Weekend Coffee Share – 12th May, 2024.

Welcome to Another Weekend Coffee Share!

How about I heave the dog off my lap and go and turn on the kettle? At this stage of the wee hours, I’ll be having a decaf tea just before heading to bed, but perhaps your body clock is more sensible and you’re just waking up and could use a caffeine boost.

How was your week? I hope it’s been good.

Our family at Church this morning.

Happy Mother’s Day, which is often much easier said than done! I don’t think we gave Mother’s Day much thought when we were growing up. Mum was around. So what? I even had the audacity to ask her why there was a Mother’s Day and not a Children’s Day. She was very quick to tell me that “every day is children’s day”. These days, I’m on the mothers’ side of the equation, and agree with her. The kids can pull their finger’s out for one day and make a bit of effort. Well, at least I hope so. They’re both broke atm so as usual, I bought my own presents: a red necklace I found while we were away as well as Julie Goodwin’s memoir: “Your Time Starts Now”.

The radio station came to our daughter’s school and I’m centre with Julie Goodwin on the right.

As you may be aware, Julie was Australia’s first Masterchef and I have a special connection with her as she came to my house to cook a meal with me following a post here on Beyond the Flow. I was beyond excited and you can click here to check it out: Julie Goodwin comes to our house . UNfortunately, I won’t be seeing my mother tomorrow as our son has a very persistent, endless cough, which isn’t going away.

I am still adjusting to being back home after being away housesitting on the Gold Coast for four weeks with just my husband Geoff and myself while our young adult “kids” stayed home. We had a wonderful time away and it was pure bliss not having to be a responsible adult 24/7 even though we were touching base and not drama free.

The highlight of last week, was going to an art exhibition opening for artist Claire Tozer at the Bloomfield Fine Art Gallery in Terrigal, about a half-hour drive away. I came across the gallery a few months ago when our daughter was working at the pizza and tapas restaurant a few doors up and I was on taxi duty. I’ve been doing a bit of painting lately, and as I mentioned last week, working on a crochet piece. None of this is part of my usual, but I have intermittent spurts of painting and some of my abstract efforts have been good and are hanging up at home. I hadn’t done crochet before and was only making chains which I was sewing onto a round seagrass mat to make a mandala I’ve called “Passion & Peace”. Not sure why I’ve put so much time and effort into it, but I do like it even if it isn’t some grand masterpiece.

I’ve been doing a fair bit of writing and getting back into my blog to write up about our trip. I think I’ve run out of room for more photos now, and will need to revisit my plan. I haven’t been doing much blogging over the last two years, but I’m wanting to save what’s there at the very least and I could well be interested in picking it up again especially now we’re heading into Winter and the weather has been wet and dreary for weeks.

By the way, here are a few links to my travel posts:

Housesitting In Southport, Gold Coast, Queensland.

Surfers Paradise, Queensland…Beyond the Nest.

Returning to Runaway Bay, Queensland Gold Coast.

In other news, I’m back seeing the Exercise Physiologist and will be increasing from two to three sessions this week. As you may recall, I have an auto-immune disease which has caused fibrosis in my lungs. Consequently, my lung volume has shrunk and I can get quite short of breath. I went through quite a bad spot last year, but had some treatments and went to rehab and had what I’d describe as a vast improvement for me, even if it wasn’t such a big change on my lung function tests. As much as I enjoy my EP sessions, I do get shortness of breath, which can be a bit confronting, as I feel “fine” most of the time.

Are you reading any good books at the moment? I have a few irons in the fire, but put the rest aside this week to read “The Glass House” by husband and wife duo Anne Buist and Graeme Simsion. You might recall Graeme wrote the best selling Rosie Project which turned into the three book Rosie Series. I’ve found it very hard to put it down and haven’t touched it tonight so I don’t stay up to 4.00am like last night, which unfortunately is already looming due to my blogging efforts overnight. I just haven’t been tired and I hate not getting something finished and then there have been a few technical difficulties as usual.

Anyway, on that note, I’d better scoot.

This has been another contribution to the Weekend Coffee Share hosted by Natalie the Explorer.

Best wishes,

Rowena

Home of the Arts- HOTA, Gold Coast, Queensland.

“The traveler sees what he sees. The tourist sees what he has come to see.”
― G.K. Chesterton

One of the best things about travel, is that you find things you didn’t even know existed, and a whole new realm of exploration and discovery opens up. Indeed, I would argue that we don’t even need to leave home to “travel” in this sense, and that we can even make fresh discoveries under our own noses.

Gold Coast Film Festival

This was very true about us discovering HOTA on our recent houseminding stint on the Queensland Gold Coast, and when it claims to be “home of the arts”, that’s exactly what it is. We saw art exhibitions, attended the Gold Coast Film Festival and a Jessica Mauboy concert and attended the Farmer’s Markets and all of this was only 15 minutes drive away from “home”. We were thrilled. On top of that there was a fabulous cafe, Exhibitionist Bar, Green Bridge and a Sculpture Walk. We were in heaven. Indeed, if I had a magic wand, I’d zap HOTA from the Gold Coast into my own backyard here on the NSW Central Coast. I might end up in jail, and also go broke living it up at exhibitions, concerts and films, feasting at the cafe or sipping on Ruby Spritzes . Of course, overlooking the neighbours’ backyards wouldn’t be a patch on the breathtaking, panoramic views of the Gold Coast, but with a bit of height, we could well see out to Lion Island, Palm Beach and beyond. After all, I live in paradise too. Indeed, without all the razzle-dazzle of the Gold Coast, you could even say it’s heaven here. Of course, not everyone sees it that way and detractors even look down on us through their elevated snobby noses. However, trust me! They don’t know what they are missing out on.

So, please stay tuned. There’s so much more to come.

Best wishes,

Rowena

Returning to Runaway Bay, Queensland Gold Coast.

On Day 2 housesitting on Queensland’s Gold Coast, Geoff and I drove to Angler’s Park in Runaway Bay and walked along the foreshore. Friends of my grandparents used to let them stay in their holiday house there back in the 1980’s and I stayed with them a few times too. Runaway Bay is on The Broadwater and I have very special memories of going fishing with my grandfather there.

Map Showing Runaway Bay and it’s famous canals. It is 10.9kms North of Surfers Paradise.

Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to find any photos from back in the day, which surprises me somewhat. While my dad rarely took photos and you could probably count the photos he’s taken in the last five years on one hand, my grandfather was pretty active with the camera, especially when us grandchildren were around. So, you’ll just have to rely on me for the memories.

Here I am in Angler’s Park, Runaway Bay.

When you think about keen fishermen, you no doubt conjure up images of fancy fishing rods and state of the art equipment. However, my grandfather being a Church pastor couldn’t afford all of that and had to improvise. Much to my surprise, he’d converted empty 600ml lemonade bottles into hand reels and armed prawns for bait and wearing what could well have been his orange terry towelling bucket hat, we set out from what you’d probably call millionaire’s row with mansions backing onto the canals with luxury boats parked on the jetty.

View towards Surfers Paradise

Canal

The fish didn’t seem to mind. No sooner than we’d thrown out the line, we’d catch a sand whiting and reel it in… one after the other, after the other. None of the usual waiting business or having to go home via the local fish and chips shop to have something for dinner. The Broadwater was a fisher’s paradise. Geoff also recalls going fishing on The Broadwater back in the day and pumping for yabbies for bait. Geoff never catches anything but even he managed to catch three fish…three out of 50!

Parasailing

When we visited Runaway Bay, all we had were our cameras. I would’ve liked to go fishing there, especially for old time’s sake, and also because I’d hope this very generous fishing spot might still provide a novice with an easy catch. However, we didn’t have any fishing gear with us, or a licence and I’d want to be on a sure thing these days to go to all that trouble, particularly when we were away on holidays with so much to see.

Aren’t these clouds amazing?!!

Meanwhile, we had fun watching and photographing the parasailers. What fun. I had meant to look into doing that, but didn’t get around to it…another opportunity which got away along with the fish.

Do you have any fishing yarns you’d like to share? These days I get quite concerned about our depleted fishing stocks, but catching one or two fish isn’t being greedy.

Please stay tuned for our next adventure. We will be off for our first visit to HOTA – Home of the Arts and for some strange reason it’s pronounced “hotter”.

Best wishes,

Rowena

Surfers Paradise, Queensland…Beyond the Nest.

My heart still skips a beat when I think of “Surfers” and so many memories came flooding back from childhood staying at Pacific Point or the Golden Gate through to spending schoolies there with a group of friends back in 1987. Where did all that time go and how did I end up back at Surfers in my 50’s feeling like a 21 year old but rapidly heading for dinosaur status? I have no idea. Happened in the blinking of an eye!

While this account of Surfers Paradise from 1938 is well before my time, it captures much of the vibe I knew so well in the 1970’s and 1980’s:

“SURFERS’ PARADISE …. The very name fires the imagination. It suggests the high-powered publicity of the Americans. One immediately thinks of some flambuoyantly picturesque spot in California or Florida. True, this newest of the south coast colonies has a touch of the rococo about it. But there is no garishness. The place suggests youth; smart little houses, gay colours, attractive gardens. There is an air of impudence without pertness, of happiness without heartiness. Surfers’ Paradise grew from a waste of sand hills. Many of us can remember when the place was called Myers’ Ferry, and a handful of hardy campers stayed there; scorning the more crowded beaches. These pioneers were always loud in praise of the surf on their quiet beach. In the past few years, thousands of bathers have endorsed their opinion. Considering that it is part of a long straight stretch of foreshore, Surfers’ Paradise finds itself remarkably free from the channel formations other beaches experience. It misses, too, much of the sidesweep generally found at exposed beaches. Its surf may be said to alternate between extremes. When it is flat, it is very flat, with waves breaking in anaemic style near the beach. But on a good day, the surf breaks a hundred yards out and more — full-blooded lusty combers that take some holding, but give a swift and thrilling ride to the beach. Providing, of course, you can hold a ‘shoot’ that long. Surfers’ Paradise is the bright child of seaside resorts; precocious yet charming, and assured of a glorious inheritance. South Coast Bulletin (Southport, Qld. : 1929 – 1954), Friday 14 January 1938, page 5

Such glowing praise, but when you look at the photo, it doesn’t seem to measure up. .

Of course, I couldn’t wait to get down to the beach, especially after spending yesterday stuck in the car all day. However, Geoff insisted on going to the supermarket first. What the heck?!! What was this responsible adulting when we were on holidays and supposedly fancy-free? Naturally, the last thing I wanted to see was a shopping trolley when we could be prancing up and down the mythical white sands of paradise. Yet, to be fair, it was Easter Thursday and the shops were going to be shut on Good Friday. So, we like everyone else, needed to load up our trolleys like doomsday preppers or we’d starve.

Shopping stashed away, we were off.

Depending on the traffic, Surfers Paradise can be a 15 minute drive from “home” in Southport. However, instead of driving direct to Main Beach and Cavill Avenue as expected, Geoff took a left and was heading North to regions unknown. I wasn’t happy at first, but once again he had a good idea and he was running with it. He knew this spot out past Sea World called The Spit, which has magnificent views down to Surfers, Coolangatta and possibly beyond. I was impressed, even if I was busting a gut to get back to Surfers Paradise and relive my memories as best I could given how much water had flowed under the bridge. As much as Surfers Paradise wasn’t what it was 30+ years ago, neither was I.

Yet, as much as I am in love with the legend that is Surfers Paradise and have such incredible memories, I am not a huge fan of modern Surfers Paradise and find it too built up and rather tired. I don’t know if the Surfers Paradise high rises are more appealing from the inside looking out, but they cast ugly shadows on the beach in the late afternoon and really detracted from enjoyment. Yet, I loved staying in a high rise when I was younger and going swimming in the pool downstairs and crossing the road to the beach. I wasn’t thinking about getting back to nature then, and Surfers Paradise was so much fun.

Surfers Paradise

After visiting the beach and getting our feet wet, we walked around the block and had churros for afternoon tea at San Churros. Yum! We also found a Build-a-Bear shop and had a look. Our daughter loves them and it just didn’t seem right that she wasn’t with us. Ditto for our son. We might’ve gone away for a few days to Bathurst last year without them, but this was four weeks and we’ve always been on family holidays before.

All in all, we had a wonderful time, despite going to the supermarket.

Have you been to Surfers Paradise and do you have any memories or reflections you’d like to share? I look forward to hearing from you!

Best wishes,

Rowena

Housesitting In Southport, Gold Coast, Queensland.

Welcome to Southport, located on the Queensland Gold Coast. Yes, we finally arrived!

If you look at the map of the Gold Coast, we were staying just above the “TH” in Southport. So, as you can see, we were staying in a very central location about 4 km from iconic Surfers Paradise, the much celebrated and lamented fusion of heaven and hell all rolled into one. This region is also home to the famous theme parks…Sea World, Dream World and Warner Bros Movie World not that we went to any of them on this trip. Moreover, since we live near the beach, that wasn’t a huge priority and we didn’t get to the shopping outlets either.

So, no doubt, many of you are wondering what we actually did do during our long four week stay in Southport? What else is there? Or, did we actually spend our entire holiday at home?

Gold Coast Film Festival

HOTA Gallery

Surfers

Surfers Paradise

As it turned out, Southport became more of a launching pad than a destination in itself. In terms of where we ended up, there was Surfers Paradise, Home of the Arts (HOTA and pronounced “hotter”) in Southport, Mt Tamborine, we spent a few days in the Brisbane CBD and drove out west to Ipswich to drive past the old family home and drove out to nearby Marburg where my mother grew up and used to include a visit to the Gerber farm and Scotland Yard Antique shop but now focuses on a visit to my grandparents’ grave. We also ended up staying with family North of Brisbane and visited the breathtaking Glasshouse Mountains Lookout.

Another aspect of our trip was catching up with family and friends in Queensland. Although our family had spent been to the NYE fireworks in Surfers in 2022 while staying at Southport with Geoff’s sister and her husband, we haven’t spent much time in Queensland since my grandparents’ house was sold around 2011. Then, our best intentions of keeping up with family and friends over the border, were further thwarted by the dreaded covid lockdowns and crossing the state border literally became a crime. So, after all that time, I had the sense that if we didn’t make an effort now, we could lose touch with our Queensland connections for good.

Our family outside the Ipswich house

Aunty Rose with Jacko the Kookaburra

Aunty Rose

My grandparents wave me goodbye (my grandmother is up the stairs)

My Grandparents – Pastor Bert & Ruth Haebich

Yet, at the same time, I also had to acknowledge that what I really knew to be “Queensland” was my grandparents, their sprawling Queenslander home in Ipswich, larger family gatherings populated by multiple generations of aunts and uncles, my mother’s cousins and family friends who were almost family. Back in the early days, we’d also gone to see my great great aunts in their Queenslander house at Doomben near the airport. Great Great Aunty Rose had had a rather posh hairdressing and beauty salon in Ascot Chambers in the heart of Brisbane and some of her clients were the very social elite including General MacArthur’s wife while he was stationed in Brisbane during WWII. Aunty Rose was 88 when she died and she had an older sister, Bertha, who lived to the grand old age of 102. So, I actually knew them, Heard their stories and there were various treasures, photographs and letters around my grandparents’ home which were relics of Aunty Rose. Meaning, of course, that she lived on in this strange sort of way.

Here I am at Jack Evan’s Porpoise Pool, Coolangatta around 1975.

Then there were my own memories of coming to the Gold Coast. There was a family holiday to Palm Beach with my grandparents when I was about five. All I remember is excruciating sunburn and visiting the bakery down the street where I would order a little pineapple tart and my brother had a neenish tart. I can’t even remember what, if anything, my parents’ had. By the time we were in primary school, Dad’s uncle had a few units in Surfers where we’d go and stay. The first one was Pacific Point on Main Beach Parade which Trip Advisor reports has “views to die for”. We had been living at Galston on five acres which you could loosely call “the country” back then and it got very hot out there and we didn’t have a swimming pool. So, Pacific Point was absolute luxury to us with a glimmering pool downstairs and the beach just across the road and a vast expanse of white sand. Back then in the late 70’s and 80’s, they had they had these evil people spraying coconut oil which was the height of sophistication for the ultimate tan and I certainly had no thoughts of 30+ sunscreen although I think we put something on. Later on, they had a place at the Golden Gate which even had a tennis court. Then, when i finished school at the end of 1987 my friends and I went up to Surfers for schoolies staying at Aaron’s Holiday Inn still located on the Gold Coast Highway and went to the beach by day and clubbing by night.

Geoff also has connections with Queensland. Although he grew up in Tasmania, his much older brother and sister moved to Queensland while he was still in primary school, and his other sister was living near Byron Bay. After his father passed away, his mother moved to Murwillumbah and Geoff followed on as an economic refugee to the mainland.

So, we had a lot to catch up on while also prioritising exploring new places, spreading our wings and also relaxing. Geoff was exhausted from work and really needed a complete break. I, on the other hand, was desperate to get out of the house to see and experience as much as I could while acknowledging my health restraints and that in spite of myself, I also needed plenty of rest. Such a pity that, because don’t you just wish you could really rev yourself up into turbo mode while you’re on holidays to really carpe diem seize the day and squeeze out every last drop. Of course, you might not be standing when you arrive home half-dead of exhaustion.

Lastly, I should probably clarify that our housesitting assignment wasn’t all fun and no responsibilities, although we had it pretty easy. There were no official pets, and we were simply tasked to water the garden. That said, my sister-in-law mentioned something about feeding the birds, who were used to receiving a few scraps of bread. As it turned out, they had been well-trained and had acquired expectations and on our first morning we were rudely awakened possibly not long after sunrise by a butcher bird almost singing in our ears at the window. A beautiful call, I concede, but it would need to reset its alarm clock for later in the day during our stay.

Well, it’s looking like our trip to Surfers Paradise is going to have to wait til tomorrow and I look forward to catching up with you then.

Best wishes,

Rowena

The Big Banana- Coffs Harbour, NSW.

As you may recall from my previous post, we’re currently on a road trip heading for the Queensland Gold Coast where we will be housesitting for the next four weeks, although we’re not travelling in real time. We’ve actually been home for a week.

Of course, I don’t know whether many of you are accustomed to long road trips, but we usually drive up to Queensland once or twice a year so we know the Pacific Highway well and stoically “Keep driving and carry on”. No whingeing, and there’s no point asking if we’re there yet either. We all know the route well enough to know we’re only an hour down the track and there’s about nine hours to go depending on how many stops we have along the way.

Then, suddenly, there it is! Bright yellow, on the left hand side of the road almost glowing like an apparition: “I spy with my little eye something beginning with B.B…”

No guesses what that is. Of course, it’s the Big Banana, although our days of playing eye spy on road trips are over and even our kids have grown up.

I don’t know anyone who doesn’t love the Big Banana or at least feels some sort of quirky attraction to it. However, what I really like about the Big Banana other than its happy, glowing yellowness, is that it’s a sign we’re over halfway to Queensland and we’re making progress. Thank goodness! This interminable drive might not be ending anytime soon, but now there’s an end in sight.

The Big Banana is also an easy target to find something for lunch and we weren’t disappointed. We had burgers with the works including fried banana and we also shared a banana fritter. Both were yum!

We didn’t explore the Big Banana any further, but it looked like fun if you wanted to break your journey for awhile or were staying in Coffs.

We also spotted some incredible white fluffy clouds driving into Coffs. They were breathtakingly beautiful.

Meanwhile, the rest of our drive North was pretty uneventful aside from this road sign we spotted at a toilet stop.

Humph! I guess we highly recommend going at the Big Banana or holding on!

Have you ever been to the Big Banana or any of Australia’s other “big” icons? From memory, I’ve been to the Big Pineapple, the Big Prawn, the Big Cow, the Big Merino and the Big Orange. In 2022, there were about 230 big things in Australia so I’d better get a wriggle on and cross a few more off my bucket list.

Best wishes,

Rowena

Hitting the Road To Queensland – Beyond the Nest.

“To travel is to live.”
Hans Christian Anderson

The thing about a really good holiday is you don’t have time to write about it. You’re out there living the dream. Anyway, that’s my justification for not writing about our holiday at the time along with some technical hiccups what with being away from my home computer.

Geoff and I were given the opportunity to mind his sister’s house in Southport for four weeks, and as it turned out our kids stayed home which left us leaving the nest behind and heading North. Speaking of the kids, they are now twenty and eighteen and are actually now young adults. Well able to manage on their own, and look after the house and the dogs. Humph… We were optimistic.

“One does not discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore for a very long time.”
― André Gide

We pulled out of the driveway just before sunrise on the 27th March, 2024 setting out on an almost 800 kilometre journey expected to last about eight hours. Not a drive for the faint-hearted, but one we[‘ve done many times before, and to be honest, Geoff did all the driving.

We hadn’t even driven 15 minutes from home when we had our first photo stop…a magnificent sunrise on Brisbane Waters at Koolewong. Being a chronic night owl, I rarely see the sunrise and I think Geoff was pretty dazzled by it too as I received no complaints.

“At sunrise, the blue sky paints herself with gold colors and joyfully dances to the music of a morning breeze.”

-Debasish Mridha

So, as much as part of me what’s to hurry up and get on with the rest of our holiday, we’re just going to pause and watch the sunrise today and linger in it’s dazzling beauty for a bit.

Best wishes,

Rowena

Weekend Coffee Share – 5th May, 2024.

Welcome to Another Weekend Coffee Share!

My profuse apologies it’s been so long in between drinks, as the saying goes. I’ve been hovering in limbo for some time and the blog ended up on hold. I don’t really know quite what to do with it atm and part of me would like to rev myself up and get back into it again, and another part of me is interested in starting a new blog focused on this new phase of life with kids who have left school, even if they haven’t left the nest as such.

Speaking of which, we recently experienced a bit of a twist on the more conventional empty nester scenario, when my husband, Geoff, and I went away houseminding at Southport on the Queensland Gold Coast for four weeks and left our now adult kids aged twenty and eighteen at home with the three dogs in tow. So, we were actually the ones leaving the nest. Although they were invited to join us, our son is studying and our daughter wasn’t sure about leaving her friends for so long and also felt we needed to get away the two of us. At least, that’s what she said.

So my current blogging plan is to write up about our travels at Beyond the Flow but under the sub-heading of “Beyond the Nest”.

Meanwhile, we’ve now been home for a week. Coming home was never going to be easy, and I guess we all know young adults tend to be domestic Neanderthals, but I’m an eternal optimist and I really did believe they’ve clean up after themselves before we arrived home, and at least have done some washing up while we were away. Leaving the clean up to the last minute and with us having a good run home and arriving early didn’t help. The kitchen tap also came off which threw our son, but we re-directed him to the laundry sink over the phone as we drew ever-nearer to arrival.

The other challenge about returning home, is trying to fit back into the place. Despite concerted efforts to clear out stuff, our placed is still packed to the rafters and beyond and we not only had to fit everything we’d taken away with us back in, we’d brought stuff home as well. Indeed, we’d brought home two bags of exquisite fabric from my retired dressmaker cousin and a few dresses mainly for my daughter and some curtains and there was also a painting by my Great Great Aunt. Special treasures. I also brought home another stack of books. I just can’t help myself, but at least I read a few while I was away, not that they’re ones I could part with. These are definitely keepers.

While we were away, I made a decision to somehow keep the holiday spirit alive when we returned home. To that end, I’ve been on a few local walks this week and after days and days of heavy rain, I was delighted the sun popped its head out for awhile today and I was down for a walk along our local beach in a flash. As you can see from the photos, there were still some massive rain-producing clouds around just waiting to dump their load and its been raining heavy all afternoon and into the night and we’re expecting a deluge tomorrow.

I’ve also been getting stuck into artistic pursuits since arriving home. We went to so many galleries, a couple of exhibition openings while also seeing a lot of street art and sculptures. Talk about inspiring and much of it helped me reframe myself as a potential artist. I am right down the abstract end of the spectrum and I’ve always been hard on myself because I struggle to draw or painting something as it is, but I’ve pulled off some good works over the years, and unfortunately much of what I’ve done has been hidden safely away in an art folder in my bedroom cupboard. Even my closest friends haven’t seen it and it’s all hidden away like a dark secret.

Death to the Polka

Not that I’ve been ashamed of my artworks. I don’t have space to hang it and much of it isn’t the sort of thing you’d have stuck inside a crowded wall. It needs high ceilings and a gallery. In other words, it’s all begging me to have an exhibition, but for me, I’d just want to exhibit. I don’t want to part with any of my artworks. Not yet, anyway. Perhaps, if I increase production, it will be easier to part with it, but I’m not there yet.

Do you do any form of art and do you sell or give your works away? How do you feel about that?

Anyway, as I said, I’ve been making art this week. My main project started evolving while we were away when I saw a round seagrass place mat at a kitchenware shop in Brunswick Heads near Byron Bay. I’ve become quite obsessed with making mandalas of lake and I have been on the look out for a circular surface where I could incorporate wool into a mandala. So this place mat fit the bill and was only $7.00 which is quite cheap for a canvas. I had also picked up a few handfuls of good wool and a crochet hook from the thrift shop nearby. So I was set and it is a shame I didn’t think about crocheting onto the mat until I’d arrived home as I had hours sitting in the car driving home and might’ve had it finished. As it was, I’ve been crocheting for hours and hours and then stitching the chains onto the mat, which has reminded my poor fingers of sewing ribbons on our daughter’s pointe shoes. Once again, there were a few sharp jabs.

I still don’t know why doing this piece was so important and why I’ve prioritised it over my writing and I really have a lot to follow up on from the trip as well as much to get back to. Spending hours doing random crochet is a luxury really, but I felt compelled to go on pursuing the vision in my head, which is more than academic. I’ve called it “Passion & Peace”. I was initially think of having more of a balance, but I have no balance and often very little peace when I’m inspired. I’m consumed like a moth flying into the flame.

Anyway, I do think producing this work was fun.

How was your week? What have you been up to?
I hope you’ve had a great week.

Best wishes,

Rowena

Weekend Coffee Share: 11th March, 2024.

Welcome to Another Weekend Coffee share!

Before I start rattling the keyboard too much with my fingernails which are uncomfortably long for my invigorating stream of words to flow from my head appearing like magic on the blank screen above; let me offer you a bit of warm Australian hospitality. Your choice of tea, coffee, Mountain Dew (our son’s obsession).

Moreover, because I fancy myself as somewhat of a missionary of all things Australian, I’m going to offer you the thrill of trying “Vegemite Tower”. That’s my name for it, and I have no idea whether anyone beyond our family would have any idea what I’m talking about, although it might also be known as a “Jatz Stack”. In case you’re actually wanting to try this in real life and step on the wild side, you need four Jatz crackers. Put a scrape of butter and what you can cope with as a smear of Vegemite (I like quite a lot, but to use a phrase of my Dad’s, “it puts hair on your chest”. So, don’t say I didn’t warn you!!) To make my Vegemite Towers, I build up three crackers like this and a fourth cracker on top to seal it all in. That is my idea of YUM!!! It’s rare for me to get through the day without one, and usually two’s company.

Last week was exceptionally quiet due to a rather unwelcome visitor…Covid. We have been pretty careful and avoid crowds. Geoff has been driving to work instead of joining all the sardines packed into the train huffing and puffing all over each other inhaling goodness knows what germs. However, we haven’t wanted to condemn ourselves to a living death and we have our kids who are out there interacting with the world and swinging from the rafters here, there and everywhere. So, as you may recall, Miss turned 18 in my last post and she went out clubbing and hey presto, let me pull covid out of my hat. She had a couple of RATS but they all tested negative and I wasn’t really of a mindset where I could go through the whole covid thing all over again, and she didn’t isolate and I’m driving her around. I was a sitting duck. While I could get annoyed about it given how vulnerable I am and the rough year I had last year with my lungs, it feels pointless. I’ve explained, she should understand, take precautions, but doesn’t. It’s also very hard when the rest of the world has seemingly moved beyond covid. We no longer have those much appreciated 11.00am TV updates on the spread, and while they did ramp up the fear considerably, they also reminded us to be careful. Reminded the general population to be more careful around vulnerable people and that you don’t want to be the one who passes it onto particularly your elderly parents and kills them. Vigilance has dropped back, but perhaps a bit too far.

Anyway, it seems I’ve not only survived Covid Mark II, but seem to be okay. Again, it stayed in my sinuses and didn’t get near my lungs. Oh happy days!

Kids learning how to cook January 2007.

Meanwhile, Mr turned 20 on Friday! Happy Birthday! He’s been out during the great covid exchange, and somehow managed to miss it. After we turned positive, he stayed overnight at a mate’s place but then had to come home and furtively arrived late at night masked up with his pizza and Mountain Dew in hand. We were still infectious on the big day and so we bought his his favourite Caramel Mud Cake from Aldi, which was safely sealed away inside its plastic bubble. He’d already received a few presents from us but by Friday I was well enough to find where I’d stashed his card, a couple of presents and clear the kitchen table. Containing the endless tide of detritus which flows through this place is an ongoing battle.

While I was down with covid, I was reminded of that great healer from my youth…being home sick from school and watching “Days of Our Lives”. I think four generations of my family watched that show as the sands of our lives flowed through the hour glass. Did you used to watch it? It used to be an institution when I was growing up and the doors of suburbia closed down when “Days” was on, which I think was followed by the “Young and the Restless”. As if that wasn’t bad enough, we used to talk about the shows and Mum would go and visit my grandmother in Queensland and they were ahead of us and it was so so good. You might not want a crystal ball to see what lies ahead in your own life, but this was better than tickets to a Taylor Swift concert back then.

I felt a bit cheated that I couldn’t watch Days while I had covid. Well, not like it used to be anyway. I know there are episodes online. So, I decided to watch a DVD instead and let me tell you I have to be sick to watch a movie right through uninterrupted. I spotted The Goodies on the pile and thought a bit of humour would do me good. Humph! Not so sure about the Goodies these days. Have you ever watched The Goodies? Well, it’s not exactly wholesome viewing. It aired at 5.30pm here in Australia which was considered “after school” and was shown before Dr Who. I think some of the scenes from the DVD had been cut by the censor for TV.

BTW speaking of old childhood TV shows, do you remember Mr Ed the talking horse? I loved that show and have the DVD for that stashed somewhere in the cupboard.

Anyway, I had no intention of writing about old TV shows.

My Grandmother at the Australian Embassy in Washington, 1948.

Moreover, I’ve actually been engaged in quite a lot of high brow activity while I’ve been down with covid. I have been working on my grandmother’s career as an international concert pianist, music critic and professor at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. This has turned into an absolutely monumental project now that the old newspapers and magazines have been uploaded. I’ve been working away at it for years but more and more material keeps getting uploaded and then I’m having to correct the text as I go. I’ve been trying to capture everything and now realize I need to pull the eyes out of it and put some highlights together. I’ve done a timeline again with everything in it too, and it also needs its executive summary. Tonight, I was reading through some of the columns she wrote as a music critic and it was like listening to her over a cup of tea and she was back with me again. I’m so lucky to have this. I am working towards some kind of book. I also have a file of photos of her career which I’ll turn into a photo book fairly soon.

Well, I have written so much more than I’d intended. Indeed, I thought I really didn’t have much to say and it’s very late (or should I say early) here and well past my bedtime.

So, before I head off, how are you and what are you up to? I hope you’ve been well.

This has been another contribution to the Weekend Coffee Share hosted by Natalie the Explorer.

Best wishes,

Rowena

Weekend Coffee Share…25th February, 2024.

Welcome to Another Weekend Coffee Share!

My goodness! It’s been such a long time since we’ve caught up for coffee, that I’ve almost forgotten how to fire up my coffee machine, but fortunately the rust is falling off and I’m starting to come back to life.

My explanation for my extended absence is very simple…not enough hours in the day, and desperately wanting to live about three lifetimes simultaneously but unfortunately I’ve had my wings clipped and I have to accept I only have one life and to make the best of it.

Miss and Rosie

So, after that little meander, let me invite in for coffee, tea or whatever takes your fancy, and today I have something very special to offer you- a slice of my daughter’s 18th Birthday cake. Friends who know I bake, just assumed I made the cake. However, there are a few neon signs that she did most of it herself and I just made the basic icing. Firstly, she’s done a fabulous and fairly detailed effort icing the cake. My style this days is much more slap-dash and I prefer a more wind-swept, chaotic look. The other give away, which might be hard to detect unless your taste buds are super critical and you’re the princess and the pea incarnation of a fastidious Masterchef judge and can pick up a packet mix cake no matter how much icing has been piled on top. I am an absolute baking snob. I NEVER EVER USE PACKET MIXES. I ALWAYS BAKE FROM SCRATCH. Anyway, I loved what she did with the cake and it really did look amazing.

Needless to say, Miss turning 18 has been a big deal. For Miss it was an even bigger deal because many of her closest friends are two years older than her, and she has missed their 18th Birthday parties being under age and hasn’t been able to go clubbing with them. That all sounds good when it comes to being wholesome, and I do think it’s important to be your own age and to try not to jump ahead too much. Your time will come. Yet, at the same time, no one likes to be left out and some of her friends who still haven’t turned 18, weren’t able to join in on her birthday celebrations yesterday which focusing on going clubbing in Sydney. Golly! She couldn’t wait and had a new dress, shoes, bag, hair done. She looked a million dollars and had the best night.

We are still to get together and really celebrate her birthday as a family as her brother was working over the weekend. However, the three of us went out for breakfast at a local cafe yesterday morning. I put together a slide show to go up on Facebook, but I decided to print them out and given the excruciating shortage of space around here and the fact she wasn’t having a party where we could show a slide show, I printed the phones out and Blu tacked them to our kitchen cupboards. She was stoked and absolutely loved it and it really refueled her love tank. Indeed, she told her friends “my mum has made a shrine of me.” She wants it to stay there, of course, which poses a few problems with being even-Stevens with her brother and giving him his own photo door, but I’m only it and have about 8 days left to get it sorted before his 20th birthday. I highly recommend this as a chance to encourage someone and celebrate an eclectic life and having those doors just filled of photos of her, was such a morale boost for her and she loves it.

Anyway, as usual time’s got away from me and I’d better run.

This has been another contribution to the Weekend Coffee Share hosted by Natalie the Explorer.

Best wishes,

Rowena