SYDNEY - A Life in Plasticine

A riverting week's work at Sydney Fashion Exposed. Where the beautiful and the anorexic came to sell their latest wares and befuddle an unwitting industry with their confusing floor layout. As a result, small time retailers who sweat every day of their lives were sometimes just metres away from the corporate giants who rely on sweat shop labour for their existance.


Darling Harbour. Home of fashion victims and big buildings designed to look like ships. Uh huh.

Needless to say, reporting on this festival of egotism would have made for dull reading and, indeed, many a dull ten hour shift. Probably because these fashion folk were rather more difficult to please than any of the other fashion folk I have dealt with recently. Must be the presence of a catwalk which makes them all antsy. Thankfully, due to the foresight of our supervisors leaving white tak all over the computers, amusement was to be found in other ways:


I call this little sculpture: 'Fashion Victim.' It's very existensial.


Something for the folks in icy cold Britain. An ickle snowman. Notice how I made him off-white to reflect the often grey appearence of our national snow men. Fun fact: Britain has some of the dirtiest snow in the world.


This one goes out to Mrs. Russell in memory of great Fimo brides of the past. Sadly my camera thought it would be more interesting to focus on the wires in the background, instead. Philistine.


Gandalf the Grey.

Thanks to Info Salons Australia for allowing such diversions. And special thanks to my supervisor, Naomi, for helping to set up the camera angles because she was even more bored than I was. My last show is next week. Can't remember what it's called. C-Base, C-Section or something similar. Sounds like fun. Could get messy, though.

In other news, on the eve of the Commenwealth Games down the road in Melbourne, one great Australian record came to a crushing end when our hosue lost the local pub quiz for the first time in two months. The humble pub quiz is a very British type of institution. Lots of folks huddled together across bar tables taking the proceedings *very* seriously. I've only ever seen then in Britain, or íf overseas I've found that the most committed partcipants are always the Brits or ex-pats.

Sadly, having lost half our team in this week's series of moves (the perils of living in short term accommodation) our unparalleled knowledge of film quotes, opening lines to great novels and Greek mythology was sadly not enough to help us overcome a crushing ineptitude on Australian TV advertising. Not all things last forever. Which is a good note to end the Australian travel diary with, as I'll be in Hong Kong in less than a fortnight. No line-o-map this time because I didn't go anywhere. So, instead, test your brain cells with the picture round from last week's quiz night. Of course, you also have to work out what the questions were, as well. Answers on a postcard...


Ariel Sharon and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Together at last.