Chinese Whispers.

It's Saturday so we're wearing our new (to us) striped coat. It's a great coat. We got it in Bigsplat but it's just the kind of coat we ought to have found in Artseaside City and unless we make a conscious effort to remember that we got it in Bigsplat we find that we're assuming it came from Artseaside City last weekend and not Bigsplat this Thursday just gone.
And we want to remember because we don't want to accidentally answer "Artseaside City" if Naomi or Nadia asks about the coat or assumes it came from there, because then, when we remembered that no, despite the fact that it's a marvellous coat and not the kind of coat usually found in a Bigsplat Op Shop, that is where we found it and then we'd have to go and tell them that actually we found it in a Bigsplat Op Shop and not at Artseaside City.
Does it matter?
Sri Ramakrishna thinks so.
He said that if you go for a walk in the forest because you need to pee and tell someone that's why you're going for a walk in the forest and then you come back and haven't peed you should tell them that in fact, when it came to it no peeing occurred.
I'm sure, being a divine being, he probably said it a lot better than that

Being sincere is too easy for us, so easy I don't trust us. Knowing what the truth is can be difficult. For us, memory is rarely our very own and is usually received as whispers.
And we all know how that goes.

Swanning about in a gold Rolls Royce.

Gray has been working on a website for a sculptor who works in Artseaside Harbour, a pretty little harbour town just south of Supersplat. Last weekend he went to meet the artist in person and to take photographs of his studio. I got invited too. We took a bus together on Friday, to SeaSide City, then a train all the way to Supersplat, and a little commuter train down to Artseaside Harbour.

Work for polly people has been very stressful lately so Gray wrote me a list of Things To Do in Artseaside City in the hope that I would find the simple instructions comforting. I did.

Things to Do in Artseaside Harbour.

1. Spend money.
2. Buy frocks.
3. Drink good coffee.
4. Swan about.

The artist was lovely. He picked us up from the station in his gold rolls royce. There was much swanning about in that. Items 1, 3 and 4 were easily accomplished, but there wasn't a decent frock to be got. I shall have to return during thrift store hours.

Station of the cross.

Last night BigSpat TV Network decided to give us a little Good Friday gift - "The Passion". With no commercials! Mannie thought it was great. I was glad to have that to make as an offering to Ms Mannie who really, really wanted us to agree to let her take communion at the Bugsplat Anglican Church tonight.

We might have said yes to the church going, except that;

1. We (dungeon) don't like the idea because it's bound to cause social issues like - people will think I'm Mannie. (I'm Trouble!) You know, just because I wear the same body as she does. And they'll think I'm a CHRISTIAN!! And they'll, I don't know, talk about God and stuff. Ew.

2. Tampopo=Dandelion is on at the Bugsplat Film Club tonight. It sounds great. It's Japanese and there's a cowboy hat wearing truck driver and a run-down noodle bar. I know where I'd rather be. Ms Mannie can usually rely on big support from Hinchinbrook for her going to church plans on the grounds that we ought to support people's individual spirituality ... but they're all really keen to see the movie.

Mannie: Dungeon grubs and pagans, the lot of you.
Hmmm... did you say something about a noodle bar?

Surreal-o-meter.

The Surreal-o-meter at work this week spun wildly for a while and finally settled on Extreme Fire Danger. Monday was foul. Tuesday was awful and attending the board meeting was a mistake.

Difficult Person: So, I ask again, as I do every month, where are the financial reports?
Polly: (holding them up) Right here, same as every month. See, HERE. These five pages.
Difficult Person's nice friend who is also on the Board: Every month we ask for financial reports. Why all the secrecy?
Polly: (waving reports) Right here. Same as every month. Please, read them.
Difficult Person: It is surely not unreasonable for me to ask the Manager for the financial reports?

That wasn't so much a board meeting as a ride in a billy cart. Downhill. A really bad billy cart. No brakes, wobbly wheels, sharp bits of metal protruding from the joins.

It must have been pretty bad. I was getting sympathy calls in the morning.

Thoughts upon my right to be here.

1. I do not torment myself with questions of entitlement. I was born on red soil and I have never felt unwelcome.

2. My aunts were fierce, killing their own chickens. They told me I was soft and would never be a farmer. This I did not deny, even silently, but when I was told that I did not belong on the land... I knew. Not true.

3. To hide a tree, you need a forest.

Thoughts upon the wisdom of living in a small town.

1. It's the faces. Once they become familiar, they cease to interupt my vision.

2. Small towns are good for keeping secret business secret. Cities lull their citizens with the illusion of anonymity. This encourages recklessness.

3. Like all who wear disguises, I hold inside a longing to be recognised.

What will you be, when you grow up?

Kindergarten Kid: Fireman!
Other kid: Nurse!
And another kid: Policeman!
Other, cute little kid I kinda had a crush on: Astronaut!

Some snooty young polly, prob'ly a baby Thea: I will just read books, like my parents do.

That soon transformed into a great certainty (and certainty of greatness) that we would also ~write~. All these years of ambition and not one writing workshop. Until this weekend.

In Bugsplat, no such thing as a free ticket.

Last night the Bugsplat Arts Association hosted a show at the Bugsplat Town Hall.

The price of my free ticket was to take photographs with Gray's digital camera. The price of Honey's free ticket was to work the door.
She picked me up early.



The support act was two guys with guitars from South City.
They were just fine.

There were a lot of empty chairs and lots of worried lookng Arts Association members wandering about watching the door, and hoping aloud for a last minute rush,

The lead act was also two (more famous) guys with guitars.
They were fabulous.

There was no last minute rush. There was however, a raffle ticket debacle.

Gritting her teeth, Nadia danced. With me. The audience relaxed. Later, Honey danced too. It was very difficult not to bellydance! We had fun trying not to. Wagging fingers whenever the other lapsed into a shimmy.

Honey and I, knowing how these things go, left straight after the last song to avoid being roped into the cleaning up and post mortem. We might have stayed to help but we couldn't face the post mortem. Every time I go to one of these shows with a free ticket I end up wishing I'd just paid my money. Last night was no exception.

Forever.

Today is the first day of Pourner.
Today we worked at the Bugsplat Food Co-op. As part of our relentless quest for routine, we've signed up to volunteer there every first Saturday of the month. Yes, that's our plan. The first Saturday of every month, forever. Stalkers take note.
Yesterday was the last day of Meertilluc.
Yesterday, a mum who wanted to join our bellydance class at the Bugsplat Family Centre but who couldn't find child-care (Q: Could you move it to another night? A: Not on your nelly.) bemoaned and woe-is-me-d the fact to Calypso who said, langourously;
"Don't worry. I'll be teaching bellydance in Bugsplat forever."

When it was quiet, we played our new song, the one about the Clarence River. We also played some Amerikana/Gospel with the lady from the post office. She was singing along when we played "Woke up this morning with my mind on freedom" so we offerred her our guitar and sang along to the songs she chose from our books;
"Ring of Fire", "Lonesome Whipperwill" and "Twelve Gates to the City".
We bought silverbeet, tom thumb tomatoes, an apple cucumber and some vegan cheese for Hinchinbrook. They're planning to make silverbeet canneloni. Pine nuts might be involved. They're excited. They haven't been doing much cooking lately. We've been a bit over-scheduled.

News from the fish-juggling auditions:
Statler and Waldorf are scary. The fish are very smelly. I'm glad we're just in the chorus line and not up front. I'm sorry for new muppets. It ain't easy being green.