YAANING ON THE e BENCH

I am back from a 26ookms road trip to a town called Eden on the Far South Coast of NSW, Australia. It’s the edge of Summertime here and Home is looking good. I am back to sitting on my eBENCH and posting whatever I wish to instead of rising to challenges. I was away for ten days and  this is assimilation time. Let’s get the head and emotions into some kind of order. Wish me well.

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STORM IN NEW YORK

Examiner (Launceston, Tas. : 1900 – 1954), Saturday 16 September 1944,	Sunday Times (Perth, WA : 1902 – 1954) Sunday 26 November 1950 p 32 Article
The Northern Miner (Charters Towers, Qld. : 1874 – 1954), Monday 17 September 1945	The Northern Miner (Charters Towers, Qld. : 1874 – 1954), Thursday 14 October 1954

EVERYDAY LIFE PART 5

THE STORM THAT ROLLED IN THIS AFTERNOON.

THE YAAN : I didn’t get out and about today. A lot of my personal every day life is centred around being a little bit unwell and taking to my bed. As it turned out, I didn’t see another person all day. We have an afternoon storm and lightning now and Izzy is home from his day job. I didn’t even get into town where I could snap some pics of people taken unawares as they went about their own everyday lives. Then I came across a post by my friend MEZZA who lives in my hometown and I was thinking over the weekly challenge which pointed out that what is ordinary for one person or place might well be extraordinary for another and decided to take a look through my shoebox of BENCH pictures and find ones of people ‘caught unawares’ as they go about their ordinary every day lives.

 

PEOPLE IN THEIR EVERYDAY LIVES

We seem to have a lot of markets and festivals in this area. Urunga’s annual one is called TOAST URUNGA and only costs a gold coin to enter. It probably quadruples the town’s population for one Sunday a year. This year the lad was there on his stilts and I stopped for a moment to look but was almost skittled by the young girl on a mission.	We took a trip south to Macksville, a couple of weekends ago and stopped for a while beside the river. I used to fish a lot but I don’t do so now. I reckon this lady knew just what she was doing. She holds the rod with the ease of the local fisherwoman. I was like that.
Summertime, we go to the pool and often meet up with other families and kids and eat hot chips from the Kiosk. 11 minutes – that’s what it takes to make the hot chips.	Up the road in Church Street is the Café known as No. 5. No 5 is a music venue. It seems that Urban Hillbilly is very much in fashion at the moment.
Part of everyday life round here is ROADWORKS and that includes STOP/GO men. Modern technology, eh?	Further up the Highway at Ulmarra, we did a gig as a favour for an old gentleman and I grabbed this shot of 2 of the musos who had come down from the North. I don’t know the saxophonist  but that’s Phil Eizenberg with the hat on.
I’m leaving it there for the night. Watching a grandfather attending to his grandchild	and considering a sea plane landing outside a motel where I was staying in Port Macquarie, Eevery day Life.

JULIAN ASSANGE SPEECH FROM ECUADOR EMBASSY IN LONDON

COUNTDOWN DAY 5 : THE COUSINS

THE YAAN :  Today, is the 30th birthday of my son’s young lady. They are way down South and we didn’t get to see them but I have shared a lot of birthdays with her over the last decade.

Today, my daughter and her daughter had their hair cut. It was the first for the Cheery Redhead and she loved it. I took her to the Museum across the  street while her Mum had hers done and met a friend from many years ago. His brother who was our friend, was found dead in the local hotel 25 years ago – drugged and abandoned, just after I got clean and sober. His brother-in-law was was found dead beside the road on a New Year’s Eve.  Hit by a car. That’s the world I left in 1987. We talked for a long time and wandered around Maam Gaduying Park before lunch at the Tavern.

Then we came on home and played a while on the tyre swing. I value the ordinary days of my life. They are extraordinary.

Today the second daughter of my sister came in on the 3.40 p.m. train. From Newcastle. Its been 1 1/2 years since her mother left us. We met her at Urunga Station where so many of us have farewelled and greeted one another over the years. Its just a little station. Its ugly now, too. They pulled down the old one years back. It had character and a stationmaster, The station they have put there now is ugly but its ours. 

And my niece came in on the train.

Then we shopped in the town that used to be her town and made pizza and laughed and talked and when they went home to the Shack, I cried a little for my sister.  And just a little for all of us. 

They grew up like twins, her girl and mine. Twin Cousins.

 

COUNTDOWN DAY 6 : THE SWING

THE YAAN : So, 25 years ago on this day I had two sick little children going into hospital for ear surgery. I had a heroin habit, alcohol addiction , pills and other chemical dependencies and I was stark, raving mad.  I lived out in the  Valleys in a collapsing marriage with violence and savagery all about. 

Today, I was setting up a swing made from an old tyre that we gathered up on the weekend Council Cleanup day. I live in a peaceful and safe environment. In my side yard, is the frame of an old swing set. It’s stood there for the two years that I have lived  here. Stood there without anything to swing on. Now I have the tyre ready for my grand daughter tomorrow.  I like the old green frame because it looks like AA to me. I can see it from all my side windows.

25 years ago, I took a train from Urunga Railway station. On my 9th wedding anniversary. Left my kids and family and everything I had ever known and went South on a promise from the baddest man I had ever known that he  would ‘ lead me by my little hand to safety’. And he did.

Today, I was in Urunga at a Narcotics Anonymous meeting of four women. All mothers. All drug free.

If the swing were just a little bigger – well, if it were a lot bigger, I would sit on it and lie back and swing and smile  Lucky woman, eh?

TRAVEL SUPER SHOTS

1.

• A photo that…takes my breath away
• A photo that…makes me laugh or smile
• A photo that…makes me dream
• A photo that…makes me think
• A photo that…makes my mouth water
• A photo that…tells a story
• A photo that…I am most proud of (aka my worthy of National Geographic shot)

2. Write a short description for each image.
3. Write somewhere in your blog post: ‘I am taking part in http://blog.hostelbookers.com/travel/7-super-shots/

4. Tell us you have participated and tweet the hashtag #7SuperShots
5. Nominate 5 other bloggers by including a link to their blog in your post.

 

1. A photo that…takes my breath away

SMOKEY CAPE LIGHTHOUSE

http://www.smokycapelighthouse.com/

Down the road a bit is a town called South West Rocks. My family has a history there from the 1800s. High above the town is SMOKEY CAPE. The lighthouse looks out over the Pacific Ocean and the Macleay Valley . I catch my breath on Smokey Cape for a few good reasons.

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2. A photo that…makes me laugh or smile

CARR’S CREEK NEAR GRAFTON N.S.W.

Driving round the Clarence Valley of New South Wales took me to some pretty funny spots and the MISH MASH shop was one of them. I came away with a gramma for pie and other strange oddments. Makes me smile whenever I think of it.

http://clarenceandulmarra.wordpress.com/

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3. A photo that makes me dream

BILAMBIL COTTAGE on the TWEED RIVER. N.S.W.

My cottage on the hill. My own dreaming place.

http://sixtyeyes.wordpress.com/?s=bilambil

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4. A photo that makes me think

TRIAL BAY GAOL

http://www.trialbaygaol.com/

An empty gaol. That means a lot of thinking. Its just near the lighthouse and South West Rocks. As a woman with a convict ancestry, old prisons make me think.

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5. A photo that…makes my mouth water

CHICKPEA SIMMER AT NO 5 CHURCH ST IN BELLINGEN N.S.W.

CHICKPEA SIMMER: ALL LOCAL INGREDIENTS. AT No.5 CHURCH STREET BELLINGEN.

The lovely new lads at No 5 even make their own ice cream and they buy local. It’s a grand meeting place in our town of Cafes.

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6. A photo that tells a story.

BATEMAN’S BAY. N.S.W.

The photo tells a story – but I don’t know what that story is.

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7. A photo that…I am most proud of (aka my worthy of National Geographic shot)

GOANNA AT BRIERFIELD

At my daughter’s home in the bush.

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INVITES TO JOIN IN IF IT IS TO YOUR TASTE AND ONLY IF IT IS:

The details are at

http://blog.hostelbookers.com/travel/7-super-shots/

Melonpop, I thought some of your Australian pictures might suit this one, including the trip to Uluru.

http://melonpops.wordpress.com/

http://thepetalpusher.me/

http://2e0mca.wordpress.com/

http://neil2decade.wordpress.com/

http://romceg.wordpress.com/

IZZY’S PLACE IN THE FOREST

VALERY ROAD RALEIGH IN THE BONGIL BONGIL STATE FOREST 

SUMMERTIME THOUGHTS

I have had a few coloured silhouettes this week with the Sun blazing as bushfires burn. I saw whales, as well. Off the Beach on my birthday.

AND MEANWHILE – AS I DREAM OF SUMMERTIME.

http://www.archive.org/stream/summertimeamidmu00musk#page/n1/mode/2up

http://www.archive.org/stream/cu31924022193076#page/n9/mode/2up

http://www.archive.org/stream/solitarysummer00arniuoft#page/n11/mode/2up