peacemaker gypsy

Mad

I packed in a hurry and without a lot of thought ... all summer clothes and it is freezing here!

I brought four books with me (to last a minimum of ten weeks): I have finished two and I only arrived yesterday.  The current hotel has TV ... French TV.

I left behind my precious kettle bell (really could not fit it in either space or weight) and the biggest weights they have at the gym in the hotel are dear little 1kg ones (they have four and they are primarily decoration).  I am told by the people in the office that there are other gyms in town.

Zone eating is going to be incredibly difficult ... the breakfast is typically French ... 20 different kinds of bread and that is it really - oh and bad coffee.

I am back in  'helpless' mode reduced to acting and grappling for words that are half-remembered.  I should have paid more attention all those years ago in French classes (or even a couple of years ago while living in Paris).

And the locals do not shorten Madagascar to Mad - they use Mada ... but I could not resist 

It never rains but...

A couple of weekends ago (knowing that Josh's whole Sydney experience was coming to an end) we went to Katoomba.  Going to the mountains in winter is not always a wise thing to do but in this case it was fine ... cold... but fine.

Alittle girl walking the valley with her family just behind us pointed out this view and called it "the shiny view".  I was so taken with her description that I had to take a photo.  We were in deep shade in the valley but the cliffs were completely gold (the combination of winter sun and sandstone).  Just gorgeous.

Then...

Joshua did his Spanish exam the other week and now his results are back (but only for the Spanish dancing ... the other we are still waiting for).  Two grade levels: two distinctions ... and full marks for a whole lot of 'things' that translate roughly from the glamourous Spanish to the very ordinary "arms, feet, clapping, castanets and deportment".

He was wearing a vest (waistcoat) for the exam but loaned it to some other kids whose exam was the next day.  So this is not quite how he looked.

Then ...

I had to babysit the angel ... had to ...(although this photo was taken the winter solstice weekend)

Then ...
Last weekend we watched Stu try to kill himself by accomplishing feats of strength and stamina (he is the one in the loud shorts and shirt) - the other people competing were about 22 apparently.

And now I have been told that my flight to Madagascar is this Saturday ... it is worth noting that I am the person who is normally packed two weeks ahead of time ... now I have to go down to the 'cage' and retrieve a suitcase and start!

It is been a very full term with Josh dancing full time and me taking every advantage to see and be with the various grandchildren (other than Josh).  But it is well overdue that I do some work other than that of grandmother and guardian ... so now I am off to do it.

Midwinter solstice

And therefore a very short day.  For us it was short only in the daylight stakes.  First it was raining and overcast all day so not much light anyway.  And then my little house doesn't get a whole lot of light anyway (not direct sunlight) so... 

I swam 500 metres; which I am chuffed about being able to do - in one hit and all, (artificial light and underwater lights), Josh homeworked and put away sundry clean washing after cooking a modified "Josh stack" for breakfast.  Then we had Alison visit for the afternoon.  Had to block out what little light there was and fight with the portable baby cot (the cot won) so that she could sleep and then be awake and of sunny disposition so that her aunt could photograph her.  While she is an adorable child (of course I am not biased) she is naturally quite a serious child and the flashes of sunshine smiles are fleeting.  Which is a shame because she has inherited gorgeous dimples from her mum.  So after completely dismantling the house and endless dressing and undressing (we were down to nudity by the end) we have a thousand photos which I think are great but which Lis (in her professional mode) sees as flawed because of the quality of light (or just lack of light) plus Alison took exception to the reflector which further limited options.

After her parents collected her, Josh and I rushed into town to celebrate midwinter. 18 degrees and rainy; not exactly winter by other standards.  But we managed to get a ticket for the skating rink and the snow machine was working overtime.  Plus there were a million food and alcohol stalls and because we were there in the dying hours of the festival not only did we manage to grab a skating ticket but much of the food was reduced in price and I have a large number of coffee mugs that say "Sydney Midwinter Festival '09" on them.  A suitable celebration for the solstice: now we head into longer days.

Soul food

Yesterday I went to the Gong to see the olds and have a baked dinner.  (In that order).  The baked dinner (roast lamb and veggies) was soul food enough but the trip home was just gorgeous.  First there was the particularly golden winter late afternoon light and the long shadows across the grass.  It is a beautiful light that seems not to happen in Sydney (too blue and brash and in-your-face-beautiful).  Then as I climber Mt. Ousley pass (in the car of course) I was in shadow and the rocks and ferns sort of loom out and look all dark and mysterious.  Then there is the peculiar glitter of horizontal sun in the eucalpytus leaves (doesn't happen to any other trees - must be the way the leaves hang.  At the top of the pass you sort of burst out onto the heathlands.  These heathlands are particularly dear to me as I once (many many years ago did a major botany assignment on the plants of the heathland - imagine once I knew the names of over a hundred different natives that grow on that particular stretch of sandstone clifftop.  Yesterday they were there in all their glory: glittering in the sun glowing against the sandstone and every now and again the wonderful sight of a magnificent ghost gum trunk.  Just magic.

Further on of course I met the traffic of the outer Sydney suburbs and it was all going a bit downhill but then the sun was setting and we had this brilliant sky with salmon clouds and ... (if I had not been driving I probably would have seen it properly ... a silver coin full moon opposite a setting sun.  Truly food for the soul.

The big one

Last Friday Josh went for his exam.  This photo (and it seemed, hundereds of others) was/were taken on Friday evening.  How did he go?  No idea ... his response was "Well I was nervous and so didh't have enough presentation in the beginning but then later I was okay. "  He claimed that the other boy (that he knew) was better than him (the other boy apparently said the same thing in reverse).  The photos were taken amid much euphoric induced hilarity but this jump was actually really high (as you can see because his arms went out of shot. 

Now we just have to wait for the results.

How lucky?

It seems that in terms of countries going to the wall financially we are doing pretty well.  There is a chance that we may skirt the edges of the depression and just feel down for a while.

But

I have been to the city a few times recently and have been shocked at the number of people (and the first three I saw were all women) going through the rubbish bins ... and worse the big ashtrays connected to the rubbish bins looking for cigarette butts.  There seem to be an increased number of homeless but it is one thing to see people passively begging and quite another to see people actively scavenging.  When I lived in Paris you saw a lot of homeless people especially in the summer as apparently (so I was told) the mental facilities reduce their staff and turn out as many patients as they can.  In Africa and Asia neither beggers nor the homeless are exactly rare but somehow there is more dignity there - perhaps only because I have never seen anybody looking for scragends of cigarettes there.

Perhaps this is becoming the norm and I simply don't get out enough.  But it is very very sad to witness.  And to think once we were the lucky country.

PS

If you check out the guy doing the handstand near the palm tree ... that would be MMM

Fat to fit

I have a personal trainer.  My time with said personal trainer is almost at an end and I am already worried.  I have not been good a the diet part of the regime but I am a whole lot fitter than I used to be and miles stronger.

Mick the muscle man (said trainer) is ex-military and has the "no excuses" thing down pat.  He says things like "I have faith in you; you can do this" when it seems patently clear to me that I cannot.  And them damn it I find that I can.  Mick is a trainer here and as I said to my mum ... it looks like a cross (no pun intended) between a garage and an assault course.

And in spite of all evidence to the contrary - I love it ... I feel as if I am dying (like right now as I write this because I have just finished a workout) but I love it and I feel so much fitter.  Now need to work on the fat thing.

Playground to prison

An Australian woman has been arrested in Thailand and imprisoned (in Phuket) for four days because she stole a beermat.  Oh except that there is abit more to the story.  "Friends" put the beermat into her bag as a joke ... she was abusive to both the staff and the police and she 'ran away' from the police (or ran to get out of the rain according to her family).  It was 0200 and she had apparently been in the bar for some time.  The bar has an Australian theme.

For years now various friends of different nationalities and myself have competed to see whose countrymen make the worst tourists.  I had a Dutch friend who was sure that it was her people, although I have always found Dutch tourists to be exquistely polite.  Germans, Japanese, Americans, Norwegians ... and of course Australians - we have all shuddered at various times about the behaviour and attitudes of various countrymen.  The bottom line is that as a tourist you are "safe" - nobody knows you and the social mores that more or less keep you in check at home (or in a country where the same language is spoken) do not apply.  Thus the standards of behaviour are not the same and in many respects are not expected to be the same (there is a reason for the Parisians leaving Paris in the summer).

But there is something special about Australians in Indonesia and Thailand (and I guess increasingly in Vietnam and Cambodia).  These countries are exotic and very different and yet they are close (for a country where nothing is really close).  Historically we see them as our playground.  They are cheap, have a goodclimate and even though they speak their own language you can get by with english.  What many Australians fail to realise is that they are real countries with a real culture - one that deserves respect.  There is a sub-concious racism inherent in (apparently) people yelling at the police of another country when you would never do it at home.  Plus of course a massive lack of understanding of a culture that values dignity and maintaining 'face' above all.  Of course the unwillingness to understand the culture is part of the 'playground' mentality.  Put this together with being in a foreign country but with the safety of a bar that looks and feels like home and the freedom of being a tourist and it is not surprising (to me at least) that this particular woman is in so much strife.

When I worked in Cambodia we went over the border repeatedly to the refugee camps in Thailand.  I learned then (and very quickly) not to mess with the Thai police.  The Thai people are some of the sweetest people around but the police are ... welll police really ... and not to be messed with.

Outraged

This morning I heard a guy being interviewed because he was (in his view) unfairly fined by the Electoral Commission for failing to vote.  When asked how he felt about it he said he was outrageous.  Now he didn't say it once; he said it several times - by which time I was shouting at him (or at the black box broadcasting him) telling him that no doubt he was/is outrageous but that probably he shouldn't be broadcasting the fact.

Then I read a piece in the paper about an aircrew announcement saying that they would be in the air momentarily ... you would hope to stay up a lot longer than that!!  But I have colleagues who make that particular mistake all the time  - does it mean something else in the U.S.?  The difference between in a moment and for a moment seems to be a cultural and linguistic difference.

I have my eldest grandson (Josh) staying with me at the moment while he attends ballet school full-time and squeezes his schoolwork in around the edges.  I am outraged at the level of the work his supposed extension classes are asking of him.  Equally of course he is outraged at the work that I set for him and expect of him. 

Ooh and there is another one ... when I was first an adviser there was a teacher who had a cupboard marked extention materials [sic] the difference between extending something and the extent of something had passed him by.  And we won't even go to the less and fewer argument.  Otherwise I could well be outraged.