Salvador Dali - man of science

Last week I was fortunate to explore the artistic side of Melbourne. Every winter, the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) would bring in a spectacular exhibition of world renowned artists called the Melbourne Winter Masterpieces. The Winter Masterpieces must have been really successful as NGV has been able to attract art fanatics and art enthusiasts to the count of 1 million visitors each time. This year featuring NGV's sixth exhibition is 200 works of Salvador Dali called Salvador Dali: Liquid Desire.

I am not an art fanatic, but I find myself interested in famous people's biographies, what drives them to create such creative work in any kind of field. Dali is a surrealist which doesnt mean anything to me before I came across Dali's work. Even after marveling at Dali's work at the NGV, I still find it hard to define surrealism. Perhaps I can only say surrealism is about surprising and shocking the people that view their work. Probably the art is a manifestation of the artist's thoughts and dreams. I know how weird my dreams can be.

I admire Dali because he was a man of many talents, he understands how to work his popularity. His art spans across many mediums - on canvas, photography, sculptures, mechanics, tv, jewellery. As he lived into his old age and being a voracious reader, he was on the forefront of new thinking and new sciences. He used what he reads in his work so his work shows influence from Freud's theories, genetics, history, geometry, mathematics, nuclear-physics, optical science and later in life, religion - boy, you will see this guy's thinking was so warped to produce such work, perhaps that's why he is such a genius. He is a marketing genius too, a master of self-promotion, way before Andy Warhol. His work became commercial when he started producing work like Air India's ashtray (elephant, swan, emerald snake ashtray), stage set for ballets, Destino with Disney Productions and appeared in Times Magazine.

Here I have attached one of his finest work in jewellery, the Royal Heart which was sculptured using gold, diamonds and rubies, believed to be inspired by Queen Elizabeth II's coronation. He placed a mechanical device to make the heart beat. Unfortunately they didnt bring in the real thing at the exhibition, I managed to view the video but his other jewellery pieces were exquisite, all encased in a red velvet room in NGV. If you look closely at the video, the rubies seemed to take a life of its own.



There were many pieces of his work that captured me but here are a few of them that I really like.

Another piece of Dali's jewellery - The Eye & time.


He was fascinated with ants, the women's had ants running on her forehead. The first sculpture had a real fresh baguette but the dog snatched it immediately so they had to replace with a fake one.


This era was when he was interested in physics and how things are made of molecules.


His photographs were most interesting from my perspective. In this photo, he really got his assistants to throw the cats, water while he jumped up in the air. He had to take about 70 takes to get this right. Before the time of CG!!


One of his more famous work - The Persistence Memory. He was crazy about melting watches or time.


This was one of his last masterpieces, when he was into religion. The Pope had called for a ecumenical council.

Earth tremor in Melbourne?

I was lying in bed when I felt the vibration just around my pillow. It felt like one of those old mobile phone on its vibrating mode. I was drowsy from my headache, I didnt pay too much attention. But it got stronger and suddenly, I kid you not, the bed started to move. And we have a King bed with a huge headboard, it still shook. Within seconds I heard the roof tiles above me started shaking - the furniture and the roof seemed to be moving in a separate directions albeit small back and forth movements.

The first thing that came to my mind was earthquake, NO!!! we are not in the seismic zone. Is it a hail storm as it had been raining intermittently for the first time since last year in the past 2 days. I called out to my husband who was watching TV in the living area. He too felt it. But Koe, our miniature schnauzer was comfortably lying on the couch like nothing had happened - typical lazy mutt.

We found out later on the news it was an earth tremor measuring 4.7 on the richter scale. The epicentre was about 90kms away from Melbourne in the south, which is about 60km away from us in the place called Korumburra. After the news report, we look at each other and said "How cool!!" to have felt this experience.

I couldnt help laughing afterwards when I remembered he thought it could be the pressure in the water pipes underneath the house.

Remembering Marysville

"It is important, it is very important that the nation grieves," Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said.

The whole nation is coming to grasp the devastation and horrors brought about on last Black Saturday. It is the worst bushfire that Australia has seen. Being part of the Australian community, it does feel like it happened to one of my friends. Like everyone, I grieve.

Every morning I have to prepare myself for sad stories or photos that might come up on my phone as I surf for daily news on the train. Because if I am not prepared, I would be caught sobbing like a fool in front of strangers, reacting to the stories I read on my phone which is exactly what happened to me on Monday.

A national day of mourning and a memorial service will honor the victims of the past week's wildfires in Victoria. I will leave this post with photos of Marysville, the village that gives us so much to explore, fun, joy and remember.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=78647&id=647871442&l=53dd7

I feel sorry for you Roger

Whoever who watched yesterday's match between Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer would agree its a match of a lifetime. For all those who paid more than $300 a seat got their's money worth. Most people thought Roger would be the top tennis player that ever lived and Roger would not let go of beating Pete Sampras 14 Grand Slam titles. But now, people are starting to wonder perhaps Rafa might be THE ONE.
Rafa really showed his mettle yesterday, especially after playing the longest match of 5 hours 14 minutes in the history of Australian Open just 2 days ago against Fernando Verdasco. He proved to everyone that it wasnt a fluke he earned his world ranking no 1.

The two men battled like gladiators for 5 games with each of them taking 1 set in turn. They went head to head at every point and in some cases to earn one breaking point, they battled through 5 or more deuces. It was tension at every shot. Finally Roger weakened his game in the last game with double faults and missing shots. Maybe he was already beaten inside, reliving the fears of his last battle at the French Open and gave way to Rafa.

What was heart wrenching is Roger coming to the mike and sobbed uncontrollably. He only managed to mutter the words "God, it's killing me." I swear anyone's heart could have gone to him at that moment. He continued to cry until he was pulled away to settle down. As gracious as he is and as gentleman as he is, he pulled himself together and went to the mike again to congratulate Rafa and thanked sponsors, the tennis legends, fans, crowds and vowed that he will be back. "I don't want to have the last word; this guy deserves it," Federer said. "So, Rafa, congratulations. You played incredible. You deserve it, man."

At 22, Rafa has 6 Grand Slam titles under his belt, while Roger has only 1 at the same age. Are we witnessing the next tennis legend after Sampras? probably yes.

There are two sports which I have grown to love and feel passionate about in the recent years. Tennis and cycling - it was athletes like Rafa, Roger and Lance Armstrong that makes these sports so entertaining.

The Roger and Andy Show

Yeap and I am watching it live. How lucky am I!!
I bought tonight's tickets for Alex's birthday and thought ok, I wont be able to get him the men finals or the women finals but I can still get him the women semi finals.

But God is our side, we are going to be treated with one of the best matches. It's between 2 friends - Roger Federer and Andy Roddick.

Andy is known to have the best ace serves and Fed Express is super human. Fed can spin and curve the ball to go against the normal trajectory of the ball as it lands in the opponent's court.

Hopefully by the end of his career, he will have broken Martina Navratilova's record of being the world record with the most career titles - 177 (all time record for men or women).

We are very fortunate to be living in this century to witness great sportsmen and women like Fed and Tiger Woods.

Serving an ace

We got ourselves tickets to the Hisense Arena Day Session for the 3rd round in the Australian Open Grand Slam. With these tickets, we can watch the ground courts matches too - where there is no seat numbers so it's difficult to even get in for popular matches like the William sisters doubles match.

Anyways, we watched, at least Alex did (I went out for a snooze when the ladies are playing the 2nd match), 3 matches for the day session.

Juan Martin Del Potro (ARG) x Gilles Muller (LUX)
Alize Cornet (FRA) x Daniela Hantuchova (SVK)
Andy Roddick (USA) x Fabrice Santoro (FRA)

One thing I learnt is I have to watch a match played by people I know and care about. For example last year, I could only remember Nadal's match and for last Friday, the last match was the one that stayed on my mind.

Being there makes me want to find out a little more about the players. Fabrice Santoro is as old as me, been in the scene for more than 17 years. He's probably one of the few players who's a bit stauky, not lanky like most male players but he just doesnt give up fighting even though Andy Roddick was way too good for him.

Andy Roddick improved his game so well this Grand Slam and his serves are spectacular to watch. It's like watching a performance and keeps me on the edge of my seat. 22 aces - I kept looking at the IBM speed meter and the fastest serve was 217km/h - it was speed lightning across the opponent's court. Fabrice did not even know it's coming half of the time. I got on my binoculars to study what they were wearing -from their shoes, to the headband. That's the only way to keep me interested and awake.

Australian Open 2009

Time to get over my homesick blues. What better to do that by watching the world tennis players fight it out on the court for A$2 million.
This year we are going back for 2 sessions. Day 5 round 3 matches and the semi finals men single next thursday evening matches. I won't be as lucky as last year though when I was able to watch Rafael Nadal played live. I bought a humungous tennis ball that never got signed. Sigh. Now its an eye sore, totally out of place.
Will report more later...

Happy New Year Everyone

What a busy NYE, almost did a full day's work. Rushed over to sister's BBQ and whilst my sister washed and changed the kids, I took my last nap of 2008. Boy, was I tired. Have been cycling everyday to keep the momentum so I would keep my resolution for 2009, exercise at least 4x a week and walk the dog.

Anyways, after a short nap, we all rushed in 4 cars convoy to the city. My brother-in-law spotted a open grassland across the waterfront city where the fireworks would be launching. We were there about 7-ish to make sure we secure a good viewing point and we laid our picnic mats on top of grass hill and waited. We took a short walk around the quay, everyone there was dressy, most of them in white following the theme of nautical white. It was cold unlike last NYE when it was more than 40C in Geelong.

The fireworks launched on time at 9.15pm. We were there for the 9.15pm so the kids could leave home to sleep. It was a real spectacle, it was certainly worth the wait, it went on for more than 15mins with a small pause. We went home and ate again coz we were hungry, in our own cozy home, we toast our champagne and watched the 12am fireworks on TV marking the beginning of another eventful year.

This year will be another milestone for us, hopefully our permanent visa will be approved shortly so we can start building our dream home. If God willing, next year this time, we will be able to invite relatives and friends over to enjoy our sweet home. Ooo...exciting times.

Naturally Horsey

I wanted to surprise my sweetheart with something different for his birthday, I took him out for horseback riding. I wanted to bring back the wonderful memories we had when we went riding at Yellowstone Park on my birthday to a cookout.

Riding tours are really popular in Australia. The horses can take you out through vineyards, forest or trail rides or rides on the beach. We went to Spring Creek Farm for our horseback winery tour. Our horses are well behaved and beautiful. The whole experience was unforgettable. It was a true escape into the solitude and tranquility of the Mornington Peninsula valleys. What spectacular scenery!

Address:
356 Shands Road
Main Ridge, Victoria
Australia 3928
Phone: +61 3 5989 6119

The best Black Forest Cake in Melbourne

For Alex's birthday, we followed a friend's recommendation and drove to Oakleigh to find Nikos Quality Cakes. Nikos is on Portman Street, close to Oakleigh Railway Station. We walked in through a chic restaurant and when we stepped down into the cakes section of the shop, my mouth was watering. Beautiful cakes were displayed everywhere, on the window there were cookies and all sorts of sweet bakeries. The entire place was very chic, modern and inviting.

We are aiming for the Black Forest Cake or Black Forest Gateau. The lady had it wrapped in a dome shaped box shaped from large petals like cardboard, it looks divine.

Right in the middle of the cake were generous curly chocolate shavings with icing on them. There were so many layers on the cake, the sponge part was so soft and the cream so light, the cherries were not the usual sickly sweet. It was slightly wet at the base, possibly because of kirsch.

It's a definite must try.

Oakleigh Quality Cakes
25-27 Portman Street,
Oakleigh VIC 3166

$1.09 per litre gas - Drive Drive Drive

The price of gas has come down so much, it would be such a shame not to take long weekend drives. So my hubby picked a 48km loop in the Yarra Ranges National Park where he could rough it out on his 4WD with his two favourite girls (me and Koe, our miniature schnauzer). The loop was Lady Talbot Drive situated 1.5hrs away from Melbourne. It was forecasted to rain and it did continuously for more than 36hours! But that didn't deter us, in fact I love the rain, the colours in the rainforest look so much more vibrant and we could have the forest all to ourselves. Well, maybe except for the leeches and they were on our boots, on Alex's neck, on our pants when we finished the walk.


Next to the river, there was a large tree and it was hollow right in the middle of the trunk. Looks like a really neat hideout or a home for gnomes!!
We picked the easy walk.
The path was slippery with the rain making the walk interesting. On the way there...


We finally got there in about half hour.

The entire forest was in a mist, the temperature was only 11degrees Celsius. It was like a magical kingdom.

Harvest of a summer

We are into our explorer mood again. We went to South Melbourne market on Saturday morning. Definitely one of my favourite places in Melbourne. Everything about it breathes charm, perhaps being there for more than 140 years and going strong has something to do with it. There is just so many different stalls to keep one interested - the produce are so fresh and different from the typical Victoria market or Springvale market, Delis after Delis with all kinds of sausages, cured meat, cheeses, pickles, cakes shops, organic shops, flowers, clothing, candles, personal toiletories, pet, cookwares shops. Most notable is Best Bargain South Melbourne Shop which sells all the shampoo, conditioner and personal care brands under the rainbow at really good prices. It has better range than regular Coles or Safeway, maybe that's why the goods are stocked up all the way to the roof. South Melbourne market is definitely a feast for the eyes, it is somewhere I would like to go back often to get really fresh produce or gifts for family/ friends and still not worried about crowds.

Last weekend was also the first time I went on my bike alone to join the weekend cyclists on Beach Road, I got into my SKIN tights and new adidas 360 climate long sleeve and pedaled away. The feeling was freedom even though my thighs & calfs were burning climbing the slopes but the scenery of the coastline on one side, beautiful homes or interesting shops on the other side makes it all worth it.

Just when I thought it wouldnt get any better, we visited my sister and ended having a pow-wow BBQ. We had squids, fresh mussels, silver bream fish, honey chicken wings and finished it off with walnut & carrot cake to celebrate my brother-in-law's birthday.

Now that's what I called a harvest.

Rare Superb Lyrebird captured my curiosity

Is it a peacock on the road? my husband asked when we saw a rare sight in front of our car as we were driving down from Mt Donna Buang on the Yarra Ranges. "Yes yes I think, but wait. I've seen this somewhere." Scrambling for the printouts on Yarra Ranges National Park and trying to pick up my camera at the same time. Before I could snap, it ran into the bushes carrying its long beautiful curly feathery tail. Wow, we saw a Superb Lyrebird which is unique to Australia and it's a stunning beauty. LyreB stayed on my mind, I feel even more blessed than blessed, caught in a rapture to be able to come into the presence of LyreB.

The more I learned about LyreB, the more I understand how special our experience had been. This bird immitates natural and artificial sounds in their surroundings, natural sounds such as other birds, human noises or other animals and artificial sounds such as machinery (chainsaw?) & musical instruments. LyreB is an ancient Australian animal, having been in the wet forests of NSW & Victoria for more than 15million years. Is this a sign of Australia opening up to us? welcoming us to their ancient land? I hope so, we have been waiting for our permanent residency visa for more than 15 months now.

LyreB would only lay one egg and takes care of one chick at a time. Even ostriches, the largest bird would lay 15 to 60 eggs at a time. Oh yes! we are coming back here for the christmas weekend...

Traveling the world in my own backyard

This is my favourite way of spending the weekend. We drove to Warburton, a town about 76kms from Melbourne in the Shire of Yarra Ranges. This is our second week there, we were there last week with Koe, our fur kid. We tracked up La La Falls (La La means welcome welcome in aboriginal).

I loved it so much, it's so romantic, lush, the trees, the valley, hills, river, shops ..so inviting. We went back today again. Just being in the forest and surrounding hills makes me feel nourished, my soul fed and ahhhhh...

Today was extra special because of a few people we met on the way.

Danny the wood artist at Powelltown - he does carving and etching of snakes, dragons, eagles, chain saw on wood. Danny had long grey hair tied up in a ponytail, wore a flannel shirt with jeans, reminds me of some people I met in US. We bought a large piece of wood with coat hangers made out from steel bullhead rails taken from the old train tracks nearby (probably Belgrave - oh no...from Puffing Billy?). They dont make things like that anymore. This will be an antique one day. Ours had Ayers Rock inspired on it.

Then we met a Finnish woman at the shop in Warburton selling beautiful wood crafted home knick knacks. We shared so many stories about our families, how she came to Australia, how her husband proposed, how the other people view her in town and her interests. We also found out that her husband is running for local council. Hmmm...might be worthwhile to think about retiring in Warburton - they make really good bruschetta.

But the most interesting of all must be the Polish Jester, Kristof Kaczmarek. We ate at the Polish restaurant named Polish Jester. The owner treated us like his closest friends, he even shared his SPECK - hardened pork fat. His idea of staying healthy is revolutionary, he thinks fat is the way to go especially the saturated fat. He had facts to prove it - look at the top 3 countries with lowest mortality rates - Japanese, Greeks, Swedish - all with high cholesterol in their diet. He's also an actor and director for Russian plays. His restaurant has a rustic setting, with very thick and heavy handmade wooden tables & stools taking us back to the medieval european times. We joked about Polish sausages, had Polish saurkeraut, dumplings, hunter stew while sipping balsam vodka and drinking Okocim, a typical brand of traditional polish beer.

Just one short afternoon, I felt I had been to Route 66 when I met Danny, to Finland Christmas town when we shared family stories with Leila and into the comfort of Poland homes when we shared our interest in food with Kristof.