Week 9: Resolution

A simple and apt challenge for this week me thinks: you have to create a New Years resolution for the other person

Now, don't be mean.

Gem

x

Christmas Cheer and Do-It-Yourself Carols

OK so I may have taken this challenge a little loosely. After engorging ourselves on mum's legendary Christmas dinner, of which I cooked the turkey see evidence of me taking control below, we partook in a little Christmas carols concert of our own making. Each person was given a flute (of sorts), when mum pointed at you, you had to blow on your flute thus creating carols like no other. I think we played 'We wish you a merry Christmas' and 'Good King Wenceslas' before we gave up. Please note Mike's reactions to mum's continued devotion our musical genius.

Lots of Love and Merry Christmas,

Gemma

Week 8: Lord, save our souls

A flyer dropped into our letterbox a couple of weeks ago, promising a warm welcome at the annual carol service of the Belvoir Street Baptist Church just a few blocks away from our house. Our Christmas houseguests were as keen as I was to uphold this particular tradition (though Tom took a little more persuading), and off we went to enjoy the singsong. This we did, as the tuneless video attests. What we weren't able to capture for posterity was this church's version of the "Christmas message", a 20-minute sermon delivered by a dour man near the end of the service, which mentioned the word "love" only once, and instead focused on how sinful we are as human beings, sinners who deserve to be punished unless we repent. This man's God was a vengeful God. This was not the God I learned about at Sunday School.

However - despite the threat of eternal damnation looming over our sinful heads - a merry Christmas was had by all.

Love, ali x

Week 8: fa-la-la-la-la, la-la-la-la

This week, sing your lungs out to the glory of Christmas, as you attend a Christmas carol service at a church you've never visited before.

Then enjoy Christmas with family and friends, and raise a few glases of mulled wine in honour of friends in other hemispheres who will be doing just the same for you.

Merry Christmas one and all!

Ali x

Just Ask For The Colonel

A scene that greeted us in the South East this morning. Come on in, the snow is fine!

Week 7: poster-tastic

"It is better to meet the challenge than to fail; to meet the challenge is the true essence of life."

As befits my occasional self-indulgence, I slightly tweaked the challenge to fit the undulations of my life this week. But, if an airport counts as a public space, and "welcome back to Sydney" counts as a valid message to communicate to arriving family, then I'm sure I've stuck to the spirit of things:

SATURDAY (Sophie's arrival)




SUNDAY (Barbara's arrival):




What the photos don't show is just how many people in the airport stared at my poster, their brows slightly furrowed as they tried to interpret my art, which has been described by my esteemed critic T.A-W. as "childlike". For the art-lovers amongst you, the poster depicts Sydney's famous sights, the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge, though they may not be immediately recognisable to the naive viewer as I have depicted them from unusual angles from which no-one has ever viewed them before.

Love, ali x

Week 7: Street Art

"It is better to create than to be learned, creating is the true essence of life."

This week, we are back to our adopted homes and thus the challenge should reflect our continued dedication to the cause. Seeing as you excelled at the colour challenge set only a few weeks ago I thought I would up the ante and create a challenge that will ignite your creative passion and get you discovering pockets of artistic freedom never before visited.

Challenge: You must create a poster which communicates a message and then exhibit it in a public space.

Enjoy, I know I am going to...

Ali strikes the right chord

It was the perfect end to the week and although we were a little shy to begin with we soon took to the stage equipped with tambourine and mic to rock the house out. And rock Ali did, her rendition of Beds are Burning shook the Lucky Voice in Islington and the political undertones which defined the song were explained to us in detail afterwards over a shot of Limoncello and a glass of Pinot Grigio, thus making it accessible to all: she's an inspiration I tell ya'.



Gem x

Gemma is a karaoke queen

Why is it that no matter how long one is in a karaoke booth for, it never feels long enough? We had a ball on Saturday night and Gem in particular gave a fantastic performance of an expertly altered version of "Tears dry on their own". The far-less-expert shoddy camera work is all MY own.



Love, ali x

Week 6: Karaoke Queens

Next Saturday night in London, we shall be joining our fellow London ladies for a night of karaoke in deepest Islington.

This week's challenge, therefore, is to prepare a song for said evening, written by someone from your city (or somehow connected to your city). This will be slightly restricted by the fact that it must be a song that is pretty much guaranteed to be available to us in the karaoke selection. The extra sweetener to this challenge is that you must alter the words of the song in whatever way you choose, to make its message extra special and fitting to the enormity of this occasion. And then, of course, you must perform it live for your enthusiastic audience.

Get practising...

Ali x

Week 5 with Lou

With thanks to my beautiful interviewee for her wise words, here she is...



Stand by for the next challenge...this one's going to be a belter.

Ali x

Week Five: Home

This week's challenge is to encompass the wonderful people that we have known and loved for a long time. Those friends that have coloured our life and made it into that amazing technicoloured dream coat and matching boob tube that we crave when we are apart. Therefore the challenge for this week is to get one of said friends on camera waxing lyrical about your fair city, with or without you, in any setting you see fit.

Ferry fun here we come.

A failure?

Posting on a Monday may mean I have failed this week's challenge. I would like to plead the extenuating circumstances of intercontinental travel, and sisterly weddings, yet still I do feel the shame of this belated entry, especially coming after Gem's sterling effort at the classic tube map.

I have returned to a favourite medium, the haiku. The fact that it is short - three lines, 5 syllables, followed by 7, then another 5 - is of course a complete coincidence.

For Britain’s outlaws
Her bright harbour, a prison,
To us, adventure.

Right now, in Scotland's wet and wild winter, I feel very very far away from Sydney's sunny shores.

Ali x

I HEART LONDON

Yes this is true, I do indeed love this fair city that I have come to call home.

Seeing as my nickname is 'Underground Ernie' I felt it apt that I take the iconic tube map as inspiration for this weeks challenge. Please marvel at my painting skills below. I had to dig these watercolours out from a dusty box under my bed and then spent half the day musing about future murals that I would undertake for charity, with the obligatory progression to public art to fund my hedonistic lifestyle.

Alas the exercise ended, as one would expect, with me abandoning my paints for the alluring lights of the TV, such pretty colours.

You may need to click on the image to see all the exquisite details, I made it so you could utilise the full power of your glasses, kindness knows no bounds.

Gem x

When two become one: challenge week 4

Over the coming weeks, we'll be stretching the concept of the blog close to breaking point, as we'll actually be together in the same city for a significant proportion of the next 3 weeks.

That will entail my spending three of the next seven days in transit as I edge back towards the northern hemisphere, and therefore this week's challenge is somewhat sedentary. We must write a story, song, poem, limerick, or some other such literary piece, describing what we love about our fair cities.

Never fear, those readers who preferred our more adrenaline-fuelled challenges (picnic, anyone?); we will be putting our heads together to come up with an amazing special edition blog representing our time together back in one city, the one that brought us together and at times nurtured us, at times tortured us - London.

Ali x

Somewhere over the rainbow...

...lived a girl called Gemma who loved to dress up even when there wasn't a challenge bestowed at her feet.

As you so rightly pointed out, this was tricky, but actually it worked to my advantage. Each morning there was no moral dilemma, no agonising decision about what to wear, it allowed me to filter and distill thus making my first job of the day a no-brainer, pow!

Apart from that it did serve to fan my ego as I pranced around in front of Will each morning waiting for the 'perfect shot'. Poor Will, I think he started to enjoy himself by the end of it, 'yeah, work it, uh-huh, right there, you look great, give it to me'. Anyhoo, skipping to the end, it was a bleedin' marvelous experience and it made me think of you every day, what you would be wearing and what new tricks you might have up your sleeve. I totally loved the vid by the way, you certainly stepped up to the play, my god women, did you buy some software for that little piece of art? Suffice to say it was awesome, I was looking forward to it all week.

Can't wait to see you on Wednesday.

Love Gem, just call me the pot of gold, Parkinson

xxx

P.S. What is the challenge for this week bucko?

The end of the rainbow

I have to applaud you for this challenge, Gem. I was initially wary, due to my inherent lack of any talent at dressing myself in a co-ordinated fashion, but actually found that the challenge became interwoven with my week's activities in a pleasingly synchronised way...



Ali x

Week Three: Rainbow

This is a tricky one my love but where there is a will there is a way. Week three's challenge is to wear an item of clothing each day of the week that corresponds to the rainbow. Please refer to the link for reference but for a quick win here it is plain and simple:

Monday: Red

Tuesday: Yellow

Wednesday: Pink

Thursday: Green

Friday: Purple

Saturday: Orange

Sunday: Blue

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6aouC56MPOE

I know you will get this when you're at work so an item adorned on Monday night will suffice - look at me the fascist challenge enforcer, rraaargh!

Week Two: Picnic

God it's cold in London in November. As you can imagine I was trying to work out a way to stay warm yet fulfill the challenge objectives by being beside the water. Ideas were banded around such as a picnic beside the bath, sink, glass of water in my living room but no, I was not going to be defeated and out I went. I am so glad I did as it was a sharp, crisp, yet bright day in London: the perfect November afternoon. The sun peppered the orange leaves and with a backdrop like the Houses of Parliament how could I go wrong. Here is what happened.

Ali & gang in Rushcutters Bay Park

I'll let my shaky-camera documentary work do all the talking...



I had a lovely walking route from home to the park, through the pretty terraced backstreets of Darlinghurst, and past the Sydney Jewish Museum, which I should not have been surprised to find closed on the sabbath. Still, something to discover another day; this one has been quite delightful enough!

Oh, and here's the map to help prove this video was indeed shot on location in a real place, and not in an impressively whizz-bang CGI studio in my living room:


View Larger Map

Ali x

Liberty loses her head part 2 and 3

I thought you might want to monitor her progress...

The sad path that liberty often takes

Look here, it is the sad decay of our most precious right. How apt that it has ended this way, Liberty imploding on itself after such effort and patience to build it.

Challenge: week two

Well, I think it's clear that we both hit it right out of the ball park with our efforts this week, good work in both hemispheres!

This week's challenge is to visit a waterside spot you've never been to before, and have a picnic there. London and Sydney are both water-oriented cities so this should be a walk in the park. Canals, oceans, rivers, puddles, it all counts. Now, I appreciate it's not necessarily peak picnic season over there, but just get your longjohns on and be encouraged by the fact that you won't have to fight the hordes for the prettiest spots....

Challenge Fulfilled

So it started with a little thinking, actually it took a while to come up with the best design fit for the challenge, I even roped in the ever professional Inflate boys, Will and Duncan, to help me come up with an idea. At 2.30am yesterday morning it came to me and so we started to work.

It took a little time, some to-ing and fro-ing, and Will even brandished his faithful drill in order to perfect the final piece of art.

And here she is, our beautiful and lovely Statue of Liberty. Now I'm not saying she is particularly significant in terms of our Sydney-London divide but she is a strong woman who depicts the dreams and aspirations of many and therefore she can do that for us. OK well maybe not but goddamn those carrots fit perfectly into those man made holes - he's a genius I tell you.

A quick and quiet note from yours truly on this, the day of your birthday. I love you kiddo I hope you have a smashing pumpkin day.

Love your Gem xx

I rise to the challenge...

I was incredibly fortunate in that, the very week the pumpkin challenge had been set, I discovered this little beauty growing in our garden, already shrink-wrapped and just begging to become the star of our blog:




You can, of course, imagine my delight, but just in case you can't quite visualize that image:




So I began to ponder Gem's challenge to "get creative". Now, with her artistic background, I had no doubt Gem was ensconced in thoughts of abstract expressionism, cubism, the technique of screen printing, heck, possibly even finger painting. But there was something else creative I knew could be done with a pumpkin, that would satisfy a passion we both share: eating. The result: pumpkin and ginger cupcakes...



These little beauties are all set to become the centrepiece of my cupcake-and-champagne birthday on the beach tomorrow. All in all, a most satisfying resolution to the challenge. And in case you want to recreate this recipe at home, here's the link:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2009/oct/24/pumpkin-ginger-cupcakes-baking-dan-lepard/print

Ali x

At the shops causing a stir - just the way I like it

Let's start with Halloween

This is a little scary yet exciting at the same time. The first activity for this week is to source a pumpkin, I hear they are quite popular at the moment, and get creative. We have till Sunday to produce the evidence. Happy Halloween!

This is who we are