The next title for the Maundy Thursday Book Club is A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini. It costs $25 at the Camberwell shops.

A Thousand Splendid Suns is a breathtaking story set against the volatile events of Afghanistan’s last thirty years—from the Soviet invasion to the reign of the Taliban to the post-Taliban rebuilding—that puts the violence, fear, hope, and faith of this country in intimate, human terms. It is a tale of two generations of characters brought jarringly together by the tragic sweep of war, where personal lives—the struggle to survive, raise a family, find happiness—are inextricable from the history playing out around them.

Thankfully, no-one has read this title. It came out of the publishing house just a year ago. Amy and I are looking forward to seeing everyone at our next meeting, 7pm on the 25th July.

If you’re keen to hear about the author’s previous title, The Kite Runner, check out the latest episodes of the BBC World Service’s podcast World Book Club.

WBC: Khaled Hosseini

Bestselling writer Khaled Hosseini discusses The Kite Runner, his first novel set in Afghanistan, which has sold 15 million copies.
Duration: 27mins | File Size: 13MB |

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Leaving Anhui after a week holiday, all full of love, was simply the greatest.

6 weeks later, leaving my wife at Jinan airport, I bawled my eyes out. My handkerchief soaked with tears and sniffles jerking my whole body. Nothing the airline staff could do, would comfort me in the least. I was grateful that my colleague and mate Ivan was there to drag my sulking corpse onto each of the flights.

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Amy is born in the year of the monkey. It was most auspicious to have recently discovered that my birth date falls in the year of the tiger where

• Their energy and love of life are stimulating.
• Tigers are romantic, passionate, and playful.
• They love life and want to live it to the fullest.

If you prefer the alternative low down on your Chinese zodiac, check out Snarling Tiger, Dirty Rat: A Short and Nasty Guide to Embracing Your Inner Beast (by Stella Hyde). The Mating Mistakes combination of a tiger and a monkey are :

Monkeys know how to ride you, and you love having your fur groomed. But then they tease you, and you lose your temper and roar and look foolish.

Amy’s visa came through so quick, it definitely smashed all the Olympic records. A much needed 40kg baggage allowance ticket was found and finally we are counting down the hours. I have arranged Monday off work and my dad has come to help with airport transfer bright and early on Monday morning!

Naturally I’ll be occupied, taking care of MY wife. To keep the rest of you entertained on Monday, don’t miss this once in a lifetime opportunity :

27^th August; the day the whole world is waiting for.
Planet Mars will be the brightest in the night sky, starting August. It will look as large as the full moon to the naked eye. This will cultivate on 27^th August when Mars comes within 34.65 million miles of Earth. Be sure to watch the sky on 27^th August at 10:30pm. It will look like Earth has 2 moons. The next time Mars may come this close is in 2287.

石首君 (shi shou jun) is my Chinese name – “Wow!”

Weifang 潍坊 International Kite Festival was a spectacular and colourful event that highlighted our weekend. With both foreign and local friends together, a day-trip to the festivities was just what I needed. Every year in the middle of April, competitors from all over the globe come to fly and fight against each other for the prestigious title of champion kite-flyer.

The military clad lads didn’t hang about much after we arrived.

The amazing kites aloft included a theme set of marine life with a giant sea-horse, squid, lobster and sting-ray aloft in the sky. Others floating around included the dragon kites, some hoop kites, a fat Winnie the Pooh, a pheonix, a Homer Simpson and the famous box kite.

The deluge of celebrity stardom treatment over us was far more than there ought to have been. We checked out the international competitors pavilions and met any folk we could say Hello to, in their native tongue. When strolling around with Ivan, it’s not too hard to cover most of the globe in this way. However the shear number of locals who would simply request a token photo with us foreigners, is sky-high. Never mind your name, nor any other interesting details, just shut-up and smile! It was quite hilarious and bizarre at the same time.

Unforgettable was the cute girl who must have been in training for how to pose. It was her reflex to do so when I asked for a photo of her and her Hello Kitty balloon. Check out the resulting photo!

On our return train ride to Jinan, the conductor? guy decided to meet the foreign crowd with a little more curiosity. First up, we must establish who is the stronger. A simple arm-wrestle will decide this. One by one, he tried on all the boys in this game of manhood. The conversation only came to a halt when the conductor? guy had to get off at his stop.

Running Bull Productions proudly presents 2 nights of back-to-back screenings of the digital impressions slide-show trilogy, including the première of a Tibetan travel tale. Following on from where we left off in chunks of China, the third part of the trilogy takes on altitude, a different culture in far flung lands, and concludes the story.

I hope you can make it on either night, Friday the 9th of March or Saturday the 10th of March, from 6pm at my house . The program plan for each evening is :

• 6pm Japan – a year in the life
• 7pm chunks of China
• 8pm a Tibetan travel tale

Please enjoy the poster and YouTube preview (1 minute and 11 seconds) before you see the main feature!

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This years main Australian Photographic Expo is in Melbourne, May 3-6. The show is run by the Photo Marketing association of Australia and the Photographic Imaging Council of Australia.

A feature of every years show is an exhibition of photographs from the Australian Institute of Professional Photographers.

This year however the organisers would like to invite members of the Melbourne Flickr groups to submit images to be used in a special ‘Electronic Gallery’.

In keeping with the sharing nature of Flickr, we have created a wall of LCD frames of various sizes that will feature a constant electronic slide show of images of Melbourne. This Electronic Gallery will feature nothing but images of Melbourne taken by Flickr members.

I won’t be able to make it to this event. If you are in Melbourne though, please check it out and tell me what it’s like.

Today I spent my afternoon with Yasue, cruisin’ around various cityside venues, checking out their potential for her wedding later this year. It just goes to show, you don’t have to live within 500 metres to explore a new area. At least we didn’t end up like the cow from Hey diddle diddle.

To all my international friends, take a leaf out of the flickr blog on The Australian Lesson. It’s not just about roo steak!

I don’t know if you’ve ever seen Australians in the wild before, but next time you do, just remember these 4 simple rules:

1. Keep us outside, preferably near the beach
2. Cook us something on a barbecue
3. Talk about sport, and
4. Give us a beer

It’s really very simple, and I can guarantee you will get bonus points if you also feed us lamingtons or fairy bread.

Happy Australia Day!

A Toblerone at The Atrium where the view is best from the loo. Followed by meeting up with Christie, Craig and Liz. I hadn’t seen Craig since climbing days in Squamish! After the fireworks display, we stuffed ourselves at the Blue Train Café and chatted until the last train took me home.

Come along and see Tezuka: the Marvel of Manga, a special exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria, before it finishes on the 28th of January. It’s $12 to get in and we can meet beforehand this Saturday 13th January 2:30pm at Federation Square.

TEZUKA Osamu is heralded as an icon of the Japanese manga movement; acknowledged in Japan as an artistic master, and revered as the figurehead of the manga and anime industries. Creating over 700 manga titles during his lifetime, he is best known in the West for his cartoons of Astro Boy and Kimba the White Lion, which were serialized for television in the 1960s. Tezuka’s work is acclaimed for its complexity and originality and his drawings showcase an extraordinary calligraphic dynamism. His prolific manga work contains two main streams: manga ‘comic pictures’ for a youth audience, including Astro Boy, Kimba and Princess Knight; and gekiga ‘drama pictures’ – more seriously-toned, adult oriented narratives such as Song of Apollo and Ludwig B, that stress realistic effect and emotional impact. This exhibition features both aspects of his work, introducing Western audiences to the complexities and extraordinary range of the manga form.

This exhibition has been negotiated through Tezuka Productions in Tokyo. Comprising original drawings, designs for manga covers and posters, the exhibition will introduce Western audiences for the first time to the full scope of Tezuka’s artistic output.

What grabbed my attention is a few of the podcasts from curator Philip Brophy, in particular:

3. Philip Brophy talks about postwar Japan and the birth of Astro Boy (duration: 11 mins)

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6. Philip Brophy talks about how, in Japan, ‘cute’ is not always cute (duration: 9 mins)

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8. Philip Brophy delves into the darker side of manga (duration: 8 mins)

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ADVISORY MESSAGE
Life is full of interesting stuff. If you need your parent/guardian to hold your hand, perhaps you should stay at home and live a sheltered life.

Woah! Well let’s say the advisory message should be acknowledged. Among the expected cutie characters drawn up on the walls, are some ideas, concepts and characters that certainly took me by surprise. After discovering mountains of porn on a visit to Fuji-san, some of Tezuka’s sexual content on show didn’t raise an eyebrow. What did catch me off guard, was some of the psycho imagery and depressing stories. Some such as humans contracting a disease that brings out canine features, may be explained by the fact that Japan suffered for decades after the infamous A-bomb was dropped. However, others including a murdering phantom horse, write your own religion, and an ongoing theme of gender-switching folk gave me something to think about. The great contrast Japan is renowned for: there is nothing hidden about Tezuka’s mindset, yet Japanese society remains the most secretive I’ve ever known. Let’s call that a love-hate thing.

New Year fireworks on Vimeo

Chris had staked out a patch of the Yarra bank, holding fast to his blanket. Sori had arrived after the first wave of fireworks had subsided. Through swelling crowds swarming over the Princes Bridge, I wove a line with my mobile pressed firmly to my ear, Where are you? With the live music blaring and colourful dancers and lights atop Federation Square, it was all quite mesmerising.

Giant Piñata Seen in Mexico City! To celebrate the record-breaking success of Viva Piñata™, the Xbox 360™ team in Mexico City decided to break a record of their own: by building the world’s largest piñata! Forty five dedicated team members and 800 volunteers built a giant Horstachio that stands 48 feet high and weighs a whopping 4,400 pounds!

If you are concerned about your safety (or your children’s) then perhaps you should try the parents’ and the children’s safety videos! Now who says we can’t sue Microsoft because our children bashed us up using their new Christmas present?

Pete’s piñata on Vimeo

The real piñata got his arse whipped until his leg broke and his guts spilled out. So much for the viva! All in the name of great fun at my cousin’s 21st birthday party.

The good and the bad of being born on New Year’s Eve:

• Everyone’s already in party mode (this can save you heaps on your catering budget).
• You get the best fireworks show of the year.
• Proximity to Christmas means you often won’t get the full value of 2 separate presents, rather a single crappier pressie.

Happy Birthday Pete. I hope you enjoy sleeping with the girls.