End of January

It's nearly the end of January... nothing much to talk or post about really but I just wanted to stick something in here so the blog doesn't go completely stagnant.

I've been off work for most of the School holidays in an attempt to keep the kids entertained and the wife a little saner than she otherwise would be at this time of year. I'm not sure having me pinned down at home has been the relief she'd hoped it would be! Sorry about that darling... I'm hopeless at being housebound!

READS:


Pedaling Revolution by Jeff Mapes. Read it! A great bicycle advocacy book which, although a few years old and written from an American perspective, was quite relevant to Australian conditions. There were heaps of references to blogs I read regularly and to incidents I'd read about at the time they happened. Although a book that focuses on policy, infrastructure and town planning might be boring I found it interesting enough to knock it over in about 3 days!

The Last Navigator by Steve Thomas.  Am 3/4 through this. The author of this book had a very unique opportunity to meet and be taught by true navigators from another age! Sadly the art of navigation and the traditional culture of the Caroline Islands have probably given way under the weight of western culture, technology and all that. Some of the magic of the ancient guild of navigators from that region is alluded to through the book along with many reflections on the terrible fate their culture faces as young people loose their respect for the ancient knowledge having been exposed to all the stuff that is offered by a contemporary consumer society... or something like that. Many of the reviews I read about this book appeared to have been written by people from an anthropological background rather than sailing buffs. There is so much that I am finding familiar with what I am seeing happening to Yolngu culture. It's quite frightening to see how generic the destruction of traditional cultures can be.

The Hobbit by J.R.R Tolkien: I started reading this with my eldest child this week. As a pretty crappy reader I this is the first book I've ever attempted to read a second time.. (Excluding Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, which I chose to read twice at school!) We're reading a chapter a night and are really getting into it! We've just met Gollum in the cave, I love those riddles and the way he talks to himself.

RIDES:
I have really missed my daily 20km commute to work and back! Seriously! I loose my mind when I can't ride my bike once a day! The time I spend riding to and from work each day is my great escape! This is my mellow time, my undisturbed meditation space and my only exercise. Since I've only been working two days a week over the past month I have noticed I am more easily agitated, I'm also noticing that the gut I grew over Christmas has settled in with me getting no exercise!
I was able to ride to work on Tuesday, (The day that the monsoonal trough arrived in Darwin). There was so much rain on Tuesday, we had flood warnings. There was no way I was going to let that stop me from riding. I happily cycled home in the rain. I was in a state of bliss! Riding in tropical rain is quite a pleasure actually. I even had music! I discovered an old bum bag with a headphone socket that I'd squirreled away ages ago. It worked beautifully with the mp3 player safely inside and the headphone jack plugged into a waterproof socket. Cool! As I rolled over the bridge at Rapid Creek a whole bunch of micro bats came swarming out of the tunnel under the road, some of them flew straight into me... or I rode into them, not sure who had right of way when it comes to bats in the rain. It was quite a funny thing to happen. One of them hit pretty hard but I noticed he straightened up and kept flying so I assume he/she's OK.

There have been other short rides closer to home with the family. Most afternoon's the kids and I take the cart out and accompany Sam while she walks the dog.

My only longish ride over the past two months has been the ride out to Howard Springs.

OTHER ACTIVITIES:

Ummm Mulch Pit for gardening, (only occasionally), Litchfield Park, Wildlife Park and today Fog Dam.

Emotional

Bleary eyes aren't great lenses for reading but after a full 7 hours sleep I was awake, the house was quiet and I had a great book. After a coffee and a wander around the garden I fell into a comfy lounge chair and picked up that big fat book by Paul Kelly 'How to make gravy'!

HAPPY Drawing by the boy

A chapter for every song in his A - Z kit, every story a slightly different angle, and I'm connecting with every word! The writing is pure! Clear.... A thousand lies couldn't be more true. When I reached a really interesting chapter, Emotional, I heard the bedroom door creak and eldest child came out of her room. Also bleary eyed but keen to chat... It often happens like this, just when I think I've got some time to myself... This chapter surprised me. Paul Kelly's writing can do that. Shifting from amazing introspection to compassionate empathy.

As I read Emotional' I realized that I had misunderstood the lyrics of his song. It was not about what I thought it was. Kelly recounted the intense experience of visiting people in the Baxter detention Centre and the disgraceful treatment of those stuck in the Woomera hell hole! The scenarios are quite familiar to me since they started converting Darwin into a giant emigration detention centre! The sad and horrific stories are not uncommon among people I've met who have been transferred from Christmas Island or those who dread being sent out to Nauru. Living in limbo, having their hopes and spirits crushed at the whim of the Immigration Department who consider punishing them as parto fo some master plan to deter others from seeking safety in Australia. 

As I tried to read this unexpected chapter, which I found particularly interesting, on account of there being at least four detention centres within half an hour drive. my daughter decided it was time for a meaningful conversation about the nature of dragons and unicorns.... I persisted with the book and tried to answer her questions along the way, luckily the chapter was quite short, Kelly got his message across loud and clear, didn't waste any words and told it like it is!

I am so glad he has taken the time to tell this story and that he felt it was worth including in his book. So many Australians couldn't give a flying f-ck about the way Refugees are treated! It seems all the country is now against these people but here's one of our national heros openly declaring his compassion for them, he even wrote a song about it!

My head is swimming with emotion! Love for my kids, connection to the legendary song writer and mostly thoughts of the people I've been meeting at the DAL just down the road from where I live. The latest arrivals are from Iran. They shared their stories with me about the terrible journey across the sea from Indonesia. They all have hopes to see their children grow up in a peaceful place and to learn English and to be happy. It's nearly Christmas and a group of local people I'm involved with are trying to get Christmas presents for the kids.... nearly 180 of them (kids)! We've only got $10 to spend per kid and there's just 9 sleeps until Christmas so the next few days will be busy.

When I'd finished the chapter I put the book down, my was swimming with ideas and emotions. Thinking about the gifts I've got to find with a very limited budget I jumped up to grab the discount store brochure from the dining table... maybe something there. As I strode forward I kicked over my coffe cup! "NOoooooooo!"

Coffee cup with a crack

My favorite coffee cup! I smashed it! The cup I got from the Op Shop two years ago. That one I love with the romantic 1950s Hawaiian scene, with the girls dancing and the colonial American tourists and the flying boat.... Oh... Bleary eyes and foggy mind! Why do you mock me!

I'll try to fix it, no big deal really. What's a broken cup? I heard a fella got charged for smashing up some plates and shit in one of the detention centres! If you fuck up in detention and smash something they can charge you with destruction of property. I reckon if I was in there I'd break every frigging cup I had. What good is a favorite cup!

CROSS Drawing by the boy

The books on your shelf

Recently we were given the opportunity to accept a pretty hefty increase to our rent or consider finding cheaper accommodation. Since we for about the past 13 years we've been paying about the cheapest rent in Darwin, we realized that finding anything suitably cheep would be far too difficult. We'd been holding our breath and crossing our fingers, hoping that our rent wouldn't go up for a couple of years as we watched house prices sky-rocketed in our area. But we knew crunch time was bound to come!

About 6 weeks ago the landlord contacted me and hit me with some news, which we'd been expecting but it still sent us into a brief state of shock, for a short time we were afraid we'd have no choice but to move out. We went through a little fear for our future security but when the various stages of grief had passed we were ready for the worst case scenario. After all this place does not belong to us, (nowhere really can) but we've been here for many years and call it home. We thought about the prospects of having to move all our stuff out and realized that in 13 years we had accumulated a whole lot of stuff. It's time we considered, what we would do if we had to leave? Where would we go, what would we bring?

As it happened we came to an agreement with our very generous landlord that we could just afford. Thankfully we can stay. Now we don't have to move out but there are renovations planned and we have to clear all our stuff out of the living area. It dawned on us that we have a lot of stuff to move! Amongst all our gear are two book cases full of most of what we have read over the past 13 years and a bunch of stuff I may never read! I'm a slow reader but in 13 years even I can accumulate a lot of books. Why do I think I need to keep them?

One big problem for me is the so-called acquisition of knowledge! I want to know stuff, I want to learn about the world, people and things, there is information in books. Most of the books can be dispensed with once I have read them... but for some reason I have kept them.

Lately I've managed to take some time to re-assess my priorities and consider how I have been approaching the business of life. What is my purpose etc... What am I clinging to? What do I really need? I know that I don't need many possessions but constantly find myself hording stuff. Building up a stock pile that could come in handy... but when? Bike parts, computer bits and pieces, and books mostly. I admit my life is cluttered with stuff. I remember a line from a Redgum song 'Where Ya Gonna Run To "...And the books on your shelf are a measure of all that you've earned..." Well I always thought the last word of that lyric was 'learned' but in the end both words add up to the same thing. Are my books only a manifestation of my own attachment to stuff, status, achievement? If I have learned something surely I can move on to the next lesson, why do I need to cling to the vessel? Am I ever going to read a novel a second time? It takes me so long to read them once! Do I keep these books as resources or trophies?

I dumped a bag full of books on Saturday... It's a start but I'm not ready to part with most of them. Maybe one day.