“vrmm vrmm vrrrrrmmmmmm”

Do you remember the scene in Wind in the Willows when Toad takes Mole and Ratty out in his caravan and they get run off the road by a car? They crash into a ditch and the caravan is a wreck. Mole and Ratty are furious but toad is sitting in the middle of the dusty road with a glazed expression.

The Toad never answered a word, or budged from his seat in the road; so they went to see what was the matter with him. They found him in a sort of a trance, a happy smile on his face, his eyes still fixed on the dusty wake of their destroyer. At intervals he was still heard to murmur `Poop-poop!’

The Rat shook him by the shoulder. `Are you coming to help us, Toad?’ he demanded sternly.

`Glorious, stirring sight!’ murmured Toad, never offering to move. `The poetry of motion! The real way to travel! The only way to travel! Here to-day–in next week to-morrow! Villages skipped, towns and cities jumped–always somebody else’s horizon! O bliss! O poop-poop! O my! O my!’

I feel just like Toad today, because I’ve just discovered the real way to garden – with a chainsaw!

MJ regularly confirms with me that my using a chainsaw (and presumably chainsawing off a limb) is frowned upon. I’ve never really suggested that I would, but she reminds me often nonetheless. We’re running low on firewood, but have great logs all over the yard waiting to be cut down to size. I was going to find someone to hire to come and cut them up sometime today.

Just about an hour ago, I was trying to pull down an old tree with a tiny manual saw, Derryn saw me from across the back fence and came to help. He was able to break the tree out of the ground in about 30 seconds. Stupid boys. Always showing off. We took the tree to the wood heap and Derryn saw a hollow log and asked if he could have it for his bird aviary. Reluctant to let any of our most precious commodity go, I did a deal that he could have it if he chopped some of the logs with his chainsaw. He agreed and went back over the fence to get it. On his return he asked why I couldn’t use the chainsaw myself, and the 17 million times that I’ve promised MJ not to use it were quickly forgotten.

Seriously, it was the most fun ever!

Instead of “poop-poop” I feel like saying, “vrmm vrmm vrrrrrmmmmmm”.Take that trees! I’ll chop you ALL down!

In the backyard today

I was chopping wood today and as I chopped one piece in half there was an explosion of little flakes of wood – it was like sesame seed confetti. I thought this was delightful (as I think anyone who saw it would have) so I looked inside the wood and looked on the ground where the wood confetti fell and look who I found. Shiny yellow grub. When he fell out of the wood he just lay there for a while – I suppose he needed time to adjust to his new circumstances. But before long he found a new piece of wood to chomp down on.

I went back to chopping wood and accidentally sent wood flying right on top of him. He seemed to be alive but possibly angry – it’s hard to tell what his face is doing, I saw little black things that could have been eyes or teeth or possibly something else I don’t know the name of. So I moved my woodchopping elsewhere.

Melbourne, Rushworth, the Backyard, the Alderman

Had a quick weekend in Melbourne and now I’m back in Rushworth ready to get things done.

My regular workload is increasing and I’m technically in the midst of an internship, enrolled in an online course and I’ve just blocked about one and a half months out of my calendar before the end of the year with travel. I also plan on landscaping the backyard. For those of you who know the backyard you will realise how implausible this is. It’s a bloody big yard. So I’m going to use every hour wisely. Not necessarily busily, but wisely. E.g. On the train back to Rushworth today I did boring and time consuming design work on my laptop.

I could become one of those efficiency experts that rule the internet (and who I read often), but I won’t because there is something vaguely circular and banal about what they do that makes me feel a bit queasy.

Did I mention my new book club? I went to my first meeting a bit over a week ago. We meet at the Alderman which means that no matter what we read it’s made cool by association. We read As I Lay Dying last time which didn’t need any help from the Alderman to make it cool. But for example, if we decide to read The Wedding by Danielle Steel our presence at the Alderman will make it clear that we are employing irony when selecting books, or perhaps reading popular fiction for insight into mainstream America circa 2000. See?!

We’re reading The Crying of Lot 49 next, which is making me wonder if we’re actually out-hipstering the Alderman. Actually, I think the Danielle Steel for irony approach is probably the only way to out-hipster the Alderman.

Another country day

My love of country living is intensifying daily! Today I spent the day outside instead of doing work. See, the country is great because you can do that kind of thing and it seems like the more responsible option. Instead of sitting in front of the computer all day I’m going to go out into the sunshine and do some work in the backyard.

I spent the morning raking grass down the back and burning stuff, which I think is my second favourite backyard activity, chopping wood being my favourite. I also chopped wood today. Not much though, just enough to keep the fire going tonight. I made frittata to take to the movies tonight, and watched Derryn chainsaw the tree that fell out of the ground. MJ said that when there’s no rain tree roots stay close to the surface, and then when there is a burst of rain sometimes the soil gets too soft for the shallow roots to anchor – hey presto, tree falls out of the ground.

Time to get ready for movie night. We’re going to Star Cinema to see My Year Without Sex and Samson and Delilah. Very excited to see both films. I’m seriously far behind on Aussie films right now.

Where is Sarah when Sarah is at home?

Where is Sarah? began when I left Australia for Indonesia in September 2007 (I wrote my first post instead of packing my bags).

While I’m obviously quite fond on non-travel related tangents, for the most part the idea of the blog is to report home about my travels (and sometimes to report on Australia to everyone else).

But shortly I’ll be back in Australia in a more permanent sense for the first time since I began the blog, which kind of muddles the basic motivation behind it. So do I continue Where is Sarah? or let it die a natural death?

Well, don’t give it too much thought because I’ve made an executive decision. For the time being I’m going to continue writing on Where is Sarah? as though nothing has changed. I’ll be travelling and doing fun stuff for the first couple of months after getting home, so I’ll still have stories to share, and I’ll still have plenty of “the thing I don’t understand about this culture is…” moments, because Australians are essentially pretty weird.

I will be working on about 70 new side-projects, including 15,000 new blogs, so if Where is Sarah? loses steam I might redirect my Where is Sarah? energy into one of my other projects. So if I start blogging frequently about what was on TV last night just tap me on the shoulder and I’ll take the hint.

There are ten days left before Where is Sarah? goes domestic, and I’m hoping you’ll help me reach 10,000 hits before then (take a look in the bottom right hand corner of the blog to see the current stats).

Thanks for reading!

Short trip to Rushworth (all those who understand the double meaning raise your hand)

In my short trip back to Australia I was able to squeeze in a trip to Rushworth (in between my busy sleep schedule). Here are some photos:

1. One of the most compelling reasons to squeeze in a trip to Rushworth

Kitchen fire

2. On Saturday MJ, Benj and I did some burning off. Here we pitted the barrel against the pile-of-stuff-bonfire. Both have their strengths: the barrel is more efficient, but the bonfire can handle some of the larger or more unweildy items.

Burning stuff

3. It turned into night very quickly

Burning stuff, then it gets dark

4.On Sunday the girls came to Rushworth and Em took me for a spin on this monster

Emily on the quadrasaur

5. We also did more burning, and cleaned out the wash house, finding little treasures like this:

Sarah's art from grade Prep. I hit the peak of my talent shortly after.

6. In the evening it was time for marshmallows

Abby toasts marshmallows

Abby eats marshmallows

7. And I made a cake! We fed it to people the next day and it got rave reviews. But then when I told them I made it from a packet (obvs) I got chastised! What!? Since when are packets evil? Without them there would probably be 90% less cake in the world.

I made lemon cake!

Welcome to Rushworth

I spent last week at home in Rushworth, the small town where I was born and raised. MJ and I hung out a bit and worked in the garden, and when MJ was at work I wandered around the house, read books, made lunch, lit the fire, that kind of thing.

One day I set off around town to take photos for a blog post. As you can imagine it’s impossible to compress 26 years of memories into one blog post’s worth of photos, so rather than comprehensively showing off Sarah’s Rushworth, I will give random stories about the things I walked past as I did a loop of the town.

Flowers on the footpath

These flowers are very much in vogue at the moment and I especially liked the way they were used along this path.

I followed Moora Rd towards High St, and came across these spooky places:

Haunted house

This place is spooky for obvious reasons. It’s a haunted house…duh.

The Masonic Hall

The Masonic Hall is spooky more specifically because it was the site of one of my most vivid and weird dreams ever. I had it when I was maybe 8 or 10 or something, and I still remember it. There was a monkey swinging on the pole that protruded from the front and we were inside it getting chased around by some mysterious figure. I’m guessing that my subconscious chose that location as the scene of my dream because Masons are weird and mysterious. On that point, that means this place is doubly spooky.

U Clipped Us (Har Har)

Please allow me to introduce you to a great Australian (and perhaps global) tradition: The Hairdresser Pun.

This clever hairdresser decided to call their business ‘U Clipped Us’ (if the joke isn’t immediately clear to you, think of the big, native Australian trees). Bravo bravo.

The Agitator

The Agitator Laundromat has only come about since I moved out of Rushworth, but it makes me giggle. Next door is the newish store, Rushy Recyclables.

Rushworth historical history

Rushworth is very historical. It’s all about the history, yes siree. Above: Historic Wagon and Historical Museum. I am trying to ascertain and will gladly take suggestions on whether a historical museum is a museum about history, or a very old museum. I think Rushworth’s Historical Museum is both of those things, but I wonder if there is a distinction between the words historic, and historical that I don’t know about…Anyone?

Some more historica or historical things in High Street Rushworth:

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Rushworth Shire Hall

The Shire Hall is where I had my 21st birthday party and Jess and Mark had their wedding reception. Countless other moments in Fortuna history happened there. Marcus played Danny in Grease, for example. It was also the place where I got my finger stuck in a hole in the floor during a concert when I was about seven and was sure my teacher would have to chop my finger off.

Hairitage on High

This building is the old Waranga News office. It now enjoys a more glamorous life as the home of Rushworth’s other hair salon, Hairitage on High. That’s right…Hairitage on High.

High St, Rushworth

The Park

This is the park closest to my house and like ever other park in the world the best parts of the park was considered unsafe years ago. The steamroller in the background use not to be behind a fence. We could play all over it. There was a hole in the roof and a strange red substance that fueled stories that some kid a long long time ago fell through the hole and had his head chopped off. I never asked an adult for verification and just assumed it wasn’t true but secretly was a bit scared every time I played on it.

My primary school, St Mary's.

Then my camera battery died. Tour of Rushworth over. I hope you liked it.

Reunion #3: Waranga News turns 30

Sunday morning a week ago it was time to head home to Rushworth for reunion #3, the 30th birthday of the Waranga News.

Rather than try to contain the history of the paper in a couple of lines, I will just post this page Mary Jo put together for the 30th birthday edition of the paper:

History of the Waranga News. Click to englarge.

People who have worked on the paper over the years and their family (including a lot of Fortunas) and friends got together for lunch and story-telling, disputes over the details of history and a lot of “wow, you got old” moments.

Bob making a speech. MJ awaiting her turn.

Winner of the commemorative short story competition, Jess McLean

Workers past and present celebrate with a birthday cake

Jess with her monster pram on the way to the Waranga News office (carrying three children with ease!)

Abby working on the next edition of the paper

The lunch on offer that day was truly spectacular. Pork on a spit with salads and potatoes followed by cheesecake, fruit flan and the ultimate Aussie dessert….pavlova. I couldn’t have asked for a more delicious, more appropriate country meal for my return to Rushworth.

I spent the following week in Rushworth, sleeping in, pottering about the house and sitting by the fire. I will post some photos from the week later, but right now I need to warm up my toes…it’s soooo cold in Melbourne (and I think I’m getting a cold…)

Group photo found

In my last post about reunions I was missing a good group photo of my friends but Lara just uploaded a heap of great pics on facebook so I will borrow this lovely one. Thanks Lara.

L to R: Amanda, Emily, Lara, Meaghan, Sarah, Clare and Elodie

As I mentioned earlier, Ryan pulled a great crowd for his 1st birthday in Ocean Grove. These are my high school besties and we don’t find ourselves all in the one spot that often. If I compared this photo to the last group photo that was taken we’d probably all have been gussied up in our high school graduation dresses.

Reunions (1 and 2)

OK, time to get posting! I want write about my last night in Aceh when the low key taco night turned into a cracker party but I thought it would be funny to take photos on a film camera that I had in my room but (of course) I haven’t had the film developed yet. So I will jump ahead and get on with posting about the series of reunions I’ve had over the last week.

No.1. Ryan Cook’s first birthday

Ryan turns 1

You may remeber Ryan from his brush with fame in Bali earlier this year. Here’s a tip: If you’re a baby in Bali you’re going to get a lot of attention. If you have milky white skin in Bali you’re going to get attention. If you smile and laugh with everyone you meet in Bali you’re going to get attention. Ryan excelled at all three and was consequently the most famous person in Bali…ever. And all this fame well before his first birthday.

His age is slowly catching up to reflect his worldly life experiences as Ryan ticks off the twelfth month of life. Ryan and I, who see eye to eye on most things, both agree that nothing celebrates a milestone better than cake.

Nom nom nom

Ryan’s benefactor and cake maker, Meaghan, had the very good sense to move the family to Ocean Grove, which, for those of you who don’t live in Victoria, is about as nice as it sounds.

The whole gang of our highschool besties (who are also, fortunately, my 2008 besties) headed down to Ocean Grove and we celebrated all being in the same place at the same time for the first time in forever by eating way too much delicious party food (perhaps that was just me…but there were party sausage rolls….i love them), and getting comfortable with a drink around the kitchen table until well into the afternoon (outlasting the other party guests by a casual few hours). Lucky for us we know Meags would never kick us out so we settled in. We got some group shots but they’re on another camera so I will track them down and tell you all about those great sheilas when I can show you a photo of them.

We probably would have stayed around the kitchen table the whole weekend if we didn’t have reunion no.2 back in Melbourne. So Lara, Amanda, Clare, Elodie and I hopped into Lara’s car and headed back to the big smoke.

Our next birthday was Ksenia’s 28th that involved less cake but about as much booze. Actually, this photo that I took at the end of the night (and have nooooo recollection of) proves that Ksensia’s involved a fair few more martinis.

Alan with Amanda in Trolley. Sarah Fortuna 2008.

But slightly earlier in the night…..

Photo Magic

The stars aligned with Lara’s camera to create….Photo Magic. The above photo is of Lara with her camera so not actually a reflection of photo magic, but a record of Lara and her camera on the wonderous night.

Too bad for this blog that I don’t have any of those photos…

While nothing says “birthday” to Ryan more than cake, nothing says “public humiliation with a warm and fuzzy afterglow” to Ksenia more than her Ukrainian mates barging into the frou frou bar with guitars and accordions to sing her a song in Ukrainian.

Ksenia's troubadours

I think the overall theme of the song was “why aren’t you married yet?” So I guess that’s proof that grandma’s nagged messages are quite effectively passed on to the next generation. Grandmas around the world must be proud.

Alan, Amanda, Lara and I outlasted the birthday girl and stumbled home via shopping trolley sometime past the time I could remember.

The next morning involved an early start to make it home in time for reunion no.3 and on my arrival Mary Jo greeted me with, “you’re looking seedy.” Awwww, I missed you too.

I’ll post about the next event that involved waaaay more cake (record breaking amounts of cake) and no booze at all, later.