Went to the country today. We drove to the country town of Gatton about 45 minutes from our home in Brisbane, and had lunch at their new "cultural" centre. Knowing the local "culture" a little bit too well, I was somewhat concerned about what we were going to experience, but I need not have feared at all. It was very well done, and though relatively newly opened, and obvious that there is still work to do on the landscaping etc, it was equal to any other "cultural" center we have experienced within Australia.
Many years ago, back in the early 1970s, a very forwarded thinking gentleman from the local agricualtural college lobbied very, very hard for a lake to be created in a swampy area just outside the town. The local people thought he was a "mad bastard" in the Aussie vernacular, but he kept at it and eventually won the local council over. Now look at it! The birds have such a haven and many of the locals take their daily walks around the lake. The centre was built in 2009 and houses the library, an art gallery that displays local artists and a truck museum. The town of Gatton is the hub of a rich agricultural area "the salad bowl of the Lockey Valley" and so the trucking industry is a major employer for the town.
So, the center not only has a trucking museum, but on a slight rise next to the lake they have created a monument that lists the names of all the local drivers that have died - too many in accidents, but also as part of the cycle of life. Families pay a small amount to have the name of their loved one inscribed.
There is a lovely sandstone carving outside the cultural centre that commenorates the agricultural pioneers of the district.
and next door to the centre is the local historical village :
Not far away, on the other side of the historical village, a terrible murder was committed at the end of the 19th century. Three members of the Murphy family - two sisters and a brother- were murdered on their way home from a local dance. Their murder was never solved and to this day all the locals have theories about who killed them - irish family vendetta: a jilted lover; incestuous relationship; vargrant who diappeared into the night? I guess now, no one will ever know for sure.
Lights on the Hill - song lyrics by Slim Dusty
It's a long straight road and the engine is deep
I can't help thinkin' of a good night's sleep
And the long long roads of my li-ife were a callin' me
These rough old hands are a-glued to the wheel
My eyes full of sand from the way they feel
And the lights comin' over the hi-ill are a-blindin' me
It's a long tough haul from a-way down south
A man's gotta find a little bread for his mouth
And a home for a girl as swee-eet as my honey can be
So it's down through the gears, she's a-startin' to pull
The gauge on the tank is a-showin' they're full
And the lights comin' over the hi-ill are a-blindin' me
There's rain on the road and I can feel the load start a-shiftin'
I-i-in a dance
Too late, I see the post and I haven't got a ghost of a chance
Ah-hah-hah-no
The windscreen wipers are a-beatin' in time
The song they sing is a part of my mind
And I can't believe it's a-really happenin' to me
Oh, but I'm over the edge and down the mountain side
I know they'll tell about the night I died
In the rain when the lights on the hi-ill were a-blindin' me
Hey!
There's rain on the road and I can feel the load start a-shiftin'
I-i-in a dance
Too late, I see the post and I haven't got a ghost of a chance
Ah-hah-hah-no
The windscreen wipers are a-beatin' in time
The song they sing is a part of my mind
And I can't believe it's a-really happenin' to me
Oh, but I'm over the edge and down the mountain side
I know they'll tell about the night I died
In the rain when the lights on the hi-ill were a-blindin' me
In the rain when the lights on t
~
Last night, I went to bed around 10:30pm expecting 8 + hours sleep and a good start to 2010 but my neighbours across the road decided I should vicariously party with them. They let off fireworks in the street around 11.30 and then continued to party on their front porch until about 4am..... they must have been fairly liquor-lubricated to continue partying in the sub-freezing temperature.
So ... 2009 has closed for business. After taking into account all the credits and debits of my year my balance sheet has finished very solidly on the credit side. I have a job and I got to go home for my first Christmas (and summer!) since 1999 and I witnessed my eldest son's wedding.
I haven't made New Year Resolutions since I was a teenager and realised that few lasted past the middle of January, but I do reflect on the year just passed and think on ways I could make going forward better.
This morning, feeling tired and grumpy, I gave some thought as to how I could ensure I see many more January 1st mornings - strangely, those thoughts turned to conjuring up ways to get rid of the neighbours!
Ah. A new year. I'm sure you expect me to write something about that, correct? The Reinhart 2009 year in review. My reflections, summations, final thoughts. The goods. The bads. How we spent our time ushering in the start to a new decade.
Well shoo, me too. It's only appropriate considering this is New Year's Day. Duh.
Except I wasn't quite sure how to package it all for you. What tantalizing tidbits and whatnots do I throw in your gift basket before sealing, wrapping, and placing a huge bow on the tippy top?
Before addressing it:
To: The Internet
From: Your Bestie, SHR
Before finally pushing SAVE sending this gem on it's merry freaking way?
Most often all it takes for some thoughts to come together is time spent on autopilot in the car. Imagine that. All it takes for me to think is a little quiet. Now, knowing what you know about my life, imagine how much of it is spent NOT thinking...clearly. For better or worse the ideas for this post came about from a trip Leo and I took to Jimmy John's earlier today. Two ideas circled to the forefront. I'd like to say it was three instead of two. People like things coming at them better when in threes, but what can I do? Recreate the sandwich run?
Just keep moving along through this post with me, please. Or don't. It's whatev. I'm in that kind of mood.
First, let me back back back it up a bit. As much as I love all things December, remember? I'm glad to see this one go. Little White Whale is not the place to go into the why of that. I've decided those reasons fall just outside the boundaries for topics of conversation here. Now you're probably like Huh? Sarah you'll openly talk about your boobs, your period, the conceptions of your children... but not why the end of your year flat out sucked?
I know. Shocker of all shocks, I do keep some things private.
Now in doing my best to enter 2010 a happy girl these are the two things that came to mind as mentioned above.
1. My first experience traveling abroad. The summer between my junior and senior year of college I spent the summer in Florence, Italy studying art history and world literature. I will never forget wandering through the busy Tuscan street markets thinking all my life all of this has been going on. Of course I knew it, but to SEE for myself. It's a small world after all is bullshit. I have never felt so unimportant and insignificant as I did then. But in a good way. The world isn't about me, or my family, or Louisville Kentucky or Miami University or what I want to major in--it's about all these people collectively. Talk about eye-opening. My eyeballs should have fallen out then and there. Rolled under a vespa or something. In that instant I shed my mopey, angsty, bulimic college poet persona. I stopped feeling so sorry for poor ol me with my best of everything. Quite frankly, Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton were my idols no more.
Lesson for 2010: It ain't about you sister. Lest I should forget--I have so much. So f*cking much. Now be thankful.
Then I started thinking about...
2. My great-grandmother Fidelis O'Donnell. That's pronounced Fi DAY lis. A beautiful name for an equally beautiful woman. She died in 2005 at 99 years of age. NINETY-NINE! Quick as a whip and smart as a tack up until her very last day. I enjoyed visiting with her, listening to her stories in those last few years. I marveled at her happiness. I'm not kidding when I say the woman found joy in a cup of hot tea. Here she'd outlived everyone she ever loved--her friends, her husband, both of her daughters--and yet she still wanted to be a part of earth. To read every newspaper known to humanity every day. To pay attention to all the details that make a life special and to remember them decade after decade. I sat with her selfishly hoping a smidge of all that might, of all that perserverance, of all that optimism would transfer to me somehow.
Lesson for 2010: Carry on. Choose to be an active participant in the world. Find happiness in whatever your cup of tea may be.
M'kay?
Oh, and dance, people. DANCE. Dance like you're wearing a chicken suit at a New Year's Eve glow stick party and no one's watching. Even though everyone is watching. And taking lots of pictures.
And as often as possible feel as comfy cozy and at ease as if you're snuggled up in your jammies on a couch with your friends.
Wishing you the very best in 2010.
If you are impatient for things to get worse, you don't have to wait for 2012, which so many have written about, commented on, or seemingly believe in. A Russian professor contends that the U.S. will come unglued during the year ahead. The civil war could start by early summer, he says.
Mr FD and I were discussing whether to watch a particular program on teleivsion when Mr FD said we didn't need to as "I have the VD."
I burst out laughing at his delusion of grandeur.
His reply was "there is no way out of this is there?"
Best laugh I have had all year (you didn't think I was going to miss the opportunity to say that did you really?)
And Mr FD didn't watch the program as he has the DVD.
and I will be in bed before it gets to midnight.
The first of the year will come around whether I am awake or not and I might as well face 2010 well rested.
I'm having my champagne and chocolate now and I'm going to spend the evening sorting through my Australian photos imagining myself back in the warmth of the southern hemisphere.
This is really an answer to the Question of The Day on: How will I be ringing in the New Year which I've seen others post .... but I never seem to find the QoTDs myself.
Anyway, to use an expression I heard a zillion times today, see you next year.....
If you aren't watching the Rachel Maddow show on MSNBC every evening, you are missing the whole reason that television was invented.
No chance of missing the New Year in the Flamingo Dancer household as the neighbours had some very illegal fireworks that they exploded right on time. Happy New Year! Now to bed!
If you want to see fireworks, catch a replay of the fireworks at Sydney Harbour - incredible is the word.
The new year is just hours away now. Mr FD and I are already celebrating with a cheese platter along with dried apricots and quince paste. If only I could have some bubbly, but alas the medication I am on does not allow it. Even if I don't manage to stay awake, even if I end up snoring in my chair, it will have been a nice evening.
But alas and alack, now it seems that Mr FD may not make it - as we are currently watching one of the Lord of the Rings movies and he keeps repeating all of Gollom's lines after him. I give Mr FD about another 10 minutes of life,
-make that 3 minutes as he has taken to comparing me to the ugliest characters in the movie: "did they ask permission to use your photo?" Death is about to come to him. It will hurt too,
