Georgiezine

   All eyes are on the Senate spots now. I cannot fathom why Liberal aligned voters aren’t asking more in way of policy and moderate liberalism, but that’s what happens when policy is made by Young Liberals turned office staffers or executives that aren’t philanthropists. Where is the moderate liberalism spirit within the Federal party? Today’s paper reported Tony Abbott wanted to review school history curriculum on indigenous culture as it’s “too left wing”. It felt so patronising. How great would it be if he’d said EVEN MORE could be taught-indigenous heritage offers multiple learning opportunities-learning another language to develop bi or tri language literacy, learning oral and visual traditions of culture as ancient as Europe and Asia, learning sustainable use of resources, learning forms of governing, values of kinship and family values. Senate candidates I’d like to see running: 1. Working mothers commuting public transport with preschoolers 2. Mum...

Last Sunday night we decided to drive up and down laneways of Kilkenny just to get a feel... old converted shop front cottages, converted churches, some factories, some empty factories, many a graffitied long wall, lovingly planted gardens, large playground complete with wooden fort.  At our friends house, kid kept himself busy with a miniature barrow he filled with autumn leaves, made vain attempts to befriend the cats (Rumpus, Pickles) and sat in Megan's lap. She collects things I like-50s ceramic cups, vintage pictures, frisbees. Ali declined roller-skating has game-app developer vertigo.... At printmaking, we sit around and do our thing-last Wednesday was hand painting screens in our designs (everyone made rapid decisions-mine was Emerald City, Michael's was RIP Hazel Hawke), and talk about stuff. Discovered Simone grew up in South-East, not too far from me ("we used to go there for school excursions, it was the big smoke"), and swapped notes about the video arc...

When I was growing up, my friend’s Mum worked at a legal practice and I’m embarrassed to admit I thought she was a secretary, not a solicitor... her husband was a GP, they drove a Volvo, had an unused tennis court, treated my friend like her opinion mattered. I used to love going to their house, even though it was a mess, an opinion I hopefully kept to myself. Their Volvo was piled high with junk food wrappers and empty boxes of service station toys and a whole heap of lint. At her house we’d play keyboards in the lounge, the only room in the house suitable for visitors. We’d avoid the living room, a dumping ground for toys that R and her brother no longer liked, washed clothes never put away. We’d hang out in the kitchen where her Mum helped us make gingerbread people. We’d cut across the backyard, fence and vacant garden, to local “shops” (deli, hairdressing salon and that mysterious empty third shop front, a repository of failed small businesses). We’d hang out in her dad’s “study”,...