miladycarol

Richard is in Sydney! It’s so cool that I have a visitor in Sydney! I’m very excited, hence the exclamation marks! Richard was flown here on work for his company, so I only have him evenings, a Friday and much of Saturday, but I’m so glad to see him.

G was working last night, so I played hostess to our guests, then I ran down to the train and met Richard at Martin Place. You know the scene from The Matrix where the woman in the red dress walks by… that’s where we met.

And the night was charged with electricity and there were sparks! Of course, by electrical charge, I’m referring to the lightening I spied on my walk to the station. And by sparks, I mean we happened to be looking across the harbour as we stood on the top stairs of the Sydney Opera House when a lovely fireworks display occurred. I’m still unsure of the occasion, so I declared it a firework display to celebrate Happy Wednesday and to welcome Richard o Sydney.

We walked all over Sydney Harbour, had a lovely meal, walked some more, then I escorted him to his hotel and walked back to the train station. I pumpkined somewhere along the way and zombie marched my way home from the station.

I also made the connection tonight that Richard is the mysterious hirdrac who friended me and then never told me he even created a journal! Tricksy, you are! Maybe now that I know who you are, you’ll be inspired to actually write in it from time to time. *narrows eyelids* Right?

It's a really odd thing to know it's Easter, a holiday rife with spring-time bliss, fresh lilies, tulips and the smell of impending warmth and sun, yet to be experiencing a shortening of daylight, a coolness in the air and watching the herbs go to seed. *boggles* I feel backwards.

Okay, it’s time for another Australian lesson.

Today, we will discuss the word “dag.” Sunday, at Lorinda’s house, she donned a well-loved sweater – or jumper, as they call them here – with holes and worn spots. She apologized for wearing such a daggy jumper. She then felt the need to explain the word's origins to me. Apparently, a dag is a piece of feces that has latched onto the hair on the backside of a sheep and formed a hardened turd cocoon. This, ladies and gentlemen, is a dag. To my mind, this made sense. She apologized for wearing a sweater that was a bit on the worn and messy side. Not sightly. I get that. Turd cocoons are not sightly, the sweater wasn’t the prettiest. I made the connection and was happy to move on, but she immediately continued by further explaining that dag could be a compliment to a person. “Oh, you’re such a cute little dag.”

Here, I paused.

So, let me get this straight. A dag can be a compliment. What you really just said was, “Oh, you’re such a cute little hair encrusted piece of shit.”

Compliment.

Hmmmm…

Am I the only one who doesn’t follow this? This tracks very closely with my theory of how international wars begin over slight cultural indiscretions. If my interpreter just translated your comment into my language while we were discussing strategy over a pot of tea as, “You’re so funny, what a cute little hair encrusted piece of shit you are!” Well, you may imagine the pot of hot tea could very accidentally be poured into said delegate’s lap. Quite by accident, I assure you. Hey, wars have been started for less. I heard WWII was begun because someone loaded one too many pieces of straw on a camel’s back which, in turn, broke the camel’s back. One may only assume that this was a prized camel. A very important dromedary. Hey, it started a war.

So, what lesson do we learn from this story?

A. One simply cannot trust an Aussie to say anything straightforward, after all, historically, it was a giant penal colony.

B. Aussies don’t know the difference between a compliment and an insult… and simply don’t care because, hey, they have the Great Barrier Reef and Fairy Penguins.

C. Aussie colloquialisms are just cute no matter what they mean because they have that really sexy accent so they can say whatever they want as long as they keep talking.

Remember, the Aussie word of the day is dag. Thank you for your time.

Quote of the day by G explaining how he has a multi-pronged marketing attack: “And because we have an extra sleeve up our shirt…”
At that point I couldn’t hear what he was saying because my laughter drowned out his words. Bwa-ha-ha! He’s soooo cute!

I’m feeling very cushy in the moment. I’m curled up on the couch with the laptop propped up on a big orange crate (a crate that had carried the citrus fruit and also happens to coincidently be largely orange in colour… go fig *grin*), my feet are propped on the coffee table, my new USB keyboard is across my lap, my USB mouse is happily scurrying atop my notebook beside me, and my neck is gloriously not hunkered forward in a distressing and painful way. My upper back has been achy ever since we brought the laptop home. I’m just not built for petite machines. So, while we were in the city today, we outfitted me with a keyboard to take some stress off my poor spine.

It’s been nippy here in the mornings and evenings. All afternoon I was traipsing about in a t-shirt but I needed a sweatshirt both at the end and beginning. I’m going to have to think about transplanting some of the garden herbs into pots and take them inside. I don’t know how long I’ll be here and I don’t want to run out of herbs. *shudders at the mere thought*

Somehow, my days slip by quickly but I really haven’t done anything of note. Well, unless one thinks of the gardening, the dishes, hand washing the clothes, doing some work for the new venture online and a bit of errand-running in the city as notable. I tell ya, watching me wash my laundry is uber-stimulating, edge of the seat kind of stuff. You’ll never look at wringing out dripping napkins the same way twice. *rolls eyes*

Since I have a decided lack of interesting things to report, I shall merely send my love and retire for the evening.

Yesterday, I had Gisela and her husband, Gerry, over for lunch. It was great fun to cook for someone again. I love to plan meals for others to enjoy. It’s really hard cooking for G’s family because they have a very set expectation of how food should taste and be cooked. I don’t operate the same way. I take some of aMa’s practices and adopt them, but I always improvise.
Since I can’t cook as well as her for their tastes, it’s stressful. I like to just create in the kitchen and toss it at people to see what they think. I’ve missed that. So, I spent 2.5 hours in the kitchen making lunch and I have leftovers galore. I wish I could invite everyone else over to share them.

After they left, I just about collapsed from my aches. I have had some back pain for a couple days, but I’ve been managing it. I held it together all day, but once they left, I keeled over. Within a couple of hours, I had spiked a fever and ached all over. I am still trying to understand why. I’m better this morning, but sheesh. It was all very unexpected. I have had allergy mornings for the past week, but I didn’t think that would turn into a fever. Ah well, I feel better, and that’s the most important thing.

I was tagged by the lovely lurkitty to do this. So, here it is.

( Name ten of life's simple pleasures that you like most. )

Yesterday we went to Sea World. I guess I was expecting an Aquarium, not an amusement park. It was fun, though. There was a seal show, a dolphin show, an awesome fairy penguin display, and the ever popular polar bear display. Polar bears. In Australia. Humph! Who’d have thunk? I could watch polar bears for hours. I have. When I was living back in RI, the zoo there had a really nice polar bear display. I would go on the free admission weekends with a lunch and just sit and watch the polar bears. They rocked my world. I had to restrain myself, though, as there was a lot of territory to cover. There was also an amazing 3-D animated movie that was incredible. They’ve actually come a really long way in 3-D technology. I don’t remember it ever being so good before. And they had rigged the theatre to augment the experience by adding mist and shaking the ground in the right places. It was super cool to watch all the people in front of us reaching up to see if they could touch the movie critters as they seemed to literally be popping off the screen. Amazing.

Today, we’re going to Movie World so G can ride all the nasty rides. Afterwards, we have a dinner date with the Clarksons.

( Pictures behind the cut. )

We’ve been working hard on developing our new business venture. It is evolving and changing on a daily basis. I only hope the programmers are able to keep pace with us. *smiles* We have some amazing people contributing and collaborating with us. I feel honoured they’ve all jumped aboard.

On a more personal note, we spent Sunday with Lorinda and Gisela. They are the two magnificent women who sat next to me on the first day of the Internet conference. We very much enjoyed ourselves that whole day and, with each succeeding day, discovered how much we have in common. They are both very spiritual and healing women and we share many interests, right down to our desires to build an intentional community using all the eco-friendly means at our disposal. Isn’t’ it amazing how the Universe places the coolest people in our paths when we least expect it?

So, Sunday we spent the day at Lorinda’s house where I participated in my first fair-dinkum Australian barbeque! Pretty cool, eh? I’m still saying it counts regardless of the fact that I didn’t actually eat anything that went on the grill. Gisela had prepared a wheat-free baked tofu dish for me (she has a celiac child) and she even brought a soy ice-cream for desert. I felt so loved!

That evening we spent working with Paul on branding our new venture. Paul is very kind and meditative. I enjoy his insights and calming presence. I really believe this will be a very special company.

What an intensive week or two. Where do I begin?

I am well and happy in the land of Oz. Things are going well. The Family has been great, G and I have been busy working on a new business venture, the weather is still fine, the garden is fertile and tasty, I have ordered some beading supplies to keep my mind and hands sane, and we have this spiffy new laptop so we aren’t constantly fighting over who deserves cyber-time. Life is good.

If that wasn’t enough, there is more. Last weekend, G and I attended a big Internet Marketing conference in Sydney at the Olympic Stadium. This came about because our 1ShoppingCart.com partner, Rob, mentioned another associate, Ted, was hosting this big show. We chatted with Ted and he invited us to attend as his guests. Cool, eh? We had a blast. It was like a breath of fresh air. We were surrounded by inventive, exciting people who are highly motivated and eager to network. Not only that, G was introduced the first day as the founder and inventor of 1ShoppingCart.com, which easily over 2/3 of the room already used. He was a celebrity! Is that cool, or what!?! I’m so proud! It’s rough for him, sometimes. His family really doesn’t understand what he has accomplished. He tries to explain, but I don’t think they really grasp the scope of it. It’s too intangible. At this seminar, he was recognized as one of the Founding Pioneers of Internet Marketing. Seriously! Amazing, huh? Finally, my man has reached the status he richly deserves. People were swarming him. At the end of the four days, we left with an amazing array of people in our network. Many of them have, in the past week, contributed in some form to G’s new business venture. It’s all very exciting. More on that later in another post. It’s 11:42pm and I need to go to bed. I must rise bright-eyed and bushy-tailed for tomorrow’s events.


Hey! Check it out! I figured out how to add a picture of my famous husband! Woo hoo! This is on Fraser Island on Christmas Day. Cool, eh?

We have the new laptop in our hot little hands! G and I are setting it up, as I type. We'll be back in a few hours to finish. I'm so excited! I'll be back on the net! Yay!