As I wrote in a previous post on Aussie Bloggers, my place of origin is the country town called Mildura. Mildura is located 550 kms north west of Melbourne and is a river city, with an agricultural based economy. Grapes and oranges are the dominant produce, but many farmers grow a wide variety of crops.

We visited Mildura over Easter and again I was impressed with the generosity of the country folk. Every time I visit, I return with a car full of fresh produce. My family doesn’t have a farm in Mildura, but friends of our family who do, and know that we are visiting will drop produce off to my parents for us.

This time we received a fantastic stash. One part of which was a huge bag of almonds. They were in their complete raw state – straight off the tree. It was a great lesson for my kids who had never seen almonds with their husks on them! Pumpkin soup is on the menu at our house for the next couple of weeks, as we also received a large bag of butternut pumpkins.

My sister’s in laws grow grapes and also have a large vegetable patch. When we visited them to show them our new baby, they gave us zucchinis, capsicums, eggplant and spinach.

I am always impressed by the generosity of country people. Whether it be sharing their freshly grown produce or opening their house to visitors, their warmth is over flowing.

This is not to say that Australian city folk are not generous people either, but to me the generosity of country people is a stand out attraction of visiting the country.

Have you experienced some country generosity?

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Having made my Melbourne my home for the last 20 years, there are many things that I love about this great city. Its unpredictable weather I could definitely live without, but on the whole it has so much to offer that I can tolerate this!

A definite attraction of Melbourne that is the plethora of festivals and major events that the city has. There is often so much going on it is difficult to choose where to spend your time and dollars.

This started me thinking about whether it would be possible to get to a major event or festival in Melbourne for every month of the year? Well it is certainly possible! Many months there are a number to choose from. For the sake of brevity I have only chosen one per month and created a year of Melbourne Festivals!

January: Midsumma Festival

February: Sustainable Living Festival

March: Melbourne Food and Wine Festival

April: Melbourne International Comedy Festival

May: Melbourne International Jazz Festival

June: Melbourne Winter Masterpieces (Dali this winter)

July: Melbourne International Film Festival

August: Melbourne Writers Festival

September: AFL Grand Final (Australian Rules Football)

October: Melbourne International Arts Festival

November: Melbourne Cup Carnival (Horse racing)

December: Boxing Day Test (Cricket)

I would love to try attending all of these events one year. It would be exhausting and cash depleting but lots of fun! What is your favourite Melbourne Festival?

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Different seasons can make me nostalgic for very different reasons. In summer, I think fondly of my childhood in a hot spot in rural Victoria. Summer holidays were spent almost exclusively outdoors finding ways to keep cool – at the local pool, by the river, in a waddling pool, but quite commonly running around underneath a sprinkler.

Now I am not lamenting the enforcement of water restrictions in Victoria, which prevent sprinklers from mains water being used. They were badly needed and we adhere to them strictly, but it did occur to me recently that my children will never have this experience.

My dad had a range of sprinklers, so depending on which one was in use, we would play different games. The arched sprinkler above gave you the challenge to try and run underneath it without getting wet. (Image by Madaise)

This rotating sprinkler provided great amusement for something to leap over as it made its way around. (Image by Toby Esterhase)

When I tell my children about the hours of fun that I had with my siblings as a child playing underneath sprinklers, it makes me feel quite old! Reminiscing of a by gone era that will most likely never be part of their Australian life.

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I racked my brains (and the internet) to try and come up a list of common “Australian” names. This was what I achieved:

Male:
Barry (my beloved dad’s name) – with the eloquent abbreviation of Bazza
Darren – with its abbreviation of Dazza
Jason – Naturally shorten to Jas
Craig – Maybe this list is too influenced by my teenage years of watching Neighbours!

Female:
Kylie – meaning curled stick; boomerang
Sharon – and of course the abbreviation of Shazza
Raelene – cited as a modern invented name!
Narelle – cited as Aboriginal for a companion.
Lyndal – cited to mean a waterfall.

So what do you think? Is there such a thing as an “Australian” name? A name when you hear it immediately identifies itself as being from Australia, like for example Seamus or Sean does with Ireland? What names would you add to this list?

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Why the ACT Government has only in the last year or so decided it was cute to try and use SMS language on anti-DWT (Driving While Texting) awareness signs like the “DRIVE N TXT U B NEXT” is beyond me … they missed the boat by about 10 years and is embarrassing.

I wonder how many people still use SMS language and shortcuts given that technology nowadays means its no longer necessary. From what I’ve observed people in general want their messages to be well-formed, correctly spelt and appropriately punctuated and formatted – and that applies to phone SMSs and other short messages such as those posted on Twitter.

What are your thoughts on SMS language? Is it dead? Is it cute? Does it have its place still? Was it a temporary travesty of the English language?

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Image by sassacass76

Summer in Australia is also the time where we see an influx of many international bands to the country, some coming to play solo gigs, but lots coming to participate in the many music festivals that happen at this time of year.

I normally manage to head along to at least one of these festivals over the summer, but with a baby due in the middle of January, I will be missing out on some fantastic gigs this year .

I have still checked out who is coming though this year and here is my pick of the summer music festivals for 2008/09:

St Jerome’s Laneway Festival
This festival tours all mainland capital cities late January and early February. It has a street party feel and has an indie rock focus. Very sad to be missing what will be an awesome DJ set by GirlTalk. Architecture in Helsinki apparently do a fantastic live set as well.

The Falls Festival
If you don’t have tickets already, it is too late as it is sold out! This is one great, big fun New Year’s Eve Party. Held in two locations, Lorne on the surf coast of Victoria and Marion Bay in Tasmania. Highlights from the international acts for me are Lykke Li and Soko.

Homebake
This Sydney based festival has a completely Australian line up (well with a few ring ins from NZ). This year’s highlights include a reformed Died Pretty and Kasey Chamber & Shane Nicholson.

The Meredith Music Festival
This is also sold out and always does so very quickly due to the amazing nature of the festival. The MMF is held in a small rural town in Victoria. The stage is a “supernatural amphitheatre” nestled in a grove of giant ghost gum trees and crowned by an arc of gigantic cypress trees. Music wise international highlights are MGMT and Saul Williams.

The Big Day Out
The big daddy of all Australian Music festivals, playing mainland capitals and Auckland. This year’s special treats included a 90 minute set from Neil Young, Artic Monkeys and Simian Mobile Disco.

As I said, this is my pick of the bunch for the Australian summer music festivals. If you have a particular favourite, share it in the comments for others. Enjoy some great music for me at these gigs if you get along!

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I thought originally that this was to do more with him rather than his subject choices but upon giving it much thought after the shock and horror that others seemed to exhibit when faced with a film fan that doesn’t care for Luhrmann films that I just wasn’t interested in a pimped out Romeo and Juliet, anything to do with ballroom dancing or the Moulin Rouge. Simple as that, and no amount of lavish production was going to move me on that.

So when I saw that he was making a film about Australia called Australia, I admit I groaned inwardly and wondered if we were going to be faced with another ‘Welcome to Woop Woop’ (if you have never seen this film I envy you).

Then I saw the trailer, a couple of times on TV and began to imagine a world in which I like a Baz Luhrmann film, it wasn’t a bad world and with every new piece of footage I’ve seen it seems to be ever likely.

Of course I also thought about the flip side, what if this film is horrible, boring and just plain bad? What if I am the only Australian who doesn’t like Australia? Will they deport me? Will I need to lie? Will I be made watch Neighbours over and over and over and arrrrrrg…

Is it un-Australian to dislike Australia the film?

It looks good so I’m hoping this won’t be a dilemma that I’m forced to face but I was watching one of the morning shows (ironically this morning) and saw that reviews are in fact torn, with certain newspapers that belong to certain media empires calling it boring or cliched whilst the other side of the media applauded and proclaimed the film’s magic. The thing that struck me is that the bad reviews were kind of dismissed as just being a bit un-Australian.

Me I generally dismiss any film review that complains about the use of a cliche, cliches can be great if handled well, it is the not the cliche that hurts a film it is the execution of one. So to point out that a film has cliches is a little like saying it has actors, all films have them you just don’t realise you’re watching one.

So what do you guys think? Is it un-Australian to not support the film Australia? Do you want to see it? And if you are one of the lucky ones who have already seen it was it good?

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Image by oragneacid

We are having a dilemma in our house at the moment. On October 31st it is Halloween. According to Wikipedia,

Halloween has its origins in the ancient Celtic festival known as Samhain…… The ancient Gaels believed that on October 31, now known as Halloween, the boundary between the alive and the deceased dissolved, and the dead become dangerous for the living by causing problems such as sickness or damaged crops. The festivals would frequently involve bonfires, into which bones of slaughtered livestock were thrown. Costumes and masks were also worn at the festivals in an attempt to mimic the evil spirits or placate them.

Irish immigrants apparently brought parts of this tradition with them to North America in the 19th Century, where Halloween is still celebrated. But we are in Australia and in the part where we live, Halloween has never really been celebrated or so I thought.

We moved from inner city Melbourne to the eastern suburbs nearly four years ago. I will always remember being completely dumbfounded the first October 31st we were here and I had children come to my door trick or treating. As this was completely unexpected I quickly went through the cupboards to find something to give them.

In subsequent years I have gone out and bought treats to give the children that come to the door, which would not probably amount to more than 15 children. To be honest I haven’t really wanted to do this, but don’t like the idea of being thought of the “stingy lady” of the street.

My behaviour with the treats has however opened up a can of worms. The local traders of a nearby shopping strip have distributed fliers via the children’s school, inviting them to participate in trick or treating on Halloween.

This has occurred for the last couple of years and I have some how gotten away with a simple “no” to the request to go with “all the other children”. This year though my nearly 10 year old has mounted quite a battle. It is not just the “everyone else” is doing it line, he had pointed out my participation in previous Halloweens by supplying treats to children and thinks that it is hypocritical of me not to allow them to go.

I have to admit that I see his point, but I just don’t see the need for the children to participate in something that they have no connection to and don’t really understand. My husband thinks that I am fighting the tide on this one. I am stalling for more time and have told the children to do some research and come back and see me with an explanation of what the point of Halloween is, before I make my final decision.

What do you think? Is Halloween now a celebrated tradition in Australia? Should I stop taking it all so seriously and just let the kids go trick or treating? What happens in your neck of the woods?

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Everywhere I looked I saw a fire hazard. Thick mulch on the gardens. Fire hazard. Trees growing snugly against a house. Fire hazard. Woodpile. Fire hazard. Timber fence. Fire hazard.

I saw windy picturesque roads that would be difficult to negotiate in low visibility with fire trucks screaming past.

I’ve seen Scorched.

No, despite the undisputed beauty of the place, I couldn’t imagine living in summer in the hills.

Apart from anything else I confess to a little household laziness.

The gutters on my house have more flowering plants than my garden.

You need to be prepared for fires.

How do I know this?

I’ve just read Ian Mannix’s Great Australian Bushfire Stories. Now before I go on, let me make a disclaimer, I know Ian well. A respected ex foreign correspondent, Ian is passionate about emergency communication. Beyond passionate.

Anyway over a few drinks one night he told me about some of the stories he was collecting for his book and they were extraordinary, so when his book came out I was prepared to give it a go.

I didn’t have particularly high expectations. It’s his first book and how interesting can a collection of bushfire stories be?

After all it’s all much of a muchness isn’t it? Fire comes along. You stay or you go. If you stay you fight the fire. And I’d heard what I thought must be the best of the stories anyway.

Wrong.

First of all the fires are different, they act in strange ways, they don’t do what they are supposed to.

Secondly and most interestingly the human reaction is so different.

These are ordinary people doing amazing things. As Ian says in his book:

None of the people in this book believes their actions were perfect, none believes they were acting heroically. They just confronted the difficulties in the best way they knew how, and they wanted to keep their families safe.

And the stories are inspiring.

A man shelters under a blanket – a blanket! – in his vegetable patch and survives.

Another family run to the sea – you can see the video here – metres in front of the flames.

You get the feeling that while everyone in the book survived physically – there is still a lot of emotional trauma to be dealt with.

The whole glass back door was being smashed repeatedly by large sticks and debris, which were alight. Some of the sticks were massive. The fire was chucking everything at us. We all thought the door would break and the fire would get inside.

The wind grew louder and extremely strong. It tore a hundred-year-old gum tree out of the ground by its roots and laid it on its side. There were massive gum trees all around the area toppled over by the wind. Their tops were twisted out and tossed on the ground. Then everything went black.

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Those of us old enough to remember some of the great Australian music of the late 70’s, early 80’s, should remember the Sunnyboys. Fantastic band, based in Sydney but originally from the NSW North Coast, made up of brothers Jeremy and Peter Oxley, Bil Bilson and Richard Burgman.

The music was power-pop at its finest. Songs like “Happy Man”, “Alone with You”, “Love to Rule”, “What You Need” and others do stand the test of time and I still listen to them regularly (hey I’ve got “Happy Man” as my ringtone on my mobile).

Probably their best known and most successful song was “Alone with You”. This was actually written by Jeremy Oxley while he was still at school.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FpJrtCmcoq0]
Unfortunately, the Sunnyboys never did achieve mainstream success, nor did they last long. They had broken up and stopped by the end of 1984, reportedly due to internal dissent within the band. In recent years however, band members have spoken of the reasons for the band’s disintegration, which largely coincided with singer Jeremy Oxley’s mental breakdown due to his schizophrenia,apparently brought on by the constant pressure he felt about performing.

There was an excellent article about Jeremy Oxley in the Good Weekend magazine a few years ago – I can’t find a copy online anymore but if you’re keen to look for it : “Lost Chord” by Richard Guilliatt, Good Weekend, 11/9/2004. Tragically, after several years fighting drugs and alcohol, Oxley has lived as a recluse for over 20 years.

In that article, and in some other stuff I’ve read, some warning signs about Jeremy’s mental state are evident in some of his songs. For example, “Trouble in My Brain”:

I was always ill-at-ease,
I feel the pressures of my dreams,
Got a trouble in my brain…

Its very sad that such a talent is lost, and the wonderful songs he wrote and played with the Sunnyboys limited to only 3 albums worth. Also that the band didn’t enjoy the success it so richly deserved.

Still, to reflect on the Sunnyboys’ earlier, and happy times, and also my feelings at having completed this post, here’s one more song to enjoy.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3drdluoYiE]

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