Jacaranda festival

I had a difficult week at work this week, with political issues becoming more prevalent. Actually I think that was one of the things that you could sort of stand outside of as a freelancer in the film and commercials industry. Not being 'permanently' linked to a company meant that one could concentrate on providing a service to your employer and ensuring the continuation of work. When you're full time, you sort of get embroiled in sides, even when you're trying to stay out of it. I think I'm quite a political person, but I don't use it for my own gain, at least not for my immediate gain, and not in a direct way.

My political overview of situations is intimately linked to my philosophical and psychological overview. I test things that i'm told 'are the way we do things' all the time, to see if they fit for me, and if they are fundamentally sound by my notions of fundamental. I know that some of you find this irritating (sorry!). I worry that my approach will get me into trouble with more senior people, or serious trouble with more people...depending on how you arrange the words... Then I think 'na stuff em'. Ha ha.. no i'm kidding, but i'm getting more confident to say what I believe is right and wrong, even though I know that it will often fly in the face of the fundamental approach that the company holds as dear traditionally. The main difference (I hope) is that my work persona is more focused on action outcomes than my unguarded me.

I come home with this stuff gnawing at me some days... but the great thing (depending on your perspective) is that I can completely forget all about it by Saturday evening.

Last night (changing the subject) we went to the 'Goodna Jacaranda festival'. The Jacaranda tree is a major feature of the Brisbane landscape, and Goodna, a bland place from an architectural perspective has more Jacaranda's than most suburbs. Consequently the relatively bland aspect of the area is transformed at this time of the year when the trees flower.





Another area that has a high concentration of these beautiful trees is the campus of University of Queensland - where they are known as 'the exam tree' due to their flowering coinciding with the lead in to a period of pre exam study.



The Australian landscape is so universally covered by the Gum tree (Eucalyptus) that it has become synonymous with the place. No other landscape in the world is so dominated by one genus. I understand there are some 700 sub species and collectively (if you were to put them all together) they would cover an area the size of England and Wales at current estimates, and the Australians are quite patriotic about them, and 'fair dinkum' and 'dinki-di' and 'a fair go' and lots of other stuff.... like 'mate-ship'. (Mate-ship is Australian for looking out for your neigbours... they think they have a patent on the idea). So given the uniqueness, and the beauty of the Jacaranda, I was expecting to see a celebration of it's uniqueness and beauty. Hey... call me old fashioned.

Instead, what we saw was a fun fare! The whole nine yard, with major rides, stalls, noise and of course... high prices. Needless to say the kids were thrilled. There wasn't even a single spot light on one of the trees! We did the ghost train, the bouncy castle, the bouncy harness, the snake handling, the camel ride, a side stall or two, batterred sausage and chips, bow and arra stall, wooden sword stall, and then headed for home, where I had less than two hours to get an assignment (ette) finished. I couldn't find the car keys. I'd put them on the floor when I took the picture of the firworks and the Jacaranda for you....! After 5 mins of scrabbling about, a couple came up and asked if we'd lost car keys... and then handed them to me. Phew.

This is the bouncy harness thing...













... and this is a python! When you pick it up its all muscle!





The camels... the one behind had really smelly breath and a propensity to burp!



The wooden sword...



The farm animals (baby pigs and goats)...





and the firworks as we were on our way out...

rambing on...

It's alright, [dear reader] I'm still here! I've just been busy that's all, and there's always such a lot of things to do.
Both Daile and I have been immersed in study of course, and that's been pretty full on at times. I wonder if its all worth it on occasion, and then I sit in front of the telly for a minute and remember that actually I'd rather do almost anything than that and study seems like a really good idea. OK there are other alternatives too, but study is really interesting and it feels like I'm making a contribution to my understanding of things, and my life, and my future and all that kind of thing.
Daile's current course is called 'Applying psychology' and is really interesting stuff. There's a section about how to spot liars... which is fascinating. I didn't know that with the lie detection tests that the US use, they actually manipulate the subject into lying... or attempt to. In the UK its called entrapment and is illegal.
I've also been reading the latest book by the maveric billionaire and self declared 'failed philosopher' George Soros. The book is called 'The new paradigm for financial markets. The credit crisis of 2008 and what it means'. If i'd read his previous (2006) book, then I would have sold our house even earlier than we did. He predicted the current crisis then...
And guess what...? He thinks that its going to get worse because the market fundamentalist concepts that western economics is based on are flawed at the base. Yeee haa. I knew this of course and those of you who have been living anywhere near me for some time will know that 'rant' is my middle name. I have other names too. In fact my full name is chris rant ing old git martin.

So anyway, I've bought my ticket to the UK in Nov and i'm flying with Air Brunai. Apparently you can't get alcoholic drinks on the flight, which ought to do me good. I usually sucumb to one of those little bottles of red and then spend the rest of the flight trying to head off a headache by drinking loads of those thimble sized cups of water they give you. Not sure if I fancy the public flogging though..
When I get into the UK i've got a car on hire - which makes sense given the fact that i've got to get to Cornwall and Josh and Molly have to get up to Hull with me. That combination of train fares alone makes the convenience of the car much more viable... sad really that public transport is so expensive eh.

Sydney the spider goes large...

We went off to have breakfast on the boat today, having not done so for some time. There was a big spider under the tail gate....

Here's a pic.


And here's a movie ... if you fancy a bit more.


Nasty as it looks, it doesn't do all that much with its bite. That said, you can see that it would easily bite you... and it WOULD hurt! Given that a funnel web spider can kill you and looks a bit like that.... you can see why people would get jumpy about one of these. The 'hunts - man' spider doesn't SOUND all that favourable either does it?

Phoebe is 5...

Well it's all been about Phoebe the last couple of days, and thank you all for the wonderful gifts. Everyone came over on the evening, and she was made to feel special... and that's what birthdays are supposed to make you feel like eh!











Here's, some pictures of Jack playing. He found a cocky in his litter tray and kept catching it and letting it go for ages. Damn thing died from boredom.



The girls both dote on him. If you look carefully at the next two pics.. you'll notice that they have scratches on their faces and hands from his extremely sharp claws! He's a one man military academy. He's going to be like that till he gets the chop... which wont be for a few months. Ouch!





...and finally, here is Phoebe's rendition of the shadow clothing gag... 'getting dressed'.

Ants nest

These ants are really fast and about as long as yer thumbnail. This is the local park that the girls like...and when we take Mont we go for a little walk too. The ants have taken over the footpath. Last year the girls would have freaked about them, but it was like I had to point out that they were there...they've got so used to them.

Funny how they're all so different and unique.

I love my kids. They're all so interesting and unique. This clip illustrates the difference between Matilda and Phoebe in a really neat and funny way. The swing is one that Matilda LOVES and Phoebe puts up with. Really, she's just ballast.... Matilda talks her into go on it 'cos it goes better'. If Phoebe could, she'd just watch.