Colin Warren: the blog

aren’t they wonderful?

To wake up once a year and celebrate the day of your birth, to recognise the moment when your life (outside the womb) began, to be the centre of attention, to receive gifts from family and friends, to eat cake and blow out candles, to reach another milestone…

The milestone may be turning old enough to go to kinder/school/highschool/uni, to become a teenager, to get your license, to be able to smoke and drink, to turn 21! Or maybe it’s becoming middle aged, or even 50, maybe 60 or 65 (retirement), or even 75 or 90! You ‘become of age’. Certain privileges are bestowed, access is granted, recognition is earned. If you don’t want to make a big deal out of your age in years – just acknowledge the passing of another season.

Birthdays are a time to celebrate and to think about the past – what has been achieved so far, what are my plans/goals for the future? Who are my family and friends? Are we only as old as we feel? Do we stop getting old in our minds even if our bodies start to let us down? What will happen when we become geriatrics? Who cares? Is it worth remembering? I think it is. To have to pause and reflect, to mark the occasion of an anniversary, to acknowledge a completed cycle – these must be good things to do. They help see the passing of time, they can mark the steps of change, the rites of passage.

Some of us even mature, we grow up and act our age. Some of us forget that each passing year means we need to change, to move from being a boy, to a man, a girl to a woman. Maybe we get comfortable and don’t want to accept what implications the change might bring. Maybe we’ll get told to act our age and to ‘grow up’. But who says? Where does it say in a/the book what it means to be a certain age. How should you behave when you’re 18 or 31 or 54 or 80?

I reckon, make the most of each day – and if it happens to be your birthday, make it worthwhile!

So, what is it with weeds? You know, those evil, noxious, pesky plants that grow even though you don’t want them too. The stuff just seems to continually flourish, particularly when you’re not looking (which is most of the time for me). I mean, like, I could set up a commercial operation just on the strength of what we’ve got growing in the front yard! Seeds galore – even if it hasn’t rained for 9 years.

Just what drives these pests of the garden? Or am I taking the wrong tack here? Is it all just natur/e/al and really my responsibility to reign over and subdue this infested plot? Like, I’m asking for a refund from the pesticide manufacturer – the old Roundup is only good for 6 months and then it’s back! Growing as fast and as luscious as before… The only thing it’s good for, is filling up the green re-cycle bin.

I mean, I’m not impressing the neighborhood with my green thumbs am I? Yes, embarrassed I am, but that’s life. I’ve actually convinced myself that this experience is character building and good for me, it will make me a better person. Being able to cope with, and deal with my failures can only be a good thing.

What interests me though it the apparent ability of weeds to refute the second law of thermodynamics: ‘any system set in motion and left to it’s own devices will eventually deteriorate’ (my interpretation). Not sure if it applies to weeds, to a nice garden with some lawn and flowers yes/maybe, but a patch of weeds, no! How do they do it? What power drives them on relentlessly?

So, till I get motivated enough to get serious about ‘finishing’ the front yard, I’ll keep pulling a few weeds now and then (because I find my individual struggle against the ‘force’ therapeutic) and maybe get out the spray once a year as a token show of superior force. Oh yes, they really know I’m the boss – but they just keep blowing that raspberry at me to make sure I’m kept humble, and I’m OK with that.

It is the season I suppose and we’re all getting into the spirit of things. One week of work left for the year and then the Christmas break and New Years. It’s like we’ve all been working like mad to get all these things done before this point. Only a week to go and it’s all over – then we can relax.

While the fact is, nothing really stops. It’s just in suspended animation, waiting till we get back to work to pick up where we left off. Maybe it used be different, but the way we work has changed over the years.

In fact, it used to be quite different. Not all that long ago, people used to live by the seasons and the regular cycle of the yearly changes influenced how people worked and lived. But not anymore – we’ve overcome the limitations forced on us by the weather. We’ve overcome lots of other limitations with the use of refrigeration, fertilizer, pesticides, scientific research, clever business practices, (international) transportation and changes in the we live. And now we have genetic engineering which may change gain how we do things.I saw on Landline (ABC TV) today how people are farming abalone (the treasure of the sea) in the sand dunes near Bremer Bay in Western Australia. Great big green houses (yep, from the outside could be a flower farm) with abalone growing in trays all set for the export market. We’ve even overcome the need for an ocean (although I think they do pump sea water over the little lipped critters – sea snail).

Our societies have changed and freed us from the burdens of the past. We are free to choose, to take leave/holidays when (and where) we want, we have money (we’re rich) and business is bending over backwards to cater for our wants and needs (or are they suggesting to us what we want and need?).

But I digress, I wanted to talk about getting together at the end of the year and celebrating what we’ve achieved, to share gifts with each other (go Kris!), to enjoy a nice meal and a drink or two (although it’s interesting to observe that people are being careful about drinking too much and designated drivers are the norm) to share the ‘love’, to relax a little and recognise each other as work colleagues and the contribution we’ve all made to getting the job done. It’s nice – a time to chill and forget about the relentless pressure of ‘getting that job done’. So, how can we have times like these more often? Why only once a year?

…and then there’s the ‘reason for the season’, celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ – but that’s another (good news) story.

ahh, for that couple of days of respite. Great that Friday’s the end of the working week and that we can look forward to two days of not having to turn up for work. So, by the time I get home on Friday evening it’s time to kick back and think of other things. Maybe eating out or a movie at home – and if there’s something on TV (like footy) I’ll indulge in that (and maybe a beer). Saturday’s starts with carpe diem, no use wasting any time sleeping in! So it’s up and at ‘em to go for an early morning walk with mates or do some grocery shopping and back in time for a coffee and a couple of hours ploughing through the papers. Chucking out the drive and domain and then checking out my favourite bits first – before getting into the heavy news. Maybe some snacky type lunch and more papers before deciding which chores need doing (like the weeds in the garden!). Then, if there’s still time, maybe out and about for a bit, some op shops, department stores, the bay or the river…before settling down for a quiet evening at home. Sunday is the day of rest and includes one or two visits to church. Coffee late morning and some quiet reading or catching up on correspondence or finishing off the papers or seeing with how well Loeb is going in the WRC. Lunch just happens and maybe out for some fresh air to catch up with friends and relatives. Usually a quiet evening and maybe a phone call to distant relatives and/or dipping into books. Boring huh! Maybe that’s what middle age does to you…

Now that’s usually the case if we don’t head off for the weekend – but I told that story a little while ago.

…and then it starts all over again – a week of work during which we can look forward to the next weekend.

Had a couple of wallabies (Swamp Wallaby – Wallabia bicolor?) jump past whilst sitting around the camp fire recently – enjoyed watching them much more than the Koala’s ruining the trees. they are the (brush tailed) possums aren’t too bad – there doesn’t seem to be too many of them and they only come out at night. they do seem to have a problem with the fire at night – they stop right above us during their traverse of the tree canopy and take a leak right over the fireplace. so, make sure you’ve got a hat on! (we’ve actually had an invasion of these at work – they get in the roof cavity and bang around a bit, occasionally falling through ceiling tiles!) …and then there’s the occasional (yellow bellied) glider which is a special treat – magical even. you can hear them coming through the bush with their screeching and then all of a sudden they hit the tree. if they’re on the move they clim straight up and then launch off without a sound and smack inot another tree up to 100 meters away!

We’re also spotting some bunnies in the bush – suppose they’re everywhere, even saw one hopping across a carpark at North Geelong railway station that other night! We’ve also had a fox sniffing around the campsite in the past, but it has mysteriously disappeared to be seen no more…

thanks to the recent rain and warm weather the weeds on the nature strip have been growing like mad. I’d keep better control of them but our mower lives down in the bush. So, off to brother #2 and back with a mower without fuel. a trip to the bowser and back and we’re ready to go. One pull on the rope and we’re off! Managed to complete the job without emptying the catcher but it was starting to hemorrhage clippings a bit. emptied in the big green bin and back to brothers’. 20 minute round trip to get the job done…

But the point of the story is the mower (or mowers in general). The cowling covering the engine was missing and the rope had been patched and re-fitted a few times – but it worked! They are magic machines (we’ll the one’s I’ve used lately are). Our old Victa Commander 4 (which must be 25 years old now) stands resolutely in the annex down on Cape Otway, patiently waiting for the next commission. I just put fuel in and pull the rope and it starts first time after standing idle for up to 3 months! It’s a classic and has been well used. There’s no catcher, the muffler’s held on with a couple of bent tent pegs, there’s duct tape covering the holes in the body, more wire and builders’ twine holds the chassis and the raising and lowering mechanism together, and some of the thin white plumbers tape ensures the spark plug lead stays on. I replace the blades once a year, the spark plug every couple and should probably do the air filter some time. It’s a real friend – a good and faithful servant in fact. I don’t even mind when something hard come flying out the back and cracks me on the shin – it’s just reminding me that it’s doing all the hard work. So, me and my mate get out and tidy things up a little whenever we go down to the bush. It’s therapeutic and the mower doesn’t mind keeping it’s hand in. We’ve some tough jobs coming as we’ll have to clear a bit more bush once we start building – we’re up to it!

Wow haven’t things changed in the past 20 years! Back in the mid eighties we spent a year on the road circumnavigating the globe. Starting in Asia and continually heading west till we got home again. Fantastic times and great experiences were added to the memory bank (making for plenty of good yarns if you’re interested). So, recently spending 2 months in Europe on long service and conference leave – it was amazing to notice how much had changed.  

Back in ‘83 we left a rough itinerary (for three months or so) with family and friends and asked them to forward mail to a post restante box in the capital city we were next headed too. It was with great excitement that we’d find the Post Office in the city we’d arrived in, and ask for any mail that had been delivered for us. Things were haphazard at times and I remember at one Post Office we were given the whole box of letters waiting to be collected and could go through them all to find any addressed to us. It was fun to see a letter addressed to someone we knew! 

Accommodation was another thing that we took a fairly relaxed attitude toward – we were always able to find somewhere to stay without booking ahead – even the ‘Y’ in New York! So, it could be a couple of weeks between news from home – and it was usually longer for the people at home to hear from us. …and, to keep a record of things we wrote a dairy – by hand, in a book. 

Now it’s mobile phones, sms, email, blogs, Skype, Facebook, Flickr etc. all make for a more immediate communication. These days our sense of time seems to have changed and we tend to keep in touch more frequently – we need an update regularly. “what are you doing?” “Where are you now?“ Chatting via Skype once a week with a son who’s moving from Estonia to Morocco and then back to Amsterdam is great, it supplements the just as frequent emails so we know how he’s doing and what adventures he’s having. It also easy to make it up as you go – get online and book the flight and accommodation for the next stop a couple of weeks before you go. The travel routes are much busier these days and if you don’t book, you’ll miss out.

So, what does it all mean? Well, the new technologies can seem to shorten the distance between us, but they won’t take away from the experience of visiting a new city/country.

Went for a drive late this afternoon and thought the round trip of 60kms to Point Lonsdale might be nice – you know, the cool evening sea breeze after a stinker of a day. Parked below the life saving club and walked back towards the lighthouse. A few surfers catching the last few rides of the day out in the emerald green water and a couple of dogs on the beach keeping watch over their towels. The sky was grey with cumulus clouds looking like they could get together and make a storm and pink rays of sunlight breaking through to highlight some of the sea on the horizon in the east.

There were some chunks of wood up on the high water line – bits of flotsam washed of ship decks no doubt. Also saw a lot of dead Shearwaters (mutton birds) washed up too – dozens of them. Wonder if they just fall out of the sky being exhausted after the long migration, or is there a more sinister reason for so many of them on the beach along with the cuttlefish and seaweed?

The tide was up so couldn’t walk round the point at the lighthouse, so walked back again collecting a swarm of flies on our backs. The sound of the crashing surf was constant and the sand was cool underfoot. Could have gone for a swim even!

It was up the highway to Melbourne for the day and an opportunity to catch a film at the Nova in Carlton. We’d scored a couple of free tickets to see Tell No One, a French thriller that was quite a good watch. Plenty of twists and turns and some great action (instead of a car chase there was a chase through the streets and markets on foot) and the cinematography was nice. The acting was excellent too, lots of different characters and it was nice to hear French being spoken. Paris (Versailles?) looked good too from the inner city to suburbs and the countryside. Very worth the watch – would be good to catch on DVD.

Earlier on we’d gone to visit a book/coffee shop in Northcote ‘cause it had been recommended in the paper. Wasn’t as good as we’d been led to believe so wandered back to the car to find a real coffee shop. It was warming up and there were plenty of people about checking out the boutiques – there was also a transvestite who must have been 6’6“ with his stilettos on. He had a bit of a Frank-N-Furter outfit on and was walking slowly and deliberately so as to not fall over (or he wasn’t feeing all that well!). Did find a nice coffee at the far end of Lygon Street and joined the trendies who were eating their eggs benedict etc. for lunch…

Also got to visit a few bookshops (Borders and Readings) and sussed out a couple of McSweeny volumes and found a few books worth purchasing. Ended up at the Saturday book stalls at Fed Sq. and enjoyed the browsing before scoring again (a couple of Colm Toibin’s) and heading home.

…no apologies for linking to wikipedia – I just reckon that if you want to check out further you’ll find what you’re looking for. It’s just that sometime the ‘official’ site is just too commercial.