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Dunes moving in front of our eyes, covered by strange green tussocks hiding under melaleucas’ contorted branches. Year after year, these huge medicinal trees survive big storms by twisting their crown toward the ground, creating a canopy with ever changing forms. My eyes waltz from the green filtering in the window, to the road ahead, crossed by an emu or a wallaby, and then, they stick to the rear view mirror. In it, I look at the crow’s feet wonderfully adorning the driver’s sea-blue eyes. Witnesses of the Australian Sun, of the smiles given to his five children and of many perfect waves lifting up his surf board, the crow’s feet bring me reassurance for the second time. I relax, even if I have to hang on for dear life to avoid crashing on my neighbours during this off road rambling.
Mick is a real Australian, like you would imagine after having watched Crocodile Dundee. His flaxen hair enhancing the permanent sun tan hiding his huge constellation of freckles. In the sunlight, it looks like he’s beaming, with his casual smile and passionate eyes. I cross his path almost every day and it always seem to me I’m in front of a 10-years old elder kid. He pinches my belly or tells me a joke I understand every other time, since I’m still in the process of learning the Australian accent. I believe he owns the key to happiness and maybe, the secret for eternal youth.
Every day, Mick brings young backpacker groups to discover the beauties of Deepwater National Park. He must repeat the same old stories every week, but still, both times I accompanied him, his interest and physical alertness seemed renewed. Since I’m passionate about Mother Nature and its wonders, I drilled him with questions…
My new best friends are none other than… sea cucumbers! They emit a substance to blanket their small water plan protecting them from UV rays. Natural sunscreen! When assaulted, they squirt a whitish substance, which glues their predators’ mouths. This substance becomes a very hard thread resembling sinew. As a matter of fact, Mick has used it to repair his harpoon, probably like the First People of Australia did. If you stab a sea cucumber numerous times (?!?), it renews itself after only a few hours. Personally, I think it’s completely magic!
After our visits to the sea cucumbers, it’s time to regenerate. We swim in a river without anybody else, except, once again, the grandiose presence of the melaleucas. Here, they are in the water, making it antiseptic and really good for your skin. This water also tastes like eucalyptus tea. I look at Mick, he splashes me in the face with red water, we laugh and I’m just content to be in Australia.
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Thursday, January 21, 2010
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
Akin!
Lire la traduction française
It is such a challenge to write about our lives in less than 500 words once a week. Many people we meet could have pages and pages dedicated to their marvelous beings and many incidents could be the source of inspiring stories. Anyway, here I am, a little sunburned after my first day out surfing, trying to share with you bits and pieces of my recent reality. By the way here, at the hostel, there is always a very loud movie playing, which makes my task even more difficult…Tonight is Tropic Thunder, and judging by Marc’s absorbed gaze and loud laughter, it looks like a good enough movie to celebrate the relaxing power of the screen after a day in the Aussie sun.
Let me introduce you more intimately to The Flat Screen. Our days and nights are lulled by its omnipresence, its sounds and images hypnotizing us for seconds when, drawn by its power, we walk by it on our way to our exciting everyday business. The Flat Screen sees lazy travelers’ faces everyday that, after many hours in uncomfortable buses, are seeking the well deserved mushy cushions of a couch. What makes this Flat Screen really special are the Masters of Ceremony that seem to inhabit its electronic space. Indeed, almost every time a movie is introduced in the DVD player, the audience has the joy of seeing two familiar faces: two men, both dressed in beige suits, wearing infomercial smiles. They occupy both ends of the screen, proudly announcing that the movie that will soon be showing is happily pirated somewhere in an overpopulated city of Thailand. All the movies also come with lovely looking Thai subtitles and all look like they were shot in the middle of an English foggy night. Or, even better, like if they would have been filmed by your aunt with her crappy camera last Christmas. We are so used to movie images having a certain cinema texture that we don’t even realized they look so different than real life. I never thought I would find it disturbing to look at Clint Eastwood in a “home video” type of filming. He just looked naked.
The best part is when these two Thai gentlemen, never leaving their legendary smiles behind, help you find “English subtitles” in the brightly colored Asian DVD menu. Have you guys seen the movie Stardust? It is quite a good movie, but for our Dutch friend, it just seemed completely absurd. Subtitles would come and go and, even more interesting, would tell a complete different story, seemingly taken right from a very bad imitation of a Samuel Becket play. I laughed so much. During the whole movie I dreamed of having a notepad to write down all the atrocities committed by the translator. But I could not leave the couch, too addicted at this stage to the next horrible line the bottom of the screen would dictate. There was this part where beautiful Claire Danes confesses her love and says it is so powerful that it is unbearable. For unbearable, we read “bury vessels”. And this other part where a prince was finally getting what he wanted and shouting: I’m King! The little white writings then said “Akin”. Can you imagine a whole movie like that? My story might not seem as profound as the others, but scientists say that for 5 minutes of great laughter, you get about 45 minutes of deep relaxation that will help you rejuvenate and live longer. I must have gained a whole year just watching that movie. Thanks pirated movie for this free quality entertainment!
See HIS view
See His and Hers Pictures
See His and Hers Video
It is such a challenge to write about our lives in less than 500 words once a week. Many people we meet could have pages and pages dedicated to their marvelous beings and many incidents could be the source of inspiring stories. Anyway, here I am, a little sunburned after my first day out surfing, trying to share with you bits and pieces of my recent reality. By the way here, at the hostel, there is always a very loud movie playing, which makes my task even more difficult…Tonight is Tropic Thunder, and judging by Marc’s absorbed gaze and loud laughter, it looks like a good enough movie to celebrate the relaxing power of the screen after a day in the Aussie sun.
Let me introduce you more intimately to The Flat Screen. Our days and nights are lulled by its omnipresence, its sounds and images hypnotizing us for seconds when, drawn by its power, we walk by it on our way to our exciting everyday business. The Flat Screen sees lazy travelers’ faces everyday that, after many hours in uncomfortable buses, are seeking the well deserved mushy cushions of a couch. What makes this Flat Screen really special are the Masters of Ceremony that seem to inhabit its electronic space. Indeed, almost every time a movie is introduced in the DVD player, the audience has the joy of seeing two familiar faces: two men, both dressed in beige suits, wearing infomercial smiles. They occupy both ends of the screen, proudly announcing that the movie that will soon be showing is happily pirated somewhere in an overpopulated city of Thailand. All the movies also come with lovely looking Thai subtitles and all look like they were shot in the middle of an English foggy night. Or, even better, like if they would have been filmed by your aunt with her crappy camera last Christmas. We are so used to movie images having a certain cinema texture that we don’t even realized they look so different than real life. I never thought I would find it disturbing to look at Clint Eastwood in a “home video” type of filming. He just looked naked.
The best part is when these two Thai gentlemen, never leaving their legendary smiles behind, help you find “English subtitles” in the brightly colored Asian DVD menu. Have you guys seen the movie Stardust? It is quite a good movie, but for our Dutch friend, it just seemed completely absurd. Subtitles would come and go and, even more interesting, would tell a complete different story, seemingly taken right from a very bad imitation of a Samuel Becket play. I laughed so much. During the whole movie I dreamed of having a notepad to write down all the atrocities committed by the translator. But I could not leave the couch, too addicted at this stage to the next horrible line the bottom of the screen would dictate. There was this part where beautiful Claire Danes confesses her love and says it is so powerful that it is unbearable. For unbearable, we read “bury vessels”. And this other part where a prince was finally getting what he wanted and shouting: I’m King! The little white writings then said “Akin”. Can you imagine a whole movie like that? My story might not seem as profound as the others, but scientists say that for 5 minutes of great laughter, you get about 45 minutes of deep relaxation that will help you rejuvenate and live longer. I must have gained a whole year just watching that movie. Thanks pirated movie for this free quality entertainment!
See HIS view
See His and Hers Pictures
See His and Hers Video
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