Tattoos & Beauty [#1]

I’m very excited today because I’ve got a new game plan for this little ‘ol blog of mine. :]
I’m going to provide much more internet based content about fashion, music and culture. Each time I provide one of these posts, there’ll be a number in the heading between brackets, such as that above, so you know what order the posts go in. :]

I’ll also chuck in a song that I’ve been listening to recently and that fits in with the topic. mmk?

Today’s Song (open link in new tab): Brandon Flowers - Only The Young

That said, I think it’s time to get onto something I’ve been dying to share… all regarding tattoos within the fashion/modelling industry. I have to admit though, the inspiration for this was provided by my work mum Gill and her amazing blog.

So….
Modelling is often seen as high-end and glossy magazine covers right?
Well, I’m here to tell you that it’s most certainly not. From simple and beautiful photos such as those below (yes, all including tattoos) to images more elaborate and complicated, modelling isn’t necessarily all about the clothing… it’s often about the raw beauty. And that’s the part that I like. :]

Model: Yanny Tokyo
Photography: Pentalis

I play the… TUBA.

I’m not sure if anyone remembers, but I went to a birthday party a while back… a family friend of my second host family. :]
Well, I’m sure I mentioned something along the lines of seeing the decapitated heads of the two sheep we ate… :/

I’ve just been sent an email attached with some photos I took with a traditional band that plays in the area. And YES, I’m holding that Tuba, and yes, I’m enjoying it. ;]

Check them out:

I look ridiculous don’t I? :]

Haha.
Stay tuned though peeps, a post on Oktoberfest is being posted VERY shortly.

Lovvvvvve Ryan.
x

Distrikt Konferenz

This was quite a recent event. Perhaps about two weekends ago and held in the town of Dillingen, on the Donau River. It was a picturesque German town and was very similar in attributes to most small towns we saw on the Deutschland tour: quiet, calm and pretty. We were lucky enough to have the Rotary District Conference for 1840 (The Greater chunk of Bayern) here. It was I must say, a memorable weekend. We had a lot of fun.

I did this just to spite you Lil.

So this is Lily, and she’ll love it when she sees i’ve uploaded an embarrassing photo of her. It’s when she had ice cream. Evil one. Anyway, enough of Lily, and more of the events… So we were asked to do a presentation [all the exchange students] in front of the entire conference, based on something that is culturally significant for our own countries. For example, the Argentinian’s danced Tango, the Brazilian’s danced Samba and Capoeira, the Taiwanese girls played traditional instruments and then all the English speakers (plus one Finnish girl) joined forces to sing their own verses to an Australian song: Home Among the Gum Trees! Win for the Aussies, aye? Think Again… We were followed by a lone Kiwi who performed the Haka with every other male exchange student, apart from me. It was a small defeat. The crowd cheered at their performance. So I ask every Aussie back home or abroad who’s near a Kiwi. Beat him at something. And I don’t mean with a plank of wood.

Dancing Queen.

Mummy,

I owe you a humble apology. I only pray it be accepted. It was Mother’s Day (or Muttertag in German), and I didn’t visit you. I didn’t give you mother’s day flowers. And I didn’t even sing our song about sunshine.

But i’ve come across a new one for us. Something just as beautiful and perhaps even more favourable for the two of us. It’s a cover of your favourite band’s hit, performed by a glorious Australian singer called Whitley. It’s ABBA‘s Dancing Queen, and through the guitar riffs and beautiful yet eerie vocals I wish to let you know you will always be my very own dancing queen.

Whenever I tap my feet and dance to a beat it will be because you can’t. I hope you’re well. Germany’s amazing and I just pray you get wireless in heaven so you can surf the web and find this post. It’s all for you.

So here’s wishing you the best of forever. I love you. I miss you. I’ll dance with joy for you.
Love Your now grown up baby boy,
Ryan
xxx

A small inkling of worry…

So my best friend is now in a band back home called Summer’s Mixtape.
Not bad. :]

But kind of sad I discovered it on my own… goes to show that friends sometimes don’t remember that we’re still alive over here on exchange. :/

It raises the questions I dread facing. What’s everything like back at home? What are all my friends up to? How would life in Uni be right now? And the scariest question: What’s going to happen when I get back? I worry and worry about this thought every day. As much as I love my exchange year, I think i’ll always have a little gulp of regret each time I discover something new has happened down under.

 I just wonder what is happening between my best friends. Is it that every fresh day their minds erase a memory we shared? Is it every week they forget a little bit more what I look like? I’m kind of freaking out, and I know I shouldn’t be. But when it’s taken you years and years to build great friendships, it kind of sucks knowing they might not be quite the same after a small period away from home.

I miss my family, my friends, my home, my bed, my country, and even my job (It was a pretty good one). But I think I’ve just got to suck it up and see how the tide rolls… I can’t be sure what’s going to happen in the future. I can always guess, but i’ll never be 100% on the money. Perhaps my friends won’t forget about me. I’m sure that when I arrive in Sydney, there’ll be a swarm of them there to greet me and welcome me back with open arms. Or perhaps they won’t even talk to me again – i’ll never know.

I JUST HAVE TO WAIT. I’ve figured that in the meantime I should just enjoy this amazing opportunity that I’ve been given. Not take it for granted considering very few get selected and approved to represent their country as an exchange student. I should be over the moon. So to get my spirits up I think I might go and buy some hearty German food. I know I can’t find that in abundance back home!

Enjoy what I’ve got. Live it. Love it. I shall not let my conscience get the better of me.
Peace.

Ryan

You’ve got to love a little music.

So this post is in no way related to the physical aspect of my exchange. It does however make reference to the music that I find keeps me loving life to the fullest. So on those blustery windy days, the days where snow is still freshly fluttering from the clouds, or the days where the sun peaks through the sky, exposing the vast palette of colours that is a spring in Germany, this music is my lover. (Except I don’t do physical things with it).

I just love plugging in my iPod and blocking out the world as I wander my way to and fro in the bustling city where I live. So here below is a list and with some, a link, to music which I have found lovely on this exchange period. It’s all very folk and acoustic, with many of the sounds being instantly recognisable as from my lovely home down under. Nonetheless, it’s all music that I’ve found is seriously under-rated and performed by musicians that embody all aspects of creativity within their works.