Who knew Tom's moustache would grow in skin-colored? The guy who can grow a beard in a day has an almost invisible moustache for charity: Maybe a little Grecian Formula would help?
I mentioned I talked this gorgeous man into doing Movember - a sort of moustache-a-thon for men's health. Here he is kinda late on November 1st ("1 November" in Australian):
...about a 9-hour Mo. This page will be updated as his face, or lack of it, progresses. Suggestions on style and guesses on color are welcome, although possibly ignored. Right now, the donations site is an Aussie one. I'll see if our American buds can somehow donate in those funny paper dollars.
I was in the art supply shop, looking. A Young Woman came in for her shift and the Manager and she were talking. YW: "I don't read the newspaper or watch TV. I don't even know anything that's going on." M:"Well, we have our first Australian saint! Mary MacKillop." YW: "What's that? ...like ... a princess?" M: "No, she was a woman in about the late 1800's who started working with the poor and started her own convent and fought the bishop and everything." (the Aussies loves their spunky women) YW: "Wow. So, what's she doing now?" M: "She's dead." YW: "Well, what good is a dead saint?!?"
I laughed. Too long. Where do you start with this?
We were at an Aussie friend's birthday party. Another guest said she didn't understand Halloween. Try suddenly being the cultural ambassador for America and explaining Halloween to someone who has no idea. These are the kinds of things we should be warned about in advance. Sure, you can go into All Saints Day and All Hallows Eve, but why is your kid dressed like a Transformer and collecting candy? What's with the vegetables (remember, they eat a LOT of pumpkin here)? We wrapped 98 Tootsie Pops like ghosts. Handed out about 15 - We're at the dark end of an "American" street. The rest will go to the Year 1 classes and to Tom's Movember campaign.
What's Movember? Started in Australia, it is a month to grow a mustache ("Mo") and raise money for men's health by people sponsoring your Mo. http://au.movemberfoundation.com/ We'll be adding photos of Tom's Mo as the month progresses. He get's looking a little Freddie Mercury.
This is about 3 p.m. as we drove in. This clay pan holds water about a day or so after rain. Such flatness. All this sand was once part of the rock which was once under an ocean. Thomas sank to his knees in awe. Ok, he was playing in the sand. Awe-y though. Sense of scale. See Thomas now? Watcher. Some colors of sandstone erode easier. Nearer sunset, the colors deepen.
Just before the shadows reach it, the whole thing is on fire. You can't look away, but if you do, it is even more beautiful when you look back.
Ok people, I am changing this blog's philosophy from quality to quantity. The very few people who ever comment (see below on how to comment) always say how terrific the posts are and I have gotten performance anxiety*. So, here it comes, straight off the cuff and weekly instead of whenever I get the guts. Let's start with...me! I get to do art here. I get to felt and have an art class and you can't swing a woma** here without hitting an artist of some ilk and it's considered perfectly normal - as most things here are. There is a place about 80K down the Stuart Highway, then 20K down a dirt track, called Rainbow Valley. Its Aboriginal name is Wurre. It is one of the, if not THE most beautiful, peaceful, holy, stunningly magical places I have ever been. Here is a photo of Wurre.Here is my felt rendition of Wurre from someone else's photo.Here is part of the art show it's in. Oh, I made a lamp too. It's easy; I'll show you some time.The show is at Central Craft. I volunteer in the shop, but I did so even before I had stuff in it because: it's right across the street, it has really neat stuff, I get to meet people from all over Australia, I like working in retail if I'm not being paid for it, there are usually artist there, making stuff and I can watch and learn, and it's just a cool place. "Craft" here means something more... respectable than what it does in the states. It can be lousy craft-show stuff, but it is more often wood carving, sculpture, pottery, couture, felting, enameling, jewelry, -just not painting/drawing. My friend Emmy said she is "a craftsperson as artists tend to be a bit...er, off with the fairies." Am not labeling myself either way. What else I do is help at Thomas's school 2x a week. Mrs. Smith, his year-one teacher, is amazing. She has 20-odd kids every day. This one needs their shoe tied. That one has a bug bite and needs pawpaw cream. This one needs help spelling a word. That one needs help just because she likes it. This one just wants to keep sharpening pencils. Thomas has been contemplating how his workbook is put together for the last 10 minutes. Some of the kids can't write 3-letter words; some can write whole paragraphs. Somehow, she teaches them all something; keeps them reasonably in line and makes them want to come back. I am in awe of people who teach 7 hours a day, then get up the next day and do it again!
Show's over, folks. Now, look at the bottom of this post. See where it says, "0 comments" or, "2 comments?" Click on it! Now, write me a comment! Thank you. Sorry to shout.
**PS This is not meant to be an ego stroke. I would write a way better one than this. It's just to see if anyone is still reading or i need to crack some heads.
*Hey pal, thanks for sticking it out to the bottom. A "woma" is about the only snake around here that won't kill you just cuz you looked at it. It's a python that squeezes its prey against something (rock, wall, Toyota Land Cruiser) instead of wrapping its body around it (like a good, decent American constrictor would). Think, like being slammed against a wall and not let back up. Then swallowed.
Circular Quay ("kay"or "kee"), part of the harbour, was rife with street performers - a didgeridoo player, sleight-of-hand guy, people in lit-up costumes for the light festival.
This unicycle/juggler guy was different. His show lasted about 15 minutes, after which, like most street performers, he asked the crowd for contributions. However, he continued, "if all you have is those one and two-dollar coins, keep them. You know how much a good show costs and I feel mine is worth ten dollars. If you agree, great. If not, or all you have is less, just give me a handshake and a thank you. I feel that's appropriate." He was American.
Sydney struck me as wet and clean and safe. Now, in Alice Springs, one learns quickly, say by reading the paper once, not to go out at night. Ever. There are lots of drunk people who want what you have. During the day, they are either sleeping or just gone somewhere. In Sydney, walk along the water or downtown at night and it was all fine and dandy. Why? Of course, we were there a terribly short time. I'm sure Sydney has her secrets. Like, there are sharks in the harbour.
Walking. I remember lots of walking.
The Harbourview has such a nice view because it's at the wee tippy-top of a hill.
Everything else is downhill- like San Francisco-style downhill. We could walk down to the ferry, the Olympic swimming pool (we swam where Michael Phelps won his gold, tee-he) and Luna Park! Luna Park was built in the 50's and one man designed all the decor. How about that clown mouth?! I loved the photo when I saw what was going on behind Tom. Go ahead, enlarge it. We did let Thomas drag us through the park one rainy evening. The man running the kiddie rides gave him a freebie since they were closing early. He was American, too. All-told we were only in Sydney for 4 days, one was recovery from a way-too-early flight. I could do with more Sydney.
We also somehow crammed in the zoo. The zoo will be the next entry. Teaser- what costs 175 dollars for a family of three and sounds like, "Can we go home yet?" for 5 hours? Hmmm...
See, my problem with blogging a topic with lotsa pictures is, I rhaps on poetically, then edit and chekc spellign, grammer and punctuation, THEN add the photos which all end up at the top and I have to arrow down, drag, arrow down, drag, until I get them all situated. THEN, I publish it and it's all kerflooey again anyway. So, lets try a new tack - the photos are on the page and I add in my blah-blah around them. Go.
Tom came home one day in early May and said he had to go to Sydney for some classes and would we like to go along and I jumped up and down and got in the car. Well, a couple weeks later, he said the trip was off. I was a bit.. let's say "moody." He said there was a chance we could go sometime, later. I told him not to tell me until it was all set. A couple weeks later, Thursday evening, he told me we were leaving Saturday morning. I pulled out and washed all the winter clothes we hadn't seen in about 14 months, found a dog sitter and off we went. Remember we went to Canberra via Sydney then back? You can review "Canberra" blog if not.
Sydney was just SO beautiful. It has many facets- shiny blue, white and green facets. This will be about the Opera House and bridge and Darling harbour part.
The Harbour Bridge stretches over Darling Harbour. Yes, I find I add that "u"to colour and harbour now. It's like a souvenir. The Opera House is at the edge of the harbour. There was a festival of lights on and the sails of the opera house were lit up with projected images: palm trees, leopard spots, swirls... beautiful and totally unphotographable (for me.)
Sydney kinda wraps around the harbour and has a great transit system of trains and ferries. A one-day pass allows you to hop any and go wherever. I LOVED the men in flourescent vests at the train stations. Their only job is to ask where you want to go and tell you how to get there. Most people getting off the trains were very seriously hurrying dressed in black. The guides see someone carrying a backpack or dressed in any other colour (see that U? huh?) and they cheerfully offer their service.
Our room was on the top floor of the Harbourview Hotel. Sounds fancy-dancy, but there are many hotels in Sydney which cater to business travelers and therefore, offer really good rates for families over the weekend. It was way cool! They're so proud of their view, the bathroom had a full-length window wall. See? Yes, there was a blind on the user-side. The train station was almost next door with an incredible wonderful crusty-garlicky-olive-oily Italian restaurant in between
Whilst Daddy worked a couple days, Thomas and I saw some sights. He really, really wanted to feed the seagulls and see the Opera House. Done and done. The Opera House is only partially open to tourists. Unless you are attending an actual show, or you pay about 40 bucks a head for the tour, you get to see a little bit inside which coincidentally includes the gift shops. Uh-oh. I've gone through my 5-photo allotment, but have more to say. Now what? Hey!! Where are my other 2 pictures?!?! Gosh darn you Blogger! (shakes fist) Ok, arrow down, arrow down, arrow down drag...
I know, I never told you all about Sydney, but it's too long and hard, so here is a bit about fossils.
We've gotten to know Sonny, a local rock-hound. Sonny is a grizzled and quirky old codger, just as an Aussie rock hound should be. Oh, they prefer to be called,"fossickers." Fossicking is walking around, looking on the ground, or slightly under it, for neat stuff. We got to know Sonny mostly by Thomas standing and staring at his market stall with all the really cool, shiny, colorful rocks, crystals and fossils. Sonny is unique in retail in that he will see a kid admiring, say a 25 dollar shark tooth and say, "Here, look a bag of smaller ones for 3 dollars." "You like that peacock ore? Look, here's one for a dollar." Sonny is in it for the love of rocks.
He told us about Maloney Creek. My American ears heard "Mlaney Crake," but brain eventually translated. He drew us a rough map and we found it. We took some of Thomas's buds when school was closed for "Picnic Day," perhaps the BEST idea for a state holiday EVER . Maloney Creek is about 100k south of Alice; past the Rainbow Valley turn-off, past Jim's Place home of Dinky the Singing Dingo, into more hilly county, then right there, under the road. A couple strands of barbed wire keep the cattle and the road separate. The cattle get to look for fossils all day.
Most of our finds were cephalopods and gastropods.
Living cephalopods are squid, octopus and the nautilus which these fossils resemble most closely. If you don't know and don't want to look up "nautilus," picture a big snail with tentacles. The cephalopods we found had straight shells instead of coiled. They were the predators, hunting these hills in a great sea. Now, they're rocks. Trilobites can be found here too, but their fossilized tracks in the mud are more common and we found lots of those. Gastropods are snails.We also thought we found some (live) tadpoles. Seemed strange to me to find tadpoles at the end of winter, but we've come to easily accept strange. Also, the pond was so murky with cow prints and slime, I wasn't too keen to get up close. Turns out they are shield shrimp - a living fossil! Shield shrimp live fast and lay eggs so light, they blow around in the wind and hopefully, land where there will be water one day to hatch them. Found an article about the shrimp in the clay pans near Alice. There's even a nifty 6 minute video. http://www.abc.net.au/rural/content/2010/s2803581.htm Coincidentally it is written and photographed by Penelope Bergen who will be starting Thomas on violin in a few weeks.
Maybe a little Grecian Formula would help?
...about a 9-hour Mo.
