Goodbye Farewell Auf Wiedersehen Adieu

See you all soon.....not taking a computer and not even thinking about heading into an internet cafe either.......my shoulders and back are going to love the break.

Handy-Work

Just in time for our holiday I hope, the weather seems to be leaning towards summer....let's hope it stays that way until we get back. We're heading north about 800km's - which usually means about 4 degrees warmer and the last few days have been really warm (25 degrees) - I even got a little sunburnt from my extended walk at the beach yesterday. Just can't wait.

Despite that, last night I decided to call it quits to the idea of camping. Days are warm but nights are still too cold and I can't think of anything worse than being cold when the sun goes down and having no hot shower before bed which will make me miserable which will in turn make me unbearable to be around.

And of course I/We have left too many things to the last minute including many little car repairs. JD attempted installation of the new car stereo last night without success due to an imcompatible plug in adaptor thingo and then this morning as I started out with my long list in tow I discovered the blinkers weren't working. Hopefully we just disconnected something last night. It's kind of scary driving like that, having to use hand signals in a kind of over the top way, but what I found to my absolutute surpise was how nice and accommodating the other drivers were being towards me. Even a bus driver stopped on the other side of the road so I could turn, waived me on and blew me a kiss. I might have to use this tactic more often pretending not to have working blinkers.

Must away, have so many things to do.

fOOd is gOOd

B E F O R E



D U R I N G



A F T E R

A Sunday in August

Spent Sunday with part of my family. My Mum is one of 9 kids. For the first few years of my life we lived with her youngest brother, my Uncle John. We're closest with him and his family these days. He is battling cancer at the moment. He really isn't too well. I just want to hug & hug him and suck it all out of his body and make him well again. Sometimes he has certain expressions that my step-dad had during the time he was battling cancer. It has made me very sad. I totally get death, it's a part of life and I really feel I have a deep understanding of non-attachment and letting things be and pass and yet still know we remain connected but why do people have to suffer so much? Why the pain?



It was a gorgeous day. There were 11 of us. We feasted and we sat in the sun and talked and relaxed and hula-hooped and skipped and sewed and I felt very content sitting back watching us all interacting, watching us being a family.

Summer then Winter : Same Day

And only this morning I'd heard the incredibly charismatic Tim Flannery talking about global warming, and the intensity of weather we're all going to be experiencing. I must buy his book, The Weather Makers - but have also just discovered his site of the same name. He's not all gloom and doom, and offers real advice about what we can all do on a personal level. One of the more interesting facts he was talking about this morning was the huge geo-thermal reservoir under south australia - apparently so huge and energy rich, this reservoir could power Australia for about 100 years. So why aren't we looking at harnessing this amazing and natural clean potential energy yesterday? No, let's all rely on fossil fuels til they run out. Let's continue to have wars in various parts of the globe because of oil and energy reserves. Let's all just continue to scrape our knuckles on the grounds dudes cos that's what it looks like from here you neanderthals!

Good Times

Weekends have returned to being those special periods which I'm looking forward to all week again. With JD's return more things are planned, and catching up with friends and family seems more important than ever after such a long time away. Same too for having dinner in nice restaurants. Although this one then tried to rip us off by doubling the amount of wine we'd supposedly had on the bill - not cool guys, an expensive mistake if we hadn't realised.



We also had the pleasure of looking after Jindi overnight. So we had a great afternoon of singing, playing, violin practice, scootering around the house and Grandma even dropped in so she could measure and fit her properly for the Tinkerbell outfit she's making her for school book-week - she's going to look very cute.



Plans are in place for our upcoming road trip up north. We're leaving next Thursday for 11 days.



This weekend had that real edge of summer in it and therefore hopefully promises more of the same but even warmer up north. We're going to take a slow drive to our destination and a slow drive back, stopping at all those places we don't usually have time for. And hopefully discovering somewhere that is completely secluded where we can spend the day/s to ourselves.



And we won't just be sticking to the coast, we're going to drive inland and up into the higher country of the New England area and then on the way back do lots of the beautiful hinterland country that boasts amazing forests and walks and cool little communities. Road trips are the coolest.



So now I just need to book some of our accommodation, make sure the car is ready for the trip, get all the beachy stuff, esky, snorkels and flippers, tent down from the attic and wait patiently.

Keep on the Move

I know I know I'm a sucker for a cliche sunset....but I just can't help but love and honour Mother Earth and her natural beauty.



JD left work early so we started our walk before sunset - a good thing because it was getting pretty icy cold out there.



Walk this way.....

.....and I did.

The sun had set and the tide was coming in and the poor seagulls even seemed cold.

I feel a bit crappy this morning. Another bad night's sleep. And my back is aching. For the past few months my back has been steadily getting worse. I thought it might be to do with our mattress not being turned often enough - it's too heavy for me to do alone and I've been waiting for JD to come back - so the first couple of nights were great.....no back pain, but last night was awful. Every time I moved position in bed my back ached and it woke me up. I don't know how people live like this - back pain ist SCHEISSE!!!!!! I don't know whether it's origin is in sitting too long at this computer, my desk being too high for me, not stretching enough and haven't done yoga for almost a year, aging, or the mattress. I feel best when I'm being active or walking. Enough whinging I'm boring myself and I need to get up and stretch now.

These Feet Were Made for Walking....

I've been working again this week at my friend's shop....ugghh.....standing on my feet for 8+ hours a day absolutely hurts. I'm so not match-fit for this. My Mum is 66 and still wants to and does work 3 days a week. She's a pattern-maker/designer & cutter and so is only really on her feet the whole time. I don't know how she does it. Seriously Mum, how do you do it???



I feel like I haven't had any time for being creative or being still. Today, I'm going to have a long long walk. Being on your feet when you walk is energising as opposed to standing which is draining. I need to get those endorphins going. And then I might be able to finish that painting, or take some photos, or read, or study......



And maybe my restless nights sleep was because of this beauty.

Sunrise

It seems like the only time I get my act together enough to be up for sunrise is when either JD or I are waking up early from jetlag. So Sunday morning we began the day like this. It wasn't a spectacular sunrise because of the clouds on the horizon but that time of the morning is so special and coupling that with it being wintery and quite cold we were almost the only ones down there to see it. Sometimes I think the beach is even more beautiful in winter than in summer. The elements seem more intense and more in your face and there is a better chance at solitude.
We had an evening walk on Friday night, after it had been raining all day. The wind was howling, but the sky was clear and the moon and stars were so bright and we were alone sitting on the rocks at the south end out of the wind feeling very connected to beautiful Mother Nature.

The Most Important Law You've Never Heard Of...

So I could blab on about the incredible past few days I’ve had and bore you all senseless with my happiness, but I won’t just yet and instead will make this post not about ME but something very important.

GetUp are about the only guys informing us about something very dangerous about to happen to the very heartland of Aboriginal Australia - and neither the traditional owners, nor you, have been warned.

Under the guise of promoting economic development for indigenous Australians, the Federal Government wants to ram through new legislation this Tuesday that actually jeopardises future generations of Aboriginal livelihoods. It's quite possibly the most important law you've never heard of.The law will amend the iconic Land Rights Act, stripping away power from one of the only true representative bodies, the Land Councils, while pressuring Aboriginal communities to hand over control of their lands for 99 years. With profound disrespect, many of those who this new law affects most have not even been told. While the government claims the 99-year leases are voluntary, traditional owners are being cajoled into signing away their rights to their land just to secure basic services that we all deserve, like houses and schools. The Northern Territory is flourishing with indigenous culture and living languages. Yet, all Australians know there are also many deeply confronting problems - and all parties agree we must urgently find new ways forward in partnership. Land is the best asset that Aboriginal people have for economic development. Not one Australian economist has argued that taking land or leadership away will deliver positive economic results - even the conservative Minerals Council of Australia thinks the Government is on the wrong track with its attack on Land Councils.

The economic case has not been made. The social consequences are untested. And traditional owners have been excluded from this decision that will deeply affect them for generations. Please help stop this before it's too late. Tell your senator to delay the vote until they have done their due diligence as lawmakers, and sufficient time has been made for the traditional owners to be properly consulted.

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Having just seen the exquisitely stunning Ten Canoes which needs to be seen at the cinema to appreciate the cinematography and sublimely precious land and culture of the top end, I felt compelled to share this email from GetUp with you all. For those non-Australians reading, you can't help right now but knowledge is power and if the international community know what's going on down here our governments will hopefully not be able to get away with it.

REUNITED

Went to the Bob Evans/Bertie Blackman gig last night at the Annandale and thought long and hard about staying up until I had to drive to the airport to pick JD up - but a long hot shower at about 2.30am was like a sedative and I got in 2 delicious hours of sleep. But waking up in the middle of the night was pretty revolting, and then the plane was late, and on arrival at the airport when half of JD's luggage still hadn't arrived after all the other passengers were long gone I could barely keep my eyes open.

I'm the one who's feeling jetlagged right now, but who cares - not me!

The Colour of Light

And today went something a little like this:

C r A z Y f O r C o Lo U r

Waking up to a darkish overcast sky this morning makes me crave for bright colour. Colour and form and the combination of both - that's what it's all about. Sometimes I wonder how differently we as individuals perceive colour. We all know the names of the major hues but the subtle differences are much harder to differentiate. JD is colour blind. He perceives some greens and reds as browns and purples as dark greens - really weird. One of the images above has had the colours altered - can you tell which one?

SPT - SPC

Here is my SP this week and it is simply a reflection of where I like being most - at the ocean. Taken on Saturday with the sun absolutely beating down, the sea was perfect, there weren't many people around and it just felt completely blissful. Bondi is my favourite city beach. It's different everyday and always beautiful. Having just now discovered there is a challenge in place for August (I hadn't seen it until now), I'm going to adapt this to suit the theme and will try harder next week I promise. It's meant to be about enclosed spaces - so I'm now going to waft on about the fact that these vertical lines cage me in, like how society's norms also enclose me, box me up, define me. So this SP is but a mere reflection of one part of me and not the real me.

More SPC'ers here.