My Latest Book, Words and Pictures from Brazil

It's a real page turner! It is called 'The Secret Life of You and Me' based on my recent time in Brazil with a person I love.

For Kate

I seem to only write when I’m in another place. Well I’m back in Brazil after some 400 days away. Anyway, it’s back to business blogging wise for the next month.

The first few days have been epic like the mountains that I’ve been flitting around, with elephant highs and lows (Brazil is the perfect country to have an affair of the heart in, by the way) (Also I will warn you right now this a post about love, not about a country).

Being with someone you love again. Ridiculous, rushing reunions that ebb into real life in waves of relief and disappointment. Being apart for long periods of time means that you have big gaps of experience that sometimes need filling in and sometimes don’t. Sometimes what you both imagined was in the gaps isn’t there at all.

So there you both are, constantly re-navigating a sprawling sea of two lives in a puddle of a month, in two languages you both don’t fully grasp, trusting that the other one is still searching for the same thing you are.

Maybe this is true of all relationships. Little leaps of faith in gaps of misunderstanding.

I’m making a book whilst I’m here too, a document of time unravelling.

Love, Lowri

Depicting a Love Affair

I dreamt that all my relationships would look and feel like this all the time:

Yet they always look and feel more like this:

Show and Tell Then

This summer I had a proper holiday. Normally I end up working summers, because there's more children on the loose, and we tend to keep each other out of a loose end through the medium of youth theatre. But this summer was different. I went to visit my friend in the Middle East and my love came to visit me from Brazil.

Me and Kat in Jordan, my freckles had a field day:

Me and Rodolfo in Wales, the picnic blanket became a cape:

Sorry, It's Been The Summer Holidays!

I will post interesting art things I've done next. For now, this is me on holiday!

Walking around Manchester

I've been busy babysitting. Along the way, me and baby Michael have seen protective Geese, peeling paint, shop signs, derelict spaces, red bricks and VERY Victorian back alleys. Pushing a buggy is a good way to explore places: noone looks at you suspiciously and you tend to wander about. I rediscovered Manchester.

Posters Where I Live

Beautiful posters have found their way onto the notice board in my flats. They make me very happy!

This about general housekeeping:

And I might enter this:

My Grandfather and the Internet

This is my grandfather, Evan Davies. He is eighty-nine. He is learning how to use the internet. This week was a real breakthrough- we managed to have a Skype video call. My grandmother is in the background. She was thrilled. I like trying to explain what the return key is, or practicing on the mouse, or watching his hands typing for the first time in his life.

Look Who's Back!

After months away, I am back, blogging my life and work. Over the next few days I'll be updating my pages. Stay tuned!

Being Back

I have been home now for a few weeks. I have been wandering / wondering around my old haunts in much the same manner as I did when I was far away in new surroundings. Working out where I fit in. And what to do next. I'm living out of three suitcases and the camera's in one and the lead's in another, so there's no pictures for this post. But I have this one picture of a steamed up bus window in Rusholme that says something about a man called Tony and he's been in my thoughts ever since.

A Tale of Two Breakfasts

Paris, Wednesday

My favourite invention in the world, the pain au chocolat. I remember when I tried my first one. I was ten and on holiday in France. I was so overwhelmed by the taste, I had to sit down.

Munich, Friday

A pretzel with holey (not holy) cheese. I thought to myself, what a week of food and travel. I have been on tour with my band, Hotpants Romance this week. To see about that you can look here. The tour was cut short because one of us was ill but it did mean I got this:

Shrewsbury, Sunday

A veggie sunday dinner with my mum!

My Last Photo in Brazil

On the ninetieth and last day in Brazil, I dropped my camera and broke it forever. It was an accident, not an act of finality. This is the last photograph taken, just before it hit the metro train floor.

Hanging On

My last three days feel like this!

Hot Dinners

I am taking photos of the memorable meals I´m having here in Brazil: the birthdays, the hours of preparation, the ridiculously English or the could-only-be-Brazil, or, the things that were said.

Picking Fruit

Mango Manga

Cashew Caju

Guabiraba Guabiraba

Blackberries Amoras

Interesting Fonts

This is an ongoing album of fonts that I am collecting in Brazil. The idea only came to me today, so I can´t tell you how many amazing fonts I´ve missed already. But it´s better late than never.

The Caipirinha and the Pea

After this happened I have been finding out about Brazilian fairytales, stories such as the man who fed his wife until she couldn't fit in the house and the woman who ironed everything inlcuding the wrinkles on her husbands face.

Last Night

We drove up to Mangabeiras, and even though I only have this bad picture, it looked like the stars had fallen from the sky to the feet of the mountains.

Halloween in a Hotel Room

I always look forward to Halloween because it is a chance to dress up, more than normal.
2002 bat, 2006 palm tree, 2007 funeral director, 2008 drowned swimmer, 2009 dead Wonder Woman.

This year my costume was slightly compromised by the limited resources in the hotel room. But I like these kind of challenges, I feel more comfortable with nothing than something. I think because there´s less to lose.

I set about making a mouse costume out of leaves I found outside the hotel.

It was easy to do, but I did have the advantage of packing a stapler (trampedor in Portuguese). However don´t worry if you don´t find yourself with one in your suitcase. You could borrow one from reception, or use the sewing kit that comes in the room. I´ve found being foreign you can generally get away with more because it is easier for people to let you do something than to try and explain why you can´t. It´s like when tired parents give in to screaming children. So I wouldn´t think twice about making this on a reception desk if I needed to.

Here are the results. The only flaw is I miscalculated the scale of my costume, so it is more of a costume for my hand, or a guinea pig.

Materials:

Making Of:

Result:

The Leaf That Looks Like a Mouse

Now I´m looking for the ears.