Kathleen Street Speakeasy

Kathleen Street Speakeasy, September 2014

A couple of months ago now, my friends hosted a home cafe offering a different variety of filter homemade coffee. It was a lovely day filled with a good tasting of the different beans they had on offer as well as delicious cakes and toasties.

Plans for the Future

Nathans Farm Toodyay, September 2014

I wanted to write this to you, I started the words but realised that I couldn't finish. Here will have to do. Tonight I had dinner at a friend of a friends place in Paris. They are a half Australian/English Christian couple with two adorable kids living in the outskirts, known as the banlieues. They seem to have made a life for themselves half way across the world (granted his wife is English, but they have still moved to another major city where English is not widely spoken), with him working as an English teacher and her looking after the kids. They have a home church, their kids speak both French and English and they have local friends while still keeping in touch with the old. Another Australian/English couple joined us, who are originally from Adelaide but have lived in London for the past 10 years and Paris the past 8 months. They are a week away from opening their very own cafe in the heart of Paris, 100% run and owned by them. There was no doubt a lot of hard work and money put in by them, but they seem to be actually doing the one thing that I would one day love to do. Their stories were great testatments to the fact that you can travel to the other side of the globe and settle down, you can find jobs or start your own cafe and have artistic hobbies on the side, or just be an artist full stop. These things are all possible and in ten years, this is where I see myself living. I don't really care what I'm doing, I just want to be here. I think as they were telling me their stories I was imagining myself working in a local cafe, with you making music everyday and us living in a small studio apartment filled with potted plants and cooking dinner together every night. But I guess I will just have to cut the second half of that story out and do it all by myself. And thats okay.

Richmond

Townhouses in Richmond Melbourne, November 2014

Melbourne, why you so pretty. I think I'll call you home in a couple of years time.

Twenty Twenty Plan

Chill times in Toodyay, September 2014

My mind is currently occupied with all the possibilities that this world has to offer, all the places I could live and all the cultures to indulge in. I keep forgetting that these possibilities could become all-to-real with just a little bit of planning of the years to come. Five years ago, I was living in Bordeaux, France. I wasn't sure what I wanted to study, or what studying at university looked like. I had never been loved. I was eager to explore, but unsure of where to start. After five years, I have finished an undergraduate degree, learnt French, worked in the same retail store, finished a year of postgraduate law, done several internships, travelled to Thailand, Singapore, Japan, America, around Europe and Australia, had love and lost it, been kinder to myself and moved out of home. I'm amazed by everything that those five years have brought me, but also looking forward to the next five. So, here's what they are looking like for me at the moment:

2015

February - Paris

March to June - First semester of my second year postgraduate study

July - Camping around either Tasmania or New Zealand

August to November - Second semester

2016

January to July - Semester abroad in Stockholm or Berlin followed by travel

August to November - Second semester of my third year

December - Should probably do a clerkship of some sort

2017

March to June - Finish off the remaining units of my degree

September 2017 to September 2018 - A year abroad teaching English in Japan

2018

September to December - Hopefully by now I have figured out where I'd like to live and work,
and spend these months planning for whatever this may be

2019

Finally start real work in a fancy law office/government agency/production agency/none of the above

So let's get started - I go to Paris next Sunday.

Greenery

A small cafe in Kyoto, July 2014

I've resorted to the lazy blogging sphere also known as Tumblr. It's pretty great for passing the time and for inspiration but doesn't force me to write and publish my photographs like I do on here. This year I'm writing for my universities student paper, The Pelican, mainly in the film section (because it's the easiest and you get to go watch the films for free!). I just finished a review of 'Jimmy's Hall', a Ken Loach film set just about the Irish civil war. I didn't really like it too much, so I won't bore you with the details but having outlets to write again about subjects I'm passionate about is a pretty great feeling.

happy new year

Around Shibuya, July 2014

I should write something about it being the new year, but for some reason I'm feeling very apathetic about it all.

Tokyo Imperial Palace Gardens

Tokyo Imperial Palace Gardens, July 2014