English Rose

Matilda told me this evening, that 'there's one thing that I don't do when we have school assembly, and I bet you can guess what it is...!' I couldn't so I asked to her to explain. She said that she feels wrong about singing the Australian National Anthem (Australia Fayre), and that she just stands there silent, with her lips pressed together! "Don't you feel like an Australian then?' I asked. 'No - (Indignant) ... I'm English!' Made me smile. You can take the girl out of the country, but you can't take the country out of the girl!

The first cut is the deepest?

OK, I'm very excited cos I've just cut my first 'paying' job with the router. It isn't much work, but I undercut the competition by 10% and still made a small bit of dosh.

The job was only a little one, or else it would have been a fair bit of dosh. It all goes on cutting time, and this was only 15mins of cutting time, 5 mins per door. If i'd had a bigger cutter, I could have cut them quicker, but 32mm thick material is pretty thick, and probably wont come past all that often I'd have thought.

I turned over sixty whole dollars! Yep, I'm on my way! Ha ha.

I know its not going to pay for Christmas, but it's better than a slap round the chops with a wet kipper eh?



I"m also trying to develop some kind of products for sale. The first thing I came up with is a bit odd... but I like it. Question is of course whether anyone else does. It's got a few more issues to resolve.... like I'm going to use a larger can, and the base might be from a mould of this and cast in concrete... plus I need to get an electrician to look at it and tell me where I'd have trouble in terms of selling to the public etc.

Committing insecticide

I'm feeling bad this morning!

Last night a Christmas beetle flew into the house around 10pm. They're very noisy because they're quite big and robust and bump into everything. This one was a beautiful gold colour and I thought that it would be good to kill it rather than chase it out...so that we could marvel at it's colour from a 'natural history' perspective.

I trapped it under an egg cup and sprayed some fly killer under to do the poor thing in. It didn't seem to do much so I put in another dose, not wanting it to be a prolonged process for the thing. It still didn't die but seemed to be just arching around trying to keep going. I left it to die and went to work on my computer.

An hour later I went to look and it was STILL alive! Now I felt really bad, so I decided that I'd try to wash the stuff off it, and see if it could get better... and it seemed to be much better after that... not able to move properly, but I wondered if it would. I put it in a box to recover and left it outside.

This morning it was still there, still trying, but obviously unable to control it's limbs. I feel terrible! I couldn't bring myself to crush it, so I've drowned it. It's finally passed on. I know it's silly, but I feel a sort of respect for it. Poor thing.

Morning darling...!

When we first conceived of living opposite a forest of trees (as we do) we imagined that the sound of the birds in the morning would be a heart lifting sound that sustained us in fine spirits until mid morning tea at the very least. There is something about birdsong in the early morning that provides a gateway to some other place in the mind, the heart, and soul. Couple this to the robust dawn light that we get here, a sort of clean version of sunset…full of moisture and cool air, and the thought of breakfasting on our little balcony overlooking the vista sounds quite lovely. At any rate, the average temperatures here mean that the normal state of living is with windows open. We invariably sleep with the sliding doors to the balcony open to get some circulation, and we are therefore physically connected to the dawn in a way that makes the natural world hard to ignore from about 5.30 a.m.

Imagine now the sound that you might expect from a hundred and fifty year old fishwife in ruddy good health chasing a bunch of reprobate children off her strawberry patch for the third time in ten minutes. Her voice would be a sort of ‘other worldly’ screech that defies categorisation… and without actually seeing her making the noise, you’d not be able to place it. Now imagine that that voice coming out of a radiant blond 20 year old beauty with long shimmering locks, straight white teeth and a long white flowing dress… and you’d have the Australian Cockatoo.

The Cockatoo is a beautiful white bird, a bit like a dove, that sounds like it’s trying to spew up its guts! That’s what we wake up to most mornings. ‘Hi… welcome to Australia, have a nice day!’

Sweat, Blood, but no Tears!

Today we had a tidy up a bit, and I finally got around to cutting up Matilda's (then Feeb's) first little bicycle - as we'd discussed the fact that it could make them a second scooter. Ages ago I bought a little scooter off a stall in Bruton at the Packhorse Fair... that Molly used to play at. They both love the thing, and I'd promised to make another.

The only thing I used from the bike was the headstock and front end bit, plus the two little plates that hold the back wheel to the frame. The rest was 50x25 box that I had left from my CNC build.

Here it is...



Matilda had relinquished 'ownership' of the first scooter to Feeb some time ago, and so this is really for her. However, she's taken a bit of an interest in God lately and had decided to go to church with Chelsea who's parents are committed to whatever their religion is...not sure but it might be Baptist. Anyway Tild wasn't around when I finished this, so I got Feeb to give it a whirl...(having first done so myself) She declared it OK and we decided to have a race down the street.

Well, the newbie went really well and she was in the lead when she suddenly said 'OWWWW!' like she meant it... and I saw that she'd opened up her leg! I'm not entirely sure what on... but here's the wound:



... and here's the area that cut her... though nothing here is ACTUALLY sharp!



You can't really tell from the pic, but the cut was pretty deep... and I instantly knew it would need medical attention. Feeb is remarkably calm in these kinds of situations and she was this time too. She was a little freaked out at being able to see 'into' her leg... but she didn't cry. She'll probably be the kind of woman that has babies at the same time that she's cooking the dinner and smoking a Woody. Good 'outback Australian' stock perhaps?

Taking the long route(r) home...

I finally got the router done. Here it is (if you're interested) cutting out the components that make up the holders for the limit switches.



I'm still learning how to drive it... but I'm getting there. The size of the cutting bed is 2,650 x 1230, so it can handle an 8x4 and still have a bit left on the end... where one day I'll mount a rotating axis that will mean I can cut things like Queen Anne legs and that kind of thing.

Anyway, la di dah....

On Saturday Phoebe performed in a ballet (sort of) thing in which various kids made valiant attempts to do whatever their teacher was doing off stage... and so we watched kids in disarray for an hour or so. By comparison, Phoebe's dances were quite well done. All very weird the way that the parents watch through the little screens of video camera's these days eh?

Feeb is the one in front of the snowman...



...and this is Tilda next to Nanna in the audience.



On Friday, I got to go to Tild's class to see the work that the class had done with a couple of student teachers. It's something that I love to do, and haven't been able to do whilst I was on the movie. Being 'between jobs' has some advantages..



But the BIG news this weekend is that the class turtle (known as 'Squirtle') is coming to live with us. The girls are ecstatic! She's going to have to have a bigger tank though... so there's another job to add to the list.

Back in the UK, Molly is going to have to make up her mind about the college this week, so I'll keep you up to date, and Josh is taking part in the 'MOvember' thing... growing a tash for a month. I'll be interested to see how THAT looks! He he...

Here's a couple of sleeping shots of the younger brats... I like them best when they're asleep. SOOOO much quieter eh!

The Job Hunting Zoo again....

This was a letter I wrote to the creative director of a theatre company called 'ZenZenZo' (Oooh I know luvvy) in exasperation after another trawl through the derisory offers for work:

Lynne,

I saw your advert on Seek for a company manager.

You're offering something like $22.50 an hour for this person. Someone who drives a forklift can get $22.50 an hour.

Are you aware that minimum wage for someone that lays carpet tiles at the exhibition centre is circa $18.60 an hour?

So for an extra $3.90 before tax, you want:

A dedicated arts worker who is passionate and enthusiastic, has integrity and loyalty and is committed to excellence, experienced in coordination, and able to project manage multiple projects within a 'tight budgetary' (yer think?) and logistical framework. This person is also an excellent administrator with exceptional attention to detail, a skilful communicator and team player with strong public relations and negotiation skills (hopefully not in the salary department though eh?) Not only that, but they also have a strong knowledge of and interest in the arts and education sectors, and as if that were not enough, you also 'desire' that they can throw together your graphics, hang up a marketing campaign, draw up a contract or two and work on the budgets.

Altogether (if my attention to detail isn't too painful for you) that makes circa 20 selection criteria. If you divide that by the $3.90 an hour you're prepared to pay for it, that makes 19.5 cents for each one.

So let me see...

as director, choreographer, performer, artistic director and actor trainer you'd be on about ...er $19.60 or so I suppose?

Perhaps you should add peanut feeder to your list of jobs - for the monkey that you'll be getting. Man you're tighter than a fat lass in an economy seat!

I wish you luck with it!

Chris Martin

Molly - first the smoking, now the smoke?

Yesterday I heard from Molly. She's been up in London looking at art colleges, and phoned with a flutter in her heart about them. She's particularly interested in Camberwell and Central. It's a difficult choice this isn't it.. because its not just about comparing the courses, but also about comparing the locations and the attendant issues that are associated with them. For Molly of course, London is an attractive place, full of possibilities. Now that she's conceived of going there, I'd be surprised if she doesn't, but I worry that it's such an overcrowded and expensive place, and choices have a tendency to influence the available choices that you have later. That's how I ended up being 'trapped' there - and how most people end up being where they are I suppose. We make one choice, and then so many other choices are sort of made by dint of that seemingly innocuous one.

On top of that, these days students are not getting grants as such, so the cost of living is a much more critical factor. It's not easy, however to get that point across.

Halloween

Yesterday was Halloween, and this year, whilst the girls went out trick or treating with the neighbours, I stayed in the garage wearing a pointy hat to dish out the 'lollies' (as they are called here) to prospective groups of young trickster/treatees. The experience of being the trickstee/treater is quite different from the other side of the transaction, as you get to see all sorts of kids and see how they go about the selection process. Some kids will pick one sweet from the proffered bowl, (which in this case had mini choc bars and rolls of swizzler type sweets in), whilst others will dive in... one kid even went for two handfuls of bounty! I had to explain to him that it's is part of the deal that you're supposed to have some consideration for the other kids that are coming along too... he seemed to be pained as he let go of one handful and scarpered. Some kids are awkward...and avoid all eye contact. Others are all smiles and grins, engaging you the whole time. It's a funny ol' world innit.

Here's the pumpkins..





This is Sarah, whose mask had a clever running blood feature! Karly is on the right.



Tara was full on... Alicia is behind her.



This is Jaden, Tara's brother.









The corn syrup and honey blood that I bought years ago in Shepperton Studios is still going strong! I used to use this on Molly and Josh!



Here's Feeb without the make up. Looks quite different with a dark fringe eh?