Author: Ilse

Home

Home can be a feeling (sand between your toes), a song (‘Gorecki‘ by Lamb), the first thing you see in the morning (he’s asleep next to you) or the sound of wood against wood (those Balinese wind chimes). Home is in between places, traveling from one to another. The warmth of the sun on your skin. Hearing laughter of friends and loved ones. Waves crashing to shore. Writing. Piano keys. A hug.

We are always home. Whether we anchor down or roam about. Whether we are vagabonds or wrap ourselves in a villa. Like turtles and snails, we carry home with us, on our backs, in our heads. Truth is the compass that points us there. Between perfect and now.  There truly is no place like it.

What does home feel like to you?

Christmas in July

I still don’t know if the toilet flushes the other way, but sometimes I do wonder if Australia is on the opposite side of everything. For example, we celebrate Christmas in July(*).
In case you were wondering why, well, because that’s when it gets REALLY cold here. And by really cold we mean day temperatures that go down to 14 degrees Celsius aka FREEZING time. No really, I get blisters. The doctor said I’m allergic to cold. See, I’m medically proven to be a wuss.
So a few weekends ago we went on a hot Christmas date. High tea at our Favourite Things. Not being British by nature or heritage it was our very first high tea, very posh darling!  The thing you need to know about this place is that the moment you step inside it will truly be your favourite. Sweet light, soft music, smell of fresh coffee and cakes, a fluffy sofa and it has a store so if you forget your book there’s plenty of other things to browse in. Best thing of course is that it’s right around the corner, woop woop!!! Good for us, bad for our bellies.
Suffice to say we got stuffed. See pictures below. Our bellies were SO SO SO happy with their christmas present!

(*) Christmas was also celebrated on December 25th last year. However it involved hiking in 40 degrees through eucalyptus forests and cooling off in the water on our own private little beach. We frolicked around like two 6 year olds. I’ll spare you those pictures so 😉

Sail Around – A trip to the Opera House

Last week the Sydney Opera House released a tribute to their famous icon with a cover of Nick Cave’s almost equally iconic Ship Song.  Although a bit theatrical, my heart can’t help but swell with the music as it crescendos and the musicians, mostly Australian, declare their love to the icon’s soaring white sails. If you’ve ever been curious how the interiors look like, take a peek at this video:

Love Martha Wainwright! And Sarah Blasko! Will have to post separately later on my favorite Australian musicians 😉

However, my personal favorite cover version of this song has to be Amanda Palmer’s. So emotional. Can you tell she loves Australia? If you, like me, missed out on watching her perform live in the Opera House on Australia Day, don’t fret, you can still listen to this (and there’s a link to buy the downloads as well):

PS: You can follow Amanda on twitter, she’s a little bit crazy like me, but twotally twitalicious: @amandapalmer