"All my bags...

...are packed, I'm ready to go"

4:30 am tomorrow, airport transfer to Brisbane International

then Christchurch - here I come!!

Hmmmm - can you tell I love to travel?

Counting Down

It's only a few days until I board a plane for New Zealand, and I'm getting pretty excited now (apart from having to leave home at 5am). You can see details of the conference program here. I am particularly looking forward to the Indigenous Cultures Forum. For the closing dinner we've been asked to dress in Kiwiana, which doesn't excite me all that much. Oh well, I can live with it... because I'M GOING TO NEW ZEALAND!!

Committee Bird

A pair of odd-looking birds has had us frantically searching through our field guide this weekend. They are wary, making it hard to spot them through binoculars too. The beak, in particular, was most unusual on a bird of this size. I think it looks like a bird developed by a committee - patching together everyone's ideas with no regard for style and grace. "Hey, let's use a toucan's beak!" "Yeah - and give it eagle's legs and feet" "Great... and since we can't decide on a nest, why not have it lay eggs in other birds' nests?" "Cool!!"

Well, all right - I don't know of any real committee that works like this, but you've got to admit the bird looks odd. It turns out to be a Channel-billed Cuckoo, by the way. Since I couldn't get a clear photo, I've used an image from "The Graham Pizzey & Frank Knight Field Guide to Birds of Australia" - you've got to love any book by a man named Pizzey. Oh, I nearly forgot... for those of you who like birdwatching, I can highly recommend Bill of the Birds as an interesting blog to visit, even if it's in the wrong hemisphere.

Catherine's Latest

Catherine has been doing some painting classes during the school holidays. They start with a blank canvas (about 30x40cm) and a template of that week's design. Three hours later they have a finished product. As you can see, the first week she was a little shaky. Up until this, she'd only done basic school artwork so it was a completely new experience.

The second week she had a bit more confidence. Afterwards she described the various brushes and why they have certain names and uses. She has one more lesson coming up, then it's back to piano classes. While I don't think we have a budding van Gogh on our hands, I think her new-found skills and confidence will give her school artwork a huge boost.

A Beautiful Life

Hermione (our cat) is sleeping on a chair, Catherine is staying with her grandparents in Toowoomba for a few nights, Christopher is entertaining himself on his computer, Garry is having a quiet afternoon in the guesthouse, and so I have a little bit of time to blog. On our car trip home from Toowoomba this afternoon, Christopher and I had a lengthy discussion on what it means to live a beautiful life. He's at such an interesting age for this sort of conversation. He began by saying it's impossible to live a beautiful life - by which he meant that no life can be perfectly beautiful. By the end of the conversation he was describing how someone living a beautiful life can reach out and wrap that around others and make their lives beautiful too.

It put me in mind of the movie, "Life is Beautiful" in which a father transforms the horrors of a Nazi concentration camp into an imaginative game for his son. It's a gem of a movie - both very funny and piercingly sad. What made me think of it is Christopher's concept of making life beautiful for others. A beautiful life is not about surrounding yourself with luxury, it's about making the world a better place for all the people that touch your life.

If this seems like it's too difficult, Christopher's analogy is that you build a beautiful life the same way you decorate your bedroom - you might start by hanging a favourite picture, then tidying the desk and looking out for an ornament that's just right for your room. You don't try to achieve a perfect room in one day - it happens bit by bit. So there you have it - some words of wisdom from an eleven-year-old who wants to "bring more peace to the world and call other people to do the same".

Gecko eating a spider

I took this photo last night, through the kitchen window. The spider put up quite a fight, but the gecko won in the end:



You can click on the photo to get even closer to the spider's hairy legs... if you wish. Catherine and I like the gecko's little eyelashes. Actually, now that I think about it, they probably aren't *real* eyelashes - they just look like it.

Look Inside Yourself

I've been doing some pre-reading for pathophysiology this coming semester, and came across this incredible movie of the inner workings of a cell:

The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed. Albert Einstein.

Your First Car

I began driving in the year I graduated from high school - in other words, the year I turned 17. As soon as I was allowed on the road, I headed out there. My parents had a Toyota Blizzard that I drove out to Carnarvon Gorge, but the first car I bought myself was this little Toyota Corolla. Of course, that's the year I also looked like this:

Hmmmm...

So my question today is: what year did you start driving and/or what was your first car? Also, what country did you live in at the time?

A Leunig for You

I like Leunig's cartoons - they always make me smile. This one makes me want to grab a book, find a shady tree beside a river, and just sit.

I'd probably take along a book of meditations on nature, or perhaps The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint Exupéry. I'd also take a nature journal to scribble in.

What do you consider to be essential riverside reading material?

House Guests

If you noticed that all our blogs have been quiet this last week it's because we've had house guests. This was a long-awaited, much-anticipated visit by Christopher's best friend and his family. Not only has Jarred been a wonderful friend to Christopher, but he comes with a sister, Aliesha (who is Catherine's age) and lovely parents (Tiffany and Darren). Bonus!

Our guesthouse was filled to the max, with bad weather keeping all eight of us housebound for the entire visit. This did not dampen the fun in the least. The sjoelbak was popular with all, as was the chess set. Numerous other board games were dragged out of dusty corners to find new life. The playstation got a good workout as well.

Good food, great conversation and lots of playing kept us all entertained. It was especially nice to see how well the kids hit it off together. Here are a few photos of the visit:

Sjoelen (aka Dutch Shuffleboard)

We've been making use of my parents' Dutch "sjoelbak" since New Year's Eve, and it has been great! Here are some pictures of the experts in action: