Politicians CAN be entertaining…

Why are Australian politicians SO BORING. So stultifyingly dull. So caught up with their own importance … or should that be impotence.

Why can’t we have politicians like the yellow tee-shirted Emily Lau?

“I don’t feel the atmosphere is getting better,” says Hong Kong democracy campaigner, Emily Lau. “Otherwise people would not call up my office to say they want to hack off my head!”

“Yes ultimately is a strange word” Says Emily of the PRC view that Hong Kong will ultimately get democracy, “Because ultimately we will be dead!”

She is a classic! Come to WA Emily - I’ll vote for you!

More about Emily

Bloomin’Marvellous

Gee I had a great day today. Got up slowly - took the kids to school in my pyjamas - don’t worry I didn’t have to get out of the car - came home. Died my hair using that new colour experte stuff from Loreal because I’m worth it and they promised my salon success. Hmmmm. Took a long time to do. Tidied up. Faffed about. Eventually left the house to go looking for an interview outfit…

I was going for a conservative, hip look of a modern late-30- something woman. Something that showed I had some sense of fashion but something that wouldn’t frighten the over ’55s. I ended up paying far too much but I love the skirt and think I have achieved the look I’m after. Rory didn’t hate it which is a first.

However the faffing meant that I was late for my appointment with Mike to get the stuff we need for our Art in Bloom project.

What you (don’t) see in the picture above is the result of much wailing and gnashing of teeth. Mostly about the cost of it all but then once we’d got it home well let me start at the beginning.

What we have is a “wet ball” of that green stuff florists use to hold flowers where they want them. Filled with water it weighs about 10kg minimum. But we knew it would be heavy so we wrapped it in chicken wire and then stuck a coathanger through it. Well of course as soon as it got wet the coathanger almost came out! So then we wrapped three more coathangers worth of wire around it.

Then the fake flowers kept falling out despite the expensive spray on glue as recommended to us so we had to stick little bits of wire through them so they would stay on. But in the end I think it looks pretty good.

The painting we are trying to match is a very difficult and thoughtful work by Gordon Bennett, an Aboriginal painter from Queensland who is well known for his political messages. We think - I repeat think - that he’s trying to talk about new life and comparing natural life with artificially creating life.

So we call our work “Birthing the Sun (Son)”. The ball is supposed to represent the sun. Half is covered by artificial flowers - the other half with real flowers (gerberas and hothouse chrissies). Underneath is a round mirror - representing art reflecting life and life reflecting art. Should be head up arse enough for the Art Gallery don’t you think! Set up is Thursday morning. Cocktail party Thursday night. The Art In Bloom Exhibition runs from Friday to Sunday.

BTW: Thank you Abi who became Plan B on Monday… we love you Abi!

Mid Term Breaks

What’s up with Mid Term Breaks!

Honestly you pay more and get less when it comes to time spent at school these days. The kids have a MTB tomorrow and I’ve been so caught up with preparing for job interviews, thinking about blooming flowers and going to the convention centre that I clean forgot about it.

Now I have two children to “place” by 8.30am tomorrow morning. Well I say two but in fact I have Hugo chilling out with Dad tomorrow and I hope Imogen will have a play with Lara but at 9.05pm I haven’t heard from Mia and now I’m thinking about plan B.

There is no plan B.

Now I’m reduced to railing at the school for being so slack as to take TWO days off at the start of term AND a mid term break.

Happy place! Happy place!

Of course this is quickly followed by “Why is it the mother who has to worry about what the children are doing?” rant… this goes nowhere, and nowhere fast. Best not to go there at all… although it must be said a compelling argument as to why it is not the father is yet to be forthcoming.

Perhaps I should just go to sleep, get up and go to work at 6am as usual and just let “the father” sort it out… hmmm interesting…

Perth Convention Centre

I’ve just got back after broadcasting from the brand new Perth Convention Centre. I was blown away by its size and beauty.

Yes you read that right. Inside it is a lovely building. Floor to roof glass windows overlooking the river which when landscaped will look beautiful - a lot of broken freeway to look at now. The main ballroom which is huge, has a long balcony with a glass railing (it will be a nightmare for school ball supervisors) and a spectacular outlook across to the Belltower.

Inside the exhibition centre, they had opened all six expo rooms and it is ENORMOUS. It was filled with exhibits and people.

They’ve linked the busport too which for the first time is not a white elephant stuck on the edge of the city. And when the train goes through it will be even more convenient to get to. The roof top gardens of the busport make a lovely transition to the centre. I think it will be huge for WA. I was totally sold on it. It may not look so pretty from a 30 story building but as I am so rarely in those ivory towers I can live with that!

Definately worth a look if you’re in Perth over the next four days.

Blog on!

Well as you can see Redsultana has had a mini-makeover. The links are still there just a bit further down but the photos links are now on the archive page. You will need a password for this and to read the archives of this blog - just drop me a line to get it.

For those who read the Dungeons and Dragons page - it too has turned into a blog - I’ve gone blog mad! And I’m getting okay at playing with the templates so let me know if you need help setting up one for you.

I’m also very happy to link to your blog - so again just let me know!

Calvin and Hobbs

I don’t always read the comics but I did this morning and I was amused by Calvin and Hobbs.

In the cartoon Calvin is playing a record and his dad comes up to him and says “Let me show you something interesting. Compare a point on the label with a point on the record’s outer edge. They both make a complete circle in the same amount of time, right? But the point on the record’s edge has to make a bigger circle in the same time, so it goes faster. See, two points on one disk move at two speeds, even though thay both make the same revolutions per minute!”

Calvin’s response is to lie prone on his bed with his head spinning.

This amused me on two levels - one because my head was spinning as well and two, because we have all been there with our kids. Telling them crap that they are not interested in, don’t want to know and don’t understand anyway.

Also today, I experienced unexpected freedom. Rory got home from Coolum early and was around to pick the kids up from school which was good because I had a late meeting - which went even later than scheduled. The freedom? To spend as long as I wanted faffing at work doing ’stuff’ without having any pressure to rush home. It was fabulous and I had a whole new lease of life.

Still I suppose you wouldn’t appreciate it if you could do it everyday.

Security

No not national security or anything worthy like that - just this site. I’m in the process of making this site more secure - or at least the photos side of it and the kids’ blogs. Soon you will need a password to get past this page - except for the guestbook and reviews page of course…

To get a password you’ll need to email me! sarah at redsultana.com

My reasoning is to afford some protection to my family and to try and discourage the nasties out there from using images of my friends and family in nefarious ways.

Having said that I really love it that you access this website so make sure you find out what the password is! :)

And you’ll need one to read The Poshi’s new weblog - apply to The Poshi for that password.

Apart from that what have we been doing… well trying to work out what the blazes we’re going to do for our Art in Bloom project is one thing that my mind has been engaged in … and recording Dad’s oral history is another …and scanning in my old photos. I feel as if I hardly have time to do ANYTHING.

Still how boring life would be without these little distractions…

Had an interesting night at Archetrek tonight - we did past lives! Ooooh… weird witchy stuff… And mine were quite interesting. In one I was a barefooted late teenaged girl walking through the wood and at one with the trees - very happy - and I ended up burned at the stake - was I a witch? Or just a woman on my own… In the other I was an upper class Frenchwoman who had come from a humble background. It was during the French Revolution and of course I was beheaded but I went trying to convince my executioners that I was the same as them! So there you are… it was my first experience with past lives and I have to say I was a bit skeptical and I suppose I still am a bit… but it did seem to fit with my archetypes…

At Melissa’s House

Here I am at Melissa’s house showing The Poshi how easy it is to blog. Yes that’s right Melissa is planning on joining the blog fraternity. She’ s got stuff to say as anyone who has read her latest review on Fahrenheit 9/11 in redsultana reviews will know. So look out for her blog - it will be added to my friends list very shortly.

Today we got up early - well I say we… I mean Hugo and I - to head down to Allan Park for the Footy carnival - the close of the season. :( It was fun to watch Hugo in action after such a long break. He took a fantastic mark right in front of goals and kicked it long and out of danger - he was full back - and I was screaming from the sidelines as usual and as usual he couldn’t hear me.

What we could hear was Bevan who was official timekeeper and enjoying the chance to yell on the loudspeaker… at one point as I lamented over my son’s seeming inability to tie his bootlaces I heard Bevan at about 140 decibels call out “Hugo Innes…. Hugo Innes! Please come to the sidelines so your mother can tie up your boot laces…!”

How embarrassment!

This afternoon I have been chilling at Melissa and Bevan’s house, uploading their photos from the trip to Africa they took in January with Hugo. It has been a slow process and far too much red wine has been consumed - hence the stream of consciousness nature of this blog - what? It’s always like this?! No comment.

I’ve been watching Pride and Prejudice on television and on video - too impatient to wait for the episodes on telly. It is so good! The tension is unbearable. And talking about tension how is The Bill at the moment… Had to stop the video of Tuesday night’s episode (thanks Michaela) in order to have a cuppa the tension was so great…

Anyway coming soon on this page - a link to Melissa’s blog and Africa photos… AT LAST!

Ch Ch Changes

First some exciting news. My brother Michael has asked me to join with him to create something for the Art in Bloom exhibition at the Art Gallery of WA. This is where artists and others who are not artists get together to make a display of flowers, fruit and found objects to complement a piece of art. I’ve always wanted to have a go at this so I’m really excited!

We’re having a meeting at the gallery tomorrow to choose our painting - or at least see it!

Apparently I hear whether I made the short list or not tomorrow.

I’m about to change the look of this front page - it’s been nearly a year since I came up with this last design. Some elements will stay the same… some will change. That is the nature of life.

The photos in todays blogs are from our 2000 trip to Bali in fact during the Sydney Olympics which meant that we saw very little of the Olympics and what we saw was skewed towards non-Australian coverage.

We saw Cathy Freeman run - in the bar I think - but I remember very little else. Apart from the opening and closing ceremonies of course which I think we were home for. This was the trip where we met our friends Abi and Evan and we enjoyed it so much we did it all again for longer in 2002.

Memories

Janet has lent me her negative scanner and I am in Historian~Scribe heaven finding some gems among the dross of my old photo collection - I’ve either improved out of sight as a photographer or deleted all the crap in my digital collection… I suspect the latter. In fact I think Rory took both of these shots!

Now at last I can add photos from before the Millennium to the mix on redsultana. Mind you, it’s a pretty slow process so don’t expect loads of photos. I think I’ll start with baby photos. Well they were such beautiful babies don’t you think? [Answer: Yes]

These two photos were taken the day after they were born.

What else… oh of course! Hugo is back home. Safe and sound and with lots of stories to share. He loved his time in the US and Corsica and is proudly displaying his souvenirs. Thank you to Cath, Georges, Claire and Tristan for making him feel so welcome and looking after him so well.

Imogen started gymnastics today at PCYC Claremont. She is very enthusiastic and tried all the equipment! I bought her a gym leotard in blue and silver which she loves (and will probably wear to school if not caught before we leave the house). In other words, expect one or two pics of The Leotard before too long.

Are you enjoying the Olympics? I’m surprising myself by how interested I am. I guess this is the first Olympics since Atlanta that I’ve been able to watch. We were in Bali for Sydney and we didn’t have a telly when Barcelona was on. In fact I don’t remember watching Atlanta but I suppose I must have. Can’t wait til the synchronised swimming starts.

Haven’t heard about the job yet - ie whether I’ve got an interview. Fingers crossed!

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