Greetings Friends...Once More We Rise!

Back from a cyber death too terrible to describe (OK if I must...) we return to tales of drunken observations and sparkling anecdotes...if none of these things come to pass then my apologies! Tardiness in updating the blog has been due in no small measure to a post-Ray'N'Tina sabbatical as the two of us have tended towards home-bound repose rather than mighty adventures. In short, we just haven't done anything too fun in the last couple of weeks and I'd thought I'd spare you the tyranny of recounting my obsessive fixation with reorganizing my CD collection by order of ever more obscure genres. My latest rage is cowboy songs (after another encounter with the man who only eats what he's caught - he likes cowboy songs too!).

Anyway you catch the drift; hours spent pondering the proper relationship between country music and Chicago era post-rock in the grand scheme of CD shelfology may not inspire too many return visits to the Canada love-in. And yet, we did break the fun hoodoo on Friday night with our good friend Elizabeth's gala gallery opening. Vancouver really can turn on a Melbourne style scarves and beards, cardigans and high-heels art opening knees up when it wants to and we were typically enthusiastic about joining in (well for as much fun as one can have whilst seething about the $4 beers...call yourself communists gees!). Elizabeth's work was nonetheless fantastic though in my usual fashion I ended up taking photographs of the back of my own head (don't ask) rather than of the work itself. So there now you all know the reason why Andrea very rarely lets the digital camera out of her handbag...in fact I still marvel at the sheer wonder of digital cameras having so little exposure to them so to speak...truly wonderful little inventions!

That said I am responsible for the wonderful photos of the blooms outside our bedroom window even if they are a little too reminiscent of my mid 90s obsession with nature photography. Those of you who were there will no doubt recall my attempt to capture every shade of green known to God's green earth. Hey it was the 1990s - hippy photography was practically a political statement. Come to think of it, it may well continue to stand such scrutiny given today's news that Howard is now officially leader for life - at least if today's newspoll is to be believed. Labor is starting to feel a lot like the Australian cricket team in the 1980s - in love with the struggle and with the memory of past heroics yet forever doomed to inglorious defeat when things get serious. Come to think of it such analogies do a serious disservice to Allan Border - comparing him to Beasley flatters neither. Perhaps I'll reconsider my long held view that Australian cricket in the 1980s provides a neat conceptual template for understanding all the travails of modern politics. Border was brilliant and nowhere near as crap as Beasley! OK I'll sleep on it.

Otherwise Vancouver continues to treat us to ever more alluring distractions - I think we are each starting to love this place - nearly enough to change the name of my blog but that may be a little premature with the return of the rains. Work is going super though I am starting to lose my mind with a piece of writing I am working on - never let it be said that contemporary social theory doesn't draw out the cruelest of punishments...perhaps a story for another day!

Love!