FAIRBRIDGE FESTIVAL - WESTERN AUSTRALIA

The place to be this weekend : - http://youtu.be/aCJc5hujyEY

Girl and Cat painting

I have always loved naiive art and have a great collection of students drawings.  Picasso made reference to the difficulty of relearning to draw like a child - uncluttering.  This painting was inspired by my afternoon walks in Sorowako, Sulawesi - a small village I lived in for ten years.  After bathing in the lake , the young girls would sit and soak up the last light of day while grooming their cats. 

TRAVEL

http://www.travelpod.com/traveler-iq  Great game - sharpens the brain on where places are.  North/East Africa  and Russia is  my weakness.

NO AGENDAS

Probably the most liberating state of being is when you accept not all the people you nurture  or have nurtured in your past are going to come through for you.  This is good, because you shouldn't have had that expectation in the first place.  Just be, give and receive in grace but don't wait for the thank you or kill the gift of receiving with too much generosity in reciprocation - it's ok - people can be good to one another without an agenda.  Go forth and conquer.  Having lived this way now for at least 15 years it still amazes me how uncomfortable people feel in a non agenda situation.  It's like you've removed the rules and it takes them a few weeks of hesitance before they accept there is no expectation of reciprococity and each time that happens I feel we're making a small inroad on expanding the empire of No Agendas.

Drop Box

" Tell me honestly...."

You're kidding right.  How many people have been showered with glory for telling the truth.    It's more a case of tell me truth  - according to my truth.  When someone says tell me the truth - know that they are already very clear what that truth should sound like. 

Guilford Perth - Christchurch Grammar

'Tell me the truth'is synonomous with 'be the mirror to my thoughts'.  It has no bearing on the truth at all.   Ever had this experience? 

LOL

Unless you're 15 and under then I don't think so. Visions of hair tossed back and screaming with laughter as you giggle at the bus stop or pouring over My Space - yes - I get it - but anyone over 45 writing LOL - I don't get it. It's not our language, so we have to find an alternative because our generation using LOL is the cyber equivalent of 'mutton dressed up like lamb', mind you these days with the obesity crisis it's more like mutton dressed up as ham. I don't know what the answer is but it will come to me. We don't want to be digital dinosaurs but we also don't want to be the cyber equivalent of grannies in shorts and high heels.

I want to cut that tree down

In fact, I was quite adamont , even got as far as getting a quote from the arborist. Come the given day, two '28's' were fluttering about and we commented that they had all the makings of a honeymoon couple. Within the hour, I realised this to be true and cancelled the treecutter. If newlyweds wanted to set up outside my bedroom window, then all we could do is respond to the compliment by being good role models to our young neighbours. Apparently they learned a lot because 3 days and a morning ago , a sweet little tweet popped its head out and surveyed its neighbourhood. Some may consider Cocos Palms demolition worthy but for others its pure penthouse.

We're now a family of nine.

For the love of doodling

sculptures by the sea Cottesloe, Perth, Western Australia

I have always doodled and should you venture through my home you will notice that nothing is immune. Phonebooks, recipe books, notepads, journals all show my particular brand of graffiti - doodling. Many a lecturer and teacher has taken offence to my habit and have been equally taken aback when I ask the most critical question just at the point of completing my artwork in the middle of their talk.

Study: Doodling Helps You Pay Attention
Recently Time magazine ran an article on  the benefits of doodling, how it relaxed the brain brought it to neutral and cleared the way to excellent concentration - a study by an English psychologist, Jackie Andrade, Ph.D,  found that doodlers absorbed up to 30% more information than non doodlers, which  means when we, the doodlers are  on hold with the phone company, doodling and being calm as we get transferred from one extension to the next - we, the doodlers of the world -  remember better than the rest of you that 'your call is important to us'.