Canberra and surrounds

Canberra

A few weeks ago now, Kieran and I went on a day trip to Canberra, just because we could.  It was a beautiful day to start with and it only started to rain as we were having dinner.  We worked out that with the exception of our trip to India, it has rained on every FINAL day of our trips together… is it a sign? or sheer coincidence?

Given that Kieran isn’t a morning person I took the reigns for the drive down to Canberra, stopping only at Goulburn for some breakfast at the Rose’s Cafe (Montague Street - Next to Courthouse), it was a hearty breakfast, a nice warm cup of hot chocolate went down beautifully with my Bacon and Eggs.

We continued on our merry way to the National Gallery of Australia where currently until mid-July they have a Soft Sculpture exhibition.  The soft sculptures were actually very interesting and I like the idea of creating sculptures using a variety of mediums.  I have to confess I don’t know much about art, but I appreciate the thought and design processes that go behind them. I always take a moment to think about it and similar to when I read books, it often conjures up other memories and ideas.

After looking at some of the other exhibitions including the ‘Sculpture Gardens’ which I have to say is a bit ‘fail’ in that there aren’t many sculptures and there didn’t seem to be many new additions.  I’m not expecting a massive ’sculpture park’ it is afterall a ‘garden’, but there didn’t seem to be in my humble opinion much perspective given to the relative size and positioning of some of the scupltures.

We decided to head into the Civic to find something to eat, not that we were particularly hungry.  In a stroke of genius (mind the hyperbole) we decided to head into Borders to check out the Canberra Good Food Guide (GFG). There were either not enough restaurants for Canberra to have its own Good Food Guide or that it’s just such a hole that it didn’t warrant it’s own edition of the Good Good Guide like the many of the other major cities seem to have.

Regardless we managed to find one whole page filled with places to eat in Canberra.  So for lunch we decided to head to Silo Bakery where I ordered Toulouse Sausage and Oysters, which was amazing in that the pepper and spices in the sausage balanced the fresh Oyster with fresh lemon taste. There was a simple olive-oil dressed salad in between which blended in beautifully with both the oyster and the sausage.  I’ve not had something at it, but my decision to choose something from the menu that was ‘different’ was rewarded.

Our next stop after lunch was Questacon, which in all honesty hadn’t really changed much since I was last there, still it was lots of fun and relatively interesting. Kieran was extraordinarily proud of himself when he managed to get closest to 15 seconds on a stop watch like gizmo, what he won’t tell you is that he cheated.

Petrol and dinner were the last things on our agenda and although the thought of sniffing petrol crossed my mind we ended up after a failed first attempt to get into a restaurant mentioned in the GFG to dine at Ottoman Cuisine in Barton. The food there was that good that I’d want to drive down to Canberra just to experience it all over again. I had for entree the ‘ enginar ‘ artichoke hearts filled with goat’s fetta & pine-nuts; served crisp with a light yoghurt sauce; and for mains ‘Sis Balik‘ - skewered Hiramasa king fish pieces marinated in lemon & bay leaves, char-grilled served with leeks braised with local extra virgin olive oil.

Whilst the entree and main was simply delectable the dessert was in a world of its own.  The ‘kazandibi” sounded enticing on the menu, when it arrived it looked alluring and it tasted simply sensational. All it was, was baked custard with mastica extract served with morello cherries in syrup and pomegranate ice-cream.

It was a pleasurable way to end the school holidays. Good food in the company of a good friend.

Danny Bhoy - At the Enmore Theatre

Danny Bhoy

I last saw Danny Bhoy about three years ago and although there are some comedians I wouldn’t go back to see due to what I’d consider to be ‘recycled’ material, Danny Bhoy didn’t have this problem. To my knowledge he didn’t re-use any of his old material and although he used the same formula to his show (which all comedians do even greats such as Robbin Williams and Jerry Seinfield do) none of it seemed familiar.

This time round he talked and of course joked about his long tour of Australia and was never at any stage really controversial but that’s his style, he’s a very good ’story teller’ who consistently finishes with awesome punchlines.

It’s particular hard for me to articulate, but in a way and with respect to William Shakespeare and other playrights Bhoy’s structure reminded of a classic Shakespearean play. He had one constant theme from start to finish, but had little subplots all the way through and right at the end when closing, managed to tie everything up beautifully.

It’s hard comparing comedians just like its hard making comparisons between musicians, as everyone has their own style.  Danny Bhoy does however remind me a little of Ross Noble in that as the show goes on, he cleverly builds on presuppopositonal information in order to create a laugh, in a sense it makes him quite witty.

The Game - Neil Strauss

The Game

There has been so much mention about this book over the years and I finally gave into popularism and sourced myself an online copy of the book.  I’m going to have to say that reading a novel on the computer was challenging and extraordinarily uncomfortable. I may be ‘old school’ about particular things in life and may even consider myself to be a bit behind the times but one thing is for sure, there is something about the feel, the smell and the turning of pages in a book that makes it more than just a visual and intellectual experience.

Now, I have to admit that I begun reading the book with a biased point of view but the ending of the book only reaffirms and validates my point of views of “so called” pick-up artists. I also have to admit that I originally thought this book was about the strategies on how to “pick-up” women, but instead it is as I realised after the first few pages and autobiography of sorts, which is a relief considering I was thinking that this would be the first non-biographical book that I would have read since my Nambodialand Trip, July last year, where I made the mistake of buying a Crime Fiction novel written by a Sydney Author.

Despite all my scepticism, I have to admit that the book is a worthwhile read if not to help the thousands of men realise that being able to “pick-up” women doesn’t make you “awesome”, it only means that you can “pick-up” women.  If the idea of sleeping with hundreds of women in a emotionally and intellectually unfulfilling manner is your idea of success in life then I would probably recommend buying the book that teaches you the strategies on how to ‘pick-up’ women.

If perhaps you have low self-esteem, a bit unsure on how to talk to women, etc I suggest that you actually talk to some ‘female’ friends about what it is they find attractive about men and I’d also suggest that you find a way to define yourself that isn’t dependent on how other people see you, but how you think about yourself and the world.

The book is an interesting read and uses “theories” to label ways of human and group interaction it’s a relatively fascinating read and no matter what your thought are about “pick-up” artists, I’d recommend it. It certainly surprised me.

Adam Hills - Inflated

Adam Hills

I finally got to see Adam Hills live for the first time. The last time he toured the country I missed out when I fell violently ill and had to give up my tickets to some friends.

He did not disappoint, although I did probably expect to laugh a little harder, I’m definitely not complaining.  I’d like to see him be more controversial knowing that he could get away with it.  You see, everyone loves Hills and know of his background, meaning that he could use it to his advantage.

There was an underlying message behind all the jokes and on the way to Hills’ final piece he talks about losing three close friends in the last year. One of which the title of the show was probably dedicated to.  It’s rare in comedy for such serious topics such as ‘death’ to be mentioned let alone visited at length.  It wasn’t about the way people die but rather the great memories he still had of his friends. You’d think that such depressing subjects such as ‘death’ is literally no laughing matter and would result in a comedian shooting themselves in the foot, yet he brought up the subject with respect and in such tasteful humour that I’m pretty sure very few even noticed that he spoke about his friend’s passing.

I’m a little biased when it comes to Adam Hills because I’ve enjoyed his humour on the ABC on ‘Spicks and Specks’ and on other appearances he has made on television. For those who want to know that little bit more about him check him out on his website or at Wikipedia.

life is so good

life is so good

Life is so good at the moment, but the book by George Dawson and Richard Glaubman is better.  Although I found the book to be inspiring, I found it a particularly hard read, due to the prominent “Southern American” accent that penetrates my head when I read the book. Worst still is the fact that I know my Texan accent is one modelled by none other than George W. Bush, but that’s probably where the similarities end.

The world that Dawson describes is something out of the movies, he leads an adventurous life over three centuries travelling all over the United States on the old railways. He describes the racial intollerance, igornace and straight out racism experienced by every ‘black’ person in Southern America. He comically describes his suprise when across the borders in Canada and Mexico, people’s attitudes were remarkably different.  Despite all the negatives and difficult times that Dawson could have written about, he writes not with ‘rose coloured glasses’‘ but what I would describe as an open-mindedness and love of life.

The book is semi-autobiographical in that George Dawson only learnt to read when he was 98 years of age and was well assisted by Richard Glaubman.  If there is anything to take out of the book it is certainly that anything is possible and with an open mind an attitude life is indeed so good.  There is a lot to learn from Dawson’s experiences and if there are a couple of important lesson I have learnt, it is that working hard and appreciating the small things in life goes a long way to helping people stay happy.

Although it was a hard read due in my opinion to the ‘laid back’ style of writing and lack of strong emotive lanugage from Dawson possibly because he seems to understate things; it’s a worthwhile read.

Look Me In The Eye

Look Me In The Eye

Q. How often was I told when I was younger to look the teacher in the eyes?

A. Countless number of times, yet the old teachers when I was in primary school had not taken into account the cultural differences between what we would consider to be appropriate in the Anglo-Australian world and the Chinese-Australian world.

I always felt conflicted when it came to making eye contact. At home I’d be in trouble for looking into an adult’s eyes, at school I appeared to be ‘disrespectful’ and inattentive to a teacher’s demands.

In hindsight all of this was only trivial in my younger ages and I eventually sorted and worked it out myself I’ve just finished “Look Me In The Eye: My Life with Asperger’s” by John Elder Robinson.  I have a special interest when it comes to reading books about people with disabilities (as most of you know I work with children with a variety of different (dis)abilities. I was about six and seven years of age when the issues of eye contact were raised, (basically in Kindergarten and year one) and I was only a typically developing child with English as my second Language or more correctly  Anglo-Australian as my second culture.

If I was confused I can’t imagine what it would have been like for John at that age.  John Elder Robinson describes all the prejudices he encountered throughout his life, yet the book isn’t a whinge about the way he was treated, but rather an insightfully written memoir of what it was like to have “Aspergers” for the majority of his life without actually knowing.

The book begins to raise many questions within myself and because I work with a lot of children with Autism Spectrum Disorders I am myself very wary of the “Autistic” like characteristics I also have.  Most of us in the profession recognise that there’s a little bit of ‘Autism’ in all of us. After all it is a ‘Spectrum’.

To be honest I’m very aware that I’ve had some very anti-social behaviours and challenges especially when it comes to connecting with people, not because I don’t want to know people, on the contrary, but like  people with Aspergers I find small talk arduous and I find coded conversation and non-verbal cues tiring. I’m pretty clued in the majority of the time and pride myself in the ability to work out a lot about a person’s personality from their subtle non-verbal cues, but I find that people hide themselves behind veneers.

There are other things in the book that make me wonder quite seriously where I sit, because he describes quite well how he is able to focus on things that he has high interests in, but as soon as he loses interests in them he often loses the in-depth understanding he had. I look back to high school and I look back at maths in particular. I started off in year 7, being pretty ordinary, but by the end of year 10, I was to my surprise actually in the top 60 students in the grade, but that was because I was interested and enjoyed the challenge, but the time I hit year 11, maths started to bore me and the realisation that there were no real practical application of the things we were learning made me lose interest very quickly and by the end of the HSC I had managed to score within the lowest band in 3 unit maths and somehow managed a low Band 5 (Band 1 = lowest and Band 6 = highest) score, without evidently trying. This of course is only one example, but believe me I have loads of examples just like this.

How much of it is just interest? and how much is typical? and how much of it means that I am somewhere on a Spectrum? Of course I don’t really think that I’m on the Autism Spectrum, but like I say to many of my friends, we all have some odd and strange behaviours.

Back to the book, I found the book intersting, but at times long, but that’s the nature of the writer’s style and considering that it’s meant to provide insight, then it has done excellently. I would recommend that book to anyone wishing to get a better insight into these things.

For those interested in the subject I would also recommend The Black Balloon which is an Australian made film documenting the challenges of growing up and living with an Autistic person.

Following that another Australian claymation film currently playing at the cinemas is Mary and Max I saw this at Roseville Cinemas last night and the story is sweet and plain beautiful. I haven’t seen a movie that evoked such subtle emotions in me, in a long time. It deserves a lot more than it’s getting. I’d encourage anyone who loves a good story to go and see it. It’s clever, witty, funny, sad and at times thought provoking.

One hobby replaces another…

Out of Iraq

For some reason I have re-kindled an old flame of mine, one which I thought left when my desire to pursue an underwhelming, yet overtly intense tertiary education sucked up most of my time like a camel in a desert oasis.

I have found that in the pass month my insatiable appetite for books to be the lead cause of insomnia. (Yes, I have self-diagnosed and almost at the point of self-medicating) I have to admit that I am a slow reader and whilst I had learnt some basic ’speed reading’ or ’skimming’ techniques to get me through uni days, when it comes to reading for leisure and indeed pleasure I take in every word as though I was presented with a delectable French dessert.

The worst thing about my reading pace is that I often let me mind wander, imagine and reflect on what is presented to me. I allow myself the time and the luxury of building up mental movies of what occurs in the book (which no doubt everyone does too). The annoying thing about it, is that I become frustrated at my pace, yet it is exactly the sort of escapism that the book provides that I sought out the most.  Oddly enough it was this ability to envisage the happenings and going-ons that guided me through ancient history in high school (my favourite subject).

It seems that life has come seemingly back and into a full circle in the last few months. I have returned to playing basketball, re-found my love of reading and as Kieran may suggest in more tactful and in more subtle ways, gone back to possibly ruining my life again by doing too much.

I wish there were more hours in a day. Whilst I may enjoy reading, I find that it is coming at the cost of my love of photography. One thing is for sure I am glad to be reading again. I think my brain has finally re-equated reading as fun as oppose to painful and a bore.

I am a fan of biographies and non-fiction and for those wishing for some insight into what it’s like to grow up in Iraq I would recommend “Out of Iraq” by Lewis Alsamari. The book changed my own prejudices toward ‘assylum’ seekers and what we would consider here in Australia to be “Illegal Immigrants”.  Whilst I still think that we need to protect our borders, we as Australians and human beings should lead the world in showing compassion for people who are escaping a world of terror.

Tim Minchin - Ready For This

Tim Minchin

Every year I try to make the effort to catch a few comedians, because it is around this time in Melbourne and Sydney the ‘Comedy Season’ runs. Last year I remember catching glimpses of the talented Tim Minchin and thus decided to endulge myself and a lucky friend in his hilarity.

I have a wide appreciation of different styles of comedy and I’m not sure exactly how you would classify Tim Minchin, but he uses his musical talents and exploits well.  You normally don’t associate comedians with being ‘intellectually stimulating’, not that the two can’t go together, but I was literally laughing my head off, being intellectually stimulated and being entertained.  Now had Tim being a woman or if I had being a woman I would be lusting over this incredibly remarkable and talented human.

For those who have not been ‘blessed’ enough to watch him he is worth every cent of the $35.00 I spent on my ticket and more.

Africa and The Middle East

I’ve finally made my mind up about where to travel next year and my travel plans.  The first term of school in 2010 ends on the 2nd April and I am hoping to bid everyone farewell and make my journey to Cape Town where I will spend my time getting to know the area before embarking on 70 Day ‘budget expedition’ of South and East Africa.

According to the plan we travel from Cape Town in South Africa through Namibia, Botswana, Zambia, Malawi up to Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda. The trip ends in Kenya where I hope to spend about a month in Nairobi, volunteering my services as a Speech Pathologist before embarking on another 39 day ‘Adventure Tour’ through Turkey and the Middle East. The tour will begin in Istanbul - Turkey and make its way down to Syria, Jordan and end with a significant amount of time in Egpyt.

The tour ends on the 24th August, 2010 and I hope by then to know what my plans are for the UK and head on the UK where I may possibly meet up with Amanda and sort out some living arrangements and begin work as a Locum. My aim is to get myself to the UK and begin work on the 1st September (or there abouts) and it will certainly help knowing that Amanda is already there given that I have no connections in the UK and I don’t have the extensive network of friends that she has.

Decisions, Descisions and Descisions

As the year progresses and the dust settles on the events and the shattered dreams of the year bygone, the light is now beginning to shimmer on the future.  I am still relatively undecided about what I want to do in the next ‘chapter’ of my life.  Chats with close friends at bizzare times has stimulateda reflective process in me that has me wondering about what I value most in my life.

I know that I will miss my mates, dearest friends, my nieces and the lifestyle that I currently live, I know that I will love the travels, but I also know that true and hardy friendships are hard to forge and can not make up the friendships already formed.  I am surrounded by such great friends and travel can at times be lonesome.

At this stage, I have almost removed Japan from my equation to travel, but it is no doubt still there. The desire to travel to Africa and volunteer has almost single handedly removed my ambition also to travel through Indonesia and the Phillipines due to time and money. All though technically there are no set dates on this trip, my biggest and toughest hurdle will be getting to and working in the UK. I will need time to settle into work, settle into life and work out what to do.

It seems like even before I make the move there will already be two chapters in the making, ‘the getting to the UK’ and the ‘living in the UK’.

When I start to again get on top of my work stuff I intend to look further into things. April/May is fast approaching and that is the artificial start to my 1 year countdown.