iPhone fun

a little bit of iPhone fun on the way to and from a job in Noosa this evening. 

Adelaide

In between an ongoing series of technical issues that required creative management and a few delays in completing jobs, I managed to escape to Adelaide for a week (OK, it was bad timing but the tickets had been booked ages ago!) to visit my friend Sally and see her nearly 9 month old Granddaughter, Tillea, for the first time. Sally and I have been friends since our boys were in Kindy together and they turn 21 this year!

It was bloody cold down there!



Being in a different State is so refreshing to the eyes and the soul. I didn't take my camera out at all for the first few days and simply drank in the scenery. The hay bales caught my eye and on the second to last day Sally and I ventured out at dawn to play in the fields.


I have a memory of Pomegranates from my childhood and when we walked past a whole tree of them in a front yard in a quaint little town somewhere in the Fleurieu Peninsular, I just had to take some back to Sally's place to photograph. They weren't quite like I remembered from my childhood, but I guess things never really are.


Just love these pretty things growing wild all over the place. They're probably weeds but they look good!


They have great jetties and lots of them. I'm so jealous!


Because Sally was a somewhat reluctant model and I'd used up all my favours in the hay paddocks, I didn't dare ask her to pose for a photo under the Jetty, so I gave her my camera and I modelled to help even the score. Here I am in my new op-shop, made-in-Spain skirt and $4.00 top. Vinnies had a half price sale so I stocked up big time. I thought I looked like a toned down version of Frida Kahlo (Mexico/Spain Close enough, right?), but upon my return I was informed by my friend Steven that I looked more like I was auditioning for The Sound of Music.


I couldn't help myself, and convinced her to let me get just a couple of shots under the Jetty. She looks very agreeable in this shot but you should see the look she gave in the next shot!


Tillea and I hit it off straight away and we had lots of fun and cuddles. Phoebe is a great Mum and I have some photos of her and Jeff and Tilly to share soon


I also got to go to WOM Adelaide and saw Neil Finn and Cat Empire and a few others. I did some research and some reading for a project I'm working on and the week was over all too soon.

Shave for a Cure - Leukaemia Foundation

Donate online here

You'll see some of Brooke-Lyn's wedding photos in the post below but this post is to let you know that Brooke-Lyn's whole family (yep, all seven of 'em in the photo here) are about to shave their heads, tomorrow, to raise money for the leukaemia foundation. Please support them by helping them reach their goal of raising $15 000. They are about half way.

You can give online if you have a credit card. Every dollar counts. If you know me personally and want to help I can pass on any donations if you get the $$$ to me (receipt provided).

The trouble with teenagers ...

I read the following article here and it stuck with me enough to want to share it. I'm not sure what the correct procedure for posting articles from someone else's blog is but I hope that acknowledging its source and providing a link is sufficient.

I hope it helps a parent understand their teenager or helps a teenager be understood.

(Dr Mark Goulston)

Have an underperforming J.H.S., H.S. or college kid?
Maybe they’re just lazy…maybe not.
When logic and convincing doesn’t motivate your child
from the outside in, stop doing it…
then try understanding them from their inside out.
One lousy semester, does not a failed year…or life make.

Stop reacting from your frustration

take a deep breath

and read what follows below…

Does it sound like someone you know?

If so, ask them to read it,
ask them which line(s) speak to them and how,
listen, hear and care,
don’t interrupt or give advice unless they ask
and if you’re lucky
and if you haven’t hurt or angered them too much…
they might let you in.
If they do, tell them: “I’m sorry, I never knew you felt so bad,”
Let them get angry at you until they get it out
let them cry and keep crying until they’ve cried themselves out.
Then they might even let you help them
if you ask them the best way to do it
and then you just listen, hear and care…

Don’t be fooled by me.

Don’t be fooled by the face I wear.
For I wear a thousand masks that I am afraid to take off
and none of them are me.

Pretending is an art that’s second nature with me, but don’t be fooled,
for God’s sake don’t be fooled.
I give the impression that I am secure,
that all is sunny and unruffled with me,
within as well as without,
that confidence is my name and coolness my game;
that the waters are calm and I am in command,
and that I need no one.

But don’t believe me, please.
My surface may seem smooth, but my surface is my mask.
Beneath this lies no complacency.
Beneath dwells the real me in confusion, in fear, and aloneness.
But I hide this. I don’t want anybody to know it.

I panic at the thought of my weakness and fear of being exposed.
That is why I frantically create a mask to hide behind;
a nonchalant, sophisticated facade,
to help me pretend, to shield me from the glance that knows.

But such a glance is precisely my salvation.
My only salvation. And I know it.
That is, if it is followed by acceptance, if it is followed by love.
It is the only thing that will assure me of what I can’t assure myself,
that I am worth something.

But, I don’t tell you this. I don’t dare. I am afraid to.
I am afraid your glance will not be followed by acceptance and love.
I am afraid you will think less of me, that you will laugh at me,
and that you will see this and reject me.

So I play my game, my desperate game,
with a facade of assurance without, and a trembling child within.
And so begins the parade of masks, and my life becomes a front.

I idly chatter to you in the suave tones of surface talk.
I tell you everything that is really nothing,
and nothing of what is everything,
of what is crying within me.

So when I am going through my routine
do not be fooled by what I am saying.
Please listen carefully and try to hear what I am not saying.
What I would like to be able to say,
what for survival I need to say, but I can’t say.

I dislike hiding, Honestly!
I dislike the superficial game I am playing, the phony game.
I would really like to be genuine and spontaneous, and me,
but you have got to help me. You have got to hold out your hand,
even when that is the last thing I seem to want.

Only you can wipe away from my eyes that blank stare of breathing death.
Only you can call me into aliveness.

Each time you try to understand and because you really care,
my heart begins to grow wings, very small wings, very feeble wings, but wings.

With your sensitivity and sympathy, and your power of understanding,
you can breathe life into me.

I want you to know that.
I want you to know how important you are to me,
how you can be the creator of the person that is me if you choose to.
Please choose to.

You alone can break down the wall
behind which I tremble, you alone can remove my mask.

You alone can release me from my shadow-world of panic and uncertainty;
From my lonely prison.

Do not pass me by.
Please… do not pass me by.

It will not be easy for you;
a long conviction of worthlessness builds strong walls.

The nearer you approach me, the blinder I strike back.

I fight against the very thing I cry out for. But I am told that
love is stronger than walls, and in this lies my hope.

Please try to beat down those walls with firm hands,
but with gentle hands–for a child is very sensitive.

Who am I, you may wonder? I am someone you know very well.
For I am everyone you meet, I am me and I am you.

– Charles C. Finn

Beauty in nature

My favourite places are National Parks, Botanic Gardens, Mountains and Rainforests.
I went for a walk through Ben Bennet Park yesterday and caught the early morning sun shining on these two. I find much pleasure in the simple things in life, like this. It's free, it's available to all and, bonus for me, it's walking distance from my house.