still streaming...

...a few more mini-streams and updates that come to mind... with pictures!

Capoeira
Julie and i started capoeira a few weeks ago, here at the ANU gym. It's great fun, and reminds me a lot of my 2 years dancing at the state theatre in Pretoria, and primary school gymnastics. It's a kind of mix between dance, martial art and music. Very tiring and enjoyable. Look it up on YouTube.

Kubb & Ben Boyd
Last month we went camping down to the coast with some friends. It was Sally's 30th, and about 15 folks trekked 4 hours to Ben Boyd National Park, just outside of Eden. It is a beautiful coastline, and i hope to get down there again soon. It was also so good to be out in a tent again. We ate, hiked, spoke, slept and played Mafia around the campfire. Good times, good times. Sally's brother in law is German, and he brought along his Kubb set. The game is a bit like pétanque, but with a bit more strategy. Maybe pétanque cross chess. We played it on Sunday morning before leaving, and i seemed to do rather well! Now to make my own set and teach my friends.

a breathtaking view of 'disaster bay' at Ben Boyd
looking out to Antarctica

Affluenza
I realised last week that the new guy in the ACC&C office is actually rather famous. I knew his name was Clive Hamilton and he was from CAPPE, but didn't know he was the Clive Hamilton of Affluenza fame. Next time he's in his office I'll have to have a chat and hear his story. I like what he writes.

Gardening
Canberra seems to come alive in Spring. The city looks fuller and greener when the weather warms up, daylight savings kicks in, and you can enjoy the long evenings outside. The spring feel also seems to get people into their gardens. We don't have a garden, but that didn't deter me from spending Saturday planting some seedlings on the patio. The garden will still develop, but for now i'm happy with my tomatoes, rocket (arugula), yellow capsicums, basil (in an old frying pan) , celery and carrots. I also plucked a few cuttings, a small oak tree, and some bulbs. I'll try to keep them alive until we have a place with a garden. Here is a pic or two:

rocket pot and basil frying

Floriade
Another neat thing about springtime in Canberra is Floriade - a display of over 1 million bulbs and tulips. Breathtaking colours! We visited 2 weeks ago - it was quite a sight. Take a look at this flowery goodness (click to enlarge):


Wheels
(this stream is very outdated, but still worth mentioning)

3 months ago Julie and i went shopping. After successful negotiations and test drives etc, she has four wheels and I have two wheels.

Julie's transport is a '04 Mazda2 Maxx, with really low kms, 1.5l, 5speed automatic and CD changer. We looked at a lot of old Subaru station wagons, but in the end chose something newer, lighter on fuel and less maintenance risks. I hadn't really noticed the Mazda 2 before, but now i see them everywhere. It is neat little car that is very spacious inside. It's in the same fold as the Honda Jazz, Toyota Echo/Yaris, Hyundai Getz etc and often reviews as best in its class.

My transport is a second hand road bike that i got from a frisbee guy here. Although not as retro and character-full as my previous bike, it does the job just fine. Canberra has the highest proportion of population in Australia that cycle to work, and extensive cycle paths and lanes throughout the city. Law here requires helmets, and front and back lights fitted on each bicycle, so in addition to the actual bike ($150) I spent almost double that on 'extras' (lights, helmet, lock, pump, puncture kit, pannier bag ... the list goes on). I'm almost fully kitted out for the daily (25min) commute to work.
As always, once i'm more financially settled, i still hope to get a fixie, and a mountain bike - there are great off road tracks in the mountains hills around Canberra.



So, things are developing rather well here in Canberra. We seem to be meeting people, making friends, learning new things etc etc. Still miss home and my family and friends there, but i'm trying to be as present as possible here in Aus-land.

streams of conscience

13 october 2008
streams of conscience/
stream of consciousness

Blah
I’m at home. Sick. On the couch. It’s windy and overcast outside. My body mimics the conditions inside. So I’ll take a break from work for a day (it was only a half-day in any case) and sleep, recoup and maybe write something. I felt it coming on for the last 3 days - a dry cough, general dis-ease and a need to relax. As always its timing couldn’t be worse - I’m off to Brisbane on Saturday for mixed nats.

Borndays
It was my birthday last week. Julie says Bornday. It was a good day. On my way to work I passed some cyclists on the cycle path. One of them said “Good morning Gareth.” It was Jess, a frisbee friend, who recognised me as we sped past each other. Starting to feel like I belong a bit more here in Canberra.

At work over lunch I was asked how old I was.
‘26’ was my reply.
Boss Barry recalled where he was at 26, and was frightened at the recollection.
‘I wish I was as wise as you when I was 26’ he remarked.
What a graceful statement. Hmm… yes. Thank you.

Again, at frisbee training that night, I was seen. Larissa saw my birthday on the afda website and brought honey cakes and rum balls for after training. I don’t like being the centre of attention. I like being the centre of attention.

Internet grace
Facebook is not something I’ve spent much time on lately, but last week I was thankful for it, and the way it reminds me of my full life. Friday morning I read through my facebook happy birthday messages. From close friends and distant faces.
Thank you, thank you.

Skype joined in on the internet birthday grace on Thursday. I spoke to 5 of my 6 family members. Parents and sisters are all well in Jo’burg. Mom sold 5 paintings at a recent figure studies exhibition in Melville. There were a few hundred people at the opening. And as a naked man.

[Naked man
‘There’s a naked man here!’ Tash shrieked to my parents.
He was naked, and clothed.
He had been body-painted. Tiger stripes on his upper body. Grass over his belly button. Olive green legs. Some men were shocked. A (conservative?) Afrikaans man captured it perfectly:
‘Daar’s a tier in die kamer, en ‘n slang in die gras’
‘There’s a tiger in the room and a snake in the grass’

I laughed!
I finished working at Fox Antiques on Friday. Having our beer at 5 after work we spoke of nakedness again. Barry sharing stories of co-ed saunas in Holland, topless beaches in Germany and Australian prudishness]

Family (ctnd)
Bronwen got a new job teaching reception class. Vicki is waiting for Uni to start. Jane is in Cape Town getting ready to lead a DTS. Dad told me that derth is spelled with an ‘a’. Dearth. I laughed.
I hung up with them at 11pm, warmed by the conversation. As if by grace Matthew came online from London, so we spoke for almost an hour.

Mat
is almost finished his London adventure. Told stories of Slovenia, poker and my aunt. I said he must add the Lake Districts to his Scotland trip in a few weeks. I miss him. There’s a photo of him and Gra mooning the camera, jumping into some lake in Slovenia!

Blogging
is rather taxing on me. I find myself thinking about what I should write, the opening line that will draw people in, and show off my deft use of language. As with many of my well intentioned ideas, I never get around to it. I have 5 unfinished posts in my drafts folder. If I wait long enough they will be so outdated that I’ll delete them. And delete the minutes they filled up running around in my head. For nothing. Making me agitated.

But then, sometimes, I’m sick in bed, and I write. Freely. Mostly.
I still try to show off (is any writing completely devoid of ego?).
I still censor. That’s okay. I’ll keep trying.

Julie
is beautiful.
Studying for her UNISA exam today. She’s next to me on the couch:

‘G. Guess what’
‘What?’
‘Women work 65% of the world's working hours. And guess how much of the worlds salaries they get paid?’
‘20%?’
‘No, 10%
And they own less than 1% of the worlds assets.’

The exam is on Theological Ethics: Human rights, values and social transformation. At the SA High Commission at 2 today. It’s a big white Cape-Dutch style house near to Parliament here in Canberra. I’ve been there once. They weren’t very helpful.

stream of consciousness
and conscience
to get out all the half-post I’ve been thinking about over the last weeks. I should try it again.

What else is there to say?
started a garden
got a black eye from a frisbee
got some good wine from Adrian & dad
saw Utopia: the Genius of Emily Kame Kngwarreye yesterday. Profound artist and messenger. What is the message?

This week
No more Fox antiques. 3 days with the ALP IP, 2 days with the ACC&C. Make that 1 day with the ACC&C - today I’m off sick.
I stopped working at Fox on Friday. The ALP wanted more days from me, and the work was too tiring.

I’ll miss:
the sweet smell of the wax we polish the antiques with,
the casual banter in the workroom,
the lunches out on the pavement in the sun opposite the Belgian Beer place.
I won’t miss:
the dirty dish-clothes
the heavy lifting.

Global economic crisis.
Crap.
I’ve not paid it much attention. (still have to study my Masters of Development Economics)
But I read this article today. It helped to outline what’s going on, and why this could well be the end of the current economic system as we know it. That’s a good thing - in my mind. However, as usual, the poor will feel it first and worst.

One last stream:

Clergy Gentrification
(what!?)
I heard about it at last weeks’ conference. Which went very well by the way. Maybe I’ll write about it. Or, more likely, I’ll plan to write about it. Work out some sentences, and then not write.
Back to the clergy and how they are like buildings.
Clergy are well educated, get a salary, their children then go to school, go to university and get an office job. After a generation or two you have a wealthy, educated clergy of and for the bourgeoisie, the status quo, those in power… with no connection to the working class any more.

Just a thought.

That’s maybe why liberation theology (take the text back to the poor and let them interpret it) and feminist theology (reading from the margins and the underside) make sense to me. Me - someone with no natural connection to the working class, though trying to follow/understand a Jesus of the poor?

End

I
am okay.
and happy.
and am not a poet.
(yet?)

Thankful for all the streams that have made, fed and changed me.
Got to take Julie to the High Com to write.
Okay bye.