live from glebe

awkward holiday moments #2 july riomaggiore

2009-08-15T19:12:12Z

drinking wine at dusk round the picnictable in the hibiscus patch overlooking the cliffs and ocean
its cool and fragrant and relaxing. everyone has brought takeaway pizza up the steep stairs cut into
the cliff to the hotel garden. the teen aussies tell us theve counted and its 196 steps and everyone agrees.
chatting to a young girl and guy from the room below, from louisiana, baton rouge.

everywhere this holiday has been all about obama so we ask -
have you noticed a different reaction to being american?

they do, and then pause, and heres where it starts going downhill

their uncle is a republican congressman, theyre from the old south.
she says: its great that a minority, a black can get elected.....but
we're terrified of him. everyone she knows doesnt trust him and is scared of what he will do.
some jumbled reasons about him beeing a muslim or a socialist or both
about how he isdetermined to ruin america and expose it to terrorists

and how obama is undermining the military by cutting their budget
her brother sits silent glowering at us

their other brother is serving in iraq because he loves america but he fills them in
on how obama is out to sabotage the US military

its laughable just shocking coming from but with a few wines under the belt we had a go...

isnt it at least more comforting to have an A-grade student and former law professor rather than a C-grade alcoholic
who couldnt keep a job? isnt the smarter guy better by definition?

apparently not. lots of gibberish about lies and faked records and the scary unknown andd whatnot.
obamas out to deceive the middle class.

whatabout healthcare? with the US having highest infant mortality rate in the developed world,
surely any improvementt is better than the status quo?

no. their dad works to cover his family. everyone elses should do the same. no handouts here for welfare bludgers: the poor and disadvantaged shoudl look after themselves and just make more money.

theres nowhere to go from here so awkward goondights all round

awkward holiday moments #1 july villineuve

2009-08-15T18:54:19Z

the end of long boozy picnic by the lake for anna and lee pre-wedding,
blazing hot and stacks of food and beer til everything was hazy around gleaming sunset.

two young english girls approach our large picnic - they need an adult to vouch for them,
to hand over a passport to the camping park so they can stay there overnight.
these girls remnd me of me and litsy when we were teenagers - theyre young, foolhardy, have a small bag each,
theyre sunburned, with a tiny cheap tent. suspect their parents dont know theyre here.
totally unprepared but im barracking for them.

we wander together over to the campground,
beg and plead and negotiate over wine bribes with the sour faced suspicious owner
but get through to her sleazy drunk husband.
(they cant sleep on the street)
i give away my passport and escort them to their 2metre patch of land they have for 12 hrs only.

where they face me upturned with giant doe eyes and tell me they dont have a hammer or a tent fly....
there are monster storms coming and this is a little too much responsbility
so i find them a hammer and plastic bags
wish them goodnight and head back to the party...

about 3am the heavens open. massive lightening across lake geneva and freddie mercury
- the sky is lit up like the mcg and an ocean to rival the pacific is thundering down from the sky.
awake, fretting, worrying about the girls, then start worrying more about my passport. before light i
hike back to the campground through the rain and theyre gone.

the owner is even bitchier pre-dawn and wont give me back my passport til the grls are produced and leave her front gates.

it takes somme time but i find them and take the owner over -
theyre under the bbq pavilion
sprawled out on the ground out of sleeping bags with baggage strewn everywhere.
many bemused swiss people
standing around who want to have brekkie but dont want to step on them.

reluctant tussel then she hands over my passport and i vow to never help innocents again.

best product 2008

2008-11-30T23:29:58Z

relaunched aluminium sigg bottles

after some time of being dropped from heights, bashed into railings and laptops, dangling from backpack and knocked around
my sigg is still flawless with not a single scratch or flake

never been washed (never needed it) and no odour or taste just constant crystal cold
never bought a bottle of PET water since owning this
just awesome

cockatoo island, biennale

2008-06-23T01:22:45Z

cockatoo island on saturday was blinding -
the most powerful man-made environment in sydney, if not aus.
finally the perfect venue for 50th bday or wedding or whatnot

(also when zombies attack syd this wil be the place, up in the silo and princessnanse in the shottower)

the art was middling, but me and nanse were some kind of gobsmacked
walking around at the rusted machinery tumbled down cranes;
can easily visualise building entire ships in those ginormous cathedrals
every crevice is open and able to be explored....photographers going nuts everywhere....

favourate artwork was paul chans
favourite space easily the foundry next to the turbine hall
may have all just been the bright high clear light

anyway, its on til 7 sep actually, the ferry is free every hour:
http://www.bos2008.com/page/free_ferry_service.html

highly recommended evryone go, im going back this wkend and every after

soul meets body

2008-06-11T04:51:44Z

an ace weekend in melbourne
particular highlights bein

- cayden and kelsey
- ruby's in errol street
- horse bazaar
- sunday session at the london

thanks everyone for making time for me :)
and i ment jennikate for the mixtapes - avengedsevenfold are cool!

will be back late june for the tiges v carlton
put fri 27th in diaries

each city fulfills complementary parts of me

sydney equals:
new chums, outdoorsy, natural beauty, intellectual stimulation,
central, busy, so many opportunities so much to engage with.
very much my mind and body

melbourne equals:
old chums, food, bars, man-made beauty, artistic stimulation,
FOOTY, relaxed, so familiar and comfortable.
very much my soul and heart

neither is enough by itself anymore.

tibet protests this week

2008-03-15T02:57:25Z

"Radio Free Asia said monks from Sera were on a hunger strike, demanding the withdrawal of Chinese paramilitary forces from the monastery compound and the release of monks detained earlier this week. Two monks from Drepung were in critical condition after attempting suicide by slitting their wrists, the radio station said."

this is unbelievably tragic
and we'll never hear the half of it

last june at drepung and sera
i was lucky enough to meet some amazing men
who have devoted their life to higher education
(monastaries being the only option as schools and universities are closed to anyone seeking a free/liberal intellectual education)

this picture
was taken surreptitiously from my hip.
its of the chinese military measuring up whcih part of the magnificent drepung complex to pull down and replace with an 'observation' centre.

the monk's silent acquisence prolly coloured by
the dozen young men studying there
who had been rounded up and dragged away a few weeks prior for expressing displeasure at the chinese military presence on-site

to voice your concern about the chinese government's annexation and suppression of the tibetan people and their holy men you can start here here

<3 rudd

2008-02-13T04:52:31Z

whatwith

ratifying kyoto straight off

closing nauru detention centre

and

forcing parlimintarians to visit state schools and report back

and make em work on fridays from now on

and

a long overdue apology
providing hope that there can be a start to positive reform

thus far im deeply impressed
not rudd sexxytimes like kylie

but very proud of our current australian p.m.
and very disparaging of little johnny who chose to boycott today
when every other living p.m. was there

http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/stories/s132204.htm

a pane

2007-10-13T08:12:21Z

just then, like RIGHT then

got out of car and walked up the path to front door
i stopped to look in my handbag for keys.
i took one step more

then
the massive window pane of the building above cracked into shards
and they fell hard and long and shatterd into a bunch of long pointy splinters
exactly where id been standing.

maybe one second or two seconds in it.
well definteiyl going out for a celebratory wine.

weekend of flood

2007-06-11T04:23:03Z

gotseitdank the lessons to be learned from marita's horrible horrible storm flood in northcote saved my skin on the weekend: water moves fast and gets through everything.

we were up at mangrove mountain ashram, and the storm hit hard on friday - apoocalyptic. the creek and dam and weirs burst at the same time, rendering the farm instantly like an upside down cornetto cone in a bathtub of water.

remembering marita, drove the car up as far as it would go then carried it the rest of the way up. all the smart native animals were long gone, it was only the bullants and hare krishnas left watching as the water rose and rose and rose. with marita firmly in mind i grabbed everything possible and high-tailed for the hilldorms: there was one minor landslide but found a safe building to use as base. the krishnas were all in denial - its never come higher than a metre - oh look at that, well its never come higher than 2 metres - oh look at that....

it smashed through the ground floor windows of the top buildings, the computer lab, library etc filled up. round 4am saturday the water crept over the second stories so grabbed gear over heads and waded up to even higher ground. the 12 or so vehicles in the car park were well under water by then, unfortunately so were all the farm animals, racehorses etc...

no mobile coverage, no land lines, and the emergency generator failed immediately. the combination of overflown sewrage, smashed glass, leeches and poor dead horses meant there was no way to get through the water just had to hunker down and wait it out with candles. annoyingly the hardest thing was lack of water to drink but the best thing was my ipod and byron galoshes :)

the ses cut us out sunday, every third tree had been wrenched across the road and most electrical wires snapped and flailing. only two major casualties - i never want to witness impromptu stiches again - but lots of bulllant bites (understandable, they wanted to claim the hill dorms for themselves). also can live wihtout chanting for a while ;)

so its nice to be home and dry and hot water and lovely to have so much concern and red rooster. got to hope everyone in the central coast is recovering ok too.