Poor Sarah. She is one of the world’s beautiful people… she fits that title in so many ways. Sarah is on the outside, beautiful, she is someone others in her business aspire to emulate, and as far as I can tell she is beautiful on the inside as well. She likes to laugh at herself and has very high moral standards. Unfortunately for her and the poor girls of Australia’s next Top Model Show they all looked kind of silly plastered all over the television today. It didn’t matter what was on or which station you had chosen to view… there was the clip that will ultimately change their lives forever.

They have been accused of pulling a stunt – I don’t think so. As Sarah said in one of her interviews today… that kind of stunt she wouldn’t pull on her worst enemy (not that I think she would have any). Sarah seems to have had a charmed life, born beautiful, intelligent, and married to one of the world’s richest (and most handsome) men, our very own Lachlan Murdoch – boy I wish I had met him first – HA, I think she would win his affections hands down don’t you… Anyway back to poor Sarah, I thought she handled herself OK, not great, but OK. The young lady who won then didn’t was the star. She had such grace and spoke well, held herself together in her disapointment. I know the events of last night will follow the three of them around for a while, I just hope as they follow they throw rose petals and don’t stalk in a sinister way.

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Well it’s raining, constant drizzle – not quite a down pour. Just enough to make the already mushy ground more slippery and sloshy, certainly NOT the weather to break in new shoes. The kids are on school holidays and ho hum motorbikes are almost out of the question… they did get out and muddy for a while yesterday.

With all of this bad weather we have been in doors mostly and I have once again been spending my time with a paintbrush in hand. I have two pieces to send to Bundaberg for the art festival and I was hoping to send them today BUT… WELL… I also am the queen of procrastination. Only one is finished and the second should be finished today so I can send them on Monday… I hope. Luckily for me I set my finish date a week early so I had some leeway. But they also need to be dry before I pack them – don’t they?

We have also been doing work on our new house – all in door work now. The car for cambell’s room is all put together and just really needs painting. A yellow 3/4 fibreglass corvette – what every young man needs as a desk to do his school assignments. The sound system is being put in today… will that help with his homework?

The door to Lachlan’s room is also done. He has a safe door, cogs and wheels, locks and spy glass – he wants to be a spy, or does he want to be a cat burgular? The rest of his room is finished except for the astro turf on his stairs and the holes for the golf balls – yes I know… strange kid.

Above is a photograph of the ONLY girly bit in the entire house. Just after you walk toward the cog mosaic (from another post) you come to MY walk throug robe. As you can see it is pink AND has a chandelier, by the time it is finished I should feel right at home, or I could feel as though I was in Paris, or some other fancy part of the world.

What do you think… I think we will be very happy in our new home. that is, when it is finished and we can live in it… 4 years now but who’s counting. Maybe it should keep raining so we finish a few things faster.

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Our internet connection is dodgy and has been since the comming of broadband. As we live in a rural area our telephone lines are still party line and can’t support the technology.

We have suffered through satellite broadband – unreliable … sadly. Now we have a big ass arial on our roof and are using wireless. BUT. And that’s a big but, as our mobile phones don’t work … how will broadband?
Ta Da… it does, OK not perfectly but WAAAAAYYY better than satellite. Unfortunately we have been having a disgusting amount of rain lately – sorry drought ridden parts of the country – the rain has affected the connection.

Boy, I like a long story don’t I… anyway to cut the story short, the Bigpond Gateway Modem we have been using is not working again today… and my sister has brought over her Telstra Turbo stick and stuck it into my computer (and arial) and Ta Da we have internet connection. What I want to know is WHY!

WHY, WHY, WHY. The Gateway thingy we have costs like $500 and is the BEST they (Telstra) offer so why is this freebie thing whipping ass?

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Last week I met up with a very good friend of mine novelist Sandy Curtis. She was in Tasmania to receive an award for her contribution to the arts in Australia. I went to be on Sandy’s cheer squad. Yey!

Launceston was filled with street art, really quirky pieces that looked as though they were meant to be there for ever. The photograph above was taken as I walked past an ally way. Like I said art works that stood out but blended in at the same time. Creative people and the beautiful cloths they wear were everywhere too. Living in the tropics I don’t often get to wear ‘lots’ of cloths, it was really nice to layer. Early this year when I was in Europe I noticed no one wore colour – basic black… but in Tassie there was colour everywhere. The shops were full of gorgeous things, quirky, different and very purchasable. I highly recommend Launceston as shopping destination.

Coincidentally the novel I have been working on is set in Hobart Tasmania. Sandy agreed to zip to Hobart with me on the Sunday so I could get more of a feel for the city. I can’t believe how lucky I am to have a friend like Sandy. First she quizzed me about my story, plot, characters and their motivations and boy did she find some holes – I thought I had been thorough. Then on our trip to Hobart we walked the streets together looking at where my characters would interact. Taking note of the colour of the water, smells, certain feelings buildings invoke within.

The advice Sandy has given me is advice I couldn’t pay for in a million years. To have a professional novelist ‘pull apart’ and discuss the why’s and how come’s’ of a book in progress… well I don’t think I could ever properly say thank you to Sandy – except ask everybody to go to their local book store and order a copy of any of Sandy’s books. My personal favorite is ‘Black Ice’ or maybe ‘Dangerous Deceptions’ they and her others are published by Pan McMillan. Lets have a run on Sandy Curtis… Yey!

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We have internet access again – boy it can be difficult to blog without it…

I was recently unfriended on Facebook… it was a ‘you’re kidding me right?’ moment. During Australia’s five painful weeks of political muck raking with television almost impossible to watch, I had an ‘aha’. Because of the advertising that doesn’t tell us why we should vote for a particular party just what lousy things the opposing party is capable of I saw ONE add that didn’t take it out on anyone and was all about the policies and just had to share. I made an innocent comment about this add. WOOOPS. My comment caused one of my ‘friends’ whom I’d known since 4 years old to have a minor… O.K. major melt down YELLING his political views through Facebook at anyone who dare comment on my comment. I sat back too astounded to say anything and frankly I am also too polite for my own good sometimes.
Anyway upon my return from the Arts Conference in Tasmania (have I told you about that? O.K. later) I found out through another tirade streaking through a mutual friends page that I had been unfriended – which by the way also happened to the mutual friend. Very disapointing politics can spoil a platform that keeps old school friends now scattered around the globe in touch with each other.

Yesterday the school my children attend was in lock down for a about half an hour – there was a man running around with no cloths on. I am assuming he could have been heavily medicated and escaped from the hospital around the corner. Funny that it didn’t make any form of news… and yet we hear about these things happening all of the time at other schools. Do the teachers allert the media?

This piece of artwork is going into the Cairns Regional gallery this week. The Cairns Art Society have their art awards this Friday night. I am looking forward to attending and catching up with heaps of arty friends. My next blog will be all about my trip to Tasmania with my friend Novelist Sandy Curtis…. see you soon…

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