My favorite time of day.

Currently my favorite time of day is reading Oscar a book before bed. He rests his back against me and a miracle takes place- he actually sits still! Sometimes I really have to work it to keep his concentration by singing a song about a picture in the book or by using funny voices for the characters (there is a particular book where I have every animal with a different British accent - Alex is usually in stitches in the other room!)

We really had to work hard to get him to appreciate books . He used to think they were only fun if they had flaps and though Spot is a great book I needed a bit more variation to keep my concentration.

His all time favorite is:
Though My favorite is perhaps:



What was your favorite book as a child? Mine was quite funny.....

I'm very excited!

I'm about to start a monthly Steiner- craft mamas group.

This is something I've wanted to do for ages and when I saw Rosie's beautiful handmade doll on the weekend that was the clincher for me that it was time.

I love the idea of raising my child/ren with natural handmade imaginative toys rather than commercial plastic toys that leave no room for the child to use their imagination and often foster commercialism or TV watching.

The Steiner doll will be our fisrt project (pictured above) which is an amazing concept of a doll made with minimal identifying features so that the child's imagination will not be restricted and also so the child may be able to project any of their emotions onto the doll.

The pretend food made out of felt pictured above may also be another project.

What was your favorite toy as a child?

Diane Arbus.

"What I'm trying to describe is that it's impossible to get out of your skin into somebody else's.... That somebody else's tragedy is not the same as your own."

-Diane Arbus

My friend Cathy lent me the biography of the photographer Diane Arbus after we were talking a about her. I devoured the book in 24 hours and feel that I have had a glimpse into this extraordinary woman's life. I love her paradox's and ambiguities such as the fact that she was hugely shy and had very low self-esteem yet she found the boldness to ask many strangers to take their photos even going to nudist camps to photograph.

I love the stories of Diane throwing on her camera at midnight to catch the train to the seediest parts of NewYork and take photos of so called 'freaks'. She was terrified yet that very fear was the thing that drove her.

Being afraid yet following that fear was what made Diane feel alive. She took photos of 'freaks' to overcome hers and the rest of societies desire to look away. By taking a photo of the tranvestites, develop-delayed, nudists etc we are once again allowed to look at them and their humanity is once again reclaimed.

When the best things in life aren't always free.

We won some free tickets to the Australian film Macbeth on Monday. We thought to ourselves why not, surely you can't go wrong with Shakespeare?

Apparently you can go very wrong.

Think Stephen King meets Shakespeare.

The Mini MEme

A Piece of Art that you Love
I am particularly drawn to photography. This photographer astounds and amazes me- Bill Henson. I remember studying him in highschool and just not getting it. I was grossed out.

Post highschool and studying art theory at uni I came to first tentatively like his work than passionately LOVE his work.

Seeing his exhibition at AGNSW left me speechless. It was the most beautiful exhibition I had seen in my life.

Just realized that I've cheated and not spoken about an actual single work. Oh dear.

A Line in a Song or Line of Poetry that Reaches Your Core

I don't really like this band but I love their lyrics. Anyway here are some lines from Augie March's Hole in The Roof that I love-

What do the dead say
To the ones who still think they're alive?

Well that was going to be my 'line' but here's the rest of that verse so you have a bit of context.

"With your heads all on backwards
You can't see in front for what near behind you lies""
Well show us some help then,
Above your head let it flicker the light,
These ones that I'm with
Have not learned to forgive your necessary alibis -When they made you love money,
And the poor prophet's stock,
When they poisoned the watersheds
And fashioned our arrowheads
From the deep forbidden rock


An Experience in Nature that was Really Special and/or Spiritual

I didn't believe that it was possible to have a 'spiritual' experience in nature and laughed at those who said they did until I went to the desert. In the desert there is nothing and everything and suddenly you can hear and see clearly for the first time. There is quiet. I'm not sure what people mean when they say 'spiritual' in relation to nature. Sometimes I think they mean 'special' or 'ephemeral'. But this truly was a spiritual experience in that I felt His presence so clearly and I couldn't not look to Him and say 'wow you did this and you're right it is good'.


The Movie that Changed the Way you saw the World.
I came up with this question and I don't have an answer... Perhaps
The Take by Naomi Klein and her husband Avi Lewis. A doco about the economic crash of Argentina and the 'workers' initiative to restart the closed down factories. It made me see what it looks like for people to be as proactive as humanly possible in changing a current system.


A Piece of Music That Makes You Cry
Currently I'm moved to tears when listening to Arvo Part's Tabula Rasa. bliss.

It may be a while...

till my next post as our magic inverter that inverts our modem from 24volt to 12 volt has esploded!

The Mini MEme

This is the mini MEme that I came up with. I will complete it myself next post but thought I'd get it out there now.

A Piece of Art that you Love

A Line in a Song or Line of Poetry that Reaches Your Core

An Experience in Nature that was Really Special and/or Spiritual

The Movie that Changed the Way you saw the World.

A Piece of Music That Makes YOu Cry

OK so I'm gonna tag EmandJon, Byron,Merideth, Andrew, Nicole, Anne, annnd yeah YOU whoever you may be you lovely lurker. Anyway get MiniMEmeing!

Feel free to change the wording or only answer the questions you like.

Plans plans plans...

WE will be once again heading to the Newcastle TINA festival for the October long weekend.


I can strongly recommend this festival!

We are hoping to get along to the Peat's Ridge Festival with Alex lining up a gig or two.

Our friend Jens is currently touring with Holly Throsby - lucky bugger.

Dreams of the Freedom Bus

I am dreaming horrific and sad dreams about refugees at the moment. This is mainly because I am currently writing a University paper about the Refugee Freedom Bus journey that I took in 2002.

I feel a weight of responsibility regarding the stories of many people that I was handed on that journey and subsequent journeys.

I am once again feeling the shame of being a citizen of country that imposes such cruel policies.




We had a lecture last week by the amazing and inspiring Eileen Pittaway about her role in transforming UN policy to recognise rape or gender related violence as a war crime and hence grounds to be recognised as a refugee. I asked in this lecture how she was able to sustain her passion and motivation while hearing the harrowing stories of many women and families to take to the UN. How did she not breakdown? I'm not sure that she really answered my question as she related experiences of coming back from refugee camps and her family telling her that she was crying out in her sleep and her growing love for Gin and Tonic.

I don't think that I 'burnt out' as much as realised that I needed sleep.






I was speaking to many refugees till three and four in the morning as they couldn't sleep or they had been put in isolation as 'punishment', I was doing this many nights and trying to finish a degree and save money for another trip to the outback detention centres. Many of these conversations I probably benefited from as well as or more than the refugees. Sometimes I could only agree that yes, things did seem hopeless. I cried with one friend who told me once that despite his tough exterior, he really missed his mum. I cried with a mother who's son had been raped in detention and was sleeping about 2 hours every night and I laughed with a friend who only wanted to talk about food as food made him happy.

All my friends are now out of detention centres on Temporary Protection Visas and are facing the recovery of both their trauma in their country of origin and trauma that they experienced in Australian detention centres.

Did you know that if an asylum seeker is granted Permanent Protection Visa that they are required to pay back a debt for costs incurred in their time in detention. One friend of mine is facing a 'new life' in Australia with a $90,000 debt for the three years he (unnecessarily) spent in detention.

Here is a link to a doco that was made about the Refugee Freedom Bus trip - Waking Up the Nation

I heart Banksy

The one on the West Bank wall, would have to be my favourite.