear my boyfriend won for me. It was a purple Care Bear and it's one of my favourite things he's given me.

If I were ever game enough to get a tattoo in a foreign city I would be attracted to this little date stamp shown here. In my opinion the best tattoos are the lest detailed ones and since I am wary of colour falling out just a simple black design would be good. A good place to put it may be the back of my neck put I can see pinning my hair up would therefore become a problem if I needed to keep it a secret.  Another positive attribute of this tattoo is that there's not a lot of needle work and it's a simple design that doesn't need to be filled in with shading or colour.

Nautical Nonsense

I miss being able to walk to the beach- as a celebration for finishing my final examinations of high school my friends and I embarked on the hallowed journey known as 'schoolies' and enjoyed sand and sun. Our house location was a five minute walk from the shops and under ten minutes to the beach where we would lie around on the grass and walk through the tide daily whenever we got sick of watching television or when we wanted to enjoy the good weather while it lasted.

I love hair when it's drawn using the fine lines technique- sometimes it looks more like a wood grain type of effect but the blurring distinction between hair and rain for this particular drawing is simply breathtaking. From the silhouette figure shielding themselves by using an umbrella to the side profile of the girl above everything is done with immaculate detail. I love the shading effect overall and the way the rain clusters in some parts as well as the light and shade bouncing of the hair curls. I think the balance between light and dark and the art of making a drawing come to life and giving it another dimension lies in the art of properly shading to give it life-like properties.

 

Even though technology has moved past the traditional music mediums such as vinyl and cassette tape, they still manage to look cool such as this still of a Disney cassette 'The Little Mermaid'. The soft focus background of pebbles leads me to believe this was taken in England on their shores, I'm very glad I don't live in England whenever I sea photographs of what their beaches look like. There's hardly any sand, it's covered in rocks as far as the eye can see and the sky always gives a depressing and boring impression. Maybe that's why you need to bring your favourite childhood music cassettes with you to brighten the mood. The contrasting red plastic goes well against Ariel's ravishing long hair and iconic green tail.

Unable to find underwater casings for any of my cameras (due to laziness) I would never be able to take a photograph as breath-taking as this. I love the sand and murky water used to make the seahorses body seem brighter by comparison as well as the soft blue of the ocean and hidden sponge beds and coral in the background.

While I am unable to take photographs under the water, this lighthouse taken with what I assume is a plastic camera is very achievable for someone like me. I had a dream last night that I was at the beach and saw something so fantastic and awe-inspiring I felt the need to go back to shore to get my Diana+ Dreamer camera. This dream is what has motivated this post. The wild colours of the sky streaked with cloud cover, the grass and contrast of the red and white bricks of the light house has become even more intense through the plastic lens. Another tell-tale sign of using a toy camera or plastic camera is the vignetting at the corners and darkening around the edges.

Another visit to the aquarium is in order to safely take some photographs of sharks. I mainly focused on taking snaps of over head manta rays but maybe the sharks would look more dramatic, although this little fella above isn't even smiling for the camera. Where are those seven rows of teeth I've heard so much about? Another cool thing about taking pictures of sharks and large aquatic animals is that there is usually a smaller fish or two swimming just under their body in a slip stream effect.

 

I have taken photographs here but none of mine had this gorgeous vintage filter effect washed over them and my timing was at best, very poor. This is a scene from a boat ride at Disneyland and full of cute mechanical elephants. The relatively small ears as well as protruding foreheads indicate these are Asian elephants and maybe my favourite breed, the Sumatran elephant. I talked about the conflict between elephants and farmers for my Indonesian examination and managed to pull of an A. I was a very happy camper when I read my results online.

 

If I had my own pool you can be certain that I would sit around on a pool noodle or other inflatable item and read books for most of the day until it got too cold to deal with. Too bad all the land in my garden slopes at horrible angles and due to all the leafy green trees it would involve a lot of effort to install it. If I had the motivation I would ask to swim at the local pool but right now my esteem isn't fairing it's best and I'd like to wait it out till I lose weight after eating so much for Christmas lunch.

 

I love the combination of this milk maid braid down the front fringe and this vintage looking jumper covered in sweet embroidered nautical emblems. I've seen plenty of cute little anchors down at my local shops and since my pay has come in I may be tempted to get them... unless I get a Mickey Mouse pendant in gold from D_Luxe jewellery first and a Deadly Ponies Mr Fur attachment. Of course I have to be careful to save some money for my term deposit as well as the joint account for Canada with my mother but I think I can allow myself some time to spend some money on fun things after what seems to be a long drought. I'm still waiting for a lot of eBay things for myself and my boyfriend to come through as well.