Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Ambling along upper Moorabool Street

from w
The weather was a bit more tolerable this morning so I went into town to see the photographs at the Wintergarten Cafe and the paintings upstairs - kind of abstracts but mainly interesting blobs. The black and white photos were from a calendar made by the women of the Harmony Choir, nude but very modest, as the curves were almost hidden by rocks and trees in the landscape. There were lots of older women there and I met one of the U3A writers I once knew and we recalled the time when we were students together with Avis Hart, a brilliant teacher of creative writing in the year 2000. She is into photography these days and we talked about Picasa and such like.On the way back to the bus I ambling along Moorabool Street browsing in the lovely shops there such as Fyans Cottage and Little India. I ignored three golf shops but bought picture frames at a very neat Vinnies Op Shop. Fyans Cottage has lovely Edwardian kind of pictures, cards, pottery, etc. that decorative art that started with Toulouse Lautrec much earlier. Examples here are from a diary with pictures by Erte and Rachel Bishop's Moorcroft Peacock.
. So who on earth is Erte? Apparently he was a Russian artist and he says, "Not Only do I do what I want to do, but I do my work in my own way and never have been influenced by another artist. The sole influences on my art, through the course of my entire career, were the Persian and Indian Miniatures and Greek vases I saw in my childhood at the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg (Now Leningrad). I think that these influences have stayed with me to this day, although they were assimilated long ago." (Excerpt "At Ninety") There's a website about Erte.

Labels: , ,

Monday, November 09, 2009

Remembering anniversaries

from w
There's lots of talk this week of it being twenty years since the breaking down of the Berlin Wall. Yes, I remember that time and the excellent consequences. Also of course it is a birthday of something equally (?) significant - that magical TV program Sesame Street which children have loved for two generations. It was ahead of its time with its inclusiveness and mix of real kids and puppets. Now that started forty years ago!

It's also Remembrance Day tomorrow - 11th of 11th month and Peceli remembers his older brother Laisenia who died in the Solomon Islands.(reposted from an earlier babasiga blog posting: from Peceli) I was thinking of my older brother Laisiasa Masidugu who died in the battlefield in the Solomon in 1944. I only discovered by using the internet that my brother Laisaisa is listed in the Rabaul War Cemetery in Papua New Guinea.
Rabaul War Cemetery Roll of Honour includes:
MASIDUGU, Private, LAISIASA, 1336. 1st Bn. Fiji Infantry 13. A. Regt. Fiji Military Forces. 29th March 1944. Age 22. V.
I was about seven when the District Officer and a Fijian came to our house to tell my father that Laisiasa had died. The story was that there was a valley and three young soldiers kept on fighting while the others in his platoon of the First Battalian were told to retreat. Later on someone came to our house to give us his belt and water bottle. There were bullet holes in the belt. A few years ago I saw an honour scroll in my cousin’s house in Naseakula and it was a tribute to Laisiasa and I have it now.

from Wendy again: And I remember forty years ago, waddling around, very delighted, due to give birth to my second son on 11th of November. And yes, we remember Rob's life was ended when he was 30 in an accident in 2009. So today and tomorrow we have plenty to remember.

Labels:

Sunday, November 08, 2009

Suddenly it's summer

pic from last year.
from w
Yesterday and today have been so hot - more than 34 degrees and it's only into November, not summer at all. Apparently records have been broken already - it hasn't been so hot in early November for a hundred years. Our lovely vegetable garden will suffer if this keeps up, and the flowers will wilt too. A year ago some of the rather ordinary looking cactus plants suddenly burst into lovely red and pink flowers, but they wilted within a week. This has happened once again. Several flowers emerged and then within three days they were rather sorry. Perhaps my photos of one of the wilting flowers ought to be called 'After the ball is over'.

And suddenly the bouganvillea which had no flowers two weeks ago is ablaze with small buds and flowers.

Labels: ,

Saturday, November 07, 2009

How to move a photo-edit program?

from w
I have a Photo-edit program on an old computer and now that the Fiji Friendship Club Inc have been given a lovely newly refurbished computer with lots more space, I want to move that program/or copy that program to the new computer. We picked this one up at the Brotherhood of St Lawrence in Footscray and it's a gift to our ethnic networking group from the Victorian Multircultural Commission to share with our members in Geelong. How do I do that? I don't have Photo-shop and don't intend to get it as I would never get any housework done then!

Labels:

Friday, November 06, 2009

Conversations random or intentional

collage using pics from internet.
from w
Lately I've been pushed towards taking more care in conversations. Mostly in the past we just ramble on, butt in, alter the mood or topic (I've always been one to be a bossy-boots in this regard) gossip, not listen to another person's story. But a few things have triggered a new way of looking at how people, face to face, or in small groups, talk to one another over a meal, coffee, across a table. I've stopped myself in mid-flight when thinking about a story to top the one being told. And I realize how rich the personal stories can be as they emerge without interruption. Just this morning I was at the car boot sale - our church grounds once a month become one large sales area with thirty or more outdoor shops selling mostly second-hand goods brighten up the grass. Our church men and women sell coffee, tea, hamburgers, cakes and so on as well and tables are set up near the sparse trees. It's a little bit about fund-raising but mainly an opportunity to connect with the local community.

Three of us were sitting at a table with our tea or coffee. An older woman, with whom I've had a nodding acquaintance with for a while, started describing her childhood in a dreadful orphanage and recently she has been able to access information about her mother. It was a tragic story as she explained the feeling of being unwanted and having no family. So I'm glad that I've learnt a bit about keeping cool and listening instead of hot-headedly eagerly butting in with another story!

Labels:

Wednesday, November 04, 2009

Cross hatching

from w
I'm cross today but it's nothing to do with the weather, just Fiji and what's going on there and I do not dare to make comments on our other blog so I'm cranky. So I'm just moku siga (wasting the hours) cross-hatching a picture based on the pastel pic I did a couple of days ago of Spring Creek Torquay. We have a lovely visitor from Fiji this week so we might go for another drive down to one of the seaside towns to show her about.

Labels: ,

Tuesday, November 03, 2009

Is prayer a shopping list?

from w
Sometimes it seems that prayer and focus on things close to your heart becomes a kind of shopping list when addressed to God. A friend in Melbourne declared that God looks after his electricity bill. An email from Fiji was in a similar vein, that we ask God to supply our financial needs. I wonder about that. And to pass an important exam. My view is that God gives us arms and legs and a head and we have to do our bit!
Anyway, here's a photo taken (rather cheekily I think) at St Francis church in Melbourne where the racing fraternity met to pray for such things as the outcome of the Melbourne Cup. Bart Cummings of course is the millionaire gentleman whose horses often win. This time his three were expected to do very well, but the Melbourne Cup is not about the 'best' or 'favourite' horses but about opportunities to get through the pack. So surprise, surprise, a horse called 'Shocking' won and surprised the boots off the punters. At least it wasn't 'Kickamoocow' who was in a race some time ago. I think horses are magnificent creatures but I think the shemozzle about gambling on them racing is not my scene at all.

Labels: ,

From a bundle of old music

from w
I was given a bundle of very old piano music and though I was able to sort and keep a quarter of it, most will have to go to the recycling. However I saved a few pages with odd old-fashioned printing etc. to put into a collage, then I messed about with variations from it.

Labels: , ,