Just something to wind left over thread on.

I remember that my Grandmother had this star shaped thing with a leg that she wound left over thread on.  As she told me, she had lived through three depressions and you didn't waste thread or fabric.  All was unpicked and put on that funny star.  I saw a picture of a similar one on Pinterest but it wasn't quite the same.

Then I found out it's name. "Odradek".   It appeared on one of the knitting blogs I follow written by Kate Davies.  It has quite a story and that story has raised a lot off questions.  The first being where did it come from to be in my grandmother's possession?  It's source seems to be Eastern Europe and I know some of her relatives  came from Poland but that isn't even close.

The next was who is this wonderful artist I have never heard of before, Albert Anker?     I love his work.  Someone else to investigate.

Save

Save

Waiting

Oh dear.  I took my beloved computer into Apple yesterday as it wouldn't boot up.  It was so painful.  Not only taking it in for repair but to be told it was obsolete!  Do you mind.

So I took the big step of buying a new computer and getting Apple to transfer every thing over to the new computer.  I even signed that piece of paper giving them permission to recycle my old love. Now I'm waiting.  Will they be able to retrieve my files? What if all my drawings are gone forever?  Then there are the photos.   I backed everything up but will that work?

I was so comfortable with my old computer.  Now everything will have to change.  Although the programs have the same names they are different and there is no iphoto.  I elected to get a magic track pad so I will have to learn to use that as well.So here I sit waiting for the phone call from the store.

G20

Trying to get to my book-club meeting yesterday was a nightmare.  There is hardly any traffic on the city streets but there are road closures and police everywhere.  I ended up having to skirt the outside of the city to get to the meeting place.  The Polo Club, where we usually meet is in the lock down zone.

On the way back I did the same thing and then nearly got caught in a motorcade of delegates arriving.  The police just stop the traffic, which isn't that heavy at the moment, and give priority to all the G20 activities.

There have been some protests by indigenous groups, pretty low key really, and nothing else much.  But those helicopters are up over the city all the time.  I thought my air-conditioner was stuck and couldn't be turned off, no just the helicopters. And the internet is very slow.  Am I being monitored?

Come the weekend I think Brisbane will be a ghost town.  Everyone is heading out of town till all these world leaders leave.

Old film

I came across this old movie that was made in 1906.  The camera was mounted on the front of a tram so that you really get the feeling of how it felt.  it was filmed only 4 days before the great earthquake in San Fransisco and was saved by the fact that it was shipped east for processing.   This was filmed in the days before road rules.  Heavens some of the pedestrians took their lives in their hand and some of those cart and horse drivers!  Then there are the those in cars.  Good thing these vehicles couldn't go too fast.  It is even better if you go to Youtube and watch it in full screen.  There is so much to took at.  What were the fashions, for men and women,  all the mix of vehicles, the way people walk.  The list just goes on.

 

Pressure

Well the first design is up.  Not as professional as I would like but I have dead lines at work to meet.

The Devil is in the Detail

Rushing to work

I found this notice in discounts.  This is a discount with a difference!!

Nearly Summer

One more day and it is the beginning of Spring break (September school holidays).  Still a bit cool for me but the Backpackers and children inhabit the sand and the pool at the South-bank Park-lands here in Brisbane.  It does look like summer.

Anxiety

I am becoming overwhelmed with all the work I have to do at the moment.  It is nothing new, this is what I do, but, I find it so much harder now after being ill.  I think that it is time for me to start rethinking where I'm going.  I love teaching but I'm finding the pressure of work wearing.  I will finish the year at least and would like to get to the end of 2010.  That would get me to 25 years of teaching.

One of the ways that I cope with the pressure is with music.  At one point in my life I was going to be an Opera singer.  Again it was anxiety, this time about performance, that convinced me that this wasn't the right path.  But I still love music.  One of my favourite modern composers is Gabriel Yared.  You might know his film music, especially the music to "The English Patient" for which he won an Oscar and was nominated for Oscars for "Cold Mountain" and "The talented Mr Ripley".

Looking at his website, which is just a delight, I wonder what the great classical composers would have written if they had been born in this generation.  I think it would have been film scores.

Very Wet Weather

Oh Boy it has be raining, a lot, in fact a deluge.  At school the creek that runs along the back playground came right up to the door of the back classrooms and in some blocks it was lapping at the door.  Good thing most older high schools are high set.  The creeks and rivers rose so quickly that we had to get parents to come and collect students.  Of course there were lots of very wet kids.

Living near the city I thought I would have no trouble getting home.  I drove my normal route thought Wilston, (which is about 5K from the city centre) , turned the corner and was confronted by a lake!  I turned around and went another way only to find the main highway was cut.  So, through back streets keeping to high ground and finally got across a bridge were the water was lapping at the edges.  All the rubbish in the water was amazing and now I hear that the ferry's are not running at night for the same reason.  I hear that there is more of this to come.  We still have water restrictions from a drought when they thought the city would run out of water.  How does it go -   'droughts and flooding rains' ?  I wonder where the Broncos are going to train?  From this photo they are under water!

High water: flooding from Ithaca Creek inundates Red Hill businesses. (ABC News: Giulio Saggin)

(The ABC has started a gallery of images called wild weather.)

A New Look

I thought that it was time to refresh the look of this blog, hence the new look.  I still haven't worked out how to set my own top panel but I'm working on it.  The other thing that is new is the link to 'Quilting Bloggers' in the side bar.  Lot's of great sites to explore here.

I found this great little image for cooperation that I am going to use with my students.  Hope you like it.