40th Birthday Party

This is a short blog - I had a great time at my 40th dinner party and here are some images of the night..

Melbourne 2007, birthdays, bread baking, windfarms & Al Gore

What a month! It started last month with an invite from Cathy in Melbourne to attend her 40th party, then got a bit more hectic when I needed to arrange a work meeting in Onslow (about 2000kms north of Perth) for the end of the month, then I had a bright idea that Tracy and I wouldn't tell Cathy we were both visiting which added to some logistically manovering and on top of me wanting to visit 3sets of friends located in opposing directions to each other, two art galleries, undertake a whole day bread baking course at a Convent, attend the 40th party, go to 2 markets and relax into only 5 days... But then September become totally out of control when I was accepted to train as an Al Gore Climate Change Presenter in Melbourne, no less and the very next weekend after Cathy's 40th... sweet :)

So on a very late night in September Tracy and I, without any sleep boarded a 747 at 11.25pm for Melbourne approx 4000kms away (3.5hours)... Whilst I was tired I have no idea what Tracy was running on, the girl had just completed nightshift (Nurse), flown to Hopetoun (500kms south of Perth), packed up a friends camp and driven back to Perth, then returned to work for 2 days... in the middle of this she completed two uni assignments and is arranging her own trip to Italy in October!

The flight was as always uneventful. We landed groggy and in need of coffee... It was 5am Melbourne time, 3am Perth time... We took the skybus to the CBD, stuffed our luggage in a locker, including a bottle of red wine and went for walk along the Yarra - waiting for Melbourne to wake up on Friday the 14th Sept.

I like Melbourne. Not more than Perth nor less then Sydney. Its just that I like it as a city, its alive, has great allayways, is old & new, modern and rustic, grotty and flash. Best of all I can get a coffee at 6am at a great cafe on the Yarra river and watch the workers arrive... This is not so easy to do in Perth... but we are thinking about it. 2nd best of all, my chai soya latta is automatically served with honey :)

We stayed nattering at the caffee for a few hours - then in need of loos and realising it was now almost 10am we took off the the Pixia 20years of Annimation.. If it come to your city - you must go... Its more adult than kid and very interesting.. Thought it was th 10-minute annimated movie, whilst reclining on the floor that made me realise I was both very tired and need of food... So off to the Vic Markets for food... Yummy!

A bit of impromtu shopping and time to catch train to Belgrave to visit friends.. Now we manged to refind Southern Cross (Spenser Street) train station and the locker with all our stuff... even found the code to open it... We took all our stuff out... packed the extra stuff we had into the bags, luggeged them all to Flinders Street Station (Don't ask), caught the train on platform 9 to Belgrave and as our train rolled through Southern Cross Station - Tracy asked if Ii had the bottle of wine with me... yep you guessed it the answer was nope! Carried all the way from Perth... bugger...

We can get another one - perhaps they sell Margaret River reds in Melbourne?

Struth its cold in Victoria! I thought we were both going to die waiting for Ana to collect us from the train station... It was so cold! As much as I love the culture of Melbourne - I don't think I can give up the sunshine of Perth! Great night was had by all - with Michael playing his trumpet and Phillip teach us card tricks :)

Alas Tracy & I had to leave mid morning and by the time it came around it was all a bit of rush - didn't help me leaving my jacket and having to go back. Peter had given Tracy & I a replacement bottle of wine and with all the rushing of getting into the car and on to the train it was a couple of stops before, yet again Tracy & I relised we had left a 2nd bottle of wine - this time at least still in Peter & Ana's house... We decided we would try our luck and check out the locker from yesterday - just in case it was there...

1st we booked in to the Greenhouse Backpackers, dumped our things and took off to the Rose Street Markets Fitzroy, via Southern Cross Station. Now as you all know when you have lost something and you are approaching the location - very hopeful it will still be there, yet trying not to get to excited in case its not.. We were laughing at our sillyness... 1st thing the locker was not being used, 2nd thing you can actually open them if they are not being use... and 3rd thing if you're ever at Southern Cross Station i highly recomend you open every unlocked locker and check in the front right hand side corner for a bottle of red - because if you are as lucky as we are you'll fine one...Not ours thought as we now have it back ;)

So from here it was take the tram to Fitzroy - which involved some wonderful conversations trying to work out which stop to get off at... as luck would have it we were told the wrong stop number, but ignored it when I actually saw the sign for Rose Street. the markets are small, quant and well worth a visit. We had lunch there - very nice and wanded around the craft - mostly clothes... Then it was time to hunt down some pink laces for my purple steelcaped boots... Need these for the Onslow trip... A coffee at the wonderfull cafes and a glass of wine (oops that was two) and oops we had better get back to the Green house & have a nap before the 40th. Cathy was to meet us at the backpackers around 5.30pm..

After two glasses of wine we were in need of a nana nap.. this was attempted but too much light & noise to actually fall asleep... Cathy sms she was here at 5.30pm ish So I wandered down to show her were we wer staying...The room we had was only 4 bed and it had a wall dividing the bnks up, so Tracy was able to hide... I don't think I will every forget Cathy's surprise and holler when Tracy wandered how and said 'Hi'... Good on you Cathy it was a moment I'll always treasure... We all got ready and tok offf at a brisk pace to the Crown for a competitive and interactive game of ten pin bowling... What at hoot - haven't played the game in years... After and attempt to find a nightclub in Melbourne that played music we all knew, which involved catching 4 trams! We gave up and returned to one of the bars at the crown... A particular highlight is the fire flames that are our the front along the river... One is able to get a suntan from the heat they generate... Complete waste of gas and I'm sure with some effort I could calculate the CO2 emissions... but it was specky... IT was 2am before we made it back to the Greenhouse... Oops have to get up at 6am!

Surprisingly waking up wasn't that bad. I might have to drink Burbon more offen or perhaps it was the Coke a Cola fix that the burbon was mixed with... etiher way... Cathy, Tracy & I had made it, using a Taxi to the Abbortford Convent on the Yarra river by 7.45am.. We had our 1st Coffee for the day and some food, met the other ladies and baker... Yep this was going to be a great day.


BREAD BAKING
What a hoot - we slaved, sweated and eat well this day... Too well at the end of the day, between the 3 of us we had made the following:

3 dozon scones
3 family pizza with toppings to die for
3 loves of white sour dough bread
3 loves of rye sour dough bread
3 loves of white bread
3 dozon small bread rolls
3 apple & custard rolls

Needless to say it was too much food to try to fit into Cathy's home fridge.. so on the way home, with all our food bundled into 100kg flour sack's we frantically used our mobile phones to find a refuge to take our home cooking.. This was located in South Yarra and we took off to deleiver our goodies in pooring rain (so Melbourne). The refuge were very pleased with our efforts. We did keep some of the bread to stuff into Cathy's fridge...

The big highlight at baking was it was Cathy's 40th. Tracy & I had bought a couple bottles of sparkling white wine to drink with our pizza lunch and everyone joined in.. Good fun. A 2nd bigger surprise was the chocolate cake the baker had arranged for Cathy at the end of the day - It was a real treat to see Cathy cry when the cake was brough out and we all sang happy birthday... It was such great fun arranging all this... And I am so so happy that both Cathy & Tracy - my two longest friends were able to be there with me.. (yep it was me who talked them both into spending a day baking bread)


[More words to come]

720 ABC Radio and the Green Army

Been wondering what I have been doing?

Mostly planting a vegi garden - photos later when the seeds have germinated and having fun at work... Last week I did something very different - I was interviewed about my Strawbale house, power system and composting loo by the ABC - it was a lot of fun...

Its all about making a change about gobal warming... As individuals we can make a difference in the way we choose to live.

you can find the audio at:

http://www.abc.net.au/perth/stories/s1972191.htm

WOMADelaide

WOMADelaide March 9-11 Botanic Park Adelaide

I arrived in Adelaide on Thursday 8th March and met up with my hosts for the weekend John & Chris... They have a true permaculture garden the whole garden its just magic. I set up my tent under the fig & pecan nut tree.. Wonderful spot. It was so warm in Adelaide i didn't need the tent fly. On my 1st day we spend time at a local cafe and then had dinner in the city. I guess the biggest shock for the day was the bus that turns into a train - well sort of. It has wheels on the side that help it lock into a road that can only take the bus. It gets a long at cracking pace and mostly through a park that is covered with cycle paths...

WOMAD kicks off at around 5pm so Friday morning was spend checking out the food markets. I now understand why Adelaide is home to food.. I would have to say these markets were actually better than the Victoria Markets... all you have is food... all undercover... Anyway Sandrs (chris's friend) and I coffeed here and had a wonderful lunch. The arvo was spent having a nap and then getting to WOMAD.

The 1st gig I saw was the Mahotella Queens - South Africa and they were good fun. Next on the bill for me was Lila Downs- Mexico - She is wonderful very tiny great voice and even better stories. Next was Lunasa - Ireland - I enjoyed it but it was just Irish music nothing special or new. The big bill for the night was Gotan Project - France/Argentina this was a production I think some 20 people on the stage... I did like the mmusic but not the stage act... so I took off to find food and listen fom a distance... Now food was a hard choice there were over 38 places to eat and drink plus two bars.... I was a bit shell shocked in finding what I wanted... enjoyed Mediterranean prawns :) and Coopers beer yum... As I was early for the next big show I managed to get almost front row to sit and eat and wait for Femi Kuti & The Positive Force - Nigeria This is a sax-driven jass-funk according to the guide - I just loved the beat... Lucky for me I heard the call of my mobile at 11pm when my friends were looking for me to head home... I was still a buzz as i went to bed around 1am

The good thing is that it doesn't start until noon the next day so you can catch up sleep. thats assuming you haven't wandered off to some of the town pubs that are raging on or taken in a Fringe show that were just starting this week.

Next day for me started with the Backsliders- Australian blues... I sat in the shade about 1/2k away from the stage due to the heat of the day.. it was going to be a scorcher... The next group I didn't take too was Sambasunda - Indonesia so I had some lunch - vegie curry. Now a highlight to WOMAD is it is trying to be Zero Waste so everything is recylced, plates, cups, forks everything and the bins are so very well labled... Its also trying to be Green & Global so for the 1st time it was Carbon Neutral... I did have a dig with my host John that perhaps there should have been a few solar panels around the place as the energy used was coming from coal - there was no mention of WOMAD buying Natural or Green Power for the event... anyway there is always next year...

For the band Augie March I found a cool spot in the shad near the bar - had a Coopers and just listened and lied down... Its that kind of event where you can just lie down in the dirt (no grass due to the drought) and chill with the music... I needed a nap I had forgotten what a beer will do to me in 38 degrees in the middle of the day... makes you very sleepy. But I was awake and ready to see Celenod - new Caledonia... There CD is on back order I'm so excited about getting it... The music well happy music with a good beat... I loved it so much so I told everyone to catch them next time around...

At different times of the day there is cooking by the singers. This is some fun and I went to see Lila Downs - again great stories and the food looked wonderful ... I didn't get to try it but I did wander off to get a Chia tea - then this was so good I had to get a second one :) I took this tea with me to listen to Deborah Conway & Willy Zygier - Australia and they were great even the dig she made at 3G.

The 1st big act for Saturday night was Habib Koite - Mali ( i want a CD but not yet sure which one to buy) the guide says the music is semi-acustic nylon sound, fevered rhythmic exchanges and extended jazzy jams. I have no idea I was just bouncing along with the crowd and enjoying it heeps...

I have bought this CD - Entran Finatawa - Niger... These guys are great its a desert blues and the group is made up of from the Tuareg nomads and the Wodaabe... Just top music and fun to dance too..The lead singer keep talking to crowd in french but didn't stop the crowd from responding. I've not yet received the CD but looking forward to hearing it...

I wandered off to get food and found a good spot to sit down and wait for the Waifs-Australian.. as as expected it was a great gig. I had to leave early as I was really keen to get a good spot to see and hear Mariza - Portugal. She is striking and sings Fado... Lucky Oceans discribed it as Portugese blue that never has a happy ending. Boy can this girl sing... and perform she is very interactive with the crowd and puts on a good show. I made sure I would see her 2nds show also... It was time to meet my friends and make our way home.. cuppa tea b4 bed and chatting about Mariza...

I work up sunday with both Lila and mariza singing in my head. Chris and I went to a permaculture meeting in the park next door to WOMAD.. this was interesting and I have bought my 1st book by David Holmgren. Looking forward to reading. I made it in time to listen to the Women's Voices - this is an adhoc jam session with Emma Donovan, Mahotella Queens, lila Downs and Yasmin Levy. It was abit of fun and it introduced me to Emma Donovan - Australian What a powerful voice this girl has. I have orded her 1st cd... its on back order so I wait a bit longer.

The whole time the music is play there is also act's walking around I got to meet the Zoo animals, Moody cows and bouncing boncers.. I also did a lap of the shopping lane and cd shop... some more chia tea and food and it wa stime to gatch Rebetiki... this was a fun gig - greek music by a Australian band... there were so many Greeks there and they got up to dance a lot of fun and top sounds .. I enjoyed...

More chia tea :) some food and listen to the all-star jam... Then it was time to suss out Asha Bhosle & Kronos Quartet... This was not much fun at all... I sat down at stage two instead and started to read my permaculture book... but mariza came on and she was just as good - but alas there was a lot of backfeeding with the base so it didn't sound so clear.. shame they fixed it by the end...

I listened to Salif Keita - Mali from the back row. It was good big production gig I liked it but to get into it I think you needed to be in the middle of all the people. I was hanging out to hear Huun-Huur Tu - Tuva/Russia... This was just wonderful.. I layed down in the dirt and just shut my eyes and listened to the rytham.. this is deep chanting - guttural and moving... it is accompaned with some tradional instruments... The whole crowd was just lying down and listening.. such a special quiet time...

this was the last gig at WOMADelaide 2007 - and one of the best. Time to head back to tent and catch up on sleep...

It was a wonderful weekend... must do... I just want to go to one in Europe now.. one day I hope

Victoria, Melbourne

Flight QF 648 departs at 23.55 on Friday 2nd March bound for Melbourne. I'm on it. I'm also flying business class :) Yep I thought bugger it use all your point up and get some sleep. I did go to friends in the avro after work and to get 3 hours rest... I did manage to sleep on the flight - you can in business class the seat folds out not totally flat but good enough you also have a very wide seat and there is just no way the person next too you is going to be sleeping on your side...

So I land bright eyed and bushy tailed (one day I'll know where that saying came from) Denice and I find each other via mobile phones and a few happy tears latter, a Melways, the car and a need for food we heard out of the airport in a northwest direction towards Sunbury. I didn't want to drive through the heart of the city to start of adventure... we were both keen to get out to the towns of outer Melbourne to see some 'country and bush'.

Some of you may remember the photo of me and a girl in a hotpot in Iceland - this is Denise she has imigrated to Victoria for 12-months or so.

I had no idea how hilly Victoria is - no wonder people like the place... and the towns so Australian... Unlike towns in WA the buildings are still turn of the centry and well kept... You can see that Victoria was a sheep and grain growing area... I just loved the feel of the sun rise as we made our way due east - we turned east at Lancefield and started to look for food at Kilmore. This is where it helps haaving an accent... Denise justs fronts up to a closed bakery and asked them to feed us bread... they do... they are so surprised that two girls from from Denmark and the other from Perth have arrived in their bakery at 7.30am - so excited by the way we met that they fire up the coffee machine and make us coffee whilst we eat our bread and jam. It was a lot of fun and from my perspective so nice that the happy conversations and affection I recieved in Europe is also found all over the place - travel make us realise people are kind and friendly.

From here we meander our way east ish with the aim of getting to Healesville... We stop some where and go for a short walk to look at some dry falls (foss) due to the drought... but its here that i get to see my st lyier bird - of course its the girl from Denmark that tells me what they are! Typical... Denise thinks this is funny, I have to explain that they are only found in the East coast... They are also big! about the size of a small chook... This is quite a shock when you have spent your whole life using the 10 cents coin and having no idea that they were big...

We move on - we find the best market on the side of the road... we wander around here I buy a dress and we drink Chia tea... I gould move to this bit of Victoria - not sure what I would do for work and i suspect when its cold I would hate it... but in the middle of a summer thunder storm it was just magic.. We are somewhere around Whittlesea and Yarra Glen. We have lunch at a cafe I fair dunkum pie! overlooking the Yarra... this is a bit of a trickly at this part of Victoria - I guess this far out of town (100kms) its lucky to be flowing I know the Swan isn't..

We never make it too Healesville... its time to get to the Patch or Dandenong's to catch up with Peter, Ana and family. Now with me driving again and Denice navigating we make it. We both get very excited when we have to drive through Ferntree Gully. I'm moving here! what a place - again the cold & snow would kill me...

We have a great time with our hosts - playing basketball with the boys was a hoot... We chat for some time about travel, lives, work and the world. Its fun. We start this again in the morning and its very late b4 Denice and I manage to take off sightseeing again. Again we try for Healesville - again we don't make it. We are having too much fun just enjoying the road from Warburton to Marysville... We drive up into Yarra Range National Park - its here when I realise I can't live in Victoria - its gets a bit of Snow here and I swear it was going to snow this day - I was freezing! Denice thought I was a dork i'm sure.

We stay a second night and make our way back to Melbourne the next day. We dumpt he car have a minor issue over a dent but it is cleared up and then head to the train statio to meet Cathy. finally Denice and I have that coffee i promised her in Iceland in Melbourn... this was so cool. We all have lunch down at Dockland which is reat - then its time for Denice to head home big hugs and a promise to see each other again soon... lucky for us we have sms

Cathy and I return to the Western suburbs to Melton. We spend most of the night night catching up on our lives and reliving our past together... this is fun... The next day we take off into Melbourne to go to the Victoria Markets... I still have fond memories of Cathy and I stomping around the Freo Markets buying my 1st leather motor bike jacket... here I buy Napal pants and wool jumpers - but just as much fun. We have lunch and get some food to make dinner.

Back in Melton - Cathy has to work for a bit so I take off to the pool to do a few laps. Upon my return we cook dinner - chat and talk about the our futures... all good fun.

Next day we are up early and both go to the pool its good fun I do a few more laaps and after her gym workout Cathy joins me in the pool... Its soon time to hit the road to Williamstown.

Williamstown is loverly - we haave a wonderful lunch at this harour side cafe after spending a few hours window shopping... then I have this bright idea to drive around the whole of Port Phillip Bay - Cathy had no idear we could catch a ferry from Portsea to Queencliff... This is such a great drive. I'm trying to convince Cathy that when I next visit we do it on a bike - some how I just didn't win her over - I know I'll be back to do this ride on a bike... soon hopefully... I've nto seen Cathy so excited when she gets to drive her car on to aa car ferry - we don't have them in WA and yes anyone in Europe would be very used to them - here in Oz this is one of the best i've been on. Thought I do like the punts in NSW - but thats another story...

We stop in Geelong and they have a fairswheel - big one so we catch a ride - this is a hoot... I feel like we were 18 again and being dag's like we sued to be and at time still are... I like tGeelong - we tried to find somewhere to eat but it was late and everthing was expensive so we make our way back to Melton via the Bacchus Marsh road... It was a hoot of a day and so good to spend time with a friend of my youth - such a special think to have mates that know you and still put up with your behaviour.

Next day Cathy leaves me at the ariport early to catch my flight to Adelaide for WOMAD - I write a few postcards and have a coffee. More on WOMAD next blog

WREN Freo 2007

Okay this wasn't as flash as Florence. It was great to go... there were 5 of us from Horizon Power that turned up to either all of the conference or justs bits of it. It kicked of on sunday 4th in the Arvo with the screening of the Al Gore movie and debate. This was the 1st time I had sean the movie. Its a great flick.. well worth seeing - I did prefer going to the Al Gore dinner b4 Christmas and meeting Al so much more. He is a good storyteller and sending a great message to the world. Yes I sought of got to meet Al when he signed my copy of his book and I got to ask him how many PV's he had on his roof - none but working on it was the answer. After the movie there was a bbq and I caught up with friends I meet in Florence and made some new friends

The conference was the usual type with different sessions happening at the sametime so us Horizion lot did a divide and concure thing to cover as many of the sessions as we could. I love the buzz of these things and more so when I'm especially driven to making a change in the world and our use of energy.

One the last day I attended the PV workshop. This was great I learnt so much about PV and its application and future use in energy production... I even think I now know what is wrong with my power system running a new washing machine - but more on that saga once its all working ...

Music & summer storms

The tailend of January saw me at the 'Day on the Green' concert at the Sandleford Winnery in the Swan Valley. It was a scorcher of a day 42 degrees - needless to say I didn't get to the all day concert until sometime after 5pm - I had been on a 70km bike ride in the morning and need to have some time out of the sun and heat. I met up with friends and we found a cool spot in the shade under a gum tree... the only sad bit was we couldn't see the stage - but we did get to hear the music...

The 1st band we heard was the Church - don't ask me to tell you what they sing... It was great and took me back to the late 80's. Next up was Paul Kelly. The non Australian readers may want to do a Google seach on Paul - bit of an icon in the Oz music seen. This was fantastic and it had cooled enough to move to the stage area.. Paul doesn't sign dance music, but ballads about Oz and life they are very special...

The last band was the Pretenders from the USA... I had forgotten what they sang, but once they started it all come flooding back... As they started a cool change begain adn one hell of a thunder storm... It was very impressive and fitted the dance music... the only problem the storm and lightning was right over the stage.. And frankly being on a metal stage with electric equipment, with lightning above you is not such a good strategy. Needless to say the organisers were rightly worried that the main act would get killed! so after 45 minutes the band was told to stop playing until the storm had passed... It went down like a tonne of bricks with the audance and the band - but I think it was the right idea.. I didn't stay until they started to replay it was already 11pm, raining and there was work in the morning..

Top gig the I wish I had thought of getting photos somehow of the lightning... these photos have been lifted from the www..