aka R’acquel

It stresses me a fair bit when i arrive at moments like this in my life with people. Sometimes, it is much better to finish things off with a solid goodbye, but other times ~ interesting things can happen when those doors do not close entirely as well.

I feel nervous, because i’m facing this sort of thing in my life right now, again. It’s happened before. My life gets presented with a remarkable human being in front of my eyes, it’s time to part our separate ways …but you’re sometimes left with that i’d-like-to-keep-in-touch, but also goodbye thing to contend with. Sometimes it’s incredibly inappropriate for certain relationships to continue, but somtimes it’s ok.

This isn’t too different to when you strike a very strong sensation of rapport & connection to a complete stranger on a street. The body experiences a form of,

“Wow - this has been so amazing …but you’re a stranger, and i’ll most likely never see you again, so this means i have to say goodbye to that.”

The brain switches off. Whatever connection you felt with this stranger, for such an acutely brief moment ~ finds a way of dissolving. The brain has no way of remembering what that person looked like, because your body was so strongly prepared for a very solid, goodbye [like, FOREVER!!!!].

Welll, that’s what happens to me, but these days ~ I’ve been doing things a little bit differently. A lot more,

“Hey, we’ve just experienced something really special together, want to try and see if we can meet up sometime?”

I’m still in touch with the first woman-friend that i “picked up” inside a shoe store at Katoomba a few month ago. Yes, it was kind of embarassing to ask for her phone number and email address, suggest the contemplation of a “date” to meet up, because i never did such a thing in my life before and i thought this is what men do when they try to pick up chicks. Yes, it felt so weird and funny to write & exchange contact details on a piece of paper (like, OMFG - i did it with a woman too! 555), but i’m glad that i did it.

As for this intriguing convergence of humans that i’ve encountered across the last 4 weeks of my life, wow. I didn’t just meet one amazing human, i met a good bloody handful of them at the Kids and Conference Seminar that was hosted by Barry Palm. This Barry guy, oh yeah ~ he’s an amazing human alright, hands down. Feels too-much. Cares too-much. Gives too-much. I couldn’t get over at how NMish he was, but not only him - so many other women in that room who were also incredibly NMish too! Found myself laughing so hard on the inside, because all the women in that room went for the PURPLE folders, instead of the BLUE ones!!! A shame there wasn’t any RED folders there, but i know i was not the only BLACK &or RED lady there! [grins] Anyone who’s an inside NMer over at Newtown Mums, will understand why such a thing would be so funny. Yes, a real shame i couldn’t get a schema of their Myer-Briggs Personality types as well because i KNOW the answers to that question, would’ve probably revealed an almost exact-match to NM’s MB personality profile - a very high hit-rate at the very least.

Honestly, i don’t know who in this world has pushed the “please remove assholes and big fat cows out of the picture” eject button. Am i just imagining things? Asides from the dickheads at MD Webhosting (who live in Melbourne i believe) and a lacklustre performance by local & federal police (erm.. Sydney?!) recently - who, ejected the dickheads out the Blue Mountains? Does anyone know? I’m finding it really hard to spot any assholes lately. Are my eyes are now wearing some kind of a filter atm? Maybe i’m getting this sensation because i’ve met so many amazing people here so it’s skewing my perception? Is it because i don’t watch much TV? I dunno. I think someone or something has pushed an eject button. Even the Australian politicians and stock markets seem to be going through some kind of a mega-eject thing atm. I dunno, maybe humans are getting so tired of things that it’s just inspiring people to push “i’ve had enough” eject buttons all over the place. Weird, perplexing ~ but i’m not complaining!

Oz Whistles seems to be doing well lately, Mitch’s whistles are catching on fire. Lots of design work to deal with in my life right now as well. Enjoying the shifting bias towards the strong positive in our lives at the moment. Maybe it’s the arrival of Spring, as it has been such a bitter cold winter this year - where i got to see snow falling on my own doorstep. The first time in my life that i saw snow falling in Australia ~ and it happened right at the end of winter too, so it was like enjoying a cherry or punnet of blueberries. A sweet way to end an exceptionally harsh winter. [sighs]

Barry ~ [laughs] he was so much like a 2003 NM flyer. Wha??!!! My goodness, bloody amazing. Apologies for being so cryptic - this is just something that the ladies of NM would understand, because we’ve become so skilled at learning how to spot NMish humans like this over the years. I can not only spot them online, but i can see them in real life as well.

This seminar ended last week ~ final session. Keep in touch, but also goodbye. Managed to get the contact details of about 4 women i was keen to keep in touch with personally, but i received an email with the contact details of the other women who wanted to keep in touch that was collected at the end of this session in my inbox today as well. The first conference-like thing in my life, where there was a really bloody impressive effort by someone else who took care of facilitating some kind of a “hey ~ lets try to follow up on this one without doing the gotta-get-back-to-my-life so goodbye!” thing.

Like wow, I’ve just scored the contact details of about 9 other new humans now. Who knows where this one’s going to go. Oh dear, gotta laugh at life. I’m turning into a bloody pick-up chick and it feels like i’m at the beginning of another NM round, version 4.0. 555

I’m not on my own with the whole “it takes a village” conquest anymore. It’s such a relief to not be the only one getting up off their ass to do something about it. It’s so exhausting when you have to do such a thing on your own. Have no idea of how things are going over at the Newtown Neighbourhood Centre these days, but the ones over here are getting up to some really amazing things that are helping people put the capital C back into community. Finally, people are starting to reap the rewards of what happens when you start to invest more of your time into social capital BEFORE commerce.

Oh yeah, and i’ve got to add another thing about Barry to my NM-ish friends. Ladies - he was doing that NM-Cuke thing when people started to say “sorry” for expressing themselves and needed to announce their “stupid” questions in to the group!!!!!!! 555

Hail to the Newtown Mums Cucumber ~ it was a fucking incredible invention and really quite something for me to see someone else, a MAN even ~ do the exact same thing. He didn’t bash people over the head like we used to tho, he was heaps more gentle and didn’t use any comedic acts of psuedo-violence. 555

Yeah, he was quite something ..and i know he’s a Captain. No idea if he’s used to running a big ship, but clearly capable. I know there’s many others who exist out there as well, so i’m excited.

Like, yo ho ho with a bottle of bum …with rum …and cuban cigars …and really really expensive cognac worth $5K per bottle, minimum. A spare bottle of Dom for Mrs.Lifecruiser, if i ever get rich enough to buy her a 1st class air ticket to visit Australia too.

Like, dang ~ i think i’m still high from sniffing those cognac vapours a week ago. ccc ccc ccc

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Have been getting up to a lot of art together with Aidan since we received an amazing delivery of scrap vinyl kindly donated by Australian Fast Signs - an impressive package weighing about 4kg. So many colours to choose from and i was initially struck by how the first few colours reminded me so much of hubby’s Oz Whistles business.

Organised a live tour so that Aidan could get a picture of how a sign manufacturing company worked during our recent visit to Sydney. The following are excerpts from Aidan’s photo journal, taking an account of this adventure in the suburb of Bankstown. We hope you enjoy the cyber cruise!

Aidan’s first reaction was wondering why this sign making factory didn’t have any chimneys and why there was a fashion/dress shop above it …to then be followed by questions over whether or not this part of Bankstown was classified as an industrial zone or a commercial one.

He was very impressed by the GIANT laminator - wanted to see how this one worked coz mummy’s one can only do A4 sizes and he loves helping her to laminate signs & business sticks for Oz Whistles. Learnt this was used to coat the large scale signs to seal & protect the print and also offering protection from UV.

Engraving machine… I’m still craving to take a close-up of that red button so i’m glad Aidan knabbed this one.

Enjoying a vinyl swordfight with Lizzie in the Men’s Unisexed toilets - where i know many of my friends will think this is so cool, because nearly every cyber cruise post of mine must do it’s best to feature something related to a toilet? Hey ~ it was a lovely conicidence and i’m sad i didn’t take a photo of the sign used to indicate ‘mens’ as proof.

“I took a picture of The Man!” Logo for the business, Aidan loved it.

A child-friendly business too - customer service must be pretty good huh?! 555

“The Apple” (in the background)

One of Mummy & Lizzie together - who haven’t been in touch with each other since 1992. Lots of catching up to do.

One of Aidan’s favourite subjects since birth. Loves them when they spin, but also loves examining the designs of hub-cabs too.

Gnarly lens flare - but sometimes it’s fun to point the camera towards the sunlight. Picture of the business logo art printed onto a vehicle - which is another thing these guys can do!

Aidan wouldn’t tell me what it was in this shot - his response was “I just had to take that photo twice!” I suspect it’s either the white square or the yellow diagonal line of the broom or the shovel or quite likely, a combination of all those elements. I’ll bet $10 that the pink stuff is completely superfluous to him.

Signs!

…because it said, “SED”!

I pointed this one out to him because he usually notices small details like this all the time. Didn’t want him to miss out on such an important small-detail. 555

He loved this one - “I took a picture of The GLUE!!” - i still remember his voice, almost laughing.

“I pulled the chain and then i took a photo of it!”

The water bottle, because he thought it was very funny.

He liked the blue kettle too.

Some of the creative feats we’ve gotten up to with the vinyl so far. The goal is to use up every single last scrap of waste and turn it into *something*.

01 - Freestyle

02 - Monochromatic Red (train tracks)

03 - Stairway To Door 4 (& trapping a Chinese man behind it)

04 - Loopo Plane

05 - An ‘Art of Gold

06 - No Go (so that the bugs can’t go anywhere)

The journey of learning how to make colours sing continues further with photoshop.

Learning about the use of layers & different ways you can merge them together. This is one of my faves atm.

Psycho Wheel

The last one for now. Uncle Gooch bought a PS3 - so we did a lot of Lego Indiana Jones together in 2 player mode, enjoying the use of wireless joysticks for a change. A great stay in Sydney, but very glad to be back home to the peace & quiet of Leura.

In the meanwhile, we still have heaps of vinyl left over. If anyone else would like to join us in creating art out of all this spare vinyl with the kids during those rainy days via blog world, then give me a holler and i’ll organise to mail some out to you.

I have no idea of where this adventure will go, but it’s amazing how far we’ve travelled by using such a small fraction of it so far!

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Received a very patronising letter attempting to inform me about the provisions of the Education Act 1990 by a robot the other day, so this is my tongue-in-cheek reply ~ to that robot:

My typography teacher @ uni tried to fail me in the subject after these infamous words were submitted in a very naughty piece that broke all the rules and totally shitted all over the design brief. Rewarded with high distinction by another lecturer who happened to agree with it’s sentiment in this music video. For now ~ I am content with allowing this post to remain as it was originally intended to be.

A poem from 1997, which i’m now using in response to another stupid robot from 2008.

You Are A Robot

In negative philosophy,
time passes.
A lingering bad smell,
is stained upon the university walls.
Vacant stares,
evaporate into silence….

Tuberculosis,
on a hot
neon sign,
yearning for a good wank
in opulent water.

Sorrow burns tenaciously,
in an everlasting bubble of rushes.
I hate this so-called “God”.
Syphilis on him!

An absolute waste of copious time.
Of all that money has to offer,
I’m presented with this,
pathetic lecturer!
émigré?!
So what!

You are a robot.
Simon Says…
Doubt Yourself.

A seductive tool,
to remind us of time
and how distorted it becomes.
Away…. Away!
..at how the nadir darkens onto a
burnt-out pool of vomit.

Idiot!
Outrageously uncreative,
stupid,
little,
so and so.
Yearning to bring back to life,
dead old ways.

I close my ears,
to drown out your insipid notions.

FUCK YOU!
…I quietly scream.
Tolerating what I can…

You are a Robot.
Simon Says…
Confuse Yourself.

To you,
it’s all nothing!
Your idealism,
lacerates
every drop of inspiration.
A rancid reflection,
of eclectic lost causes.

How invigorating,
to see Neolithic half-witted dorks,
show their intolerance!

How do we fucking escape these contradictions?
Riot?!!
Stuff their mouths with
Kellogs Cornflakes?
~ Why not?!!

You are a robot.
Simon Says…
“Hate Yourself”

I know what lies ahead,
you have to find,
The Brain.
Only YOU,
can kill the brain!

Yes,
some of us just may disagree with your arguments.
Keen to attack it,
with our own opinion.
Then I think…
What good ~
…would that do?

Our own opinions,
are underrated,
and rejected ~
because having to listen to,
New Ideas,
don’t correspond to your own fucking idea of,
“evergreen design” ~
I fucking hate you!

Go on and forcefully insert your
foul iconoclast contradictions,
up into the air,
and hear us laugh at two baboons.

You people,
are the tyrannical rats,
of evolving dismemberment.

A long wait it becomes,
to complete the instructed tasks.

Buzz off,
Angel from Below.
I curse and will,
enjoy to see your stupidness
become further outmoded,
and DIE!

~

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A long time since I’ve been in blog world. Our whole family has experienced great relief since we made the decision to pull Aidan out of school and take up the direction of homeschooling as the alternative for our son’s education. The weeks leading up to this decision were acutely stressful for Mitch & myself, Aidan included. The school wasn’t able to manage things well. My maternal instincts were screaming out loud within the second week of school, but i’m glad that bulk of the nausea I endured throughout it all is greatly over for now.

We opted to schedule a break for much needed rest & relaxation over at the Werriberri Lodge in the Megalong Valley, which is about a 20 minute drive from our place. According to the documentation at the lodge, Werriberri was the name of the last Aboriginal chief of a tribe that was located in this area.

This place is known as our ‘home away from home’. We even had the same cabin as last time, No.4. The Smith’s have conglomerated at this place for weddings, funerals in the past. After this adventure - for ‘everything else’ as well, so I couldn’t help but have that Weddings/Funerals & Everything movie run through my head every now at then during out stay there.

As usual with any getaway, I always have to do a toilet review first for Newtown Mums (because this kind of information is very important to them).

This toilet, was impressively sealed for our protection. From what? Boogie Monsters? I still don’t know.

A very b-grade performance on the presentation of the toilet paper, which didn’t come with a neat triangle fold and it was also going ‘under’ instead of over. I wasn’t too disappointed by this at all, because it is budget accommodation after all – but it would have been very problematic if I faced something like this in an expensive 5 star hotel.

The most unusual presentation of the mini-shampoos I’ve ever come across to date, but the bottles were very nicely branded.

I’ve always loved the design of these cabins because it’s a very efficient use of space which can accommodate 6 people with one double bed in the master bedroom,

and 4 bunk beds in the other bedroom.

It gets very cold in this area at night, Mitch turns into an axeman by the shed to help gather the firewood.

Aidan gets busy riding his bike called “Huffy” in the name of exercise amidst oodles of fresh air to get the cheeks all red & rosy. Lots of great bike-riding tracks in this area. I can’t believe it’s been a whole decade since i rode my first-ever 2-wheeled bike off the edge of a small cliff in the more daring drik-bike tracks of this area.

I get distracted by the local flower.

Aidan starts multi-tasking with Huffy by helping to carry the firewood back to the cabin.

Most of our time indoors was spent playing with the open fireplace and telling stories.

Too busy relaxing to take any photos of the delicious home-cooked meals I enjoyed making away-from-home, but that is a left-over plate of chicken schnitzel on the coffee table! For breakfast, we enjoyed grilled bacon with eggs, char-grilled cherry tomatos & home-made pancakes.

Landscape shot from the base of the Megalong Valley – there’s obviously many wonderful look-outs from the cliff tops that looks down into this area. Very fortunate to have lovely weather during our stay.

Father & son go in search for the horses, which made me think of Mrs.Lifecruiser’s childhood!

Saying hello to the local donkey. It was wonderful to see Aidan so happy & peaceful, glowing from the inside.

He was glowing even more when he finally got to ride the horse who’s name was “Hound”.

Going “solo” – it was amazing to see him so happy. He had another turn riding the horse known as “Coin” the next day. We’re hoping to make horse riding lessons as regular feature in Aidan’s life – something for him to master in an area which his parents are completely clueless.

Ah yes, the final dishwashing detergent review. A classic 1-2 star, predictably – very heavily “diluted” with water, so you need to use even more in order to clean the dishes up!

Looking forward to doing this sometime next month to “get away” again. Will be sure to go on a bush walk to check out the waterfall/creek for the next round and i’ll get more snappy with the camera when it comes to the food!

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