its all happening - kitchen update

Yesterday was one heck of a busy day. And every busy day begins with a busy day before cause I had to remove everything that wasn't nailed down from the kitchen.

That means I had to empty all cupboards and find a spot for the necessities (toaster, jug, coffee) and rudimentary food prep and cleaning. We now have a temporary kitchen area in the office and are washing up in the bathroom sink.

Handyman got here early in the morning and we removed the rest of the kitchen cabinets, then he started removing the flooring - vinyl and masonite.

I helped. I got down on the floor and started removing nails. Fun job.

The kitchen is a real mess. We have holes in the walls, electrical cords taped to the wall (my idea to keep them off the ground where the dogs can touch them, even though they're capped off). Speaking of caps, Handyman forgot to bring the caps for the taps so he had to put the tap back on so we could have water in the house without also having a swimming pool in the kitchen. Bet you've never seen a mixer tap used like this before!

We found that the bump on the floor is because there's a rectangle of boards that was put in later or something. The joist along the wall in that area is about 1/2 inch lower than the rest, creating a wierd dip. The previous owners found it easier to trim the baseboards than to do the floor properly.

So my plan of sanding the floor this weekend goes out the window. I don't think it'll be smart to hire a sander for the weekend hoping that Handyman gets the floor issue sorted out on Saturday... Who knows what we'll find when the floor comes up...

What did I say about this job growing with everything we start and can't finish?

The electrician arrived to do a bit more wiring work. I somehow found the only electrician in Tasmania who believes in drip feeding his work. Seriously, he keeps calling to say he needs to come around and do something, does a small amount of work, then comes again a few days later to do a bit more.

Maybe he just likes my company!

Well, he's a nice guy, neat, does a good job. And he likes country music. Anyone who likes Dwight Yoakam is a friend of mine. As long as it all comes together at the end I'll be happy. He can't finish the job till Aurora comes to move the electricity meter. Then he has to connect the stove and he's done.

I had advertised the kitchen online and a guy came with a truck and a friend to pick it up. Thank goodness cause the porch was chockablock and I hadn't been able to access my workshop area for weeks.

With all those cabinets gone, I was finally able to get to my power tools and I'm afraid that proved to be a temptation too hard to resist. I never finished pulling nails in the kitchen... I got distracted.

I'll share my creations later. Meanwhile Wayne has been warned to stay out of the kitchen and I'm feeling better even though I have to make toast in my office and have aching hands.

Being creative makes my day.

z

the whole picture

I was reading a book the other day and a line popped out at me.

"Maybe things always look better when you can't see the whole picture."

The main character was referring to seeing herself and her friend cut up into thin slices in their reflections in some office building windows, how in small slices they looked thinner, their clothes looked nicer, the colours seemed more vibrant.

She's right. Things do always look better when you can't see the whole picture.

You can take it literally, like the slices of reflections and in the cropping of photos, or you can take it figuratively and see how it can refer to everything in life...

Have you ever admired someone else's relationship from the outside, then gotten to know the people better and realised that it wasn't so special after all? You could only see 'slices' of their life, maybe just the bits they wanted you to see, maybe just the bits you chose to see. Then when you see the full picture you see the ugly as well as the pretty.

Since I'm not a psychologist, this post isn't about relationships but about cropping and how images can have so much more impact depending on how they're cropped.

As you know I'm a graphic designer (or was in my previous life in Melbourne) so I know a bit about layout, balance and the aesthetics of pages whether on paper or the monitor. To me, cropping is a big deal.

Firstly, sometimes images need to be cropped to hide the crap I don't want you to see!

Secondly, I have to crop to make things look prettier than they are in real life. You don't want to see the weedy grass or the old boots lying on the porch. Trust me. You don't.

So by cropping I not only make my house - and my life - look better, but I also spare you the reality of my life.

Now. Tell me. Aren't you glad I know how to use the crop tool?

Mind you, I normally crop a lot when taking photos. I actually had a hard time finding photos I really needed to crop crap out of. Most of the time my photos come out like this one, not needing cropping to make them more interesting.

I'm just a smarty pants!

z

not my usual type of post

This is definitely not the type of thing I normally post about. I'll get back to that later today.

This post is about something that has upset me deeply and which I cannot get off my mind since I watched 60 Minutes last night. They had a segment about the dolphin slaugher in Taiji in Japan.

I hadn't planned on watching it, I didn't want to watch it. I even tried to change channels. But then I told myself that closing my eyes and ignoring something would not make it go away, and would not help make the world a better place.

I'm an animal lover. I'm not a vegetarian though I should be. I just hate cruelty in any form. I believe that humans are omnivores, we eat meat, but that we should treat the animals we eat with compassion. They give our lives so we can eat, they deserve to be killed in a human and respectful manner. I hate killing for sport or fun or just for the sake of it.

The program last night has given me nightmares - although watching re-runs in the back of my mind all day isn't a nightmare technically.

The Japanese herd these poor dolphins into a small cove during dolphin hunting season and then slaughter them. They say its tradition - but are power boats and the huge numbers dolphins they kill the same tradition thats been going on for centuries? Why would a tradition continue once the meat is toxic and unsafe to eat? They're no longer killing dolphins to feed the people. What really got to me is that they select the 'pretty' ones to sell to marine parks around the world for mega bucks and kill the rest.

And how do they kill them now? They ram a steel rod into the dolphin, give it a bit of a poke and jiggle around inside, then plug the hole by pounding in a wooden plug so the blood won't flow and colour the water with their shame. The dolphins die slowly from internal bleeding. There was footage of them doing this and you could see the dolphins seizing as they died slowly.

I'll never be able to un-see that.

If its all so great and cultural, why are the fisherman hiding it? Why do they need to do it at night behind tarps, and why do they need to stop the blood from turning the water red?

I feel absolutely sickened.

Luc Besson, director of The Big Blue (one of my all time favourite films) and now my hero, has made a documentary/film about Taiji called The Cove. I haven't seen it and I'm not sure I'll be able to. Its bad enough having watched a sliver of an excerpt...

I couldn't find the 60 Minutes story online but here's CNN coverage.
http://edition.cnn.com/2014/01/20/world/asia/japan-dolphin-hunt/

This seems the sameto me as the dolphin slaughter in Denmark where dolphins are slaughtered yearly in a tradition where boys become men by butchering defenseless, trapped dolphins.
http://www.snopes.com/photos/hunting/dolphinhunt.asp

Only difference seems to be the Japanese are making millions from selling captured dolphins while the Danish are just using it as a right of passage.

Society no longer needs this type of "tradition" to eat, so why does it continue? Surely man has progressed beyond such barbaric ways and some cultural traditions are better in history books and not expanded on with the advantages of new technology.

I mean, we no longer traipse down to the coloseum and nibble on peanuts while watching Christians being fed to lions and that was a pretty strong tradition for a while...

z

guitars cadillacs hillbilly music

It didn't rain on Sunday.

I'm glad I didn't listen to the voice of laziness and watch tv all afternoon. After cleaning up the mess in the kitchen I got out a paint brush and tackled the porch rails.

I only did the front of the slats and the posts as far as I could reach without getting out a ladder. I figured squatting, bending and ducking behind lavender bushes was enough of a workout for one day.

Squint and imagine the rails painted the same pale grey as the house with white posts and top rail.

It'll look good.

Of course there would've been more contrast if the colour I chose for the house was a bit darker like I thought it was...

Still...

Now all I have to do is undercoat the top of the posts, the inside of the rails, the fascia and do two topcoats on it all, and I'll be done.

Sometime in 2017.

It was fun though, cause when I paint I listen to music and sing out loud. It helps me keep up the pace. I have proof the dogs love me unconditionally. They lay around my feet as I painted.

But the geese complained.

The music brought back memories... I listened to cds I hadn't listened to for a while. Like BR549.  Little Ramona... That song was dedicated to me by a country band I would go see. I was the punk girl who went hillbilly nuts.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lK4Nmp6nJxQ

And Dwight, I love that nasally voice.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4foq4HcQdpg

A favourite dancing tune by Warren Smith...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JrHHO_FWABc

And of course, the Straight 8s, the best band in the world. Well, Australia anyway. I used to go watch, and dance, to these guys at least once a week. If they were playing in Melbourne, I was there or I was in traction somewhere.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dV8jmIfPpkg

Did I ever mention I was a rockabilly gal? Did I ever mention I also line danced and did the two step? Or that before that I was a punk and a goth? Like little Ramona, I went from army boots and studded belts to ponytails and circle skirts to cowboy hats and boots.

Now I wear a cowboy hat in the garden and work boots to ride.

My how times have changed.

z