Wishing you all a very happy, safe and food-filled festive season!
Monday, December 24, 2007
not just talk
I’m not sure I’ve ever been able to say this before… I feel so proud of our new government! A month ago we had a federal election and ousted the last government after a very long time. In the short space of a month the new government has already made giant leaps towards climate change (in a good way, instead of bad for once), ratified the Kyoto protocol, pressured the Japanese government into not slaughtering 50 humpback whales this year (an endangered species, although they’ll still be whaling), and now they’re reviewing our place in Iraq.
Finally I feel like I can come out from hiding my face behind my hands and be proud of being part of this country again. It’s early days, so I’m still erring on the cautious side, but at least now I’m feeling hopeful. It’s amazing to live in a democracy where you can influence who represents you, your country, and your place in the rest of the world.
Power to the people, people – take it back – be part of the change – vote for what you believe in! Vote! Yaaaar !– hehehehe.
Finally I feel like I can come out from hiding my face behind my hands and be proud of being part of this country again. It’s early days, so I’m still erring on the cautious side, but at least now I’m feeling hopeful. It’s amazing to live in a democracy where you can influence who represents you, your country, and your place in the rest of the world.
Power to the people, people – take it back – be part of the change – vote for what you believe in! Vote! Yaaaar !– hehehehe.
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
fluff, scales and spinnerets
Today strange things happened... Maybe it's because it's getting very close to Christmas, but today was the day that some local critters decided it was time to come and welcome us to the neighbourhood.
First, when Mr You was in the garage this morning, this little fella ambled in.
He's a tiny little brush-tail possum, and he sat in there watching Mr You all morning, even through the power saw and drilling noise that chased me away. (Mr You is building stuff at the moment). He's still there now and is so cute and not at all afraid of us - I just want to pat him... but I know better. The lady from Wires who I spoke to assured me he'll go on his merry way after dark tonight, but if he's still there in the morning, it means he's lost his home.
I did not, on the other hand, mention this guy to her...
Can you see? Click to see it bigger.
Maybe this will give you a clue...
Or this?...
Okay, so I was on the phone to a client this morning, and noticed this huge snake making it's way along the roof guttering of our neighbours house. Silently (because I was on the phone) I waved, pointed and gestured madly to Mr You. By the time I got off the phone and went to investigate the tree python had made it's way into our trees!!!
At first, to be quite honest, I almost shat myself (remember I'm a city girl, this is all new to me). Then once we realised it was not at all viscous we stood and watched it. Mr You took these very close up photo's, and even some video of it making it's way gracefully through the trees. It was BIG. Probably almost 2 meters long (that's about 6 feet), and at the widest part it was as fat as my arm from shoulder to elbow. But it was beautiful. The photo's don't really capture the amazing crisp green colour of it's skin. I watched it make it's way from the trees to the fence and slide (while wobbling as it tried to balance it's length) along the top of the fence. It managed to go quite a way, before finally losing it's balance and plopping off onto the ground. Luckily for us it fell over the other side of the fence (not into our yard), and I knocked on the neighbours door to warn them about it.
It's funny, as long as it was in the tree I was okay, but the thought of it on the ground freaks me out.
This all comes after yesterday, while driving home along the highway after doing some shopping, Mr You starts fiddling with his pants. I nag at him about how dangerous it is to fiddle while driving at high speed... Only later after we were out of the car did he explain to me that his "fiddling" was actually him tucking the leg opening of his pants up tight so that the GIANT SPIDER that had crawled over his legs twice while driving wouldn't find it's way inside his pants!!!
I tell you what, the local critters are reeeal friendly round these parts... If only they were our age, interested in good music, and were human.
First, when Mr You was in the garage this morning, this little fella ambled in.
He's a tiny little brush-tail possum, and he sat in there watching Mr You all morning, even through the power saw and drilling noise that chased me away. (Mr You is building stuff at the moment). He's still there now and is so cute and not at all afraid of us - I just want to pat him... but I know better. The lady from Wires who I spoke to assured me he'll go on his merry way after dark tonight, but if he's still there in the morning, it means he's lost his home.
I did not, on the other hand, mention this guy to her...
Can you see? Click to see it bigger.
Maybe this will give you a clue...
Or this?...
Okay, so I was on the phone to a client this morning, and noticed this huge snake making it's way along the roof guttering of our neighbours house. Silently (because I was on the phone) I waved, pointed and gestured madly to Mr You. By the time I got off the phone and went to investigate the tree python had made it's way into our trees!!!
At first, to be quite honest, I almost shat myself (remember I'm a city girl, this is all new to me). Then once we realised it was not at all viscous we stood and watched it. Mr You took these very close up photo's, and even some video of it making it's way gracefully through the trees. It was BIG. Probably almost 2 meters long (that's about 6 feet), and at the widest part it was as fat as my arm from shoulder to elbow. But it was beautiful. The photo's don't really capture the amazing crisp green colour of it's skin. I watched it make it's way from the trees to the fence and slide (while wobbling as it tried to balance it's length) along the top of the fence. It managed to go quite a way, before finally losing it's balance and plopping off onto the ground. Luckily for us it fell over the other side of the fence (not into our yard), and I knocked on the neighbours door to warn them about it.
It's funny, as long as it was in the tree I was okay, but the thought of it on the ground freaks me out.
This all comes after yesterday, while driving home along the highway after doing some shopping, Mr You starts fiddling with his pants. I nag at him about how dangerous it is to fiddle while driving at high speed... Only later after we were out of the car did he explain to me that his "fiddling" was actually him tucking the leg opening of his pants up tight so that the GIANT SPIDER that had crawled over his legs twice while driving wouldn't find it's way inside his pants!!!
I tell you what, the local critters are reeeal friendly round these parts... If only they were our age, interested in good music, and were human.
Thursday, December 13, 2007
elloh
Have you guys seen the "elloh" store on Etsy? It made me laugh so much, I love it... could spend half the day there... paintings of characters and scenes from tv shows and cult movies. They would make great Chissy presents too! So clever, I especially like the Breakfast Club painting. I wonder if elloh likes Arrested Development? The Bluths would make fantastic subjects - hehehehe... Go check it out>>>
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
white flags
Look what I got from Abigail!!! She had this painting in her Etsy store for sale for a long time, eventually it went away (expired), and all along I was intending to buy it. After it disappeared I wrote to Abigail to let her know that even though no-body bought it, it was in no way un-loved. Then one thing lead to another... my frenchies found their way into her home, and her beeeeautiful "White Flags" found it's way into mine. And now we're both that much happier than we were before.If you are not familiar with Abigail's illustrations, you really need to take a look. Her people possess grace and elegance - a unique quality to catch on paper. And her costumes!!! Oh the costumes are amazing... And I can now say, from experience, that there is detail in her paintings that does not show up on screen, it is reserved for those lucky ones who see them in the flesh.
Sunday, December 09, 2007
a white lamp in a sea of brass
You may recall me mentioning a book I was reading a few months ago; Sixty Lights by Gail Jones. It’s the story of a sister and brother growing up in the Victorian era. It starts out in Australia, migrates to England, then to India and back to England once more. Anyway, before I return the book to the friend who loaned it to me, I wanted once again to record another one of my favourite passages from it… so I can re-read it in the future, and so you can enjoy it too.
This is when Lucy, now a young woman, has travelled to India, where the Victorian age seems not to exist, and a whole new world like nothing she’s ever seen before has opened before her.
There were places Lucy would travel to where her own ignorance astounded her. She entered customs and buildings she knew nothing about. People around her spoke and she understood not a single word. She considered herself a crude cipher of the West, carrying her own culture as impeding knowledge. This territory she had entered was on the whole indifferent to her presence, and might well engulf or erase the speck of empire she accidentally represented. It was in the marketplace, where foreign women were never seen, that she felt most keenly her presumptuous misplacement. Local women of exceptional beauty brushed and slid alongside: she thought her own clothes a stiff and ridiculous dome against their fluent forms and loose clinging fabrics. She was, more over, pastel to their augmented hues; she had never before felt so bleached and so encased. There were merchants standing behind pyramids of many-coloured spices who hailed her and smiled; they waved their hands like magicians over their mini-geographies, enticing the stranger to inspect and buy. Lucy instructed Bashanti to acquire a few ounces of turmeric, for no reason other than its colour, and that it was something she could confidently name. There were men in saffron robes devoted to multiform gods, and children with kohl around their eyes and small grasping hands. Here were beggars with damaged limbs and whole families with fingers and faces eroded by leprosy. Lucy asked Bashanti to give them money, but her servant simply flung coins in their general direction, afraid of their touch. Flowers garlanded tiny shrines in nooks and crannies, and sewage and rubbish lay strewn beneath her feet. So many people and so prepossessed.
Lucy would have liked to announce that she was Australian, not English, but she knew that here the distinction was probably meaningless. Her face was a white lamp in a sea of brass. She wished herself dark. She wished herself Indian, part of this throng of purposeful, myth-saturated, interconnected people. Now and then she passed another foreigner, a man, inevitably, who would nod, or touch the rim of his hat, as if exchanging secret English messages in code. Lucy had no wish to communicate with these other lamps who felt – she could tell – that they shone more brightly and more importantly than anyone else, that they dispensed white light with a civilising purpose. In her imagination she flickered in the midst of the crowd, her face appearing here and there, inconstant and impermanent, a kind of fleeting figment, in a more general and self-sufficient sea of brown.
The storyline itself, although lovely and interesting, is not utterly brilliant, but the way it is written is. Man, I enjoyed reading this… can you tell? Ha.
This is when Lucy, now a young woman, has travelled to India, where the Victorian age seems not to exist, and a whole new world like nothing she’s ever seen before has opened before her.
There were places Lucy would travel to where her own ignorance astounded her. She entered customs and buildings she knew nothing about. People around her spoke and she understood not a single word. She considered herself a crude cipher of the West, carrying her own culture as impeding knowledge. This territory she had entered was on the whole indifferent to her presence, and might well engulf or erase the speck of empire she accidentally represented. It was in the marketplace, where foreign women were never seen, that she felt most keenly her presumptuous misplacement. Local women of exceptional beauty brushed and slid alongside: she thought her own clothes a stiff and ridiculous dome against their fluent forms and loose clinging fabrics. She was, more over, pastel to their augmented hues; she had never before felt so bleached and so encased. There were merchants standing behind pyramids of many-coloured spices who hailed her and smiled; they waved their hands like magicians over their mini-geographies, enticing the stranger to inspect and buy. Lucy instructed Bashanti to acquire a few ounces of turmeric, for no reason other than its colour, and that it was something she could confidently name. There were men in saffron robes devoted to multiform gods, and children with kohl around their eyes and small grasping hands. Here were beggars with damaged limbs and whole families with fingers and faces eroded by leprosy. Lucy asked Bashanti to give them money, but her servant simply flung coins in their general direction, afraid of their touch. Flowers garlanded tiny shrines in nooks and crannies, and sewage and rubbish lay strewn beneath her feet. So many people and so prepossessed.
Lucy would have liked to announce that she was Australian, not English, but she knew that here the distinction was probably meaningless. Her face was a white lamp in a sea of brass. She wished herself dark. She wished herself Indian, part of this throng of purposeful, myth-saturated, interconnected people. Now and then she passed another foreigner, a man, inevitably, who would nod, or touch the rim of his hat, as if exchanging secret English messages in code. Lucy had no wish to communicate with these other lamps who felt – she could tell – that they shone more brightly and more importantly than anyone else, that they dispensed white light with a civilising purpose. In her imagination she flickered in the midst of the crowd, her face appearing here and there, inconstant and impermanent, a kind of fleeting figment, in a more general and self-sufficient sea of brown.
The storyline itself, although lovely and interesting, is not utterly brilliant, but the way it is written is. Man, I enjoyed reading this… can you tell? Ha.
Monday, December 03, 2007
holding the fort
Mr You has been away since last week, and he gets back tomorrow. He’s been to Melbourne to see a band and visit a friend, and today he’s in Sydney visiting our friends (and picking up art supplies for me). I’m soooooooooooooo envious. Every evening he’s been calling me with news of his day…St Kilda markets, The designer market, the “best Japanese food ever”, Indonesian food, shopping on Chapel St. Arhhhhh I’m dying here. Kicking myself for not going with him… Trying to console myself with the fact that at least we do have a sushi shop here, but sadly, in my book, smoked salmon doesn’t really pass as sushi though folks!!!
So while he’s been frolicking in my 2 favourite Australian cities, I’ve been here…
…tucked up at my table drawing, painting and generally catching up on finishing “half-way-through” projects. I’ve taken his absence as an opportunity to go hard and get stuff done. It’s been pretty successful, but I’m soo tired today, after not noticing it was getting late and staying up until 2am three nights in a row. But it was good. Here’s a little sneak peak at one of the illo’s…
Thankfully my “to-do-queue” is starting to level out a bit. I still have some people waiting ever so patiently though, so hopefully I can do some “efficient” Christmas shopping this week and then plough through the rest while I’m on a roll.
Tilli has been keeping me company. She’s good at that. And although she has hidden my little porcelain pot and refuses to give it back, we remain bosom buddies. (Seriously, she’s never done anything naughty before, but this is one of my favourite little items, up on a shelf… I’ve found the lid, but despite crawling under furniture with a torch for about an hour, I still can’t find any trace of the pot… alive and well or otherwise).
Something I forgot to tell you about Tilli was her discovery of toes. Because we got her at the beginning of Winter, our feet were pretty much always inside socks. Now that the weather is warming up our feet have been freed, and she has discovered our toes. She’s absolutely fascinated by them… it’s highly amusing.
Anyway, that’s all, I’m off to chillax for a bit.
So while he’s been frolicking in my 2 favourite Australian cities, I’ve been here…
…tucked up at my table drawing, painting and generally catching up on finishing “half-way-through” projects. I’ve taken his absence as an opportunity to go hard and get stuff done. It’s been pretty successful, but I’m soo tired today, after not noticing it was getting late and staying up until 2am three nights in a row. But it was good. Here’s a little sneak peak at one of the illo’s…
Thankfully my “to-do-queue” is starting to level out a bit. I still have some people waiting ever so patiently though, so hopefully I can do some “efficient” Christmas shopping this week and then plough through the rest while I’m on a roll.
Tilli has been keeping me company. She’s good at that. And although she has hidden my little porcelain pot and refuses to give it back, we remain bosom buddies. (Seriously, she’s never done anything naughty before, but this is one of my favourite little items, up on a shelf… I’ve found the lid, but despite crawling under furniture with a torch for about an hour, I still can’t find any trace of the pot… alive and well or otherwise).
Something I forgot to tell you about Tilli was her discovery of toes. Because we got her at the beginning of Winter, our feet were pretty much always inside socks. Now that the weather is warming up our feet have been freed, and she has discovered our toes. She’s absolutely fascinated by them… it’s highly amusing.
Anyway, that’s all, I’m off to chillax for a bit.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
