Mrs Sheps Goods

While I was in Taree, I went to Mrs Shepard's Gallery to see her new works. There is a lot of vibe in that gallery and Simmone and I were pumped when we motored on the the Port Macquarie Gallery and that felt like a let down compared to Mrs Sheps Gallery. Ive decided to call my framed piece of original art from Mrs Shep "Polly" and she looks lovely in my gallery I might say.

Sister Sick

Over in Taree at the moment helping out Simmone and family and hoping to graduate with a diploma in housewifely duties by the end of the visit. The feed back so far is that I need to either take better care in the hygienic practices of food preparation or repeat the subject later.... Doesn't stop the bastards eating the life giving soup and the pea and ham soup I made though.

The first night I arrived I had a nightmare and Hamish said he come into my room with the cricket bat because I was screaming out "Don't kill me!". What triggered that off was a TV show called Angel of Death and I just happened to glimpse about 2 minutes of it before I went to bed.

On the upside getting lots of crocheting done but not much art.

Walk That Dog

Mold

Being born in the tropics of Katherine, the Wet Season set me up for an antagonistic relationship with fungus. There's my mum holding her first born bundle of perfection only to find out that I had a nice coating of Candida Albicans instead of a plum in my mouth. Nice! really nice, in fact mum could have named me Candida like the girl in Tony Orlandos song....

Whoa Candida....We could make it together
The further from here girl the better
Where the air is fresh and clean

Hmmm hmmm Candida....Just take my hand and I"ll lead ya
I promise life will be sweeter....

But I deviate, mold (amongst other things) was something I battled daily for the first 43 years of my life. I now realise that dad had a skewed definition about the word edible because he had been brought up in the 1940s, in Katherine, on bread that would be toasted if it showed signs of mold.

I was always in trouble for ear wigging as a kid, well thats when I didn't have tropical ear and could hear. Id stand out side the Sydney William Hut and listen to the women who explained in detail and with great hilarity the men had real problems deciphering the Colgates tooth paste from the Canesten tubes especially when pie eyed. Gives a whole new slant on the term "Moss Mouth".

Driving on the way up to Darwin in the early 1970s, dad decided us girls might be hungry so he pulled into Hayes Creek and got Simmone and I a meat pie each. The pies had the mandatory tomatoe sauce on top and at the first bite I thought it tasted a bit funny so decided to lift the lid. It looked alright but just to be sure I took the lid totally off which revealed mold covering the complete underside of the pastry and hovered delicately above the meat. Hence the weird way I eat pies from a shop.

I owned a beautiful old tropical style house built in 1952. You know the style, with lots of louvers and not many walls. Its adorable. The architect really knew how to accommodate the environment into his designs (thinking mold). During the build up and right through the wet mold covered all surfaces of the house that were not touched on a daily basis. It was like the house would change colour every 6 months on its own to camouflage with the surroundings. This included towels, shoes, handbags - the list goes on but what finally topped me over the edge was when I woke up one morning after a two week continual monsoon drizzle to find my white pillowcase had turned grey with mold overnight. I said out loud, even though I lived alone "I'm over this shit!" and started making arrangements to live in Canberra. That talking scene is a symptom of mango madness also known as seasonally affected disorder in the more educated states.

Not only was mold on things but it was also in things such as food, fridges and ears. I remember one poor bloke who immigrated from a pommy winter into the build up of the wet in Katherine who fiercely fought against fungus and was probably scared for life by the experience. Everyone in town knew what was going on with him as he was walking real funny for a couple of weeks. The blokes at work bestowed on him a subtle nickname "Bollocks" because he survived his very first episode of nacky rash.

Southerners are real know alls about living in the tropics, well for thats the first few days until reality kicks in. I had a friend from Bendigo come to stay in the wet season and he decided that he would leave his clothes in the washing machine after the cycle finished after hearing my advice to hang them out straight away. After 9 hours the clothes had morphed into to grey and black garments, totally unreconisable to him and really smelly. When he came and asked me whos clothes they were in the washing machine I couldn't contain myself.

My first few days living in Canberra were traumatic, to say the least. On the second day at work my workmates wanted to know if I wanted coffee from the shop and I thought about coffee but couldn't remember the names (Late, Cappuccino) so just said hot chocolate would be nice thanks. Well it arrived and I opened the take away cup to see two white mold dots on top and they saw my face scew up and said "Whats wrong" to which I replied " Its gone moldy already" they all looked at each other and then the drink and said "No it just the Marshmallows" and proceeded to tell me how that all works.

Fatherhood

Skyspace

Last night I went to see this light sculpture at the National Gallery Of Australia. Its the most innovative thing I have ever seen. Its been installed for quite a while but I didn't understand how it works as day time viewing is a bit boring. Sunrise and Sunset is when its exquisite. It takes about an hour and 1/2 to watch the full sequence and at a couple of points the colour was so intense I wanted to yell out "STOP" and felt like bawling. Here is a link with the interview with the artist http://nga.gov.au/turrell/

Emmy Lou Paddle Steamer 2011

Cool Stuff

Some Funny Things

And when my cousins daughter when walking behind her father said "oh dad, I really feel like hurting you right now"

Week With The Family