Australia: meagre photo offerings

So it turns out I took about ten photos while in Australia and most of them were of Emily striking a pose in City Square.

















This photo is of a delightful Swedish sauna-inspired cafe in North Fitzroy (we discussed whether it was OK to take your clothes off when sharing a sauna with parents. Definitive 'no' vote). I don't know the name of the cafe but the lattes were well received by my coffee-appreciating friends and me. I liked this place a lot.












I have one photo of a twin. That's it. One photo. It's so blurred I can't tell which one it is. Lucky Liam and Oliver have Jess as a mother who takes plenty of photos for all of us. She could make up for a whole family of bad photographers. If I ever have a child I hope Jess is as diligent a photographer.

I started writing a list of highlights for my week in Australia but it was all great with the exception of Friday night in Bourke Street. I don't know why an otherwise nice place can turn so awful so quickly one night week. Bleh. I won't include the list because then I might be seen to be putting Elisa's lasagne on par with seeing the twins and that just isn't going to be well received by anyone is it?

Finding lost accounts

Work is not happening at the rate it needs to today. Internet has been particularly unreliable this week and it's been an internet-using kind of week. Just about to send out an e-newsletter that would have gone out days ago if it weren't for a stream of unexpected technical glitches. The funny thing is, looking back, the greatest sense of achievement I've had in this job has been when some technical issue has turned up and I've figured out how to fix it.

Yesterday's surprise issue was realising that when the server computer had died it took the general office email account with it. No one had checked the inbox of the email address splashed all over our materials and business cards in months. But how does one 'find' an email account? I had dealt with problems with this account once before so I wasn't starting from scratch, but it did keep me in the office until very late and took up an unexpected three hours. But, as I said, this kind of thing is oddly satisfying...too bad it isn't my actual job, maybe I've missed my calling as the I.T. guy ("are you sure it's plugged in?" "Switch it off, wait 10 mins and switch it back on...if that doesn't work call me back").

I'm sure the fact that it isn't my regular job is part of why it's satisfying...using your brain in another way, or maybe just feeling righteous and a bit like a renaissance woman.

Now I am plowing through the kind of thing I do everyday, a summary of one of our projects...fortunately iTunes has just thrown up a party shuffle of 30% Tom Waits, 30% Joe Jackson and 40% other great stuff which is totally pushing me through the last hours of Friday! How does iTunes know better than me what I need to hear?

Oh hello Mr Prime Minister

I know you are dying to see what I wore to meet Krudd, so here are the official portraits:














Why Sarah, you're funny and delightfully dressed. What an exemplary Australian.












Yes Brett, what you say is fascinating...but actually I am just too captivated by the young woman in the brown dress...

It's already Wednesday

Which means:

1. I've been back from Australia for three days and I still haven't posted about it
2. I met the prime minister a week and a half ago and still haven't posted about it
3. This week's many deadlines are are fast becoming overdue so the last thing I should be doing is posting on this blog

If you haven't signed already

Another shout out to sign the petition saying no to violence against women. It's super quick to sign.

http://saynotoviolence.org/

The more signatures collected worldwide the stronger our advocacy to bring more attention to this v.v. serious issue (that has far broader ramifications for peace and security and development goals than most of us realise).

You can read more about violence against women here.

P.S. K-Rudd told me the other day that he'd signed it already. Good boy, Prime Minister.

In Melbourne

I arrived in Melbourne this morning and it was FRIGID. It was a beautiful, crisp, sunny morning that has me thinking that winter in Melbourne is glorious and not at all gloomy and wet. Perhaps tomorrow I will be reminded of the truth.

The twins are even cuter in person and itsy bitsy teensy. I'll be posting more photos shortly.

I had no success getting a visa at the Indonesian consulate this morning, for reasons so ridiculous I was almost rude to the woman behind the counter, so now I have to enact a plan B to get a visa before the weekend. Was too busy eating soup today to think about plan B.

Meeting with PM went well. Will report in more detail later this week or next. In short: I like the guy.

Now it's time for sleep. Still catching up from a very late Saturday night followed by a very early Sunday morning.

1000 hits!

It took nine months to get there, which is probably tragically slow in blog world, but today my blog was read for the 1000th time!

Thanks for reading. I love you all lots.

Sarah

more about the bloody PM

Today's post was going to be about the rehearsal for the PM's visit but alas...

First of all, I will finally give some details about this visit (I realise I've been vague about it, but I didn't really know much about it other than 'I'm meeting the PM!')

So, as you've probably seen in the news, Kevin travelled to Japan earlier this week and today he is in Indonesia. Australia gives aid to a whole range of countries, as one could expect, and until very recently Australia gave more of its aid dollars to Papua New Guinea than any other country. But that's recently changed. Now Australia gives more money to Indonesia than PNG. That isn't entirely surprising considering the difference in size of the two countries, but it is quite symbolic because it means that Indonesia, out of all the countries in the world, is a priority country for Australia. One could write a very long list of reasons why this is, but you can probably think of a couple of reasons off the top of your head and they'd probably be right.

So, further to that, within the context of a large Australia aid program in Indonesia, one of the identified priority locations is Aceh. Again, I can think of a few reasons for this and they're probably right, but there are probably more complex reasons for this that I'm not privy to. One thing I do know is that Australia is extremely proud of its work in Aceh, and it's fairly justified. There have been many, many successes and failures in Aceh, but Australia has had a pretty good run, and there are more than a few stories that would make you feel pretty happy about how your tax dollars have been spent here. So when Prime Minister Rudd decided to go on a trip to Indonesia it makes sense that he chooses to drop into Aceh (only for a few hours) to highlight one of the jewels in the crown.

That's where I come in. Even though I work for someone else (quiet separate from Australia and its aid program), as an AYAD I am part of Australia's aid web. My guess is that a memo has recently gone around AusAID about increasing the visibility of the AYAD program, because after months with no contact with them at all I've been called to participate in two events in one week. Furthermore, although I haven't received official confirmation, in provisional schedules the AYADs have been specifically singled out for time with the big man. Cool, but very unexpected.

I will report back on whether this eventuates or whether I end up taking a photo from across a crowded room. We were supposed to have the rehearsal this afternoon -- at which I was expecting to find out more information so I could start to get nervous accordingly -- but it's been postponed to later this evening. We've been told to be on standby for a few hours until we get the call.*

*It turns out that if you're organising an event with the PM you can pretty much expect people to do anything, even on a Friday night, and they will be obliging.


P.S. I found a nice dress in my housemate's wardrobe that will be just right for meeting Kevin. Thanks to Lars for the note about the stockings in the last post. I'm going to follow your advice.

from sharia dress code to PM dress code: How men control my wardrobe.

Another PM-related crisis. I received the official invitation today and the dress code is FORMAL.

1. We're in Aceh. If anyone brought anything formal with them it won't look formal after being washed by being beaten against the tiles by the laundry lady.
2. It's at 2pm on a Saturday afternoon! How can I do formal in 35 degree heat?

I have one very nice skirt that I've only worn maybe once or twice here (meaning that it's too nice to wear anywhere in Aceh, which is probably what makes it suitably formal), but it only barely covers my knees.

Question 1: Do I reduce the Sharia compliance to be PM-Dress-Code-compliant?
Question 2: If I am meeting the PM that means I have to wear stockings right?

Big K and little kittens

Thanks guys for some great ideas for my meeting with Kevin 24/7. The tip about wearing deodorant was particularly useful (thanks Meags) because I just ran out this morning and hadn't really thought about the increased chance of sweating it out when you meet the PM in a tropical setting.

An important aside. A photo of the two day old kittens that live at my friend's house.

What would ask the Prime Minister of Australia?

I and two other AYADs have 20 mins with the PM! 20 whole minutes! That means we have to do a lot more than shake his hand and say "yes, I am having a having a wonderful time in Aceh Prime Minister".

So, help me out here. What would you ask the Prime Minister??

What a busy day!

It has been a BUSY day. It all started with an emergency run to the doctor when my housemate slipped and NEARLY DIED, but actually just cut her head a little bit. Obviously I had to sit with her for a while to see if she was OK, so made it into the office shortly after lunch.

After checking emails and looking at photos of Liam and Oliver (WITHOUT tubes thank you very much) it was time to visit my favourite NGO in Aceh and take some new interns with me. We interviewed the head of the NGO who has a fascinating story and made us all kinds of excited and then we planned ways to get our bosses to let us go on a road trip to find out more about female ex-combatants. Didn't cross much off my "must to before I go to Australia" list, and added more events preparing for the PM's visit on Saturday to my overstocked calendar.

Now I will go home freakishly early (it's not even 6pm yet) because I have to check on my ailing housemate...obviously.

Should I stay or should I go? Finally, I know!

Today I finally decided on where I will be for the rest of 2008. As originally planned a million years ago I will come home at the end of September (rather than staying on for an additional 3 to 6 months as was tentatively planned).

I am so pleased to have made a decision, which in general I am quite terrible at doing, but in the end this was an easy decision to make. In short, life here is full of adventure, wild times, and great opportunities (like meeting the PM...stay tuned), But the other side of that coin is illness, long hours and cold showers. The ups definitely make up for the downs, but only for so long. The roller coaster is a blast but you've gotta know when to get off (hopefully before you start to spew).

Truth be told, I don't know what I will do when I get back to Melbourne, but I have a bucketful of exciting ideas and three months to figure out how to pull off just one of them, so I'm not too worried yet.

I only clarified this decision this morning, and I'm already nostalgic and teary about the things and people I will miss. I'm really pleased to be able to spend the last three months here squeezing the crap out of all the goodness and then go home on a high note.

Big Picture photos

I found a great website via Frontal Cortex with photos of an uncontacted tribe in the Amazon, taken from a helicopter that flew overhead. These photos are incredible...so incredible that my first instinct was that they were staged...Boo Sarah for your lack of faith.

But the photos of the Amazonian tribe were not the only things worth checking out on this site, The Big Picture. The photos of volcanoes and earthquakes are amazing, but my favourite is the series of photos of indigenous Brazilians who gather to protest the building of a new dam. I was shocked at the unexpected and gruesome turn it takes! Had I read the text I would have seen it coming. I'm glad I didn't read the text.

Birthday donuts

I missed posting yesterday, which really isn't allowed if I want to meet my posting goals for 2008. But here's the odd thing about it: I didn't post yesterday because I was bored. I was SO BORED that I couldn't be bothered doing anything. I was immobilised by boredom! That would have to be the worst survival response I've come across.

Today I am back on track and will post some pictures my friend just gave me of my birthday in April. We went to the German restaurant, which is actually not really a German restaurant (but it does have weiner schnitzel on the menu, which makes me about as happy as I will ever be).

My housemate Sas came back from Jakarta the afternoon of my birthday and brought krispy kreme donuts as a birthday cake! Thanks Sas! Here we are eating them.














There was a lot of drama surrounding the distribution of donuts.














This is me saying "Sas, let's be best friends so you bring me donuts every year".

TWO cute babies.

I hereby present the eagerly anticipated photos of....

THE CUTEST TWINS EVER BORN!

Oliver













Liam












This photo of Liam makes me laugh every time I look at it. I'm sure I'm being stared down by him. Like he's truly disgusted in me. You make me sick Sarah.

I asked Jess's approval to post these pictures this morning, and her response was "YOU'D BETTER!" I think that means she likes the kids and wants to show them off.

Note that I didn't even need to frame Jess out of these pictures taken only a matter of hours after she gave birth to twins. I will admit she does look a little tired. Maybe "I stayed up watching House too late last night" tired.

Colour Quiz

Seen on How About Orange...

Colour Sense Game. Apparently you can discover your colour personality.

Let me know if you think it works for you. (I'm going to do it again later to see if I get the same answer the second time round).

Added later: I keep getting White Spaces as my primary pallet but my secondary pallet keeps changing.

How babies and language collide

Photos of babies have begun to filter through and I can't wait to see them in real life. But I must wait two weeks (12 days to be exact) until I go back to Australia for a short visit. This could very well be the longest 12 days of waiting (especially because work is busy with many laborious and pretty dull tasks before then). But two things this morning are making it OK to wait.

1. Beck has duly informed me of the madness at the hospital when 20 big and small people all try to fit into one hospital room. I don't mind the idea of arriving when the storm has passed.

2. This morning I am finally enjoying Bahasa Indonesia.

I've learned one interesting thing about myself this year. I don't like learning new languages. I can hear the gasps around the world as I admit this (especially damning for someone who is all about international relations). It seems that everyone, especially Australians who often haven't learned a second language to fluency, longs for the opportunity to learn a new language, or relishes the opportunities they have. I'd assumed that I was the same...that hanging out in Paris, practicing ordering a croissant for 12 months sounded fun. But I've realised that I'd love eating the croissant but that I will learn the minimum language required to get it.

I thought I was just bad at learning languages, and I think it's true to a point, because I always want to translate the English thoughts in my head, even if those thoughts include idioms that no one will understand, and I struggle if I can't directly translate a sentence from the other language into English. But the truth is that I haven't been too bad with Bahasa (although if I'd studied I would probably be fluent by now). No, the most limiting factor to my success with languages is laziness. At any given moment I would much rather convey my thoughts precisely rather than practice using a language I still don't understand well. So if there is an English option I take it.

But this morning something was different. I was reading an email in Bahasa Indonesia which usually I would skim, or even copy and paste it into an online translator if it especially important and I was being especially lazy. But this morning I was feeling diligent and persisted with every word in an email that wasn't even directly written to me. And I understood! I learned new words, clarified the meaning of few others and genuinely understood a reasonably complex discussion between two people! But the real breakthrough was this: I enjoyed reading and deciphering and understanding it! This has been the missing (crucial) link to my language study.

How does this make the wait to see babies easier? It means that the daily struggle of working in a second language is eased, and moments of frustration that inevitably lead to "I don't want to be here I want be home playing with babies" are fewer and farther between.

And so the family grows

Yay for Jess, the babies are here! And in two weeks I get to see them!

The babies are commonly known as Oliver Benjamin and Liam Peter. I congratulate Jess and Mark on coming up with four good boy names all at once.

But here's the bad news...Someone has already secured http://www.oliverbenjamin.net/

Liam's internet career is safe for now, but someone better get onto securing that domain quickly.
I don't want to accuse Jess and Mark of bad parenting before the children are even a day old, but could you argue that not googling your child's name before the name is formally assigned to said child is negligent?

Just in case someone reading this blog is weird, I don't really believe you should google your child's name before they are born. I mean, if you want to go right ahead.