I Saw The Sign, It Opened Up My Eyes, I Saw The Sign

I may have mentioned before, but if I have not made it clear enough, I would like to emphasize my point with evidence....sign evidence.

The signs and the sign artists in Australia are much more entertaining and detail oriented than I am used to in the states. Therefore, I am going to begin a series of random postings about the signs that I find in Australia, that I find giggle worthy...which are quite a few, so prepare for a ton of posts.

Take for example this sign, which is conveniently located in this cozy little park in the middle of the city on the way to my gym. This sign if you look carefully entails all of the things that one is not allowed to do while visiting the park. In case the picture is too small I will enlighten you about all of the things you are not allowed to do in the park, in case you are confused about what proper behavior entails at a park:

1. no fires (well duh)

2. no camping (well I mean if a tent can fit in the gazebo, why not)

3. no littering

4. no damage to park facilities (I will go into detail further about this)

5. no feeding birds (amen to that one, come on people do you really want a ferocious swarm of birds trying to eat your chips?)

6. no golf or archery (aka-no hitting other park patrons be it with golf balls or arrows...both are incidentally painful)

7. no unauthorised vehicles

8. no animals except leashed dogs

Let me further discuss one of my favourite features of this sign, not only is it incredibly detailed, but some of the pictures are down right goofy and not applicable. Please direct your attention to the bottom right hand of the picture, don't worry I have assisted you by blowing up the picture and highlighting the section of importance.

This picture at the bottom is rule number 8, no animals except leashed dogs....so to emphasize their point they have pictured a prancing pony. Hmmmm, well this is the middle of the city, I am not even sure how much trouble you would have to go to in order to bring a pony to the park. Upon seeing this on my way to the gym, I immediately started laughing uncontrollably and sent my friend the following text message, "ponies are not allowed at the park, so don't even think about bringing your pony to the park for a picnic in the gazebo."

As I was writing this post, I started to see this sign even more clearly, and decided that rule number 4's figure was just as hilarious as the fact that they felt the need to clearly display that ponies were not allowed in a public city park.

Rule number 4: no damage to park facilities.

What on earth would someone have to be thinking in order to be silly enough to start swinging an axe nearly half their body size around in a public park? Hmmm, maybe, "Awwww, man not another ball stuck in the tree, that is it I have had it." Or possibly, "You want a fresh Christmas tree this year kids? There is a nice one down at the park."

Regardless, please stay tuned for more of the hilarious Aussie signs, because there will be many more to come.

Masterpieces from Paris, but not in Paris

I went to the "Masterpieces from Paris" exhibit in Canberra. Aka, the "masterpieces, which are from and held in Paris, but not currently there, and you are lucky enough to be in one of the three cities they are visiting to see it," exhibit. This was the first art gallery exhibit that I have ever visited where there was literally a winding line to wait in to see art. James and I showed up only about an hour after the gallery opened in the morning and already the car park was full and upon buying our tickets we still had to stand in the winding line to get into the gallery for at least 20 minutes. Once we got into the gallery each room was teeming with people, at least 100 people in each room. I have never seen so many people so enthusiastic to see art. Regardless of the crowds and the lines, it was absolutely worth it. The exhibit focused on the post-impressionists; featuring many great artists including: Bernard, Cezanne, Gauguin, and even....ooooh squeal of excitement....ooooooh Van Gogh!!!! Even though they were all great my two favourites were:

"The Woman with a Black Boa"

-Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec

I loved this one because it was not on canvas, it was instead on a grainy thick piece of paper, but it was still using oil paint, in a thick sticky style, similar to a crayon. This reminded me of a Disney villain, with the pale skin, and the dark, feathery outfit....you can see her soon in a theatre near you ;).

My second favourite was:

"Dancers Climbing the Stairs"

-Edgar Degas

I loved the composition, the delicate colours, and the careful dainty brush strokes, everything played nicely together.

It was a beautiful exhibit, the painters were nice, I loved the Van Gogh's, his use of colours wins in their vibrancy, Bernard wins in his careful scientific approach to painting dots, and Monet wins the the calming opaques of his lily scenes. If you are anywhere near the three places this exhibit will be showing: Canberra, Tokyo, and San Francisco, I highly recommend that you go.

Dreaming in oil colours from tomorrow, I hope that these beautiful paintings inspire you yesterday, and especially you Granny :).

Louis, The Needy Cat

Well, still living the good life on the cat ranch tending the livestock. Louis, is a very silly little boy cat. He needs a whole lot of attention. He likes to sleep on top of the couch and whenever you walk past he mews like a whiny little boy who needs attention:

He really likes to cuddle, and will even occasionally suckle when you snuggle him. Tonight I was sitting on the floor by the light beading and Louis slowly crawled into my lap, as if he moved slowly enough I might not notice or protest his presence and then I would be forced to give him snuggles. Well I indulged his snuggle craving and he helped me bead for a little bit:

Kangaroos in Canberra

Uh Oh! Someone, I am not naming names, even though I will give you a hint...it's me, has learned to upload videos to YouTube. Maybe I can incorporate more videos now into my blog. These videos are from my kangaroo adventures. James recorded the first video...which is why I am able to appear in it. His video is quite smooth. I recorded the second one...which is very shaky, but I did not think about the fact that my excitement might cause excited tremors in my hands and I could not stop skipping around, so I pre-apologize if you suffer from motion sickness.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mIgn5NK5wac
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tglHdWZe1bM

Happy viewing from tomorrow.