Who would have thought?

Left Brisbane this morning to fly to Mt Isa. Note to self - Mt Isa is dead on a Sunday afternoon. Not much happening, even less noticeable in shopping centre so we ended up at McDonald's to refuel before driving 120km's to Cloncurry. Kevin, who looked like he was all of 12 years old,served us, then we hit the road. Cloncurry is small, but people seem nice. We finally found our accommodation, only to see a sign redirecting us to the Wagon Wheel Hotel. Yes, we had passed this on our way through town and I had to swallow my disparaging marks as I realized that it was 5 star compared to the Cloncurry Motel. Luckily for us, some quirk of accommodation booking saw our reservation at the Wagon Wheel not the Cloncurry. Phew - can only be described as a lucky escape. A couple of gentlemen helped carry our bags and gave parking advice. Apparently the tree I parked under regularly drops sticky goop onto vehicles. These same guys got bumped to let some new reservations have rooms in The Wagon Wheel. Oops. Had a surprisingly good meal at the restaurant and an icy cold beer. Nothing else in Cloncurry open on a Sunday, except perhaps the Bowls Club which seems to be part of the same property. Go figure. Then watched the Union - World Cup. Kiwis beat France by one point! better luck next year. Now it's raining, pouring in fact. Incredible.

The Wives of Henry Oades

Further to the dilemma of book clubs. How exactly do you make a selection? How do you in fact agree on a suitable title? Options include - based on peer review, library staff recommendations, online advice or even choosing a title with an interesting cover. There are challenges inherent in the latter approach. Take the case of The Wives of Henry Oades by Johanna Moran The cover on the copy I have on loan from the local library is a beautifully rendered graphic of a tall ship afloat upon a wavy sea. With a story set in the 1800's, with characters travelling from the UK, to the USA via New Zealand this is in fact quite apt. Or there is the alternative. Now, I wonder which I would select if both were on offer. Would the offer of story as suggested by the second title leave me disappointed? Something to think about.

Book Club Musings

A group of us in the local area have talked about starting a book club - and talked. To date we have yet to actually meet to coordinate anything formal. In the interim, we talk about starting the book club, we decide on who should join the book club and the pros and cons of numbers. But still we wait. What for, I am not quite sure. Meanwhile we continue to talk - often about the books that we are currently reading, or those that might make good book club material....we talk and talk some more, enjoying the companionship. The main complaint I hear from other members of book clubs is that when the group gets together it is more often for food and companionship than to discuss the book of the month. Where is the problem with that? Sounds like progress to me.

Boulia Bound

Have headed to Boulia for work - an amazing experience to date. Flew to Mt Isa this morning then after picking up the hire car drove approx 3 hours to Boulia. On arriving I was amazed to see that it is actually a shorter distance to Adelaide (yes, the Adelaide in South Australia) than it is to Brisbane. Incredible. A definate highlight for me was seeing what could only have been a wedge tailed eagle straddling some road kill in the company of some crows. Amazing to say the least. This bird was huge - his wing span was as wide as me with widespread arms, his body the size of a small child. As for his legs, it looked like he had woolly ugg boots on. I kid you not. A shy retiring fellow he retreated as we pulled the car up, proceeding to watch us for some minutes before deciding that retreat was the best option. Watching this giant get airborn from the ground was a sight to behold.

After some challenges with accommodation and luggage it was good to get to our destination and get settled. A lap of the main street showed the location of the Post Office, Supermarket, Library and Min Min Encounter. Arriving just in time for the 4.00pm show we thought long and hard about undertaking the min min experience, finally deciding against it. For today at least. A hard decision at the best of times.

Advice from our hosts for the evening suggested two options for dinner. The local service station, or the Australia Hotel. Needless to say we went with the latter, booking in for the 7.00pm sitting to allow for the fact that the 6.30 session was booked out. Popular place the Australia Hotel on a Monday night. Go figure. On arrival I asked for the wine menu, to be advised that not only was there no wine list - there was one red to choose from. A Berri Estate Soft Dry Red. From a cask and chilled. Delightful. What the wine left to be desired was made up for by the food. Grilled fish being off the menu (as were the chops and local pork sausage) I decided on the chicken parmigiana. Have to say it was more like a pizza with cheese, mushroom and capsicum instead of the usual tomato and cheese sauce....but it was great. Vegies and mash weren't bad either - with the mash full of butter just like my Nanna used to make. All in all an entertaining day.

I wonder what day two holds in store.

I love this photo - a dog matiently waiting while his mistress takes care of business in the Birdsville Information Centre and Library.

Long weekend - another one

Am finally making some progress on the lemurs - Easter long weekends are wonderful for time at home. With another long weekend coming up, who knows, I might make it to face number 3. Let me know what you think - although I guess it is a bit tricky with no eyes yet inserted.

Oops - apologies for the fact these guys are monkeying around and refuse to go right way up.

Social Media

I attended the if:Book - The Reader conference yesterday and the message of the moment was to use social media like Twitter and Facebook and make it work for you, but that interaction needs to be genuine and work both ways. So, being determined to give them both another chance - lets face it I "talk" too much to be contained by 140 characters - I put a message on Facebook announcing the launch of my revamped website. Guess what - lots of great comments and a new follower on my blog! Whoo hoo! Have always loved the blog because I can "talk" to my hearts content. So, thanks CC. Anyway if you haven't yet seen the web site check it out at www.smashmosaics.com

A huddle of Lemurs

Actually the collective noun for a group of lemurs is a troop. These guys however will definately be huddling by the time I finish with them. I thought I would try to do a little work in progress overview - of my planned entry in the next MAANZ symposium exhibition.

The theme this time is a pattern from nature with a minimum repitition of 5, with the size being the standard 30cm x 30cm as for previous competitions. Anyway so long as I am happy with the outcome this will be my entry. Time will tell.

Already I am challenged because I have started to work this in the reverse sequence to usual. That is, I worked the background first. I figured it would be too difficult to lay the background in later so have completed it - mosaic and grout, and am now working the lemurs. Not sure yet whether it will turn out how I am imagining but I guess I wont know until I give it a go. I just knew that I wanted to focus on the little fluffy hair on these guys ears and heads so the work had to overlay the background. You can see from my sketch I am no artist.

As for the little Rainbow Lorikeets I am working this piece predominantly in smalti. Fingers crossed.