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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. |
Category Archives: OFF THE BENCH
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 |
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| The Northern Miner (Charters Towers, Qld. : 1874 – 1954), Monday 17 September 1945 | The Northern Miner (Charters Towers, Qld. : 1874 – 1954), Thursday 14 October 1954 |
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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
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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. |
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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. |
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| Part of everyday life round here is ROADWORKS and that includes STOP/GO men. Modern technology, eh? |
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| 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?
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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
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/
SUPER SHOTS
http://blog.hostelbookers.com/travel/7-super-shots/
AN INVITATION FROM http://flickrcomments.wordpress.com/2012/07/15/7-super-shots/
Play with us in 5 easy steps
1. Choose 7 of your own photos, one for each of the following categories:
- 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 HostelBookers 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.
I’ll tackle the photos first. Then I shall attend to the details such as INVITES and LINKS. I don’t travel far and I don’t travel a lot so it will be the East Coast of New South Wales in Australia.
A photo that…takes my breath away
PORT MACQUARIE. N.S.W.
This combo of my sister in the last week of her life and of me as I look at life with her gone still takes my breath away and clunks into my heart.
We lost my sister, Susan, to lung cancer on February 17 2011 in Port Macquarie.
You think that their dying is the worst thing that could happen. Then they stay dead ― Donald Hall
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A photo that…makes me laugh or smile
I live with a man who loves socks. Coloured socks. They hang in their dozens on our pegless clothesline. I don’t wash them and nor do I hang them. He does. He does all of his travelling with his socks on.
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A photo that…makes me dream
Raleigh N.S.W.
I dream with the Kookaburra that spends its days on my front fence. I dream ancient dreams with the Guburra. Wise dreams. And the Guburra brings me this poem from Ali Cobby Eckermann;
My nana opens windows. Weaving songs. And gently tells. Real myths.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kookaburra
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A photo that…makes me think
URALLA N.S.W.
My son on Thunderbolt”s Rocks. I couldn’t climb to where he was. I think about the Bushranger who hid here and my son who may well have been between a rock and a hard place, himself. His daughter said to me; “ Maybe they had to shoot Thunderbolt – but they shouldn’t have shot his horse. “
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A photo that…makes my mouth water
BELLINGEN. N.S.W.
Eating at the BLACK BEAR CAFÉ. Future dreams. Present realities.
http://www.yha.com.au/hostels/nsw/mid-north-coast/bellingen/
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A photo that…tells a story
GRAFTON N.S.W.
It tells a story but I don’t know what the story is.
http://www.clarencetourism.com/about-the-clarence/grafton-and-clarence-country/grafton/p/40
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A photo that…I am most proud of (aka my worthy of National Geographic shot)
URUNGA.
From our rockwall where the rivers meet the sea.
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And at this point in the Post, I actually read and checked the details and realised that it’s a TRAVEL site hosting the Super Blogs. I will, therefore, do a 2nd post and pay attention to the TRAVEL element of it.
THE PUB WITH NO BEER
THE YAAN : Went Bush today. Out to the Pub at Taylor’s Arm. It was no simple matter to get there due to roadslips and such. I have been there only once before. That was in 1985 for a Festival. Today looked like this;
FRIDAY
THE YAAN: Back to the life that makes me well. Me and Jack both. Jack almost took his eye out on a wire fence a couple of months back but has come good and is pushy and flighty again. He almost took the Cheery Redhead’s hand when she offered him some food. My girl did her first day at a school.Towards her Education degree. And we minded the little girl. Then I did my Meeting in town. In a moment, bean and vegie soup. The retrieval of sanity.
