Flat Stanley's Australian Adventure! Part 2: Exploring Brisbane

From Flat Stanley

On the weekend Kevin and Ann and Stanley left Zelda to sleep on her chair in the house and went out to explore.

“Today we’re going to the “Multicultural Festival in the Roma Street Parklands,” said Kevin as they walked out the door and down the driveway.

“But, why are we walking right past the car?” asked Stanley. “Are we going to walk all the way to the city?”

“Silly boy! We’re taking the train!” and they walked down the block and up the next and found the Carseldine train station. Ann bought her ticket and Stanley agreed to share her seat so he wouldn’t need a ticket of his own. “Next stop Roma Street Station!”

From Flat Stanley

From Flat Stanley

At the festival there were hundreds of people! There were people from India and people from China and people from South Africa. People were singing and dancing and playing music from places all over the world.

From Flat Stanley

There was food from Vietnam and Italy and just everywhere! After much deliberation Ann, Kevin, and Stanley shared a French stone oven pizza.

“Why is everything so green?” asked Stanley as they walked through the gardens. “Why are there flowers? Why aren’t the leaves red and gold and brown?”

“Two things,” said Kevin, because Kevin always says two things. “First, Brisbane is closer to the equator than Massillon. That means that the weather here is warmer than Ohio. It never snows in Brisbane!” Kevin smiled broadly, because he doesn’t like the cold. “Second, Brisbane is on the opposite side of the planet. You are now in the Southern Hemisphere. That means that while it is fall in Ohio, in Australia it is spring!”

“Oh,” said Stanley and he rubbed his head. “That’s weird.”

“We’ve got more to see!” exclaimed Kevin and led Ann and Stanley back to the train station. “Next stop, South Brisbane!”

“South Brisbane is the cultural centre of Brisbane,” Ann said. “Over there is the play house…”

“And the Ferris wheel!” Stanley interrupted.

“Yes, but we,” Ann continued as they exited the ‘lift’, “are going to the museums.”

And they stopped, for there in front of them was a large black plaque identifying all the museums in the courtyard… including something called “Stanley Place.”

“We did it for you!” Kevin chuckled, winking.

“Take my picture,” ordered Stanley.

From Flat Stanley

Ann and Kevin and Stanley visited the Queensland Museum. Stanley got to see all sorts of animals that live and have lived in Queensland. “Dinosaurs!” he cried.

From Flat Stanley

From Flat Stanley

From Flat Stanley

From Flat Stanley

“Spiders! Whales! Oh wow!

From Flat Stanley

Kangaroos! Koalas! Kevin, take my picture!”

From Flat Stanley

And, as Kevin took Stanley’s photo with the koala Ann told him about koalas. “Some people are confused and think koalas are little bears. They are not. They are like kangaroos or possums. They are marsupials. They have a pouch on their bellies where they keep their babies. Remember how big that red kangaroo was? Her babies when they are born are the size of jelly beans! That jelly bean baby will crawl up through her mother’s fur, over her stomach, and find the pouch. Then she dives in and makes herself comfortable. She drinks milk and grows.”

“And,” Kevin added, “a baby kangaroo or koala is called a joey, even if it’s a girl!”

Stanley laughed.

At the Gallery of Modern Art, Ann and Kevin and Stanley looked at paintings and statues and designer clothes.

From Flat Stanley

From Flat Stanley

Stanley was thrilled to find there was a party of other flat people in one of the galleries!

From Flat Stanley

He invited two of his new friends to travel with him back to Ohio. They were excited, but didn’t know what to wear!


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Flat Stanley's Australian Adventure! Part 1: Flat Stanley Arrives

From Flat Stanley

Flat Stanley arrived at 51 Hibiscus Circuit in Fitzgibbon, a northern suburb of Brisbane, Australia on the 13th of October. His trip, as far as we could tell, took about 4 days. At least, there was a postmark on his envelope for October 9. Stanley was in good spirits and eager to see the land “down under”.

Flat Stanley was greeted by Ann and Kevin. They knew he was coming but they didn’t know when – or there would have been a party. As it was, they all had supper then Stanley and Zelda took naps while Ann and Kevin did the dishes and discussed what they would do with Stanley.

From Flat Stanley

“’Stan the Man’ should go to work with us,” Ann said. “It is either that or spend his days at home with Zelda. She’s getting too old to play ball all day. She depends on at least 20 hours of sleep.”

“Yes,” replied Kevin as he reached down and rubbed Zelda’s tummy. She rolled over and let her tongue fall out to the left. “But, we’ll take him to see the sights around Brisbane on the weekend. It is too bad that he isn’t able to stay longer or he could have gone with us to Sydney, too.”

So, Ann took Stanley to work with her. Ann is a veterinarian. She takes care of dogs mostly, and some cats, and every once in a while there’s a rat or a mouse or an injured or lost bird. Stanley particularly enjoyed playing with the puppies

From Flat Stanley

and feeding the tawny frogmouth chick that had fallen from his nest.

From Flat Stanley

Ann also took Stanley to visit Kevin at his work. Kevin works in a big office building in the Central Business District of Brisbane.

From Flat Stanley

All the cool people call this the “CBD”. He is a teacher – a teacher of adults who want to learn more about computers. Stanley played online for a time,

From Flat Stanley

but was happy to leave with Ann to walk up to the Queen Street Mall. Ann had to go into the city to get her hair cut – so Stanley got to see a bit of the city.

Ann and Stanley stopped in at Border’s Bookstore. “It’s just like being at home!” Stanley exclaimed. “Yes, but look at this,” Ann said and pulled out a book and pointed to the funny words – like tyre (tire) and kerb (curb) and torch (flashlight) and lift (elevator). “Australians speak English like Americans, but they have different ways of saying words (different accents), different spellings of common words, and different names for common things.”

“But, you don’t sound funny,” Stanley said.

“No. Kevin and I moved here from Ohio, too. We used to live in Cleveland.”

Stanley smiled. He knew about Cleveland.

Ann then took Stanley to City Hall

From Flat Stanley

where they visited the Museum of Brisbane and the museum store to pick up some postcards to take home.

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Queensland forests

I've been busy, busy, busy for the last month. We've had guests - two weeks with Flat Stanley and two weeks with Kevin's mother (3-D Linda?). Now, on the morning of her departure, I am sitting quietly with my cup of morning tea (which, incidentally has gotten to be a bit too cool while I first caught up with my email and then, ahem, Facebook). I need only to import the Flat Stanley entry and then match up the bazillion photographs. That might happen today - after I get my computer back. It is possible that I'll write my entry for "Purple Cane Road". But, for sure I can share with you the contrast of woodland environments here in Queensland.

It was almost a month ago when Kevin, Stanley, and I drove up the Bruce Highway North toward the Sunshine Coast. We stopped first in the Glass House Mountains and took a short hike and then in the Blackall Range at Mary Cairncross Rainforest Reserve. These walks are less than an hour drive apart (-unless you go by way of The Australia Zoo. That has a way of adding a lot of time to any trip.)

From photo a day

From photo a day

Year of Wonders

From Singles 2009

Fascinating historical drama about the plague and a little village that decides under the direction of their pastor to isolate themselves so as to contain the infection rather than allowing it to spread to neighboring communities. Well written and based on the real village of Eyam in Derbyshire, England. (You can visit the Plague Town! It is now on my list of things to do.)

Then, as the rate of new infection comes to an end almost 12 months later, the story takes a turn into a bodice tearing, lustful romp. A bit odd, but, OK.

No quote. Rushing through here. Just trying to catch up.

Durable Goods

From Singles 2009

The packing boxes come. I like this part, seeing ordinary things get wrapped like presents, get taken from your sight until they reappear at the new place. You can count of some fragile things being broken; always when we moved, my mother cried a little when she found the shattered china cup, the arm off the porcelain ballerina. "Why do you keep buying that stuff?" my father would ask. "Buy durable goods; that's what's going to make it."

Remember Katie? from "Joy School"? This is the first of her stories. Her mother has died. She's living still in Texas with her dad, her sister Diane, and her best friend, Cherylanne. But, no one is as nice as you might hope for Katie or as nice as Katie seems to remember them in "Joy School". Her father is abusive both physically and verbally and Katie is always walking on egg shells trying to wear her face and modulate her voice absolutely correctly to avoid his wrath. She hides under her bed to avoid him and to commune with her mother. Diane is weeks away from graduating from high school, stealing away to be with Dickie, and she is finished with being controlled by her father. Cherylanne, while at times generous and warm, is largely self centered. There is no real oasis of acceptance and love in this book.

So, despite Katie's palpable pain and loss in "Joy Club", I wanted to whisper to her over and over, that things will get better. That move you resent and fear will surprise you.

Much to learn.

I hear the inviting rattle of glasses, smell the hamburger. And now there is my father's voice, his hand lightly touching my arm. "Hey, wake up," he is saying. "Everything is here."

The Bonesetter's Daughter

From Singles 2009

"...Speaking of it, there was an older girl at this party puking her guts out in the bathroom. A tenth-grader. She thought she was preggers from this boy who's in juvenile hall."

"Does she love him?"

"She called him a creep."

"Then she doesn't have to worry," Ruth said knowingly.

"What are you talking about?"

"It's the chemistry that gets you pregnant. Love is one of the ingredients," Ruth declared as scientifically as possible.

Wend stopped walking. Her mouth hung open. Then she whispered: "Don't you know anything?" And she explained what Ruth's mother, the lady in the movie, and the teacher had not talked about: that the ingredient came from the boy's penis. And, to ensure everything was perfectly clear to Ruth, Wendy spelled it out: "The boy pees inside the girl."

"That's not true!" Ruth hated Wendy for telling her this, for laughing hysterically. She was relieved when they reached the block where she and Wendy went in opposite directions.

The last two blocks home, the truth of Wendy's words bounced in Ruth's head like pinballs. It made terrible sense, the part about the pee. That was why boys and girls had separate bathrooms. That's why boys were supposed to lift the seat but they didn't just to be bad. And that was why her mother told her never to sit on the toilet seat in someone else's bathroom. What her mother had said about germs was really a warning about sperms. Why couldn't her mother learn to speak English right?

And then panic grabbed her. For now she remembered that three nights before she had sat on pee from the man she loved.

This was a re-read though I listened to an audio book this time. Amy Tan tells wonderful mother-daughter stories and this one features two - Grandmother, mother, daughter - though they are never together for Ruth's grandmother, Precious Auntie, died when LuLing was a young adolescent. Despite my choice of quotation (I laughed out loud), both Lu Ling and Precious Auntie have more interesting stories of far greater horrors. "The Bonesetter's Daughter" reminds us that when we learn the truth of another, we move quickly to forgiveness. When we put aside the pain, we are left with love.

They write stories of what things are but should not have been. They write about what could have been, what might still be. They write of a past that can be changed. After all, Bao Bomu says, what is the past but what we choose to remember?

Joy School

From Singles 2009

Nona was very religious, she used to be the president of the Santa Lucia Society. "She kept the banner in her room for a long time, " Cynthia said. "it had a picture of St Lucy with her eyes plucked out."

"Why?"I asked I couldn't believe it. Why would someone make a whole banner out of something like that. "Oh, Mrs. Whatever, your daughter has had her eyes plucked out!" "Oh no, well, let's make a banner out of it!" Cynthia said St. Lucy's eyes got plucked out because she was a virgin martyr. I have no idea what that means. Those Catholics have strange stories and they love those pictures that make you practically puke. Jesus with His heart all stuck out, for one. And nailed up on the cross, dribbles of blood running down so sickening you can hardly even feel sorry for Him. As if His mother, who was right there, wouldn't have wiped it off

I'm having something of a early adolescent period reading "Joy School" simultaneously with "The Bonesetter's Daughter". And, better yet, as I finished "Joy School" I learned there is a book that comes before and one that comes after. When will I return to Dave Robicheaux? (The next book has been ordered but it is only available as a CD! No hard copy, paper in the hand copy exists in Brisbane! And, this is "Purple Cane Road" which was the first Robicheaux novel I read and is, therefore, ultimately the cause of all this Burke frenzy.)

But, all this talk is unfair to Katie.

"Joy School" was amazing. A funny and acutely observant child-woman lost and lonely in her new home in Missouri. She's lost her mother. Her older sister has left home. Katie and her dad have just moved from Texas and, so, Katie is without her girlfriend as well. The kids next door hate her. Her school is filled with the usual assortment of lame-ass teachers. ("Every gym teacher I've ever had has been mean, like she has a problem she is going to punish all of us for out on the courts. This gym teacher is named Miss Sweet. This would be what they call irony, I'll tell you that.")The girl that befriends her has a crazy mother. As winter falls and the the local pond ices up Katie goes skating - falls through the ice - and stumbles into the life of 23-year-old Jimmy who is working at the nearby service station. Jimmy. He will be the love of her life. He will be her "joy school".

Like "The Bonesetter's Daughter", "Joy School" is also an examination of the relationship between mothers and daughters. Katie's friend Cynthia, like Ruth and LuLing, are struggling to break away from their mothers with their (misunderstood) controlling and confining love. Katie was emancipated suddenly and prior to those adolescent mother-daughter conflicts. Katie's missing her mother's love and direction as she moves into this more adult realm created by Jimmy and seeks connection with Cynthia's grandmother, Nona, with the local priest, with her older, now pregnant sister, with Ginger the housekeeper. Katie, LuLing, and Ruthie remind me how much we take our loved ones for granted, only recognizing the extent of their importance to us and love for us once they're gone.

Oh, where is she? A stubborn part of me had thought this might be over sometime. But she is staying gone and staying gone and staying gone. She is not in the grave, though. No, she isn't. I have her out of the grave. And, right now I put her in a yellow flowered dress, a pale yellow apron over it. It has ruffles and the ruffles are eyelet. I don't know if there is such a thing, really. But now there is, and I am sitting at the kitchen table watching her shape the pie crust edges into their stand-up design. She is concentrating so hard her tongue sticks out a little. This really used to happen. Once I laughed and she said, What are you laughing about? and I told her her tongue was sticking out and she said, "it was not!" Well, there are things you can't see about yourself. I loved that she stuck her tongue out that way. It was cute, like when a kitten is done washing and his hair sticks up on top of his head. I never said anything about her doing that again. I wish I could have. I wish I could have gone through my long list of all the things I loved about her before she died. Right in front of her. I don't believe my memory would have failed me one, bit, even if I was crying the whole time, saying those things. Saying all those things that made her her.

There isn't anything really unexpected that happens. Whether it is my age or my experience with "story", I pretty much knew the trajectory. But, that didn't matter. "Joy School" was real in the way that first love is real: magical and sweet, expanding one's world while breaking one's heart.

I hear the low buzz of the fluorescent light above us. This could be the time when I should say something, make things move along. In my throat is the whole sentence, "I think I love you."

I look up at him and in his face is only a kind affection. Oh, he is twenty-three, he is twenty-three and I am stupid thirteen. His mother should have waited awhile to have him. I guess I will never get to meet his mother. I look down at the stone, close my hand around it. This is what I have.

"I had a date Friday night," I tell him. Make him jealous, I hear Cynthia saying.

"Hey! Good for you!"

Cynthia is an imbecile.

Banned Book Week

I just learned that this is (per the American Library Association) Banned Book Week - 2009. Had I known that a bit earlier I would have made a different choice for my next read...something a bit more "dangerous". As it is I had to content myself with perusing the list of 100 banned or challenged classics to check up on my level of perversity...or how far I might be descending into hell.

Twenty five.

The list is pretty surprising. Certainly there are a few authors who were obviously channeling the devil... J.D. Salinger, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Willa Cather... And, I'm thinking that Beelzebub has a hotline to the United States: American authors - definitely over-represented.

Test yourself. Click here to see the list.

Thoughts on Cyber Living - Games

Then, there are the obsessional, facebook games.

Farm Town

I toyed with some collection games but it wasn't until I entered "Farmtown" that my time really started draining away. There isn't much to farm town. Virtual plowing, sowing, and harvesting. Harvesting produces money which is needed to do all of the above actions. Plowing and sowing produce "experience points" that move you up the Farmtown hierarchy and unlock larger fields, fancier buildings and decorations, and prettier and more profitable (as well as more expensive) crops. I am thankful that there is not a mechanism that is measuring the time I have spent on Farmtown. I really need a 12-step program. Anyway - these are my Farmtown observations.

First, my motivations. It really has been about creating patterns of color on my farm quilt. Rice is planted in a pretty blue watery field - but it quickly grows into green and then gold. I like the way cotton has white puffballs for a couple of days of growth. Carrots make an interesting progression from green leaves to white flowers, to orange roots with lacy green foliage. Peppers are hot - red and yellow. If you want the good blue, you've got to hold out for blueberries at level 28.

Virtual farming is so much cleaner and cooler than reality gardening. I've yet to sweat. As a consequence, I have weeds filling in the bed I worked so hard to retrieve from its overgrown state only a few short months ago. And, my real plants disappoint me in ways my virtual crops and flowers never do. My palm has scale. My sweet peas are stunted with no intention of producing a bloom. My last surviving petunia bit the dust. Should I neglect my virtual flowers and they dry up... a little sprinkle brings them back to full bloom.

Then, there are the animals. While cute, they are pretty useless in Farmtown. You can sell them for a pittance, but the cows don't produce milk nor the chickens eggs. They will wander about, lie down, eat, "moo" (or quack or baa or meow or crow or..) But, I've frozen them all. If left to their own devices, both my virtual dogs and cats spend an inordinate amount of time SCRATCHING. Its bad enough that I have to face Zelda's itchiness each day - but why should I let my virtual pets rub in my veterinary inadequacy?

Underwater World

Kevin suggested I try this. He's getting a bit bored with my aquarium. It is in its second incarnation of planting and snail infestation without ever achieving "fish worthiness". I thought I had a plan - I was going to BUY some more neutral water to fill my tank - but then my pump had a coronary and while it still pumps, it does so with so much groaning that Kevin has threatened divorce. So, a virtual fish tank.

After planting plants (NO SNAILS!!) and stocking my tank with a few fish, I returned to find the tank walls covered with algae. (No problem. I have real experience with that.) And, my fish all floating upside down. Quickly, I saw the button "flush" and sent them on their way to the virtual sea... only moments later to note a "healing" button. Again, my veterinary skills are challenged by e-animals.

I spend most of my money buying plants to fill my tank. Not only because I think they are attractive, but also because they increase my fishes happiness. What I can't figure is why I would care that my fish are happy? More frustrating, it seems you can cram your tank FULL and the fish are never completely happy. What's with that? Fish - they only have a brain stem. They should be relatively easy to make happy! (Recently, Fishworld had a server problem, and lost most of my plants. Supposedly, they'll be back. FW gave me a whole passel of money to buy new, but I haven't had the heart. My fish are much less happy.)

Mafia Wars

I had to try this for the simple reason I was so amused by the comments my friend players were adding to the standard Mafia Wars Requests. I've only been "playing" for a couple of weeks. I have a bit more understanding of it now then I did initially. Still, I've recently started hemorrhaging money from my account. Friendless says I need to sell guns. Unfortunately, I'm still on a negative track after clearing out everything excepting what I need to use right now. Meanwhile, I keep getting beaten up. I am not feeling successful.

Bottom line. These games are going to stop. I need more Ann life. I have projects piling up. Nothing is getting finished. And, it will take 10,000 points to get to pineapples.

Thoughts on Cyber-Living - Photos

Photo Statistics.

I've recently discovered that both Picasa and Photobucket collect stats on view of photographs held on their sites. I find this fascinating. Especially the stats from Photobucket since it has been months, nay, years since I have added anything beyond a few videos. (I don't know how to do that on picasa.) Anyway, there are still people looking at those Photobucket photos and the images they are fascinated by boggle me. In particular - there are people seeking out my slide show of the kootie catcher I made - just to see that I still could. And, even stranger, the slide show of the washed versus brushed potatoes at the grocery store. The slide show that consistently get the highest hits is a series of color variations of a graffiti image I posted for the Queen's Birthday a couple of years ago. Photobucket tells me that these viewers are viewing these photos from either Photobucket or Blogger (those are easy to understand) or "other". I'd have to pay them $$ to become a Pro user to learn about what "other" sites have my photos and to learn about more than the 5 most viewed photos/slide shows each week/month. I can't justify that. Especially since I'm not using Photobucket much anymore. (If you've seen my photos somewhere else, I'd be keen to know.)

Thoughts on Cyber-Living: Friends

From photo a day

Cyber-life has been intruding in Ann-life. Not that I can blame anyone but myself...

well, maybe Kevin.

He is the person who actually started communicating with me via e-mail almost 10 years ago. Before that e-mail was a big virtual e(mpty) mail box. Then, it bloomed. Notes. An occasional photograph. Poems. E-mail kept us connected while he lived in Sydney and I lived in Fayetteville.

Later, I joined an "Internet Community" of similarly aged and similarly staged women. We shared common aspirations, trials, and experiences. When I became unemployed in Cleveland, particularly when Kevin moved again to Australia, I checked my message board two, three, four times a day. When I moved Brisbane, before I started working, while Kevin was away, I practically lived at the computer hitting the refresh button and hoping someone had lodged a new post.

More recently, I have been sucked into social networking sites. This has enabled me to reconnect with friends from LONGGGGGGGGGG ago. Friends I'd pretty much given up ever communicating with again. Friends to whom I now owe a letter.

But, I am also getting friend requests from people I don't believe I know. I just let them sit there - unwilling to either say yes or no. In two cases we were at Duke at the same time and maybe they were students of mine? But, who'd remember a TA almost 20 years later? I think it is more likely they just think I was in their graduating class - except I was in the Graduate School and they were probably undergraduates.

Those aren't half as odd to me as the recent influx (now 3) of strange women who tell me they are following me on "Twitter." (Let me give you some advise. Don't follow me on Twitter. We'll both end up lost.) The first time it happened I said OK and then went to check her out. And, she ended up being some sort of Internet porn site. Obviously, she did not do her homework in choosing me. I ducked into a virtual alleyway and lost her. The next two, even though they may be legitimately nice real women - though they have the same suspect "profile" of one tweet, zero or one followers and following a couple hundred people - I blocked immediately.

Finally, I started my blog to keep my friends and family back home informed about what I was doing and what it all looked like. They, however, are not the people reading my blog. I don't really know much about the people who read my blog. The largest number are reading from Australia. I don't know that many people in Australia, at least relative to the US. And, I know no one in Malaysia.

Anyway, I'd like to welcome whoever you are. Thank you for stopping by. You are always welcome. If you leave a comment, I'll respond.

Bus sign

From photo a day

Recently on a hike to get a blood test, I was passed by the above bus.

Now, I seem to recall that if minutes are dragging by and feeling like hours, it is because I am not having a good time. So, what is the message that is being conveyed here about this beachy island resort? No electricity? Water available from a common tap 2 km down the road? Intense and unrelenting heat with a beautiful beach and water filled with stinging jellyfish and dangerous sharks? What would be necessary to make a week feel like a month?

Don't believe what you see on TV

From Singles 2009

Kevin sent me a frightening piece of data revealing paid holiday time for various countries. Italy is high with 42. The UK and Canada (and I suspect Australia would fit in this range, though it is not reported) weighed in with 28, 26 respectively. The US... 13 days. The data is derived from the World Tourism Organization. I suppose a little further inquiry would reveal whether these paid holidays include paid public holidays...which I suspect it must. At the very least this would be: New Years Day, July 4th, Thanksgiving, and Christmas... though could also include MLK Day, President's Day, Memorial Day, Easter Monday, Labor Day, Columbus Day...depending upon whether you are a bank or post office or veterinary clinic.

ANYWAY - I followed another link and found THIS list

America's Best Beaches, 2006

1. Fleming Beach Park Maui, Hawaii
2. Caladesi Island State Park Dunedin, Fla.
3. Ocracoke Island Outer Banks, N.C.
4. Coopers Beach Southampton, N.Y.
5. Hanalei Bay Kauai, Hawaii
6. Main Beach East Hampton, N.Y.
7. Coast Guard Beach Cape Cod, Mass.
8. Coronado Beach San Diego, Calif.
9. Hamoa Beach Maui, Hawaii
10. Barefoot Beach Park Bonita Springs, Fla.

If you discount Hawaii, which surely you must, I thought it would surprise people who don't actually live in the US and beach there that every other beach, save one, is on the East Coast.

Go Ocracoke! Atlantic all the way!

You've definitely waited too long!

From photo a day

No one, I repeat, no one took me up on the clean floor and now Brisbane has had a torrential dust storm! EVERYTHING has a fine layer of grit.

It was fascinating to watch the sky turn red. I was at work and initially my nurses thought maybe there was a fire. I checked for a nuclear bomb or red zombie plague. No. Dust. Rob called and said it was blowing across the country. It had been closing down Sydney airport earlier in the morning. Per Scrabblet - the news reported "the wind moved 16,000 tonnes of dust per hour." And, I'm quite sure she is correct that the news would have reported tonnes. She is also responsible for this link with some fabulous photos of Brisbane during the red blow.

I did have a break for lunch so went home and closed the windows. Too late, however, for that floor eating project. My photos, shot quickly around home, are not so exciting. It helps to have bridges and rivers and skyscrapers as subjects.

From photo a day

Red sky all day.

At night as we were leaving I mentioned to Kayla that in the dark you can no longer see the dust. So, she pointed up to the street light where there was a haze of particulate matter blowing.

I told her that sometimes snow looks like that. She thought that was cool.

No pun was intended, I'm sure.

The Twins

He groused about Hitler, who had merely been a half-wit at first, but had gradually come to enjoy the status of a dangerous lunatic.

Twin sisters born in Germany are separated at 6 years old after losing first their mother and then their father. Lotte is suspected of having tuberculosis and so, unfit for work at the family farm, is sent to relatives in Holland. Healthy Anna goes to live with her uncle - and becomes the farm's principle laborer.

Enter World War II.

The sisters accidentally find each other when they are in their seventies and visiting a health spa in Belgium. They have had minimal contact with each other since their separation. They spend their time between healing baths telling each other the story of their lives. Each wants to be understood. Anna wants to be accepted. Lotte is not sure she is interested in knowing this brash German woman, let alone accepting her. As a German, she is still "the enemy".

In this way her suicidal urge was driven away rather prosaically with coffee and cake, in order to make room for being merely unhappy.

Harrowing stories of hardship, struggle, loss and pain. And, while I definitely saw the ending coming, I still cried.

I listened to this book on CD and it was fun to hear the dialog with a German accent. An excellent job of reading. (And, a critical help on the great mopping event of 2009!)

Speaking of Halloween

It is getting to be that time of year. I've even seen a few ghouls in windows at Chermside Mall. But, of course, the biggest inflow of Halloween news comes from home. My mother is on the prowl for the new Martha Stewart Halloween Special issue. She's just bought her cartfull of pumpkins, gourds, and yellow mums. And, she's pushing all her imagination buttons trying to come up with this year's costume.

In the meantime, she's been reading magazines. Yesterday she told me about this great site to find fabulous Halloween decorations. "Good stuff that you'd add to your collection every year." In particular, she was pretty sure Kevin and I needed this. "You could hang the man from your front porch."

From Singles 2009

"Uh, Mom. I don't want to give our spiders any ideas."

Hurry, hurry, hurry...

NOW is the time. If you've ever wanted to eat off my floor, it is as clean as it is ever going to be. I was inspired by my 75-year-old, busted-ankled mother who was scrubbing her kitchen floor today... so in my holey-kneed, once-favorite jeans, I got jiggy with the mop bucket and a rag. Ah, Sunday. I know how to have fun while Kevin is away.

Just After Sunset

From Singles 2009

Just finished King's most recent short story collection. King. Short stories. It's a good combination.

Kevin read the collection first. He generously let me keep the book (on his library card...and you know how risky that sort of behavior can be...) and even made a list for me rating the stories from most to least favorite. Since I recognized I had a limited time to read this before it was recalled, I started reading from the top of Kevin's list rather than reading from the first page of the book.

So, I liked the book...some good creepy stories. I read them all. Eventually. I had to actually return the book and ask the librarian to allow me to check it out again on my card.

What I found most interesting, however, was how very different Kevin and my taste in stories was. If you took Kevin's list and turned it upside down, you'd get my list. He preferred the suspenseful, imminent danger tales, while I'm more disposed to a quiet, subtle, ghost story. And, monsters. Monsters rated much higher in my list than his. Now, doesn't that surprise you?

What he's articulating is a delusion, and part of him knows it - 'shadows that looked like faces,' etc. - but it's very strong, and strong delusions travel like cold germs on a sneeze.

Games....

From Singles 2009

Well, it's official. I am not a winner in the Small World game design competition. Don't ask me how that could have happened. Who would NOT want to play with Cursing Mummies? or, better yet... a race of Pizza Delivery Boys. Must have been some sort of mix up.

Or, perhaps, the judges have heard that I don't actually like the game that much. I just haven't gotten my mind around it and unfortunately in my last two plays of it there's been a player in each game who, even though I was CLEARLY in last place, decided to REPEATEDLY pummel me. Just not fun. Maybe if I had a pizza, however...

Anyway, if YOU are a Small World fan and if you are intrigued, I'll give you the details. You'll be responsible for your own artwork, however.

Mummies - While active if mummies are attacked they curse their opponent who must then remove one of his tokens from the game.

Pizza Delivery Boys - At the end of each of their turns, the PDB's deliver a (single) pizza to an opponent on an adjacent territory. The tokens on that territory cannot be moved during the next turn. They're too busy eating pizza to participate in any further attacks.

Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West

From Singles 2009

Melena buried her face in her hands….”It’s not that I don’t love Frexx! But I hate being better than the local peasant idiots!”
“Well, now this green child brings you down to their level, you ought to be pleased,” said Nanny meanly.

Obviously, I've just caught up on the life and times of the Wicked Witch of the West. And, what a ride it was. Pure magic! Ninety-nine million times more fun than the "Wizard of Oz". I cheered her on! I laughed! I cried! Well, I was at least very disappointed to have the story end.

"She's sent the crows out to blind the guests coming for dinner!"
"What?"
"SHE'S BLINDING THE GUESTS COMING FOR DINNER!"
"Well, that's one way to avoid having to dust, I suppose."

Plus, I learned important child rearing tips....should that ever be necessary.

“Bleeding is good for them, makes them less hungry.”