Tall gums pale in mist
Full moon through branches
Dance underneath



(Actually - that photo does absolutely no justice to the stunning scene.. Near the banks of the Latrobe River, at midnight the mist has descended to absolutely surround us - and the tall, pale gum tree trunks disappear into the mist, just beyond the edges of the dancefloor. The full moon is just visible through the mist and the branches overhead.)

Photos from "A Midwinter's Daydream" party, in South Africa:

( more pics from there )

By the way, the point-and-shoot Fuji F20 does seem to live up to its reputation as being a good pub camera. (It also lives up to its reputation of consistently over-exposing just about everything. Set it to -.6 of a stop in exposure compensation, kids.)

eg. This turned out reasonably well:

So, the weekend was good, albeit tiring.
I think I already wrote about Synthetic Culture.. Expensive crap drinks, cheesy music, but good company.
It seems like an awful lot of money to spend, just to drink over carbonated Stella and sit on astroturf with cigerette burns.
Ho hum.

Saturday night was much nicer; We treked out to Walthamstow Marshes, past an "Advanced Water treatment" plant, and finally at the end of the road, came to a park, in the middle of which was the OCB party in full swing.
Quite a large crowd, who were friendly enough, but noticeably different from the sort who frequent the more trancey outdoor doofs. Ran into Kira and co there, who I haven't seen in a very long time. Music was meant to be varied, but ended up seeming like non-stop house and tech-house, which isn't my favourite. Oh well.
Was nice to sit around with friends in a nice location; and thanks to James and Alex for bringing along some nice Pinot Noir :)

Didn't get up to too much on Sunday.. slept away a lot of the day, then finally dropped into the Alwyne that evening with Kate and Michelle for a couple of Frambozenbiers and some food.

I think I'm going to try and have a quiet weekend next week.. although Venetian Snares are playing on friday..

Saturday morning, lusciousa and I went to the Araki exhibition at the Barbican. We arrived way too late to meet latexiron and the others there, but anyway.. I had not realised the depth and breadth of Araki's work, and came away feeling amazed. More so than with the Diane Arbus exhibition, I have a craving to take photos and attempt to create art.
Now that I have more options for unnatural lighting, with the wireless flashgun, I'm hoping I'll have more opportunities to do so during winter.

Carrie & I set the world speed record for consuming Wagamama's food, then I went home to pack, and headed up to Cambridge on the bike. (Which is now starting fine, after the major service.)

This was not without drama though - as an accident occured up the road from me, and then the car involved caught fire, and as the glass and tyres blew out, people in cars were franticly trying to reverse up.. Eventually the police and fire crews arrived.. put it out.. took photos.. eventually moved it aside.. cleaned the road.. took statements.. etc etc.. meanwhile I'm standing by the side of the road in the cold and dark. Meh.
( photo of accident )

Eventually we were allowed to move on, and I arrived in Cambridge quite late; well after 8pm I think?
robinbloke's party was great - You'd never believe he was a penguin in disguise!

Crashed out at feanelwa's place afterwards (where I'd left the bike), had lovely lunch at Indigo in Cambridge on Sunday, then I cruised back to London before the light faded. No drama this time, so the journey didn't take much more than an hour, although it was cold on the road. I need to buy a balaclava. (Balaklava?)

Good weekend. And I'm particularly glad that the bike seems to be back to its good old reliable self, even in near-zero temperatures.

Work party last night. They'd rented a gay club in Brewer St, heh. Free booze all night long. Oh dear.
Many casualties this morning - there's still someone passed out in the corner at work who didn't make it home last night. A lot of empty desks around.
I think I'm just about sober again now, although I've partially lost my voice. Time for a pub lunch.

FFS:
Went into Camden to look in charity stores for stuff for a party in Cambridge that night, and when I got back to my motorbike, some fucker had attempted to steal my helmet (which is locked to the bike). They did a good number on the lock and cable - it took me a few minutes just to get it unlocked myself. So, at least they didn't steal my battered and unattractive helmet. They probably just did it for the hell of it. Some pikey kids on bicycles about 50m up the road were watching intently while I extricated my helmet, and I'm fairly sure they'd be responsible. grr.

Also, my tax disc was stolen off the bike a couple of weeks back. Not too impressed by that either. Must get around to paying to have it replaced.

...The weekend:

Didn't get up to much at all on friday night.. Despite having an early night on Thursday night, for the third time in a row I was knackered on Friday.. Feeling very stressed out, and my body had decided to get sick (nauseous and headachey) in response. Had an early night, felt a lot better on Saturday.

Meanwhile, rest of weekend was alright.. had a nice afternoon in Camden, and a fun little party up in Cambridge. Rode around Cambridge itself quite a lot on the bike (more by accident than design, due to bad navigation, but still.. it's nice around there). Met some new people, and saw some friends too.

Tired now.