oddlight

\: nine point five :/....of Tiki's and cabin fever






today I was on a bit of a mission... I've been by myself in the house for a couple of days (cobb's gone to his mums 50th birthday and mchunraha and Dali have gone down to Canberra for a week or so), perhaps it's a little bit of cabin fever, but it feels really good. I was up until 3am this morning watching 'the bourne identity'.... I really enjoyed it. Quite the excellent spy-thriller type movie.



I woke up about 8am, went for a walk to get some milk for that all important morning coffee. I like walking for a couple of reasons....

• it gets me out in the open air, I get a real zest for life when I'm actually out in it,
and
• it's the bare minimum excercise I can do without guilt and the sneaking suspicion that I'm not actually alive at all

~(:^D)

...Just to make the point clear, this is day 5 without any nicotine at all. Then good news is that making this point day after day is starting to become boring. That's a good thing right?

No cravings at all at the moment, although there aren't any smokers around, so I'm not sure what it will be like when I am, I'll find out soon enough I guess.

I spoke to my dad today, strangely he rang only a minute or two after I transferred his contact details from my phone to my Palm m125. I thought to myself: "If he calls now, I'm going to be scared out of my skin." Two minutes later, there he was. He's an amazing guy y'know. It's like every time I talk to him he's doing something different. He was always the same uptight person when I was growing up and living at home... always too busy, always aloof, always correct. Then, after my mum passed away he opened up a bit more I think.
He was always the manager, and I can see I've inherited his preoccupation with efficiency. ~(:^D)

I remember him telling me when he started looking after an autistic aboriginal boy, I really didn't know what to think, I almost didn't know who I was speaking to. The joke between us kids was that the boy wasn't really autistic at all, he just didn't want to speak to dad. hehe.

...So how do I feel when he tells me today that he is now teaching at Murrami school? I'm not sure. Apparently he's teaching a couple of different things, maths and english as I remember it. He's doing it a couple of days a week, but I really think that's amazing, that he, a man turning 60 soon, can turn around and dramatically surprise his children like that. Ten years ago, I really could not see him making one of these choices, let alone two (and how many more to go?)... I just wanted to say here, to make it clear to both you and to myself that I am really proud of him.


cheers dad!


I'm not sure if I've mentioned this before, but I wasn't a very good farm kid. I was much more interested in reading our quite impressive array of encyclopaedias. One of those is a 'do it yourselfers' almanac kinda thing, with step-by-step instructions of how to do all sorts of things from building pergolas to toy boats to ...well, you get the jist I'm sure...and I remember seeing in it instructions on how to make your own Tiki head garden ornaments out of a wet sand mould and concrete.
The Tiki's (aPolynesian god) are (or have become?) a representation of the creative masculine force in us all, (note to self: is there a female version?) so it's fitting for anyone who suspects they have an artist sneaking around inside somewhere to let them out by producing (via a painting or drawing or sculpture or what-have-you) ..a Tiki.

...And today that is just what I have done. I have never concreted anything before, I have never purchased concrete mix. But today I did that and made a wet-sand mould (with the invaluable [depending on quality of the final work] assistance of a 2 Litre milk bottle) and made possibly the first of many Tiki's. I carved the date and my initials into the back of it, and pressed three coins, a New Zealand 10c, an Australian 10c and a Fijian 10c. So, theoretically, it's at least worth 30c. ~(:^D)

The notion of the Tiki also fits well into my appreciation of a good cocktail and a heady lashing of lounge music too.


The biggest problem for me right now is that I have to gather all the self control I can not to disturb the setting Tiki. It's like a cake in the oven... something inside me keeps running back to it and seeing how it's going. I have to leave it for like 4 DAYS the cure tho. Holy shit, how am I meant to manage that?
...again, more questions than answers.

While writing this, I have just watched and enjoyed 21 grams...another great movie.

...Till then, gentle reader,
.....I bid you adieu.