Hey! How's tricks? I have to tell you something. Two things actually.
Firstly, you need to know about an awesome lady who runs an awesome cafe in Wynyard, Tasmania. It's called Bruce's and her name is Lisa. You can find out some info about Bruce's here and here. You also need to know that Bruce's is one of my most favouritest places to be and if you are in the area, you should totally visit and check it out. Stellar service, brilliant food, lurvely coffee, plus if you have rugrats it is kidlet friendly. And the view is fan-fricking-tastic.
Anyway, the reason I mention Lisa (and Bruce's) is because she posted a status update on Facebook recently about the One Million Women campaign. I hadn't heard of it before, had a looksy at the website and thought, hey! I can do that! Seriously, it's amazingly easy, go and have a gander and you'll see what I mean.
You sign up and check out at all the different ways you can cut pollution in your every day life. They have a list. You click the ones you think you can manage (for yourself or your household) and before you know it, you've pledged to cut a bucketload of pollution. Just like that. Honestly, it's so simple, when I looked at the different lists, half of them I already do and a bunch of others I had thought about trying and now just have a little bit of extra motivation. How far you take it is up to you.
We can talk about carbon tax and emissions and whatnot until the ice caps melt, or we can take action and do something.
Now all I have to do is remember to take those bloody green Woollies bags when I get the weekly groceries.
That's me. Photographed by Shane Hayes. Looking all serious and stuff.
It kinda, sorta occurred to me that in the process of mucking around with this whole blogging thing that I never actually got around to a proper "About Me" post. I guess I never really bothered with it because I figured that anyone who was reading my online ramblings most likely knew me in real life and therefore didn't really need to read one of those. However, as the blog has evolved, and I've made new in-real-life and on-the-interwebs friends and acquaintances recently, I thought it might be a good idea to whack one in (so to speak).
This blog began as a spot to share my photographic learnin's and exploits. I just posted photos of mine that I liked and thought that my friends and family might like to see. I guess it was a condensed version of my Flickr site, really. There weren't words. True say. Check out my archives if you don't believe me.
Then I got a bit brave and started writing a few words to go along with the photos. Then I got really *really* brave (or silly, there's a fine line) and the words just kept on coming (and coming ... and coming). And now I find myself rabbiting on about this, that, and everything in between. And clogging up my Facebook friends' news feeds.
To finish up here are a few bits and pieces about me and Hsawaknow. in bullet-point form, because that's how I roll:
Hsawaknow. is Wonka Wash spelled backwards (it's right there in the URL - check it). It's my favourite movie. Of. All. Time. If you want to know how to pronounce it, rent the DVD and Gene Wilder will tell you. I promise. He's good like that.
I am a secondary school teacher. I teach teenagers. I know, right. It's actually a pretty cool job. I'm a bit addicted to it and when I tried to stop doing it, I couldn't. I don't know if that says more about teaching as a profession, or more about me as a weak-willed person. But that's a conundrum for another day and time.
I like to take photographs. I use a Canon 40D and Photoshop (which my best-best friend almost patiently teaches me how to use); and my iPhone 4 (I'm kinda, sorta, completely addicted to Instagram).
Over the last six months I have taken up knitting again. I used to knit a bit (haha that rhymes) back in the day when Mum taught me, then I had a brief fling with the needles as a uni student and now I'm back into it again. I'm not terribly adventurous with it. I like to make scarves and scarves that join up at the ends (snoods, cowls, call them whatyouwill). I am a one-trick knitting pony. How's that for an image?
If you'd like to know more about The Margaret Fulton Project (otherwise known as the much neglected section of this blog where I keep promising to update, but neverever do), then clickety-click your way on over here. Or, "Like" the Facebook page. I will do another TMFP post one day. Really. I will.
I live on the North-West coast of Tasmania, Australia. In 2010 I lived in North London. Can you get more opposite than that (except for the "North" bit)? I doubt it. I like the fact that living in London has made me want to see more of the world (so, so, so much more of it), but I heart the fact that I have home to come home to (as cliched as that sounds). I have a feeling that when it comes down to it, I'm a small-town girl with a big-city imagination.
I've been seeing that quote from Kate Moss on Pinterest quite a bit lately. You know the one where she says something about how food doesn't taste as good as skinny feels.
Uhm. I'm sorry skinny-mafia (actually I'm not sorry), but she was wrong. Let it go.
And, while I'm on that topic, can I just say how much I think it sucks that Pinterest has become yet another medium for women to hate on their bodies. I don't particularly want to see pins of anorexic women. Don't get me wrong, if people feel the need to pin motivational stuff because they want to be healthy, then fine, I get that. But I have seen pins where there are photos of women with their ribs sticking out and the person pinning it is saying that is what they want to be. That's not freaking healthy. And on the flip-side, no. I don't think eating your feelings is healthy either. How about we just get over this food phobia, enjoy it for what it is, love our bodies for what they are and move the frick on?
It only seems right that on the first day back at work after a mammoth three week holiday that I get a little blue and post some photos from my visit to Hobart a while ago. It was just a couple of days, but enough to recharge the batteries.
I had coffee, by myself and with a friend I haven't seen for ages (and her cute as a button daughter). I had lunch, by myself. I ate Japanese food. I bought some red shoes with bows on them. Then I came home. The End.
All right you lot. Here's the deal. I'm time poor. And when I say time poor, please read "lazy".
I want to transfer my Wordpress blog, The Margaret Fulton Project over here to my Blogger blog, Hsawakanow. However, after several attempts to just fricking well log in, I have been thwarted by Wordpress (and you all thought I'd say Blogger, right?) Bloody internet.
From now on, all TMFP posts will appear on Hswakanow. No, really. There actually will be some. True say.
And here's to making things simple! I think Margaret would agree, bless her cotton socks. Seriously, have you seen those Woolworths ads? She's cute as my nanna, almost.
The inspiration behind this blog is the Australian cook, Margaret Fulton.
I’m overseas in (it being December at the time of writing) cold, cold London and have a hankering for some of the recipes cooked by my mum and my nan and my gran. Many of those recipes come from Margaret Fulton’s classic cookbooks. Most Australian households have at least one (if not a whole collection) of these fabulous recipe books. This blog is an attempt at not only documenting my homesickness, but (hopefully) the remedy for it, too.
Not only are Fulton’s recipes a matter of nostalgia for me, she just so happens to be a very interesting old bird. She’s as tough as old boots, led a bit of a wild life in her younger years, likes a tipple of whisky and isn’t afraid to swear if the occasion calls for it. She wore a blue dress for her first wedding (telling interviewer Andrew Denton that the reason was because she wasn’t a virgin) – a gutsy move for those times. She taught Australians that spaghetti didn’t just come in tins, and (again from the Andrew Denton interview) knows 101 ways to cook mincemeat.
Edit: The Margaret Fulton Project (TMFP for brevity) has now merged onto Hsawakanow. just to keep things all in the one spot (because I'm an old lady and can't remember all those fricking usernames and passwords and whatnot, seriously, I can't even log into Wordpress to delete the other one). Also, I'm back in Australia. Plus, my posting for TMFP has been heaps, way sporadic since coming home, however, I don't want to abandon the idea completely. So. Here TMFP will stay, where she rightly belongs with all my other ramblings. After all, shouldn't all of one's ramblings be kept under the one roof where they can keep each other company and bitch about the author of said ramblings? Yes. I knew you'd agree.
I always skipped these songs when they came up on shuffle last year. It surprised me at the time because I didn't really expect to have such an emotional response to those songs (especially the Cold Chisel one).
Before leaving the country, I didn't really give much thought to the fact I might get homesick. I knew I'd feel out of place, but I wasn't expecting the whole gut-wrenching-I'm-not-where-I-belong-let-me-go-home, tummy-ache part of it.
I probably could have better prepared myself for that. Oh well, live and learn, I guess.
I did some knitting (it's a scarf, dontchyaknow). Have a looksy at the picture, that will help. This is a present for a dear, dear friend of mine.
I bought some yarn for a new project (more on that as I actually start it sometime ... soonish). It involves the words: snood, grey, winter, swapsies.
I also bought some glittery, sparkly knitting needles. They are fricking awesome. There will be photos (again, as I start that project rawther soon...ish), so those of you with a knitting ... er... bent, can enjoy. (Read: download and add to your knitting spank bank. What? Too far?)
I bought a dress for the school ball next Friday. It cost twenty bucks. And it's fricking awesome. Trust.
Plus, also, I completely avoided any school work! Huzzah! Don't worry. I'll be paying for it tomorrow. And the next day.
Edit: I forgot something really important! I also picked up some paint chips (is that what they're called?) and finally locked in the colours for my re-furbishment! Yay for paint!
Once upon a time there were a group of lovely, crafty ladies who set up a lovely, crafty market. And they let me loose on it with my camera. Silly, crafty ladies.
Just a quick post before I head away South for a few days (just like a little birdy - south in wintertime).
Some various things and stuff I have been doing lately may include (but is not limited to the following): marking a barrow-load of papers; making plans and drawing doodles (oh behave, not the rude kind) to get organised for the refurbishment of my flat in a few weeks (eek, see picture above); buying an iPhone and contracting myself to Telstra (urgh, but has to be done, Vodafone coverage is shite); thinking about all the awesome Instagramming (that may be a made up word, but they're my favourite kind) I'll be doing using said iPhone in Hobart over the next few days; watching Tim Winton's cloudstreet (frogging-well awesome viewing if you ask me, you didn't, but I'm telling you anyway); and reading The Lieutenant by Kate Grenville (not quite finished yet, but almost and so far it's ... okay, maybe the ending will do it for me?).
In the pipeline over the next few weeks may include (but is not limited to) the following: a trip to Hobart to retrieve stuff I already own (my teevee & kitchen things) and to find stuff that I don't own yet, but will (er, clothes and whatnot and other necessities); make very good use of that iPhone camera (I won't be offended if you call me the Instagram whore from now on); finish off my marking (phew, only one more class to go - how did I organise it so that I had to mark assignments from all my classes in the holidays - I'm so out of practice); get planning and preparing for next term (oy vey); some "proper" photography (with the "fancy" camera) at the Made With Love Market; "directing" the Senior College Drama class mid year production (whimper); and actually refurbishing the flat & moving back into my place.
Yowza.
I forgot to factor in knitting, cooking, sleeping and eating.
For a little while last year (a few months at most), I worked at a school in the borough of Newham, East London. I spent a lot of my time at Stratford tube station waiting for underground trains (and overground trains - during the tube strikes) and for buses in order to get to and from work and home. {It used to take me; one way, one and a half hours on a bus, a tube, another tube and another bus. Rinse and repeat to get home at the end of the day. Don't even ask what it was like during those tube strikes, you don't want to know. Trust.}
It's a really interesting place, and to be honest I wish I hadn't worked there because the fact I had to spend so much time travelling meant that I was pretty much fed up with the place before I even got to work. By the time I got to Stratford tube station I'd already been travelling for an hour and still had half an hour before I'd even walk through the barred and wired security gates at school. The kids were ... well, they were city kids to the nth degree. London is a tough city and it breeds tough kids. Bit sad really that I didn't feel very positive about it at the time, because it's lively, very community-spirited and oh-so different (in so many ways) to where I was brought up.
For a take on what it's like to live in Newham, see what comedian Andi Osho has to say:
I think I saw that chav she's talking about on my bus one day. I love her sense of humour about the place. And yes, she's kind of bagging it out, but I think that actually comes from how much she likes Newham. I'm sure she does actually like Newham. It's a bit of a contradiction, it can be dodgy as hell, but there are some amazing people doing really good things for that borough in East London.
A lot of talk when I was there was about the Olympics and the stadium being built in Stratford. When I was working there I got to see it progress and it'll be a bit weird to see it all finished on my television screen next year when I watch the Olympics. I remember reading about a couple of uproars related to Stratford and the Olympics just before I came home.
The first one was about the athletics stadium. Two rival football clubs were looking to take over the lease of the stadium after the Olympics. {If you aren't interested in football, feel free to scroll past this bit, I won't be offended one jot.} Firstly you had the Tottenham Hotspurs (just call them the Spurs if you're in London, then people will know what you're talking about), and just so we're clear, Tottenham is in North London. Then you've got West Ham (from East London, right near Stratford) who also put in a bid to lease the stadium. The Spurs reckoned that in order for the stadium to work for football it would need a total refurbishment, including getting rid of the athletics track. Basically they wanted to knock the whole thing down, rebuild it & transfer funds for an athletics venue elsewhere in London. West Ham, on the other hand, thought that the athletics track could be kept & wouldn't interfere with how the punters view the game.
In the end, according to this BBC News article, West Ham won out and will lease the stadium apparently without ripping up the athletics track. If you weren't already aware, Brits (and Londonders at that) are very very concerned about their football. (Which made it an interesting summer to be in London during England's dismal performance at the World Cup last year - but that's another story for another day.)
The second controversy, and one that I found much more interesting (if only because the word 'football' wasn't mentioned) centred around the route for the marathon. Originally it was planned that the marathon would take athletes (and therefore stacks and stacks of media footage) through places like Tower Hamlets in East London. However, a decision was made to kibosh that idea and it was argued that the reason behind it was because these areas weren't as nice to look at as other areas in London.
I hadn't heard any more about it before I left the UK, but I felt pretty strongly that taking the marathon through some of these areas could actually be a good thing for those communities. I think the unique thing about London is the grit and the glamour side by side at the same time and I think that's the kind of London that the world needs to see. Maybe that's just me. In my research for this post, I found this article, which states that the Olympic organisers have done a minor backflip, allowing the marathon all of one minutes time in Tower Hamlets (and to use a turn of phrase from Love Actually, not the "dodgy end"). One whole minute. I may have mixed feelings about my time working in Newham (and when I say "may", I mean "definitely", "undoubtedly", "absolutely"), but I do think it's worth more than one minute of anyone's time.
Having said that, I *am* glad I don't have to wait around any more on Plashet Road, in the dark, for the first of my bus trips in my hour and a half journey home after a parent-teacher evening, only to have to wake up at 5am to do it all over again the next day. (Is it any wonder I have mixed feelings about the place?)
I just had to share this photo of my mum (she's on the left).
Looking pretty sharp there, Annie! I totally love the hairdo and the beatnik outfit. Aside from the red hair, it's a little Audrey Hepburn, no?
Why don't I have hair like that?!
Edit: I've only just noticed the retro-tastic (although it probably wasn't terribly retro-tastic at the time) sewing table next to mum and her friend there. The picture here is a bit small, but if you check it out here, you can see it a bit clearer. It's a Singer brand table and there's what looks like a black hat, a mustardy-yellow-coloured jumper and some purple knitting sitting on it. I'm guessing that the table would have belonged to my nan. As for the hat, who knows, it doesn't look like anything they'd wear. I can also see an old radio, which looks faintly familiar to me. I think that radio might've ended up in the cowshed on our farm at Preolenna? May need to confirm with mum on these points.
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