Rolls Tohoku

Rolls Tohuku is a project set up by Hirano Aichi. He distributed disposable cameras at a shelter near Ishinomaki, in the Miyagi prefecture and asked people to photograph what they saw, and how they were feeling. The results are sad, beautiful and sometimes humorous, showing people grappling to survive day by day in the midst of intense grief, loss and disaster.

Let's live here

My boyfriend is moving to Japan! He got the news today that he got the job he had been going for, I am so excited and happy.

Freedom

I am in complete awe of Jonathan Franzen's Freedom but I don't know what I'm going to do with myself now! It was such an incredible read and I'm now envious of anyone who gets to read it for the first time. If you haven't you should! Do it! 

Life as a bum

Due to unforseen and rather unexpected circumstances I will be in New Zealand until May. This officially extends my status past beyond 'holiday' into the murkey area of 'unemployed bum'. I have been relishing the experience and trying to do things I genuinely enjoy, even if other people might consider it straight lazy. 

1. Lying on the couch and listening to favored albums while doing nothing at all. Just closing my eyes and listening intently. No multi-tasking allowed.

2. Staying up till guilty hours reading books and sleeping in till equally guilty hours.

3. Walking to local gardens when the sunshine allows and taking pictures of plants, flowers and wildlife. I used to think my parents were ridiculous for obsessively taking pictures of orchids but now I get it, sort of.

4. Worrying absently about my depleting funds (no income for a bum you see) but then realising that a hiatus of relaxation is way more important than money.

5. Going to the movies alone in the middle of the day.

6. Visiting local opshops and pillaging the magazine section for old copies of National Geographic. The pictures and articles are ahhhhmazzing.

7. Writing letters to loved ones in a relaxed and orderly letter writing manner. This involves sitting at the dining table with an assortment of coloured pens, magazines for collaging, scissors, blank paper, a cup of jasmine tea, and some biscuits on a plate. 

7. Developing film. Always a treat.

8. Taking 3 hours to prepare for an evening date. Bubble bathing, air drying hair and manicures and pedicures.

9. Scouring magazines for amazingly complicated meals, heading to the supermarket for ridiculously specific ingredients and  spending the afternoon cooking.

10. Making leisurely to do lists like

-wash hair

-watch parks and recreation

-trim and paint toenails

-sleep for 9 and a half hours

-pen love letter for boyfriend

(if only more to do lists were this enjoyable)

11. Visit  amazing local exhibitions at galleries like this one.

12. Make mix tapes and channel all artistic power into the homemade cover art.

Hedi

Hedi Slimane never fails to amaze me 

Oh hello I'm back!

Photos by Randy Martin, Salva Lopez

Hallo hallo I'm back. Sorry I have been away for so long! After all the anxiety around the earthquake, aftershocks and nuclear scares I flew home to New Zealand, slept for what seemed like an eternity and turned my my back on all electronic forms of communication for a good while. I stopped writing. I didn't take photos. I buried myself in Jonathan Franzens Freedom  pausing only for sleep and my mothers delicious home cooking. I had never felt so tired. Everything had turned upside down inn the most unsettling of manners and I wasn't sure how to handle it. I'm now feeling back to normal and being at home is great. I have been catching up with family, friends and my lovely boyfriend and feeling very spoiled. I'll be back up in running in the next few days. It's good to be back! I hope you've all been well. x x

Going home

Things have been getting a little bit too crazy around here so I am flying back to New Zealand this weekend. We are experiencing black outs as of tomorrow, there are still aftershocks, a food shortage and evacuees from Fukushima have started arriving in town.

I can't say how much happiness and relief I am now feeling after days of tension and anxiety. Thanks for all the support. I will be back with more posts when life resumes back to normality. 

xx