Owner: Land of Meg URL:http://landofmeg.blogspot.com/ Join Date: Mon, 30 Jun 2008 00:20:55 -0500 Rating:0 Site Description: Welcome to the Land of Meg! Meg is a 34 year-old writer living in the hills outside of Melbourne, Australia. Site statistics:Click here
Green Lights 2008-07-07 18:31:11 When I stepped off the train in Melbourne last week, the first thing I saw was a big poster advertising the latest anti-gambling campaign. It should have made me happy - better anti-gambling than pro-gambling - but instead it made me furious.
You gave us the damn things in the first place, I thought.
But the government has to be seen as doing something. Though with state government revenue from Read more:Green
, Lights
No title 2008-07-07 02:38:21 We had a great day yesterday at my grandfather's 90th birthday party, though we were all disappointed that my grandmother was too unwell to make it, and conscious of her absence all afternoon.
My mum worked hard for weeks orchestrating all the details of the event. One of the most beautiful details were the vases of colourful flowers on every table. Not only were the flowers available for
Hula-La 2008-07-05 05:48:19 Because I grew up with three sisters and now live with two males, I often find myself wanting of female company.
A few months ago, PJ and I went round to visit our friend Mr O. His niece and a friend of hers were there dressed in grass skirts doing the hula. As soon as I saw the girls, I threw my shoes off and joined them, laughing and making up moves.
Which is how I came to be invited to teach
It's 6am 2008-07-03 15:20:02 And I am up to catch the early bus, then train to Melbourne. I have been doing this once a week for work.
PJ doesn't have to get up when I do, but he does. He makes me breakfast then takes me up to the bus stop.
Have you seen the Coen brothers' film Fargo? It was the first film PJ and I saw together. He had a couple of people over for dinner then we retired to the lounge room to watch it on D
The Brush Bitch 2008-07-02 23:36:28 At night, whoever brushes their teeth first puts some toothpaste on the other's brush and places it in some kind of relationship to this doll.
This is a photo of PJ's toothbrush last night at 9.50. Read more:Brush
, Bitch
Great Value 2008-07-02 01:53:45 Today over the Bass Strait, one of my favourite bloggers, Farmdoc, has been musing about the value of things:
"The true value of something is often out of proportion to its perceived everyday value. In other words, it’s often the little things that have the biggest impact."
I agree with him wholeheartedly. (And not just because he's my dad.)
I also wholeheartedly believe that we in the Read more:Great
, Value
More Than the Show Itself 2008-07-01 04:55:54 Nine years ago, PJ won a competition to create a sculpture that runs alongside our local library.
His Poemscape: A Physical Anthology comprises 18 hand-carved local Eucalyptus plinths, each with a brass plaque on top containing a poem. Beside each plinth, he planted an apple tree.
In summer we water the trees, in winter PJ prunes them and at the end of apple season we take all the fallen fruit Read more:Itself
Brrrm Brrrm 2008-07-29 05:07:00 It took us several attempts at listing it on eBay, but we finally sold our Peugeot.
As part of our plan to reduce our cash and carbon expenditures, we decided that despite the inconvenience of being a one car family, having a second car was an indulgence we could no longer justify.
It's true we could plant 20 trees a year, or whatever the number is supposed to be, but to us, it's not about
The Inside, Out 2008-07-28 02:21:33 Like most 6 year-old boys, Z loves getting dirty. On weekends, it's not unusual for him to need more than a few baths each day. Sometimes he loves baths, sometimes he doesn't. What he always loves though, is when PJ or I sit in the bathroom with him to chat or play or read to him.
Yesterday afternoon I wrote out a few pages of words he doesn't yet know how to read, then we went around to his
Bullshit 2008-07-27 05:37:32 PJ worked on our chook house yesterday afternoon while I went for a long bushwalk. It felt so great to be back in the forest; with the green and the waters gushing.
Then we stayed in and watched Bullshit
, the film about Vandana Shiva, the Indian nuclear physicist and environmental activist.
It's not the best made doco I've ever seen, but it's a great portrait of Shiva, as we follow her around
The Sit In 2008-07-26 02:53:39 Yesterday I wrote about having my own personal body double, as I was having a hard day.
Today I would like to introduce you to James L. Harris, a guy I just read about, who is accused of stealing public buses in Miami.
According to police, Harris took the buses from several bus depots and drove them on their routes, picking up and dropping off passengers along the way. He then returned the buse
The Stand In 2008-07-25 07:11:36 It was a beautiful winter's day today, though I stayed indoors for most of it. It is hard to remain hidden when you have bright red hair, so I used the excuse of having a lot of work to do, which I do, and stayed inside to do it.
Everybody needs to not be found or seen some days and today I had a day like that. I feel like I'm cocooning and will emerge from this headspace afresh, though into Read more:Stand
MirrorrorriM 2008-07-25 03:19:38 I love what these guys do. For their latest undertaking, they created a human mirror on a NYC subway carriage using 16 pairs of identical twins.
The Treehouse 2008-07-24 15:53:48 Inspired by the quote on the front of the last book I just read, I asked my well-read brother-in-law if he had any books by Naomi Klein. He said he had. I went over and picked it up, though it wasn't until I was home that I noticed it wasn't a Naomi Klein book, but a Naomi Wolf - The Treehouse: Eccentric Wisdom from My Father on How to Live, Love, and See.
One of the great aspects of spending two
Full Stops 2008-07-22 06:09:09 Today at 12.30, several of my now ex-colleagues and I went out for dumplings to mark the end of my six-week contract. I have worked for organisations for a number of years that have been easier to walk away from.
As we departed, they to return to the office, me to catch a tram, I got to thinking about farewells.
I respect it, although it sometimes hurts, the way kids don't concern themselves with Read more:Stops
On The High Wire 2008-07-21 00:12:28 I first heard about Philippe Petit, the high wire walker, when I read Paul Auster's The Red Notebook, in which is reprinted Auster's preface to Petit's 1997 book Traité du funambulisme.
I must have read The Red Notebook half a dozen times in my 20s. I haven't opened it for years, though I did just now to reread the Petit preface, from which comes this:Each time we see a man walk on the wire, a
Brave Waves 2008-07-20 05:43:35 Porter's Paint makes a whole range of chalkboard paints, one of which we used on the wall in the hallway (pictured), and for a wall in Z's room. They call this colour BraveWaves
.
On Z's, he draws and learns to write, and on the other, we draw, encourage visitors to draw, and write messages, reminders and grocery lists (which we photograph with our phones when we're going to do the shopping).
34 and a Half 2008-07-19 06:48:31 Yesterday I turned 34 and a half - not a milestone I celebrated publicly, though still an anniversary I was conscious of.
And as I tend to do around my yearly birthdays, I am finding myself doing a kind of stocktake of how I am going.
There was a full moon last night and yesterday I officially finished the contract for the work I've been doing. My replacement laptop arrived and I spent the
Encountered 2008-07-18 06:52:24 A few weeks ago, one of my colleagues had her purse stolen from her desk at work, when the receptionist was out to lunch. It was later found, sans cash, in the stairwell.
This afternoon, a whole group of us gathered around someone's computer to watch the CCTV footage from the building foyer from the day the purse was taken.
We didn't see the thief, but oh the squeals of joy and self-consciousness
The Compost Co-op 2008-07-17 06:15:13 A few months ago we sat, as we like to do, by the fire at our favourite local café having our morning coffees.
And, as we also like to do, we steered the conversation with the lovely café owner around to the rich and glorious topic of compost.
When we left, we headed down the hill to the hardware, where we bought a small bucket that now lives in the café kitchen, for the food scraps and coffe Read more:Compost
1 + 1 + 1 2008-07-16 04:27:44 Happy anniversary, PJ! And happy anniversary, Z!
The biggest, strongest tree I ever saw is inside of you, PJ.
And you, Z, you are the daylight.
I love dreaming with you both, but best of all, I love being awake.
We Ate the Letters 2008-07-15 18:46:25 I have never met Em or Josh. They are friends of my sister, A, who I spent the day with yesterday. They are friends of hers from San Francisco and are getting married soon. We ate the letters, but she'll send them the pic.
A and I spent an easy breezy afternoon walking and talking and baking.
I will miss you when you go back, A.
Here is the recipe for these cookies, as well as the ones in my Read more:Letters
Plotted Out 2008-08-13 04:47:58 I love being an editor and writer, and I take the work I do very seriously. My decisions don't affect whole States or economies or greenhouse gas abatement targets, but I stand behind every one of my capitals, colons and commas.
Which is one of the many reasons I despise premier John Brumby; because his decisions have hugely negative ramifications; and because he is surprised when the people he
Pu-erh 2008-08-12 03:44:26 Our favourite local café isn't open on Mondays or Tuesdays, so rather than risk a coffee elsewhere, I either make a stovetop coffee at home or a cup of tea. My tea of choice is Pu-erh.
It was sold to me as being tea that monks drink when they wake at dawn to meditate. It keeps them alert, but doesn't wire them up like coffee.
One of my favourite parts of the tea ritual is pouring in the milk.
People Like Us 2008-08-12 01:21:12 Last August PJ and I went down to Tassie to stay with my folks. At the end of our trip, we were packing our things before heading to Launceston where we were going to hire a car for a few days. My dad called PJ into his office and showed him a piece of paper. It was a subscription to Dissent magazine, a gift from him and mum for PJ's birthday. (Later PJ joked that he thought my dad was giving him
Critical Animals 2008-08-09 03:04:37 At the beginning of October, PJ and I and our wonderful friend O are heading up to Newcastle for This is Not Art. We have just booked our flights and I am very excited.
One component of the festival is Critical Animals
, a creative research symposium where we three Victorians will be presenting papers - PJ's is about how the corporatised State abuses our landbase, O is presenting a series of
Let Me Count the Ways 2008-08-09 02:07:41 When new emissions regulations forced the village of Kamikatsu, in south-west Japan, to shut down its two incinerators, it had to change the way it managed its waste.
"We were no longer able to burn our rubbish, so we thought the best policy was not to produce any in the first place," said Sonoe Fujii of the village's Zero Waste Academy.
In 2003, the villagers made a declaration that th
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