we have lived here 25 years

we have lived here 25 years, originally uploaded by smoooch.

"July 8 1970
This day we have lived here 25 years. From the day we moved into that leaky grainary with 2 small children. It was rough."

These are the writings of my grandfather, Edwin, made when he was still alive and building a life and a family on the farm. Small poignant jots of memories penciled into the planks of wood that made up the walls of the old garage.

You can see more of them here.

PHOOTS BOOB

Well however someone gets to More Kisses Please is fine with me. It's OK that if you google PHOOTS BOOB from Saudi Arabia and find my webpage, then all the power to you. It'd be nice if you stuck around longer than 3 seconds, but thanks for visiting anyway.

Othere non exciting ways you've found me..

Silk Hat Restaurant
Glue Making Tissue Paper Lanterns
Flickr Dyke March
Janis Joplin House Larkspur
How to Sew a Zipper

And that make Phoots Boob from Saudi Arabia my current favorite.

the funniest shit ever

Overheard in New York is the funnies website I know of.

And Added Some Strychnine To Her Birth Control Pills


Pharmacist: You should probably re-sign your card.
Woman: Why?
Pharmacist: Well, you signed over the magnetic strip. You're supposed to sign over the white part down here.
Woman: Then how would the machine read my signature? That doesn't make any sense.
Pharmacist: No, it's a magnetic strip. It reads the information, not the signature.
Woman: I don't think you know what you're talking about. That's not how the machines work. You're a pharmacist, not an electrician.

Then the pharmacist gave up.

--Zitomer, 76th & Madison

Overheard by: Helena

youth

me at 19 years

big clouds over the wheat field

big clouds over the wheat field, originally uploaded by Castanet.

I could only hope to catch something this beautiful. Wow. Click on it to go to Castanet's other photos!

Goldfish

Goldfish, originally uploaded by smoooch.

These 2 girls were great. No one was around and they had the time of their lives kicking and splashing in the fountain in front of City Hall in Edmonton. Complete and utter reckless adolescent abandon. I'm glad I captured the moment.

I spoke to them afterwards. They were so excited and energetic. They just asked that I called them 'Goldfish'

Goldfish, originally uploaded by smoooch.

If you look closely, the middle girl has www.morekissesplease.com written along the back of her hand. I hope she remembered.

Italia!

Italia!, originally uploaded by westcoast_frog.

Wish I could've been home to see the neighbourhood explode in joy. This photo is from a flickr group dedicated to The Drive by "Westcoast Frog". More of their shots can be seen here.

hot rain

from the heavens like
multicolored tulips raining down joy on the dirty
swamps of capitalism. spilling earth back
into this metropolis.

-John Rogers

Send me mail!!!

snailmail, originally uploaded by smoooch.

jill@morekissesplease.com

Cool

I almost forgot about this until my aunt Jane showed it to me today via Yarn Harlot. How great is it to be Canadian?

milk me, baby

milk me, baby, originally uploaded by smoooch.

wheat

wheat, originally uploaded by smoooch.

Prairie influenced. My life. My heart. My ashes will be scattered in a wheat field in Alberta one day. Left to blow and tangle with the stalks of gold. Flurry into swirls to rest inside the petals of the wild roses that grow in the ditches along the dirt roads of Alberta. I'll be home.

urban awed

You Cities


Alex is a startling creative expression. Almost everything I see is inspiring, uplifting, clever and intriguing. A wee drawing of his sits in my home, the result of an unexpected aquantenance

a holiday from hunting

IMG_2604, originally uploaded by Ben Frederick.

My own wee break from the jungle is quickly coming to an end. Only a few more days of freedom remains. 5 days to recupperate from getting sick a week ago and 5 more days of Alberta's dry hot weather and falling down barns.

Incidentally, this photo is not mine. Taken by Ben Quinn of Toronto, who happens to be one sharp shooter.

richer than you think

According to this website I am in the top 4.37% richest people in the world. They also made me wonder why the fuck do I feel so poor??

..Well if I could take my job and apartment and move to the middle of Africa, I probably would feel like I could afford Prada and long luxurious vacations in the south of France.

(Stolen from Charlotte)

good to be

Happy Canada Day.

How do you feel?

While on holiday.. I feel quite fine. I've been spending my days sleeping late, wandering around Edmonton, visiting old friends, making new ones, and leisurely surfing the net at a frien's house. All the while, staying as far away from anything work related as possible.

During one of my recent surfs, I found the most deliteful web page that is so extrodainarily interactive and humanizing. How we feel.. check it out.

graffiti

graffiti, originally uploaded by smoooch.

Reading a great book on Basquiat and his brief life in NY. I remembered I took this photo of a message scrawled on a wall. I've seen a few others by the same author on Flickr and the web. Basquiat started writing cryptic messages and poetry on walls around Manhatten, tagging them Samo.

I wonder who ADIII is?

twinkletoes

twinkletoes, originally uploaded by smoooch.

crayons for the journey ahead

Hi.. while I'll be away on my annual vacation, should YOU, intrepid follower of More Kisses Please, get bored I thought I'd pack you a little coloring book to keep you from acting up. Except this coloring book has no pictures but is endless.

Just drop your cursor and go crazy. Click to change colors.

Here's a little inspiration from the man himself.

See you in a couple of weeks.

xxx
Jill

people will be..people

exodus, originally uploaded by smoooch.

My neighborhood had a party the other day. A day to leave the car at home and enjoy the neighborhood. Wander around and look at lots of people doing people things.

walking on stilts
drinking openly on sidewalk patios that stretched out into the middle of the road
spinning a hoop trance like
chanting
hanging around
riding recreated and reconstructed bicycle sculptures
using the road as a giant chalkboard
performing random acts of massage thereapy

and so on..

Despite the general infamy of Vansterdam and particularly Commercial Drive as being havens for open marijuana smoking, narry a pot cloud was to be sniffed and nor a copper to be seen.

handle bar cowboy

cowboy, originally uploaded by smoooch.

curious bike bell found downtown.

tiny

tiny, originally uploaded by smoooch.

How to make a lantern #2- a visual lesson

You need lots of glue to make lots of lanterns. I have a caraffe. Water it down to 3:1 glue to water ratio. Blow up a balloon to about the size of your lantern. Paint the balloon with the watery glue.
Cover the lantern with squares of tissue paper.
With the paint brush, flatten down the tissue paper around the balloon.
Add another of tissue paper and smooth down with your paint brush again.
Continue to repeat tissue paper and glue steps until you have 4-5 layers.
Decorate the balloon with cut out tissue shapes ect..
Hang to dry.
When dry, pop ballon and pull gently from the sides of lantern. using a hole punch, punch two holes on opposite sides. String a ribbon through each hole and tie. Hang on a stick or carry and illuminate with a small tea light.

Jack's on Duty

Look closely.. that's a cat watching the tree'd bear. A 15lb cat named Jack, to be exact. Apparently, "When the bear first came into the yard Jack went after him and scared him up a tree. After fifteen minutes the bear finally got the balls to come back down, only to be chased up another tree minutes later. Finally, worried for the safety of their 15-pound-pussy Jack's owners called him back into the house and the bear went away."

Talk about a tough cat! Now if I could just get Ruby to take down a crow..

Story originally nabbed on Gothamist

Happy Birthday Mom

So, the other day, I got curious and searched for you, Anita Thomas, on the internet. What I found was surprising and a little unusual. I couldn't really believe the amount of images that came up for your name on google.

A Christian singer, a jazz musician, a middle aged black woman working in a cotton mill or a consultant physician in acute internal medicine, the internet provided me an Anita Thomas in many forms but none came close to the one I know.

You've been my mother first and foremost, of course, and an extrodainary one at that. Always there when I was young to wash my scraped knees and soothe my hurt feelings. Walking me to the school bus in your nightgown when I was too scared to get on by myself. Reading me bedtime stories until I got too old. A childhood filled with Tooth Fairies, Easter Bunnies, and Santa Claus. Bandaids, Angel Food birthday cakes, new school clothes and family vacations and Grandma's and Grandpa's. Always making sure I was safe.

You were there when I was an angry adolescent too. Keeping your distance from me, understandably. But there for me nonetheless when I needed a ride home late at night or ran myself into trouble. Countless hours listening to me gripe about endless sources of anger, trying to be supportive and wanting to help. I appreciate that now, more than ever, the solid constant parent you have been in my life. Providing support, a hand up, but rarely a hand out, and a constant and steady stream of love that has pretty much been as unconditional as you could get.

And now, still my mother, but more so my friend. Someone I can share the fun things that happen, the challenges, and the difficuties. Someone whom, I can talk with much more than my phone bill would like and whom I wish I could have coffee or lunch with. I enjoy hearing about the things you're doing, trying out new, or planning. I'm extremely proud to know you as my friend, and I'm so appreciative of the accomplishments you've made in your life as a nurse, a teacher, a loyal friend, a wife and as a human being. Most of all, I'm glad you are my remarkable, incredible, and extrodainary mother.

The one that's willing to get in a photobooth with her 2 grown daughters!

Happy Birthady Mom. I love you very much.

Jill

How to build a lantern

Materials needed:

Balloons
White glue
Paint brush
Lots of tissue paper in light colors cut into squares, strips, stars
Other paper materials: confetti, paper cutouts etc
box of paperclips
hole punch
ribbon or string
garden sticks

1. Dilute glue until watery and no longer pastey.

2. Blow up a balloon until it is a small round orb, not too small, not too big.

2. Paint on glue, and add first layer of tissue paper.

3. Wet balloon again with glue, and add more layers.

4. Continue to repeat #3 until you have 4-5 layers of tissue paper. Get creative with different pattrens, colors etc.

5. Hang on a clothes line with paper clip to dry, preferably overnight.

6. Pop balloon, pull gently away from lantern, punch holes and hang with string or ribbon. Small cutouts can be made with a shrap exacto knife to enhance appearance.

7. Attach to garden stick, put a little tea light inside and there you go.

Tips..

This is messy business. Wear appropriate clothes.
Drying lanterns drip glue sometimes, please hang them outside if its warm and sunny or inside and lay down newspaper.
Try and leave a large enough opening to be able to easily place a tea light inside.
Lighter colors of tissue paper allow the light to move through better making for a brighter lantern. Avoid dark colors unless sparsley.
Confetti is a fun last layer than can have great 'color bleeding' affects. Make sure its paper confetti
Anything less than 4 layers of tissue paper and glue and your lantern will have trouble keeping its form.

Illuminares Lantern Procession:

Public Dreams Society celebrates the light of the summer season with its 18th annual Illuminares Lantern Procession on Saturday, July 29, 2006. The event lights up Trout Lake Park from 7 - 11pm with magnificent lanterns, artistry, music, and magic. This year, Illuminares has a theme: “What grows in your garden? Real or Imagined”. Donations are gratefully accepted for this free of charge event. For more information on Illuminares, contact Creative Director, Mercedes Baines, at 604 879 8611 Ext. 111.

http://www.publicdreams.org/index.html

so dark the con of man

Oh my. My entire foundation of Christian beliefs has come crumbling down. Mom.. all those years of forced Sunday school have been wasted. Dad.. I know you're reading so it's safe to say those sermons delivered by Rev. Schmidt that I had to attend..all forgotten. All I can think about now is the dark con of man, the cover up of the true power of God Almighty. It was a WOMAN. In fact, my angst ridden teenage years could have been spared had I known that there was hope that I as member of the female species could have come out on top.

Oh but really I jest. It was a clever movie and entertaining. Did it need a disclaimer? No, I could tell it was fiction, or have they dug up the Louvre yet. I mean is Mary Mag down there?!! I'll tell you, it did want me to go back to Paris and well..I'm crazy for locations. What I do know is I wish I was clever enough to come up with the spoof that ends with the Holy Grail being at the new Apple Store on 5th Ave, NYC. I can see it. The orb that fell from the sky, the number 5..come on..it hasn't happened yet that I know of, but I can feel it brewing in the collective unconscious..24/7/365/12..

luscious

luscious, originally uploaded by smoooch.

Strawberries are in season. They're cheap like borsht right now. I bought 7 lbs for $10 today. I cut the tops, washed them and bagged them for future berry enjoyment. My mother will be pleased.

wheat

wheat, originally uploaded by smoooch.

the next best thing

I just arranged over the internet to have prints made from my photographs. I went to my favorite Photoshop's website, dowloaded their order software, uploaded my files and info and clicked done. I can even have them mailed to my home. I'll be picking them up in a few days to check it out and if the results are positive it's how I'll have my photos printed. Electronically.

All my photos shown on my webpage that were photographed by myself or shown on my personal Flickr site are able to be purchased. You can contact me at justajill@hotmail.com, if interested.

the best thing

The best thing about living where I do is Trout Lake. And the best thing to do at Trout Lake on Saturdays and Sundays is go to the Farmer's Market! Every weekend I can trundle across the parking lot in my PJ's and buy a fresh brewed organic coffee. I can peruse the samples of fresh organic cheeses and homemade jams. Wander through the displays of barley eye pillows, ceramic candle holders, hemp baby clothes and other down to earth wares until I feel its time to get some fresh greeens and potatoes pretty much picked and dug up that day. Get myself another organic coffee and wander back across the parking lot.

By the way.. I'm moving, but not far enough away to endanger my weekend visits to mother earth.

Also.. I didn't find that rock pictured below, or photograph it. I found it on Flickr and had to share it onwards.

written in stone

written in stone, originally uploaded by omnia.

a little less than usual

I came home sick from Tofino. Achey and feverish and down right sick. So sick I didn't go to work on Wednesday, which is rare. What I did instead is spend the whole day in bed. While I enjoy sleeping the whole day away, the opportunities to watch day time TV are few and far between. So while I was meandering in and out of feverish consciousness, I struggled to keep my eyes awake for various day time talk shows. What's on Oprah?! A mild excitement rolls over me and for a moment it feels like an important task to partake in. I drift away vagually feeling bad that I can't make more of an effort to prop myself up for Ellen, only to awake when I would have returned home anyways. The childish opportunity to indulge in what's often denied, slips away.

In other news.. a steadfast program to keep my work life from permeating and taking over aspects of my other regular life has begun. It's crazy how insipid it is. How if i don't take care my conversations begin to be overshadowed by conversations on THAT topic.

sand hearts found

found sand heart 3, originally uploaded by smoooch.

dreamcatcher

dreamcatcher detail 3, originally uploaded by smoooch.

pictures of the recent camping trip to Tofino are up in My Flickr site.

camper van's-not

The boyfriend and I took off on Saturday, in the wee morning hours in a rented mini van in search of other sites and sounds. It's a long weekend. Need I say more. No, but I will. Off we went at 4 am to make the 5:15 ferry sailing to Nanaimo. Being the one who slept the most, I became the designated driver.

A quick stop at the first Timmy Ho's and we were off in the direction to Port something or other which would lead us further towards our destination of Tofino and Long Beach. We arrived safely and chose a campsite just outside of Tofino. It's very conveneient with free hot showers and firewood. And an internet connnection. I think you really have to get remote to 'rough it' these days. I mean, we're surrounded with people who are travelling with a little house aka, the campervan and the travelodge.

We spent our first night in a too small tent equipt with shitty 'self-inflate' mattresses that have clearly forgot to uphold their end of the bargain. My back feel like I slept on a boulder. I have just heard the rumblings of 'free' coffee. I must retreive some and continue on with my 'holiday'.

More words and hopefully pictures to follow.

Stroked

I was Stroked last night. First concert I've seen in a long time. In fact I can count on my fingers the live shows I've seen in Vancouver.

1-The Cramps- Commodore Ballroom
2- Reverend Horton Heat- Commodore Ballroom
3- The Pretenders- Queen E Theatre
4- Patti Smith- the Commodore Ballroom
5- Toots and the Maytals- Malkin Bowl
6- The Strokes- Plaza of Nations

Plaza of Nations is a horrible and lovely venue at the same time. It's outdoors and if the weather is warm, quite lovely. It's also surrounded by glass and cement. Seriously folks, despite the Strokes, the apparition of Janis Joplin will be the only thing that gets me to go back to that venue. Heavy reverberation and echo. I actually left early as it was so distorted, loud and noisy but great.

The Strokes were great to see, but not unlike the countless concert shots I have seen. Nor that different from the appearances on Saturday Night Live or Letterman. I swear Julian Casablancas was still wearing the same clothes. In fact, I think they all were. There was the 'hunched over the guitar' pose, the 'head back' pose and the 'hand on microphone, foot on monitor' pose typical of most Rock and Roll shows and certainly The Strokes.

Early on, with the opening band playing, my friend Christine and I made our way into the area in front of the stage. We manoevored for better advantage points, all the while enduring the wall of sound and guitars coming from the warm up band. I don't remember what they were called but they've been listening to too much Radiohead and other Emo-rock. Christine felt warm and left to get water and I stayed put. 10 minutes later a surge of bodies behind me pushed me forward and further into the crowd. Christine and I would be seperated from this point on.

As the concert grew near the crowd swelled and condensed like a balloon being blown up and deflated. Occasionally an attempt to gain better footing would be attempted. This is basically a group of people rearing back and charging forward in effort to displace the molecules of people into other positions. The crowd was a condensed jumble of arms and legs, standing ribcage to ribcage. Elbows and shoulders used as weapons for advancement towards the front. At one point, I was certain I could lift my feet off the ground and not move, the pressure of others near me was so great. I was positive I would either throw up or pass out from lack of oxygen.

I decided to give up my perfect fantage point to capture a shitty, grainy phone cam picture of Mr. Casablancas and attempted to push and elbow my way out. Of course this was seen as an attempt to score myself yet a better spot until I started to yell that I was trying to get out. I was finally expelled from the mass with a whoof and my spot immediatly consumed by the hungry mass. When The Strokes started, I looked back to where I had been standing and it had erupted into a mosh pit of jumping bodies, arms waving and bodies surfing above it all.

Hightlight: a cover of Walk on the Wild Side

Update; many phone messages from christine telling me over her wherabouts, of which I received the next day. Another message to say 'Let's get together. I'd love to hear how it was FOR YOU.'

strokes4, originally uploaded by smoooch.

Not bad for a camera shot.

wink

wink, originally uploaded by smoooch.

Neighborhood cat.

them

them, originally uploaded by smoooch.

and then I said..

and then I said.., originally uploaded by smoooch.

My favorite wanderluster is back from exploring Thailand, Cambodia and everywhere in between. World meet Christine. Christine, I think you're you've met the world before. Yah!! I'm excited to see her. She's hip and funky yet not an ounce pretensious. Kind and generous but never gushing. Wise and mature is she yet in a flash will jump and skip and run and giggle like a 5 year old. Never is she boring, always engaging.. of course I had to offer up my companion Strokes ticket as a welcome home, hey lets go party, gift!!

don't forget to..

don't forget to.., originally uploaded by smoooch.

love is a napkin to help keep the crumbs out

napkin_10-16-01_beauty, originally uploaded by digihuman.

There's lots I'd like to say right now about accountability and the value of basic truthful honesty. The kind of honesty that comes from the core, not the kind that comes from some place that tells you what you think others want to hear or what you think you should say to protect anothers feelings. I'd like to talk about the kind of honesty that comes from your own true experience and your steadfast desire to not rob your loved ones of that with embellishment, exaggeration or outrite fibbing.

Instead, I'll tell you about a liitle story I found about a father with not two, but three daughters and his deliberate presence in their lives and the message of love he silently, yet continually he gave them every day as he sent them out in to the world of adolescence, exploration and growth.

It touched my heart in so many ways and I hope it touches yours. "A series of drawings and quotes on napkins put in my daughters' lunches for jr. high and high school every day over a 5 year period." Please click this link to read and see the the story.

yeah for Elseware's

I recently put in a purchase for two quite lovely things: A super great necklace and a groovy new t shirt with a nouveau lily, as you can see here. Naturally, my tag says 'more kisses please'. The order went smoothly, the packages arrived safely and the packaging was minimal and soundly done. Browsing through the array of items from the multitude of designers has brought me to one conclusion...internet shopping will be the death of my bank account if I don't watch it.

I want more tags, more tshirts, more songs, more everything. Stay tuned for my second Neighborhoodie hoodie. I already have one that says, you guessed it, More Kisses Please. The next one is super and I can hardly wait to announce it.

gotta luv wikipedia

Here is an interesting link about the neighborhood I live in, called The Drive. I know it to be full of coffee shops and a few great restaurants. Dominated by early Italian immigrants, the coffee is the best in the city, I'm sure. During World Cup Soccor, the drive is quite boisterous and exciting as all the coffee shops are full of italians and portugese cheering on the teams. In the summer, it is a major hippy hangout with its leftist leanings and healthfood stores.

Yes it's true, it is home to the Vancouver Dyke March. You gotta love those girls, the way they got themselves kicked out of Joes Cafe for a little too much PDA. It's also true that the Drive had Canada's first Amsterdam style coffee shop openly selling marijuana. It was called Dekine and it lasted 4 entire months until they went super public to CBC and the pressure was on for the cops to do something.

The night was warm and humid. One of those summer nights when the sun starts to set around 9pm. Moisture hung in the air and a nighttime rainstorm was in the near future. The local movie crews had set up on one end of a block and were filming the pivitol scene in The Fantastic Four where the man who was made of stone hides behind the bushes and calls his girlfriend in effort to explain his change in appearance. (You know the scene, the one where the blond in the blue negligee runs out into the street. Ya, ok.)

Anyways, at the other end of the same block, the police set up baricades and with a force of 8 cop cars, and twice as many cops set forth to shut down one little cafe that admitted on the national news to be openly selling marijuana in effort to get those ridiculous laws changed. Well, in the summer night heat every hippy, pot smoker, activist, wannabe activist, bystander, passerby, or resident with some gumption got in on the action. The end result.. Fantastic Four production was halted, a few people were arrested and Dekine was no more.

Incidentally, the drive is also "a popular place for Vancouverites who want to experience a safe version of North American counter-culture." That, I did not know. I mean that sounds like there are bongo players with berets, young girls with flowers whispering poetry, and tour buses filled with the curious intrepid traveller flowing peacefully down the street. With all the heroin addicts, panhandlers, and meth junkies I would have guessed something different was going on.

100th post- Chrysler Bldg

Chrysler Building, originally uploaded by Manzari.

spooks

Which is the better image??

tomkat vs. brangelina

Ok, while I avoid pundetry mostly, usually...

As we probably all know Tomkat has had their kitten and named the little bundle of joy Suri. Lovely. Suri Cruise. Or will it be Suri Holmes Cruise? Anyway, apparently Suri "has its origins in Hebrew meaning 'princess' or in Persian meaning 'red rose'." I also heard it uses all the letters in Cruise except the E aqnd C. That would be clever. If Katy was spelled Kcaty, I can think of another name.

Well, I employed my skills of goo-diligence and found Suri has origins in the Khoekhoe tribe of South Africa and Namibia, where the name also means…to envy, or begrudge.

Looks like Tomkat went and stole Brangilina's thunder right out from under them.

6 wants and the recent channeling the spirit of Helen Keller

What that means is lately I have felt mute. Nothing to say. Not seeing. Probably not hearing very well either. Feeling kind of stormcloud rather than rainbow about some things that have happened, choices made, that kind of thing. You know, trying not to see some opportunities as burdens and difficulties. Trying to not regret some decisons. Wondering if I will come to dread and resent them. Am I looking after what I need or further doing things because it would 'mean so much' to someone else.

The rest of the time I've been trying to break decade long habits with the same amount of success as I've always had. Trying to start new ones that leave me sore and tired, worn out. Communicating all day long for a living and then spending the rest of my time barely feeling numb and not wanting to talk to anyone. Mumbling and stumbling through coffee and grocery transactions. And finally wishing I had more energy to be more social to have more friends to balance my life that feels increasingly unbalanced.

I want to take a course in web design.
I want to be fit and healthier and 30 pounds lighter.
I want to take a trip that doesn't involve family or family obligations.
I want to own my own apartment (houses in Vancouver may be just be too much of a stretch)and paint the walls if I want to.
I want to join a club and talk to people that don't involve my 'other' life.
I want a boyfriend that will go beyond where I've been sitting for the last 2 years.

too lips two

too lips two, originally uploaded by smoooch.

party

party, originally uploaded by smoooch.

bloom

bloom, originally uploaded by smoooch.

my back yard

not yet attended, originally uploaded by smoooch.

Hotel Chelsea Balcony Detail

Hotel Chelsea Balcony Detail, originally uploaded by Eric in SF.

beautiful capture from Eric in SF, from Flickr. Really, its a shame we don't decorate staircases the way we used to.

Joe's cafe

One of my favorite sketchy place to get a great late has started their own website. This could be a landmark moment for Joe's. First they started with a postcard, then some tshirts cropped up and finally some signs on children's craft paper posted in the windows announced the presence of a website. Naturally I had to give them all the photos I've taken of their spectacular coffees in perfect layered glory and they have put them up on the sight.

Apparently, back in the day, it was quite the place to be. A real hopping joint. It got a little popular with the local lesbians. Maybe it was the recurring theme of bullfighting decor, from the stuffed bull heads, to the wood carvings of matadors, to the velvet painting of capes flying in full bullfight regalia. Whatever it was, the ladies loved this place. So much so, that one day, 2 gals decided to show everyone else how much they loved Joe and each other by engaging a steamy makeout session at one of the tables at the front windows (so the tale tells..)Well, Joe, being of old school caliber, lost his cool and kicked them all out loud enough for the local press to take note. Ever since, despite the rainbow mural and lovely and delicious coffee cocktails, it's had a must cooler, subdued and quiet vibe.

Ok with me. Lesbians are ok, but give me sketchy anyday.

PostcardX is one of my favorite things as no email can ever really replace the joy of non-bill mail waiting for you at the end of the day. Always will they be unexpected surprises. Miniature gifts lying in wait. Long live the mailman and snailmail.

Thanks Girlonaglide for the great postcard!

more kisses please

Did you know public kissing might land you 5 lonely years in a Indonesian jail. That is if a new parliamentary bill goes though. Debates are raging over the "anti-pornography" legislation. Tourist sunbathers and tradtional indigenous tribes are at risk of criminal incarceration if the bill gets passed.

So, remember, when you go to Indonesia, do not smoke the hash or try and take some along further down the road with you. That's a guarantee of never seeing the light of day. Do not expose yourself to the sun or to your fellow breathen unlesss you want to share a stinky 3 world jail cell with them and what ever you do NO PUBLIC KISSING, EVER.

However, in an odd twist of events, Bali holds a annual kissing festival. (This is when I'll be going!) According to news reports, 300 people took part over the weekend. Apparently the kissing festival is meant to ward off unxexpected evil and unforseen dangers.

Like going to prison??