Zaha Hadid hits the shoe market!

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One of the architecture world's most celebrated designers is Zaha Hadid and her organic shapes have found there way into shoes!!

A very interesting type of prolific shoe designer, Melissa (the brand), notorious for the plastic flexi-shoe (aka taking patent to the extreme) teams up with her to create amazing heels that look like they'd take a good hour to put on. But so pretty. The shoe is available in OZ in May... enough time to save? Mind you, judging by Melissa's prices, it shoouldnt be too hard. *grin*

"The fluidity of our design combined perfectly with the technology of Melissa's plastic, injecting pieces without closures or seals"

Much like her Performing Arts Centre in Abu Dhabi??? http://www.e-architect.co.uk/dubai/abu_dhabi_building.htm

Other amazing 'plakky' shoes here.... Im mentally shopping already! melissaaustralia.com.au

GFC - Redundancy has its own acronym

This piece is Fiction, and still... it’s way too close to home.


Shave. Downsize. Rationalize. Economise. Cut back. Reshape. Trim the fat.
They all mean the same thing to her.

I watch her from the other side of the office. She’s working solidly, industriously. She’s so lovely too, just a nice person to chat to, you know?

It’s much like a traffic accident unfolding as the Director approaches her.... something bad is about to happen but I can’t look away. The room blurs around her figure at the desk, like there is not another soul in the room but her, the Director, and myself watching intently from the other side. He stands by her and she looks up, not fearful, but her eyes widen with reserved curiosity. He speaks and walks briskly away, and she rises to follow him.
Minutes pass.

She does not come back and someone whispers that she has popped outside. I want to give her support. But I don’t know her that well, sure she’s lovely, she’s just a nice person to talk to, you know?
And what does one say? I’m glad that it’s you and not me? No. But it’s all that I can think. “I’m glad it’s not me”.

She is back. Face lowered. She has been crying but does not want anyone to see. I want to cry for her. She sits back at her desk, clearly confused as to what to do now. The shoulders are trembling – I think she is angry now, and I can almost feel the heat steaming off her. I can’t not do something and so I walk over to her desk. “Are you ok?” She is startled, more upright than before, and she is hoping that I didn’t notice. She doesn’t look up.
But she nods.
“I’m glad its not me”
I’m confused for a moment, but then she turns her face up toward me. There is pity swimming in the torrents.
“We need to chat Kaye, have you got a moment? You’re so lovely too, such a nice person to talk to...you know?”

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Wisdom?

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A girlfriend today was making her ‘year plan’ for 2009, and wanted to know what advice I should give to someone needing a little direction... and I said,
“Chase the dreams that seem so far away from you right now, because those are the ones you’ll travel the furtherest to get, and you’ll get to see everything the world can show you along the way”.

Essentially I was trying to say that she should not look for the easy road, or settle for second best.

She came back to me immediately and said that I was wise.

Wise?? WISE??

Wise people take their own advice!

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Things Ive loved lately...

The beauty of working for a design firm is that Im exposed to an array of very intelligent and talented people, every day. Whether I am reading a journal, or meeting a designer in person, it never ceases to amaze me, the wealth of ideas the human mind can create.

My recent discoveries;



I swooned. I actually swooned when I spotted these I Love Billy Shoes... and only $90 from Sidewalk Soul! Bring on my next paycheck paaalease! I was introduced to these by Michi Girl. Just too damn cute. Some short checkered brown shorts and white singlet, with some chunky wooden beads around my neck... Ive got it all planned out already... oh my!

In central London they have a temporary development/installation called the Double Club. Its very similar to the container ship, and sustainability bars that Ive seen in melbourne, but it crosses multiple genres. In a joint project between Fondazione Prada, and German artist Carsten Höller, its there for a good time, not a long time.

"Its success lies in the approach. Rather than trying to lure them in as loyal patrons, the Double Club exploits the fact that those in the know move on quickly, and allows just enough time for word to spread before it will shut up shop.Opened towards the end of 2008, this dynamic space is an assault on the senses. Excessive colour, texture and contrast are almost too confronting to take in all at once – yet somehow it blends perfectly. It is divided into bar, restaurant and dance club, and each is split down the middle and designed to represent disparate ways of life; “creating a dialogue between Congolese and Western contemporary music, lifestyle, arts and design”.

The intensity awakens something inside, and the buzz of the patrons – drifting from the “congo” spaces back to the “west” – draws you into another world. Enter the bar where Portuguese azulejo (painted decorative tiles) line the wall and floor marking out the ‘garden space’, while in the background your eyes are drawn towards the neon lights and copper bar announcing “Two Horses Riders Club”.
Enjoy a few drinks here, or head upstairs to the rotating dance floor where the music alternates from Western styles to Congolese Rumba, Wenge or Ndombolo depending on what half of the space the DJ has revolved into."

The Double Club thedoubleclub.co.uk

Im a big fan of the tiling work in the blues and greys, and the huge elephant motif. Mind you, Ive probably worked too long in a bar, and the first thing I thought was; My, that bartop will be frightfully hard to keep clean. I know that its a 'temporary' space but I dont think that needs to be accentuated with plastic chairs. Scream: Tack! Personal opinion.

The summer range from Flamingo Sands. PS - Love the angles that the photographer gets out of the models. Great shots.

Too cute! I wish I didnt have a giraffe torso... id adore a strapless one piece like this.



If I could actually FIND this Zimmerman playsuit, and when I say find, I mean 'on sale'. My firm has reduced everyone to a 4 day week (economic downturn strikes again) so its not wise to be spending on playsuits... As much as I LOVE it.



And my skin is this colour at the moment too - yay for summer! - such a shame, would have looked awesome.


And Ellie Mücke http://www.mucke.com.au/ is a Melbourne designer who makes beautiful structured peices out of recycled oversized men shirts etc. Her designs are frequently the same, but with the change in fabric or shirt choice, ultimately the peice becomes a one-off. Fantastic! My faves;



look closely at the back detail below... little buttons on the cuff!





Wow my wish list for 2009 is getting big... and fast! * grin *

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Pancakes

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Sunday, January 18th.
He looks away from me, I can feel him tense up, I know he’s nervous.
I know him.

He opens his mouth to speak, and he pauses a moment before the words tumble out. “How about making this permanent?”. Its midday and we are still in bed, more than a little hung over, talking about how hungry we are but not motivated to get up. I’m fantasising about organic muesli with natural yoghurt and berries, and he wants a big super-greasy-with-everything-on-the-side-don’t-skimp-on-the-grease sensation. Or maybe we’ll make a massive batch of pancakes with icecream. Might have to get some maple syrup from the shop, but I think he has some banana we could put on top…

“Make what permanent?” I feign confusion. I know full well what he means. But I wait for him to elaborate. God I’m such a …. female.
“Us. Here. Together. Well, not HERE. But somewhere else. Our own place. Like …together. With stuff that’s like, ours”. He isn’t making much sense, but I get it.
“Move in together? ...Oh”. I fall silent, pausing to absorb how those three words sound on my tongue. Move…in…
“Have you thought about it?”, he says as he flips with a small grunt, onto his side. His eyes search my face.
“Yeah, sure I have. A couple of times”. More than a couple
“And what do you think?” Silence for a moment. And then a few moments more. I feel like he is about to pounce on me, he is coiled beside me as he prepares for my first and honest reaction.
“I’m not sure”. I’m absolute on this answer. I’m 50/50. Well, maybe 49/51.

I feel a little disorientated. I focus on the crack in the ceiling next to his yellow light bulb. I think it’s getting bigger. I ask him to let me think it over. I ask him if he is sure. I ask him to tell me for the hundredth time how much he loves me. I tell him that I think the crack in his ceiling is bigger. There are ground rules I say, things we need to clear before we go ahead. Now’s not the time to give you my concrete answer, let’s just let the idea sink in, talk about it again in a week or so.

But I can feel a buzz start to rise. It’s a humming under the skin, just like my first day of school, or Christmas morning. Sparks of excited nerves emanate from my spine, dance along my arms, and fizzle with a light pop! from my finger tips.
I giggle. I feel him sink happily into the mattress, and he smiles.
Pancakes it is.
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Personal Manifesto

After reading extensively on other people’s life choices, their manifestos, and ‘rules to live by’, I gradually developed my own. It combines notions from others that I was a fan of, and some I created for myself.

This, like my life, is a constant work in progress.


PERSONAL MANIFESTO

1. Do not allow the actions of others to influence the choices you make. You cannot change a persons’ behaviour, but you can choose how you react.
2. There are only two directions in life – Grow. Or Die. Choose to grow always
3. Only dull women have tidy houses
4. Your greatest gift is your intuition. It has never failed you, so trust that impulse. Make your decisions quickly.
5. Write. Prolifically. Endlessly. Allow your thoughts to organise themselves on paper, because the only time your mind is quiet is when your hand will not shut the hell up.
6. Security is for cadavers. Get out of your comfort zone as often as you can. Each experience is a brave adventure into the unknown.
7. Enjoy the morning. The moment when you first wake up is the most wonderful of the twenty-four hours. No matter how weary you may feel, you possess the certainty that, during the day that lies before you, absolutely anything may happen. And the fact that it practically always doesn't, does not matter at all. The possibility is always there.
8. All that you gain from worrying, is a headache. There is no such this as tomorrow, or yesterday. Every single day is a NOW that once was. You cant worry over what doesn’t exist.
9. Love experiments (as you would an ugly child). Joy is the engine of growth. Exploit the liberty in casting your life as beautiful experiments, iterations, attempts, trials, and errors. Take the long view and allow yourself the fun of failure every day.
10. Money does not make the transit into your next life. There is nothing to be gained from hoarding. Give generously, including to yourself.
11. You will only ever pass along a way once, therefore any good that you can do, or any kindness that you can show to any human being, do it now. Do not defer nor neglect it for you shall not pass that way again.
12. Don’t take yourself too seriously. Lighten up. Often, at least half of what we accomplish is due to luck. You are not as in control as much as you like to think you are.
13. Don’t eat at your desk. Take an hour, 30 mins, 10mins, or 5. Whatever, just get up and away to eat. Change of scenery is good for the soul.
14. Never stop asking questions. The wrong answer is the right answer in search of a different question. Collect wrong answers as part of the process. Then ask different questions.
15. Don’t be cool. Cool is conservative fear dressed in black. Free yourself from limits like these.
16. Surround yourself with the talents of others. The space between people working together is filled with conflict, friction, strife, exhilaration, delight, and vast creative potential.
17. Don’t clean your desk. You might find something in the morning that you can’t see tonight.
18. Make up new words if they suit you. Expand the lexicon. New conditions demand a new way of thinking. The thinking demands new forms of expression. The expression generates new conditions.
19. Wear those high heels girl! Your height is their problem. Not yours
20. Organisation = Liberty.
21. Ask the stupid questions. Growth is fueled by desire and innocence. Assess the answer, not the question. And imagine learning throughout your life at the rate of an infant.
22. The world gets smaller every day, and Karma holds a grudge. Remember that next time you find yourself being rude, cruel, spiteful, or greedy.
23. Food is life. Bask in its tantalising pleasures. Smell, poke, lick, taste, chew. Cook amazing new things, and taste them. Make mistakes, and taste them too!
24. Don’t borrow money. By maintaining financial control, we maintain creative control over what we do with our time.
25. Laugh. Quite simple. Just do it.
26. Take trips. The bandwidth of the world is greater than that of your TV set, or the Internet, or even a totally immersive, interactive, dynamically rendered, object-oriented, real-time, computer graphic–simulated environment. After all, the world is a novel, and those who do not travel read but only one page.
27. Listen. Absorb. Think. Speak. And only in that order.
28. Love. Bravely. You will have wounds, and it will hurt. But scars are way cool.
29. There’s always a reason to smile. Find it. After all, you're really lucky just to be alive.
30. You WILL die. It is the only thing that is certain in this life. But what you do between now and then… is up to you.

On a warm day...

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I love the way the cool wind blows through my bedroom window, and slams my door. Its just like my angsty teen years, only... I dont even have to get out of bed.


;-)

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In July 2008...

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Below follows a post I wrote in July 2008, when I realised I was falling in love (I could not say it specifically, as I hadnt told him yet) and how good my life was becoming.
Now in 2009, as I settle into studies, work, and couple-dom, I wonder why the Earth has suddenly decided to rotate on a different axis. Why there are suddenly speedhumps forcing me to slow down. And why I cant sleep anymore.
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I can feel the dynamic shift under my feet. Every day I wake and the earth has changed, the energy shifts and moves like a tidal river, and I want to capture it. I want to know what moves me in this ebb and flow.

July is a beautiful month, we roll towards summer sunshine, the cusp of winter defeated, and my life falls into place. I don’t measure my life by the things in it, rather by the way I feel every morning when I awake. Today Im Happy. Perhaps content? Though I doubt I will ever be content, for which I am grateful as it is my discontent with settling that drives me to find change, to take pleasure in the experience of the new. July fills my life and bestows apon me a richness that Ive lacked for an immeasurable amount of time. Surely what I have now, I have had before? Indeed I have. But the impact these have on my life now gives me great strength, a power that I can finally tap.

Today a friend commented that she had expected a nervous breakdown of grandiose proportions from me. She produced her highly expressive hand and counted on delicate manicured fingers, the changes she had seen occur to me in the four weeks of July. It saw my triumphant return to university study, and the confirmation that what I believed I was truly passionate about, remained true. It saw a new home, a new housemate and a new suburb, and the exploration of these things to identify new paradigms and relationships both inside and around my new sense of place. July allowed the development of an incalculable bond that has developed between two strangers that began as a night of debauchery on the momentous occasion that was my one year anniversary in Melbourne, and did not end but instead continues into something very special. It saw a foray into a new culture of excess and enlivenment and the introduction of my nature to a bevy of eclectic characters, personalities that shine in their industry, and of which I am now a part as I join the festivities each night I work at the bar. July also allows me to take the one constant in my life since my Melbourne move, my role at the firm, and turn it into a career I can be proud of. A role of my own creation that I take great satisfaction from growing as I reference the saying ‘if you take no risks, your doings may be perfect, yet you will do few things’. I have effectively doubled my employment scope, boldly accepting responsibility for new tasks in an already time-poor and challenging role. I truly believe that I will become incredibly efficient and therefore have learnt an infinitely valuable tool, or perhaps I shall burn? But every wind is a bad wind if your ship has no rudder.

As her fingers ticked off those things that would mark such a meaningful and somewhat daunting period of my 2008, I realise that I have taken it all in my stride. These things have come, and these things have found their place. Like boats on the harbour they move with the tidal flow, and each morning when I awake, they float peacefully awaiting the next movement, that dynamic shift. No undercurrent will take them away for they have their place of docking. They belong.
As I write, I begin to realise that I will never capture this energy, that what I am eternally seeking is actually the movement itself. That it will, and does, change. That life is not a constant, and that I thrive on its vacillation, and if I so choose, I will lovingly undock the boats from their mooring and release them, allowing the tide to bring me a new life as it has done so before.

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I love this piece, and I try to come back to it as often as I can. I have to remind myself that the uncertainty and movement of my life is in fact, what I cherish. And that no matter what happens, I can always regain control. It is I alone who makes the decisions on what stays, and what I allow to 'float out to sea'.

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The Morning Sun

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I toss again in the night, seeking a cool spot on my pillow. I flip it over, and over again. I kick off the rugs, and pull them back. Nothing settles me. My heart is racing and I want to cry. Im so tired. So goddam tired.

Today I went to the beach. Rode my bike. Drank alcohol with friends in the warm sun. Ate a hearty dinner, and made love to my boyfriend. All these things should make me fall asleep and yet, here I am.

The room is dark despite the blinds being open. The street lights are dim tonight. I know the window is open because I can feel the breeze on my cheek. But I cant fall asleep. Im dizzy despite the fact that Im lying down. I cannot comprehend the spinning, falling sensation I feel when I close my eyes. Its light at first, like a ripple behind my eyelids, but as I feel myself starting to drift off, it builds into a vacuous whirlpool, my touch with reality is lost and I jolt to attention. Its feels like Ive slipped off a ledge, like Ive dropped 30 feet from one surface, destined for another.

I just want to sleep. Like everyone else.

I turn to my side and stare at the wall beneath my desk. He is there, and I can see him more clearly as the moments pass. He is just watching me. Smiling eyes, intense green and framed by thick eyebrows, baby faced. I move my lips but no sound comes out, I beg him to leave me alone. Im happy now, just look at me. Why are you here? This is the third time in as many nights that Ive woken to find him beside my bed. Sometimes she is with him, the girl with no face. She could be any girl, but she stands by him. Tonight, she is in the far background, pretending not to pay attention, but stealing the occasional glance. I dont think she has any control over him being here. But she comes with him, it is part of the ritual. The torture.

I reach out to touch his face as I have done so many times before. The image shimmers and pulls back. I ask him again, without sound, why he is here. And he cant answer that. He just smiles sadly. The way someone would smile at a terminally ill child... A smile that tells you there is hope, but eyes that belie this smile to reveal a deep sorrow.
Images are projected around him of all the times we have met, and all the times we have parted, and all the times we've spoken. I watch them play like silent films around his face. I turn away, seeking the warmth beside me in my bed, wrapping my arms around the shape in the darkness, but he is still behind me, huddled beneath my desk. I know he wont leave until he has watched me fall asleep. But doesnt he realise that I wont sleep until he leaves!?

Eventually Im so exhausted, that I DO sleep. I sleep praying that the daytime will come. And it does. But not before more nightmares, nightmares of being hated by scores of people, by being ridiculed by friends, by being embarressed in front of crowds - theyre all the same, these dreams, these nightmares. I have no ally, I am all alone, and it is me against the world. Please bring on the daytime when I know this is not true.

I used to dream like this once before, when I could reach out to touch his face, and meet soft olive skin beneath my fingertips. But those relentless dreams made me hate him, violently. I dreamt of the pain that he brought to me, real or imagined. Then eventually he went away, and after a longer time, they went away. Now he doesnt visit in my dreams, he visits in real time and brings his gift of insomnia. And now when I dream, I dont hate him, but everyone else turns on me. Im alone in a sea of strangers or worse, Im alone in a sea of friends... who pretend to not know who I am.

And now, the greatest present that I receive each day, is the morning sun. Because it is at this moment that I realise that I am the furtherest away from having him visit me again.
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