Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Where is this hotel entrance? There are only businesses in the first floor. I went to each one of them and there is no backdoor that leads into the hotel. There is a flag of Colombia on the left, and a big warehouse entrance that leads to nowhere. 

One can clearly see people inside pass by its windows. Guests might come by helicopter and enter through the roof? Maybe. But what if it's is a luxurious hotel designed for certain people. You, as a guest of this hotel, will see the gruesome reality on the park infront of it through your window, being secure that non of it will have access to the safe hotel. No need to be said, you couldn't go out and check tthe park as well. The only way will be jumping from one of the floors. But who will do that? "Not me", screamed one of the hotel residents when asked. 

It reminds me about another Astoria. 

Thursday, June 16, 2011



I decided to go back to the place I grew up in. It wasn't easy getting there. I remembered the suburb but was it behind my old school or in front of it? Was it to the left or to the right of the intersection? I totally forgot and so I drove around for about twenty minutes listening to the Glee soundtrack until finally it came to me and I took a right and then did a u-turn and then a left and down that road with the speed bumps and there I was. I lived in a townhouse, a really ugly townhouse which was cool at the time I guess. It had green carpet and bamboo wallpaper. I loved it there and I have so many memories from so many years in the townhouse, but all are vague, like half-forgotten dreams. They are all half-formed memories which seem to mix with my imagination to form kind of surrealistic globs of stories in my head. So my picture is of a park inside the townhouse complex, right up the top and on the corner. The park always empty. There was no play equipment because I suppose they figured the kids could play or something. We never did because there was a much better park and a river down a secret path at the back of one of the townhouses. 

Funny thing is that I remember that little park so, so well even though I never played it in. I remember it better than almost anything else in my childhood. That's probably because i had a nightmare about it. It is the only nightmare I have ever had that I have never forgotten. My family and I were all playing in the park for some reason and then this american police car arrived which was strange since I lived in Australia. We didn't trust them and started to run which is a good thing because the american police car turned into an alien police car and the aliens started to chase my mother and I remember my mum screaming and telling me to run and running with my sister and my dad and some friends down the hill and then the Aliens caught them. And I kept running and head in this little white enclove which look like a chapel, where we had all our letterboxes. And I could hear them scream and somehow I knew the aliens were taking over their bodies. So then I had this horrible idea that I would need to go home for dinner or mum would be angry but mum was an alien now so how would I have dinner with an alien family and pretend everything was normal? So I guess that's why today I don't remember which townhouse I lived in (was it 5 or 7 or maybe it was 6 but definately not 4 or 8). But I remember the park.

I live overseas now and have for a long time. I haven't spent my last 4 birthdays nor my last 4 christmases at home. I love it and I love my life and my friends overseas and it has its hurdles sometimes but overall it's really good. So I'm glad that the little girl who didn't play in that park has grown up but I have to admit I was happy to find my old townhouses where there were, exactly as they were totally unchanged as if all this years were just a blink of an eye, as if they have been waiting in suspended animation for me to come home again. I'm going back overseas now and I wont see that park for a long time but I hope it stays the same just as it's always been, like I remember it.

Corner sent by Sarah.

Monday, June 13, 2011


It was seven o'clock when the bus where I was riding in stopped in front of this corner. I was a bit tired, so I leaned my head against the window and closed my eyes. I opened them again as I heard a whistle on the outside. I quickly noticed that the bus had not moved for the entire time that I had closed my eyes. Have you ever closed your eyes for a while and opened them back again asking yourself if you've slept for a long time? That is what I felt.

I looked to the front of the bus and saw the driver screaming bad words out the bus door. Then I looked to my right and what did I see? Four glamorous, covered in feathers, dressed in bright jewellery, looking spectacular drag queens were dancing and chanting along the side of the bus. Wearing high heels they where almost as tall as the bus itself. Their dresses where bright red, dark red, bright green, and bright yellow respectively; in my head those were their names.
 
"Bright red", "dark red" and "bright yellow" moved their shoulders back and forth to the rhythm of a caribbean song that "bright green" beautifully sang. Finishing their performance "bright green" stepped on a yellow bollard on one leg and bent back the other. "Bright red" and "bright yellow" were on both sides of "bright green". They stood still looking at us with a sexy but dangerous look. Finally, "dark red" grabbed one of the signs and put a leg around it and smiled at us.
 
Most of the passengers stood from their chairs and looked at the performance. Some of them even clapped and whistled when it ended. We felt like we were in Rio at the great carnival!