Attack Geese

If you've ever thought about getting an alternative to an attack dog, I can now thoroughly recommend geese.

Charlie, Will and me all visited my wonderful sister Carmen yesterday for a morning of Tarot, Harry Potter, tea and biccies. Fabulous. All days should be as good...

Then it was off to UQ to show the children The Great Court, and lots of sandstone carving and for them to breathe in the academia. We ate lunch in the IT lounge next to the cafe, and it was warm and lovely. Carmen had said the lake was lovely so we saved the crusts from our sandwiches to feed the ducks. We walked to the lake, through the many steps of the campus, down the hill of green grass. We saw the lake. Ahhhh. How reflective. So many birds.

Wow! look at those swans!

uh-uh.

NOT swans. Geese.

Not to worry, we are far away from them and we can feed the ducks here...

As soon as those winged devils caught wind of a free yeasty lunch, they were over in a flash, like great big bullying kids, honking and yelling at us.

"Give us FOOD! HONK HONK HONK!!!"

And their long sharp beaks, and their little tongues, and big wings, and did I mention their long sharp beaks and insistence on being the only ones served. Actually, they were a lot like blokes in an English pub on a Friday evening at rush hour. All yelling and getting attention, and frankly, just being rude.

Carmen kept a cool head and instructed the children to "Give them ALL the crust!..give them the lot! give it all to them, NOW!" And Charlotte burst into tears and Will freaked out, and my 'intimidation' just made them honk louder and walk towards me. aiee!

So. If you aren't a dog person, don't fear. You can get geese instead.

great sacred geometry site

Lots of info and beautiful 3D sculptures/works of 'ART!'

http://www.shiftingsands.com.au/index.html

New Addictions.

Ah chocolate, how I loved you. Now, I have unsweetened carob on crystallised ginger, and no longer doth I need sweet chocolate....

Had been buying this new nibbly for the FOH workshops I was running, and got heavily into it. Nice. sweeeeet, but not sugary. sweeeeeeeet.

"...don't expect too much..!"

"Hey! You're a funny guy!"

The Dalai Lama spoke in Brisbane at the BEC yesterday afternoon. He had been on the go since 3:30am fulfilling engagement obligations, and at 72, he's doing very well to hold an audience of around 15000 people for a whole hour or more, nearly 13 hours after he started the day. What a guy...

He began with explaining how happy he was to be here, doing a talk to the public, and then....... he sort of trailed off for a while, repeating that,and probably having his train of thought interrupted by the insane amount of crying and wailing from toddlers and babies in the Centre. Amazing how inconsiderate these parents were not to take the babies outside and calm them. No-one, not even his Holiness, could keep it together and concentrate with that racket going on. (and I'm on the side of the kids here, I think they were correct to be wailing,....loudly, I would as well if I was between zero and five and was asked to sit down anywhere quietly at 4pm!)
Anyway, after a few minutes he got it sorted and made a lovely joke about how old he was and how we shouldn't expect too much. :) His voice went high up and octave or two as he said it, and he was clearly having fun making fun of himself. Lovely.

His message was not about Buddhism, as he clearly said that was his private thing, and he was not going to talk about it; but he spoke on humanity issues, of moral education, and of education not being partnered with a religion, but that they should be separated. This then brought in the question of how moral education was to be presented in modern curriculum, and he made several references to how all religious doctrine of any kind is underpinned by similar if not the same moral codes.

He also expressed the concept of 'internal disarmament' of the Self was important, and how that was the starting point for global peace. It also had reference in his answer to a question from the audience regarding how one could forgive someone for grevious harm or grevious doings. He made a point of explaining that the action must be separated from the person who commited that action. As the action will always remain the same, yet the person who did it can change.

"There is a saying....'forgive and forget' ? yes? You cannot forget. If you forget what they did, you have no reason for needing to forgive them anything! How can one forgive something they cannot remember happening!? So remember, and forgive the person, but you don't forget the action..."

I and everyone else thoroughly enjoyed his 'matter-of-fact' attitude. When he was finished talking about something, he would sort of slap his knees, and say something to the effect of 'well that's done! next!'. He was great!

A good afternoon, and a beautiful sunset with the first evening star in a haze of cloud, manifested as we walked out of the Centre to the carpark.

Thankyou your Holiness, it was a pleasure.

When menstruation attacks...

There are a few stupid things to do in life.
One of them is to go shopping for jeans on the first day of menstruation.
This is just silly. Slightly S&M. And very destructive to the ego.
Apart from the pain and the bloating, it's the flouro's and lighting in dressing rooms or change stalls that is just evil. EVIL I tell you...
I lost about 10kg this year so far and was feeling kind of trim and fab. Now I have a gravity induced reality about the state of my body. I know exactleeee where the blubber is. I saw it.

*sigh of resignation*

On the bright side, it has been raining. Here in Queenslaaaaaaaaaaaand, that's just a fab fab thing. :) Dripdropdripdrop. Nyce.