Caught on Film & an "Iced Barack Obama"

Today, I helped out at one of my favourite coffee haunts. The little brother got home from leavers (schoolies, whatever you wanna call it), safe & sound, and we had a grand conversation that included a discussion about the joys of British insults (twat). I drank 4 coffees. I pondered the merits of the potato as a romantic gift. 3 of the coffees were given to me for free by my lovely friend. I ate some tasty gelato, also given to my by another lovely friend. And as if that wasn't all grand enough, one of the coffees I drank has been dubbed the "Iced Barack Obama"**.

The Wildest of Dreams is officially off hiatus, except I expect it might be a little different around here. It didn't last long, but that's because somehow not having the pressure of posting magically cleared my mind and helped me to realise a few things. I'll explain more later, maybe, but in the meantime, I hope you enjoy the rest of the photos from the roll of film behind my "Honesty" post.

Over and out.

Rhi :)

**Sadly this is only its temporary title, although I'm still hoping the name sticks :P

Feeling relaxed and mellow :)

Now that all my major essays are (almost) done and dusted, I feel so relaxed and mellow! I'm still a little stressed - in the back of my mind I'm thinking about my exchange application that is due in two weeks, the impossible politics quiz due next week, and the upcoming week of doom for Italian (when they've set us about a thousand tests in one week), but it doesn't seem to matter right now because my essays are done! Finito! Finally! :P

And all I want to do, is laze around. I want to get excited about the units I'm planning to study in Milan next year. I want to read the latest Frankie magazine, and my brand spanking new copy of A Tale of Two Cities, that have been sitting on my bedside table for the past 6 weeks begging to be read. I want to go to Fremantle with my brothers or my friends, eat crepes at Fidel's Cafe for breakfast, get coffee from Tim (the brilliant barista from Black Cherries espresso) and then traipse around the markets, buying fruit and buckwheat flour to make banana bread. I want to test out some new recipes, keep teaching myself how to sew, and watch a movie. And I really would like to catch up on all the blogs that I've recently discovered, but have been too busy to keep up with.

Piccolo Lattes.
Tim's Handiwork & Nageena's photography.

Now that I've finally started exploring the blogosphere - 50 blog entries and a year after I started this thing - I'm really excited to make some new friends. There's so many fantastic pages out there, with fantastic tales of travel and fashion, of cooking and of life just in general. There's beautiful photos, recipes and links to hilarious and inspiring things. I've never been that excited about the internet - I like paperback books and handwritten letters. I like catching up with friends in person, and meeting people for the first time in real life, without the awkward 'I have seen your face in my facebook feed. It appears there almost every day and so I know an awful lot about you'.

But blogging seems so different! It's a way of getting to know people from all over the world, who have actually put themselves out there to be found - who want to share the things that they are interested in. And I'm so excited about it!

First though, I should probably do that quiz. And the exchange application... But I can't promise I won't be sneaking in a few glances at all of your rad blogs while I'm at it :P

Over and out.
Rhi xx

Reasons I shouldn't let my friends use my phone :P

Taking hipster photos of uni at night.

PS. Scuse the iphone-edited, hipster photos. I have a bit of a thing at the moment for grainy photos and so I get a little overexcited using camera+ :P

Highway.

Some of you might remember the last post I wrote about Jim and Sam. Well, I realised it's been a long time since I've shared any of their story, and so I decided to give you the next paragraph of the last tidbit - a chapter which I have since entitled 'Highway'.


The heat of the bitumen scorched Jim's feet as he walked down the highway, his gait slow and hinting towards the feeling of pointlessness that had engulfed him. The overcast grey sky and the muted green, grey and brown of the native shrubs that shrouded the edges of the highway suited his mood, if only that sunlit patch of cloud would disappear.

As he stared down the cloud, he began to walk faster, willing it to disappear, to leave him alone. And as he walked faster, his mood changed. Jim began to see red - he was furious. It built up slowly, his parents, the mirror, his school, Sam, although how he came into it Jim wasn't quite sure. From one part of his life to another and there seemed to be something wrong with all of it, until he couldn't avoid it any more. The one thing that was really pissing him off, that made him walk out of his house and somehow end up on this highway which smelt a little of the exhaust left behind by speeding cars, and a little of the pungent trees that lined it...

*   *   *   *   *   *

I'm always nervous posting these little bits of writing online. Or showing anyone at all, actually. Even though I've never run down a highway, it is still very personal. In this post, I mentioned that my words are my sanity, and even though I'm not finding the times so tough right now, this still holds true. I want to put more of it on, but I have to wait for it to be right and often I'm never quite sure if it's ready yet. It's so conflicting!

Anyway, I hope you enjoy it :) I will post the rest of it soon I hope, I just need to fix up the next little bit, because it doesn't sound quite right yet.

And now just for fun, here are some photos of my day, which has really been quite rad :)

Some of the raddest people out, not to mention they make the best coffee in Perth.
Read my review of their coffee here.

Letting me pretend I'm a barista.

A note from a great friend.

Helping my cousin with his homework,
and re-remembering the horrors of the English language.

Being nerdy and getting overexcited about politics books.

Anyhow, it is almost 1am, and I need to be up at 6.30, so with that, I am going to ignore the insomniac within and attempt to sleep. Hope you're all having a grand day/night. 

Over and out

Rhi xx

On walking, the new year, and a guy who makes great coffee...

The heat of the bitumen scorches Jim's feet as he walks down the highway, his gait slow and hinting towards the feeling of pointlessness that had engulfed him. The overcast grey sky and the muted green, grey and brown of the native shrubs that shrouded the edges of the highway suited his mood, if only that sunlit patch of cloud would disappear. It was too hopeful...

Photo courtesy of Timothy Lock Photography,
A man who not only takes rad photos, but also makes some fantastic coffee at the Fremantle Markets
You should go and try one sometime, and ask him what he got up to in Scotland while you're at it

I've been writing little tidbits about Jim and Sam lately, but I only ever seem to be able to write a few sentences at a time before it becomes forced (the little bit above this is yesterday's effort). Does anyone have any suggestions for curing writer's block? My personal opinion is that some time lying on the ocean floor staring at the sun would help, but until this dratted sling comes off that's not an option. Oh well, only one more week! :D

On a more cheery note, buon anno! I hope you all have a fantastic night and make the most of the year ahead. I'm not big on New Year's resolutions, but this year I have thought of one - make it through the year without having surgery :P Wish me luck!

They're so rad :D

Drip, drip, drip...

Sometimes I think I should listen to old music, because there's some pretty cool stuff out there, but the Beatles is usually as far as I get...

You know what I realised after my last post? I think I am yet to write something purely on coffee, thus I have decided to tell you all about a coffee I had the other day.

For those who know me, 'a coffee I had the other day' is pretty ambiguous, because I am a bit of an addict, but this was different! It was filter coffee and it was kind of amazing. I think when describing it to Nageena I said, "You know when a guy is wearing a really subtle cologne, and it makes you just want to have sex with them? It tasted like that!"

...Except, it had floral undertones, so not all that manly. Either way, it was incredible and you should all head down to Lowdown (where I got the coffee) to try one :)

I asked Mark, one of the baristas, what filter coffee is and he said "a glorified drip system". Basically, filter paper, grind, water drips through and voila! Or at least, I'm pretty sure that's the gist of it. Of course, for good filter coffee there'd be a whole load of finnicky things that need to be taken care of, but I don't think anyone's going to read this and rush out to make one for themselves, so I won't bother with the research.

The way it's made means you don't need to be a coffee-geek to taste the subtle flavours that scare people on menus in cafes, and it's really easy to drink.

So, on that note - hop to it! At Lowdown, I'm fairly sure it'll only cost $3/$3.50 for a cup, (plus $3.50 for a piece of utterly radtastic Hungarian Cherry Cake), not to mention you have an always willing coffee-drinking companion in yours truly :)

Over and out.

Untitled

So I sometimes think I'll start writing, and then the words just don't work for me. But I will start posting again properly soon, I hope. In the meantime...



A video that I can't stop watching...

 

And some seriously rad coffee art!

I keep thinking perhaps I should revert back to the summer of 2009. Making coffee by day. Sitting on the beach with friends til after dark, the taste of chips on our fingers, sand between our toes, salt caked in our hair. What a life, hey?