The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity.
Curled up in her new Snooza Cuddler, Midnight looked like a liquorice allsort.
By the time I grabbed the camera, a bit of stretching went on and a paw came out.
I visited the manufacturer’s website to see about a larger Cuddler for Shelby, and I like that Snooza collects beds that pets no longer need.
First day at uni, then off to Limited Edition.
H got to place his first red spot, on a piece entitled ‘Snaked’ (Acrylic on canvas).
I’m not so keen on the frame, but I like the painting because it could be a photograph, textile, or a painting. You have to look up close, and then away, to see what you want to see.
Our next door neighbour kindly collected the piece for us when the exhibition closed the following week. That’s the one annoying thing about art exhibitions. You don’t usually get to walk out with your purchase.
I didn’t realise how difficult it would be to take a photograph of a picture. But here it is out of square, fingerprints and all.
The speeches could have turned the art exhibition into a second wake, but fortunately we were told not to ask how a painting was named or what was the inspiration - as no one alive knows. This made everyone laugh and the tension leaving the room was palpable. Sue went on to say that she thought that Nigel may have enjoyed peoples’ discomfort as they themselves attempted to interpret his paintings. I must admit I enjoy exhibitions more when I can experience it for myself rather than being told.
The global theme for International Women’s Day 2008 (IWD) is ‘Shaping Progress’.
The Australian Government Office for Women, provides notice and links of what is happening around Australia, including the ABC who will host and archive a panel discussion which will be advertised on IWD, i.e. Saturday 8 March.
The Western Australian Department for Communities, Office for Women’s Policy has further honed the global theme to ‘Discover a world of opportunity in science and technology’. There is quite a list of IWD events happening in Western Australia through to early next week, although ‘invitation only’ events I think should have been listed separately.
Events that caught my eye were the UNIFEM IWD Breakfast Friday 6 March including fundraising for East Timor and the launch of UNIFEM WA at the Perth Town Hall. And the ‘Science & Technology - Part of Our Lives’ panel discussion in East Perth on Monday 10 March hosted by the National Council of Women of WA. Includes afternoon tea and launch of the NCWWA bursary to be awarded to a female student of science and technology.
Other women related items that have come to my notice within the last couple of days (email or radio):
As I came away from The Black Arm Band’s performance of Murundak at the Fremantle Arts Centre, I overheard people saying that the event was “awesome” and “fantastic”. Overall, it felt flat to me.
I did not go because of the folk or world music. Although my taste in music is somewhat eclectic, this is one genre that I will change stations from. My expectation was that it was a social commentary through the history of indigenous music. It was in a sense, as Rachel Maza-Long provided narration between the songs, and the screens on either side of the stage displayed what was on stage (from roving camera) and film-clips of indigenous children and family, communities, and political rallies. But for some reason this felt too well orchestrated, and I would have preferred for the music to tell the story by the performers getting up and playing and or singing their part in the story.
The evening began with the Welcome to Country. This also included a potted description of indigenous history and the meaning of ‘murundak’. Although the programme and reviews state that murundak means ‘alive’ in Woiwurrung, the indigenous woman that read the introduction said that it meant ’savage and strong’. I thought that this was a great start to what promised to be a special and powerful event.
Highlights of the evening included being able to put faces to names such as Ruby Hunter and Archie Roach, Mark Atkins’ amazing didgeridoo playing, Kutcha Edwards singing ‘Is This What We Deserve?’, and at least knowing one song (Yothu Yindi’s Treaty) led by Shellie Morris.
Reflecting on Murundak this morning, I have sought out references to The Black Arm Band, individual artists [1], and the History Wars while listening online to Murandak, Mark Atkins, and Paul Kelly. Also, thinking about what I learnt in school about indigenous life did not match my experience as a child in the Pilbara. It’s no wonder that I’m confused - still.
One of the hopes that I have for the future is that Sorry also means that history and cultural studies texts will be rewritten to include all history and cultures.
[1] The Black Arm Band: Archie Roach, Ruby Hunter (*), Bart Willoughby, Stephen Pigram, Peter Rotumah, Kutcha Edwards, Mark Atkins (Maguari Productions), Lou Bennett, Joe Geia, Emma Donovan, Dan Sultan, Ursula Yovich (Vibes Australia), Rachael Maza-Long (*), Shellie Morris, David Arden and Shane Howard. Special Guests (Perth): John Butler, Jessie Lloyd and Della Rae Morrison.
* The Black Arm Band web site also includes biographies and links to other people involved in the music and production.
I’ve discovered Pandora, as in the jewelery not the myth. The charms are in the form of beads (silver, gold, Murano glass, precious and semi-precious stones) and these can be threaded onto a bracelet, anklet, or necklace.
I was shown the Pandora range when I went to get a charm silver soldered onto my bracelet. I had to think it through whether I was being given the hard sell, or whether I thought it was a Good Thing. It was both. But on the second visit (I had to leave my bracelet and charm to be soldered) I asked to see some of the beads that I had looked at in the brochure that I been given. For example, the Hedgehog and Princess and The Pea. I have very little jewelery to know that I don’t usually get excited about it, but I think the beads are gorgeous.
The ‘hintiest hint’ to H meant that Valentine’s Day made me the ecstatic owner of my first bead which I threaded onto a piece of leather thong to tie as a necklace. The Hedgehog bead is so cute, as it has the prickly back, soft feet and underbelly of a hedgehog.
Valentine’s Day was a big night in rather than go out for dinner as we are pretty busy with the Perth International Arts Festival. But the meal was special in that it was dishes that we don’t normally prepare when eating ourselves, i.e. lamb racks basted with marinating paste (cooked in charcoal Weber). creamy potato gratin and garden salad. And H went to Bocelli Restaurant and got some of their delicious creme caramel for sweets. We were going to get a bottle of sparkling shiraz, but we have a stash of Trilogy (for our festival film picnics), so we just had a bottle of that since it was already cold.
Valentine’s Day can be seen as crass commercialism based on the countdown by florists and the retailer advertising. I say, it’s what you make of it (or don’t). I don’t need an excuse to give H a present, but special days make it easier to go shopping as they are then stocked with choices. As someone that makes a list to go shopping for ’stuff’, the infrequent visits to the city leading up to so called special days provide an opportunity for me to follow up gift ideas, and successfully (I’m always hopeful) obtain and cross the items off the list.
I could have got H’s gift online, but I spotted it in a local shop before I got around to ordering. I much prefer internet shopping, but for ’stuff’ that I don’t normally buy I often want to see or touch before it goes on the shopping list or purchased.
We went into Perth to join the audience brought together by the Bringing Them Home Committee to watch the Prime Ministers speech and other parliamentary proceedings streamed live from Canberra for the apology to the Stolen Generations.
The event was advertised to be held at the Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre, but it was moved to the Esplanade Gardens and in the Music Box set up for the Perth International Arts Festival. We joined the stream of people that made their way from the convention centre to the Esplanade. Fortunately, we managed to get in to the Music Box and sit on a tiered step, but it was standing room only.
After a hurried introduction by the conveners and others to the accompaniment of the didgeridoo the Welcome to Country started, but was then interrupted to tune into the Prime Ministers speech broadcast from Canberra.
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s apology and subsequent speech [1] were heartfelt and well received with many people cheering, giving applause, waving flags, and a standing ovation. Shame I can’t say the same about the reply [2] given by the Leader of the Opposition, Brendan Nelson. In fact, the crowd showed their discontent by slow clapping and yelling to get him off. With the turn of a switch, he was off. Fortunately we can do that to a live telecast and the action definitely pleased the audience.
Nelson got off to a good start, but I think he should have kept it short and stopped there. He is now on public record of making a right balls-up of what could have been a more memorable occasion for the Opposition.
The Sorry Today program continued with the Welcome to Country and a minute silence. This was followed by a number of scheduled performances starting with a choir singing the Sorry Song. The choir was joined by children from Greenmount Primary School who used sign language which added beautifully to the choir’s singing.
We did not stay for the performances and celebration, so it was a quick walk back up to the Terrace to catch the bus and back to work. But, I was glad that I went to join the people gathered together on the Esplanade to share and participate in the day. Sorry is the first step.
[1] Prime Minister Kevin Rudd says sorry to the Stolen Generations ABC Audio Clips
[2] Fed Oppn Leader Brendan Nelson responds to apology to Stolen Generations ABC Audio Clips
It started with the Welcome to Country where Noongar elders and artists were to welcome audiences and artists to the Perth International Arts Festival.
Prior to the event I spent a frustrating day attempting to research end of journey information for bicycle riders to Perth Festival events, which I narrowed down to just Perth after I was not getting anywhere. In the end, we decided to head off a little earlier to see what we could find.
We had no idea of where the event was to occur, so we headed for the Australian flag pole between the freeway and the river. This was a good spot as we could see the speakers, dancers, and drama on the river.
Under the ’supervision’ of an interested tourist we ended up locking our bikes together against a panel of temporary fencing. There were lots of other bikes locked together, round signage and light poles, and fencing panels like ours.
The Welcome to Country was a dignified start to the Perth Festival and conducted in very extenuous circumstances. The wind gusted and howled through the space. Fortunately, the sound was good and the performers gallantly presented a vocal, musical and dance on the river edge in addition to the formal Welcome to Country.
The performance involved huge props including wire curving (and very flexible) swan necks that were difficult to maneuver in the wind. The lighting and burning of the prop in the river involved a man standing with a torch on a platform and being pushed by swimmers to the fixture (it looked like a hand holding a torch of fire) to be lit. The wind blew a lot of the smoke and soot towards the shore.
Just before the end of Welcome to Country there was an influx of people to the audience. H explained that they had come for the Water Fools performance by Ilotopie. However, the festival director announced that it was not safe for the performance to proceed due to the wind and that it may be performed the next evening and on Sunday night as scheduled. We were not bothered so much, as went for the Welcome to Country, so probably would not return to the Swan River the following night for the French troupe’s performance.
On unpacking my bike stuff when I got home I unearthed a flyer that I was handed when waiting for the Welcome to Country to commence. It was advertising the National Apology event at the Perth Exhibition and Convention Centre (6:30am-12pm) hosted by the Bringing Them Home Committee.
I went searching for further information about the issue, day and the Perth event as the flyer did not include a phone number or web address. And as the flyer highlighted, Western Australians are going to have to get up early that day if they wish to participate in the day or watch the Prime Minister’s Speech live. Note: All the resources I found refer to Canberra time.
The most succinct online resource about the Apology to the Stolen Generations of Australia I found on the ANTaR (Australians for Native Title and Reconciliation) site, followed by Reconciliation Australia. The difficulty I have with a lot of the online resources is that they did not appear to be well maintained, although I could see the resources were started with a lot of hope and then ran out of puff. I have a copy of the Bringing them home - Community Guide, and following this up on the web I read that last year a 10 year anniversary was recognised since the Bringing them home: The ‘Stolen Children’ report (1997) report was published.
One of the quirky resources that I found in relation to Sorry: The National Apology was this YouTube video.
Other resources I found interesting:
A memento of the occasion of our 25th wedding anniversary is a charm that we added to my charm bracelet.
We thought it was going to be an easy task to visit some jewelery shops and select a charm. However, it appears that collecting silver charms is not something that grownups do. As one shop assistant put it, “… we grew out of it”. Oh well, something else to add to my increasing list of things I/we do that most people don’t. I supposed we could have spent tens of thousands of dollars on some sort of silverware or an eternity ring which seems to be how our silver anniversary shopping was marketed to us by the few jewelery shops that we visited.
Instead, we stayed at the Seasons of Perth, which was where we spent our wedding night. Except that it was called the Transit Inn when we stayed there 25 years ago on our way to New Zealand for our honeymoon. We do stay there on special occasions in one of their executive suites (lounge and bedroom), and this was one of them.
We went to our favourite restaurant (same street as the hotel), the Yoshiya Japanese Resturant and as it is BYO we took a bottle of Veuve Clicquot. This particular bottle was a birthday present last year from UC to H, and it was kept especially to celebrate our anniversary dinner.
Although we brought a bottle of desert wine to the restaurant, we decided to bring it back to the hotel to drink with our chocolates - given to us by our neighbours for the occasion.
As usual, we caught the bus in and out of the city for our decadent weekend.
I had so much fun searching for the keywords that brought people to dilettante last week, that I’m going to pursue this activity some more.
how to shower in a claw food bathtub
I actually can’t remember, except that the shower head was not self-supporting as it was attached to a wall. But I do remember not enjoying showers in the clawfoot bath as the shower curtain used to always be blown in against you. On hot days this was just annoying, but on cold days it was awful especially when it continued to cling. We now have a corner spa bath and have tiled the two walls so that a shower curtain is not necessary.
i want to feel I`m alive
This is the title song in the film As it is in Heaven. We saw this film last summer as part of the Perth International Arts Festival (PIAF). It is still my favourite film. Reading this post again almost a year later, I see that if I want to link I have to get better at finding those links that will persist. It appears that the PIAF is particularly bothersome about not wanting to retain or archive their programmes.
“TUX”
Found my beginning entry to our History of Science Tour with Robyn Williams. I certainly tagged this post correctly - ‘Unfinished Objects’. This means that I have had the first pack of photographs sitting on my desk ready to be scanned since April 2007.
lemon balm drug sniffing dogs
I certainly mentioned lemon balm and drug sniffer dogs, but in two different posts within five days of each other. Possibly this is an anomaly of displaying an number of posts on the one page so the indexed search terms are for concatenated unrelated posts. I found by searching for the terms myself than lemon balm is antibacterial, antiviral and calming. It can also be used to repel mosquitoes.
steampunk influenced quilts
These search terms were inspiring and led me to crescentwench and other Etsy sellers influenced by steampunk. My influences were simply mechanical with brass and black powdercoat. I will finish my quilts, but I’m not sure if the colours and designs are ones that I wish to keep. But I’ll wait until I have some more renovated rooms and completed quilts before I think about it anymore.
sweet chilli sauce
I’ve made one batch, provided the butcher with a tray of chilli, and continue to use chilli from the garden for our meals (warm prawn and mint salad, Thai chicken and mint salad). The sauce recipe that I used provided a smooth jam-like texture which people have commented on, so that I would like to try one that is a bit more chunky.
how to twist wires together
I guess it depends on the purpose, but searching for this myself I didn’t realise there was so much more to twisting wires.
get off my garden
I’m not sure if people were looking for the specific product or just reaching out in exasperation as I did. Currently, I’m cultivating sufficient piss off plants for a mass planting.
Ixodes ricinus
This search term is a puzzle, but it may have appeared in the included RSS feeds. I thought that I had wrote about the ticks that were at Dryandra, but I don’t think they were these ones as we became rather blase by the time we became accustomed to frequent tick checks and removal thereof.
Pictures of baby termites
I found the University of Hawaii Termite Project had the best pictures.
First of all, I would like to say thanks again for the presents and your presence to celebrate the occasion.
Craig Sinclair got the Perth Blues Club underway with a folk-blues feel with vocals, and acoustic and lap steel guitars. Sometimes he was accompanied by his girlfriend Lara who played the violin. Lara added another dimension to the usually solo player with strong clear vocals and violin with electric pick-up. An encore was welcome. You could have listened or danced the night away with just the first gig.
The second gig was the launch of the Damon Carren Band’s CD ‘Magenta’ so there were more photographers than dancers to start with. Damon’s vocals and guitar were accompanied by drums and bass. Listed influences include Jimi Hendrix and Robin Trower, and I think these influences dominated the set. The beat was definitely there for dancing, but mostly it was good to just listen to and watch the performers. You gotta have attitude to do Jimi Hendrix and Robin Trower 
The Methyls were on for the finish, and although they belted out the music, it felt a bit flat after Craig Sinclair’s own songs and the sheer power and tight playing of the Damon Carren Band.
It was a good night for music and a few ciders.
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