April 30, 2006: April 30, 2006
D&AD Judging Area 2006: eXcel London
Im back from judging online at D&AD in London + an extended holiday in Europe.
This is a shot of the judging area for the phisical based judging of D&AD. Our jury was in a room looking at a screen. It took me about 3 hrs to get through a little under half the print entries to the right before I gave up as you can only take so much design stimuli in one day. Some of the work had already been taken down as this was from day 2.
I've got a little over 6000 photos to sort through but luckily heaps are shit so it will make it a quick sort. Ive got famous buildings, chairs, fridges, landscapes, bums, funny signs and the usualy touristy stuff and as I was downloading them straight to a portable HD with no preview screen I havent seen any of them yet.
I've also got 3 Family Guy and 3 Lost episodes to fit in aswell so my schedule is chockers.
Glad to be home
I would have thought a European vacation would have meant never thinking about Australia but after 28 days in the UK and Europe I now have a new found love of Sydney. I had a great time on my sightseeing tour but couldn’t help feeling I miss my bed and pillow.
The thing I missed the most about Sydney was the food. You can’t walk into a city and expect to find those hidden gems that you know back in your hometown so I had to resort to just talking around the tourist areas looking for places to eat. So my experience was always tainted. While I did enjoy the cheap pizzas in Italy I craved a "Western" style one with tandoori chicken as margarita and mushroom pizza's wear then pretty quickly.
While you might be lucky to find a milo in London at a specialty store you got no hope anywhere else. Same goes for a meat pie. I had my fill of pasties in the UK (all I could afford due to the nasty exchange rate) but it doesn’t taste as nice as a pie.
I also happen to be afflicted with liking lemon soda and while Italy I made do everyone else offered Orange Fanta as the only alternative to Coke and Sprite.
You can't go 50 mtrs in Sydney without walking past a juice stand but I couldn’t find one anywhere on my holidays.
I also enjoy my food smoke free but had to say nothing as I ate in Italy with smoking German women surrounding me.
It wasn’t all food though. I also like the power of the zebra crossing in Australia a power that is sorely lost on Italian and French drivers.
Oz's Ear
Check out this great photo from Ron of Oz's ear! Great work dude the tone is amazing in the shot.
April 23, 2006: April 23, 2006
Holiday Almost Over
Ervi and Iare off to Rome tomorrow for the last leg in our holiday. The place in Rome seems pretty cool as it's an apartment that you just rent out. I miss my pillow and non-smoking resturants but this you expect while on holidays.
We are leaving Zurich tomorrow (where is cost 7.00AUD for a Big Mac!!) and it's hard to find a fresh juice. Where as Sydney is swamped in fresh juice stores, Europe doesn't seem to have caught on.
It costs 1 GBP (2.40AUD!!!!) for a litre of petrol and 1.80 swiss franc (1.85 AUD) so Aussies have it pretty cheap in the petrol biz. I thought the British might have been charging per gallon but no it's a regular metric litre.
I also cant wait to see the new office fitout which chould be half complete when I return.