Category Archives: Uncategorized

Jamie is in my kitchen

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Jamie’s 30 minute meals has not left my kitchen bench since I bought a copy. I took up the challenge and attempted to create his delicious meals in 30 minutes. One meal was the Rogan Josh Curry and whilst the meal itself was delicious, it took me an hour to make and I was racing the clock, and then another hour afterwards cleaning up the pots and mess in the kitchen.

It is helpful to watch the cooking episode on TV, and then attempt the meal later. I am glad he has outgrown the need to say “pukka”.

Cookery books are the only books I buy anymore (everything else I borrow from the public library) and recently I have added these to my shelves:

Some others that have been on my shelf for awhile and I have enjoyed testing the recipes are:

While I can’t claim to be Vegan or Vegetarian, I do make eating choices in favour of that diet regime most of the time. I have significantly reduced the amount and frequency of eating red meat in recent years. I still eat seafood at least once a week and poultry now and then. I heard someone say that it’s difficult to be vegan in our society and so calls himself a “flexivore”.

Begin totally vegan or vegetarian is not straightforward and you really need to make sure you are getting all the necessary vitamins and minerals such as B12, D, iron, calcium and others. Jamie’s meals in his recipe books are not totally vegetarian but his does have many scrumptious recipes that are.

I am reading State of Wonder by Ann Patchett.

Facing the world

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How’s your face? How much do you take your face for granted? Are you beautiful; plain; ugly; possess inner beauty that radiates out; all of the above?

It’s interesting how much we take appearances for granted and make superficial judgements based on our face and the faces of everyone else we meet.

Consider the female US politician who was very attractive and had a high profile job where her face was seen often by many and then had her face destroyed by some crazy gunman. How did she cope with that? What an awful thing to have to endure and yet she has courageously moved forward, recently having some amazing facial reconstruction. (This was in the news recently and yet I can’t seem to find any information online about this. I haven’t done extensive searching at this point though.)

Consider women of Muslim faith that wear the hijab. Try to put yourself in their shoes and imagine what it must be like to cover your face to the world. What does this do to your sense of identity, your confidence, your ability to relate to others in the “modern” world?

And then consider popular culture that has enormous emphasis on “look”? It reeks of “lookism”. The ostracism that occurs every day because you might not have the “right” look is accepted by large portions of our society. The main culprits of this in my opinion are fashion, celebrity, and the media.

How must the current Australian Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, feel being tormented every single day for her red hair? She has amazing red hair (colour enhanced perhaps) and striking fair skin and yet she is ridiculed for those unique characteristics, while trying to do her job conscientiously, sensibly and with maturity. Where is the maturity of those who ridicule her like they are still in the schoolyard?

As a typical Aussie who loves the outdoors and spent years playing outside in the sun during my child and teenage years – playing tennis without a hat, water-skiing all summer, and more, the fair freckled skin I inherited from my English and Scottish heritage, is now suffering from sun damage. I wonder how much the hole in the ozone layer contributed to this. Perhaps this problem being experienced now by many of a certain age and demographic won’t be seen in such epidemic proportions in future years because the hole in the ozone layer has decreased in size – for now.

Recently I had the Efudex treatmenton my face to try and kill the potential SCC cells that are underneath my skin. This condition is named Bowen’s Disease. I have had SCC’s cut out in recent years and so this treatment will hopefully reduce the occurrence of the SCC’s developing.

That’s all well and good in a practical medical sense, but it was interesting to experience the profound shift when presenting this awful face to the world. Our face is our window. Whilst we might be able to cover other imperfections or problems elsewhere, short of wearing a hajib, our face is our communication interface. Apart from the discomfort I felt from the treatment and the effects, I didn’t see my own face whilst moving about at work and in town. But I could see the faces of others as they looked at me. Often I would explain with some degree of embarrassment. Around town I would lower my face, the peak of the cap shielding me. But how many times can you do that in a day? I couldn’t hide away at home for 6 weeks. I had to go to work. I wasn’t sick after-all and I had work to do.

Having never been considered a beauty by myself or anyone else, the impact is perhaps not felt as keenly by my ego as that of someone who might have traded on their beauty for most of their life. But it certainly makes you very aware of how much unconscious emphasis we place on people’s looks.

Think about some well-known people who have astonishing faces and yet would not be considered “beautiful”. I love Einstein’s face or is it his brain I admire? Think about people you know whose spirit and soul shine and you don’t even think twice about how they might look. Think about those funny looking Tibetan Monkswho smile and smile and smile.

I am still healing from my treatment and enjoying a day at home. I can’t blame others from being sick of the sight of me. I am so sick of my own face right now. I can only hope the treatment works. But my thoughts go to others who have far worse to endure than I, people who are judged harshly on their nature-given looks, who try to change their looks through damaging and unnecessary plastic surgery, who suffer from rascism, feminism, ageism, lookism.

Through meditation I endeavour to heal my body and soul, and engage my spirit, so that I might be freed from the tyranny of “lookism” and relate to all people as one soul to another, connected in our humanness as Earthlings. I know how lame that sounds but I will try anyway. Will you?

I am listening to Rrakala by Gurrumul, Tabula Rasa by Arvo Part, and reading NOVA magazine, Australian Country Style magazine, vegan recipe books, and re-reading The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success by Deepak Chopra.

There is an app for that

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Apps are revolutionising the way we all use the internet and the way we connect, are entertained and informed. I love my iPod and the things it does for me keeps expanding and enriching my days. When I bought it all I wanted was a device that could play my music choices and allow me to listen to my favourite radio programs when I could. Little did I know how much more this little device could do for me? And it’s not even an iPhone!

Here is a list of the “apps” I currently have on my iPod:

App name Description Internet required
1 iTunes Basic Apple function for iPods, iPhones, iPads yes
2 App Store Basic Apple location for Apps yes
3 Safari Internet Browser for Apple products yes
4 Mail Connects to your chosen email i.e. Gmail yes
5 Facebook Facebook functions via mobile device yes
6 Twitter Twitter functions via mobile device yes
7 Tweetdeck Twitter functions via mobile device yes
8 Google Earth Access to Google Earth yes
9 Wikipedia Access to Wikipedia yes
10 Skpye Face to Face chat – personal “phone” calls yes
11 YouTube YouTube videos yes
12 DrawCast Doodle and create pictures no
13 Solitaire Card game no
14 Mahjong Tile game no
15 Sodoku Number game no
16 Hipstamatic Photography with camera options and photo editing no
17 ClassicCam Photography with camera options and photo editing no
18 Art Guide Lists of art galleries, artists, exhibitions yes
19 Thousands Australian events guide by city yes
20 TED TED talks yes
21 At the Movies ABC At the Movies show yes
22 Dictionary Dictionary yes to refresh but not to find word
23 Translate Translation software with many language options with speech option yes
24 Dropbox File saving and transfer i.e. Word documents yes
25 Pages Document creation and file transfer Not to create and save documents but yes to transfer
26 RTM – Remember The Milk To Do Task list and organiser no
27 Mind Tools Leadership and Management tips no
28 LIndedin Professional Profile connections yes
29 Flashlight Handheld light no
30 Yoga Yoga postures and instructions no
31 Insight Timer Meditation timer and bell no
32 Nike + iPod Exercise walk and run workout program no
33 LYR – Log Your Run Exercise walk run cycle workout program no
34 MyNetDiary Calorie and nutrition counter no
35 21 Day Veg Kickstart Vegetarian diet and recipes no
36 Dalai Lama A brief overview of the life of the Dalai Lama no
37 Buddha Quotes Inspirational quotes yes
38 Amazon Search and purchase at Amazon.com yes
39 Kindle eBook purchasing, storing and reading Yes to purchase but not to read eBook
40 iBooks Apple eBook purchasing, storing and reading Yes to purchase but not to read eBook
41 Borders Borders eBook purchasing, storing and reading Yes to purchase but not to read eBook
42 State Library NSW NSW State Library Events and information yes
43 Library Anywhere Connection to Public Library catalogues yes
44 iSpydus Staff Library Catalogue connection for Library Staff yes
45 Podcasts Enormous amount of podcasts to choose from radio, TV, independent.
Find your favourite and subscribe for automatic updates when you have
internet access.		 Yes to download but not to listen

Lazing by the pool

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How much do you like lazing by the pool? Can’t get enough of it? Could be a dream come true? Just what you need? A little R&R?

That’s what I thought too! That was until I was fortunate enough to get a chance to do it.

I recall years ago visiting this tropical location on a family camping trip. We camped in the local caravan park on the beautiful beach. We walked along the beach and peeked in at the luxury resort awestruck by the beautiful swimming pools. Never did I dare to imagine that one day I would be lazing by one of those pools.

And yet, there was I just last  week lazing by the pools, swimming in the pools, ordering cool drinks that waiters brought to my lounge chair. It seemed decadent and I felt like a bit of  a fraud. This level of luxury does sit well on my conscience. I can open my own  door thank you. And carry my own bag – I’m not an invalid. I don’t mind getting  up and walking to the bar to order a drink.

How long before the laze by the  pool on the sun lounge gets a little boring? I start to fidget. I go for a  swim. I read another couple of pages of a boring book. I get on Facebook on my  phone and tell my friends that I am bored or lazing by the pool, or whatever.

This resort is aging and in need  of a makeover. There are cheap packages available – one we bought. The food is  quite awful – food for the masses – smorgasbords of food that could be fresher  and authentic. Was that reconstituted egg I tasted in the scrambled eggs for  breakfast? I’m not a fussy eater but at this level of promoted luxury you do  expect the food to be at least real. The banana smoothie I ordered had banana essence as the banana component: not a real banana to be seen. I know bananas are expensive at the moment but this is the tropics and this is a luxury resort!

I’m not good at sitting still. I  need to explore, walk, and look around. The boat trips to the outer barrier  reef were great. We snorkelled and we saw turtles, reef fish, and colourful coral.  We saw whales and dolphins. We walked around the town dreaming about buying a  little piece of tropical paradise.

It was good to get a little bit  of warmth and sunshine, but I am quite happy to be back at home under grey  skies. And now at least I know that lazing by the pool is not all that it  appears.

Flying not falling

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It looked to me like he was plummeting to earth before the orange chute opened, but he said he was flying. My partner/husband/friend/companion/accomplice could not stop smiling as he told me about his skydive.

He has also recently managed to stand up on a surf board. His “bucketlist” is getting shorter. Another thing ticked off his list was to build a new house.

Visit Paris –yes. Climb Uluru – yes. Visit Machu Pichu – not yet. Visit Paris again – not yet! I don’t like the notion of the “bucket list” and prefer to think of my life as a colourful palette. Each day we create what we will. Sometimes it can be a muddy mess while at other times it is so beautiful beyond all expectation.

I have felt like I was falling – my life changes so total I have struggled to find my feet. This morning I realised I am flying not falling. The typical morning-mind complaints rattled around in my brain, whinging about the injustice of having to get up early to drive to the rural airport; when a scene so unique and beautiful stopped me and made me realise how lucky I was to  be out of bed early after all.

I was driving through patches of fog as morning light illuminated the countryside in soft pastel stripes of pink, blue and grey. The pastures lit up in vivid green and the white wind turbines turned their man-made symmetry in slow motion above the fog. It was a jewel of a day, so lovely and precious that I felt lucky and privileged and snapped out of my morning fug. Indeed I was lucky to be alive. I thought about stopping and taking a photo but I knew this could not be captured within the confines of a small digital image.

And that got me thinking about how my life has changed in so many ways. I recall wanting change and now every day is different and new. I had lifted myself out of the stagnant predictable sameness that it was, into a fresh, vibrant, challenging, rewarding and creative experience. We (my husband and I) pushed the boundaries and expanded our life experience to be fuller and richer.

Last night I was in a small country town hall at a public meeting listening to locals talk about their town. Today (in an unrelated matter) I enjoyed fine dining in The Melbourne Room of the Melbourne Town Hall then just three hours later I am in the plane banking over Discovery Bay looking down on an emu racing back into the pine forest.

Maybe the meditation is having an effect, allowing me to be quick to appreciate life more often. The power of mindfulness.

We are Fifty and Flying not Falling.

The weight of words

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As a lifelong lover of books I can list many good reasons to support printed books as opposed to electronic books: the beauty of the printed book as an object is a view shared by many; the musty smell; the weight in your hand; the perfect size; the tangible delight of anticipation and discovery as you flick through the pages seeing sentences, thoughts and images at first glance; the sound of the pages turning. A whole library of these wondrous creations can keep your attention for days.

But I am being nostalgic. This may well be a vision from our past. Coffee-table books are more suited to these attention-deficit times. A quick flick through a glossy work of biblio-art is all our brief leisure time can afford.

Reading books is a lot more complicated now with the evolution and availability of ebooks and ereaders. Many of the things we love about the freedom of reading a book has finally been translated successfully to the ebook device: portability; visual ease of reading on a screen; choice of font size; finger-flick to next page; the sound of pages turning. Where once you might have carried one or two books in your bag for reading on trains, or in waiting rooms, or on the beach, your ebook device can carry that whole library of musty old books in the palm of your hand. Can it really? Theoretically – yes, but what books and how?

It depends! It depends which device you have, which distributor you choose, what format your device likes. Apple make it easy for even the most technologically- challenged amongst us – but at a price. You will be a slave to the proprietary nature of Apple products. Ipods, ipads, and iphones can do it all simply and quickly through the itunes software that connects your device with their software via the internet. But their software must be loaded onto your own pc initially for this all to work seamlessly. Apple has world domination in this field in the palm of their hands – apple-sized.

There are other devices suitable for ebooks but they also all have some kind of proprietary nature and problems associated with formats. If you try for a freely available format like PDF you will need further software that will reformat the PDF to be readable, scrollable, page-turnable, to suit your device. Software such as Adobe Digital Editions or Epub. Eyes glazing over now?

So the advantages of ebooks such as: portability, accessibility, immediacy, weight in hands (propability?), screen light, font size, library in your pocket; these advantages seem just out of reach for many. It’s easier to buy the book – if you can find the one you want in print.

Or go to the public library and borrow the book – for FREE! Now there’s an idea!! But chances are the latest new release by your favourite author is out on loan and you will have to reserve it and wait to be notified of its arrival for you. By then you might have bought it, or borrowed it from a friend. It might just be worth the cost of a quick download to your ereader afterall. Immediate gratification is sometimes not met well by public libraries. Whereas if you have your ebook/ereader format and subscription dilemmas sorted then you will be able to download that book you desperately want NOW.

While ebooks are cheaper per unit by comparison to the printed copy, you must factor in the other costs associated with your ebook convenience: the ereader, the internet access, the device plan, the credit card fees, etc.

The notion of the experience being “special” is also worth due consideration. The anticipation of waiting for that particular book is not to be dismissed. If I have immediate access to all and every book I want to read then not only am I swamped with too many things for my mind to manage, but that one special book loses some of its appeal if it is available to me straight away. This is a very fuzzy concept and needs further investigation, but book-lovers will know what I mean I’m sure. It’s like eating chocolate: if you eat it every day then you might get a bit sick of it, and it becomes common place and not the luxury special occasion item that it should be. Immediate impulsive download robs you of any anticipation. You are poorer for it. An article I read recently, “Can the book survive?” in the Good Weekend section of The Age on 15th January 2011, touches on this notion.

Further on in the same article is the idea that the “voice” of the author changes depending on the medium on which the text is being read. The layout of the text on the ereader screen can detract from the potency and importance of that text; while other books are more suited to being read on an ereader. I noticed this too when I read a free copy of Alice in Wonderland complete with old illustrations that I had downloaded onto my ipad. The artistic beauty of the serif-font laid out on the page was missing, and yet the small “original” illustrations were lovely captured on the small screen. This is where the book as beautiful object is most obvious, and in this case, lacking as an ebook.

This idea needs further research and I have the perfect title for a thesis – “The weight of words and how text and meaning are affected by format, display and availability”. Go for it.

So the advantages of ebooks and ereaders are disadvantages also. What they offer us in terms of portability and access robs us of the quality of the experience of reading in some obscure way. The delight of browsing, serendipity of discovery, and being exposed to a broad range of subjects that you might never have considered, amidst the shelves of books, narrows the experience to obtaining just the one book you seek. You might get what you want right now, but not what you don’t know that you might want.

Public libraries are the losers in this battle of the ebook/ereader formats. Publishers have tied up the ebook market into a knot. Ask at a public library if they have ebooks and you will get a bold “Yes” in response, followed by an uncertain “but…” What device? What format? Which book? Sorry but you can’t get fiction FREE in ebook format at a public library for download to your personal device. Well you probably can somewhere, but the latest titles? You will probably be able to easily read an ebook on the library pc or on your home pc if you are a library member. But ebooks mean portability, so what is the point of reading an ebook on your pc? Electronic notebook? Well maybe.

Most librarians will tell you about the many ebook collections available online, such as Project Gutenberg, Safari books, ebooks at the National Library of Australia, the ebooks supplied by Adelaide University, and many more. But this is not answering the problems associated with being able to borrow the latest novel for free from your library, or perhaps buying the ebook outright then being able to pass it on to a friend.

It is too soon for a conclusion of thoughts. These are uncertain times for book lovers. It is still evolving. Optimistically I think that public libraries and freedom of access will prevail. Fearfully I envision half empty shelves with old pre-loved books decomposing and awaiting the arrival of H. George Wells in his Time Machine. (Remember that scene from the classic movie where he is relieved to find the public library only to have the books fall to dust in his hands?)

Ultimately literacy, creative endeavour, the need to express ourselves, the desire to share our ideas, and discover new ones, and the pure and simple love of books as objects will ensure that public libraries continue to be valued as places for community narrative, history, wealth of knowledge, ideas, learning, gathering, sharing and for the free inclusive access for all.

Mipod

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I know. I know. I’m late into the ipod market. I just bought my first one – a 32gb ipod touch. I didn’t particularly want one nor need one, even though I am an avid music lover. The CD players in my car and home have always fulfilled my needs.

Having moved to a country area I discover that my favourite radio program is unattainable. Downloading the podcasts of the program is possible, so I thought about buying an mp3 player for this purpose. The difference in price was a determining factor, as well as my reluctance to buy into the proprietary nature of Apple products, and this resulted in the purchase of a generic brand mp3 player. I was suspicious when seeing on the device interface “artists” spelled with an extra “i” – “aritists”. If I had been able to see this error before purchase I definitely would not have bought it. Work mates told me that if I didn’t buy an ipod I would wish I had. They were right.

I pushed ahead though and downloaded the mp3 files of the podcasts from the program, then loaded them onto the mp3 player, only to find that I could not hear the program through my ear-phones as I drove along the highway in my car. This made me realise I would need to buy an ipod after all. So I did. Then I bought the necessary accessories: protective jacket, charger, and car FM transmitter.

The first “sync” between my pc and ipod transferred just under 1000 separate mp3 tracks. Some of these were the downloaded radio programs, some were of a lecture series from the State Library of Victoria, and others were French language lessons. The majority were of music tracks from my previously bought CD’s.

To my delight I found that I could subscribe to my favourite programs via RSS feeds through itunes, and these would be updated automatically from website to pc to ipod without me having to do anything after the initial addition of the subscription. This is how today’s technology should work – seamlessly and easily. And when I have viewed or listened to the program on my ipod it is automatically removed when I connect again to itunes. I can now listen, without ear-phones, to my favourite programs and music playlists whilst driving the long trip to work every day. I can forego the mindless drivel and advertisements on the local radio broadcasts, and improve and broaden my mind by learning interesting things told by the clever people interviewed by Margaret Throsby.

I also subscribe to TED talks and can load them onto my ipod and watch them at my leisure, although I still mainly do this on my pc, but I get notifications of the latest talks as they are available, so don’t have to go searching, then I can pick and choose the ones that interest me.

I have only touched the tip of the iceberg and haven’t even begun to search for apps that might be of interest to me. I have created playlists from my music collection and can play these loud in our house with an mp3 dock and speakers. I love this ability to tailor my listening consumption to suit my own tastes and circumstances.

The handling and management of ebooks is another area that interests me personally and professionally and I will investigate this further. I did download some ebooks using audible.com but found a silly glitch with my pc and itunes because our laptop has an administrator and two users. I access itunes and my ipod through my user, audible loads via the administrator and itunes and audible won’t allow the access from one to the other, even though they are all me: one of those problems caused by the proprietary nature of Apple and Microsoft.

How it feels

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How it feels? I’ll tell you how it feels Brendan Cowell! It feels annoying, depressing, disappointing, shameful, hopeless, and puts me in a really bad mood, when I am trying to relax whilst on my precious annual leave. That’s how it feels to me. What are you trying to prove with this work of fiction Brendan? Attempting to be the modern version of J.D. Salinger perhaps? (OK I’ll stop talking directly to Brendan now.)

If you want to read a book with lots of sex, drugs, bad language and a life of wasted liberty, then this book may be for you, along with these others:

Indelible ink by Fiona McGregor

The Romantic by Kate Holden

How it feels by Brendan Cowell

These are not my usual choice for reading material that’s for sure, but as a Librarian in a public library I like to stay current with what is going around, and what is being mentioned and promoted in the media. I like to see what is new in contemporary Australian literature. I don’t choose fiction much and personally prefer travel writing and memoir, but not biography. I respect the diversity of choice by authors and readers, and it is with these things in mind I will share my opinion here – for what it’s worth.

Recently I read the three books in the order as listed above, and had read The Slap by Christos Tsiolkas a year or so ago. The three books above have similarities to The Slap, but the book by Tsiolkas stands apart in my view. Perhaps it is the forerunner to this genre of writing. 

My first thoughts are that with Melbourne and Sydney as the starting points for these stories, it makes me wonder at the culture. All of these books I found to be depressing, soul-less, crude, obscene, misguided, immoral, unintelligent and immature. The people in them are feral, egotistical, self-gratifying, immature, shallow, and without consideration to anyone but themselves. The behaviour and language by the people in the books (are they characters?) is appalling.

The “F” word appears as frequently as the necessary “the” and “and”. I read an article by Kate Holden where she bragged proudly about her frequent use of and love of the “F” word. Why? So?! What is intelligent about that? It is just a word and not an intelligent word at that. It is not helpful or descriptive. It is an arrogant and abusive word that halts honest and open communication. There are cleverer words to use in literature and everyday conversation.

Brendan Cowell uses the “F” word as well as the “C” word throughout his novel and really those two words are a good representation of the whole feel of his book. It is a base, soul-less, egotistical, troubled, feral, misguided, depressing portrait of a society I hope does not exist. 

These three books provide scenes of a culture in Australia that is low; unintelligent; lacking morality, class, substance, and beauty; immature; misguided; and without any social structure at all. Immediate self-gratification seems to be the only aim. Are these true representations of the society we live in? I would hope not. And why are these pieces of literature and authors applauded? I don’t understand that.

The Slap by Christos Tsiolkas was perhaps the successful forerunner to these three attempts to follow in his successful path. His book too was depressing and left me with a feeling of shame to even belong to the society he illustrated. But I found his book cleverly crafted. The way his story progressed through different characters in the aftermath of “the slap” gave a depth to the story that illustrated modern day multi-cultural Melbourne. 

The Romantic by Kate Holden holds no resemblance to anything romantic at all. She is a tragic immature lost soul with nothing to guide her aimless wanderings. She needs help. And unfortunately, if we are to believe the tales in these stories, modern Australian society is ill equipped to offer that help.

Neil Cronk, the main character in How it feels, is supposedly an actor, an artist, but the only glimpse we get of any “art” in the book is when Neil goes to the Tate gallery in London. His work in theatre is not evident except to create a veneer of an “artistic” type of character. He could be anything.

Indelible Ink is a book hardly worth reading at all, in my view. Empty of content, plot, character, emotion, and point, I do not recommend it. The title and the premise point towards a story about tattoos, which it is sort of, but it fails to reach any point to the tale.

If these three books are the best Australian contemporary work around then that is disappointing. If they represent the society in which we live then that is extremely worrying. Fortunately I don’t move in these tragic circles and I think these books misrepresent our culture in so many ways.

As far as literature goes, personally I prefer stories to be uplifting and with a point to the narrative. I look for beauty, spirituality, generosity and a gentle kindness that speaks of honesty, humility, openness, maturity and intelligence. The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery is a perfect example of a great piece of contemporary literature. OK, so it is set in Paris and not Sydney for a start. But I can’t recall the “F” word being used at all. There was no need. The last scene stays with me as the author cleverly weaves some beautiful classical music by Satie into the scene, enriching the experience masterfully.

I implore contemporary Australian authors to get out of the gutter and for publishers to please find us some relevant Australian stories worth reading – something uplifting. Something that has the power to inspire a misguided culture to read, to be kind, and to lift itself out of this depressing, shameful culture portrayed in these dismal stories.

 “Because that’s what I see when I come home to Cronulla, a bunch of white people who believe what they want to believe and see only what they want to see – which is more white people who believe what they want to believe and see what they want to see.” ~ Neil Cronk in How it feels by Brendan Cowell

Perhaps there is some truth in this quote but when I read a book at my leisure I will not persist with it if I am not enjoying it. These three books I did persist with wondering if there was a point to the dismal story and hoping there would be some form of redemption or wisdom gained from the turmoil. I am disappointed to find none, and annoyed I wasted precious time reading to the end. More than that though, there is real power in the self creation of mood, environment, health, attitude, and ultimately lifestyle when individuals take responsibility for themselves. So perhaps I am guilty of only seeing what I want to see, but I understand the impact negative images, language, attitudes have on me personally but also to shaping the culture at large as we contribute to it.

Put that in your crack pipe and smoke it Neil (or Brendan)!

Leave your Leonard Cohen hat on

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Under a moonlit sky, with Hanging Rock illuminated in the background, Leonard Cohen held the thousands spellbound as he recited A thousand kisses deep.

It was a magical performance. He and his support band are a class act, with undoubtedly world-class talent. The obvious gap between their musical ability and those of the support acts of Paul Kelly and crew, Clare Bowditch, and Dan Sultan perhaps accounted for their apparent stilted performances. I expected much more from these great Australian talents, but their contributions were brief and lacking in enthusiasm. Leonard Cohen more than made up the shortfall, but I wonder at Paul Kelly. He is a seasoned performer and haled in this country as one of our greats. Was the mastery of Leonard Cohen and ensemble just so superior that it even made the likes of Paul Kelly feel inferior?

The day was perfect with no rain and the first warm day of the summer season. So it was hot standing in the queues waiting to get in and then as the day grew long the sun took its toll. You definitely needed a hat and the Leonard Cohen style was dominant. The break between Paul Kelly and Leonard Cohen hailed the opening of the gourmet picnic hampers and we were surrounded with tempting Master Chef creations. We had not been organised and so joined the queues again to buy hot samosa’s and ice creams.

Crowd behaviour is amusing to watch, don’t you think? There is a self-organising aspect but it only goes so far before chaos takes over. Maybe it can be defined using the Chaos Theory? So the guidelines stated that you were allowed to bring in a camp/deck chair, food, only sealed bottles of water, no glass, no umbrellas, no alcohol but it would be for sale in the venue, and no SLR cameras. And these rules were made to be broken it seemed, or perhaps many just didn’t read the guidelines on the website.

So of course there were SLR cameras about, and glass brought in, and I saw an umbrella. So people choose and stake their spot on the grassy hill and then place their chairs, rugs, eskies, etc. Then as the crowd grows and more people come in, what was a somewhat organised pattern of rows now gets crowded in as other people squeeze in between the generous territories already staked. Then there is the problem with the chairs. Seasoned Port Fairy Folk Festival people will try to exert their traditional PFFF rules relating to low chairs (folkie chairs) and the higher camp chairs. They will shoo anyone away who dares try to set up their higher chair in front of them. And will also try to wave people to sit from 3 or 4 rows back so that they get an uninterrupted view of the tiny ant-size humans on the stage far down at the bottom of the paddock. Thank goodness for big screen technology.

At full capacity the crowd had no sensible traffic flow in and out of any “spot”, or any way to identify this spot when returning from buying food or alcohol or a lengthy trip to the toilet queues. The coffee queues were just plain silly. It became amusing entertainment seeing people navigating the crowded mishmash of the audience, and not being able to find their way back. They would stand with the sun in their eyes lost and forlorn, often holding bottles of wine and beer, talking on their phone to their mates in some attempt to find their spot. You couldn’t even identify groups by their hats because most were like Leonard Cohen’s hat.

Leonard Cohen made it all worthwhile. He was generous with his time and attitude and gave us everything. His backing singers, the Webb sisters, have voices like angels and contrast perfectly with his ruff croon. His guitarist, Javier Mas, is a master in his own right and one guitar solo in particular provided another spellbinding performance. It is a fine lesson in how to tame a fidgety uncomfortable bunch of people and quieten and hold them still and focussed for a few precious minutes.

By the end of the night I was shivering and waiting for Leonard to finish so I could go home. We made a dash for it and crowded into Phil’s blue Landrover that stood out in the car-park amid the more popular styles of car. It was a special and unique experience that I am glad I had despite my dislike of crowds of people.

Points of perspective

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Here I list some of my random thoughts and impressions after one year in this new location and lifestyle (in no particular order of relevance or preference):

  • Have settled into this new life
  • LOVE the new vistas
  • Needed this change of scene more than anything
  • Miss my kids and parents achingly
  • Feel I have escaped the “ratrace”.
  • Realise I am not a “country person”.
  • Have not seen evidence of the fabled “country charm”.
  • Am amazed at the lack of world view by many country-folk.
  • Feel a sense of impending doom.
  • Have seen/experienced the effects of the population/cultural explosion/collision in Melbourne and want to warn the locals of the approaching tsunami.
  • Feel like a foreigner in my own country.
  • Have read the local history of Portland and realise how this has shaped the culture of the town.
  • Love the look of the old buildings especially those made of stone.
  • Always feel sad at the sight of another dead koala on the road and wish I could protect them.
  • Love the local bird life.
  • Still want to live in France (not sure why) but realise the culture/population problem is far worse there.
  • Am looking forward to settling into our new house.
  • Feel proud of what we have achieved with our building project.
  • Miss friends, workmates and lifestyle on the Mornington Peninsula.
  • Portland is a “blokes” paradise.
  • Love the regular trips to Melbourne on a small (20-seater) plane.
  • Appreciate Melbourne more as a visitor.
  • Miss regular and varied choices of movies to see at the cinema.
  • Have not established a regular exercise routine yet.
  • Feeling healthier as a probationary vegan.
  • Enjoy listening to audio books in my car as I travel the country highways.
  • Love the weather – the wind, the cold, the rain. Sunny days are gifts.
  • Love living beside the wild open sea.
  • Enjoy the variety and challenges of my job.
  • Have made some new friends.
  • Grateful to have a constant companion/friend/husband to share this with.