Category Archives: Australia

Where Politics Ends And Decency Begins #blogboost

Image courtesy of flickr
Leo Reynolds photostream

Today marks the day when bloggers far and wide take to their keyboards. Thirty one posts in thirty-one days, October 1 to October 31, The Ultimate Blog Challenge. I am one of the bloggers who has chosen to accept this Challenge and am aiming to post once a day during the month. The rules however permit flexible posting as long as you post thirty-one posts by October 31.

My first post centres around politics. I have always felt it unwise to mix blogging and politics, but that’s only a personal preference. A lot of my blogging friends mix the two quite successfully. So with some shining examples in the back of my mind, I’m going to dip my toe in the non-partisan waters. It may give some readers a break from coverage of the US Presidential elections and an alternate perspective to the way they view politicians.

The Political Background

Like the US and Britain, Australia has two major political parties – Liberal and Labor. Unlike the US, the Liberal Party is not actually liberal, it is in fact conservative and is the Republican/Tory equivalent. The Labor party is more left wing and traditionally has represented unions and the labour movement. I’m not sure whether you would say it was on all fours with the Democrats, but it is certainly more liberal than the Liberals.

We currently have a Labor government headed by a female prime minister, Julia Gillard. Ms Gillard is our first ever female prime minister and holds power as a result of a deal brokered with a handful of independent MP’s after the 2010 election produced a hung parliament. Her performance and that of her Government has not been popular,  although our country seems to be suffering from a crisis of confidence in the alternative.

Ms Gillard is 51 years old and approximately three weeks ago her 83 year old father passed away whilst Ms Gillard was in Russia attending the APEC summit. By all accounts, Ms Gillard was close to her father and he influenced her ideoligical direction and involvement in the Labor movement. The Gillards were immigrants from Wales where life was not kind to John Gillard as he was forced to work from the age of 14, despite his desire and love of education. His loss was clearly acutely felt by his daughter.

The Conservative Radio Commentator

Enter Alan Jones, high rating radio commentator and talk-back host who makes no secret of his conservative political leanings. Some might go so far as to say he is the Rush Limbaugh of Australian politics. Mr Jones has on numerous occasions expressed his dislike of Ms Gillard’s politics and Ms Gillard herself.

Last week Mr Jones gave an address at a Young Liberals function. During that address he was heard to call Ms Gillard a liar and suggested that Ms Gillard’s late father had therefore died of shame. You can hear the relevant extract from the speech in the video below which also shows a transcrip of what was said.

The Fallout

The fallout from the remarks has been sweeping and swift. Politicians from both sides of politics have condemned Mr Jones’ attack as have waves of social media users. Consumers have been quick to call on those companies who advertise on Mr Jones’ radio show to withdraw their business and for Mr Jones’ corporate sponsors to pull their sponsorship. As of writing, sponsors and advertisers who have in fact pulled their dollars include Mercedes-Benz, Woolworths, Bing Lee and Freedom Furniture. Further ,Mr Jones made a public apology this afternoon, admitting that his remarks were in bad taste. You can read the text of his apology here.

Opinion

This is an extraordinary event in Australian politics throwing up almost universal condemnation of such inappropriate behaviour. The comments have been called ugly and insensitive as well as being out of line. And rightly so.

To put this in context until recent times Australian political debate has centered around political issues rather than character issues. Most US citizens would yawn at Australia’s  recent lacklustre comprehensively scripted political campaign. Generally, at best, most Australians have merely a passing interest in politics in the three to six weeks of an election campaign. We are not a “rah-rah” banner waving political nation. To have a country pay attention and almost speak as one in favour of a prime minister is novel.

Politics can be a grubby business. It is a profession where perception becomes reality and spin is king. We all get cynical about politics and politicians at times, but that is no reason to lose our sense of decency for our fellow man or in this case woman. Respect is and needs to remain a key platform in our dealings with each other and commentators should stick to attacking the issue, not the person. The timing and content of this comment is reprehensible and cannot be justified on any basis. It transcends basic human decency.

Mr Jones, Australians want leaders they can respect. Whether those leaders are politicians or commentators with considerable influence.  Being in the public eye is not an invitation to belittle or dehumanize a person or their sense of loss. Let’s not forget that at our core we all weep and in the words of the wonderful John Farnham, “we are all someone’s daughter, we are all someone’s son.”

The fallout continues…

Does basic human decency have a role in politics? Do politicians by the nature of the profession undermine their right to be treated respectfully?

The Gift Of A Journey: Windows in the Clouds by Stephen Byrne

How do you react when people tell you meaningful stories about their lives? Particularly those lives that are very different to your own? Do you listen with impatience or do you listen with intent? I cherish the moments when people let me enter their private worlds, when they give me a glimpse of the threads that have contributed to the fabric of their current being. To me, this sort of story is a gift.

Let me tell you about one such gift. The gift is the story of Stephen Byrne or as I know him, Steve. Now I don’t know about you, but I am not acquainted with too many pilots who can write nor too many authors who can fly – a rather intriguing combination of itself. But what makes this story a little bit more unique is that Steve also happens to be a paraplegic.

Steve’s story is documented in his autobiography, Windows In The Clouds, recently published by Zeus Publications.

Much like Steve’s life, the book comprises two distinct parts. The first part chronicles Steve’s early life and childhood years, the tree felling accident that changed his life in 1985 and its aftermath. The second part is more travel guide and through his story and the story of others, Steve documents his first solo overseas travel experience to the United States of America, a trip lasting seven weeks and taking in twenty-two States and a flying experience with Challenge Air.

Overseas readers will find the first part of the book particularly interesting because it contains many glimpses into small town, rural Australian life. Steve grew up and lived a lot of his life in the Southern NSW town of Cootamundra, which some of you may know as the birthplace of our most famous cricketer, Sir Donald Bradman. It is the story of a young child with dreams of living and working on the land, of clinging to the hope of one day owning his own farm and of putting a less than stellar family life behind him only to have those dreams snatched away through paraplegia. It is also the story of a young man struggling to come to terms with an irrevocable life change and of eventually refashioning his dreams and taking grasp of them.

What makes this book a pleasure to read is the depth of the writing. The main reason for its depth is that the author has quite a remarkable level of self-awareness. The fact that it comes from the male of the species is even more astonishing! Take this paragraph as an example:

I could just not cope with what had happened to me and I had turned into someone I didn’t like. Although I had survived a tree falling on me….I felt like a complete and utter failure. I looked around my farm and could find no real happiness. I had bought this block of land in the very real hope that it would help me to come to terms with what happened. Although I felt at times that I was in paradise here deep in the Australian bush, what was going on in my head was extremely dark.” [reproduced with the kind permission of Stephen Byrne]

I admit that I have only known Steve since his accident and in some ways I think that puts me at a distinct advantage. For I am not distracted by mourning what WAS, but rather I focus on celebrating what IS. And what IS, is a remarkable life, a published author and a talented pilot, most worthy of celebrating.

For this blog piece, I asked Steve what made him write this book, to which he replied:

” I wrote my book for a number of reasons. I suppose I had always wanted to write something about my life and what had happened to me, particularly my early life. The older I get, the more I realise just how much my early life has shaped the balance. I don’t want to keep going back into the past but unless I can deal with that it will always keep getting in the way of what I am doing now. I have also written what I have because I hope that my story may help others. It took me so long to really come to terms with what had happened to me and just how much it has affected my personality. The wheelchair only exacerbated all that was still lying under the surface. When I first tried to write my story fifteen years ago I gave up on it because I didn’t want to portray such a negative story. Over the intervening years things have changed in so many ways and there have been some real positives in there. I guess I have been able to, and I hope I have, outweigh the negatives with the positives.

To be able to put other people’s lives into my book I think brings some sort of balance to it all. I didn’t want to just talk about myself. Being able to tell other people’s stories takes the focus away from me a bit. Being able to also add a travel story adds to the mix.”

Whilst I have seen the story being described as “a story about overcoming spinal cord injury”, I don’t believe that this is an accurate description. Firstly, in my view, spinal cord injury cannot be overcome – its affects can be mitigated, sure, but the injury itself cannot be overcome as the spinal cord cannot repair itself. Secondly, to bill this book merely as the usual story of disabled inspiration sells it short, which is confirmed by Steve’s own words above. If you are inspired after reading the book – great – but you should read it for the depth of the writing, for the lessons which can be applied to your own life and for gaining an insight into a life different to your own.

As for the second part of the book, as a reader you feel like you are travelling for the first time, experiencing the thrill of mastering a new environment, of overcoming doubts and discovering just about anything is possible. There is a real sense of wonder that permeates though it, together with some wonderfully humorous anecdotes. Watch out for the Kansas City incident, it’s a real pearler!

Steve with a couple of mutual friends of ours, Tony and Randy (RIP)

I know more than a few writers read my blog so I finally asked Steve about the publishing experience. Steve had this to say:

“Being able to get someone to think that this was worth publishing was a big step. I had thought about self publishing but didn’t want to go down that road because having someone else publish my book was an affirmation that it was something worth doing.”

The book was certainly worth doing and is certainly worth reading. It is the gift of a journey.

You can purchase the book through Amazon here and visit Steve’s website, Parapilots, here.

What’s the most interesting biography or autobiography that you have read? Would you ever contemplate writing your own life story?

Have A Personal Olympic Story? Why Yes, I Do…

More than three decades ago, I graduated from primary school. Not sure what the North American equivalent is called, elementary school or middle school perhaps? Here in Australia, primary school is generally schooling between the ages of 8 and 11. In my State, high school starts at the age of 12.

We have only had one primary school reunion in all those years and to be honest, it was a little bit like entering the twilight zone. Not sure what made me feel like this, perhaps it was the amount of time that had passed since graduation, perhaps it was the intervening high school years and the notion that high school generally brings more memories or meaningful experiences. Whatever it was, it felt somewhat bizarre seeing my primary school mates after more than twenty years and talking about marriage, kids, divorce and careers. Perhaps because there were no blunt ended scissors, glue, coloured pencils in the middle of the table or dangerously low hanging projects strung up by pegs hanging from the ceiling.

As part of the festivities we were asked to fill out a questionnaire. Most of the questions were unremarkable, but there was one that I have carried with me. It is a fairly innocuous question, but I felt confronted by it. Coming away from the reunion, I felt under pressure to have an experience where I could answer the question in the affirmative. The question was:

Have You Ever Attended A World Event?

By that stage, I had given birth twice, had career success, was still married to my first and only, was a dutiful daughter and wife who almost brokered world household peace. Was this not enough? Did I have to attend a world event as well?

Well yes, because it would be memorable and fun and newsworthy and something that no-one could take away. It would also put me in good stead for any future school reunions with tricky questionnaires, not to mention future bridge parties with the girls (for when I get old – ha!).

It was therefore wonderfully fortunate that my city won the right to host the 2000 Olympics. I remember awakening at 3.00am to watch the then president of the IOC, Juan Antiono Samaranch utter the immortal words “and the winner is…. Sydernee”. Really, he said “Sydernee” and the expression has gone down in our city folklore. That announcement made sometime prior to 1995 heralded the start of my own personal Olympic story and journey to a world event.

We watched as Sydney Olympic Park was developed, the main stadium, satellite stadiums built and Olympic infrastructure installed. We heard stories about the supposed crowds and traffic and people renting their house for the Olympic period for exorbitant sums. We were inundated with cheap travel offers to exotic destinations to tempt us out of the city. We watched as they painted the blue line for the marathon runners in the next suburb and we watched the torch relay as it swept through. We saved money, entered ballots and queued to obtain tickets. Leave the city during the Olympics? Not this girl! The world coming to our laid-back doorstep and the prospect of watching Olympic events at a reasonable time, rather than in the middle of the night was an opportunity too good to pass up.

I can honestly say, attending the Sydney 2000 Olympics was one of my finest experiences. We ended up attending the opening ceremony, velodrome cycling events and athletics. But more importantly than the events themselves, for the fortnight of the Olympics our city was enveloped in a blanket of goodwill and cheer. The mood was incredible. Locals wanted to put their best face on to the world and exuded friendliness and tolerance. The city was clean and traffic almost non-existent. Public transport ran on time and business took a holiday. Carefree was in the air and the news was positive. The politicians stopped playing politics and everyone just seemed happy. In a word, utopia. And let me tell you, there is absolutely nothing like hearing your national anthem played on the world stage in your home city.

I can well imagine what London, Londoners and indeed all of England must be feeling right now. Five years is a long anticipatory haul, but the fruits of London’s Olympic labours are about to be laid bare for the world to see. And the world will watch and for the first time will Facebook and Tweet at unprecedented levels.

So yes, I have been to a world event, some would say THE world event. I have my sights set on a World Cup Soccer event, World Series Final (although it is debatable whether this is a true world event), a Rio Mardi Gras and perhaps the Tomatina festival in Spain in the future.

In the meantime, I have set my alarm clock for 5.30am tomorrow morning to watch the opening ceremony. I have reread my herding teenagers post and am armed and ready to wake them so we watch it together to continue a family tradition. Here’s to two weeks of this given our unforgiving timezone!

Would you want to go the Olympics? Have you been? Have you attended a world event? What Olympic moments are you looking forward to?

Let’s Phlog Monday: What Do You Call A Group of Bloggers?

Well, another week has passed and another Monday is here to phlog.

You will be relieved that I have no deep and meaningful message for you in my photos today. Rather, I thought we’d play a little matching game.

When most non-Australian natives think of Australian wildlife, they probably think of these (hint: these are NOT my photos):

or these:

or maybe even these:

It doesn’t help that the foreign press seems to only ever write about Aussie wildlife when someone (usually a foreign tourist) dies. Our most recent shark attack/casualty happened only in the last couple of weeks off the coast of Western Australia, but to most of us Aussies that news is relatively ho-hum. We are not unfeeling or uncaring, but swimming in the ocean to us is like crossing the road. It’s an inherently unsafe activity, but experience and the odds tell us that we are highly unlikely to be shark’s dinner any time soon. Millions of people actually swim in Australian’s oceans every year without so much as a toe nibble or even a suck. As for crocs, well we know to feed them the foreign tourists first. Especially those tourists who wear crocs. And as for the spiders, we have a healthy respect for those, because they actually cohabit in our suburbs.

Despite common belief, Australians don’t don flack jackets and machetes when they venture out should they happen to meet wildlife. Most of us merely shoot the wildlife with cameras. Here’s some of the friendly animal-folk that I encountered over the last couple of weeks. No toe sucking or nibbling was involved… well not by the animals anyway and that’s ALL I’m going to say about that!

I therefore proudly present to you a herd of kangaroos, a team of ducks and a mob of cockatoos.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So, what do you call a group of bloggers?

Is it a flock, a school, a convention, a rhumba or is it murder? Maybe it’s an ascension, implausibility, generation or plump?

All of these are real collective nouns. Who knew?

I’m leaning towards the term “blaggle” to describe a group of bloggers. Not only does it give good alliteration, but twists the old tongue. I’d love to hear any other suggestions you may have.

And whilst you are pondering that let’s see if you can match up the collective nouns in column A to the right animals in column B, consulting Google University if you must. Post your answers in the comments section.  The nearest correct entry or entries will each receive 100 Curtain Credits. If you have read my “Hi There” page you will know that these are pretty much worthless, but think of the glory of being right, people, think of the glory ! Oh, and the judge’s decision will be final.

Winners and Curtain Credit recipients will be announced by Friday 27 July.

Column A 

mumuration
weyr
storytelling
rabble
ascension
fesnyng
convocation
generation
bloat
implausibility
 

Column B

eagles
butterflies
gnus
larks
vipers
starlings
hippopotami
ravens
dragons
ferrets

 

Good luck!

Herding Teenagers? Unlocking The Secrets Of The Mo Code

School holidays.

Two seemingly innocuous words. School is a means of delivering education and education means empowerment. Holidays are fun, free, relaxed and something to look forward to.  School holidays are therefore an opportunity for fun, free, relaxed empowerment, right?

image from freedigitalphotos.net

If you are a mother of teenagers, like me, you’re now reading this sporting an all knowing grin. That grin that says you know otherwise, that years of experience has taught you that all the relaxing, fun and empowerment are on the kids’ side of the ledger and that you will be secretly applauding the day school resumes and your life returns to the track called S-A-N-I-T-Y. We never speak of this publicly of course, except to our closest confidants lest we be judged as anything less than wonderful parents. But tap into the roots of maternal realism and you will discover a world of secret code, secret handshakes and stories you won’t find in What To Expect When You Are Expecting.  This is called the Mo Code.

After three weeks of mid year break, my teens are back at school. This three-week break was a little different to past holiday breaks for several reasons. My 17 year old, Future Baseball Star, was eight short weeks away from “Trials” which is the last big exam event/ practice run before the real deal starting in late October. My 13 year old, Geek God in Training, just entered “manhood”, a significant event which we have celebrated in the past by embarking on a coming-of-age trip. As a family, we needed time together before the Teens scatter to the wind of their own lives. So, it was with much hope and determination that I herded the Teens and the Italian Stallion together for a five day road trip.

After you have attempted to herd cats teenagers a few times, you begin to learn the anatomy of the herding experience and as a community service to all of you would be mothers or mothers of teenage boys  in training, I present to you the following extract from the Mo Code. Please treat this with the reverence and confidentiality deserving of a rare glimpse into the secrets of the Code. For all you experienced mothers of teens or adults, treat this as reinforcement and part of the duty to support each other in this most arduous part of the parenting journey.

Herding Teens 101

    1. Once you have decided on the activity for which herding is required, give your teens the two weeks to go early warning signal. This allows time for your teens to process the information (this will take about four days) and for them to feel that they have issued you with the required number of complaints about said activity.

    2. Ignore said complaints or only deal with them by way of witty rejoinder. Never try to reason with your teens or state that contrary to their beliefs, your chosen activity will be fun, entertaining and memorable. Never show doubt or fear. Teens can sniff both a mile away.

    3.  During the lead up to the activity, eat and sleep well. You will need your strength.

    4. Invite your teens to research the place or activity beforehand and to suggest any things they might like to do. They will ignore this opportunity, but it is important that you issue the invitation.

    5. Subtly remind your teens to arrange or rearrange their schedules so that you have the required time available for the chosen activity. The key here is subtlety – you wouldn’t want them to miss anything really important to them, would you?

    6. Sporadically drop into conversation some of the detail of the activity you plan, but do not respond to the complaints or if you do, use only the strategy in B above. Teens do not like complete surprises.

    7. Issue the one week to go early warning signal. For details, see A above.

    8. Reassure your teens that any hotel or place where you will stay has electricity and a WIFI connection. Trust me, you can’t fight this one. It’s better to go with it and make sure you spend time away from the hotel or place.

    9. Have your teens pack their clothes etc. But do a quick check before you leave or you might end up with two T-shirts, three gadget chargers and one pair of boxers for a five day stay in winter! Have said teen take any necessary remedial packing action.

    10. Keep up the good cheer, positivity and unflinching witty rejoinders… you’re almost there!

    11. Pack any personal provisions you need to see you through the “Cacophony Of Complaints”. This is the first hour after you embark on your chosen activity where your teens will escalate their complaints to a crescendo and eventually come to realise there is no turning back. It is critical at this point you adhere to point B  above and also that you drop a few fart jokes (as opposed to actual farts) here and there. Deflection/distraction –  works for teens as well as it does for toddlers, only the level of (non) sophistication changes.  As for provisions, I suggest, as a minimum, an I-Pod, chocolate, chewing gum, reviews and info on the latest teen movies, games and bands and a water pistol.

    12. Playfully engage with your teenagers for the next couple of hours, humorously lamenting with them about how much being away from their usual routine does actually suck. Reminding them about world poverty at this point is not a good tactic, although reminding them about similar suckiness their mates had to endure at the hands of their parents seems to work.

    13. Herding completed. You are now free to go about the business of making happy family memories.

Image from freedigitalphotos.net

There it is, the thirteen steps to herding success from the Mo Code.  Successful herding will give you immense satisfaction and wonderful anecdotes.  Trust me, I know…I’m a professional.

Have you ever had to convince a less than supportive group to come along with you somewhere? Do you have any great herding stories? Any refinements to my extract from the Mo Code?

Let’s Phlog Monday: Shear Forces

M.I.A.

Three letters, one concept, apt description of the past couple of weeks.

There seems to be much to catch up on in blogdom since I was last here and I will endeavour to do so over the next few days.  But now it’s time for a good phlogging.

My last phlog centered on non-coastal landscapes and the search for the right pathway. Today, I would like to return to that landscape and explore the concept of sheer forces.

There is a duality in images of jagged rock. On the one hand the images can be beautiful and convey the passage of time and events. Examine the layers, each tells a story and provides a foundation to that which comes after it. Each layer is discreet, a beginning and an end. How many layers do we have in each of our lives? Have we built strong foundations for what is to come? Are we comfortable in having the layers exposed? Can we withstand a sheer force?

On the other had, the images can be harsh and unforgiving. The smoothness is hidden behind jagged edges and shattered pieces. Each break represents a cataclysmic  event, a force that was not reckoned with. A power that was not harnessed.

However, even a cataclysmic event, a sheer force creates something new that can be pleasing to the eye. Something that would never have been uncovered were it not for the application of an external event. Sheer forces bring a perspective we did not have before, a test of our strength and resilience and the opportunity to reshape and rethink. We may not immediately be able to deal with the exposed surfaces or jagged edges that ensue, but most will be smoothed and covered over time… if we let them and embrace the new landscape.

Enjoy these natural and man-made shear surfaces and think about your strength and beauty and the layers which represent the events and sheer forces in your life which you have survived.

Force

Fissure

Fracture

Function

Forward

Federation Square – Melbourne, Australia

Happy Monday and may you have the strength to withstand any shear forces that come at you this week.

Let’s Phlog Monday: Finding That Path Through The Forest And The Trees….

… and the rocks and escarpment.

Firstly, let me apologise for my absence from blogdom all week. It’s been one of those introspective weeks where I have been trying to make sense of it all. Much needed and no doubt some of this introspection will find its way here at some point. Raising that Curtain just a little bit higher requires a fair bit of energy and my writing has been impacted. Coupled with that is trying to ascertain where my true blog voice lies. This week has been about searching for answers or at least trying to narrow the breadth of questions.

As a part of that process I went for a trek out bush. Nature has a way of providing cues and motivation and on this occasion it didn’t disappoint. One of my bluggies (blog buddies), dearanonymousfriend, through her comments inspired me to take photos of some of our non-coastal landscapes. I hope you find the results as pleasing as the coastal photos.

The photos are from an area called the Blue Mountains which is famous for its escarpment and a rock formation called the Three Sisters, for obvious reasons. On the day we descended the Giant Stairway through the Three Sisters to the floor of the Jamison Valley below.  The Stairway is carved into the cliff face and comprises 911 stairs with a drop of almost 300 metres. The expression “jelly legs” was very much at the fore of our minds. Once at the bottom we walked the Federal Pass along the base of the escarpment, a walk of about 3.1 km. The walk is not unduly difficult but does require a fair degree of fitness and I absolutely recommend it if you are thinking of playing tourist here.

Apart from breathing in the fresh mountain air and scouting photo ops, I was happy to be travelling along a discernible path. One that left no doubts about the direction of travel, one that ended at a meaningful destination, in this case, the Scenic Railway. Whilst there were side paths, they were less developed and the destination a little more uncertain. How many of us are searching for that path to that meaningful destination? I don’t need a path that is necessary well-travelled, I am happy to be a pioneer to an extent. But I am one that needs to understand the destination if only in an oblique sense and to be able to see a few steps in front of me.

One thing the trek taught me is that to be able to discover that next path, I need to be mindful of both the forest and the trees. The bigger picture and each individual element is equally as important and needs to be savoured. It also taught me that symbiosis is often necessary to maximise opportunities.

Symbiosis

Journey

Growth

Destination

Three Sisters

 Do you like to pioneer or go down a path more travelled?

Let’s Phlog Monday: Coastal Textures

Patterns are intriguing. Particularly natural ones.

They depict a wonderful combination of logic and creativity. A meeting of the left and right brains. For the longest time, my creative side has been drowned out by logic, reasoning, problem solving, facts, principles, process and tasks. If you are one of the lucky ones that have married your logical and creative sides, then I applaud you. This is still very much a work in progress for me.

I am often awed by the surrounding coastal landscape and the patterns found within it. Even when there are obvious natural flaws, the patterning is often sublime and impossible to humanly replicate. Elements combining together to construct three dimensional wizardry. The energy used to create these patterns is often immense, but Mother Nature takes it all in stride. Patterning is the instrument of the universe.

Here are some coastal patterns I have recently encountered. I hope you can feel the texture of the images in these photos. There’s a beauty in patterned repetition. Rough and smooth, creativity and logic…… balance.

Smooth

Weather

Erode

Design 

Create 

Do you tend to be more creative or logical? 

Let’s Phlog Monday: All Is Swell

I’ve got sunshine on a cloudy day – when it’s cold outside, I’ve got the month of May

And I’ve got these wonderful two opening lines from the Temptations 1965 classic My Girl shuffling around in my head as a precursor to the pictures to follow.

After last week’s rain burst, the sun has returned to our fair shores bringing some enjoyable winter days. Whilst it’s still cold, the sun has taken the edge off the chill during the day and brightness has replaced the dull somberness of eternal cloud.  Whenever it’s a sunny day, my optimism escalates. Most of us Aussies are sun chasers. When there’s sun, there’s hope of a warmer existence. During winter I scour the house for wind-protected sun patches and chase the movement of the sun as it filters through the windows with the passing day.

Aussies also tend to love the beach and I am lucky enough to be within reach of some amazing ones. The legacy of the Southerly of the week before was midweek six foot swells on our surf beaches. The surfers donned their wetsuits and came out to ride the waves. The dolphins smiled, looked on and frolicked. The whitewash was like shaving cream.

Before the photos, a touch of surfing humour:

 How do surfers clean themselves?

 They wash up on shore!

I consider surfers in six foot wintry swells to be very brave people. But days like these to a surfer are like rare manna from heaven and out they come to feast. The shots were taken just before dusk.

Waves Crashing

Pipeline Curling

Arms Thrashing

Board and Rider Hurling

Are you a sun chaser or do you prefer to be out of the sun?

Let’s Phlog Monday: When Winter Weeps

Wet, wet and more wet that’s what the long weekend has brought us here in the land of beaches and cream. It has been raining hard for the last two and a half days with no let up until at least Thursday. Today is a no work day, thanks to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and her not so real birthday.

To begin with a winter quote from Edith Sitwell:

Winter is the time for comfort, for good food and warmth,  for the touch of a friendly hand and for a talk beside the fire:  it is the time  for home.

This is a warm up photo and not one of mine.
Photo from flikr – song under the sugar sugar.

It certainly is a time for home … or a time for canoes, ducks, rubber boots and jumping and wading through puddles. It’s also a time for stews, dumplings, apple strudel and hot chocolate.

But first, a small winter joke and a nice topical segue…

Q: What do you get from sitting on the ice too long?

A: Polaroids

Please grab a mug of something and enjoy this week’s photos.

Driving Rain

Dark Descends

Winter Weeps

These were taken last week, just after a southerly decended on my town. A southerly refers to a cold change from the South usually bringing with it chilly Antarctic winds. In this case, the change decsended rapidly causing the light to dim and tempratures to plummet. It also brought with it heavy rain.

The pictures were taken from a skybridge in which I sought shelter. Minutes before the change, the outdoors were filled with people. Despite the weather, life pushes on.

What do you love about Winter?