Geelong Visual Diary

Barwon River Bridge

2012-02-15T22:18:00.000-08:00

from w
Messing again with Picasa and Gimp,(though some Gimp images wouldn't open on the second computer!) though I don't know all the possibilities, I used a sketch of one of the Barwon River bridges as a basis for some images, some a bit crude looking, and a photo of the volcanic hollows at Red Rock.

Barwon Park and rabbits

2012-02-13T23:23:00.001-08:00

from w
On the way back to Geelong on Sunday afternoon we took the left turn after Winchelsea to visit the grand mansion of Barwon Park, once a rich squatter's house. It's a Heritage building owned now by the government and kept very nice with antiques and shows us how the class system once worked in Australia, the superb large rooms and the tiny servant's roomlets! But this story is about rabbits. The Austins thought that importing a dozen pairs of rabbits would be good for friends to shoot at, but over time those rabbits multiplied to become millions and millions and they became a pest. People used to eat them a lot until the myxo killed most off, but they are out and about again. Brown rabbits live in our local cemetery and I don't want our pet dwarf nederland lop going near them! Anyway at Barwon Park here and there are cute toy rabbits as a reminder of Austin's folly. Of course we must also remember that Mrs Austin was a fine philanthropist and gave money to start a hospital in Melbourne - called of course the Austin.

weekend in Colac

2012-02-12T16:09:00.000-08:00

from w
We've just had a lovely weekend in the nearby town of Colac where Peceli has been requested to help with church work on some weekends. The people we met were hospitable and lovely and certainly we met many and talked a lot! Peceli led the worship at the Colac Uniting Church which was once St Andrews, a heritage listed building with a beautiful rose window. There are solid bluestone churches and there are small churches in the wildwood such as at Alvie. Even one turned into an Art Gallery at Cororooke which I popped into for a few minutes and was surprised to be met by an old friend there. We drove up to Red Rock where there are remarkable geological volcanic sites - hollows that sometimes fill with water. This area provides great landscape opportunities for a movie location I reckon! A new friend drove me down to Gellibrand which is forested with gigantic trees but I'd left my digital camera in the other car! So the weekend was a mix of work and being a kind of tourist. We are looking forward to another weekend there - sort of quiet - away from the household of eight or more and it's good for Peceli to be active in helping a rural Uniting Church community.

Not much time for drawing

2012-02-06T19:15:00.000-08:00

from w
Lately too much else has been going on so I've hardly picked up a pencil or pen, only a couple of drawings on the way back from a trip to Melbourne, of a park in Footscray, the K9 Werribee River bend, and a couple today of our rabbit Ozzie.

A Tongan feast

2012-02-03T01:31:00.000-08:00

from w
Last Saturday night at the East Geelong Uniting Church we had a significant occasion, the Ordination and Induction of our new minister, the Rev Ikani Vaitohi. About three hundred and fifty guests were there on this occasion, including many Tongan people. It was a memorable night, and particularly sad as there had been a fatal accident during the afternoon. The elder sister of our minister had died in a road accident. We were shocked when we were told at the beginning of proceedings, but this strong man insisted that the worship service proceed and this was all done with dignity. I played some of the music and my tears meant it was difficult to read the music at first. Anyway two hours later we all enjoyed a huge Tongan feast in the halls, people sitting in passages, the narthex, the chapel, outside eating Island food, which included at least four large pigs. I took photos of the evening, but only one during the service at the end when gifts were given to the minister's family. The mourning and the work of supporting the bereaved family had to wait until midnight when the last guests left.

Freedom

2012-01-26T23:10:00.000-08:00

Like when I look at our pet rabbit Ozzie confined in his play-pen and trying to get out to race around in the 220 foot compound, and a view of rooftops with very few gardens in Richmond Melbourne, I get a tendency to feel claustrophic. That's why we let Ozzie free for about an hour a day - and then have to catch him of course - for his own safety from birds and dogs and cars.

There are many situations in life when we try to break free of constraints, from limitations and frailty of the body, a confinement either physical or mental. Yesterday when Peceli and I visited Epworth Rehabilitation Hospital in Melbourne I was reminded very much of the limitations some people have after accidents with months in hospital as the body heals and even then some people have to just 'live with it'.

A friend posted her poem and an image on facebook on the topic of 'freedom'. This made me aware of the intriguing sculpture in USA by Zenos on the theme of breaking free. This is from his website:

Freedom

Size:20 feet long x 8 feet high
Medium:Bronze
Location:GSK World Headquarters
16th and Vine Streets, Philadelphia

Zenos’ statement about his vision of the sculpture

I wanted to create a sculpture almost anyone, regardless of their background, could look at and instantly recognize that it is about the idea of struggling to break free. This sculpture is about the struggle for achievement of freedom through the creative process.

Although for me, this feeling sprang from a particular personal situation, I was conscious that it was a universal desire with almost everyone; that need to escape from some situation – be it an internal struggle or an adversarial circumstance, and to be free from it.

I began this work in a very traditional sculptural manner by creating a small model in clay called a macquette. The purpose of beginning in this manner is to capture the large action and major proportions of the figure within the overall design without any details to detract from the big idea. Another reason for not having details and for working on a small model only a few inches in height is that the small armature within it, holding the clay, is more easily manipulated, allowing for much greater flexibility in developing a concept. For example, an arm, a leg or a head can be pushed around without any concern for obliterating details, such as a nose or a finger.

The macquette is the original mass of clay where a concept is born and from which it grows and develops. This was important later when I enlarged the sculpture from several inches long to 20 feet long, and I retained in the larger work a sense that all the conceptual material, its forms, focus and development sprang from this rough idea. The work metamorphosized, in the way that we do.

Although there are four figures represented, the work is really one figure moving from left to right. The composition develops from left to right beginning with a kind of mummy/death like captive figure locked into its background. In the second frame, the figure, reminiscent of Michaelangelo’sRebellious Slave, begins to stir and struggle to escape. The figure in the third frame has torn himself from the wall that held him captive and is stepping out, reaching for freedom. In the fourth frame, the figure is entirely free, victorious, arms outstretched, completely away from the wall and from the grave space he left behind. He evokes an escape from his own mortality.

It's Australia Day today

2012-01-25T12:42:00.000-08:00

from w
We count our blessings being able to live in this wonderful country, but Australia Day isn't a favourite day to remember that first fleet of convicts coming to Sydney and treading unkindly on the land that is being respected by another kind of people.

The next day:
And it was a sorry state of affairs in Canberra yesterday. An Aboriginal protest group caused some havoc as well as the police who were guarding/guiding the Prime Minister who lost a blue suede shoe in the shuffling to the car. Not the way to go to get respect I think. All around it was a sorry sight.

Stealing from cars in Geelong

2012-01-18T23:13:00.001-08:00

from w
The Geelong Advertiser yesterday ran a story about thefts from cars, mainly unlocked, and the thieves took wallets, purses, laptops, MP3 players, GPS navigation guides, mobile phones. The map indicates the Geelong suburbs where most of this happens - Newtown, Grovedale, Highton, North Geelong Corio and Norlane and a surprise to me, Drumcondra. Fortunately our suburb of Newcomb isn't the worst but it does caution us to be vigilant. I don't think that all the thieves actually live in those areas listed but roam some of the wealthier suburbs to try their luck. There's a campaign on called ' Lock it, remove it or lose it'. Eighty-eight thefts from motor cars have been recorded in the past two weeks!

Tennis racquets cop it

2012-01-18T23:05:00.000-08:00

from w
Nice tantrum there Mr Bahdatis!

However one media gave him the benefit of the doubt with Serena Williams reckons she understands his frustration!

SERENA Williams says Marcos Baghdatis four-racquet tantrum was "impressive", but empathised with him.

Baghdatis was fined US$800 by the ITF after he smashed four racquets into pieces during his three-set loss.

He was sanctioned was ''abuse of racquets and equipment'', with three of the racquets still in their plastic wrapping.

Williams - a five-time Australian Open champion - was impressed with his feat.

"I've never done that. That's impressive, wow,'' she said.

"I actually used to break a lot of racquets on the court. I sometimes break them in practice, just not in a match anymore. I think when you're young it kind of maybe lets out a little frustration.

''It just is a way to express yourself. I think those players are super, super intense. So I can't necessarily go and say you shouldn't do that when I was actually someone that did it a lot. But it's definitely not the best way to release your anger. I think the older you get, you realize there's more different ways."

The pros and cons of keeping small animals

2012-01-08T19:59:00.000-08:00

from w
The task is becoming rather persistent as we can't take the guinea pig and the Dwarf Netherland rabbit back to the pet shop! So what are the pros and cons of keeping such small animals - from our experience. Some members of the family like them, others definitely do not. I have cuts on my hands and arms from the hutch openings, not from animal bites and scratches.

Well, the good things are that they are God's creatures, beautiful little male animals and we can learn a lot from caring for them, taking responsibility day after day after day. We can learn that food is not the only criteria in life, but socializing sometimes comes first as we observe Izzie, the guinea pig, making overtures towards Ozzie, the rabbit.

There are numerous difficulties though! The rabbit just hates to be caged up and has escaped like Houdini about eight times but he just has a few hours in the garden before we catch him. Actually every day we do let them out in the garden to run freely and then it's a task to lure them back by trickery - nice food in a small cage. Keeping up food and drink is constant - fresh grass from the garden and there's plenty of that, a kind of food mix from the pet shop, fresh cucumber, apple, carrot etc. We have had then inside the house but that's frowned upon by super clean members of the family and we only really do that on special occasions - e.g. when the temperature was 42 degrees they sat under the cooler in the lounge room, and one morning after drenching rain which went right through the roof of the shed and the rabbit was really wet, I had to towel him dry and clean out the hutch again so he did spent an hour in one room. Heat and cold are problems. A friend lost two guinea pigs on that 42 degree day.

Although the pets belong to a young member of the family, I seem to get plenty of the jobs and I do want the animals to survive and be a bit happy - if you can call it that - when you live in an enclosed environment for many hours of the day. I really think animals should roam free. Well, at least I get plenty of exercise these days, chasing them after their free time!

Garage Sale

2012-01-06T17:10:00.000-08:00

from w
This morning we set up about eight tables with stuff to sell - catering and kitchenware things, a drum kit, James Dean photos, and so on. Dealers came by 6 a.m. though we advertised as at 7 a.m. It's noon now and it's time to pack up the leftovers, some for an op-shop, some for Donation in Kind, some for the church caterers, some to recycle around our house again. It was a good experience for the grandchildren to hop in and help, deal with the art of selling, and to meet up with strangers, as well as some friends who popped in, our Korean neighbour came in and drank some Fijian kava at closing time.

Fish and chips in Queenscliff

2012-01-03T02:21:00.000-08:00

from w
While Peceli was in one of the best fish and chips shops in the Bellarine Peninsular - where you can actually choose your own fish, prawns, etc., I did some sketches of the park near the beach in Queenscliff. It was our wedding anniversary - 45th - and we had taken a drive down from Geelong. This was New Year's Eve. Later in the evening we drove to Eastern Beach and watched the fireworks at midnight. Very nice, but rather extravagant as the money could be used for better purposes.

Yesterday we sweltered in 42 degrees heat - and some of our family slept outside and I even checked on the rabbit and guinea pig at midnight as they were suffering from the heat.

for the New Year

2011-12-30T16:00:00.000-08:00

from w
One of my facebook friends posted this and I thought it was so good I 'borrowed' it to repost here as our New Year greetings.

Benedicere

By Ken Sehested (adapted)

May your home always be too small
to hold all your friends.
May your heart remain ever supple,
Fearless in the face of threat,
Jubilant in the grip of grace.
May your hands remain open,
Caressing, never clinched,
Save to pound the doors
Of all who barter justice
To the highest bidder.
May your heroes be earthy
Dusty-shoed and rumpled,
Hallowed but unhaloed,
Guiding you through seasons of tremor and travail,
Apprenticed to the godly art of giggling
Amid haggard news
And portentous circumstance.
May your hankering
Be in rhythm with heaven’s
Whose covenant vows
A dusty intersection with your own:
When creation’s hope and history rhyme.
May Hosannas lilt from your lungs:
Creation is not done
Creation is not yet done.
All flesh,
I am told,
will behold
Will surely behold…

Benedicere (“to bless, to praise”) is based on a prayer by Ken Sehested, author of “In the Land of the Living: Prayers Personal and Public.”

time after time

2011-12-27T22:37:00.000-08:00

from w
Here are some more collages using the sketches of sand and rocks at Barwon Heads beach, changing the colours, mixing and matching, and trying to get the effect of the story of time on a beach, the shifting sand, the changes in erosion and shaping of rocks.

Around Geelong and nearby

2011-12-26T03:06:00.001-08:00

from w
Using coloured pencils I did a bit more work on a few sketches - still a bit wimpy. Emus at Narana, after bushfires at Anakie, a Melbourne suburb near Altona Meadows, boats at Eastern Beach.

Fiddling with pictures of rocks

2011-12-25T20:08:00.001-08:00

from w
It's a quiet afternoon with the family down at Lorne beach so I'm messing with two drawings of rocks I made, by overlapping to make abstract designs.

Christmas in Geelong

2011-12-24T23:32:00.001-08:00

from w
It has been a beautiful day (not the weather though which is threatening storms) with two adult sons, their wives, and four grandchildren and Luse from Sydney. Church was at 9 a.m. at East Geelong and then Jordan made blueberry pancakes and then we opened the dozens of presents from under the Christmas tree. So many good ideas. We had a late lunch at 3 p.m. kebabs, kokoda - raw fish in lemon and coconut cream, salads, salmon, taro etc. Then we gave the rabbit and guinea pig a free run in the back yard for an hour, and I think at present the kids are making water bombs with some balloons!

Michael Leunig's whimsical Christmas

2011-12-23T18:35:00.001-08:00

from w
On the Age front page is an article by the artist Michael Leunig which is typical of his love of the Australian landscape and creatures. Here it is.

Bush Christmas with butterflies and child
Michael Leunig
December 24, 2011
Illustration: Michael Leunig.

Christmas comes to urban Australia and up go the decorations - the holly and reindeer motifs, the sleighs, the Santas and snowflakes - the same old incongruous wintry symbols, reminding Australians that their summer is well under way and the year is fading fast. The lives of little pine trees are cut short and hung with baubles.

Electric fairy lights wink like shopkeepers' eyes in dark suburban streets. Buskers wearing plastic reindeer horns murder carols in the street; mournfully hitting the wrong notes of Christmas on tarnished trumpets and creaking violins; a fitting soundtrack for the work of mental health professionals and police who are busy attending to the upsurging emotions and woes that come with the season of joy.

Mysterious sad yearning and loneliness emerge out of nowhere to alight on the unsuspecting, mingling with goodwill, alcohol and hope as the weariness and eeriness of the year pull at the heartstrings or loosen the purse strings.

Advertisement: Story continues below
In the midst of so much exhaustion, tradition and repetition it is difficult to imagine that the original Christmas story was about the miracle of birth and renewal.

Yet out in the countryside, beyond the harsh gravity of the material world, far from Father Christmas and closer to Mother Nature, a wondrous child may behold the miracles of the bush and know that new life and great beauty are abundant and eternal. There is no monumental religious event in this infinity of detail and diversity; it is all part of a broader ancient miracle.

Huge clouds of brown butterflies swirl up into the dazzling light, parrots swoop to grassy earth, honeyeaters ravish the sweet flowers of the bottlebrush, echidnas trundle steadily in search of each other, lizards dart among ants and ancient rocks, the fine branchlets of the manna gums quiver to the mating growls of koalas, ibises stroll and feast on grasshoppers and gleaming Christmas beetles hang from eucalyptus leaves like small green baubles. The birds sing gloriously and not a wrong note is heard. This is Christmas in the bush.

If European symbols and traditions have grown tired, perfunctory and oppressively banal in Australia, or been drained of spirit and meaning by the dreary dictates of materialism and secularity, then the raw spirit truth of our native land in summer is alive and radiant by comparison.

For joy and meaning we might well turn to our natural country and witness miracles of vitality and new life, of inspiration and profound beauty; all in some humble, quiet and improbable place.

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/national/bush-christmas-with-butterflies-and-child-20111223-1p8pf.html#ixzz1hPppX0eF

Bouganvillea and Christmas

2011-12-23T12:29:00.000-08:00

from w
The front of our house is a rage of purple at the moment as the bouganvillea grows up and out. We've turned our enclosed front verandah into a quiet space now with a sofa and coffee table - instead of lots of art junk and the cage for Izzie and Ozzie (guinea pig and rabbit) who have gone down the back yard into the vakatunaloa (kind of shed). Reminds me to clean some windows today. Still some shopping to do - fish for kokoda (raw fish in lemon, chillies, coconut cream), prawns and so forth. There are too many presents under the Christmas tree - really we have everything we need, every day. Tonight we might go to the Carols by Candlelight at Johnstone Park.

What kind of plant is this?

2011-12-20T14:13:00.000-08:00

from w
It grew amidst the vegetables - about eight of them because someone thought they would turn out to be potatoes or something. Meanwhile they've flowered just this week and we are selling them in pots at the front gate, but what are they called?

Christmas breakup party

2011-12-17T02:21:00.000-08:00

from w
Today the party started at Eastern Park barbecue shed about midday and it's still going in our house with the kava drinkers and it's 9.30 p.m.. This is the windup for the year of our Fiji Geelong Friendship Club and we had about fifty people come along and share in a cooked pig, barbecued chicken, sausages, salads, fruit, trifle, cakes and drinks, and there were games of cricket. We shared the large barbecue shed with two other families. There were numerous groups of people throughout the park today. Twelve-year-old Andrew went there at 10 a.m. to 'book' our site/barbecue and tables adn was able to turn away some potential picnickers. Fortunately the weather was fine and hot though the forecast was for stormy weather in the afternoon.

Disgraceful how greedy politicians are

2011-12-15T11:19:00.001-08:00

from w
Hard to believe these politicians just think of themselves. Saw this piece on startling information. A 'minister' means 'to serve'. It's hardly this way for politicians.

Australian PM gets 31% pay rise
December 15, 2011 02:26:09 PMA+ A-|||
Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard was Thursday recommended for a 31 percent pay rise to take her salary to Aus$481,000 (US$476,000) -- more than US President Barack Obama. Gillard, whose support in opinion polls is near rock bottom, was handed the early Christmas present by the independent Remuneration Tribunal, which recommended pay hikes for most politicians and public servants. Parliament needs to approve the changes before the new pay scale comes into effect.

Federal MPs will also get more money, with the base salary for even the most junior parliamentarian jumping from Aus$140,000 to Aus$185,000.

In exchange, politicians will lose some of their perks, such as being able to fly first class for overseas study tours.

Australia's controversial gold pass scheme, where former MPs travel for free, will also be phased out.

"In our view that is not an unreasonable salary for the prime minister of Australia, whoever he or she may be," said tribunal president John Conde, adding that it was important to have good pay to attract people to parliament.

Asked whether it was the right time in the economic cycle to be thinking about pay rises, Conde said: "There is never a right time for this.

"It's been a long time coming. We've concluded our work and this is our conclusion."

According to the White House, Obama earns a salary of US$395,188 as president.

Donation in Kind Geelong

2011-12-12T19:57:00.000-08:00

from w
Today was our breakup for the summer holidays and the volunteers of Donation in Kind had a lovely barbecue to round off the year of fixing computers, sorting books, fixing a tractor, bikes, packing clothes, kitchenware, beds, school furniture, and so on. About forty of us are volunteers and we have got to know one another quite well - Tuesday and Wednesday mornings. Some are members of Rotary Clubs, but many are not, just happy to do three or more hours of voluntary work. The boxes of goods, etc. are sent on containers to places such as Solomon Island, Papua New Guinea, Sri Lanka, Fiji though the Customs in some places really let us down when they shift the goal-posts and demand extra duty and fees.

making collages

2011-12-12T03:02:00.000-08:00

from w
Being rather limited in what I experiment with using Picasa I've been concentrating on overlapping images to get new effects. It's usually a surprise what turns up. Here are some from photos I took at Queenscliff, a seaside town out of Geelong. Large trees and details from a hotel verandah.

Skyping the doctor?

2011-12-11T10:43:00.000-08:00

from w
An article in today's Geelong Advertiser announces that in the future some consultations between doctor and patient will be on-line. That is amazing and of course not the preferred model as the interaction between persons face to face surely is the best way. We get along very well with our local doctors who have been excellent in dealing with family health problems. In Australia Medicare is an absolute blessing as consultations, xrays, etc. are often free.

I think the idea of on on-line consultation comes from the need for sick people in remote communities far away from the specialists in the cities to access medical advice. It certainly would save long trips and the need for overnight accommodation, but it will just be talking it seems not touch and feel the broken bones and so on.

VPush for online docs
Peter Farago | December 12th, 2011

PATIENTS in the region could gain quicker access to medical specialists under a $375,000 bid by Geelong doctors to establish online video consultations.

Barwon Medical Local, formerly the Geelong GP Association, has made a submission to a federal government program to support the region's medical workforce making online consultations with patients a part of everyday business.

Chief executive Jason Trethowan said the project would help patients in rural areas and would give Geelong remote access to medical specialists.

"The region has had great success in connecting health professionals to share patient information online but online video consultations puts the patient in the centre of the consultation between two health professionals involved in their care," he said.

"Online video consultations will be used in areas where a GP, with their patient, can connect online with another medical specialist. This can reduce unnecessary travel for patients and help streamline more accessible specialist care." Mr Trethowan said it could also reduce waiting times to access specialists. "Examples where this may occur are in areas where the distance to get to a medical specialist is a barrier to accessing the required care or when the GP requires a patient in a residential aged care facility to have a relevant medical specialist opinion," he said.

Funding will help prepare relevant health professionals and their patients through education, training and the process to schedule the online consultation.

The funding request comes after doctors at Barwon Health recently said the National Broadband Network will transform the way they practise medicine.

Medical services clinical director Dr Paul Talman said specialist doctors in Geelong will be able to use the NBN to consult with patients in remote areas, quicker and more efficiently than ever before. "Health is going to be practised differently in the future because of this technology it's going to revolutionise medicine," he said.
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Another thing of course is that patients who have internet access can look up so much information about their illnesses and problems - too much info of course and much may be unreliable - so that patients can out-do their medical advisers with facts and fictions!

Advent in East Geelong

2011-12-10T18:24:00.000-08:00

from w
Being the third week of Advent there is plenty of material for the children's time in church. At East Geelong Uniting Church we have different ministers/leaders each week because we are in the situation of waiting to call a new minister, so there are often surprises. Today the Rev Heather Marshall led a lovely service that challenged us to be adults at Christmas time and look much further than the Bethlehem story. (I like the song 'Mary did you know' for the same purpose as it looks towards the adult Jesus.) Anyway we enjoyed watching the children making up words associated with Advent and here are some photos I took this morning. Our grandkids weren't there today as they are away at Hall's Gap with the Baptist youth camping. Our family get ecumenical at times which is good.

Barbeques and parties

2011-12-10T02:41:00.001-08:00

from w
Tonight only three of us are quietly watching TV as the others are away, one overseas, two at a church camp for teenagers, two in Melbourne. What a change! Anyway we had a party here last night for the Fiji Geelong Friendship Club and a couple of days ago two Fijian students from Deakin Uni visited us and we had a barbecue for them. Seini and Vani. It's always good to meet up with tertiary students who are bright and motivated to study well.

At the airport

2011-12-03T19:52:00.000-08:00

from w
The Melbourne airport - Tullamarine - is always very busy and yesterday Peceli and our grand-daughter flew Pacific Blue to Fiji. One photo is of them at the international departure doorway, one of Peceli happy after having breakfast there, and two of an interesting mosaic on the floor there.

Learning from pets

2011-11-29T21:41:00.000-08:00

from w
I dislike the idea of locking up animals and birds in cages, but recently a member of our family bought a guinea pig and a couple of weeks later a small rabbit - which I hope is a miniature breed and won't grow larger. At first they got along fine, one following the other with love, but the rabbit has become more of a know-all and sometimes butts the quiet little guinea pig. I really hate bullying and it seems to be the situation - but only at mealtimes. Anyway when the chief cook and bottle washer of the family is out, I let them run around the lounge room where they really are able to leap and jump and run. I took some photos this afternoon of them. I've put a text on the photos - really for the grandkids.

Myers Street

2011-11-27T02:14:00.000-08:00

from w
Some photos taken in nearby Myers Street East Geelong, and one of them is fractalized (if that's a word) and it's how I feel when I'm frazzled by too much going on in life as at the moment! One of the gimmicks using Gimp is called 'Cartoon' and it flattens the shapes and suits the effect I want - the one of the skyline is done this way. I can't find the other pictures I made this way - as they're lost somewhere in My Documents which is used by about six people in the household and they're are in the middle of a hundred downloads of music and so on.

Shopping in a mad world

2011-11-26T22:27:00.001-08:00

from w
This isn't Geelong but it could be any kind of city in the Christmas or post Christmas shopping season. Crazy world we live in. All for an X-box. I dislike going into town this time of the year because of all the trashy items for sale that have nothing to do with the 'real meaning' of Christmas, which is actually about humility, poverty, and the birth of a special child. Expensive presents are really to do with sale pitches and the economy, not about spirituality and kindness.

An American woman who pepper-sprayed other shoppers during US holiday sales so she could get an Xbox video game console at a deep discount has turned herself in.

The woman surrendered at a police station following the incident late on Thursday (local time), which left at least 10 people injured on the biggest shopping day of the year in the US.

Her name has not been released but she has been described as being in her 30s.

"The investigation is still ongoing," said Los Angeles Police Department spokesman Bruce Borihahn, adding that the woman's name and eventual charges filed against her would be made public at a later time.

"We have several victims and witnesses that need to be interviewed to determine what appropriate actions need to be taken."

In Thursday's incident at a Walmart store in the Porter Ranch neighbourhood, the woman - trying to take advantage of low "doorbuster" prices on the Xbox console - turned a can of mace on other shoppers as the store opened late at night.

The woman was able to purchase the Xbox and leave the store before police arrived.
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from the Geelong Advertiser:
Aussies set to spend $25bn on Christmas
27 November 2011 By Lema Samandar

RETAILERS are more optimistic about sales in the lead-up to Christmas this year amid predictions of another interest rate drop. Australian National Retailers Association CEO Margy Osmond said that over the next four weeks, Australians are set to spend nearly $25 billion. That's more $1000 a day for each person and a four per cent rise in spending from last year.

"The difference between this Christmas and last Christmas is that we've had a decrease in interest rates," Ms Osmond told reporters in Sydney on Sunday. "Last christmas the RBA put rates up just before Christmas and it killed it stone dead. This year I think people are feeling a little more comfortable. There's not any doubt that another interest rate cut will be right up the top of the Santa list of just about every retailer in the country." Ms Osmond said consumers would be looking for "experiences" among their gifts. "People are going to be buying lots of vouchers this year," she said. "It could be anything from a hot air balloon ride to a massage."

According to forecasts, this Christmas will also bring good news for department stores.

A survey by the retailers association found that about 35 per cent of Australians expect to shop in-store at a discount department store, while almost a third indicated they will shop at traditional department stores. About 13 per cent of people will choose to shop online, up 1 per cent from last year.

Foreign Affairs

2011-11-15T22:10:00.000-08:00

from the Telegraph
In Obama's company, Gillard looks like she's won a date with George Clooney. Their encounters, the respectful gazes as the other speaks, the touches of familiarity, stand to bestow her with a statesmanship she may have lacked until now.

Obama does charisma like an actor breezing through an audition for a role he's already got. Like Clinton, his various styles of handshake merit a collection. Two hands for ladies, for example, head jutted forward, smile engaged. Or he applies the Mark Latham vigour - without the menace.

Of course, he's a honey compared with 'what's his name.from w
Smiling now, so Foreign Affairs in now a nice cup of Earl Grey tea for Julia. She once said that Foreign Affairs just wasn't interesting. Not that every Aussie is happy about USA bases in Australia! What does this development imply for our relationship with our near-north neighbours eh?

From the BBC
Barack Obama in Australia: Military ties on agenda

The two countries have a decades-long security alliance

US President Barack Obama has arrived in Australia for a visit expected to focus on strengthening military ties. During an address to parliament on Thursday, he is expected to outline plans for the US to gain greater access to Australian military bases.

He will also become the first sitting leader to visit Darwin, which is likely to see a boosted US military presence.

Correspondents say the US sees Australia as a key regional ally, a counter to China's growing presence. The visit comes as the two countries mark a 60-year security alliance.

He was greeted in the capital Canberra by Prime Minister Julia Gillard.

After talks, he and Ms Gillard will give a joint news conference and then have dinner together.

Mr Obama's speech to parliament on Thursday is expected to be the key engagement of his visit. He is expected to set out plans for a greater US presence in the region.

Jonathan Marcus
BBC Diplomatic Correspondent
Long a close ally of Washington, Australia is set to take on a growing strategic importance for the US as Mr Obama seeks to pivot America's foreign policy away from the wider Middle East towards the Asia-Pacific region as a whole.

Australia approaches China with a degree of ambivalence. Beijing is Australia's biggest trading partner. But China's growing military reach is seen as at least a potential threat for the future.

In his speech to parliament Mr Obama will set out his vision of a new Pacific century. A subsequent trip to Darwin on Australia's north coast will symbolise the enhanced military relationship between the two countries.

It is an attempt to offset Chinese influence and to ensure that Beijing's "soft power" remains just that and does not spill over into military assertiveness.

Later in Darwin, he will visit a memorial to honour US and Australian soldiers killed during World War II.

It will be the first visit to Darwin by a US leader.

Reports say that while Mr Obama is there, the two sides will announce more joint training exercises in the Northern Territory and increased US access to Australian bases.

Australian Defence Minister Stephen Smith said expanding co-operation was an "important, practical" step.

"What we have in contemplation is greater utilisation of access to facilities, greater training, greater exercises. It will effectively be a continuation and expansion of what we currently do," he told Australia's ABC News.

Mr Obama has twice cancelled visits to Australia in the past - in March 2010 as he worked to pass healthcare reform legislation and then in June the same year amid the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

After his stop in Darwin, Mr Obama flies to Indonesia for a summit of Asian leaders.

Black pen, white paint

2011-11-15T21:57:00.000-08:00

from w
Feeling a bit dismal today with a sore throat. I mainly kept a low profile after only an hour at Donation in Kind finding great books e.g. Ondaaje (spelling?) to send in boxes to overseas schools - by sitting around the lounge room adding white paint and black pen to some sketches I did some time ago. One of the beach at Anglesea, the other of a bend in the Werribee River below a golf club.

Waiting at bridges

2011-11-13T18:17:00.000-08:00

from w
Waiting at bridges - life is often about making decisions and as we waver or act impulsively the consequences are sometimes major. These days I dither a bit more, weighting consequences, imagining the negative, and then not acting at all. But life certainly is about taking the road ahead. I like the saying in the picture - something I probably found on a facebook post but don't really remember! I must go now to catch a bus - to buy a ream of paper to print out someone's memoir I'm helping with.

Then I just realized that fifty years ago (!) when I was twenty-three - in November 1961, I decided to go to Fiji on a Methodist Work Camp. I'd already planned to go with some young art teachers to Europe, especially Paris where we planned to paint and explore the art world there. However I was invited by a senior layman from a Bendigo church to go on a three week workcamp to a place I had barely heard of and jumped at the chance. I'd completed my compulsory three year stint at teaching at Bendigo High School. And from then on I became a teacher in Fiji and there were many bridges to cross after that! I guess we all make either hasty or calculated decisions which alter the direction of our lives. Fate, chance, a set path? I think it's a bit of a mystery and God is in this somehow.

Queenscliff and fish and chips

2011-11-12T17:47:00.001-08:00

from w
Yesterday we drove down to Queenscliff, a pleasant little town half an hour's drive from Geelong. They have their own Council - a kind of snobbery perhaps? Lovely old hotels, plenty of boats, access to a ferry that goes over to Sorrento, and the best fish and chips shop opposite the beach parkland. We bought some fresh mussels also which I cooked today. Anyway, we made drawings of one of the lighthouses there and noticed there were a couple of dozen people fishing from rocks below us. Also a couple in the car near us were eating their fish and chips and the seagulls were investigating and hoping for a bite or two. We used to visit Queenscliff occasionally as guests of the Military guys at the Fort - at the time when Fijian soldiers did a short course there. Not these days though after coups and suchlike.

Queenscliff has sentimental value for me also as my grandparents brought their children to Queenscliff every January for a holiday - by boat from Melbourne. Also Grandad was in the Victorian Navy at one time working on a torpedo boat they say. Also my Dad worked for a short time on the couta boats in Queenscliff when he was seventeen until he decided that working with wool was to be his career instead of the sea.

I was given a letter from my grandfather Charles Lay to his girl in Melbourne, Francis. November 1893 probably when he was in the Victorian Navy. Signed 'hotheaded lover'! They did marry and my father George Lay was one of their children.

Keeping pets

2011-11-10T11:27:00.000-08:00

from w
Well it seemed a good idea at the time, for our little grand-daughter to have a pet - not a horse that she wished for, but at least it's a creature to care for. A guinea pig which they named Izzie after the Hawaiian chap that sings 'Somewhere over the rainbow' with a ukelele. Well, Izzie got along fine, but was very shy. We'd take him out to the back yard to eat real grass and he'd start to sing a bit. When he saw a youtube guinea pig queeking, he'd join in. Then the family decided they wanted a companion for Izzie so this week a black bunny was purchased and joined the family. He hopped and smelt everything and the two got along, sort of. Izzie got quite excited at first and squealed and queeked a treat but Ozzie wasn't too interested in Izzie. Both boys by the way. One black. One white with a bit or ranga. Now they sort of get along, eat grass, carrots, celery, cucumber, etc.together. But, who has to clean out the cage? Hmm. Most members of our family of nine aren't so keen on that part of the bargain. Anyway, most people in the household appreciate the new guests though one of us reckons Izzie is too much like a rat for her to ever touch him!

Giving to the poor but

2011-11-09T21:29:00.001-08:00

from w
I think about this sort of thing often, about altruism, giving to the poor, band-aiding society,to 'live simply that others may simply live' - that kind of thing. But there is something more and that's when we need to ask questions about our society and what has gone wrong in the world. Then when we protest - verbally or physically (though I don't stand up in demonstrations these days) we may be labelled communists, anarchists, do-good Christians, bleeding hearts, bludgers with nothing else to do. Yet someone HAS GOT TO ask questions about the reasons for poverty. This pic and comment was posted on a facebook page.

Collages

2011-11-03T22:13:00.001-07:00

from w
By overlapping two images I made some new pictures - mainly of the mandorla (overlapping circles) pictures. They get complex and messy at times and hard on the eyes perhaps.

A single flower

2011-11-03T22:06:00.001-07:00

from w
I was surprised and delighted to find a single bloom on an ugly castus kind of plant. Then when I visited a place where the gang were cleaning an old restaurant I saw a hundred such blooms on a plant. I'd had been happy with the gift of one flower, then I was jealous of that huge bunch of flowers! I guess we are never satisfied when we see the achievements of other people and compare them with our own!

Melbourne Cup

2011-10-31T21:10:00.001-07:00

from w
A lot of people get excited about a horse race but I like horses to be in the countryside and the whole shamozzle of the racing season is rather gormless I think. It's on the TV at present but I don't really care who wins.
----Later: actually it was a French horse that won, who had won the Geelong Cup last week. Only won by less than a nose.

To Footscray

2011-10-30T23:07:00.001-07:00

from w
Yesterday our Port Phillip West Presbytery had a function at Footscray Uniting Church as a celebration of being a church of many cultures. So there was singing by groups of migrants who had come to Australia from South Sudan, Indonesia, Philippines, Tonga, Korea and other places. The Sudanese sang accompanied by two loud drums and the Korean singers were great, with a keyboard and guitar. We met old friends and made new friends. We were surprised to meet a couple who we'd known thirty years ago! Bernie and Marion Dunn. Bernie was once the resident policeman of Hopetoun who played a very cool trumpet those days! It was a very interesting church service and was followed by a delicious feast with food from many cultures. Peceli and I represented the Fiji community but our Fiji folk didn't bring along a choir. Maybe next time.

Symbols and mandorlas

2011-10-27T20:13:00.000-07:00

from w,
When I was looking for pictures of mandalas for a church powerpoint project for next Sunday, I came across some down-loaded images of my mandorla paintings. A mandala is based on circles and a mandorla is based on two circles that overlap and this is a medieval symbol they say of the liminal space between opposites such as 'heaven' and 'earth'. A shape like an almond. Other use of symbols I used were an opal - a gem that is very Australian, and then I used different colours to represent earth, water, fire. However I don't think the folk in my home church would be much interested in these pictures. I've added a few other mandorla images found on google. One explanation of the mandorla as a Christian symbol is that Jesus is the man and Christ is the savior; the Mandorla is the point of Christ--the integration of Divinity (God the Father) and Jesus the man. I think this is an interesting concept. Also I am convinced that there are moments in life that are very special and where there is grace that is in such contrast to the mundane ordinariness of life i.e. between 'heaven' and 'earth'.

The launch of the Diversitat Hub

2011-10-26T12:40:00.001-07:00

from w
Yesterday hundreds of people gathered at the site in North Geelong where once new migrants stayed in Nissun huts. Peceli and I went to the opening of the Hub which will be the focus for welcoming and training migrants and refugees to Geelong. A politician Simon Creen did the honours with a fine speech, a jazz band played - (students of one of Diversitat's music courses at the Pulse community radio station), and we were given a delicious lunch of barbecue and a variety of ethnic foods. We've been involved in the Geelong Migrant Resource Centre/now called Diversitat for many years and there are now 47 ethnic groups affiliated with this organisation which promotes multiculturalism in Australia. One of the photos shows the dignitories at the event: Pictured above at the Community Hub opening, from left to right: Mr Michael Martinez, CEO Diversitat, Darren Cheeseman MP, Member for Corangamite, Mr Chin Tan, Chairperson, Victorian Multicultural Commission, Dr Linda Sydor Petkovic, former Victorian Multicultural Commission, John Mitchell, Mayor, City of Greater Geelong, Simon Crean, Commonwealth Minister for Regional Australian Development and Local Government, John Eren MP, Member for Lara, Bridgette Carey, Project/Sponsorship Manager, Diversitat.

The Queen and her handbag

2011-10-24T14:41:00.000-07:00

from w
We rarely see elderly women wearing block colour coat-dresses with buttons that never do up, hats that are not for warmth or to keep off the glaring sun, gloves, and carrying a shiny handbag these days. Our Australian women have a bit more informality. So what's in the Queen's handbag when she doesn't seem to need extra cash or a credit card? I am sorry that her 'look' is so old-fashioned because she could spruce up a treat with interesting skirts and tops and a mirror-work bag from India. And gloves are only for the deepest cold of winter surely! Also, she's hardly 'Commonwealth' in look. Okay, that's my whinge for today. She's in Australia and there are trips here and there for the Queen as well as the Chogm meet in Perth.

I found this article on-line which explains a few things.

Secrets of the Queen's handbag revealed in new book
10 OCTOBER 2007

She's rarely seen without an elegant handbag on her arm, but the question of what the Queen keeps inside it has long remained a mystery. Now a new book claims to shed light on the contents of the royal matriarch's main accessory. It also gives a fascinating insight into the routines and habits of her everyday life, including what she has for breakfast and the care arrangements for her beloved corgis.

What's In The Queen's Handbag: And Other Royal Secrets reveals that though the 81-year-old monarch doesn't carry cash, keys or a passport - since she doesn't own one - her bag is far from empty. Inside are a collection of good luck charms given to her by her children, including miniature dogs, horses and saddles, plus family snaps. The most treasured of which is a photo of Prince Andrew on his safe return from the Falklands in 1982.

Also inside the tote is a make-up case, given to her by Prince Philip as a wedding gift 60 years ago. It also houses an s-shaped metal meat hook which she places on the edge of the dinner table, from which to suspends her handbag, keeping it off the floor.

Other secrets shared in the book include the canny sign language she uses to communicate with her staff. If she places her handbag on the table at a dinner it signifies she wishes the event to finish in the next five minutes, whereas its presence on the floor indicates she feels the conversation leaves a little to be desired and she wants to be rescued by a lady-in-waiting.
--------
Now the Queen did look nice in bright pink for her day in Melbourne - a lovely colour and a good way to catch attention. I wonder though about the tram ride. She is an elderly lady, so what if she had slipped in climbing up and down. Buses have ramps for elderly people, but do trams?

trying out Gimp

2011-10-24T05:36:00.000-07:00

from w
Gimp is a difficult kind of image program and I forget to save in jpeg images so I'm not getting far. Picasa is much more comfortable. Here are a few images I made - jungle kind of scenes which started off as a few photos of a palm tree in a friend's backyard - far away from a real jungle.

Parties all the weekend

2011-10-23T02:05:00.000-07:00

from w
Yesterday our Fiji Friendship Club families had a barbecue and kava at lunchtime, then another party in the evening was at our home with guests from Melbourne, then today we hired a minibus for the nine of us and drove to a very beautiful area of Victoria called Greendale (where they made that film about the pig and the spider 'Charlotte's Web'). Tonight the gang are watching All Blacks playing France and the kava is flowing again. The party at Greendale was particularly lovely with a kind of family reunion - several generations of my side of the family, good food and conversation and fun in the dam for kids and some adults - boats and a flying fox.

Leunig says it all

2011-10-21T22:17:00.000-07:00

from w
Today's cartoon in the Age supplement is by Michael Leunig who often provides a whimsical look on life, at other times is harder hitting. This one is rather good - as we all get annoyed by the spam mail offering us millions etc. etc. Click on picture to see large enough to read the words.

Fractals

2011-10-16T22:36:00.001-07:00

from w
The other day I walked down Myers Street taking photos of fences, roof-tops, flowering shrubs and so on. From the images I played around with 'fractal' using Gimp, a program I am not very comfortable with but my son said it's very good and he had installed it. My photo-edit program got deleted one time and photo-shop was only for four weeks. So here are some results by overlapping images but using some images that have been fractalled - if there's such a word! The results are more surreal that ordinary!

Art Nouveau

2011-10-16T17:14:00.000-07:00

from w
Perhaps I really belong in a past century as the kind of art I really like is Art Nouveau - from about 1890 to 1910 - the flat shapes, the romanticism, the shifts from nature to people, the curved lines, Klimp, Beardsley, book-plates of that time, stained glass. They seemed to be influenced by Japanese art as well as a kind of looking back to Camelot. Mostly they drew women, not men. Last week I picked up a book on Art Nouveau that was being recycled and perhaps I'll give it back again but not to the dumpster. Even the architect Gaudi is classified as 'art nouveau'.

Fiji Day in Melbourne

2011-10-10T20:19:00.000-07:00

from w
Our Geelong Fiji Friendship Club members took a minibus up to Melbourne to Moorabbin Rugby Ground on Saturday for the Fiji Day celebration. The main guest was Ro Teimumu Kepa, a high chief from Rewa Fiji, a lady of distinction, intelligence and grace who had stood up to the military regime with courage in a situation when the Methodist Church had planned their Annual Conference to be in her chiefly village. Alas, it didn't happen. Anyway she visited Melbourne this weekend.

Also on Saturday there were rugby matches, stalls with delicious Island food, formal ceremonies and the children had a jumping castle.

On Sunday we went up to Melbourne again for the Fiji Day ecumenical church service at St Joseph's, Malvern, as guests of the Melbourne Fiji Catholic community. It was a beautiful Mass to which all were invited to take the Sacrament, something which does not happen often. A beautiful feast followed in their church hall. Peceli and I were thinking of some of our close friends from Labasa who belonged to the Catholic Church back in Fiji, and felt this was a great reconciliation day as Methodists seem to keep their own culture to themselves. So there was modern-day singing to a band as well as acapella four part singing and most of the service was in Fijian and English. Peceli is the 'minister of the gaps' it seems, as someone didn't turn up so he had to do the final prayer and blessing, which he did in English, Hindi and Fijian, a nice conclusion.

There are more photos on the babasiga blog, some photos are from a friend Va who posted them on facebook.

The Geelong Cats

2011-10-07T05:08:00.000-07:00

from w
I suppose I really ought to say something about football here in Geelong as the town has been jumping with delight over winning the premiership. Blue and white flags are still everywhere and a huge bunfight was held down at the Waterfront to celebrate - with thousands of people cheering on their idols. Okay, now footie season is over for a few weeks. Phew!

A tall ship in Geelong

2011-10-03T03:39:00.000-07:00

from w
It was a beautiful sunny day so we took two of the grandchildren down to the Waterfront and saw the Enterprize, a replica of a schooner built in about 1820s. We were allowed to wander all over it, even down to the galley so I took some photos. There are also two photos I've reposted taken by other people. The Waterfront was alive with families making the most of the school holidays. The Enterprize sets sail occasionally for hour-long trips but they are a bit expensive. Go to website for more information - http://www.enterprize.com.au.

Colac - a lake, a church, and Botanical Gardens

2011-09-28T14:27:00.000-07:00

from w
Recently we were in Colac, an hour's drive from Geelong, and it appears to be a thriving town, set on a huge lake with waves that ripple as if it is the ocean. We discovered a magnificent Botanical Gardens there near the lake (designed I think by the same man who set up the Geelong Botanical Gardens).

We also attended a funeral in one of the most beautiful modern churches I have seen, St Mary's, built in 1980 with a ceiling like a huge sunburst using beams radiating from the centre. My camera battery conked out so I couldn't take photos of inside the church as I wished - not that it's really polite to wave a camera around during the funeral of an elderly lady! But I found two photos on the internet. The outside shows a plain kind of building but inside it is full of space, light, and colour and some low-set windows with small stained glass inserts allow us to see the grass, trees and nearby lake. Way to go, different from the overdecorated neo-Gothic style where you kind-of hide from the real world.

To acknowledge the beauty of Australian landscape is important and on Monday I was delighted to meet an Australian gem of a writer, Bruce Prewer, at a meeting I was making cups of tea for. Bruce inspires us with his rewrites of psalms, his poems, his prayers to see religious faith using Australian metaphors and symbols.

Winchelsea town

2011-09-26T18:57:00.000-07:00

from w
The other day we drove to Colac to attend a funeral of Peceli's artist friend's partner, an elderly lady. On the way we stopped for a pie and cappuccino at the lovely little town of Winchelsea, walked along the river near the old bridge, did sketches and took photos. As in many small rural towns there are 'icons' on display that refer to the agricultural history of the area, old wheels and so on. From our location in Geelong there are so many places for picnics, walks, and delightful landscapes and we are really blessed. The countryside is so green at present which gives us optimism for the future of people on the land.

My conservative side is showing

2011-09-24T18:49:00.000-07:00

from w
Yesterday's Age had a full page advertisement from a 'church' that used to be a fine place of worship corner of Collins and Russell Street Melbourne. Used for the Uniting Church conferences at one time, but these days the shift to 'humanism' from being 'Christian' puts them on the fringe of conservative Christian values. Life is meant to be lived well - I can go along with that, but Francis McNab, the elderly leader there, psychologist and minister, has thrown out nearly all of the 'traditional' Christian beliefs. To take out a full page in the Age is provocative of course and will appeal to many people who want to be modern. Okay, that's alright to examine Biblical stories, the magic in some of them, but I am convinced that McNab has gone too far with his 'New Faith' because it isn't faith at all, but a diminishing of the spiritual in the world to just secular. A couple of years ago he astonished many of us when his group put a billboard across a major road proclaiming that the Old Testament Commandents were terrifying and negative. It's okay I think in a discussion group to ask questions, but it is bad manners to do this and to poke fun of the historical story of Christian faith.

I wonder who paid for the advertisement which surely would have been about $14,000 for a full page in the Saturday supplement! And apparently not once but four times.

Now, I've been told, that to go to St Michael's Uniting Church on a Sunday morning, there is little to indicate heresy - there are hymns, Bible readings, organ recitals, and so on, so the text of the advertisement promoting the New Faith is inconsistent with what their worship indicates. It's a puzzlement, as someone says in a musical!

landscapes around Geelong

2011-09-20T01:20:00.001-07:00

from w
The dinner is cooked and I have fifteen minutes while the adults are drinking Fiji kava with visitors and the children are playing basketball in the backyard. So I can put some sketches on this blog. I added a bit of light pastel to these pictures I made when we had a barbecue in the You Yangs and another time drove in the Barrabool Hills.

A thank you party

2011-09-17T02:55:00.000-07:00

from w
Though the day started off with fog and the weather forecast said 'rain early afternoon', we were blessed with a sunny day for our backyard lovo (Fijian underground oven) as a thank you to many friends who have been kind to us over the past year. At last our son's family of five have their visas to stay in Australia and we wanted to thank a number of people by cooking chickens, dalo, pork in the Fijian way. We had about fifty people here - lots of children, old friends, and newer friends. A lovely occasion.

Richmond sketches

2011-09-11T03:51:00.000-07:00

from w
While we were in Melbourne we did some sketches in Church Street Richmond - a view from the hotel window - spire of a church and the apartment next door where there was a false fire alarm, a nearby building typical of the 1880s, a doorway, the front verandah of the Richmond Hill Hotel. I used pens and pencils and the drawings are a bit rough. We needed time to explore more but only did sketches where there was a seat nearby!

The streets of Richmond

2011-09-10T21:28:00.000-07:00

from w
Peceli and I stayed at the Richmond Hill Hotel in Melbourne Friday night. It was time for a brief holiday and a chance to be able to explore the streets where my grandmother lived 130 years ago and where we had spent many Sundays at the Richmond Uniting Church for Fijian services over the years. We wanted to see the changes. The RUC was looking good with nice green paint. It's a simpler building than the Anglican and Catholic churches higher up the hill.

The place we stayed at is about 3 star, quite okay, people friendly, but a bit noisy at night with fire alarms going off in the apartment next door and huge fire trucks arriving! We put on clothes and false teeth and ran down the rabbit warren passages and five lots of stairs to have a sticky-beak. False alarm. Back upstairs, a radio clock alarm went off, then later music like mandolins came wafting down from the ceiling! Ghosts of girls when the place was a YWCA hostel for working girls in the 1880s perhaps!

The old houses in Church Street are mostly renovated and looking good, the shops in Bridge Road were alive with clients and young people (it's football of course - Geelong versus Hawthorn) and also rugby on TV in the pubs. Small single fronted cottages in parts of Richmond, once for working people, would now be sold for about $800,000. Amazing!

I took a photo of the RUC manse with the references to Papua New Guinea for the time our dear friend Rev Aminiasi was there. We had a good laugh when we saw that the peppercorn tree in the compound was alive and well. Once upon a time Peceli's car got hemmed in when someone locked up the gate near the manse and we couldn't get out except by driving over a little peppercorn tree about half a foot high. Isa lei the trouble it caused. We got a bill for $33 for a replacement. Heaven's sake - one peppercorn seed! I don't think we ever coughed up. Anyway there's a tree thriving there now.

But there's one kind of building - from maybe the 1860s - that I find really spooky and horrible - the heavy stone double storey mansions that would be good as the set of a movie where weird things happen. I always wonder what secrets these dark wall could tell.

Family birthday - Margaret (Napier)

2011-09-10T20:32:00.000-07:00

from w.
Yesterday Peceli and I were happy to participate in a celebration of the 80th birthday party of my cousin Margaret (Napier) so these pictures are for our extended family on the Lay side. Margaret is the daughter of Norma, my father's sister. It was a lovely afternoon with about fifty to sixty friends and close relatives of Margaret, and held at the Bruce County Hotel in Pinewood - which is near Mt Waverley. An excellent venue, fine food and easy conversation. Family connections don't happen a lot these days so it is important to catch up and remember the good times in our childhood and early years when relatives saw one another more often.

Young Geelong artists

2011-09-05T20:04:00.001-07:00

EYE-CATCHING: Visitors enjoy local art on show in the former Dimmey's building. Photo: TONY KERRIGAN
The Butterfly Installation by Taegan Roberts at The Youth Art Exhibition Titled 'Peel Your Eyes'
from w
Nice to see the initiative of Geelong's young artists to use some of the empty spaces in the CBD of Geelong, such as this one at the former Dimmey's site.

Young Geelong artists make the most of empty retail space

| September 6th, 2011
TALENTED young Geelong artists are breathing new life into an empty space in Malop St. Peel Your Eyes, a youth art exhibition run by not-for-profit initiative SUB, is on at the former Dimmey's building until September 16. The three-level exhibition features hanging installations, video presentations, sculptures and photography by 53 local artists.

The exhibition also features a UV light installation that can only be seen at night.

Stephanie Tribe from SUB said the exhibition was a great way for local artists to show their work. Ms Tribe said the Courthouse Arts supported exhibition was the first of its kind since Geelong-based youth initiative SUB was formed in April.

One view:
"What a fantastic initiative. With the success of this event it clearly demonstrates that there is a market for this and more should be done to encourage cultural type programs. Encouraging youth, education and culture will drive the change in the CBD."
Rob

Peel Your Eyes is on daily from noon-8pm until September 16.

Some recent drawings of You Yangs

2011-09-05T02:34:00.000-07:00

from w
I took a sketchbook with me last week, one a drive to the Barrabool Hills area and on Saturday to the You Yangs. They were quick, not detailed and on A4 size pages. Apparently this year is International Year of Forests and that is certainly a good thing. There are many beautiful places in the vicinity of Geelong - just a drive of twenty minutes and there is green countryside, hills, forests.

Exploring the Youyangs

2011-09-04T01:07:00.001-07:00

from w
These hills rise out of the plain and are in a national park reserve but visitors are allowed - if they keep to the tracks and picnic grounds. After the rains of winter everything is lush and green and ten of us in two cars spend much of yesterday there - as a Father's Day outing - a day early - with a barbecue and a hike up to the top of Flinders Peak for eight of us. A delightful day.

Poor Julia

2011-09-02T17:27:00.000-07:00

It seems to be a non-win time for Julia. Nothing going right for her.

Farewell Bec

2011-08-31T00:32:00.000-07:00

from w
There are heroes that are famous people, and in Geelong, it usually is about sport, but also there are heroes that are courageous people who live with grace and humour no matter the kicks that life gives them. Such a person was Rebecca (Bec) Carter who died aged 31 this week. What a wonderful girl she has been, an inspiration. Many days we do see people who are confronted with tragedy or really bad health issues, and we admire them because of their courage.

from the Geelong Advertiser:
Farewell brave Bec

| August 27th, 2011

BEC Carter was a medical one-off but to family, friends and almost the entire Geelong community, it was her magical, positive personality that was the real one-off. The Lara resident was born with a congenital disease so rare it was named after her.

She spent many months at Geelong Hospital, with a liver transplant and heart, stomach and hip surgery though she was always positive and selflessly concerned for others.

On Thursday afternoon, at age 31, she passed away at peace with her extra-ordinary life.

Her father Graham said to know Bec was to love her. "She had an amazing personality, she was bright and bubbly and outgoing," he said. "Bec you were an inspiration to all those who knew you. You endured more in your life then anyone should have to. You were a true fighter right to the end. Thanks for all the memories. GO CATS!!"

"She always thought about others. When she was waiting for a liver transplant she was given 24 hours to live. A donor became available and she said 'But what if someone needs it more than I do?'

"We were very proud of her. She was an inspiration, she touched that many people I don't think she even realised herself how many."

Mr Carter said despite the happy face, his only child had never lived a day without pain, and in the end she was exhausted. "A good day for Bec would be a crappy day for anyone else. She had gone through a lot of terrible things and we tended to think she would just keep going but she was tired," he said.

Described as one of the Geelong Football Club's biggest fans, Bec struck up a warm friendship with Cats onballer Joel Corey after he visited her in hospital about five years ago. A regular visitor to the Carter home, Corey often referred to Bec as his 'inspiration' in player profiles. At the request of her family, the Cats onballer, who has already been ruled out of today's game against Sydney, visited Bec in her final hours and was too emotional to speak to the Geelong Advertiser yesterday.

Bec's love of the Cats was on full display recently when she moved into her specially-designed house, revealing to friends and family at her housewarming a blue and white bedroom.

Seeing her parents in their own home was on her list of accomplishments, worried that her medical bills would rob them of the Australian dream.

And a surprise visit from packaging company tne owners Alf and Nadia Taylor on the television show Secret Millionaire in 2010 saw it turn to reality. Mrs Taylor described their ongoing friendship with the Carters a privilege. "Fond and loving memories we will always have of (Bec), her big smile, her infectious magnetic personality, her cheering of her favourite team," Mrs Taylor said. "(Her) amazing zest for life will always be with us."

Also on her list was a Cats premiership.

Friend and former club president Frank Costa said Bec was one of the true believers who had retained faith in the Cats during the pre-2007 premiership drought. He believed her fervent support of the team had kept her going through many tough times. "She lit Geelong Hospital up, the place used to buzz and everyone loved her," Mr Costa said. "She was a real example of leading a full and happy life and not worrying about the little things. She will be sorely missed but her memory will live on." Mr Costa said the team would be thinking of Bec during today's game, while she will be cheering louder than ever from above.

anthea.cannon@geelongadvertiser.com.au

A red kelpie

2011-08-24T04:14:00.000-07:00

from w
One of my favourites of the canines is the red kelpie. One of my brothers raised them, some of our farmer friends in the Mallee bred them. They are fine, intelligent, hard-working farm dogs. Well, tonight Peceli and I went to the movies to see 'Red Dog' and it was a captivating film, very Australian, and surprising to see a mining town celebrated by the story of a dog! I wonder how many kelpies they used to make this film because the dog certainly was the star. A great story from a novel by a fine writer, de Berniers.

Here is one review from a West Australian paper.

Red Dog (PG) 4 stars

Koko the dog, Josh Lucas, Rachael Taylor, Luke Ford, Noah Taylor

Director: Kriv Stenders

You'll like this if you liked The Black Stallion, The Adventures of Priscilla: Queen of the Desert, Amelie, Ratatouille, Marley and Me.

Early on in this adaptation of Louis de Bernieres 1970s-set novel celebrating the life and times of the famed four- legged Pilbara traveller there's a wonderfully droll exchange that nails the appeal of Red Dog - and, more importantly, captures the magic of this deceptively canny, visually striking movie.

A truckie named Thomas (played by Luke Ford) who has just rolled into Dampier is stunned to find the community distraught over a dying dog in the back of a pub. He's not just any dog, the publican named Jack says, he's Red Dog, "probably the most famous dog in all of Australia".

Thomas, thinking he's heard of Red Dog, asks if he was the one who warned about the fire or the one who saved a child's life. But Noah Taylor's Jack snaps: "No, no, no: you're looking at it all wrong. It's not what he did. It's who he was . . . is, I mean."

In other words, Red Dog has passed into WA folklore not because he performed extraordinary feats.

Indeed, his legendary travels, which are said to have taken him as far south as Cottesloe beach and as far north as Japan, are as much a product of liquored-up imaginations and tall-tale telling as eyewitness accounts.
Rather, the itinerant red cloud kelpie was cherished by the Pilbara community during the first WA mining boom, said the filmmakers, because everyone he encountered projected on to the feisty, stubborn son-of-a-bitch their own determination to survive in unbelievably harsh conditions. He symbolised their oddball situation and their scrappy natures.

Outdoor art in Whittington

2011-08-22T22:05:00.001-07:00

from w
One part of Geelong, not noted for its high-class art environment as it's a suburb which people put down, however, has an excellent garden space with sculptures by Aboriginal artists, mainly wooden poles. Here are some of the work.

The shock of the Block auction

2011-08-21T14:58:00.000-07:00

four cottages in Richmond, Melbourne before the renovation.
from w
It's hardly a laugh a minute program - one of the 'reality' programs, but 'The Block' has been a popular TV program, this time involving the renovation of four adjacent very small houses in a street in Richmond, a Melbourne suburb, once thriving with factories and cottages and mansions. My grandmother, Francis Hillman was a child in a cottage like one of these when her father was a tailor in Flinders Lane in the 1880s. Hardly the kind of house-block I would like but Richmond is an interesting suburb with excellent Chinese/Vietnamese cafes and shops and the kind of old mansions that look as if they have secrets inside.

Okay, the auction. Well, this was a laugh a minute, with the reserve prices about $850,000 and more and hardly a murmur of a bid. How crazy - these little houses with no car ports and no sense of community identity - well, there goes the neighbourhood I suppose - each for his own. With the cost of the renovation, there's NO profit to be made as THREE of the four houses did not get the right bids and were passed in. That makes the program a bit of a fizzer. As was said on the Geelong radio this morning - Bay FM - you could do a program in Geelong for a quarter of the cost! We do not have tiny houses for $900,000 here!

Meanwhile some Melbourne owners of property in Geelong seem intent on wrecking what we have here. One fine restaurant has to close because the owner puts up the rent 15% thinking an old bluestone building not too far from the waterfront is so great! A supermarket in Whittington was closed not long ago because the Melbourne owner put up the rent too high for the supermarket to continue. Money matters have taken over from human values it seems.
----------
some comments from the media before the auction:

THE production company behind Channel 9's DIY renovation hit, The Block, is set to take a financial hit from the sale of the show's houses. The four properties in Cameron St, Richmond, will be auctioned on August 20, with agents quoting $800,000 to $880,000 for the three single-fronted residences. The double-fronted property renovated by Melbourne's Josh and Jenna is being advertised for $900,000 to $990,000.

Watercress Productions paid about $950,000 each for the dilapidated Victorian and Edwardian houses, including stamp duty.

The four couples have each spent more than $100,000 renovating the properties, though that fails to take into account the second storey added to the single-fronted houses, which would have cost upwards of $200,000, pushing their cost to around $1.25 million each.

Advantage Property Consulting's Frank Valentic said that once holding costs were taken into account, each house would need to raise between $1.3 million and $1.4 million to break even.

"There is no way they are worth that," Mr Valentic said. "It's definitely not what I would call a profitable renovation syndicate. But Channel 9 has paid a premium for their TV ratings."

Biggin Scott Richmond director Russell Cambridge, who is selling Polly and Waz's property at 37 Cameron St, said Watercress paid above the market rate to secure four properties side by side in fashionable Richmond.

"An inflated purchase price was paid to get all four properties in a row," he said.

Breakwater bridge too far away

2011-08-14T21:31:00.000-07:00

from w
The huge undertaking to build a new bridge at Breakwater is going well and now part of the new bridge spans the Barwon River. The new bridge will be a fine landmark for Geelong. Peceli and I went for a walk along the river to see the progress and also to stroll onto Peceli's golf course - Barwon Valley which lost a bit of land with the bridge project. The fairways are green and lovely, not like in the drought years.

late autumn leaves

2011-08-13T08:26:00.001-07:00

from w
Sometimes when I'm doing my exercise walk - or on an errand to help someone with a computer problem, I pick up leaves and feathers and small things on the footpath, a habit from childhood. This time I put some on the scanner and then made some images. No titles though they started off as almost dead leaves from a tree that occasionally bears lovely fruit - locuts I think.

Geelong is multicultural and that's good

2011-08-10T20:06:00.001-07:00

from w
Away from the mayhem of other cities in the world, Geelong is a peaceful city that celebrates diversity and this morning the City Council launches an action plan as a multicultural city with many guests from ethnic groups, religious leaders, interfaith people, Diversitat and as prime guest, Ted Baillieu with hordes of huge cameras hogging the spaces for a short time. Here are some photos I took this morning such as signing a mandala, a hip-hop group Agaist Racism, international students, and so on. Peceli, Jordan our grandson and I went to the gig.

You fill up my senses

2011-08-10T15:51:00.000-07:00

from w
Well, Tuesday night here was Census night and we filled in our form on-line for eight people. The questions were mainly about jobs, money, nothing really about are we happy or not, do we feel safe, how do we feel about our neighbourhood, do we think robbery is by baseball bats or by the stroke of a pen. Rather lame really and mostly stuff that already is known by the bureaucrats in the government departments.

music and symmetry

2011-08-09T01:19:00.000-07:00

from w
I was trying to get out of housework so cut up and tore up some coloured pages from a magazine plus a page of old music, Bach I think. Two collages and I found a photo of a man playing the piano. I was thinking of symmetry in music and how music has various moods, dark, soft, mysterious, so made a few images using Picasa and by overlapping images. The rest of the family didn't appreciate the results. Okay.

Connewarre Lake

2011-08-08T21:20:00.000-07:00

from w
Occasionally we go for a drive down a road never explored by us before. The other day we drove towards Connewarre Lake from the Leopold side past farms with huge pine trees, tenderly nurtured gardens, green fields. The lake was still and serene and the council had made some kind of carpark but really the place could be landscaped and be an excellent spot for picnics and for fishing - instead of pouring money into the CBD of Geelong with its empty shops and junk for sale on most streets.

Lake Connewarre was once the place for Aboriginal settlements as there were fish, mussels, birds, plenty of food resources. Alas, along came the settlers two hundred years ago who took the land away from them, and for much of the edge of Lake Connewarre there is no access for the general public.

Emerging buds

2011-08-05T18:05:00.001-07:00

from w
When we dutifully care for plants they may not bloom well but then we forget about them and they just get on with it. Some recent emerging blooms near the back door. Some kind of orchids that my son planted.

My wowser side is talkin' now

2011-07-28T23:04:00.000-07:00

from w
In today's Geelong Advertiser are some stats on poker machines in Geelong. I really dislike them and can't for the life of me see that this activity can be interesting...but it does take up the time and money of plenty people in Geelong. A waste of money I reckon, and sad that folk can't find better ways to spend their pensions, etc. Sometimes we've had meals in a place where there are pokies - one time, armed with a camera, I wanted to take photos of people playing these machines but I was politely stopped by the staff - no photos allowed madam!

GEELONG punters have ploughed $116.5 million into poker machines during the past financial year - $3.7 million more than the previous year.

The Norlane Hotel was Geelong's top gambling venue, with punters pouring in a whopping $11.4 million into its pokies last financial year an increase of over $1 million on the previous 12 months.

Pokies venues in the northern suburbs accounted for about 38 per cent of the total spent on pokies the Geelong region.

Only the Grovedale Hotel, at the opposite end of town came close, with $10.9 million poured into its machines in the same 12-month period.

Bethany Community Support chief executive Grant Boyd yesterday said the Norlane Hotel figures confirmed their own research.

Mr Boyd said more than half the problem gamblers seen by his service had incomes under $30,000 a year.

Your Say
"Council crying, federal government crying but the state government allowed this to evolve purely due to greed for the tax take.They have to get this revenue due to their never ending incompetence and waste of tax payers dollars, parasites"
taxpayer

Bethany runs the Gambler's Help hotline in Geelong, and Mr Boyd said that the average loss of a problem gambler was about $21,000 a year.

"From our perspective a significant number of the clients have lower incomes so that exacerbates the impact," he said.

"The cost of living is also increasing, so utilities, food, all of that is going up, putting further pressure on particularly families ...

"For every problem gambler there are a lot of other people impacted."

The ever-increasing pokies spending figures come as anti-gambling campaigners claim a new poll shows widespread support for pokies reform despite what they call a hysterical campaign waged by registered clubs.

A new survey has found three out of four Australians say people should be limited to spending a nominated amount when gambling.

The national poll was conducted by the Australian National University as a snapshot of Australian attitudes towards gambling and potential government regulation.

The Federal Government plans to implement mandatory pre-commitment systems for high-intensity poker machines by 2014.

Under the plan, poker machines will be reprogrammed to cap losses at $120 an hour rather than $1200 an hour. The lower intensity machines will not require any form of pre-commitment.

The measures were part of the Gillard Government's deal with independent MP Andrew Wilkie in exchange for his support of the Labor minority government.

Mr Wilkie said the poll was just another in a long line, showing support for his reform plan.

``The poll shows Australians are no longer prepared to stand by as poker machines ruin people's lives,'' he said.

Geelong city council's gambling advisory group chair Cr Jan Farrell said the council had a clear policy on removing poker machines from the northern suburbs.

Cr Farrell said Geelong had more poker machines per head of population over 18 years old than the Victorian average and the regional average and locals spent more on them.

``The regional average is $503 a year per adult and we spend $670 per adult,'' she said.

The gaming commission figures also showed that while gambling had increased in the past financial year, gambling on pokies has dropped over the past decade.

Geelong region poker machine spending by venue for last financial year

Anglesea Hotel: $1,109,337

Australian Croation National Hall: $2,848,283

Barwon Heads Hotel: $1,464,737

Bell Park Sports Club: $1,311,656

Clifton Springs Golf Club: $3,112, 452

Esplanade Hotel, Queenscliff: $543,201

Gateway Hotel, Corio: $6,662,835

Combined Leagues Club (Buckley's): $8,886,052

Geelong Football Club (Cats): $4,202,404

Geelong RSL, Belmont: $2,384,341

Great Western Hotel: $4,713,707

Grovedale Hotel: $10,967, 912

Jokers on Ryrie: $4,135,478

Lara Hotel: $1,611,856

Lara Sporting Club: $2,188,283

Leopold Sportsmans Club: $2,977,615

Lord of the Isles Tavern: $6,674,657

Lorne Hotel: $746,690

Norlane Hotel: $11,370,847

Ocean Grove Bowling Club: $3,513,992

Peninsula Hotel Motel, Newcomb: $6,767,909

Phoenix Hotel: $3,500,551

Portarlington Golf Club: $3,724,052

Queenscliff Bowling Club: $1,378,463

Shell Club: $6,003,338

Sphinx Hotel: $8,720,436

St George Workers Club: $3,538,731

Torquay Hotel: $1,057,540

Torquay Golf Club: $1,054,141

Waurn Ponds Hotel: $3,338,081

White Eagle House: $1,946,712

I never promised you a rose garden

2011-07-25T04:33:00.000-07:00

from w
Here are some variations by overlapping images I made mainly from photographs taken at a Geelong nursery. By putting two images together shapes and colours emerge than I wouldn't have been able to imagine. The title seemed to fit.

Onyabike bridge

2011-07-25T01:08:00.000-07:00

from w
Geelong and nearby Barwon Heads are rejoicing in the victory of the local young man Cadel Evans who won the great bike race around France. What an achievement and many locals are rather tired from the middle of the night vigils watching TV. Though he was born in Katherine in outback dusty desert country, his home is now in Barwon Heads so we claim him as a local. Congratulations. Now they're talking about the new bridge at Barwon Heads and naming rights as people argue over a suitable name, so of course, some are saying let's call it the Cadel Evans Bridge. On ya bike alrighty!

A birthday

2011-07-21T19:59:00.000-07:00

from w
Yesterday Peceli celebrated his 75th birthday with a low-key party just for our household of eight in the evening - Kentucky Fried Chicken, prawns, Lemon Meringue pie, a cake made by a friend, etc. We drank kava too of course. Earlier in the day Peceli and I had driven up to Footscray market, left the car there, and taken train rides around Melbourne, mainly to visit Matt, a patient in the spinal unit of the Austin Hospital which made me feel absolutely grateful for being able to walk, stand, sit and move about. Some people have such a hard road in life and our prayers are with Matt at this time. We shopped at the Footscray market, visited a friend who works in security at a bank nearby and came back to a Geelong drenched by rain. There was a lot of walking, climbing steps, etc. in Melbourne. We'll have a bigger party on Sunday after a Fijian church service at East Geelong, inviting friends from Werribee area and others from the Altona Meadows/Laverton Fijian congregation.

It's still mother's milk

2011-07-18T00:32:00.000-07:00

from w
I suppose the families weren't laughing but maybe they will a few years down the track, but at a Geelong hospital last Friday the wrong babies were given to mums who breast-fed them happily, until they discovered they were the wrong kids eight hours later! Well, that's no big deal I reckon, though the media blew it up as 'horrified', 'shocked' etc. Back in Fiji my third boy was fed by an auntie in the daytime when I was away teaching at a high school three days a week, and also my mother-in-law breastfed her own son and a cousin's son after the mother ran away - probably with some kind of anxiety disorder. It's still mother's milk! A mix-up didn't happen to me with one kid though as I was in a ward with an Indian girl, a Fijian girl and a Chinese girl and my kid was nearly 10 pounds in weight anyway.

from one of the Oz newspapers:
Mothers get wrong babies in hospital mix-up
Updated July 18, 2011 15:52:02

A Geelong hospital has apologised after two babies were given to the wrong mothers for breastfeeding. The St John of God Hospital says the babies were breastfed by the wrong mother on Friday morning. Hospital chief executive Stephen Roberts has told Fairfax radio, the "mix-up" has shocked the hospital.

"Babies had been taken from their cots in our special care nursery," he said. "There's been a breakdown in process. It appears that a name bracelet wasn't checked. And the babies were placed in incorrect cots."

The mistake was not discovered until a family member raised concerns eight hours later.

Mr Roberts says the families are upset and have been offered counselling.

"We're obviously deeply apologetic and regretful for the pain and concern that we've caused these families," he said.

The hospital says it is working to ensure the mix-up is not repeated.

Victorian Premier Ted Baillieu says he will ensure the mix-up is properly investigated. "Obviously that's an entirely unacceptable situation, to the extent that I can acknowledge that it happened, and I don't have the full details ... that's a matter than needs to be investigated and we'll be making sure it is," he said. "Obviously you'd be horrified, shocked."

Dr Jennifer James, a breastfeeding expert from RMIT says there is only a small chance of viruses being transferred through breast milk. She says the incident is unlikely to affect bonding between mother and baby. "Midwives like anybody else do make the occasional mistake," she said. "For me it highlights the importance of keeping mothers and babies together from birth.

"If babies were staying with their mothers then there wouldn't be any chance of that happening.

Print exhibitions in Geelong

2011-07-15T23:18:00.000-07:00

from w
At any one given time there are many art shows on in Geelong and currently two are from print-makers - one at the Metrapolis Gallery, the other at the Wintergarten. Some examples are on-line such as www.metropolisgallery.com.au with a generous array of prints, and the other was of interest when Peceli and I talked to some of the artists the other day. For collectors, prints are an excellent way of buying artworks because they are usually much less expensive than one-only artworks because the artist might take off about twenty or more prints from the one image. Also, the techniques offer a whole variety of textures and ways of seeing. These days I would like to be patient enough to do woodcuts and linocuts and screenprints again like I used to do, but I am lazy and just play around with digital images which are quick and often surprising in the results.

while the spuds are cooking

2011-07-13T00:24:00.000-07:00

from w
While the spuds and cauliflower are cooking I am at the computer with my companions, Picasa and Photoshop. Maybe when I smell the burnt pots I'll quit. So, what's wrong with a few barbecued spuds! These pictures started from photos I once took at Federation Square in Melbourne, an interesting set of buildings with a manic love of triangles by the designers.'Federation' refers to the formation of Australia as a nation - joining several bits and pieces such as Victoria and New South Wales. Of course there was no reference to the original people of the country, the Aboriginal people. It's only since the 60s that they have been included in the census. It's NAIDOC week at present with concerns for the indigenous people.

messing about with photoshop

2011-07-11T20:24:00.000-07:00

from w
There's not much time for the computer these days with other necessary tasks in life, Donation in Kind packing 25 boxes this morning of splendid Primary School books to send to the islands, church activities, occasionally helping my daughter-in-law with cooking and so on. It is freezing cold in Geelong at present and our Fiji family are noticing it. Here are some samples of my playing with my new toy - photoshop. About ten years ago my first play with images was using Corel Draw and that is a beaut program but I never could afford to purchase it. Later I found free programs such as photo-edit - a few years ago- and picasa, and now photoshop which seems to pick up on most of what the earlier ones could do. I still haven't got back to 'real' drawing and painting, though Peceli is busy putting acrylic paint onto canvases but he doesn't want to post them on this blog, just hang a few up on the wall and one windy day I got knocked on the head with one!

A sunny day for a change

2011-07-10T01:27:00.001-07:00

from w
Yesterday there was sunshine for a change so Peceli and I went for a drive, first to see an exhibition of Prints - linocuts etc. a wander in a garden shop, then a drive to Breamlea, a small village of houses hugging a beach not far from Torquay. The waves were huge so many surfers were down the coast yesterday. I took a few photos here and there and then tried out photoshop though the results so far were rather stilted and I need to learn a heap more about its possibilities. I like the accidental effect that I can get occasionally with picasa overlaying one picture over another and the way colour can be intensified though I overdo this at times. Trying out effects using photoshop meant there was a unity of style or texture but that is a bit off-putting and I really want to select parts of a picture to alter. There's much to learn.

Sports injuries in Geelong

2011-07-08T00:08:00.001-07:00

from w
I think the figures seem inflated - such as over 1000 a week at one clinic, but here is the article in the local newspaper, the Geelong Advertiser, this week. The topic is of concern because many of our youngsters in Geelong play Aussie Rules footie and that's a good thing - better than watching the well-paid gladiators!

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MORE than a thousand people a week are being treated for sports injuries at just one Geelong health-service provider.

Figures obtained by the Geelong Advertiser also reveal that children aged 10-14 account for the highest number of hospital admissions for sports injuries and that the majority of those hurt are playing Australian rules football.
Corio Bay Health, which has several clinics, said 1300 people were seeking treatment for sports-related injuries every week.

Sports injuries are putting a strain on hospitals and clinics throughout Victoria, according to Monash University sports injury epidemiologist Professor Caroline Finch.

"Sports injuries are clogging up beds," Prof Finch said.

"The injuries are obviously not as severe as road accidents, where people suffer multiple injuries, but they're using up hospital beds for a couple of nights and the vast majority of these sports injuries are in people under 25.

"Even people as young as five and six are coming in with fractures of the upper arm."

A study of injury rates, headed by Prof Finch, has revealed that hospitals across the state treated twice as many patients for sports injuries as they did for road accidents.

Prof Finch's study also revealed that sports injuries cost the country $2 billion a year in medical bills and time off work.

The data provides the first truly definitive look in almost a decade at the impact of exercise-related injuries but according to leading sports doctor Peter Larkins, it is only the tip of the iceberg.

Dr Larkins said those who sought hospital treatment only represented a small proportion of sports injuries, with many others either seeking help at private and bulk billing clinics or ignoring treatment altogether.

Corio Bay Health Group managing director Jeff Oxley said hamstring and ankle strains were among the most common complaints from the region's footballers, basketballers, netballers and other athletes.

Knee injuries such as anterior cruciate ligament tears are not as common but are putting local players on the sidelines for significant periods.

Mr Oxley said local footy injury trends were similar to the AFL but the reality of putting aside time for recovery was far different.

"It's really not only the injury itself; it's the cost of the injury and from a local sense it becomes a personal cost. The player has to fork out most of the money and that's not just for medical bills, it's also for loss of employment," he said.

"It's really the time off work, which financially can be quite a drain."
At junior level, Mr Oxley said many players suffered "overuse" injuries such as osteitis pubis. Older players tend to suffer

"wear and tear of joints and in the middle group of players it's the hamstring strains and ankle strains, corkies and facial injuries."

Geelong Hospital head of paediatics Dr Dave Fuller said younger patients admitted with sports injuries were often at the higher end of the scale but encouraged youngsters to continue with physical activity.

"There will be kids on the ward that have injuries related to sport such as bone breaks but they're managed by the surgical team," Dr Fuller said.

"Even though there can be be injuries, sports participation has lots of positives such as helping with weight and self esteem issues from team participation."

The data provides the first truly definitive look in almost a decade at the impact of exercise-related injuries but according to leading sports doctor Peter Larkins, it is only the tip of the iceberg.

Dr Larkins said those who sought hospital treatment only represented a small proportion of sports injuries, with many others either seeking help at private and bulk billing clinics or ignoring treatment altogether.

Talented junior baseballer Harry McGovern fits into the main risk category. The 14-year-old was a member of the Victorian under-14 squad but faces an extended period on the sidelines after having a shoulder reconstruction to repair a tear of his shoulder joint lining.

He was one of more 4616 people to be admitted to Geelong's hospitals with serious sports injuries during the past eight years, according to Monash University's Victorian Injury Surveillance Unit. Those patients either required surgery or treatment requiring them to occupy a hospital bed for at least one night.
injury rates, headed by Prof Finch, has revealed that hospitals across the state treated twice as many patients for sports injuries as they did for road accidents.

Corio Bay Health Group managing director Jeff Oxley said hamstring and ankle strains were among the most common complaints from the region's footballers, basketballers, netballers and other athletes.

Knee injuries such as anterior cruciate ligament tears are not as common but are putting local players on the sidelines for significant periods.

Mr Oxley said local footy injury trends were similar to the AFL but the reality of putting aside time for recovery was far different.

"It's really not only the injury itself; it's the cost of the injury and from a local sense it becomes a personal cost. The player has to fork out most of the money and that's not just for medical bills, it's also for loss of employment," he said.

"It's really the time off work, which financially can be quite a drain."
At junior level, Mr Oxley said many players suffered "overuse" injuries such as osteitis pubis. Older players tend to suffer

"wear and tear of joints and in the middle group of players it's the hamstring strains and ankle strains, corkies and facial injuries."

Geelong Hospital head of paediatrics Dr Dave Fuller said younger patients admitted with sports injuries were often at the higher end of the scale but encouraged youngsters to continue with physical activity.

"There will be kids on the ward that have injuries related to sport such as bone breaks but they're managed by the surgical team," Dr Fuller said.

"Even though there can be be injuries, sports participation has lots of positives such as helping with weight and self esteem issues from team participation."

Computer Club at East Geelong

2011-07-01T18:18:00.001-07:00

from w
Our church community has started up a computer club and our project last night was to learn about Powerpoint and start putting in the slides for tomorrow's church service. My six or so pictures included a couple of takes on a banner one of our women had made for the Uniting Church birthday each year, adding bits each year. This time she included the mobile phone tower which is a giant behind our building. Maybe the magnetism isn't healthy but the income is. Our Powerpoint slides weren't finished and I am sure I have shifted one long prayer around into five indecipherable bits, but it was a learning experience!

From buildings to abstractions

2011-06-26T00:21:00.000-07:00

from w
As we are moving files around computers and throwing out one, I've retrieved some old images based on buildings and played around with them. One old computers goes to the tip perhaps as we have a newer hard drive. (now have to find them again)

Farewell at a church

2011-06-26T00:06:00.000-07:00

from w
Today we farewelled our minister, the Rev Richard Franklin who is moving to be a chaplain at The Scots School in Albury. There's a sadness about it as he is a very fine thinker who has excellent sermons and keeps up moving gently with the big questions of life. Today was also the birthday of the Uniting Church in Australia - which has been significant in the life of the Australian churches with the amalgamation of Presbyterian, Methodist and Congregational thirty-four years ago. We were in a country parish then, a small wheat-farming community of Hopetoun an our boys were young. A rich wonderful life there. Today we had a splendid lunch too and a cake. Our family were busy as one lad had to hurry away to play football with St Albans by 11.30 and Peceli was driving up to Melbourne to a Fijian church gathering and to meet up with some politically hot matters.

How to make a lemon meringue pie

2011-06-15T23:37:00.000-07:00

from w
The task of cooking is shared around in this household of eight of nine people and the teenage boys also learn to cook. Yesterday someone said that my mum - Lin Lay - was such a wonderful cook and she made a good lemon meringue pie when our boys were little. Well, I've never made it so they had to start from scratch by looking up a youtube site. Well, the pie did turn out interesting, tasty, and chewy and everyone had a generous serve. The main cooks were our son George and grandson Andrew aged twelve. We gave them 8 out of 10. But this morning there was no sugar left for our cereal and tea!

Not busy at the moment

2011-06-11T02:58:00.000-07:00

from w
Until the computer gets fixed better I'm having a quiet spell the past few days. Lost my data so have a fresh page. Will catch up later. I can open some internet but there are still viruses prowling around it seems. It's the Queen's Birthday weekend too which is a bit quieter - as no one in Australia seems to have any special party for that! - at least no footie for the grandchildren today. They were playing monopoly the other night, an old favourite. Tomorrow is Pentecost so that will be an upbeat church service but I've had a migraine for the first time in my life and realize I shouldn't watch so much TV!