Today was a huge day.

I didn't get to sleep till 2 last night (and the same will happen tonight as well) and had to wake up at 7 this morning. I was so knackered. I had this bun thing that is very popular in Hong Kong. They're called pineapple bun with butter. So basically they're these buns with a block of butter in the middle of the bread and it has like this crunchy yummy thing on top of the bun which is also butter. It's also supposed to have like a enhanced taste but to be honest it just tasted like bread with a block of butter. Healthy breakfast much? I had to had something on the go... Anyway, I caught the MTR to Fortress Hill and according to my map it said it takes 7 mins to walk to Studiodanz.

It took me almost an hour.

I was freaking out because that side of town didn't have any road signs or maps on the corner of the road saying "you are here" so most of my morning consisted of wandering around trying to find a road name and just trying to use my sense of direction to figure my way around. I almost had a breaking point because there was only 5 mins till 9 and I haven't reached my destination. I just wanted to catch a taxi. Eventually I decided that this was bull shit and that I should find any western shops so I could ask for directions. Luckily I found Starbucks (and once again I walked out without a coffee in my hand - pathetic) and the girl at the counter helped me out heaps. She drew a picture and said which buildings to look out for.

I wasn't that far away from the studio.

When I reached there, I was like thinking "what the fuck" because the area was a dead end and the building was like for trucks to off load things. At this point I just wanted to give up and go back to the hostel. After wandering around in circles for about 3 mins and asking 2 people where this is, I finally found it (it was in the building) and raced up. When I got up there (about 9:05am), no body was there! I was so confused. I asked the ladies at the desk what time the workshop started... it started at 10.

kill myself.

At least I wasn't late! Though I was extremely tired.

The studio is called Studiodanz and it's a really pretty studio space. I've never seen so much art and beautiful dance space in such a long time. So fancy. I did Lee's workshop in the morning and afterwards semi-assisted and did Philip's workshop. It was fun and I got to meet lots of Hong Kong artists which was fantastic! Not going to lie I'm super sore now and I'm not sure how much I'll be able to do tomorrow.

I got to meet some really interesting people and got to listen to their lives. I really enjoy that, listening about peoples lives and their adventures. I think thats why I kind of suck at researching people up because I realized today, I don't like knowing who they are before I meet them. It's much more interesting when you find out that persons biography when you speak to them. Also if I know who they are, it'll make me nervous and I won't be able to talk to them at all. I think its a bad thing to have this especially in the dance industry, but there is something so raw and real about listening about one human beings life story. And they're right in front of you.

Afterwards, I headed back home and met up with my roomies. We all went up to Prince Edward station and ate at One Dim Sim. Holly shit it was amazing!!! The dim sim was incredible and we just loved everything we ordered. Something new that I had that I just loved was custard buns. They were terrific! I hope they sell good ones in Perth... probably expensive though.

Shopping came next! We walked down the street towards Mong Kok where the street markets were as well as local roadside stores and holy shit I went mental. I legit spent half my money on shopping. So worth it though! In total I got:

2 sweaters

1 dress

1 cardigan (finally got one)

2 notebooks (for shu)

3 little handmade cards

1 pair of shoes

1 hand bag

In total, the cost was $132 australian dollars! Such a win! The most expensive things were the shoes and the handbag, they cost around $82 australian dollars, and this was after discount because I was such a cool gal (I got a special discount! The store lady called up her boss just for me!) I was stressing out before because I was thinking it was exactly the same price as in Australia but I justified myself by saying it is one of a kind, it is good quality, and when I finally found the shoes and bag I should get it. I've been looking for these type of shoes and handbag for so long and especially something that is good quality so I'm quite happy with my purchase.

No more shopping for me though, except for presents... broke life.

After lots of shopping, we headed back home and had liquid nitrogen ice cream! amazing stuff! the flavours we had were HK crispy toast, bakedwell tart, and mango and pineapple greek yoghurt.

Awesome way to end the day :)

Today was a pretty chilla day in Hong Kong.

I woke up at 9am (yes I actually got up at the time I was meant to get up) and got ready to go out and explore the harbour side of Tsim Sha Tsui with Themis. She picked me up at 10 and we drove down. We got to walk through the Art Exhibition Centre (I think that is what it is called) and saw really cool contemporary statues of everyday lives in Hong Kong. We kept on walking down till we hit the Avenue of Stars and took some silly photos with the statues there. There were so many people trying to get in a photo. Every time I go in to take a photo someone else jumps in! I guess my Australian etiquette isn't applicable here... Need to be more feisty. We then stopped by Starbucks (YES!) and grabbed a quick drink and snack. I didn't have breakfast so I ended up getting yoghurt and blueberry muesli and grapefruit fruit juice. So stupid - I went to Starbucks and didn't even get a coffee.

Afterwards we headed back to the hostel to pick my up friend Cheryl and went to this shopping mall which I can't remember the name but its a new mall. We had to drive around the mall about 4 times before we finally found the parking entrance! There were so much construction happening around that mall it was a joke. Apparently that is a new area that is being developed.

We had Japanese food for lunch and oh my god it was amazing! I had salmon with salmon roe. It was a big bowl of deliciousness! I never had salmon roe; they're like caviar but giant sized and they burst into liquid when you eat them. They're super salty too!

After good chats and a full belly we all parted our own way. Themis had to go back home and Cheryl went off to see the Lion rock. I decided to get some shopping done since the shops are right there and I managed to get a giant dusty blue turtle neck knit sweater and a very cute bikini set. Altogether it was $298HK which is around $40 aussie, which is a joke!   So cheap! I did get the sweater on sale so that was a bargain.

After walking around I caught a taxi back to the hostel (because to be honest I could not be bothered to walk around and find the MTR station) and hung out with my new roommate Wendy!

Wendy is 25 years old. She's a Chinese teacher and she teaches at Cheryl's old primary school! (how crazy!) She's super cute and such a sweet heart. I'm amazed she doesn't have a boyfriend! But she said she's okay just being single even if she is single her whole life. She's so different from the typical Singaporean girl. I like her :) She's also a bit of a mama bear!

After spending some quality time chatting to Wendy, I quickly got ready for the "welcome dinner". I got to meet everyone! Felt slightly out of place because everyone there is so much older than me but it was alright. They were all great to talk to (even though I didn't get to talk much). We ate at the Marco Polo hotel in some Shanghai restaurant. Yummy food!

After dinner, I headed back down to the harbour to take more pictures of the beautiful view. It started to sprinkle a little bit to I ran down the road and went into H&M to see if there was anything in this store I wanted to get. There were no winter stuff there and there wasn't much on sale. SAD FACE. There were a few things I wanted to get but then I started thinking cheaply and was like, "oh is it really worth 10 aussie dollars?"

I think I'm going to wait and just go to Temple Street or one of the markets/shops where its local boutique store or set up stalls and buy some stuff there.

I do need to get shoes though.

My first official day exploring and seeing Hong Kong was definitely crazy.

First I need to correct my roommates name, its spelt Cheryl.

Today we spent the whole day in Hong Kong island, and wow let me tell you it was a huge day.

We woke up at 10:00am when we aimed to wake up at 9:00am (fail). We finally got out of the house by 10:45am and made our way out. Decided to stop by the egg waffle place for breakfast, but unfortunately, today was a public holiday due to the Dragon Boat Festival so we decided to just catch the train over to Hong Kong island and grab food at Stanley Beach. It took us forever to Stanley Beach. Firstly, catching MTR to Admirality Station wasn't that bad; finding bus number 6 took ages. By the time we found its station we waited for a good 30 mins before it arrived. Just as we thought our adventure was about to begin, we got kicked off the bus into the main bus station and was forced to line to up go back up on the bus again. How Hong Kong buses work, I have no idea... After we sat on the bus, we realised that we went in a small circle back to the same bus stop we were waiting at before. Pathetic. Never the less we continued our journey to Stanley Beach.

On our way to Stanley Beach, I started feeling really sick. Let me tell you my tolerance for motion sickness is pretty damn good, but oh my god I felt so sick on this bus I thought I was about to puke! The bus was driving so fast and so jolty! And because theres so many curves and swerves on the road I kept flying from one end of the bus to the other. On top of that there were so many people! We managed to find a seat about half way through the bus ride and I just pretty much sat and closed my eyes. It was also because I had nothing to eat.

Next minute, I lost my Octopus bus card. $300HK (about $40AUD)  just disappeared just like that. I figured it fell out of my pocket when I was hunting for a seat... Someone must have picked it up and kept it. Great start for my first day in Hong Kong huh?

Regardless we made it to Stanley Beach and we managed to get free ice cream! Winning! We then headed to Stanley Market where there were lots of stalls selling cheap things. We ate at a local restaurant, which had a chinese name to it. I had wonton noodles (typical me). It had so much MSG Cheryl and I couldn't finish it. We had to drink a whole jug of water!

We further explored Stanley Market and then walked back to Stanley Beach and watched a very short dragon boat race.

We then caught two buses and did lots of walking to get to Happy Village which is famous for their horse races. Unlucky for us, they were closed so we weren't even allowed to walk in to take pictures! Well, at least we got to see the outside of it.

Something to add... on the bus, I saw an older mans balls, penis and pubic hair hanging out of his shorts!
MOST DISGUSTING THING EVER. 

Caught another bus and a tram to Victoria Peak where we found out that it was pricey to catch the tram up to The Peak so we legitimately treked it all the way to this main road which is near Central Station just to catch a bus that goes up to The Peak. Once again, it took forever to find. Two lost girls just making it up on the spot. 

I got to admit the walk and the multiple buses and the confusion of directions was worth it because when we got up there, the view was beautiful! One side you can see the mountains and the other side you can see the city. We stayed there till it got dark and ate some baked goods and bubble tea. We had good chats about traveling, our lives, careers etc etc...

After spending some romantic quality time together, we headed back down and catch a ferry back into Tsim Sha Tsui. 

So many beautiful lights.

We wandered around town where all the big flash shopping malls were and then settled down for dim sim - yummy!

Over all it was a successful day. Even though it started out badly it ended amazingly and I had such a good time!

I swear to god we went round in circles so many times... we saw the same place about 5 times!

On another note, we lost two room mates but gained a new one! She's from Korea and she's only here for 4 days. She's a 25 year old recent graduate in design and she's working for some company where she gets to design phones I think. 

cute store in Stanley Markets

Stanley Beach

Dragon Boat Race at Stanley Beach

More boats at Stanley Beach

Me and my partner in crime at Happy Village

The Peak (side 1) in the day

The Peak (side 2) in the day

The Peak (side 1) at sun set

The Peak. Just saying there is a lot in this photo.

The Peak (side 2) at night

Star Ferry!

My token to board the ferry.

I am finally in Hong Kong! After 10 hours of flying and 8 hours of waiting around doing nothing (mainly just playing on my phone and staring blankly into the space) I landed in this beautiful city.

Got to admit I'm extremely tired even though the majority of my day consisted of sitting, eating, and sleeping. Something about flying makes you really tired. Also my flight from KL to Hong Kong got so delayed because they couldn't find 3 luggages that were meant to be on the plane, SO they had to off load all the luggage and reload them back on one by one. I think we were delayed by an hour. 

I was lucky enough to get picked up by my mom's friend Themis and she was so kind to drop me off at the hostel that I was staying at. Let me tell you if she didn't come pick me up, and I just took public transport to where I was staying, I would have been F-U-C-K-E-D, fucked. I would have gotten so lost. And In this heat and humidity! Oh man I would have probably given up and started crying on the side of the road.

The place I'm staying is called Just Hotels and its really adorable. Its quite simple and small but great for if you're here for just a few days. I probably should have book out a normal room rather than the dorm rooms because I just have too much stuff and I can't fit it anywhere. Oh well... Going to have to make do!

I met my roommates, one from Singapore and two from China. I'm struggling to communicate with the China people because their english isn't too good! But its good practice for me and I like to try anyway. Sheryl is the girl from Singapore and yay I can speak to her easily. The other two names are Wade and some chinese name I forgot (yes I'm horrible). I'm going to have to ask her again later... They're all really lovely people :) but they're only here for a few days so I have a feeling I might be all by myself for the rest of my trip? Maybe someone will come up... I kind of hope someone comes up.

 My plan tonight? Sleep, talk to anyone who is awake which is probably no body. Attempt to talk to chinese to my roommates. Make a plan for tomorrow? Need to explore my surroundings and find the MTR station and get all the maps and stuff. Thats a must!!!!

Anyway, no photos for today. I think I might upload all the photos later when the whole trip is done. Or maybe I'll just upload the video that I'll be sending everyone here at the end.

:)

So no photo post today BUT a whole bunch of exciting adventures and an ending to a beautiful story.

Yesterday, Daisy and I had our first showing for our first development "Status Room". Let me just say, I had such an amazing time working with Daisy - the things we went through together, experienced together, learnt about each other... I couldn't ask for anything more special. It broke my heart a little bit when I realised that it was over. Not completely over, but semi-over until September.

As part of our performances, we collected a whole bunch of feedback from the audience and anti-statuses. Wrapped in brown paper and tied up with warm red yarn.

It was really special.

Something I can't describe.

Each response was so unique and interesting. I wonder what they were thinking when they wrote what they wrote down. Each mind thinks and function in different ways. It was so great to see that on paper. What was really special was when I got my brothers response. I couldn't help but let my eyes fill up with tears. 

It made me so happy.

Loved.

We have another development happening in September which I'm excited about. More will be invested, our skin and bones and everything that is left of us.

For now, its just casual 2 hour catch ups at the Blue Room Theatre studios every now and then.

I'll post some photos of the envelopes next time... hopefully. And maybe share some of the beautiful poetry we received.

On other news, I'm going to Hong Kong!

The incredible Phillip Channells has invited me as an Associate Artist to accompany him and Sean to Hong Kong for his project Dance Integrated Australia. It is such a privilege to have this opportunity given to me. The experience and the exposure! Also a great kick start for my dance career! 

I was told this week on Thursday which was super last minute but I managed to book flight and accommodation. I'll be staying in the heart of Hong Kong, Tsim Sha Tsui, where I'll be resting my little head in this absolutely adorable apartment. It's a dorm set up so we'll see how that goes. Secretly, I hope there isn't anyone going at the same time as me so then I could have the whole place to myself but then again, I really hope theres people staying there because I would love to meet new people! We'll see what happens.

I'm there for 8 days - two days I get off to do whatever I want and the other 6 days I'll be with Phillip. I think there will be talks and workshops. I wasn't given too much details on what is required of me or what I'll be doing there but I'll find out sometime in the following week...

I've set up a Pozible account and has posted this as my first project to help fund my trip over there. If there is anyone reading, have a look. It's also for a good cause :)

http://www.pozible.com/project/182296

Excited!

So these past couple of weeks I've been working very closely with my friend Daisy in creating a full length dance piece (which wont be fully presented till the end of the year.) We're currently working on our first development, and let me tell you, it has seriously been a roller coster ride. There has been so many ups and down just because what we're exploring can really come close to the heart and you have to dig deeper and deeper and deeper into yourself to create something real. We have a showing next week on saturday... Very nervous about it but I know that it's going to be great. Trust myself and trust the work.

It's been hard for me.

But also so rewarding.

Here's some snaps.

Hello! I haven't been posting very much recently. I have undertaken my residency with my friend Daisy this month so I have been busy dancing. Never the less, I have decided to take a little break from it all to have my own personal time to post a little update. I'll share more about it in another post...

I spent this weekend celebrating mothers day! You guys might have not known but my mom had just undergone surgery on her eye because she had a retina detachment. What that means in short easy to understand form is that she pretty much lost sight in one eye = she went blind. Luckily, due to the amazing hospitals here in Australia and the high skilled doctors here, mom was able to get it repaired and she is still on her way from recovering.

The first few days she couldn't move at all - lots of lying around in bed and staying still but now, she's able to move and do things and she can even see through her eye, yay!

As a family, we bought mom a beautiful pink bathrobe, pink house slippers to match, and a lovely lilly iphone case (on of Van Gogh's paintings.)

We went down to our cousins house for a big mother's day celebration where all the mothers were there and had a big BBQ. YUM!

Oh yeah, we also celebrated Vadar's birthday, our cousins dog.

Unfortunately I didn't take lots of photos, or any good photos. I was too caught up in the moment! But I guess thats a good thing, if you spend too much time trying to take a good photos, you end up missing the experience of the moment.