It’s the Womad weekend again! This year, instead of 2 days and one evening of world music we have an extra day on the holiday Monday! And I was planning to use Monday to recover, do clothes washing and other such mundane, simple things that can be carried out in a slow fashion! Instead I will be dancing yet again, and the washing will have to wait until the following weekend.

I was dancing last night, and realised it had been a ear since I was last out dancing, not since last years Womad in fact! I whole year between dances - thats a bit of a scary thought. But at the same time, there has been a whole lot of hooping going on in that year, so maybe i have made up for it. It felt funny dancing without a hoop last night - I really missed the hoop and have been thinking about bringing it with me…. But that means it would be awkward when we want to be in the throng up close to the stage, or when it rains and everyone crowds in together… I am thinking I might not worry about the camera due to the rain as well. Hmmm, what to pack this morning….

The Byron Bay Donut Company is back again this year, oooh, watch out hips! The food selection is truly amazing, they have a whole variety of very creative, ethnically varied food and good size serves too. Its going to be a great weekend, despite the rain.

Fire has cleared out this section of scrub, but also opened native seeds lying on the ground.

I’m reading Mulvaney and Kaminga’s Prehistory of Australia (1999) and getting a really vivid image of how the country would have looked before European settlement, and in particular how vegetated the countryside and deserts were before being wiped out by livestock. This country of grasslands and forests, managed by Aboriginal people with fire. Much easier to walk around in than the scrub blocks of my childhood, travel corridors were burned, ports and landings were burned out of dense bush, open woodland was the norm. Fire kept the land clean, fulfilled ancestral obligations and encouraged the regrowth of edible plants (as well as the flushing out of moveable food). It was (and still is) fun to play with. Small fires protected people from devastating ones. The native vegetation has adjusted to it.

It was a different country. It was a cultural landscape. It must have been beautiful. I can almost see it out of the corner of my eye as I ride around the city…

Abbie Cardwell at the Spiegel Tent

Things have been pretty quiet recently, this whole 3 days work/4 days off has been fantastic and I have been practicing for the International Sleeping In World Championship coming up in March as often as possible. Training is sometimes interrupted by family phone calls and garage-sailing, but other than that, little can stop me from turning over and giving it another good hour. Ah I love it.

Mind you, on the flip-side my motivation to do stuff is pretty low right now, so not much is getting done. Which means that I feel like I’m wasting my life… But its not all wasted. I spent a day up at Sean’s place in the Hills helping to get the place a bit tidy ready for a valuation, and on the same day - Valentine’s Day to be precise - we went to the Garden of Unearthly Delights to see Abbie Cardwell play tracks off her new album, which we immediately purchased seeing as it was available only on that evening at the venue. We are big fans of Abbie’s version of bluegrass and country. And there has been a good amount of catching up with family. Not much hooping going on due to body malfunctions which are currently under investigation - nothing serious. There was a bit of accounting going on there for a weekend, but its over now, thank goodness. I’m surprised by how much I like it, that limited world where everything fits and makes sense.

I have in mind a couple of sewing projects, and I really want to rustle up some motivation and get going on them. I keep changing my mind about how best to do them, but I think they have been percolating for long enough now, and it’s time to just take the plunge and start laying out the fabric. All I really need now is an entire clear day and I’m sure that once I get the ball rolling, the motivation will kick in.

As usual, I will be at Matt’s place listening to the Hottest 100, dipping in the pool, helping out with the chopping cos the bbq is usually men’s business, and enjoying a sunny, 33C day! Hope yours is a good one too!

Glow poi with Kuri (made by Kuri) on Henley Beach. Taken by Martine Cotton.

2009 is over, we are already halfway through the first month of the year and I haven’t had time to reflect or think about what I want this year to be about. I guess I should do that now…
What stands out for me in 2009 was a new field of study, a new relationship and a new hobby. These three things were simultaneously the most difficult and pleasurable things in my life.

Study was the most difficult of these three. I went into the subject with no background knowledge and have learnt so much. I started out interested in indigenous archaeology and ended up interested in historic archaeology as well. The course emphasised and explained both the processes employed in doing archaeology and the interaction with legislation, but the fieldwork excursion was the most work, the most fun and a fantastic opportunity to link head knowing and hand knowing. Archaeologists are an amazing bunch, I met some very wonderful people. There is more of it in store this year.

The new relationship was also difficult. I haven’t been in a relationship that worked as well as this one, and the difficult part was mostly learning to relax into it, and as always, to be balanced. I think the two of us have done a pretty good job so far of avoiding drama, spotting assumptions, dodging misunderstandings and maintaining realistic expectations, or at least revising expectations in the face of reality. We have maintained independence, privacy and respect for each other’s boundaries, whilst hanging out every day. Its all pretty new to me, I have to admit, but it feels so so so good, and there will be more of if this year.

The new hobby is hooping of course. There is pleasure in moving and learning to focus, in quieting the mind with repetitive activity. There is also pleasure seeing an action, desiring to do that action, practicing for a short time and acquiring competency and then moving on to excellence in such a short timeframe. And I dont think I need to explain how incredibly pleasurable it is to dance around in the living room to your favourite music - I’m sure you know that pleasure as well as I do! But I am surprised to find that being inside a hoop makes it totally ok (with me at least - you may or may not enjoy the spectacle) for me to dance around outside in public. Hooping is basically dancing with massage, and there will be a lot more of it this year.

This year holds more photos, more blogging, a new job, a car with air-con (i know a few people who would sign that petition), a lot more travel, a lot more money (of course), more study, new friends and family, more hooping (monday nights, south-east parklands - hoops available for loan or purchase!), more crafting, more live music, more love and more peace, and I have been advised to thank the universe in advance so I would like to take that opportunity now. Thanks!

Ah, its been ages! Christmas was never-ending and New Year was marred somewhat by two good friends having a major fallout, but in the end there was fabulous food, lots of nice time spent with family, at the beach and watching fireworks over the holiday season. I’m back at work again now, but of for an extended long weekend for my brother’s wedding this weekend. The crew arrived yesterday at lunchtime and we went straight to the markets pretty much. Kuri and Tod cooked a yummy pasta dinner for me at their hotel room, and late in the evening we went and picked up Ms. Frangipani, who is in the shower as I type, getting ready to go out for a day of shopping, poolside-lounging, wedding prep and general fun. We will do our best with the heat, but everyone seems to be coping pretty well so far.

Photos and updates soon!

I really thought that I would have started to slow down by this stage, but clearly it was not to be. Uni is finished - well, almost finished. There is a little tidying up to do on one piece of work and then it really is all finished. Then there was a bit of accounting stuff to do, and well, that took longer than expected. I got it completely wrong the first time round and had to do it again, so that was two solid weekend’s worth of sitting at the computer doing data entry and banging my head against the screen trying to figure out not just an entirely new program but also an entirely new field - accounting. But that seems to be ok (as in the accountant didn’t explode when I submitted the figures this time), so that’s done now too. For a few moments I kinda had it in my mind that this weekend was free - I couldn’t think of anything I had on for the weekend except for a Skunkhour gig at the Gov on Sat night… but then reality came flooding back and I remembered that this entire weekend, starting tonight and finishing late on Monday night, is taken up by the Australian Archaeological Association Conference at Flinders Uni, and I will be volunteering there, so that’s why I have nothing else booked this weekend.

So Christmas shopping, house cleaning, catching up with friends, garage-sailing, dinner with Mum, a day at Gawler with the grandparents - all of that is going to have to wait til later. The conference should be interesting tho!

Sudden gusts of wind bring bursts of heavy rain, but the sun is only minutes away from shining again

I have finished another year of study and I feel like a weight is off my shoulders! My last presentation was on Thursday night and whilst there is a still a small amount of rewriting to do, its all finished. Woohoo! So this week, instead of studying, I worked. I have an extra day at the office as of this week, bringing me up to three, and a couple of days a week as the VNM’s bookkeeper and general Man Friday. Or rather Woman Friday, Saturday and Monday. Doing the accounts is a totally new area for me and I have never been particularly good at numbers, but the older I get the more I love learning anything new, particularly if its useful, so I am already knee deep in it. Actually I should get back to it.

Good weather for staying inside and working. At least I’m not regretting I’m not at the beach!

It has been 39C for a few days now, and the people at the weather bureau are suggesting it will be a hot summer. Im certainly feeling a bit cooked, tho I’m managing to stay inside mostly and keep my place dark and cool in the day, and then we turn the aircon on and sleep next to it on the lounge at night. I’m starting to get a bit scratchy about the fact that I haven’t been to the beach yet, I suspect that might have to happen soon… I hope a good dousing in salt water will help calm my hayfever down, cos tablets have only half worked.

I am soooo close to finished and I would be more excited about it if my internal body temperature was a couple of degrees lower. I took Thursday off and did 7 loads of washing, the majority of which was dry by the time I came to hang out the next load, but on Friday I had to give a presentation on the Park survey I did for the industry partner. Today I am making a poster about the project and a promotional brochure for the Park, both of which are due on Monday. I have revisions to make to the draft, and another presentation to go, and then it really is finished. And I feel finished too; everyone is in party mode already and each evening has been spent in typically Aussie fashion, where everyone knocks off early because of the heat and goes and grabs a beer with a friend, sits around outside and talking about plans for the rest of the summer.

But for a moment I would like to go back to last week and show you a couple of pics from last weekend’s wedding between Aaron and Jocelyn, which was fun and lighthearted and a lovely day, despite the heat and the fact that I had to work on school stuff in between wedding sessions.

Unveliling

Married!

Tomorrow is a friend’s birthday, and so the day will be spent at the pub having lunch on the balcony followed by a bit of a surprise thing back at his place. I will get another chance to capture sunset from the balcony.

I have one day left of a big assignment, and then a morning to tidy it up if necessary. The first big one was all done on Thursday, and thankfully this one is going just a little bit faster, like the language is flowing better. Yay, I’m actually learning how to do this! I’m learning to write to a particular style required by the field, to formulate ideas and frame them in the accepted way. It is such a pleasure to feel that I"m not only getting the assignments knocked off, I’m actually improving in both quality (hopefully) and speed (surely). There are a couple of Japanese guys sitting at computers near me, and i cant help but eavesdrop. They are discussing whether to stay in Australia after their degrees are finished, what they think of South Australia. It’s quite distracting. I cant hear a Japanese person talking without wanting to join in.

I had breakfast with the VNM this morning which was nice, because apart from sleeping next to each other, we have hardly had any time together lately. He has been usurped by a computer screen. Tomorrow we are going to a wedding, and I will have another chance to take wedding pics. I’m looking forward to it - I learnt a lot from the last wedding and I’m eager to try again. I have a take home exam to do in the morning before the wedding, so that I can hand that up on Monday as well.

The next thing will be a big batch of paid accounting work. I am eager to get stuck into it, but at the same time, next week is going to be quite hot, mostly in the high 30’s, and I am really really really hoping that there will be a bit of beach time in there at some point. And true to form, I am feeling the flow of the creative juices, with a million sewing ideas popping into my brain, a strong desire to take my camera with me wherever I go, feeling like blogging again… all of that now that summer is here, the “holidays” are approaching and I have so little free time in sight. Not that im complaining about the prospect of lots of paid work, no, not complaining at all.

Ok, enough procrastinating, better get back to the essay!