serendipity

On Sunday, I made arrangements to meet with my friend, who we'll call Birdie, for coffee.
After much humming and hah-ing, and checking of schedules, we decided on Tuesday afternoon, 1 pm, at A Certain Cafe In Town.
I never ordinarily go to That Certain Cafe because I don't like it, but agreed anyway because I really like Birdie.

I arrived a couple of minutes early, and Birdie wasn't there yet, but while looking around the Cafe, I saw a child I recognised.
And a split second later, I saw her mother.
And then the mother noticed me, and we stared at one another with our mouths hanging open for several long seconds before the OMGs! began.

See, I have 'known' The Divine Miss M for YEARS -- on-line. We'd never met in real life, before, and actually live hundreds of kilometres apart.
Neither of us could get over meeting like that, in a place I never go to, a place she decided to eat in just on the spur of the moment.

And you know what was really weird? I felt like we really already knew each other.

Some people just don't 'get' on-line friendships, how you can be friends through a screen and a keyboard. They argue that a person can present themselves entirely differently through a strictly on-line persona, and I guess they're right.
Sometimes.

Because I think that most of the time, we eventually pick up on a false vibe. You just 'click' with some people, and you sometimes don't with others, just like in real life; and every now and again, you will 'meet' someone on-line who just.. isn't.... quite right. Hard to put your finger on why, it's just a feeling.

Experts tell us that words comprise only about 7% of communication between people, and that's why it's so easy to misunderstand someone on-line, why we have to be so careful in the way we present ourselves and our opinions.
But after a while, you start to realise that there's a lot to learn by reading between the lines, or looking for what is UNsaid; by allowing for context and also previous experience of this persons' words and thoughts, you can build a picture of who they are.

And for me, The Divine Miss M was EXACTLY the same IRL. Even her voice seemed familiar, though I'd never heard it before. She was just the way I had pictured her. And so were her little girl and her husband.

So how do you feel about meeting an on-line friend?
I certainly wouldn't advocate throwing caution to the wind and giving out your street address to someone you'd only just met, but when you've 'known' someone for years, do you trust your own judgement when it comes to net relationships?

Thursday Themes for this week

OOPS! I forgot to post this last week ... sorry about that.
The Thursday Theme for this week, the 3rd of March, is TEXTURES.
Write a post or take some pictures, and link up here on Thursday morning.

round the world -- Super Pit (Kalgoorlie)

RedNomad has a travel linky going on at her blog, which I'm joining in. She asks us to pick one post from our blogs which has something travel-related -- a holiday destination, a local sight etc. -- so we can all do some armchair travelling!

Fabio and I lived in Kalgoorlie for a few years, which tends to happen when your life revolves around mining.
And the thing that people MOST want to see when they visit Kalgoorlie is the Super Pit (or the brothels, but I'm not going to advertise those, even inadvertently)
If ever you get to Kal, go to the Super Pit. Seriously.
Take a tour if you can.

Also -- if you click on the photos, they'll come up a bit larger, to help you see the details.

This view is years old. The viewing platform gets moved regularly as the Pit extends.

In the right foreground, you can see some little white dots. This is a blast pattern being drilled. 

It's where the explosives will go.

You can also JUST see something that looks like a tiny white crane.

It's actually a huge piece of machinery that does something to do with the drilling.

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Another view of the 'bench' that's being drilled ready for firing. 

The tiny dots are machinery and vehicles.

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And a close-up.

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Fabio, the kids and my sister, looking from the viewing platform. The mesh is there to stop drongos from climbing over, and also to protect the public from flying rock.

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If you look at the first picture again, you can JUST see a tiny yellow blob slightly above the centre of the photo. This is it, in close-up.

Looking carefully, you can see tiny people moving around in front of that enormous yellow thing.

There are a couple of dumpies (huge dump trucks) in the background as well.

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A dump truck, with a 'normal' sized vehicle parked in front of it. See the different colours in the dirt? And the 'benching'? It's a pretty amazing sight.
I wish you could be taking this virtual tour with Fabio -- he knows what all the machinery is, and what it does, and knows all kinds of cool things to point out. 

MMM Monday -- Art Deco

Art Deco really floats my boat. I don't know why. I just love the lines, the elegance, the craftsmanship.
If I could, I'd build or renovate a house in this style and fill it with furnishings like these.

image from Art Deco Clocks

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image from Tarraleah Cottages in Tassie where I'm TOTALLY going to stay one day.

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image from Retro To Go

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please contact me if these are your images, I don't remember where I found them.

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image from Art Deco Style

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If you love Art Deco buildings, like this one

go check out Davids' blog, Art Deco Buildings. He posts pictures regularly, of buildings from around the world.

at the end of the day, it's all good - Sunday Selection #8

Joining in on Sunday Selections once more, using photos from my laptop that might otherwise never see the light of day.

I do love me a good sunset. So peaceful. so beautiful.....

This was taken from the deck of a houseboat, on the Murray River in SA, in 2008.

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These two were taken on our beach, last night. It's been so hot for nearly two weeks, and every evening there are crowds of people on the beach enjoying the cool breeze.

my spidey senses are tingling

Late last night, thanks to the unrelenting heat and humidity, I decided to have a shower before bed. Luckily, I turned on the bathroom light. Often I don't -- our ensuite is the size of a shoebox and the light from my bedside is enough to see by. But last night, light on.
And I looked down to see the worlds' most optimistic spider had spun a web at just above ankle height, and was waiting in it to catch me.
"Wait a minute," thinks I. "That's a very familiar shape..." and sure enough, when I leaned closer, I could see her big red markings.
I found a glass jar and caught her, accidentally knocking one of her legs off in the process, which annoyed me no end as I actually really like redbacks and most times would rather let them go than kill them.
So I guess now I can add 'spider torturer' to my List of Accomplishments.

Anyway, it occurred to me well after that I should have taken a PHOTO of her clever trap! I thought briefly about a re-enactment but I just really couldn't think how to spin a web (which, yep, accidentally destroyed during the capturing process) so here's one I took just before letting her go.

Isn't she beautiful? apart from her missing leg, that is....

the fine art of fighting

(image from luigi diamanti)
For some reason, my beautiful, sensitive, funny, clever, and creative boy has trouble making friends.
I don't know why. He isn't a bully, he's loyal and friendly, he loves to share -- but kids just don't like him.

This does seem to be a family trait though -- his dad and I were the same, and so were nearly all his siblings. Once we make friends, we keep them for life -- but we tend not to have a large circle of friends.

We've tried all kinds of tactics in the last 7 months -- inviting people after school and on weekends, getting to know other parents, joining in on activities etc -- but no go so far, and to make things worse, there are about 8 boys who live in the two streets here, and they only rarely allow him to join in their games.
It's breaking my heart to watch him go off to ask if he can play, and coming home trying not to cry because they've told him to get lost or they'll bash his head in.
One later apologised because his mum read him the riot act, and they have made up. Since he lives over our back fence, that was something of a relief, and I'm very grateful to his mum for intervening.

But still. Clearly we needed to try something new.

So I rang the local karate club, and last night took Mr9 for his first training session.

And he LOVED it.

The kids are all friendly and helpful, because Sensei says so. They greet one another, sit in a circle, and talk about what they learned at school today. There are kids aged from 17 or 18 down to one tiny little 5 year old, from several different schools, and they all get along well. Because Sensei says so.

They train pretty hard, and there's no time (or tolerance) for mucking around -- and Sensei demands instant respect, without raising his voice or using A Tone. He clearly loves what he's doing and is a born teacher.

I'm not about the fighting. I'm about my boy learning some focus, some self-respect, some discipline, some confidence, and some physical skills.
And if he can make a friend along the way, that would be just fine too.

Thursday Themes - Tools of the Trade

In my other life, the one where the children are at school and the housework is ignored, I couldn't manage without these. They are my go-to tools -- the ones that help me create scrapbooking LOs and papercraft projects, like wedding invites and birthday cards.
They are -
- Fiskars paper trimmer, and awesomely sharp scissors that stabbed me in the leg
- T!m Holtz design ruler (which has grid markings AND little holes to help with paper piercing and stitching), T!ms' Distress ink and applicator, his rubber stamps and his embossing powder -- why, yes, I am crushing on T!m, how did you guess? but his products are so damn GOOD.
- collection of pens, including white gel pen and my Zig Writers
- Versacube ink in Pinecone -- everyone should have this colour. Everyone. The world would be a better place.
- double sided tape and glue dots -- no more sticky glue up to my elbows. (my dad superglued his forearm to the kitchen table one time when he was making fishing lures. Luckily (?) he had a razor blade handy, and cut himself free. A millimetre at a time. This has nothing to do with papercraft but it's pretty funny.)

So what tools do you use every day? what could you not manage without?

Join in by writing a related post, and be as creative as you like.
Make sure to link back to me in your post, and make sure to leave some love on at least one other persons' post. The link should be open till midnight Friday.

Gone with the wind. And the rain.

Some of my regular readers will remember my Cyclone posts, which you can find here and here and here and then this post-cyclone post with the photos of my poor sisters' house.
Yesterday I rang her to see how the insurance/house-hunting/clean-up is going, and we talked about how the rainforest is just.... gone.
Her home was in the middle of one of the most lush and stunningly beautiful places you could imagine, with a staggering variety of plant and animal life.
See?

Now, it looks like this.

Mile after mile after mile of the forest is gone. There is no shelter, no water, and no food for the native wildlife.    Cassowaries have started roaming to find food, and this puts them in danger of being hit by cars or set upon by dogs.
Some species could be lost altogether. They rely heavily on the kindness of volunteers and donors right now.
You can read more about that here, on Facebook.

The roads have been destroyed. Again. Whole sheets of bitumen lifted up and thrown aside, the roadbase beneath ruined. Drainage pipes under the roads are clogged with debris, have been shifted or broken. Some of the debris comes from broken houses, and some of it is asbestos, requiring specialised attention.

The cost to some local councils will be tens of millions of dollars, just to repair the roads. Again.
Because this happens regularly. Not on such a  grand scale, of course. Yasi put on a real show for the people who live here. But cyclones and flooding are a part of life in North Queensland.

The cost in lost tourism is huge. People come to see the rainforest. They have no reason to come, now. Except for those faithful grey nomads and winter visitors, who travel up every year and who are determined to do so again, to support local industries and help keep people in jobs. Bless you, every one of you.

The cost to locals, in terms of lost businesses and unemployment, is staggering. Crops are gone, produce is gone. Southerners, city people,  laugh over Bob Katter and his passion for banana farmers, but the truth is that's a $400 million industry. Gone.

Yet the locals are getting on with it. Many who were thinking about selling up and moving on before Yasi are now determined to stay, and re-build. Back-packers, hired on to pick fruit before Yasi, are now staying on to help with the clean up. People are helping one another, offering goods and services where needed. They're mostly patient, and appreciative of the many emergency services personnel in the area. They've tolerated the rubber-neckers, the media, and even the politicians.

Just don't mention the flood levy to them.