Tag: travel

Posted in Sparks in the wild, WWWhat?

Ticket to Mars

Posted on by Cate

I first heard about this ambitious plan on werd.com. The short post was accompanied by this picture. So I did some more research for us, because I knew that you would want to know about it too. Behold, the Mars One mission. What’s it all about, I hear you cry? Oh, nothing much – only a plan to establish THE FIRST HUMAN SETTLEMENT ON MARS IN 2023. Yes, that’s right – according to the website, a habitable settlement will be waiting for the settlers when they land. The settlement will support them while they live and work on Mars the rest of their lives. Every two years after 2023 an additional crew will arrive, such that there is a real living, growing community on Mars.

Apparently, the good people at Mars One have a “technical plan” for the mission and have “identified at least one supplier” for every part of the process between now (empty Mars, as far as we know) and 2023 (thriving metropolis Mars). There is even a section on the website for anyone who might be sceptical – it’s called: Is this really possible? (The answer is basically ‘yes, sure, why not’ in case you don’t want to read it yourself.) Another FAQ is, understandably: Is this for real? To which the answer is: Yes it is! Mars One has been working on this project in secret since January of 2011. It has taken us ’til now to expose it publically because we are now certain of its feasibility and means of finance.

Alrighty then, friends, let’s start packing! Oh, hang on, I have now read the FAQ entitled: Can I apply to become an astronaut? Sadly, the answer seems to be NO. Or at least, NOT YET. Apparently the team at Mars One have received lots of emails from people asking to be part of the mission, but they’re not yet in a position to start selecting the first astronauts. I guess they’ll have to be pretty picky, since these people will be the founders of the settlement up there. You don’t want people who are going to give dumb names to the towns and streets and national parks.

I include this image from NASA/Wikipedia to help inform your decision on emigrating to Mars, when that option becomes available. It’s clearly a lot smaller than good ol’ Earth, but according to Wikipedia, Mars has surface features reminiscent both of the impact craters of the Moon and the volcanoes, valleys, deserts, and polar ice caps of Earth. So, you know, great if you like hiking, nature, extreme adventure and that sort of thing. Oh, and Mars can be seen from Earth without a telescope, so your old friends and neighbours will still be able to keep an eye on you.

Anyways, now you know a little more, you are probably keen to read more of the fine print and perhaps even sign up for the Mars One Monthly Newsmail. You can do so on the Mars One website here.

Posted in Arty sparks, Home sparks

Bonjour, stylish kitchen!

Posted on by Cate

They’re not called ‘whitegoods’ for nothing. Kitchen appliances, while practical, can be kinda boring. (Except if you live in my apartment, where the previous owners were so funky that they matched the fridge and dishwasher with the glossy blue laminated cupboards and drawers. That’s a whole lotta blue, I tell you.) Anyways, I say boo to boring kitchen appliances – and hello to these fabulous dishwasher and fridge decals by the clever French folk at ADzif, recently featured on Fab.com.

If you’re looking to expand your cooking space into a serene wonderland with beautiful images of nature, you might like the green leaf fridge decal. Or the tricky pile o’ logs photo. Laugh as visitors to your home try to work out how you’ve managed to turn your humble refrigerator into a portal to the forest.

Or perhaps you’re more of a city person and you want to recreate the hustle and bustle of New York City on your dishwasher or fridge. These decals are big enough to have you sitting on the floor in your kitchen, imagining you were really there. In which case, you might also want to buy a soundtrack of honking taxis, emergency vehicle sirens, shouting people, a subway rapper impersonating Jay Z, and someone yelling, “HOT DOGS”.

Or if you’re fancier than me and prefer to say bonjour to your dishes, you might like this Parisian dishwasher decal. They also have a Parisian fridge decal, but this is my blog and I prefer New York to Paris, so you can check out the website if you’re interested in all things Frenchy. (The default ADzif website is actually written in French, so you’ll love it!)

I think these are a brilliant idea – they can be cut to size with your trusty scissors, they can be removed without leaving marks (but can’t be reused). For less than $70 for a fridge and less than $50 for a dishwasher, a trip to Paris, New York or the forest has never been cheaper. (Unless you actually live in Paris, New York or a forest, I guess.)

My pick? Thanks for asking. It’s this fabulous image of my favourite part of Times Square, where the overwhelming tackiness of all those lights is replaced by street furniture that’s reminiscent of a cobbled European side street. In the middle of such a busy city. Love ya, New York.

If you like these, there are plenty more amazing decals on the French website of ADzif. These images are from Fab.com and I couldn’t find all of them on the ADzif website (the dishwashers and my favourite fridge decal were missing), but maybe I need to brush up on my high school French and have another look. Toute de suite!

Posted in Sparks in the wild

Welcome to Gnomesville

Posted on by Cate

It’s really tough to explain Gnomesville in Western Australia. Surely one of the most bizarre places I’ve ever been and I’m so grateful to my brother and sister-in-law for adding it to the itinerary when I visited Perth last year. Down a small side road, surrounded by bushland and farms, Gnomesville is another world. Its impossible to capture the scale of it with my limited photographic skills, but trust me when I say it covers a very large area. Just when you think you’ve passed the last gnome grotto, you’ll notice a little weather-beaten sign and yet another collection of slightly worse-for-wear little statues. There are bridges and hills creating sort of gnome-y neighbourhoods, often with their own theme and signage. And often pretty creepy.

There are more bad gnome puns than you can poke a stick at – mostly hand-painted on (sometimes quite elaborate) signs. And that’s probably what surprised me the most: the pre-meditation of Gnomesville tourism. I felt very slack turning up without a bunch of gnomes (tattooed with the names of my family) – like a vegetarian at a butcher’s BBQ or an unmanicured Kardashian, I was feeling unprepared and out of place. Clearly, people carefully plan their visits to Gnomesville – gathering their gnomes, preparing their puns, slapping up their signs and then ensuring that they find just the right part of the village to house their little friends.

And, just like anywhere else in Australia, there is a real mix of characters: from South African and Kiwi gnomes, to dodgy looking gnomes in trailers and on bikes, to a big group of scantily clad girlie gnomes, to gnomes commemorating anniversaries and births and all sorts of families. And a DJ gnome, a Doctor gnome (presumably to staff the gnome hospital, where they seem to throw all the broken pieces of gnome) and some interlopers like frogs and bears that are wannabe gnomes trying to fit into the neighbourhood.There is even a tin of Spam on display in a wooden frame attached to a tree trunk. It’s that kind of place.

  

So if you’re travelling around WA, it’s definitely worth stopping at Gnomesville for a unique experience of life in an alternate universe – where you are giant-sized, gnomes drive cars and run hospitals, puns abound and you start debating the relative attractiveness of little plaster statues with glasses or pointy hats. But be warned – it can get a bit overwhelming and creepy and mess with your head – so whatever you do, don’t camp there overnight. Lest you venture past the point of gnome return (dammit, see what I mean?) and become part of the madness…

   

Posted in Sparks in the wild

Fit for the birds

Posted on by Cate

If you’re up for a different kind of holiday, or at least a different kind of holiday accommodation, you might want to check out this bizarro ‘bird’s nest sphere’ accommodation in Canada (Vancouver Island, to be precise). I saw it on Trip Advisor and it sounds like all kinds of wacky. According to the owner: Once one breaks contact with the ground, energy shifts. The magical environment of the forest canopy conjures up thoughts of elves and fairies. One can feel the presence of the forest. That presence seems to dwell in the canopy where it can watch the meanderings below. Like, totally.

For under $200 per night, you could be tucked away in this spaceage Spherical Tree House, which apparently ‘rocks with the breeze’. And rolls with the stronger winds, presumably. They say it’s a marriage of tree house and sailboat technology. Yep, that’s really what they say. There are a whole lot of details on the website and it certainly sounds complicated – the sphere is “accessed by a spiral stairway and short suspension bridge”, which to me sounds like the way to get to heaven (or at least a neighbouring village), rather than your room, but whatevs.

A word of warning – choose your travel season carefully, as a hazard of life in the forest is trees and branches falling in a strong wind or ice storm. A sphere distributes any impact stress throughout the skin and resists puncture or cracking. But when the company that owns them is called Free Spirit Spheres Inc, could you really be sure?

Safe travels, to the Spherical Tree House and beyond.