This was meant to be an island paradise getaway. A heavenly new year, with friends on the beach. After the mild dramas of travelling by bus to Sihanoukville (Lauli and her buddies went the day before; Jem and her friends found their pre-booked tickets had been sold, i was worried about having to charter a boat on my own) .. we were all looking forward to a chilled-out party on the beach.
There was bbq action, dance music, stories and balancing on a swing over the sand.
Lovely.
Bang.
A loud silence, then some shouts and that awful feeling of not knowing what’s happened. Followed by the sickening feeling of discovering what has happened.
Someone’s let a very big firecracker off in his own face.
Shanny’s seen the whole thing close up and looks like she’s about to pass out. “He’s blown his face off! Have you seen Phil?”
i still feel a bit sick and shocked from the events of the evening. This was about 11pm local time. Celebrations were clearly off the agenda. People milled around wondering how to help. Several people did help, giving first aid, painkillers, calling the mainland, deciding whether to call for a boat or pray for an airlift direct to Bangkok.
16 hours later, Yuma made it to Bangkok. But the reports aren’t good.
Still on life support. Not yet stable.
.
Prayers welcome .. angelic support appreciated.
Read this story: Sam and Tim: Our Little Red Rooster.
Sam and Tim have been growing chickens for some time now. After some early trauma involving a dog, they’ve bravely continued the nurturing. i’ve been following their chickenly adventures on skype, where they’ve set up a web cam called “Chicken View”.
Looks like the babies have migrated to the outside pen, after living their infancy in the bathroom.
Yay for the Little Red Rooster of Tallarook!!
i’ve been very lucky with the bike lately.
The front gear thing was out of whack. (The derailleur.) So i took it along to Lygon Cycles, where they said .. “oh, you want a service? Well everything needs replacing, so it’ll cost you around $360.”
“But you can get a new bike for around $400.”
Ouch. Not so convenient. i start looking for new bikes, and the one i want is over $1000. Maybe i’ll budget for that.
..in the meantime.. i take the bike down to Ceres on a Saturday morning and have a go at fixing the derailleur myself. The great thing about Ceres is that if you try to mend it yourself, eventually an expert will swing by and give you advice .. or in my case, roll their eyes, take the tool and do it themselves.
But within a couple of weeks, the thing’s broken again in a different place, proving the Lygon people correct. i’m riding around in the lowest gear imaginable, my legs pumping 3 times faster than they should.
Then one day i’m riding along the Bicycle Highway (Canning St.) into the Edinburgh Gardens, and there’s a couple of people with a sign saying “Free Bike Maintenance”. What about that for good luck!
“Are you with Ceres?” i ask.
“No, just a couple of nutters,” the guy replies. “Speak for yourself,” his partner cuts in ..
Within a few moments, he’s done an emergency procedure, told me about the best bike shop in Melbourne (under the Richmond station .. lots of second hand parts he says), and given my pedal power back to me.
i feel so much better on the roads now. Thank you heavenly bike-mending angels !!
(So, now i’m looking for more bike stories. What about you post one on your blog, and link back here .. or leave me a comment? Where’s the worst place you’ve broken down? etc. Hello, x
More than i have been in a long time, i’m totally excited about family christmas.
woohoo!
Margot, katie and michael .. in Pnomh Penh, soaking up the magnificence of Cambodia.
i can’t wait
i love searching winamp media library for songs relating to a word, and then listening to the mix. The other day i found 68 songs relating to the word black.
Nick Cave Black Betty .. such a good cover. Kicking Against the Pricks is always my favourite album from the Caulfield genius boy. Listen to that song over and over. The Spiderbait version was fun in its own way, but doesn’t really compare. .. and then i listen to Tom Jones version, and it’s shit. In a good way. But compared to the Cave? Shite.
Tom Waits has the record for a single artist in my collection .. 7 songs with “black” in the title.
Radiohead Black Star, of course. OMG what exquisite pain and pleasure in their music. Just recently Radiohead became my most-listened artist of all. i have been catching up .. to the rest of the world.
Nikka Costa Black Seed, Goldfrapp Black Cherry .. Nina Simone Black Is the Colour of My True Love’s Hair. i admire the brilliance and passion behind all these songs.
Public Enemy Fear of a Black Planet, Queen Latifah Black Hand Side, and *The
Spent a Saturday last week indulging whims.
Started off watching films at the HRAAF festival (Human Rights) ..about disappearing islands in the Pacific (eg the Carteret Islands off Bougainville). One of Georgie’s films was featured.. her NGO Pacific Black Box got young people to make films about the local effects of climate change. (Mentioned this on my work blog.)
The session was called: “Reel Change”
Really good films that could have an impact. There was a woman from Tuvalu and a man from the MakePovertyHistory campaign. They held a forum and spoke after the film.
Anyway i felt i needed to make a change, and stimulate the economy .. ok i just went therapy shopping. And came back with the latest in
Must Read Now.
Not only that but when i arrive home, i remember that there are many new CD’s in my bag from recent CD launches. eg
gray taylor was magnificent at the Qua / Mountains in Sky album launch, supported by the Stars of the Night Pikelet. i would have bought the Qua CD too but they’d run out.
i go now .. i Prepare 2Listen.
ooo.
Lovely wonderful friends who bring food. That’s my idea of heavenly bliss.
Hula hooping in the back yard, whipping up multiple salads with lovely Jude and Jody. Tim was master of the BBQ. People fully dressed up and were gorgeous.
Yes there are pictures of people hula hooping. Tony – the genius maker of said hula hoops – was sick in bed all day with a fever, so we really should have been a bit quieter. Whoops.
Now where did i put those photos .. ?
Ok i’ll make do with this magnificent shot from Chicago instead.
photo credit: rebecca anne
Much joy on Cup Day, our official gambling holiday. For the first time ever i did not watch the race, i have no idea who won (oh wait a minute, yes Bart “don’t have a horse” Cummings won again).
i spent my time picnicking with Zeena in the Edinburgh Gardens, and then stumbled upon the annual billy cart race in Eastment St Northcote (thanks to the wonderful Cos for texting me). This was super fun, and very civilised.
The only photos i remembered to take were during the fashion parade. An hilarious romp, with boys in a Zoolander-style walk-off. The winner was very clear from the deep growl of crowd approval. Not so much a louder cheer, but definitely a different quality.
And Barak Obama bin Hussein won the Grand Presidential Lottery over in the land of Hollywood. Yay Barak! Finally a communist in the white house. (Ha, ha.)
Two Canadian comedians make fun of Sarah Palin, with her full co-operation. Tim turned up at my house this morning and told me about it, so i had to listen.
Sarah doesn’t notice when he gives the wrong name for the Canadian Prime Minister, she doesn’t seem to shudder when he says he loves killing baby seals ..
Even dumber than Dan Quayle, it seems.
But ouch .. the Hustler joke was going too far, wasn’t it?
Did she not notice the French “Prime Minister” telling her he loved watching a porn-u-mentary about her, or did she diplomatically let it slide? You wouldn’t expect sexual harrassment from one head of state to another (potentially on the same level) .. but i’m sure it happens.
Link: Trail Blazer Blog | The Dallas Morning News. Link: BBC also.
On the positive side, listen to this guy on the BBC .. ‘Redneck votes for Obama’. Good man.
Wed 8 Oct — Don’t cut my fringe straight please .. was totally intriguing and mostly enjoyable. 12 artists playing live to air over 2 hours was a very ambitious idea for the Dance Cadaverous lady (Sophie B) .. and it was well worth the mad pins and needles you get from sitting on a hard floor and twisting in five different directions.
Bum Creek set a really good tone for the night. They are utterly weird, yet strangely good fun. Noises and growling merge with instrumental random-ness to produce a nice kind of bizarre. Kind of like Bad Taste by Peter Jackson. Horror music.
At the end of their set they switched over by pulling the jack out of the amp .. and the next guy plugged in. Some artists i could have listened to for much longer, while others were unbearable at the two minute mark.
Most fascinating instrument of the night went to the guy who’d built a box out of metal springs and coils. There’s no way i could describe either his action or the sound that emerged .. it was entertaining.
Pikelet i love. Great loops, driving rhythms .. endlessly creative. Qua brought people to life with some dancey beats.
It was fun watching the host attempting to give each band their two minute warning .. most artists were fully absorbed in the experience, so she would have to creep up quietly and make a play for eye contact. Everything went smoothly.
Until the final segment, where everyone jammed together. This was ugly .. and got the most walk-outs. Intriguing, entertaining, but just noisy. i stayed out the distance, to test my endurance.
PS: Qua and Pikelet are playing with Mountains in the Sky, 8th November at the Corner. gray is playing with Qua, plus it’s my birthday – who wants to come along? (now here’s a test to see if anyone’s reading ;-]
