"Did you see any jackets you liked?"
"No, nothing."
"Well, what about these jumpers?"
"Nuh."
"Why? What have you got against jumpers?"
"Don Burke."
* Turned 29. (The countdown to thirty begins....)
* Had my parents and brother to stay.
* Attended the 8th annual Grampians Grape Escape Food & Wine Festival in Halls Gap.
* Got wet!
* Didn't ride on the Train Of Impending Doom. I just photographed it. Don't you think it looks eerie? It looks like the truck is shrieking it's way past the grim reaper. (And his dog.)
Nowhere. I've been here. So why haven't I been posting photos? Because I haven't been taking any. Why not? A mixture in part of the following things:
Point the First.
I embraced photography with a passion that surpassed the ability of my technological appliances. In brief: my hard drive is full. Used up. No more space. I started burning them onto CD's and deleting them from my computer in order to create more room, but as someone who almost lost their house to fire, I'm really uneasy having all my memories on random disks, floating around the house. An external hard-drive with hundreds of gigabytes of storage would be ideal, but isn't financially viable at this point. Then I considered uploading them all to Flickr, but point two, put at stop to that;
Point the Second.
Internet Connection and Bandwidth Issues. Unfortunately, as we live in a remote area, we can only access broadband via satellite. And there is only one company that provides it here. And that company is fully aware of that fact, and so they are little concerned when we complain that our bandwidth, which should be 1500/512, struggles to reach the equivalent of dial up speed and our server disconnects several times a day. The last photos that I uploaded, of my kaleido-swap gifts, took over an hour to upload. It's an infuriatingly slow process, and I just don't have the time or patience for it right now.
Point the third. '
I learned that the headaches were just a symptom of something bigger. I'm okay now, but I wasn't for a while. And I might not be again if the future. I don't mean to be all mysterious about it, sorry. Bottom line for now: I'll live.
Photos to follow.
Book: Show us one of your favorite works of fiction.
I also like the way it makes me think about morality and consequence. Would Anna have lived if Karenin had agreed to a divorce? Would Vronsky have married her? Would they have been happy together? How were her children affected by the events? So much to think about.
I have yet to see a movie adaptation of Anna that I like, but the BBC series with Helen McCrory as Anna and Kevin McKidd as Vronsky is divine. Helen is exactly as I imagine Anna: not too young, but not old either. Not 'pretty', but striking. And vivacious, full of life.
The mini-series also tells the story of Levin and Kitty, which most movies omit. I think Tolstoy would be horrified by this, as the juxtapositon of Levin/Kitty and Anna/Vronsky is essential to his story.
The copy I'm holding is my own, and I was so pleased to find it. I had searched everywhere for a copy that didn't have bible-thin pages, or tiny, squint-inducing print. This one is quite a hefty tome, but it's printed on quality paper with good sized print, so I don't mind the size so much.
I've joined Project 365. I must be crazy, since I can barely keep up with the kids! I figure a little added pressure can't hurt though.
Speaking of the Project 365 Kids, I'm finding it really hard to get a photo of each kid every day, especially now that J & C are at school. They come home, hot and tired, and just flop, which doesn't make for great photos.
Hopefully a change in the weather will bring new inspiration.
Show us how your work week begins.
This is how my work week begins. Although this picture was actually taken at the end of the day, after the clothes had been through the washer, hung outside to dry and brought in again, ready for folding and then being put away.
That's the part I can never seem to master. It's not that I really hate it, I mean, sure it's pretty monotonous, (and folding can be awfully hard on a perfectionist when the folds don't sit right) - it's just hard to get done. Whever I start it, it seems there's always something else that needs urgent attention. This basket was brought in as it started to get dark and then dinner had to be started, and after that the kids needed to be put to bed, and then the dishes need doing and so on, until I fall on the couch in a heap and I don't want to even think about doing anything, let alone folding clothes.
I am so ready for Summer to be over: last week the temperature stayed in the mid to high thirties, which was exhausting and created irksome little problems for me. Like, my usual routine is to put a load of washing in the machine before I go to bed of a night, but with the heat, the clothes soured if they weren't removed from the machine and hung out the instant the spin cycle finished. It took me several loads to get the timing right, and considering my tendency to forget that I even put the washing on, it's a miracle that the basket pictured made it to the hung-out-to-dry stage.
Speaking of washing, I received some alarming news from C's teacher today: there has been a headlice sighting in her class. I'm crossing everything I can that we'll be safe from them, Since I have never had them, and J's made it to his fourth year without a case, I'm hoping that maybe they have a natural aversion to us, somehow. Tomorrow I'm going to buy some tea-tree oil to add to C's de-tangling hair spray that I've made up and hope that it isn't too late.
I have enough washing to get through as it is.
But just after I took this photo:
I stood up and my head exploded. Well, it felt like it did anyway. I had five minutes of intense pressure and pain, followed by 15 minutes of throbbing. Then, when the throbbing subsided, a sharp ache settled in.
I'd had a nagging headache for the few days preceding the "explosion", and since I don't get headaches, this was all fairly alarming to me. (It didn't help either that I'd just read an article about a guy who suffered a brain haemorrhage while at the gym and died a half hour later!)
After two days of the sharp headache, I saw my doctor and the good news was that there didn't appear to be anything seriously wrong with me. The bad news was, the only remaining diagnosis was "migraine".
Initially, I thought he had to be wrong. Surely I couldn't feel that awful and there not be anything terribly wrong! Then I learned all about migraines, and while it still amazes me that anyone can suffer with them and yet still be perfectly healthy, I do believe his diagnosis was correct.
Headache lasting 4 - 72 hours when untreated: check! Unlilateral location, pulsating quality, moderate or severe pain intensity, aggravation by or causing avoidance of routine physical activity, photophobia and phonophobia: check, check, check, check and check!
The photophobia (aversion to light) made taking photos pretty much impossible. I could not believe how much pain just walking outside caused! I spent a lot of time shuffling around like a mole, with my eyes open only the tiniest amount necessary.
Two weeks on and the pain still comes and goes. And even though the doctor diagnosed migraine, he didn't prescribe anything, just recommended an over-the-counter painkiller, which dulls the pain for a time but doesn't stop it entirely. My back aches too, so I'm going to see a chiropractor to see if that helps things.
This weekend wasn't too bad though, which was lucky because we had two very high-maintenance boys stay with us for the weekend! They are two of four children that belong to one of my best friends. It was lucky in a way that they came, because we took all the kids to the park (to save the house from being completely demolished!) and it gave me the motivation to push through the pain and start snapping again.
At first I got really frustrated, because it had been so long and I felt uncomfortable with my camera, like I didn't know what I was doing anymore. I kept at it though, and I'm glad I did. While I don't think any of the photos I took were great, some of them were good enough to make me keep going.
Friends will be able to see all the photos, so? What do you think?
Show us a burst of energy.
Show us love.
And I love them.
(We all love Angela Anaconda.)
