Friday 17 October 2014

post needs a title, Dave (Hal or Holly voice)

post needs a title, Dave
twitter not so much
fit thoughts
feeling
smell of the crowd
heat of the day
day with promise
make and do
great crafting
till
bland approach
watered for hope
break away
need a hat
patronised
tired
iced lolly
heaven
i think I'll call it
summitting

@kalgrl

Wednesday 15 October 2014

Goldfields Repertory Club - 1950's and 1960's

Goldfields Repertory Club - 1950's and 1960's
Floy Matthews was a Kalgoorlie artist, photographer and Life Member of the Goldfields Repertory Club. (GRC)
She was a member much involved in all aspects of the Club, including taking a lot of the publicity stills for the productions. I have included a few here for your enjoyment;

 Rumplestilskin 1969 (Dir.)

 Blythe Spirit 1954
(love the ghost in this one)

 not sure what this one was - so joyful I had to include

A Christmas Carol 1966 (Dir.)

The Magic Carpet
Written and Produced by Nancy Hobson

Charley's Aunt 1965

Breath of Spring 1966
(one of the few plays Lorna Mitchell acted in - top right)

Hot Summer Night (Set) 1965

Bonaventure 1964
(Loved the stained glass windows, they were talented set builders)

All for Mary 1962

Strike Happy 1966

The Blue Goose

The Tender Trap 1963

Summer of the Seventeenth Doll
(still for the show - taken in the Palace Hotel bar)

Saloon Bar 1956

Head shots of some of the GRC members in the 1960's
Floy is in the second row, second from the right.
Lorna Mitchell is centre second row.

Floy wrote the Club History from the beginnings to the 1980's.
"Stages: a history of the Goldfields Repertory Club"

Floy told me she apprenticed with a local photographer for her first working position in Kalgoorlie, (1930's?) and was very excited to help him with the photographing of the 'Golden Eagle Nugget' when it was found. 
Not sure this is the one but you can get the general idea of the time when she started her apprenticeship. Floy also shared that, most photography in the early days was portraiture, with most people requesting removal of distinguishing marks like moles, etc.
(No quick 'selfies' in those days, but the editing was the same..lol). We shared many a tale over an afternoon tea or drinks at her home before she died.

@kalgrl
Goldfields Repertory Club 1931 (inc.)


sea burial

Like many
Answering the call
Stories of glory
And travel, in thrall
He floats away to Gallipoli 
Aboard ships

Through many cracks
In records of the time
He falls, young, unnoticed among many
From unforgiving war wounds

And slips silently into the sea

@kalgrl

art (regional)

art (regional)
noun
this week
our fair
town
see arts extraordinnaire
taste
touch
get down
go to
enjoy
the #raasummit is here
oh boi

@kalgrl

Saturday 4 October 2014

The arts are coming to town


The RAA Summit 'Arts and Edges is coming to town... more art than we have ever had before.
the program looks great.
and this is just day one
@Kalgrl



Sunday 10 August 2014

Memories can be Peachy

Watching a celebrity chef, in all his chefs goodness reinvent the Peach Melba, yesterday I remembered I still have these..



I love peaches (unlike Miss Fisher I prefer the yellow), so stopped to watch the recipe take shape.
He was turning out a raspberry granita, making a custard from scratch and poaching his peaches... All on a temporary kitchen in a peach and nectarine orchard... Phew so talented :))



In the 80's my parents had a coffee/sandwich shop and when setting up one of Mum's decisions was what 'desert' to offer on the menu. Something simple was required, besides the cakes and scones, and not too hard to make at the counter in a busy environment.
After trialling a few things she came up with Banana Splits and Peach Melba and we had a great time sampling, testing and putting together our version of these great traditional deserts.

I still remember that these glass bowls were just the thing for 'plating up', and this was how,

1 peach halved - not often found fresh in quantity in Kalgoorlie in the 80's so canned halves
2 scoops of vanilla ice cream 
Cream piped either side of the peaches and in the middle (using trendy new gas dispenser - never mind the smoke Heston :-)
Raspberry flavouring - usually the same we used for the milk shakes 
One wafer halved into triangles and pushed into the ice cream
Served with a smile - and a steal at $2.15

Sometimes, nuts, cherries, other flavours, and grated chocolate could be added to the customers preference, but Mum preferred to stick with the simple flavours and not confuse the dessert with the banana split which was heaped with all of the colour and excitement of a child's party.

It was simple, easily made, well received and now a good memory for me of a family time that was a lot of hard work, sometimes fun and altogether memorable.

*Wonders when peaches will be available.... Mmm raspberry granita*
@kalgrl

Tuesday 10 June 2014

Seminar, work and auditions

Today I went it a seminar about my Super fund... I learnt a lot... It's clear I know nothing...
I worked, got grumpy because people can be silly. I.e. Putting an oil heater on chairs, plastic chairs... #sigh
Then we had auditions for the short plays and I am endeavouring to cast the play. For lack of male auditionees...

Tired.
Blog more tomorrow.
Bye bye,
@kalgrl
#blogjune
#blogeverydayforjune

Monday 9 June 2014

they have moved on...

I saw a title in the catalogue the other day and the subject was social networking on campuses for students. This is an interest of mine and I ordered the book up from our main campus library, even though it was from another country's perspective, I was interested to read the conclusions.

Sat down to have a read and the thing that became obvious from the second paragraph was unfortunately I forgot to check the books publishing date '2009'...big fail on my part.
The paragraph that indicated to me the age of the item and that most of the research was from the early noughties was the mention of 'MySpace' and 'Friendster' and a photo sharing site called 'webshots'.

I had heard of the first two, and the common jokes about 'MySpace' and its tumbleweeds, but I haven't heard of 'webshots'. I now know that it has evolved to a wallpaper and screen saver application for MS word and that 'Friendster' has evolved to a social gaming website.

Just the second paragraph has made it obvious to me that the work would be seriously dated. Interesting from a historical marker point of view and they set out to be "transgenerational ethographers" and to not "confuse meaning across the generational divide". (Martinez Aleman. 2009 Preface.) However not very useful 5 years on, in a world of Apps, Tumblr and Snapchat . The students have moved on. Tech has changed and I, old as I am :-) haven't used the three sites I mention above.

Going off to have another longer look and to see if I can get anything more recent as I head down the path of personal interest to source a theme for study. I will keep this book in mind for historical background research and send it back to shelf.

I should have entitled this post, "what am I thinking..".


@kalgrl
#blogjune
#blogeverydayforjune


Martinez Aleman, A, (2009) "Online Social Networking on Campus: Understanding what matters in student culture." Routledge.


Cartoon from here

Sunday 8 June 2014

Beautiful Sunday

Today was beautiful...
Some cooking (roast pumpkin soup/walnut caramel slice), some gardening (prepare a pot for planting the pyrethrum daisy and move an olive tree), some reading (started The Railway Man), some watching (Shakespeare on ABC and other movie), some encouragement for Ms17 who has stuff to complete for school and study for two more exams. Chat with JB and Mum and Dad on the phone and excellent breakfast to start the day. All in all a great day.... and oops forgot the washing... Heidi-ho... thank 'the deity you pray to' for automatic washers... bye.

@kalgrl
#blogjune
#blogeverydayforjune

Saturday 7 June 2014

babes with the power

This post is inspired by @flexnib 's post entitled 'Young'. I had been thinking about the link to the article on a child's right to privacy and whether I thought I had been circumspect enough with my own children's rights to privacy over the years I had been active online.

I admit upfront to not giving it much thought in the heady early days of sharing and blogging. As my education on all things 'net grew I realized that it was not a great thing to share all the intimate moments of my children growing up with a 'room full of the world'. There are things that are fine, like the odd birthday photo, however, I have gradually deleted a lot of the earlier stuff and not shared too much over the past 5 years.

I suppose this would equate in the earlier days, pre 'net to a parent involving you in a newspaper report or even writing you in as a character in a book or a biography. Still the internet has a memory that most other paper forms of information sharing don't unless its in an archival storage for some reason, to wit, I remember a scene in  'Notting Hill' where the main actress is trying to explain that, the unfortunate photos, taken of her when she was younger will never disappear,
     
        "WILLIAM     I mean -- today's newspapers will be
    lining tomorrow's waste paper bins.

ANNA     Excuse me?

WILLIAM     Well, you know -- it's just one day.
    Today's papers will all have been
    thrown away tomorrow.

ANNA     You really don't get it.  This story
    gets filed.  Every time anyone writes
    anything about me -- they'll dig up
    these photos.  Newspapers last forever.
    I'll regret this forever.

  He takes this in.  That's the end."


Notting Hill by Richard Curtis 1999

and all things considered, I don't want that for my children. I want them to have the power of their own destiny (waxing lyrical now.. lol) and not have anything I have done come back to hurt them.

a musical interlude... "Dance Magic Dance"


I was recently going through some photos for scanning and came across this one of me at approx. 2 years old on a hot day. My Mum, ever practical, must have given me some water to play with outside. Its a typical shot of the time, place and season, and I believe at our house in a suburb that was called 'Bushmead' (now Hazelmere) near Midland. My choice to post it ... :-)

 
'dance baby dance'
@kalgrl
#blogjune
#blogeverydayforjune

Friday 6 June 2014

Lemon blossum Friday

 
"lemon tree very pretty
and the lemon flower is sweet...
but the fruit of the poor lemon is impossible to eat"
I was reminded of this song today.
My Dad used to sing this when I was a child... memories
The image is my own tree - lemons soon.
 
@kalgrl
#blogjune
#blogeverydayforjune
 

Thursday 5 June 2014

Mining Brats unite...

Mining brats unite
I have been watching the fledgling engineers as they are rushing their final projects this week for handing in and I am wondering how many will be working soon.
There are many and varied mines in Australia and overseas and the minerals and how they are mined are also varied. Safety is the first priority and I always send them a wish to a long and healthy life working in mining and on mine sites.
Mining brats like myself have usually had opportunities to ‘go down the mine’ in different situations.
Visiting with dignitaries – I have a friend who went down a gold mine on the Golden Mile in Kalgoorlie with Red and Alan Bond. He was the office person escort in the group and was excited to show them around (even though he didn’t work there). Mr Bond went on to great highs and lows in the financial area, but we still remember him as the man responsible for joining the mines together on the Golden Mile into one company. We’ve had Dukes, and Princes and Queens visit, though I’m not sure ‘her maj’ went down the mine while she was here.
Visiting with Dad or these days either Parent. Many of us managed to ‘go underground’ and visit in this way. The see where they work and what they did. “Bring your child to work day”, sort of..
You would get dressed in the “two big’ overalls and the hardhat with lamp and huge boots.
Tours – It has been a practice recently, if safe, to take tourists to the bottom of the pit or other at working mines, especially in our area. We all heard an hilarious tale of an older couple who had driven onto a lease, via a haul road and down a pit, with their caravan and could not get out as the walls were too steep to tow the van. Needless to say the Security on that day were asked questions.
I have been underground in a Gold mine on the Golden Mile, a nickel mine east of there and a copper /tin mine in Tasmania’s west. Both the nickel and the gold mine were shafts and had what amounts to a cage lift for access, always scary. The mine in Tasmania was a ‘decline’ and you could drive down the mine in vehicles. The areas underground are tight airless spaces with vehicles, miners and big bits of machinery, seemingly sucking more of the available air from the surrounds.
There are many funny and slightly scary tales told by the miners, like the one who could pull enough ore in the morning to sleep between shift boss visits in the afternoon, and still be a ‘gun miner’. The images of smaller utes crushed by the large trucks, because they parked in the wrong place and the cab on the truck was too high to see the ute. Or the one where they throw the teabags up into the rockbolted mesh in the roof of the ‘crib room’ underground. This was a competition to see if it stuck there. I have an image in this post of the ‘t bags’.
I admire anyone who can do this as work for any period of time. Miners, Engineers, Trades and all the other related jobs that make up this workforce, I salute you and your families and ‘brats’.
@kalgrl (Mining brat and Librarian)
#blogjune
#blogeverydayforjune

Wednesday 4 June 2014

Playin'

I spent part of today organizing auditions to direct a short play. This will be the first time for a while I have directed and I hope to entertain the audience and complement two other plays in the same program.

The play in question is a light comedy and written by an Australian Author who lives in Queensland.

This post is about connections, setting up the auditions and the way we do things in this day and age.

connections - a comedy of errors, assumptions and connecting
receives email about meeting tomorrow for information sharing
reads FB - sees a title of discussion amongst friends - wonders why name is in list - goes away
receives text - did you see discussion on FB - needs decisions from you...
reads FB and starts to type up information for discussion
receives 2 messages and missed call from friend - re discussion - missed while answering q's.
rings friend and is asked to go on FB with information
reads and loads information to FB
receives emailed information on discussion results... e-newsletter
resting
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

connections (twitter.... tweet on... love my PLN!)

#blogjune
#blogeverydayforjune
@kalgrl
(caveat - can't remember where I got the owls...sorry)


Tuesday 3 June 2014

One does not...

It is not a simple thing to blog every day and one needs time and space. Just a bit wibberly wobberly and tired today, stuff happening, ran out of time, so the first meme for the month is a visual one... one I love as it is very adaptable to circumstance and subject..

@kalgrl
#blogjune
#Blogeverydayforjune

Monday 2 June 2014

its 25 years since Tiananmen Square

25 years ago this coming December I went to Hong Kong.
For our 'largely delayed by lack of cash' Honey Moon.

I remember, quite deliberately not applying for a visa to visit mainland China.
My reason - I am not sure I can visit a country that shoots its own.
Incredibly naïve, yes I know.
I remember many tourists, taking photos in front of many fine Christmas trees.
I remember a protest of 1 million that went largely unnoticed by the common tourist, me and only registering it happened on the news that evening.
(Walking through the area it did not seem to feel, crowd wise, much different to the day before).

I remember 'Grandparents Day' at the bird park, the old and the young enjoying the sun on the escalator to the aquarium and it stopping with too many passengers. We enjoyed the walk up.
I remember catching a local train to the stop before the border and returning.
I remember stopping to visit a temple for sending messages to the dead and singularly the coke machine that was at the entrance which seemed, at the time, largely incongruous in that setting.

I remember not being very sophisticated in politics and causes and understanding anything.
I still don't. I do remember thinking, 7 months later, its business as usual.
and still I remember the images of the square, the people and the tanks.
Most of the students I see every day were not even born, and don't even know about it, much like me wandering in the aftermath of the 1 million people protest.

its 25 years since Tiananmen Square

@kalgrl

#blogjune
#blogeverydayforjune



Sunday 1 June 2014

Sunday reflections - Ch Ch Ch Changes...


Sunday reflections – Ch ch ch changes…

I have had a huge year and not much blogging as have from last June/July, completed a big year (for me) which included an overseas trip – Paris, London, Scarborough, Bath and stops between and as much change on the work front as is possible in the same position.

Though the trip overseas is now a pleasant memory, it is one I will have forever of a summer in Europe that was hot and full of wonderful things. Many small and interesting and other big ticket, ‘must sees’; The Musee’ d’Orsay, lunch at the Eiffel Tower, the Eurostar, the quiet lap of the waves on a still day in Scarborough, the quite hysterically lame ‘Dracula Experience’ in Whitby. The smell and feel of the life in London, the way the rubbish is stowed and collected with a strange lack of bins. Rounding a corner and entering the fabulous Green Park with Londoners cooking in the midday sun. Many great memories of the Underground, Baker Street, Big Ben, the Tower and Shakespeare at the Globe, a musical play in the west end “Matilda”. The ‘NORTH’, and the many, many roundabouts on the journey to get there and driving through the English countryside ‘b’ roads in summer. The road signs of the many places we recognized from reading and images and deliberately not visiting ‘Midsommer’ as everyone dies there, especially visitors. :-)  The lack of air conditioning/ventilation or the ability to open windows in various hotels, but happily never a bad bed. The food good and hysterically bad (don’t get me started on the ‘Famous fish and chips’ in The NORTH). I think it rained once and there was ‘a fly’, at least I think it was a fly.

What did I learn from this, I learnt people are the same everywhere, individual in their approach to tasks and most quite helpful and respectful to stupid tourist questions’. I tip my hat to the disdainful waiter in France, I loved him, and his service was impeccable. I love that the tour guides were multilingual and wish we were more so here. (The guide on the ‘Bato Bus’ ferry on the Seine had four languages.) I love ‘skip the line’ tours, we learnt about this in Singapore in 2010 and it saved amazing time, when you only have a short time to spend.

Came back to complete semester two with a relatively new (from the start of 2013), inclusive and evenhanded manager who ‘consistently’ considered us part of the team, even from a distance. I learnt so much about various things the main one being how to let the bad shrug off and move on with the job, great skill and hard to learn.  I also survived “change management” and was not made redundant. (Clear communication is the key.)

By far the largest change for me was, during the first 5 months of 2014, we had the Library moved into storage, while a “new home” has been constructed in a heritage Building constructed in the early 1900’s. I will not go into the reasons for the move as that is not my area, suffice it to say, we waved goodbye to our High School and TAFE clients for whom we will no longer deliver services.

We also waved good bye to our staff member who was made redundant because of these reduced services and the change management process. She was a good, consistent worker who turned up with a bright smile and sank her teeth 100% into any task she was given. I wish her well.

With the decision to move we delivered services, as best we could, (Using phones, courtesy phones and email from a Reference point of view and unpacked various collection boxes - if urgent) from an office in the middle of the “Academics office building”. I learnt so much from this about our clients and it deserves a whole post on its own.

When the building was nearly complete, we oversaw the move of the library stock and our office in to the new space, with all the inherent problems of non- library staff completing the move. We are now working out how best to put to practical use the space planners and architects vision, dodging builders for two weeks and then some more… We have also survived tourists, the official opening, more builders, security establishment issues and just basically how to score a cup of tea/coffee on the run. (Yay! to the admin staff from Mining, who are wonderful.)

We have now opened in the new space. It is very nice, bright, colourful a good mix of the old and the new and seems to contain all a small library needs. With longer hours, at client request and a resounding “if you build it where they need it, they will come”, the attendances are good so far…Yay!

Professional positions in the country of Western Australia for Librarians are few and hard to get, without moving hearth and home often. I have to share that it is not often you can get a new job, by just changing the crap out of the old one, but this is my story. Change managed. *waves wand*
@kalgrl

And now a small musical interlude…

This month is #blogjune – Join us.
@flexnib for an explanation of Blog June.
The 2014 #blogjune list.