Monthly Archive

I’ve just been told that today’s temperature is expected to be 45 degrees C.

Take me now, Lord.

In honour of yesterday’s 44 degrees Celsius (Officially measured at the airport, which is less than two kilometres from our house) , and with thanks to Katja who emailed it to me, I publish this:

Diary of a Mount Isa Spring (by a Pom) (Mt Isa is about 5 hours further west than us!)

August 31st
Just got transferred with work into our new home in Mount Isa, Queensland!!
Now this is a city that knows how to live!! Beautiful sunny days and warm balmy evenings. What a place!I watched the sunset from a deck chair on the verandah It was beautiful.I’ve finally found my home. I love it here.

September 13th:
Really heating up. Got to 35 today. Not a problem. Live in an air-conditioned home, drive an air-conditioned car. What a pleasure to see the sun everyday like this. I’m turning into a sun
worshipper.

September 30th:
Had the backyard landscaped with tropical plants today. Lots of palms and rocks. What a breeze to maintain. No more mowing lawn for me. Another scorcher today, but I love it here.

October 10th
The temperature hasn’t been below 35 all week. How do people get used to this kind of heat? At least today it’s kind of windy though. But getting used to the heat is taking longer than I expected.

October 15th:
Fell asleep by the pool. Got 3rd degree burns over 60% of my body. Missed 3 days of work. What a dumb thing to do. I learned my lesson though. Got to respect the ol’ sun in a climate like this.

October 20th:
I missed Kitty (our cat) sneaking into the car when I left this morning. By the time I got to the hot car for lunch, Kitty had died and swollen up to the size of a shopping bag and stank up the $3,000 leather upholstery. I told the kids that she ran away. The car now smells like Wiskettes and cat sh*t. I learned my lesson though. No more pets in this heat.

October 25th:
The wind sucks. It feels like a giant f**kin blow dryer!! And it’s hot as hell. The home air-conditioner is on the blink and the AC repairman charged $200 just to drive over and tell me he needed to order parts.

October 30th:
Been sleeping outside by the pool for 3 nights now. Bloody $300,000 house and we can’t even go inside. Why did I ever come here?

November 4th:
It’s 38 degrees. Finally got the ol’ air-conditioner fixed today. It cost $500 and gets the temperature down to 25, but the bloody humidity makes the house feel like it’s about 30. Stupid
repairman. I hate this stupid f**kin place.

November 8th:
If another wise arse cracks, “Hot enough for you today?” I’m going to f**kin throttle him. F**kin heat! By the time I get to work the car’s radiator was boiling over, my clothes are soakin f**kin wet, and I smell like baked cat!!

November 9th:
Tried to run some messages after work. Wore shorts, and sat on the black leather seats in the ol’ car. I thought my f**kin arse was on fire. I lost 2 layers of flesh and all the hair on the back
of my legs and my f**kin a*se. Now my car smells like burnt hair, fried a*se, and baked cat.

November 10th:
The weather report might as well be a f**kin recording. Hot and sunny. Hot and sunny. Hot and f**kin sunny. It’s been too hot to do anything for 2 damn months and the weatherman says it might really warm up next week. Doesn’t it ever rain in this damn f**kin place? Water rationing will be next, so my $2,000 worth of palms just might dry up and blow into the f**kin pool. Even the palms can’t live in this f**kin heat.

November 14th:
Welcome to HELL!!! Temperature got to 41 today. Now the air-conditioner’s gone in my car. The repairman came to fix it and said, “Hot enough for you today?” My wife had to spend the $2,500 mortgage payment to bail my a*se out of jail for assaulting the stupid f**ker. F**k Mount Isa! What kind of a sick demented f**kin idiot would want to live here?

December 1st:
WHAT????? This is the first day of Summer???? You are f**kin kiddin!

I’m trying SO hard not to WANT right now. But my Want List is getting longer, in spite of my best efforts.

I want laser surgery so I can throw my much-loathed glasses away. I try to remedy this by being GRATEFUL that
* I can afford glasses.
*With my glasses I can see to do everything I need to do.
*Men couldn’t care less about girls wearing glasses.

I want a new computer. Mine is OLD and SLOW and INADEQUATE. I try to be GRATEFUL that at least it
*works (most of the time).
*does 95% of what I ask it to do.
*is owned.

I want to buy another house. In a suburb that I just KNOW is about to explode and is full of cute run-down cottages just SCREAMING to be renovated. I WILL try to be GRATEFUL that
* I have a beautiful home already.
*Some people don’t even have shelter.

I really really really want to start a business that has been in my head for years. All I need is a location and capital

Today I have had a gutfull of trying to be grateful. Today I just WANT STUFF.

Yes, another update. I said I wouldn’t, but this thing is consuming all of my time. Here are a few detail shots. Now you can see the sequins. Oh the treachery!This is by no means finished. You can see that the bigger flowers don’t have centres yet. It is starting to BORE ME RIGID.
Keep going. Keep going. Keep going.

Today I am thankful for…

1.The Opthamologist who happily and cheerfully abandoned her Saturday afternoon off to meet me at her surgery and remove the foreign object* that was embedded in the white of my eyeball and that had made my Thursday and Friday and Saturday morning miserable.

2.The skillful touch that made it possible for her to do so without me even realising it had happened. (”Can I blink while you do this?” “You can blink all you like - it’s done!”)

3.The loving husband and children who wasted several of their precious hours in The City (normally spent shopping) accompanying me to the Optometrist and then the Opthamologist, without complaining (even though I then had an eyepatch on and they called me Winkie and Cyclops for the rest of the afternoon and made pirate “Aaaarghs” at me).

4.The Optometrist who Fit Me In, then phoned The Best Opthamologist in Town At Home on a Saturday because “I don’t want you to go to the Emergency Department and risk getting some butcher who leaves you with impaired vision.”

5.Today my eye feels as if it never happened and I still have the same old Less Than Perfect Myopic Vision I’ve always had.

6.The ability to pay the bills.

* wasn’t officially identified before it fell off the paper onto which the Dr had placed it. From her description, I believe it was the centre of a sequin - you know the tiny circle of plastic that pops out of the hole in the middle? I told you quilting was dangerous.

Peter: You knew he’d be Number One on the list, didn’t you?
Passion: of all kinds.
Purpose: essential for all of us.
Alan Parker’s movies, especially The Commitments (or The Fookin’ Commitments, as we call it).
Priscilla, Queen of the Desert: Oh, how I love thee, Priscilla! What a wonderful film! Fun, funny, beautiful, poignant, refreshing, challenging of allsorts of prejudices. (link is to the musical site!)
David Hyde Pierce as Niles Crane in Frasier: boy oh boy, can he make me laugh.
Dennis Potter’s “Lipstick on Your Collar” : it’s been years since I watched this, but it still sticks with me. It was just so different to anything I’d ever seen. I loved the blackness of it all.
Edgar Allan Poe: The Tell-tale Heart and The Fall of the House of Usher are particular favourites. I fell in love with Poe’s stories when I was a kid. The first time I read a collection that my parents owned I didn’t understand some of the stories, but they creeped me out and that was enough. Maybe this is the source of my Goth tendencies? (that and being a teenager during the punk and new romantic eras) (I still have a secret hankering for Robert Smith)
Purple and Periwinkle Blue!
Presents: I love giving them and receiving them.
Paper, pens, pencils: These would be my Desert Island Choice. Then I would never be bored.
Puppies: Who doesn’t love puppies? I find it so very hard to deny my Daughter’s dream of a puppy, but, love them as I do, I am SO past that point in my life where I need another baby…
Projects: probably the less said about these the better. They do seem to multiply when my back is turned and the whole family have to live with them.
Passionfruit, peaches, pumpkin, pasta, prawns, portobello mushrooms, pecans, roast parsnip, pink grapefruit, pilau, Black Doris plums and puff pastry.
Persian rugs and patchwork quilts!

Had to show you this nice stuff that I got this morning at our local St Vinnies (thrift store!). I went for buttons (bought heaps) and found these as well. The white broderie anglaise is the edging on a baby dress. The dress isn’t all that amazing but it is made from a lovely swiss voile and has that pretty edging. The patchwork is a cushion cover made from four log cabin blocks. I am SO in love with the fabrics - a lovely floral and that incredible fish print, which is also on the back. Initially I thought of re-using the fabric and blocks, but how could I pull it apart?? It will stay a cushion cover.

I’m so relieved that this quilt is finally starting
to come together. It’s been such slow progress and I just haven’t been able to get enthusiastic about it.
Anyway, I’m happy with how it’s going now! The background is pieced, the flowers, vines, etc are machine appliqued and there are machine embroidered details (free-motion). I’m thinking at this stage that it will also have some hand-embroidery and beading. We’ll see.

Another beautiful colour! It was fun to reverse the colours on the pencil photo. Love the effect.
Flora’s Gift Update: Making good progress now. Yay. Will post photos soon. K.

This is a post I’ve been intending to write for a couple of months. Some time ago I posted a photo similar to this on flickr…
…and Kirsten left a comment saying,”So this is what Australia looks like!”
Well, sort of. As we left to drive to the Sunshine Coast for our holiday, I kept thinking of Kirsten and, as we watched the scenery changing, I took photos through the windscreen.

So the first few hours of our journey, travelling south to join up with a main west-east highway, looked mostly like the photo above with a bit of this…
The areas that the farms cover here can be so vast that frequently there are no fences, so you need to watch out for stock. Having said that, you can also drive for a hundred kilometres without seeing any stock, because the land is so poor that there are relatively few animals (the ratio varies considerably from area to area but often they can only farm a couple animals for every acre).The funny little bird is called a Bustard. Then, after we join that highway and head East toward the coast, the land begins to change. There is more vegetation and even hills (of a sort!). When Australians talk about “the Bush” this is what they mean. The closer you get to the coast, the more trees and hills there are. But now I’m sure you can see why 90% of Australia’s population lives along the eastern coastal strip! Inland there just isn’t much of anything. It’s a landscape that people seem to either love or hate. Those who have been born here can’t imagine being anywhere else and those of us who started life somewhere else seem to find it pretty inhospitable. What you can’t experience in photos is the intense, dry heat; the countless thousands of small, sticky flys that attempt to invade your eyes, ears and nose; the dust that coats everything you own. But also the wonderful silence; the air at night that is so warm it feels like velvet on your skin and the constant presence of life - birds, animals, and, bless their creepy little hearts, bugs.

This is the second time in my life that I’ve lived “Out West” and, while it will never be an environment that I enjoy being in, this time I’ve appreciated it’s good qualities much more. Well, I’ve tried, anyway.

By the way, if you are interested in seeing more stuff about this weird place, I thought these links were pretty representative…
http://www.lakeeyrebasin.org.au/tour/tour_start.html (this is like a slide show tour of an enormous area called the Lake Eyre Basin. We are on the Northern edge of it.)
http://www.outbackholidays.info/places_to_visit/north-west.cfm

This is Ollie. I made him years ago when I was teaching teddy-bear making. He’s my favourite bear, because he is about the size of a one year old child and sits on your hip exactly the same way a baby does.

Ollie is wearing the only knitting project I have ever been happy with. It’s a fairisle waistcoat that I made for my son, James. He wore it until he was about two and a half. There are several reasons why this project worked. Firstly, the thing is knitted in one piece. If I had to knit three pieces, the second and third pieces would never be knit (which is why I can only ever see myself knitting one of those hideous Willy Warmers that some sad people find amusing, never a pair of socks). Secondly, I liked the colours and the fact that only two colours were required per row made it seem, cough, easy (actually, even I will admit that it was). Thirdly, it didn’t take very long (never, ever knit anything for a person who is more than two feet tall).

My other knitting projects -there have been two - were less successful. I had a disastrous attempt at making a knitted patchwork cardigan. My mother even knitted some beautiful intarsia squares for it. But I couldn’t make the damn thing go together without looking tragique. I also made a white cotton cabled vest (a la cricket vest - it was 1984!) that I really did wear (with a white pleated skirt, white shirt and a tie! 1984, people, 1984!!!) but it had LOTS of mistakes in it and was about five inches too short for my torso because I was SOOO sick of making it that I just stopped knitting when I’d had enough.

So, dear Sarah, this is why you will always be the Queen of Knitting and I will be but a mere serf.

I just got off the phone from a friend of mine. Someone who, as she reads this, will be SQUIRMING IN HER CHAIR!!! She reads this blog every day and I had NO IDEA because she has NEVER commented. Shame on you! It’s a good thing you’re so cute, Wendy, or I would have to drop you from my Friend List.
as if…
I was thinking of Wendy because this afternoon I did a page for The Daughter’s scrapbook about a wonderful day that we spent with Wendy and her lovely family at their bach (New Zealand term for a holiday house. Pronounced like batch). It was a superb day, the water was clear, the company was terrific. Wendy and I have had lots of great afternoons together. A few years ago when my days were logistically and often emotionally challenging (clashing finishing times for kids at different schools 40 km apart, son who sometimes started the day at school and ended it in hospital, etc - you know how it is) Wendy was an angel. One of those dear friends who can make you laugh as they pick up the shards of your difficult day. Whose cups of tea always taste ten times better than anyone elses and whose cakes you would walk over hot coals to eat. Who you trust enough to give care of your child to.

Wendy, I still don’t think you know just how much I appreciate the help you gave me. You are honestly one of the best people I have ever known. Hugs and kisses. Can’t wait to see you this summer!

Thank you, thank you for all the comfort and reassurance after yesterday’s Quilter’s Crisis! You guys really are the best. I’ve been feeling lots of bloggy mushiness today. How can one even begin to describe to non-blog-types just how amazing this community is? I can whine in a post and instantly I have cyber-love heading my way from all around the world. I’m starting to understand how it is that people fall in love online!

OK, just so you know, I’m not entirely deluded about the “depth” of these relationships, but over the past few days I have become aware of the genuine support we can provide each other. Several of you are going through really hard times right now. Serious, life-changing challenges. Almost all of us have these moments in our lives that we would rather not experience. Some of us have ongoing difficulties that last for years.

I have been so impressed by the concern and loving care that these hurt bloggers are receiving from us all. Far from being disconnected from the Real World, I’m realising that we are people who have very strong connections and empathy with others. My bloggy buddies, WE ROCK!

By request, Mum’s Orange Cake Recipe:
6 oz plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
5 oz caster sugar
1 large orange (zest and 5 Tbsp juice)
2 large eggs, seperated
5 Tbsp butter, melted

Sift all dry ingredients into a bowl and add the orange zest.
Melt butter, cool.
Add egg yolks and orange juice. Mix.
Add to dry ingredients and beat well to smooth batter.
Beat egg whites until stiff and fold lightly into batter.
Bake at 180 deg. C in a greased ring tin for, um, until cooked!

Ice with some yummy icing made with butter and orange juice and zest. (No recipe for this - we do it differently everytime!)

What a busy weekend it was. Very productive-just not on anything I should be working on! I went to some scrapbooking classes instead of sewing. Had a great time. The glue and paper were flying…
There has been some progress on Flora. This is the side panel. Very very very happy with how this has turned out. It is EXACTLY what I wanted it to be. Now I just have to make myself do the next part. I don’t know what’s going on with my quilting. I used to be obsessive about working on things and now it seems like too much effort. I still love making stuff. Maybe the medium isn’t cutting it for me anymore?? The more I make with paper, the less I want to make with cloth. And that’s quite scary because it makes me wonder if quilting is coming to an end for me. I’ve wondered this on and off for a few years now.
I need more paper, more paint, more crayons in my life again! Have any of you guys been through this? Do I even have to choose?

Here’s a close up view:

A post box in Mt Isa, the fire truck that came to put out the fire in our fuse box (contained lots of lovely firefighters), performers in Kuranda (fantastic) and one of those road edge thingies.

1. What time did you get up this morning? 7.15 ish. I don’t do mornings, but today I went to a scrapbooking class e a r l y.
2. Diamonds or pearls? Diamonds, and lots of them, baby.
3. What is your favourite TV show(s)? tv, schmee vee.
4.What is your middle name? My Mama’s name. Very unusual (but not bad like Embassy)
5. What is your favourite cuisine? French. Gimme garlic, gimme cream.
6. What foods do you dislike? Dislike food? What you talking about? Who dislikes food?
7. Your favourite flavour of crisps? plain kettle fries
8. What is your favorite CD at the moment? REM singles
9. What characteristics do you despise? Mean-spiritedness, gossiping.
10. Favorite item of clothing? jeans
11. If you could go anywhere in the world on holiday, where would you go? EVERYWHERE.
12. What colour is your bathroom? White.
13. Favorite brand of clothing? Don’t own any, but love Commes des Garcons and Issey Miyake.
14. Where would you want to retire to? I have NO IDEA. Which worries me some days.
15. Favorite time of day? night - 9:00 - 12:00
16. What washing powder do you use? Who the hell wrote this crap???
17. Coke or Pepsi? Blech. With a capital lech.
18. What did you want to be when you were little? A psychologist (HA HA how hilarious is that? The crazy leading the crazy!)
18. (b) What do you want to be now? Thin.
19. Favorite sweets? Dark chocolate.
20. What are the different jobs you’ve had? Nothing of note. I am a parasite of sorts.
21. Piercings? Several ear ones. Took 29 years to get the courage for the first two, then another six months for one more. Would like some more in face but too gutless. (Does anyone know where I could get them done under general anaesthetic?)
22. Ever been to Africa? Not yet.
23. Been in a car accident? Oh come on? Do you really want me to admit this? Ahem, lets just say that I have form.
24. Favourite restaurant? Lots. All have the following in common - quiet, great food, impeccable service.
25. Favourite flower? Tiger lilies.
26. How many times did you fail your driving test? Once. But I was sick that day. Honestly, I was. High temperature, fevers, the lot.
27. What do you do most often when you are bored? I don’t get bored.
28. What is your favorite colour? Changes daily. I have favourite combinations of colours. I love Chinese Lacquer red, Slime green and black together, for instance. And scarlet and violet.
29. Lake, Ocean or River? Lakes are wonderful.
30. How many tattoos do you have? None. I change my mind too often to do something that permanent to my body. Besides, only Peter would ever see it and he doesn’t like tattoos.
31. Which came first, the chicken or the egg? I actually know this because I saw a cartoon with a sleeping egg lying in bed beside a very annoyed looking chicken who was saying, “Well, now we know the answer to THAT question, don’t we?”
32. What materialistic thing would you ask for if you had one wish to make? Money. Wouldn’t we all?

O is for…
Oscar Wilde: I do love this man “Consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative.” If you have never read The Selfish Giant, you are missing out! Quick! Go here and read it now!
Orange cake: Peter’s Mum, Marie, was a wonderful cook (and a wonderful Mother-in-law). Every Saturday she baked and one of Peter’s favourites was her orange cake. One day, years after she had passed on, he had a hankering for one - so he made one himself. That was the beginning of his baking career. We have happily eaten the results ever since. He can churn out a mean choccie cake these days (known as the Quick and Dirty Chocolate Cake). By the way, I must explain the heinous shirt Pete is wearing in this photo. It’s called an “Outback Friday” shirt and is worn by business people on fridays in the Outback as part of a promotional thing. Definitely distinctive, therefore successful, I suppose!
Optimism: definitely helps in the happiness stakes to have an optimistic view of life.
Opportunities: I am often guilty of failing to see these when they are under my nose. I do try…
Opera (”OCCASIONALLY,” says Peter): I enjoy Opera a little more than he does! But we both love seeing it live. We still laugh about the night we saw “Lucia de Lammermoor”. I was due to deliver our daughter any day and as we sat down the man beside me leaned over and said, “Don’t worry. I’m a doctor.” Then the baby jumped every time they fired the cannons. Maybe you had to be there.
Oprah: I do love Oprah. She has been in my life for twenty years. And Pete has suffered me quoting her for the whole 7300 days.
Oranges are not the only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson: I loved this book. Haven’t seen the film but apparently it’s pretty good, too.
Tilda Swinton and Quentin Crisp in Orlando. The book I actually found quite boring
Overkill, overstatements, overindulgence, overdoing it…
Osculating.
Originality: What more can be said? I’ll just copy Capello and say, “Be Original.”

please tell me you got that? Or do you just think I’m more of a dork than you did before?

This is a thank you to all of you American bloggers who voted!
Those of us who live in the Rest of the World don’t get to vote in your elections but, sadly, we do get to suffer the consequences of your elected leaders’ decisions. We are cheering loudly that you have well and truly let the bastards know that WE ARE NOT HAPPY.
Well done. And thank you again.

Update: I just saw Bush on tv advising Pelosi on interior decorators. He STILL doesn’t get it. I am reminded of Andrew Denton’s “Year of the Condescending Bastard”.

Another update (then I promise I’ll shut up about this!!): I just saw Barack Obama on Oprah. Now there is a Man for President!
That’s all. I’m done now.

Here are a few nice things I’ve been liking lately…
paintings by Gillian Warden
this sweet, sweet bunny at little cotton rabbits
beautiful felt things made by the talented Betz White
and more lovely work from Claire Basler

If you need even more, have a look at my wists (link on the side bar!)

Here it is…Not the best photo - the only place I could hang it was over a window, so it’s backlit and not so true to colour. This is such a great block (shaded four patch) because it can make countless designs and it always looks good.
Thanks for all the nice comments! I do love a cheer squad

This is me…
You haven’t heard much from me for a few days because I haven’t been home. I’ve been sewing with friends - yet another scrap quilt. We did some swapping and had a competition for the ugliest fabrics. Believe me there were plenty of contenders! This is about half of my quilt. I should finish the top this morning and then you can see the whole thing

Another colour that I love! Yum yum yum…

Had to show you this beautiful work by Su Blackwell...

…and I keep forgetting to tell you a funny thing that happened while we were on holiday. Do you remember the site with bad bad baby names? Here’s a real life cracker that I heard while shopping. Precious little girl aged about two.

Called Embassy. Yep.

N is for…
New things: don’t all humans love new and novel things? I love new ideas, new babies, new shoes, new experiences, new music, freshness of all kinds.
Nanna: don’t even try to argue with me - I had the best Nanna. I grew up living next door to my maternal grandparents. They both adored little children. So much so that, after my baby sister (Meredith) banged her head on the corner of their NEW kitchen table, Pappa took a saw to it and roughly amputated all the corners. No table was more important than one of his babies. Nanna and Pappa were always kind, generous, extraordinarily patient and indulgent. Neither of them ever even raised their voice to me EVER. I knew that they loved me to bits and I loved them back. I still miss them.Nanna had a magic touch with babies. She could rock any child to sleep in minutes and stop ANY howling. This is Nanna with my daughter, who hadn’t been crying but fell asleep two minutes after Nanna held her anyway! In typical Nanna-fashion she has pulled her skirt up as a blanket for the baby (she ALWAYS wore a slip).

Naps: I’m a big believer in naps for everyone. We live in such a hot climate that I think we should have two hour lunch breaks and siestas all round. I’m serious about this. The Europeans have their priorities straight. Long family lunches and a sleep would cut down on stress unlike anything else I can imagine.
Bill Nighy : we love Bill Nighy at our house! Especially in “Love Actually” - he has the BEST line!
Liam Neeson: *lust, lust* I’m not the only one to suffer from this. Apparently, he was once described by a theatre critic as a “towering sequoia of sex.”
Nina Simone: heavenly voice.
Nosferatu: the original and the best! When I was a kid we used to watch old silent movies. This one is amazing and still really good fun to watch.
The Nightmare Before Christmas: Tim Burton makes such cool worlds.
Anais Nin: “We don’t see things as they are, we see things as we are.”

I like the sound of: neoprene, nuance.