This week we're mainly listening to...

Nilsson Schmilsson by Harry Nilsson

Switch Design

Just stumbled across this lights switch - random I know - but it's fabulous!
If only I had a house to put it in...










See the full how to at:
http://www.craftzine-digital.com/craft/vol01/?pg=40

Langkawi

The little known set of 99 islands off Malaysia's north-west coast are home to the est selection of duty free in SE Asia. Full of locals and visiting Malaysians Langkawi is like the Thai Ko's without all the Brits. What could be better! Obviously as soon as we lay our sarongs onto the white powder beach the heavens open and a storm arrives but nevertheless, a tropical island in real Malaysian style!

Malaysian

We arrived in Kuala Lumpur, after a rather rickety sleep train from Singapore, to the sights (and smells) of Malaysia. After being refused a taxi by a grumpy driver as it was 7am we eventually made it to our humble abode. Our most culture shocking moment was visiting the Petronas Twin Towers, we sat watching a 3-D presentation for what can only be described as 7 minutes of corporate brainwashing. By combining images of children and digging for oil the company tried it's hardest to convince it's captive audience (in 3-D of course) that digging for oil is great. We left stunned by the sheer propaganda produced, while the rest of the audience nodded in appreciation of this video and left feeling all fuzzy inside about how kind this oil company is. We did note there was no mention of their environmental policy - that would probably have taken the whole charade too far!

This aside I am enjoying Malaysia second time around and boldly showing my arms and bleach blonde head. A bold move. I shall keep you posted how it goes...

Diving to Destruction

Yes, you've all seen my un-make-uped mug in the papers looking all broody and windswept or caught my rather terrified interview on Good Morning America but things seem to be dying down. Finally! (If you discount NBC's Dateline) Having discovered that, in true celebrity style, flying to a remote island does actually work. The Internet was too slow to email, my phone has not enough coverage so I was left to top up my much flagging tan.

The best part is having the best diving story to tell, and having an interview in the Independent - true fame (although I was informed that being in Woman's Day means true fame).

All this excitement aside, the trip is going well, I'm glad to be back in sunnier climes with gritty culture coming out of my ears. On the other side I do miss the brilliance of Melbourne, a definite highlight, where great design is not only important but integrated into every aspect of the city. It is stuffed to the rafters with cool coffee shops, boutiques and design shops without any pretence or posing art students. It seems everyone knows cool, and cool is in the city's blood.

Move to Melbourne to be a designer? Hell yeah!

Sweet as, bro.

Yes, I am in New Zealand, and yes I did love it, but no I will never utter the words 'sweet as' call people bro and refer to things as 'choice'. With breathtaking beauty, laid back bars and food to die for (eggs benedict every day) this is the country with everything you could want for a holiday. However as long as you forgive the South African/Aussie/80's Surfer accent it is quite a perfect country full of dub loving outdoor enthusiasts.

As we near the end of our New Zealand time slot (we fly in a few hours) and cram in the last 'fush and chups' and eggs done every way I can proudly say I've seen the length and breadth of the country, from the black beaches of Raglan to the icy winds of Milford sound. I've hiked, fished (to no success) skydived and eaten my way through a whole country made up of small towns and ex-pats and backpackers, with the coolness brught by the Maori culture. Yes we will be sad to leave but as the daytime temperatures herein CHristchurch limp to a pitiful 7 degress by midday we leave for a land with places called 'Sunshine Coast' and 'The Gold Coast' and dream of days where we can wear the many pairs of havianas we brought in Brazil.

Viva Australia!

Argentinius

So, it is my last day in Argentina. So sad to be leaving my new favourite country, the land of the cheap as chips fillet steak, the even cheaper than the cheapest chips red wine and the lovely scenery.

Since the ends of the earth in the Antarctic we´ve travelled hundreds of miles across Patagonia through the most breathtaking scenery and the strangest of towns - most of which haven´t changed since the 1900´s where people still ride on horse and cart and tourists are still an unusual sight. This place is one of those I hope to return to in ten years and rattle on about how I visited before the tourist boom, before they had Internet, and cottoned onto charging tourists wine that costs more than 20 pence a bottle.

OK, yes there are some tourists of course, but walk along the Fitzroy path or the `W´ walk in Torres and guaranteed every photo will be hiker free - something often impossible elsewhere in the world.

Next adventure then... Chile.
We head across the border and over to a town called Pucon apparently just starting the tourist boom, but our main aim in to climb the active volcano with hiking and ice climbing, and imaginatively get down the volcano by sliding on your bum with only your ice picks as breaks. Health and what now? Yes this may be the point in my trip I appear with a cast on my arm but with an excellent story involving air ambulance and a tanned paramedic. Well, one can only hope...

The End of the World

Yes it is, I am at the end of the world. Here in Ushuaia of course it is the end of the world before you start coming back again as it is the most southernly town in the world. And yes it´s rather chilly! Camping down here is like camping in Shetland, without the rain, and the scottish, instead with amazing steak and the most beautiful scenery the world has to offer. New Zealand best work hard to beat this!
On the downside cold showers and the least fun activity, and the place seems to have recently been invaded by Americans coming off a cruise ship...

However I am pleased to have driven from Rio, Brazil all the way to the most southernly tip of South America and the start of the Antarctic - cue many many penguins and sea lions...

The Best Birthday

Ah, so it came around again, I'm convinced the years are moving faster than they did when I was in my teens. Nevertheless I am now older, wiser and hopefully more tanned than last year!
To celebrate in style Phil treated me to the most breathtaking helicopter ride over Iguazu falls on the Brazil/Argentina border followed by a haircut in the jungle (an experience not to be missed) and a cake (Brazilian cake is strange to say the least!). Also followed my kicking arse go-karting, well not kicking arse more if a tap...
Off tomorrow to Argentina where hopefully a beer will be miles cheaper than the current price of 40p which is outragously expensive, and be around 5-10p. I say farewell to the land of caipirinhas, havianas and 'beautiful people' and hola to the land of Eva Peron and the worlds best steak - let the waitline expand!

Hola!
Yes Brazil is amazing, yes it it hot, yes it is green and full of the worlds most amazing animals but god they cannot dress themselves!
Brazilian Vogue sports may astonishingly beautiful outfits none of which make it down the clothes food chain to the normal shops so the locals evidently take their fashion tips from Jodie Marsh - as cheap, tight and sparkly and possible here!
Enough about the fashion, Rio was amazing, not my favourite city on account of the smell of urine and the shady charachters about, but nonetheless breathtakingly set n the mountain side.

I'm now across in the wild jungle and wetlands of the Pantanal where one spots camen and anaconda more often than is reasonable of my poor heart! Its a constant shock, but I'm adjusting to the ticks, clouds of mosquitos and parasites, and soon I'll be hardened to the jungle life - even if it does have an internet cafe (more of a hut, but I prefer the term cafe).

Fame at last!

The new issue of Liverpool.com magazine is out and lo and behold an article about the hot new talent features my lovely self! Brilliant you may say, but given the fact they've spelt my name wrong I'm not sure what benefit this may have to my impending book sales, unless I have a pen name Sharkley... Hmm, not so bad...

The pictures nice, the photographer Mark McNulty did the shots and I look alright for 5pm on a Friday straight from work! Remind me to ditch the smock dresses asap - comfy does not equal looking hot.

However, as I am creating 'ripples of excitement among creative types' I think it's job well done! You can see the full article in the magazine available in the North West UK and online at liverpool.com.

I can count the hours...

Ah so the countdown really begins for the departure date. Having fought with hair bleaching, tanning and waxing etc over the last few days there best be tonnes of sun in Rio or else the pain would be all in vain!

Having already said my goodbyes to the boys and girls in Uniform and said the words see you in October it's really sinking in that I'm off! I have no job, I have no flat and am merely a vagabond roaming this fair planet - or at least the nearest bar.

This packing malarkey is awful, I don't think I'm made for sensible clothes, it makes me sad to see a bag stuffed with cargo pants and hiking boots and nothing shiny in sight (maybe I'll slip in a few sparkly bits!)

Stress, stress, stress!

Website of the Week

A long time favourite of mine Thorsten Van Elten has every piece of gorgeous design you would ever want. With cutting edge design furniture and home-ware you'll never look at an Ikea catalogue again! My favourites include the World Map rug by Barnaby Barford, War Bowl by Dominic Wilcox and of course the knitted doughnuts and cupcakes by Donna Wilson.
Pricey? Quite. Worth it? Absolutely!

Check out all the wonderful-ness here.

The Only Calendar You Would Ever Want

Today I came across the most beautiful desk calendar I have ever seen! Since the Font Clock by Sebastian Wrong there has been a long wait for the next typographic-themed item, but now the wait is over. The d31 hand-made perpetual calendar by serio for Nava Milano is a silk-screened hand-made calendar featuring gorgeous crops of numbers on each board page, making it weigh over 10 pounds but so so desirable. Get yours here.

Unfortunately yet another item I can't even imagine to afford (or need on my travels), coming in at a mere $325, but I can gaze at the picture anyhow and imagine it on my desk...

Pre-Travel Hazzards

In the run up to my round the world adventure, one has to acquire a huge amount of anti-malarial tablets for those wild and hot counties, such as India, Cambodia and possibly Liverpool (can’t be too careful around these parts).

On my recent frequent visits to the chemist - frequent because I actually cleared Liverpool’s supply of anti-malarial tablets out - I have had to pick up the massive amount of tablets (stupidly they put 8 to a box and I needed 200). The only problem with this large a quantity is the look the pharmacist and customers around you give you for having this huge white paper sack full of tablets. I either had some nasty disease, or was an insane hypochondriac (both of which caused people to stare).
On my second visit I felt the need to loudly proclaim ‘its for malaria, for my trip to India’ which not only made people more scared of me, the pharmacist just stared at me in a ‘just pick up your drugs and leave’ sort of manner.

I hope to never return to that pharmacist as long as I live, and will now have to spend the next two weeks cutting up the pill packets into reasonable size - at present I need a separate back pack just for my tablets!

Make it Tonight

Morning campers!

During some serious design research I stumbled cross an amazing project on the brilliant site www.readymademag.com
As I have a relatives' birthday looming I was trying to come up with a present without eating into my travel budget. Voila! It appeared before me in all it's orange glory. Click Here.

If anyone has already given it a go, let me know.


Photo credit: Aya Brackett

Disaster Strikes!

With less than 2 weeks to go until the day of departure disaster has struck!
On a weekend visit to the lovely city of Edinburgh to visit my friend, the sub zero temperatures of the area caused me to slip on the pavement and tear a ligament in my ankle. The head sized bruise on my knee - not a problem. The inability to walk without looking like Tiny Tim - massive problem. (This is beginning to sound like a personal injury claim advert.)


All is not lost you say, with two weeks of R&R I can be back to fighting fit in time for the joys of Rio carnival?
Not quite - I have been partaking in an obsessive (and fairly successful) regime of exercise at the gym, at least 4 times a week. Being laid up and not being able to shift that last lot of jelly thigh-ed badness is not what I really hoped for.

My only option is now to eat (a lot) less in the hopes I’ve done enough exercise to see me into my red bikini...

Here’s hoping, or hopping more like.

14 days - how did that happen?

With the 14 day (or two week as some prefer to call it) countdown in progress the panic has set in like you couldn’t imagine!
Do we get more worried with age or are we not supposed to grow more confident?

The more I plan, book, read up and think about my trip the more my heart lurches with the kind of fear one only gets when you find yourself at the front of the queue at Alton Towers theme park. The more I worry the more likely it is I’ll become the dumpy English backpacker with cargo pants and a bumbag. Noooo the dreaded frumpy English girl!

One gets to meet this particular breed of backpacker on a regular occasion. Easily identified from the pale skin (factor 50, they’re here to travel not to have fun god forbid tan), frumpy cargo pants cargo hat combo and endlessly look up their lonely planet. Pros: Will ALWAYS have every medical item/cure known to man in their massive backpacks, will always make you look tanned, fun and hilarious.
Cons: Will stare at you with steely disapproval every time you; drink, party, sleep in, have fun etc..., also make us Brits look bad.

The Australians & NZlanders always make it look so effortless to be tanned, toned and put away endless beers whilst remaining upright. The Irish can be an transparent as acetate (like my other half’s ghostly legs) as they’re ‘just so much fun’.

Conclusion: Tan, tan, tan and pack short shorts.