The politically incorrect entry

So it has to be said.. a lot of the people here in Oaxaca are really short! And hence for the first time in my life I am TALL!! But really tall.. taller than most of the men even!! I kind of love it... now I can see what all the fuss is about.. I can see over crouds!!

Ok enough of that.. and more about food.. three random points not related to each other...

1. The sweet ball of fluff usually served on a stick.. known as 'fairy floss' in Australia has many different names.. all of which are amusing to me..

Zuckerwatte (Germany)
Cotton candy (USA)
Bomboncita (Mexico)
Candy floss (UK)
Fairy Floss (Australia)

I wouldn't mind being called any of those names as a term of endearment! If you know what fairy floss is called in other places, please let me know..

2. The other morning I arose late from bed having had a couple too many cervesas and not much sleep. I had my bowl of fruit as usual and then recieved my hot second course with tortillas...

I began cutting the meat I had the thought 'Looks a bit different?.. perhaps I don't want to think too much about what this meat is today considering my present, fragile state'. As the thought was passing through my mind my Oaxacan Grandma asked me if I knew what it was - coincidence! - and she proceeded to point at her mouth exclaiming LENGUA!! I fained joy and tried my best to disguise the fact that I didn't eat very much.

The culinary report is that tounge is very tender, has a strong flavor.. and is definitly best eaten with out a hangover!!

3. Street vendors...

I mentioned them before and I'll mention them again.. sooo good! I have now found my favourites. There is one stall that opens each night near the gallery I'm working in. I love empanadas.. They press the tortillas right there, add all the ingerdients - chicken with salsa and fresh cilantro, or flor de calabasa (pumpkin flowers) with Oaxacan cheese are my favourites - and then cook them in the open over a fire.. They are grande, 18 pesos each (approx $1.80) and they have a little television so you can sit and watch the novellas while you wait ! love love love

It's the little differences...

these are a few of my favourite things...

Cool drinks on hot days.. Jamaica is a magenta coloured 'agua fresca' flavoured with flowers! Horchata is cold rice milk with cinnamon and sometimes fruit.. Almost every corner has a little stall on wheels selling agua frescas of all varieties, tacos or dulces..

Monochromatic homes.. It seems to be a trend here to paint your entire home in various shades of one colour. My favourite is a huge 3 story arartment building entirely painted two shades of APPLE GREEN.. it has pink curtains in every window, and an arch right at the top with an old statue of the virgin Mary in it.. I'll have that one please it can be my Mexican Emerald City..

Hombres con burros.. It's true! I see them! They exist.. and they are in the city. Men with big hats, checkered shirts and cowboy boots walking along the street with donkeys loaded up with bales of hay.. Squeal!!

Checkered aprons and plastic shoes.. for every man with donkey there are 20 beautiful old ladies with two long plaits, a colourful checkered apron embroidered with birds and flowers and a little pair of plastic shoes. I'm starting a collection of these aprons.. they are a hybrid of 60's gogo/ shift dress, mexican nana and farmers daughter.. they are one size fits all and there are endless combinations of patterns, embroideries, trims..

Gigantic balloon bunches.. every day in the main square there are a handfull of vendors selling bright, foil, helium balloons and inflatable toys on wheels?! Every day there are huge clusters of these objects and sometimes if you're lucky you can see them walking to work.. big buches of balloons with legs..

A veces en Oaxaca

Lo siento.. I am a bad blogger! But i am having so much fun and am busy busy busy..

It's official, I don't want to leave! And I am beginning the process of making living here a reality.. woot! I have found a small group of people from Oaxaca and beyond and we are working on an Art Music Culture festival.. OAXACA EN VIVO. It is in 1 month so there is a lot to do but it is really exciting..

At the same time I have been meeting with my friend Jeronimo el artista de tatuahes.. He fell off his roof and broke his muñeca (the word for wrist - muñeca - also means doll, it is one of my favourite terms of endearment here.. my Oaxacan Grandma calls me her muñeca, I assume she means doll not wrist?) Anyhoo he can't work for a while and in the mean time I'm going to help him work and he is going to teach me to tattoo! We are making my very own gun.. and I have begun drawing my very own flash.. weee heee

You can look at his work too.. Search for Dr Lakra









A special note to Gemma Jones: there are so many VW beetles here.. more than any other type of car! My favourites are the old rust buckets that have been painted a million times.. Every time I see one scooting around the streets I imagine it is your pumpkin buns behind the wheel. Ah.. happy memories of you, me, your beetle and Melbourne.

Oh I must mention the manualidades.. The hand crafts here - as I am sure you can imagine - are blowing my tiny mind. Every day I walk past street vendors and tiendas selling intricately hand embroidered clothing, jewellery, paintings and more more more.. Everything here is bright, beautiful and just the way I like it with birds, flowers, hearts, skulls and more.. I bought a dress which was meant for niñas with bright embroidered birds, love hearts and ribbons sewn on. My friends have a baby boy and he has the most amasing multicoloured, hand woven rattle!!
Todo es muy bonita!!

And last but not least.. please leave me comments you goons! I would love to know what all my peeps are up to.. and to a lesser degree, if anyone is reading?!

Saludos desde bonita Oaxaca!

Dear oh dear.. I am surely falling deeper and deeper in love with Oaxaca..


Este fin de semana es Dia de los muertos.. y me encanta!!
I spent hours of the last afternoon and night roaming around the bonita cementario. Muchos altars, flowers, people, music.. traditional hot chocolate and pan de muerta (dead bread). This morning I went to lay flowers with my Oaxacan family.. tonight off to another large cementario just out of the city.. and tomorrow a feast con mi familia. Arriba!!

I went out during the week and had my first night with Mezcal.. I don't know if it is my Spanish school or the Mezcal but the entire night I spoke spanish - yes, at the level of an 10 year old, granted, but it's my second week?! I might go so far as to say, think I like spanish better than English?

There is an amasing amount of art and creativity here.. all the houses, shops, streets, cementarios are colourful and embellished. Heaps of galleries and street art..

I was introduced to a local artist who makes tattoos and I guess you can fill in the blanks.. I went to his casa where he has a great studio full of books, art and exotic objects including several sets of falseteeth!! I did a rough drawing and showed him some folk art that I bought here and he drew straight onto my skin - no stencil!.. so once again I am a sore but happy chica!!

Hasta pronto muchachos xxxx

Not gunshots but.. fireworks

When I was in New York I got to visit my friends Shannon and James, who moved to that big ole town a few months ago. They told me that on their first night they were standing outside their new apartment.. admiring the New York skyline.. and looking for what they believed to be fireworks.. (I´m sure you can tell where this is going) The clerk came out and told them they should probably go inside as those recent noises were in fact gunshots. A traditional welcome to NY...

On my first day/ night in Oaxaca I heard what I believed to be gunshots.. they seemed far from me so I wasn´t worried. So continues all through the next night and the next.. and guess what they weren´t gunshots, but FIREWORKS!!

Every night there is one celebration or another.. and from what I can tell every hombre and his perro has a pyrotechnics licence.. I love that I experienced the contrast first-night-loud-noise scenario!! Viva Mexico!!

Hola desde bonita Mexico!!

Here I am! I did not get kidnapped or mugged.. I made it through Mexico City Airport unscathed, got a transfer flight on the smallest plane they could find and found my way to my little home in the city of Oaxaca.. Phew! It was all very exciting and a little scary until I was greeted by my Oaxacan Mama and Grandmama. When I walked into the living room and saw a table full of crocheting I knew that the Mexican gods had taken pity on me!!

My Grandma is the cutest thing I have seen and perhaps my favourite new person so far.. she is 92! holds my hand when she talks to me, refers to me exclusively as bonita, cooks traditional Mexican meals con mucho chili, and the only english she knows is "thankyouverymuch" an Elvis reference!

The city is so beautiful y muy antiqua.. there is arte EVERYWHERE. As Dias del los muertos is in two weeks there are skeletons and altars popping up as far as the eye can see..

I must say hasta pronto as I am popping off to el mercado..

Much much fun and much much more

Well well my time in Grand Old New York is drawing to a close - tear - but Arriba Me-hi-co!! As you might have deducted from the few (well one) NY entries.. I have been a busy little beaver.. Where to begin? Here I go in non chronological order..

Coney Island, it was deserted and creepy and like HEAVEN. With old peely hand painted signs everywhere, covered in icecreams, clowns and ghouls. Honourable mention.. Shoot The Freak.. a game which boasts a 'live target'? And almost as good as Coney Island itself.. on the return train trip a group of school kids got on and began a dance war!! They were displaying some of the most crazy, amazing moves I have seen in some time. Hoorah! Long live subway dance-offs!!

Flea Markets!! Oh dear the flea markets here are excruciating (not quite as excruciating as trying to get a good coffee though). I found my fair share of treasures including a 1920's linen pantaloon - bathing suit, a 1895 copy of Aesop's Fables filled with beautiful illustrations, more 'gald' costume jewelery than I care to mention.. AND vintage, traditional black and white Chanel heels for $30..

Galleries and museums.. there are so many of all shapes and sizes.. Big big Guggenheim lit up by projection art at night, four blocks in Chelsea containing more than a hundred little galleries, I had my Goldy Locks moment with the American Folk Art Museum.. just right. A most beautiful collection of folky, crafty wonders and the Henry Darger illustrations blew my tiny mind.. recluse janitor who spent his life working on a 15145 page illustrated novel called.. The Story of the Vivian Girls, in What is known as the Realms of the Unreal, of the Glandeco-Angelinnian War Storm, Caused by the Child Slave Rebellion.. all of this beauty was discovered locked up in his apartment after he died!



Piano accompanied Karaoke.. so fun! I had a little musical moment with Angel of the Morning.. and some random middle aged man told me that I sounded like Nico and that he would pay me to sing White Rabbit? Bizarro.. I politely declined and headed back to my favourite dive bar to watch the metal heads headbanging to Slayer by the juke box. Double Hoorah!!

Sugar skulls!! As you surely know I am making my pilgrimage to Mexico for Dias del los Muertos, 3 days of folk art filled celebration for loved ones who are in the grave.. Skeletons, flowers and love hearts.. Oh my! And today I had those three elements immortalised in my skin.. in other words I got a friggin mother of a tattoo full of sugar skulls, roses and love hearts. The first few hours have been swell and I'm sure we will be very happy together...

New York! New York!

Well I've been munching on the big apple for about a week now.. as well as munching on huge slices of pizza, cup cakes, brownies, bagels, perogis (delicious polish dumplings), pumpkin pie, borscht, hot dogs.. the list goes on! And luckily to counter balance all of the face stuffing I have also been walking, walking, walking...

For hours every day I have been roaming the streets of Manhattan and Brooklyn.. I found, and sat on, the Huxtable stoop - a small, satisfying accomplishment.. did some high kicks on Broadway & 42nd Street - at the request of my Mama Bette xx.. lounged around Central Park and fell in love with a squirrel.. found vintage 1930's Valentines Day cards.. tried to stalk Donald Trump - well just went up the escalators in Trump Tower as far as I could go.. had too many cups of BAD coffee for one girl.. and finally sniffed out a few little treasures that serve good coffee - with cup cake accompaniment!

... and my FAVOURITE FAVOURITE FAVOURITE discovery of all is the cages in Washington Square.. Heck yes!! Cages full of boys from the hood playing basketball and talking trash.. I heard some one today say 'who's got the voodoo'.. and ' you should play more like you were in a tournament and less like you were in jail'.. the atmosphere is amazing, some of the guys look like they have been going there every day since 1974.. Love it! I'm going to stand at that chicken wire fence as many times as I can before I leave..

Oh also, the neighbourhoods in Brooklyn are amazing.. In Williamsburg - my hood - there are bizarre, kitsch shrines at every turn.. ceramic doves and eagles.. plastic flowers and foliage.. and usually incorporating religious icons or soft toys or both. Today I passed a whole vacant lot filled with a soft toy display - a life-sized gorilla riding a push bike?! Apparently it changes every couple of weeks..

Phew!! Next stop for me.. the deserted Coney Island.. and stay tuned for tales from the land of the Hasidic Jews..

Love to you my precious peeps xxx

UNARIUS - universal articulate interdimensional understanding of science

I drove a big, old, powder blue Mercedes out to the Unarius Academy of Science aka UFO Cult headquarters... I was not quite sure what to expect, had done some prior research and watched some 70's Unarius propaganda films...



This place was more colourful and exciting than Disneyland.. It was like stepping inside a garden of eden themed snow dome and falling into a bucket of stardust.. the interior was covered with plastic flowers, roman columns and models of future citys and other galaxies. I WISH I could post pictures of the murals which incorporated UFOs, flamingos and rainbows..

I'm determined to post some of my pictures soon, it will happen.. I have been snapping lots of old, faded Americana signage.. Gemma Jones you would be in snap happy heaven!

Devo and Disneyland, Tijuana and Thrift Stores

Devo and Disneyland! what more can I say..
ahh Disneyland, the air is thick with sugar and chlorine, dreams and corn dogs.. Joy rapture!

I had a bicycle adventure and rode down to Tijuana.. stopping at thrift stores along the way.. Tijuana is really gorgeous, heaps of bright hand painted signs and Mariachi bands on every corner. First stop we ate taco's and drank horchata - delicious sweet rice milk, then rode around the crazy streets.. We found a little park and drank Mexican beer while the sun set.. then stopped at a local bar and listened to them sing along to old mexican songs from the juke box..

Just a little longer in San Diego then on to New York.. look out

Lone wolves and Cat Power

So I have made my little old way back to San Diego... I'll be bumming around here for a little while before heading over to New York.

In case you're wondering I didn't find myself a lone wolf yet, I have passed some on the street I am definitly in lone wolf territory. As a close second best I saw Cat Power play last night which was quite fantastic...

amore y besos xxx

did you miss me...

Wee hee.. I have just arrived in San Francisco. Mumsy and I drove all the way from San Diego via San Jose, I do know the way to San Jose!



I had so much fun in San Diego I stayed with my friend Harry the Hat in the beach suburb of Southpark. I met some great peeps, we rode around on old push bikes, lounged in Balboa Park, ate mexican all day, climbed down cliffs to swim in the ocean and found some amazing op shops!! Phew..



I keep thinking about all my pretties back home and wishing you were just a tram stop away. I am taking heaps of pictures so you can see the wonders when I return, but some of my special Smellbourne pals should be here in person, there is so much here you would love...

This is the official call out..!!

Before I left there were a few of you who had the inkling to come to the states and I say DO IT NOW! it really is so fun here, much better than in the movies. they even have geodesic domes!! that people live in!!!

Oh also, I am contactable by mobile phone.. I'll send the number out to y'all personally..

xxx besos xxx

in the good ole U S of A

Just a quick one for y'all... I'm here and safe... I have seen some amazingly tacky shop fronts and signs.. Psychic Shops offering palmistry and tarot card readings, all lit up with neon lights.. cosmic GOLD..

I watched a film called Black Sheep on the plane (courtesy of Air New Zealand) it was about genetically engineered sheep that become zombie like. They start to attack and eat people who in turn become sheep-human zombies.. 

Oh I discovered that uploading pictures is a drag, so until I discover a short cut they may be as scarse as hens teeth. sorry...

um hello, this is a bit awkward

You've heard of Oxford Circus, you've heard of Picadilly Circus... well neither of those are real circus' with clowns or lions, and neither is this. This is the blog of a relatively computer illiterate girl who is travelling the world. This is for all my peeps (you know who you are) so you can have a little glimpse - through your computer screen - at my adventures.



So.. welcome one and all.. lower your expectations.. check in now and then.. and you might be suprised with a story or two.... or a picture.. or something else?.. or not



Oh and I'll try to send the blog address out to as many people as I can but if there is some one you know, that I know, who might like to know.. then please also forward them the link too