Too much fun

My loves,

I have been having too much fun to write the blog. It’s like when I was about 20, and I had this gorgeous new boyfriend. We were together about six months. Looking back at my diaries from that time all I’ve recorded are some song lyrics, big scrawls with his name, my name, our names combined, and things like ‘happy happy happy’ and ‘love love love’. Then of course it all went wrong and I got very eloquent all of a sudden with a spray can on the wall of his house… but that’s another story.

I HAVE actually been writing, but it’s that boring academic stuff. I finished a big piece (ON TIME!) yesterday and sent it off so am now sitting up in bed in glorious Hackney getting reacquainted with my online life (facebook doesn’t count, it’s just like breathing). I have a perfect mug of tea made by Richard. This morning I’ve watched an old ‘Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer’ cartoon with Griff, who was covered in pink sparkles from the Lush bubblie that I bought him (Julia didn’t seem too happy about him throwing it in the bath while she was in there… imagine not wanting to be covered in pink glitter! — btw read Julia’s wet-your pants funny blog at http://bigyellowdoor.blogspot.com/). This morning I’ve also been quite distressed with a hideous story Helen told me about someone who came into Emergency last night. It was a case of bariatric surgery gone horribly wrong… one of those bits of information you need to let settle before you can really do anything with it… anyway, the house buddies have now all gone off walking the dog so I’m settled in…

Right, so, we went to Berlin. Vunderbar.

Bit of the old wall.

There are lots of squats in Berlin.

Typical Berlin cafe.

Me and y at the Brandenberg Gate.

While in Berlin I helped my friend y with a performance. It was called ‘Watching Nail Polish Dry’. We performed it at Basso.

I sat for about five minutes, reading, my tools at the ready.

y walked in, sat down, and I began to paint her nails.

I did two coats on each hand.

Because the fake nails were really long, the painting took quite a long time.

y was very patient and sat up nice and straight.

Finally it was done.

Then y sat in this position for about twenty minutes while her nails dried.

The performance was a huge success — y had many compliments afterwards — people found it funny and meditative. Richard had made two huge vegan soups and we shared them with the audience, along with champagne.

Now, all that frippery aside, you have probably noticed the gorgeous cardigan I’m wearing in the photos. Yes it is Christian Lacroix. I got it for 15 euros in a vintage shop in Berlin. The woman running the shop said that y and I were the politest customers she’d had in a long time, and y told her ‘It’s because we’re Australian.’

Other Berlin highlights:

Bondi-style muesli, yay!

This Warhol at the Hamburger Bahnhof — I use this image in one of my Visual Literacy classes, but had totally forgotten how BIG it is!  I got Richard to take this pic of me next to it so I can show my students its scale.

Perhaps the best thing about the four days in Berlin was seeing Philipp Lachenmann’s work. The picture above is a still from his ‘SHU’ video that is just extraordinary. It’s still ‘under construction’ on his website but I REALLY encourage you to check back now and again to see it. SHU stands for Secure Housing Unit — this is a prison — but the piece looks like something from a dark Disneyland. It haunted me for ages and I am actually going to go back to Berlin in a couple of weeks to see it again.

Okay, that’s it for this morning… I’ve also been on little trips to Leeds (for work), and on wee family holidays to Padstow and Wales… will write about them soon…

Love youz all.