Jamie's World

2006-07-28T02:33:00.000+01:00

Well I have had a fantastic trip to Australia so far. I have really, really enjoyed catching up with all the family. Everyone seems well, happy and settled- very nice to see. I just came back from a visit to Sydney yesterday where I stayed in my cousin Zoe's new house- very cute, I was (almost) jealous.

Here are a few pictures. I have to admit I have been a bit lazy on the photo taking front....but here are a few anyway to get you started.

All the family.

The newest addition to the family Charlie James (my cousin's son). Charlie's middle name is after me, or so his mother told me!

2006-06-30T11:25:00.000+01:00

Some pictures of one of my most perfect days in England. Warm sun, cool breeze and fifty happy sheep- what more could a boy in his prime want? What a lucky country I live in.

2006-06-28T22:16:00.000+01:00

Wow. What an afternoon. I just finished a protest in aid of stopping the proposed abattoir. Dominic and I were both completely paranoid that no one would show up to a protest he (and a small group of other people) had organised.

We arrived half an hour early and there were already about twenty people on the field getting ready to protest. We were satisfied with that, but we had absolutely no idea what was coming. More and more people kept flooding through the gates until we had (unbelievably) around 300 protesters all up against this monstrous development. There were babies to great grandmothers all on that one field beside the A140 for a common reason- to protect our countryside and protect our childrens' futures.

I was incredibly moved. Moved by the unbelievable sense of community. Everyone standing on that field genuinely cared for this country and more importantly, they genuinely cared about each other. No one was there for themselves protesting, everyone was there for each other.

I am so proud of my baby for organising such an incredible event. Dominic spoke so well today and touched, moved and inspired literally hundreds of people. I was a very proud boyfriend.

Perhaps Suffolk isn't all Tory biggots after all.

x

PS. I was photographer today, so here are some pictures for your viewing pleasure.

2006-06-22T12:05:00.000+01:00

In God's Hands

There are some days when I feel so disillusioned by people, by bureaucracy and by British society I get virtually beside myself. I am reminded of how humans, as a species, are literally the cockroaches of the earth- only cockroaches don't do nearly so much damage.

In case some of you haven't had a chance to listen to the voices of hundreds of Mid-Suffolk residents, there is a good chance that an enormous abattoir and meat processing plant will be passed by Mid Suffolk Council. Apparently there could be an 'over-riding need' for a development in beautiful untouched countryside. This abattoir will end the lives of 150,000 pigs, 25,000 sheep and 13,000 cattle a year- all for human consumption. The development will be 8,400 square metres with an effluent pool around the size of an olympic swimming pool (containing the blood and excrement of these animals which will be slaughtered).

The fact that nearly 200,000 animals will be slaughtered just yards away from a home committed to vegetarianism and sustainable agriculture literally brings me to tears. These 200,000 animals a year equate (in numbers) to the 200,000 deaths during the Bosnian genocide between 1992-1995. I am beside myself that it is likely a mass murder of epic proportions will happen on the site I walk my dog each morning.

And for what overriding need? So little Johny can pig out at McDonalds on beef burgers three times a week, only to die of a heart attack at age 42? I just don't get it. I know many, many vegetarians who live on a vegetarian diet. They are heathy, energetic and, most importantly, live their lives without murder and suffering. There is no need to eat meat, and certainly no overriding need.

So the four hundred odd residents of Yaxley and Eye have written our letters and have made our voices heard. If you haven't had a chance to write, please visit the website www.stopeyeabattoir.com and write a brief email (links on the website and reasons to object- apparently the vegetarian argument isn't relevant). It doesn't matter where you are from, what link you have to Suffolk (if any), whether you are a friend or a family member of mine- your emails can really make a difference now.

The fate of this abattoir is in the hands of us, and God.

2006-05-07T22:20:00.000+01:00

'No wise man ever wished to be younger.' -Jonathan Swift

Well it really has been the most magical, special weekend of my life. Thank you so much to all those people who made turning 21 such an event- I really wasn't expecting to have such a great weekend!

A big 'thank you' to you, Junie, for my lovely photo album and beautiful card! It made me realise how much time and effort you put into my birthday cake each year as I was growing up! To Dominic for my amazingly generous gifts and the lovely hotel we stayed in on Saturday night in Kensington, to Sid and Anne for the wondeful photography gift (so generous), to mum and dad for my flight (thank you so, so, so much- you are the absolute best), to Peter for the great digital camera which is going to get so much use over in China and to Brunswick for the framed photo of himself....he is so vain, like his daddy.

I feel truly blessed to be surrounded by such wonderful friends and family, I felt really moved by everyone's cards, gifts and birthday wishes.

x

2006-05-04T18:49:00.000+01:00

'If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant; if we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome.' -Anne Bradstreet

Well, here I am two days before my 21st birthday. I thought it is probably as good a time as any to update my very neglected blog (over a month since I last edited the poor thing).

So my flight back home to Australia and then on to China has all been booked. I will be in Australia on the 10th of July and will probably go down to Sydney, hang around Brisbane, and go down to Byron/Lismore for a few days too. Those of my Aussie friends, get in touch, I would love to catch up with you! I am so excited about my trip to China now. I feel a little bit like I am running around in circles with the whole language-learning-with-no-practical-experience thing. I am just so ready to get over there and start speaking Chinese!

I am going to Hong Kong first and visiting my old homestay Glenda Tang. She is lovely and georgeous in every way- and I can't wait to see her. She stayed with my family about seven years ago. We have kept in touch (albeit with sporadic emails) and it will just be so nice to see her again. The last time we saw her was when we went to Hong Kong....she was so excited to see us. I am really looking forward to it.

I am then catching the train up through China. Going to a few places along the way. Most excitingly, I have a couple of days in Shanghai where I am planning to visit Susannah (http://susannahinshanghai.blogspot.com). She is an American exchange student who studied at SOAS for the first semester. She has moved onto Shanghai now. It will be wonderful to see her, too.

Then I will get to Beijing. I will be spending the next 9-10 months of my life in this city, so there will be lots to adjust to! I need to find a house to live, find my university, suss out the transport, suss out the food, learn the language (well, properly, at least). It is all going to take a lot of time and probably a few years off my life, but I'm up for the challenge! It is all just so exciting...I can't wait.

It was the first really warm day of the year today (for those of you who MAY misinterpret 'really warm' this = 25 degrees). I ended up heading down to Regents Park with my flatmates Eva and Alex (who moves out on Saturday). We played with a frisby, did some study, had a frappacino each....it was such a lovely relaxing afternoon. I hope the next few months have lots of warm, clear days like today in stall.

Here are some pictures. All courtesy of Eva (my adorable German flatmate).

For those of you who are reading this after my birthday, don't fret, you were with me in spirit...awwhhh

Love to all

Jamie.

2006-03-26T16:30:00.000+01:00

'Communism is the death of the soul. It is the organization of total conformity--in short, of tyranny--and it is committed to making tyranny universal'. -Adlai Stevenson

Budapest is a city like no other I have been to. Some stucco fronted buildings will be newly renovated but will be juxtaposed beside black, but obviously grand buildings, scarred with boarded up windows and graffiti. But underneath the many soot covered buildings is a society clearly desperate to break through; desperate for the whole world to see its beauty and understand its vibrant yet brutal history.

Everything that is wrong with communism can still be seen in the present day Budapest, despite the communist regime ending more than fifteen years ago. Communism not only rips the soul from a living being turning an individual into an unthinking, mindless cell, but destroys the soul of a city too. This city's soul is only now coming back to Budapest. Art, once again, is beginning to proudly hang on the walls of the city's public galleries, and the buildings are gradually being restored. But most importantly, the people seem happy.

As a student to SOAS, I am made familiar with left wing thought on a daily basis. Although I can occassionally understand their perspectives, I can still not understand how anyone can still support a social engineering experiment which killed over 100,000,000 men, women, and children, not to mention the near 30,000,000 of its subjects that died in its often aggressive wars and the rebellions it provoked.

Budapest is a beautiful city, which will only become more beautiful as its communist past becomes a more and more distant memory. I have no doubt we have a lot to see from this country in years to come and very much look forward to visiting it again.

Take care

Jamie.

2006-03-16T08:05:00.000Z

2006-03-15T14:32:00.000Z

'The job of an artist is to always deepen the mystery.' -Francis Bacon

What a fun night last night was...

After a long day at uni, I ended up going for a (few) drinks with Lorna Wadsworth (as in Prince of Wales Drawing school fame). I think we stayed there and chatted for about three hours. You can see a few of her incredible portraits at http://www.commissionaportrait.com/artistsportfolio.asp?id=227

I think she is the next Maggie Hamling...or along those lines.

This is the other hot news in my life
- Poor little Aura (http://auracharlotta.blogspot.com) has injured her arm quite badly. It is one of the worst bruises I have ever seen. She also has been a little upset lately after suddenly come to the realisation that feminism is dead....poor girl.
- Vasillici keeps getting funnier.
- Dave has suddenly developed a bizarre tan.
- Lilly got a weblog (I will post the link when I find out what it is).
And....
- Today I had a homous and carrot sandwich. It was delicious.

x

2006-03-12T20:39:00.000Z

Here are some more PICTURES to enjoy of a visit to Hampstead Heath with some friends (and Brunny). Hope everyone is happy and healthy.

x Jamie.

2006-03-12T14:27:00.000Z

Life in Australia....

Here are some photo's of Dom's trip to Oz. Here you will all be able to see my modest beginnings!

A traditional Australian 'Queenslander' farmhouse.

My Aussie Local (not really, but a pub in my hometown...yeehah!)

A street in my hometown. Looks hot!

Another street in my hometown. How I miss suburbia!

2006-03-12T14:15:00.000Z

'Sometimes, when one person is missing, the whole world seems depopulated'. ~Lamartine

Well that is certainly how I have felt the last five weeks. I have finally seen Dominic again after his trip to Australia. It is so nice to have him back. Above is a photo of him stuffing his little gob with an Australian burger...how cute! Sorry to everyone (in London!) for being such a pain in the ass for the last three weeks. I honestly thought I was going mad by the end of his trip! God only knows how I'm going to make in through my year in Beijing!

I have to admit after looking through all his happy little Australian snaps, part of me did miss Australia. Probably for the first time since I came over to England. Watching his short, grainy video clips of gold coast highrises, beautiful beaches and dried out fields made me wish I was home. It is sad Australia and England are so far apart geographically. I would really love to go back much, much more...but sometimes we have to make a few sacrifices to live the lives we're inspired by.

I will write a bit more over the next week. I have taken some video clips of Brunny, Yaxley, Dominic and (of course) myself. I will put those up on the blog sometime this week.

Take care

Jamie.

2006-02-19T09:57:00.000Z

'A friend may well be reckoned the masterpiece of nature'. -Ralph Waldo Emerson

So here we are at the end of a wonderful three days- and the end of reading week. Aura, Dave, Hanna and Eva (all friends from SOAS) all came up for a few days to Suffolk. I have had an incredible time, and I hope they have too. Brunswick and Nimbin also seemed to have enjoyed themselves.

Aura (a mad Finn) and Hanna (a Finn, but not as obviously mad) came up by bus on the Thursday afternoon, Dave (an exceptional Brit) came up a little later that afternoon. We bascially filled the day with walks with Brunswick, good food and some nice chats.

Eva (my German flatmate) came up on the Saturday. Saturday night was a little mad. We made the odd cocktail, Dave cooked a spectacular supper and we played a game of Taboo with Peter and his friend Harriett. Dave ended up with some (passionate looking) scratch marks down his neck (it wasn't me, I promise) and Aura ending up with a BIT of a hang over the next day. It was a very fun night. I think we also may have solved London's public transport and obesity problems- but I will save that Blog for another time.

Saturday, with everyone feeling a little seedy first thing in the morning, started off with a nice long breakfast. With scrambled eggs, fresh 'Tesco Finest' (lol) bread, veggie bacon and bagels....yum yum. We then set off to Southwold (no mum and dad, I didn't drive, Dave did). Dave, Hanna, Eva and Aura all went swimming up to their ankles and I watched from afar as Hanna's feet began to turn purple in the February waters. Eva also had a quite unsuccessful stint at riding a cannon- but I won't go into that.

I can't help but feel a little depressed today, too. I haven't done nearly as much work as I would have liked and I know the next five weeks will be as demanding as ever. My brain at the moment feels like it is about to burst- with tiny Chinese characters spilling out everywhere. Not to mention this conomics essay I have hanging over me....

Enough about that...

So here I am at the end of a great weekend. Reading to pack my bags and head back into the Big Smoke....

Eva, Dave, Aura and Hanna- thanks for coming up, I had a fab time.

x Jamie.

PS. More images of the weekend to follow!

2006-02-14T09:05:00.000Z

'Nothing says 'I love you' quite like saturated fat and slutty lingerie.'

I am going to surrender to the cliche of chiches- I hate Valentine's Day. I would go as far to say it is probably the most ghastly day of the year, perhaps after St Patrick's Day (I just find all the green to be too much). Perhaps for some people just mentioning the words Valentine's Day reminds them of fluffy bunny rabbits, scented roses and a box of cheap Tesco chocolates, but for me these two words summon up pervasive feelings of exclusion, loneliness and frustration.

Don't get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with being in love. I just don't see why couples need to rub it in people's faces on a day devised by Hallmark and Cadbury's. I have gone through today continuously hearing words like 'honey', 'sweetheart'- I even heard one, rather overweight man, call his, rather overweight girlfriend 'snookum'. Snookum?! I am sure every other day of the year he calls his girlfriend 'fat bitch'. Why do we need to be told when and how to be romantic? It is incredibly frustrating.

It isn't just the sickly sweet names that give the heebies, the presents too, yuck. First off all why are all edible Valentine's Day gifts full of saturated fat, all the wear-able Valentine's gifts make people look like prostitutes dressed in cheap polyester? I just don't understand it. There is nothing romantic about someone trying so hard with cheap gifts on a day when they are told to be romantic.

It is better for breeders, I guess. Valentines day for me, growing up, seemed more like a day to feel sorry for myself. Stuck in Lismore, the Valentine's days I can remember I sat in my bedroom probably listening to Celine Dion wondering if there was another gay boy in the whole of Lismore. Now you all really know what I did in my spare time in Lismore.

Dominic and I have a deal this year. That we should treat Valentine's day like any other day of the year this year. Of course I still woke up to a text message reading Happy Valentine's Day...with about four exclamation marks. Maybe I am being pessimistic- or maybe I just miss him.

Jamie.

2006-02-14T08:30:00.000Z

“We make our own fortunes and we call them fate" -Benjamin Disraeli

OK, so I have been completely detached from nearly all my old Australian and Canadian friends (just so you know it is nothing personal). So I feel everything is far enough behind me for me to tell you all basically my life story for the last few years, at least. It will probably bore you, but I am incredibly vain and will keep on typing away. So get a cuppa, a comfy chair and your reading glasses....

So I will go back a few of years.....
So basically I was with two friends and we went out to dinner to 20,000 cows for a typically amazing meal. I was the driver for the evening and they had finished a bottle of wine between them and so walked up to the car (which was parked opposite the Winsome). They both begged me to come in and said that I needed a break from studying (our HSC was due to start in a week) so after about ten minutes of persuasion I gave up. As we walked in the door my friend Hayley said who is that? He is so attractive (and she wasn't talking about me either).

I said (feeling slightly pathetic) I'll go speak to him for you. So I went up to him and kind of giggled and said 'my friend
really likes you.'

He said I'm not interested in your friend, but can I buy you a drink?' So we spent virtually every day of reading week together which was absolutely amazing. Then- at the end of the week- he had to go back to England. Neither of us were under any disillusion that it was possible we would never see each other again, but we kind of ended on just seeing what happened and what was possible.

So we spoke to each other every day for about three weeks. My HSC exams were coming to an end and Dominic said ?why don't you come over here and see if we can make it work?' I thought well, if worse comes to worse, I can come back in March to start university. So I booked my flight and left three weeks later. It was a huge risk (and in hindsight it was probably the most daring thing I had ever done)...and really unlike me, as you all know.

So we have been together ever since and it works really, really well. So basically I took a year off in between to try and figure out what I wanted to do with my life. I worked in estate agency (boring!) and set up a cake business (long story!). Then I was accepted into The School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) which is the smallest of the University of London Colleges. . When I applied it said the equivalent cut off rate

So, during the week, I live in London in a very un-me area (lets just say there can be one too many piercings about) called Camden in a Georgian townhouse with three (rather mad!) German flatmates. The brilliant thing about SOAS is that because of its reputation in its field, the school is mostly made up of people from, well, everywhere. London is an amazing city, I love it here. It is a nice contrast from Lismore where everyone there was, well, from Lismore...except Thomas Zhou of course.

On the weekends I go up to Yaxley to see Dominic and my dog Brunswick (named after Brunswick Heads!...see the picture to the right. It is always nice to get away from London every so often. It is such a busy city. I appreciate my garden, the space, the trees and the clean air when I go home.

So life is amazing. I couldn't have ever have pictured myself where I am now. It is quite insane. The weird thing is, if I hadn't walked into the Winsome that night, my life would be totally different. I would be studying law at UQ- which really
wasn't my calling. So I guess I have been a bit saved by love.

So this then gives you the context to read virtually everything I write about now. I know it is a little boring, but you couldn't really go on without knowing all that shit.

Take care

Jamie.