Wednesday, September 29, 2010

RRS Filming Day 2

So the second day of filming went well; so many takes of the same thing. They decided to remove the argument scene; the "something" they hit turns out to be a black bull(and there really was one out of it's paddock so they got footage of it to use). Drew met the policeman who is going to "arrest" him on the actual day for DUI. Someone gets "arrested" for drug possession and someone "dies". Drew said it was all really quite sad - but heaps of fun too. They laughed and laughed. He will get a copy of the film (as well as bloopers) so I will get to see it. I truly hope they all learn something from it.

Monday, September 27, 2010

RRS Filming

Drew has gone off with a bunch of other students from his school and State High to film a short reality segment as part of the RRS road safety campaign. It's aimed at adolescents and will be shown to all the Grade 12's in the district during the last week of school. The general idea of the script runs along the (unfortunately) familiar story of teenage party, plenty of drinking, girl likes boy, boy likes different girl, argument, car full of teens leave party, car hits something....there are casualties and injuries. The film will end there and cut to a black screen.

Cue to last week of school-the kids are all shown the film. Then they all go outside to find the exact scene set up and the show continues...in real time. The kids involved in the "accident" are in various stages of distress/disbelief/hysteria. There is fake blood involved. The scene is acted out to it's conclusion which I think involves a sad ending. Apparently it's very powerful (it certainly sounds it) and one year, a girl became very distressed when confronted with the whole episode.

Two State High teachers and the police are involved along with about a dozen SH kids and three from our school. They will finish late tonight and have to be back there at 7 in the morning. I'm keen to see how it went this evening; I expect it could be rather emotional for them all.

Drew is playing the role of the driver.

Saturday, September 25, 2010

The Fishing Trip to Awoonga Dam is Hereby Cancelled...

because Gibbo's beloved Rooster/Sydney City/Eastern Suburbs are through to the NRL GRAND FINAL!!!!!!!!!! We have an unwritten understanding that if ever they make the GF he must go and support them...........so this morning he used up all his frequent flyer points plus $$$$$ to book three flights to Sydney plus a 2 room apartment across from the stadium. One of those plane seats is NOT for me, but that's ok......football = cricket = fishing in my world. He and Chris and Rocky will make the trip. Peter D has three tickets for them (and one for himself) in the member's area. Something to look forward to. There's even a bbq at the feedlot on Wednesday afternoon to celebrate the semi-final win. We might all get a day off if they actually win the final!

We went to the latest social gathering last night - a camp oven meal cooked by Martin and crew. It was very nice. The evening was planned as a family games night although one of the games involved a sink plunger and a toilet roll. I won't go any further with that, suffice to say I'm glad G and I lost our heat and didn't have to progress through to the final.

Hello There

Drew took his Grandma down the street last week so that she could get all her shopping done. He bought this for me! It made me sniffle a little. PinB is my favourite character from Shrek and he reminds me of the great St. John who once ruled our house.

A Quick Lap.

around part of the house garden before heading inside yielded these photos.
 The chinese star jasmine in the roundabout has masses and masses of very dense, fresh green shoots. It looks great but is hard to capture on film.






 The seaside daisy has taken over in the triangle garden. I need to thin it out and rescue some of the hippies and iris.



In the Garden

Out in the garden for hours today. I slept in a little and went to town to pick Drew up and do the grocery shopping - I hardly had anything on my list yet still ended up spending $180. Maybe I should just write a full list, then I won't walk around thinking, "Well there's not much on the list this week, so I'll grab this and I'll grab that". Gibbo spread fertiliser in the house garden beds which is a big help to me. One less job to attend to.

I finally, with a little hint of "aawwhh", pulled the tomatoes out of the original station, no.1 planted in January this year. While the plants still looked quite good the fruit was getting smaller and smaller. Gibbo helped (lovely legs). We added some old hay from Millie's pen and I'm going to leave the bed sit for a week or two and turn it every second day before I plant into it again. I'm thinking of going outside the square and make it a cottage garden flower station. Maybe.





I trimmed the italian parsley and dill and had more than an armful - it all ended up in the compost. You can see where I cut if from.

The parsely looks like miniature trees in a forest.

Random shots. I moved the chooks from their site to the circle that was overgrown with weeds and grass. They weren't ready to move on but I want them to work the grass over before it spreads too far. This is my handsome man in charge of permaculture preparation.















Here's Millie, making herself fat for Christmas.
 These are Gibbo's wyandotte teenagers
 Here's The Ferals - that's Demon Seed in the front (that's what Drew calls her; Megan calls her Peach; I can't repeat what I called her today as I threw her over the fence from INSIDE the permy garden).


Floriade....

is a month long festival, celebrating the arrival of Spring. I took a lot of photos, as usual too many, but there was just so much to see and enjoy.












There was an Alice in Wonderland display, made from mostly recycled goods. I read AinW as a child but I couldn't understand it and didn't really like it. I actually thought it was silly but I think it was probably my age that caused me to have that impression. I recall thinking that the Queen and Cheshire Cat were sinister. 
I especially like this one................ 
and this one............. 
and this one...............particularly this one............. 








You could make your own hanging basket