Lucky me to have such wonderful friends and colleagues helping me out !!!

Annie the angel comes over and completely re-organises the garage sale, so that it looks like useful things rather than a pile of junk; and then spends all day over here packing boxes for me. What a darling.

Tim brings croissants for breakfast. Ooo yum what could be better. Not only that, but then he packs up all my telephone and internet gadgets neatly into a box. Plus, he’s going to take away the fish and his tank. Yay Tim.

Jude and jody-Lee go mad on the council rubbish collection pile. Just keep piling they say.

Lovely Czek offers me a room even though he really doesn’t want or need a housemate.

Will and Jodie lend me their van on two separate days, meaning they have to get all thinkie on their schedules. So sweet!

Margot spends hours packing up all of the precious ceramic art, and then takes it back to her place for storage.

Amarina lets me store a mountain of boxes in her huge Land Rover called Keith. Plus, she brings up so many coffees for Louise and me, when our kitchen is not functioning. Am is a very generous and wonderful woman, so kind.

Lou does such an amazing job on the kitchen, cleaning it like it hasn’t been cleaned before (well, since Jude and Jody lived in the house, and Jude scrubbed every last bit of it.)

Then plenty of people – Ben, Maggie, Daryl, Deb, Zoe, Libby, Amarina – send across possible ideas for rooms or houses.

Fraser asks every time he sees me, and offers cardboard boxes in case i have to live under a bridge. Later i find out he’s been asking Syl, “Can michael use that space under the cupboard?”

Some days i feel like i’m surrounded by angels.
thank you all .. so much !

May the universe bless you all with this kindness and more.

It’s that time of year when people dream about what they want, next time round the sun.

i’m sure you have dreams about a better world, and you’re probably working in some way toward those dreams. Well hang on in there, cos you know the agents of fear won’t win.

YOU are gonna win, with your dreams of inspiration and balance, creativity and love.

So, if you’re dreaming of bringing more love and connection, more strength in community, more safety and peace into this world, or more pleasure to yourself, i say thank you. Thanks for your dreams, thanks for your actions of love and caring, no matter how small or fleeting.

Take some heart from Ben Harper, “Don’t let them take the fight out of you”.

i once went to a Ben Harper concert, with jude and Jody-Lee. Such a good night!

My dreams for ‘008 include these:
1) Garden full of yummy vegetables all year round
2) More time camping in the bush, away from the city
3) More time singing with friends
4) Melbourne recycles storm water instead of going “desal”
5) President bush is impeached, and democracy is repaired.

What about you? Wanna share your dreams for ‘008..?

Go right ahead and pop your thoughts in the comment box, right hereio. One or more dreams, very welcome 🙂

Hope your year is full of joy, healing and fun; lots of dancing, and great books.

(click below where it says “Comments” or “Post a comment”
(lemme know if you need assistance:
(mic at michalk dot id dot au

(img: thank you Alberto+Cerriteño and also mick y )

Louise’s cat Zena is a total darling, but he just isn’t interested in catching any kind of rodent. Not for dinner, not for fun. Not at all.

“They tried to make me catch a rodent, i said no no no !”
(To the tune of Amy Winehouse ‘Rehab’.)

Now i think i know why .. someone has been messing with his genes. in this video from Reuters, they say the mouse has been altered to remove the smell of fear from his hereditary knowledge bank.

But what have they done to the cat? Are they saying that cats only chase mice because the mice are afraid? That the cat is culturally inclined, rather than genetically, to chase the rodent? This opens up a whole can of cat food!

Anyway, this cat looks a whole lot like Zena. i think he’s been living a double life.

Throughout this bizarre saga, i have found colleagues, friends and family to be wonderfully supportive, and genuinely hilarious. So thanks to all of you, especially:

Tim – always on the lookout:
“Did you say fertiliser? Michael, you don’t know who’s listening! (Louder) i am not associated with this person.”

Bushy for his crack-up comments:
“Think we got ourselves a reader“, “Whatcha reading for?” and “Read any good books lately?”

Amarina for leaning across to the window of her ute and drawling,
“We don’t like your type around here.“

Gayle, as i was dancing in the doorway at the launch of i dream a highway, northcote high st.
“I’m sorry we’re going to have to ask you to leave. Heard about you and your inappropriate dancing.“

Rhi and Ben:
“Gotta get you a t-shirt that says ‘Northcote’s favourite terrorist’”

My fabulous sister for sending me the “I’m a tourist not a terrorist” t-shirt from amsterdam.
Lou for reading through the first letter to the editor.

Plus thanks to people who’ve joined in this online storytelling experience:

• Rhi and Jo for posting brilliant comments to the blog, and twice!
• Katie, A.Duck, BiddyB, Howard, for their delightfully supportive comments.
• Susan for her limerick all the way from Canada ..

Colleagues who applauded my entrance at a work celebration day, the morning after this whole thing hit the headlines.

My mother for showing her protective side and saying, “I just want this to go away. i think it’s over now.”

Okay mum, i’ll write about other stuff now. Hope, the future, and being polite.
i won’t talk about the fear and hysteria gripping the western world, or the possibility that governments are using this fear to destroy civilian freedoms. No no no.

Huge thanks to the people of Australia for this very fair and timely dismissal. Thank you so much.

Will this mean the end for the politics of fear? What sort of changes will emerge? At the very least, surely we’ll see an end to the mean-spirited social division that characterised the autgoing federal government.

This new government will need help finding its feet, i imagine .. probably a good time to get involved in influencing policies from a grass roots level.

(Image: thanks for time by FABIOLA MEDEIROS at flickr)

How delightful is the sun! When you haven’t had a holiday in over a year, there is truly nothing like a work-sponsored trip to Byron Bay. Yes i am the luckiest person alive, no doubt about that. Here’s the whole story:

• got bitten by a tick the very first night, and it still hurts three weeks later (on my ear)
• went to a super boring cultural evening, where the local singers all had US accents
• narrowly avoided a brown snake crawling across my sarong
• drove my hire car for 200km along unsealed roads (trying not to read the ‘thou shalt not’ sticker prominent on the windscreen), then later took all the wheels off to sweep out the tell-tale orange dust
  
• went to the most outrageously stupid ‘rainbow gathering’
• watched really bad cable tv

on the plus side

• saw whales and dolphins frolicking all over the shop, pretty much parading down the main street
  
• sat in on new enrolments at the Byron Community Centre
  
• had a whole cabin to myself for days on end
  
• 
• walked fifteen kilometres along Belongil Beach to Brunswick Heads, and back in a day
• bought organic carrots in the Mullumbimby grocery
• swam in blissfully cold mountain springs in the Washpool National Park. mmmmm that was good.

so i came back, brown all over, with knotted hair, and in a very tranquil state, but in need of a strong cultural fix. Lou suggested a gig down at Glitch bar on the Sunday night, just as i got off the plane. Enclosed in a small dingy dark bar in north fitzroy surrounded by strange young people wearing black and making weird musical noises .. i felt so at home.

So i had a go at playing indoor soccer. The boss got a team together, and joined us into a competition at the council. We were so bad, we lost again and again, eg 13 goals to 3.

The other teams played rough, although it was supposed to be friendly, and they had skills – which we did not. Rohan could do a fair simulation of Maradona, Maria kicked a major goal, and Nick the coach was a real player, but i could barely stay upright. Massive hand bruises thanks to falling on hard gym surface. Ouch.

Trying to drive later on, had to get Louise to operate the gear stick. Too friking painful. That’s it, i’m over sport for ever.

xo michael

(image, The Goalie’s Anxiety at the Penalty Kick by Gertrud K. at flickr, thanks)

Sam and Tim went to Tasmania. i went to the airport. That was fun too, especially when we rocked up the first time, and there was serious disco playing in the car as the kids got out. Tim says, “You can’t go til the song’s finished.” But i was mean, and i drove off, dancing in the driver seat.

It was a great mix, on 3RRR, song after song of goodness. We heard a full on version of oh, what was it, with Siouxsie on backing vocals .. remind me Tim.

mm, take a look at Uncle Paul’s view, on the Ratty Blog. i wanna go to Tassie already.

Aha! Sam now i know what you mean.. the Bob Fossil Don’t Like Reggae routine. Yes.

it’s pauli’s birthday todaaay he’s a wonderful artist and educator who lives in Halifaxi with his lovely belle Fiona and their amazing Sasha, hope you have a wonderful day magnificent paul lots of love plus hugs michael

(picture of fountain near Salamanca, Hobart)

Sam and Booshi downstairs don’t have TV, they just watch DVD and youTube. Especially The Moon from the Mighty Boosh. At the New Year Party, Boosh had a youTube room going downstairs. It was fun. They watched Evolution of Dance.

i really enjoyed David Attenborough narrating slug sex, it is astonishing.

Who is David Blaine? Is this street film a spoooof, or is he the real magician? Forget channel nine, i will watch the whole series

(eyes roll), much love from micahel