Family gathering

Some nice quiet family time anno 2013 (including me, as I am writing this). The fire crackling in the background, the dog snoring on the chair, the Australia's M@sterchef 2012 finale on the telly. It's a screeniety!

Friends of mine are going through very hard times at the moment, healthwise, and I wish them all strength, hope and the ability to enjoy what is, in these difficult days. This is a Zen poem for them, which I hope may carry my thoughts to them. It's a poem that speaks to me when all is not well.

Leaving it to You

Self-evident, truth mistakes no thing.
But my heart's a long way from there
and nothing's very clear.
Yellow gold is almost burned up
by my desire.
White hair grows beside the fire.
Bitter indecision: choose This, or maybe That.
Even the spirit speaks in riddles
and makes it hard to harvest
the essence of a single day.
Catch the wind while you tether shadows.
Faith, or a man who will stand by his word, is
all there is. There is no disputing.

(Kuan Hsiu, 832-912)

We're coming!

The other day my love and I felt that perhaps, early next year, we would have to go to Europe for a while to see friends and relatives, put affairs in order, attend a conference, etc. But we wouldn't be able to just go for a week or two. It would have to be longer. After a bit of umming and ah-ing, we decided that perhaps what we should do is to take the girls with us. 

So, decided it has been and we're looking into flights and the itinerary with oodles of excitement! The trip will probably look something like this, but may change in nature and order, as we wend our ways through airlines, prices, cities, countries ... Europe, here we come! (We being Tess, Yarrow, Niki and Hans, and hopefully joined at some point(s) by Anjes). We're all very excited!

Judging books by it cover

My friend Jacomien, from Holland, sent me this link to a page where a mother presents well-know covers of books which she has shown to her 6-year-old daughter, asking her what she thinks the books might be about. Never judge a book by its cover ...

Drive up

Ok, well, despite continuous bad weather, mud, rain, dirt and the like, Bruce has soldiered on and finished the driveway to the extent that he can finish it up to this stage. Now we have to wait till the land really dries up, so he can put the finishing touches on; the finishing touches being rounded off edges of soil and mulch along the driveway in which we can plant things like conifers etc to mark the boundaries of the driveway; finishing off the spoon drain (adding topsoil so grass can grow in it, rounding off the edges so it looks nice). Too wet to do all that now, as Bruce would plough up half the property in the process. Another job (almost) done.

Got it ...

He just loves it .... the black dot above Da Puppy's nose is The Ball. To be played anywhere. Anytime, but only in one way (see earlier post).

Market

We ventured out early this morning to the Byron Bay Food Market, a weekly event we hadn't yet experienced. The market offers locally grown, organic food produce. A lovely outing, followed by a beach walk with Da Puppy, and coffee/tea/work at the Balcony in Byron Bay after.

Market - Online Slideshow Creator

Mow, mow, mow your grass ...

As from today we are the proud (really?) owners of a new Toro 50-inch Zero-turn ride on mower. The John Deer (John Oh Dear!, rather) having died (although the mower man seemed to think we could still get $1000 for it), and having decided that we weren't going to throw money at that old barrel of disappointment anymore we scouted around and found this 24-horsepower monster, with trailer and built-in mulcher ... (Oh, and made in the US of A with US steel, not Chinese recycled steel, Ton - we did our homework). We had a demonstration ride in our down paddock this afternoon and, even though steering one of these things is an entirely different kettle of fish than one with an ' ordinary'  steering wheel, we liked it to much that we decided to go for it. I think Yarrow and Tess might enjoy mowing on this, too, but it requires some skill development first... it's like riding a bicycle ... Now we only have to wait for the wet weather to go away to start using it ...

Lounging

In the midst of mud, muck and mayhem, a nice soft, comfy sofa arrived today from Brisbane (IKEA). We bought it when we were there last week. An excellent opportunity to get rid of the mangy old flowery seater in the lounge room (which had recently suffered quite dramatically from Rafi's ' intervention techniques'.) I am writing this while seated on the comfortable new chaisse longe. For interior design purposes we have temporarily nicked a table from Tess'  bedroom, but will replace this with a new one, Tessie...

Mates

Raffi and Malouf have developed an unusual friendship over time, which includes a daily romp or two in the kitchen (or any other area where the adults happen to be). You'd think nothing good can come of this inter species playfulness, especially when Malouf presents the claws, or Rafi pontifically sits down on top of Malouf. According to the vet, it's nothing to worry about. That may be as it is, but sometimes we throw ' Leave it!'  at Rafi, if things get too rough or excitable ...

More mud, more gravel

Our neighbour Bruce is one of those rare tradesmen (' tradies'  as people call them here), who start work on time, do it within an agreed timeframe, don't overcharge, don't stop because it is 'beer o'clock' and keep going despite rain. A rare breed indeed. Some more piccies to keep you abreast of the progress.

Driveway

Taking shape

The driveway is taking shape, day by day ...

Brizvegas

Brizvegas by day

We decided to take a few days off with Tess and Yarrow in the big city, Brisbane. All three girls were extravagantly exciting about sniffing concrete for a few days and being Where It All Happens. We had a lovely time, visiting an exhibition on Mummies, having lunches and dinners out, reading, shopping, looking at modern art (Hans) and having long showers in the apartment we had hired for the occasion. It was very relaxing to have the space, non-muddy surroundings and urban views of the river and the City. We all came back refreshed (even Hans, who doesn't particularly like big cities At All). On the way back we stopped off at IKEA and bought a new sofa with chaisse longe for the lounge room (seeing as Raffi decided to, well, sort of demolish the one that was there ...). It will arrive Tuesday and will hopefully provide a comfortable seating experience! We returned to a driveway that is still muddy, but getting there...

The drive

Today (a very cold day - somewhere in NSW -10 degrees was measured ... not here, but still) builders Bruce and Tom started on The Driveway, which is one of a few building projects being undertaken around the property. More news as and when over the next week.

Bay sky

Beautiful photos taken by my love, of a Byron Bay night sky after having taken Da Leetle Puhpie for a beach walk. The first photo was before sunset, the second only 20 minutes later.

Byron Bay night sky, early evening June 2012

Da leetle puhpie ball game

Raffi has decided that the best game in the world is playing Get Da Ball, along the folowing precise rules, to be played with dedication and inimitable canine stamina. This game can be played under any weather conditions. In rainy circumstances, as the demonstration video will show, Owner of Puppy can stay completely dry.

1. Owner grabs launcher (a plastic $5 contraption made in China, allowing said Owner to thrown a tennisball far without effort or tearing ligaments in arms).
2. Puppy starts running in expected direction of ball, ignoring the precise trajectory, calculating on the basis of prior experience that ' it'll all come good'. 
3. Puppy skids over grass in desperate attempt to catch, kick, head or bite ball.
4. If throw fails, or expected trajectory changes due to wind, weather or projectile conditions, or ball gets lost in shrubs, Puppy turns round in surprise and appropriate level of innocent confusion, as if to blame owner for the lack of success of this part of the game. Owner feigns surprise and scolds Puppy for being thick. Puppy usually retrieves ball and is appropriately self-sastisfied with success.
5. When this stage of the game is successful (depending on whether, having caught the ball, Puppy has managed to avoid contact with obstacles in the way, such as dog house, ride-on trailer, tree, bush, rocks, electric fence, etc.) Puppy retreives ball and places it in front of Owner.
6. While owner bends down to pick up said ball with launcher, Puppy simultaneously turns round and launches on subsequent trip in the same general direction.
7. Owner and Puppy repeat steps 1-5 for at least 30 minutes, till Puppy pants and tongue lolls.
8. At some stage soon after 30 minutes, Owner ends game as otherwise it will go on endlessly much to the delight of said Puppy.

Tree

An exciting event took place here yesterday - just ahead of the rains which have resumed with insistent vigour. We had tree loppers over to ' prune'  the Moreton Bay Fig for us. Three strapping lads with lots of ropes, chainsaws, helmets and a lack of acrophobia. The fig, a venerable 80-120 year old (estimates vary ...) had grown so big it was overhanging the house on one side, and taking away all light over the lawns underneath it, causing the ground to not dry out after rains (and boy, have we had rain) - creating, depending on the weather conditions, either sandy or muddy expanses, dying grass and dark, damp places. Huge branches came off as the three men swooped about in the canopy, lopping, sawing, swinging, thinning. 'Timber!'  was the expected but not the general catchphrase used by the modern-day lumberjacks, but 'Oi!'  or 'S**t!' or ' Clear!'  was frequently heard. 

After a day's hard jakka we now have a new light sensation on the north western and western side of the tree, no more overhanging branches over the garden paths and (hopefully, once the new rains stop) an area where grass can grow again with new strength and vigour. The slideshow shows how daring the lopping trio was (and how high this tree actually is ...)

Tree - picture slideshow

Next thing - drains and driveways (the driveway to the Bails being as much as a mudpool as the rest of the property, and the main driveway in need of TLC and repair) and the eastern area alongside the house where weather has deteriorated the pavers into a mossy, gritty, ugly area, which is to be replaced with golden aggregate...

Just thought I'd share this one with you. So true ...

We're back...

An update! Really? Yes!

The winter sun has now well and truly established itself over the Northern Riverse, we hope, and the land is slowly drying out. No more mud? Let's wait and see. Maybe I will actually be able to mow the lawns soon (which would imply buying another ride-on mower first, but that's another story)... 

For now, we enjoy the warm rays of sunshine during the day. At night we still have to light a fire, as it's actually quite cold. (It's not actually freezing, mind). During the dark hours of the evening, some of us are looking for warmth and comfort, as Tess' cat, Shadow, felt she needed to prove while Tess was working on an art project, and a fire was roaring upstairs. Shadow, the ever faithful feline, felt she needed to be with 'mama'...

Niki's been out and about a bit this week, once to Byron to teach and, today, to Brisbane to attend a Cambridge meeting, and be monitored herself (normally she monitors others). Tess and Yarrow are with us for two weeks - we've decided that we're not changing over every week anymore, but every fortnight and it seems to be working out well for everybody. It gives everybody an opportunity to settle in a house, where before once somebody had settled we unsettled ourselves again by changing over. There seems to be much more peace and quiet now, which is good.

Yesterday, Samson was ridden by Fiona, the lady whom Niki is taking lessons from. He seemed to enjoy it. Perhaps, perhaps we might retrain him and perhaps perhaps I might find the confidence to ride him again. We'll see. I might also just simply sell him, as planned. No takers yet, though.

On the work front, we are in the final stages of negotiation with our new Chinese publisher, Qingdao Publishing Group, over a series of over one hundred (up to two hundred, in fact) graded readers (not to be written all at the same time, but over a few years). We'll be collaborating on that with our UK-co author Joanne. They are keen, as are we, so now it's just sorting out the finicky details. I'm also going to be writing three books in a new series for Garnet Education in the UK, called Moving into .... (the title to be followed by things like tourism and hospitality, health care, and financial services, and things like that). In a team of three (two people from the UK and myself) we are setting up the series which will, in the end, have approximately 10-15 titles: so, if it alls goes well that should keep me going for a while. Aside from those two projects, I still do a lot of work for one of my Dutch publishers, Malmberg. Niki will be involved in the New English Readers series and, at the moment, is writing a teacher development unit on 'Motivating teenagers' for Cambridge ESOL, which she is enjoying a lot.

Another opportunity presented itself earlier this week. It culminated in me yesterday becoming the sole owner of Supasongs, the music website I set up a few years ago with two partners. The site hasn't worked very well so far, for known and unknown reasons, and recently, for legal reasons, quite a but of the database had to be taken offline (we weren't doing anything illegal, but one of the music writers/producers withdrew). However, the main problem was there were too many captains on the ship. Despite valiant and moderately successful attempts in the first two years, nobody led it anywhere after that. The opportunity arose and I will now take it on as one of my publishing projects. I will over time be able to do with it whatever is needed (or, if that doesn't work out, let it go altogether). The audio-video production partnership Simeon, Phil and I had (FracasEnglish, that link will soon stop working) will also be closed down. Depending on what comes my way, I will do any audio/video production under the banner of Southern Cross Connexxions or (because the Connexxions brand will be slowly faded out as well) Eflwriters.

A nice side effect may ensue from this, because Phil (the partner with whom I wrote and composed a lot of the music for Supasongs) and I have agreed to sit down and see whether we can perform some of my music together - as I've had a request to come and perform it in the area. Even if that doesn't happen, it will be nice to do some music again. Maybe this will be one we'll be doing (a song Peter and I recorded)...

Memories

The other day I came across the little movie clip below, which shows flashes of the lives of Tess, Yarrow and Anjes when I was still living in Amsterdam. Afraid that even DVDs might not last forever, I wanted to copy it to my computer. On seeing this wonderful flashback to their past, both Tess and Yarrow found themselves become quite emotional. Both felt that life then (seen through the patient lense of a distant camera) was so much more 'innocent' than it is now. Yarrow felt very deeply that 'she didn't have these memories' which, from our adult point of view, is quite logical because at the time of filming she was between 3 and 4 and is not likely to remember too much. It was quite an experience, and one I had not really expected. Having said that, they are now both very curious to see some other movies I made about ten years ago when we arrived in Australia. Keep your eye on this spot ...