Monthly Archives: January 2008

Current Affairs

Happy Australia Day!

The flag flying at EnnuinMy Country by Dorothea McKellar

a poem about Australia

The love of field and coppice,
Of green and shaded lanes,
Of ordered woods and gardens
Is running in your veins.
Strong love of grey-blue distance,
Brown streams and soft, dim skies –
I know but cannot share it,
My love is otherwise.

I love a sunburnt country,
A land of sweeping plains,
Of rugged mountain ranges,
Of droughts and flooding rains.
I love her far horizons,
I love her jewel-sea,
Her beauty and her terror
The wide brown land for me!

The stark white ring-barked forests,
All tragic to the moon,
The sapphire-misted mountains,
The hot gold hush of noon,
Green tangle of the brushes
Where lithe lianas coil,
And orchids deck the tree-tops,
And ferns the warm dark soil.

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Her pitiless blue sky,
When, sick at heart, around us
We see the cattle die
But then the grey clouds gather,
And we can bless again
The drumming of an army,
The steady soaking rain.

Core of my heart, my country!
Land of the rainbow gold,
For flood and fire and famine
She pays us back threefold.
Over the thirsty paddocks,
Watch, after many days,
The filmy veil of greenness
That thickens as we gaze.

An opal-hearted country,
A wilful, lavish land
All you who have not loved her,
You will not understand
Though earth holds many splendours,
Wherever I may die,
I know to what brown country
My homing thoughts will fly.

I don’t think I’ve ever read the whole poem. It’s quite inspiring isn’t it?

And in this spirit of nationalist fervour, in a country who has a country music singer as their top Australian (no not Keith Urban), can I direct you to our favourite online forum and blog just for Aussie bloggers and friends. 🙂

Books

The Uglies Trilogy – a review from an “older teen”

2 Comments

In a world of extreme beauty, anyone normal is ugly.

cover of scott westerfeld book - ugliesScott Westerfeld‘s trilogy is made up of “Uglies”, “Pretties” and “Specials”.

In this future world everyone has an operation at the age of 16 and is turned into a “pretty”. You get a perfect body, a super-immune system, perfect vision etc and you get to live on a ramped up Ibeza like party-city where life. For the uglies waiting to turn 16 in the dorms on the wrong side of the river it all seems too far away and they spend their time playing around with how they would like to look after the operation and sneaking out and getting into mischief, blowing off a bit of steam.

But what if you don’t want to be turned pretty? And is the pretty operation as innocent as it seems?

This is a fast paced action tale which I enjoyed reading. I loved the way the pretties all talk like 10 yo girls – like totally whatever. And the issues behind the concept are also interesting.
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Would we have depression, anorexia nervosa, self-harm, suicide if the pressures of looking good were taken away from our society – if everyone could look the same – would we have racism?

That is not to say that these books are written in a heavy philosophising manner. They are not. It’s full of hover board chases and rebellion, it just makes you think, possibly even makes teens think. I know I would have eaten these up at school had they been written then.

Have my two picked them up? No. But I am hopeful one day they will.

Oh by the way… Scott has a blog too so he must be okay. 🙂

Florida

Mannequin makeovers

Otherwise entitled: “Only in Key West”. I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a range of …er …sizes.

Key West

Key West
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Key West

And on that note (omg can you believe that last pic?) can I direct your attention to the Ninth Carnival of Radical Feminists which has picked up one of my (not so radical) posts…

Introspection

The dying age

Heath LedgerIs it just me or are you overwhelmed by the numbers of deaths lately? This last two years in particular seem to be a never ending procession of young deaths – and not so young but they are kind of expected.

I’m wondering if it is my age. I’ve hit my 40s. Do I notice it more now?

In the last two years there doesn’t seem to be a month go by without another significant person dying.

Today it was Heath Ledger. Now I didn’t know Heath – yes even though I live in Perth, small as it is, our paths didn’t cross – although my friend’s girls went to the same school as his niece – but I was shocked just the same.

A fortnight ago Clinton Grybas died – sleepwalking apparently. I knew him about – crumbs – must be about 8 years ago or more.

Before that Matt Price.
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Before that a colleague’s wife.

Before that George Grljusich… okay he was a bit older but still not old.

The list goes on.

Perhaps it is just because I’ve lived longer and I know more people. Perhaps I’m more aware.

Can it stop now please?

Introspection

New Year Resolutions

newyearIt’s still January so a review of my New Year’s Resolutions seems to be in order (last year I did this in March).

So without further ado – the audit:

1. Return emails efficiently

I reckon I’m pretty good at returning emails. Mostly. Except when I’m on holidays. Today at work I had to go through over a 1000. I deleted anything sent to me more than a week ago. I figure if it’s really important someone will tell me. It’s not as if they wouldn’t have got an email saying I was on hols. I’m prepared for this to bite me on the bum.

2. Play bridge once a week

Well I tried. I still need to find a regular partner though.

3. Love my children

Well they are pretty lovable – this isn’t hard unless they are being very trying!

4. Love my husband

See 3.

5. Love my job

I haven’t been good at this. This year I’m changing my attitude. Life’s too short eh?

6. Be better at keeping in contact with friends

This is hard to measure. And I’ve made a heap new friends via this blog. I think I’ve been slightly better… 🙂

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Finally one I can say I did live up to!

8. Say yes

No.

9. Save

Very rubbish at this one.

10. Explore new opportunities

Haven’t really done this either. 🙁

But lets not dwell on the past! This year I resolve to:

1. Begin each work day affirming why I love what I do. I figure that all jobs have bits you hate but I mostly like my job so why not start from a happy place.
2. Review every book I read.
3. Keep my mobile phone charged.
4. Buy a laptop.
5. Put money aside for savings every paycheck.
6. Find a regular bridge partner.

I know I should have some fitness/diet things in there but hey, I figured I’d set myself some realistic goals!

Jokes

Dad jokes – you gotta love them

Man walks into a shop.

“Hi. Do you have any sirloin steak?”

“No sir.”

“What about fillet?”

“No.”
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“Hmmm okay, could I have some lamb chops then please?”

“Sorry, don’t have any lamb chops.”

“What? No steak and no chops! Call yourself a butcher?!”

“No sir. We’re the optometrists. The butcher is next door.”

Current Affairs

Mosquito economics

a neglected swimming pool ... okay it was mine last year... before we got a pool boyMosquitoes could be the canaries in the mineshaft of the American economy.

It has been a dry year in California. They have been in a grip of a drought. Normally this would mean that the mosquito population would be reduced, but this year in some areas, this has not been the case.

Why?

Swimming pools, neglected when the banks foreclose on homeowners, have become breeding grounds.

The fact that there’s a noticable problem with mosquitoes is an indication of the number of foreclosures.

Stockton is a prime example.

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This is the human end of the banks’ mortgage crisis. A crisis according to a BBC article I read recently that could “… have a reduction of total credit to the economy of two trillion dollars”.

Will it affect us here in Australia?

If it leads to global recession… yes. Simply put as far as I can tell (and I am no economist) – if the biggest economy in the world stops buying, then suppliers – for example China – will be affected. And who is buying all our natural resources and keeping the boom rolling in WA? You got it.

I’ll be watching those mosquito reports.

An excellent BBC Documentary on this subject.

Books

The Pesthouse – a review

Novel by Jim Crace (ex Amazon)I first heard about this book from the horse’s mouth so to speak. We were listening to The Diane Rehm show on NPR (National Public Radio). Diane sounds as if she has a voice disorder and speaks really slowly and gruffly but she does great rambling interviews and this day she was interviewing Jim Crace about his latest novel The Pesthouse. You can hear the interview here (and the Alan Alda one is good too).

The premise of this simple tale is that of two people who meet, go on a journey together and fall in love. The setting is an America set in the future – after some kind of global plague has gone through and the cities more or less abandoned. (Yes. Another dystopic novel)

Jim is an Englishman and so might be better able to imagine a “broken” America of the future. An America whose inhabitants want to leave. Everyone is travelling east to catch a boat to Europe perceived as the promised land.

Does Jim hate America? He wasn’t sure. He said (from memory) in the interview that he had a love/hate relationship with the states and wasn’t sure how he felt when he started the book. America has become the country we love to hate. Being the most powerful country will do that. Read the book and you’ll know how he felt at the end.

His heroine has red hair, shaven off. Why? He just loves strong women with red hair.

And what did I think?

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Perhaps it was because I’m into this dystopia phase at the moment.

I think though it is because of the writing. It is sublime. Poetic. Take this description of the tall ships seen for the first time by our heroes through ancient binoculars:

It was not through the pipes, though that Franklin caught sight of his first oceangoing ship, full-rigged and shirty in the wind. p201

If I’d written that line – full-rigged and shirty – I’d have stopped, fully satisfied with my days work. That is a satisfying line of prose.

The Pesthouse is my new favourite novel. I am re-reading it.

Family

Code nine

Yeah I know. Butter wouldn’t melt would it? But my little angel has her secret side.

Charleston

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While away, I caught her saying “code nine” to her brother as I came into the room. It didn’t take much to extract an explanation.

Apparently “9” is what she writes while chatting to friends on Puzzle Pirates or Club Penguin to indicate that a parent is lurking. Just to warn the friend not to write anything incriminating.

She’s 10!

If I wasn’t worried about teenager-hood, I am now. 🙂

Do your kids have codes you’ve come across? We parents need to stick together!

Travel

Home sweet home

fluffy ducksHome. There is nothing quite like opening your front door after being away and smelling that stale air of unlived in space and knowing it is YOURS!

Seeing a few dusty corners, blessing your housesitting friends for making the house tidy (was it tidy when we left? I don’t remember…) and bagsing the shower first.

Ahhhh we do water pressure well in Western Australia. For the first time in weeks I feel clean. I blow dry my hair and use my styling irons for the first time in 5 weeks – for some reason they didn’t work in the US – I’m no Barbie Doll but I love my GHDs. I pull on a pair of white jeans. I open some mail. I assess the state of the fridge… hmmm only one bottle of wine left…

I empty the suitcases and put on the first wash and head out to buy some fruit and veg, some milk and meat, and get my car washed and pump up the tires.

Surprisingly – given the 16 hour flight from New York – 7 hour wait in Bangkok – and 7 hour hop to Perth – I feel like a box of fluffy ducks (as Groover would say). Must have been inhaling the smell of the gumtrees at the airport.

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Still it’s taken me a while to kick the family off the computers so I can have some “me” time. Which means of course YOU time dear internet!

I’ve got a notebook full of thoughts and ramblings, a Flip full of videos and a couple of hundred stills to play with. Bliss. I will never leave home on a long trip without a laptop again.

And.

Happy Birthday Meg! 🙂 Go you good thing!