Settling in

So many things have happened on the journey from here to now.It all began with the car journey from Tully to Brisbane, and our bird keeping us on our toes on the way down. We stopped into see Brad and his wife Jess as well as Dan on the way down.


We discovered which were the most boring pieces of road, and the most exciting. Brad, Dan I worked with on ABC open during the 500 words project, and had never met in person before.

“Met Daniel Battley AbcOpen in person with his two gorgeous sons. Awesome.  We went via an interesting back road into Bundaberg with navigator Sandon, like a rollercoaster ride, stomach survived just, bird doing well on our travels, and keeping us all entertained, classic photos of this later though, lots of Simon and Garfunkel in the car, more adventures tomorrow and then into Brisbane.”
 

Then there was the month we spent living in West End, house sitting for friends.  I loved the sunrise from their house.
We went to a street neighbourhood gathering in their area.  It was awesome and my son jammed with some musos.  They are setting up a garden and doing lots of projects like clean up Australia day etc.



We caught up with our friend Temily who lived around the corner who we hadn’t seen for over 10 years.  She is an artist and lived in a very interesting share house, full of energy, light and colour.


We visited the museum and South Bank.  The children were much taken with a Hobbit house featured in an exhibition of collections.  We went to the cricket as well, which was brilliant as it looked like Australia were losing, but then a miracle, they won and we were there.



We had lots of adventures house hunting and I made the following discoveries about Brisbane.

”Brisbane discoveries, looking for houses requires military operation precision, and a swot team to help you out, busking licenses for South Bank require auditions in November and only happen but once a year, some suburbs people appear friendlier than others, Aldis are cool, self serve zapping in shops requires practice …”

“More things learnt about Brisbane, videos can be found in vending machines, laundromats are plentiful, and have wifi and cool websites, birds interact with the city and find the nearest tree to flock too, and adopt humans to feed them, sunrise splashes golden light on buildings, afternoon practice bands near our home have a reasonable guitarist, and average drummer and singer, your real friends have to make appointments and cannot rely on bumping into.”

Finally we made it to our new house:
“Didn’t notice it on the first view through but there is a dish washer in the kitchen … an upstairs and down stairs clothesline and laundry, a shed, and to my relief quite a bit of storage under the house so we can fit our stuff and even divest of more with more sorting if we wish (my excuse we had looked at a lot of houses and I was getting tired) , bird is settling in but was a little crazy this morning on the new verandah poor thing!

Ben to the rescue. Have now put all our present stuff in the cupboard and made air mattress couches, plus we have a kettle, and a saucepan, and esky with ice, time to have a cuppa, other news both school kids have already been put on invitation lists to events with friends and started bringing home phone numbers, and are quite excited about finding buddies who want to get to know them better, this is what makes me the happiest.”

We continue to connect with old friends from the area as our boxes were all unpacked and our home began to felt like a home.  One of our friends from Atherton came to visit us with his son, and had a chat about the universe which was cool.

And so the journey to settle in continues, with new horizons like learning how to use public transport again, and how to drive around the city.

Inspirations

                                     Reading the Sunset - By June Perkins

It’s an inspiring time.

I’ve finally managed to make headway on my writing projects. A memoirs is well underway. I am enjoying the process of bringing memories of past friendships back to life. The process of the memoir was given momentum during November.  I was writing stories for the ABC Open project Who Shaped Me.  I decided to do a blog challenge – 19 stories in the month. I was delighted to complete the challenge I had set for myself during the month of Nanowrimo.  At the end of the challenge I had 12,000 words towards my memoir.  It is now up around 25,000 words and continuing.

I love the process of memory unpacking.

On top of this I've managed to finally finish a poetry book which a  dear friend is going to illustrate.

It's designed for families to read together;  it isn't for children or adults alone and is based on my time living in North Queensland.

Some of the works are quite lyrical and have been sung at various places for friends and family.

I have been loving working for ABC Open as a moderator/Editor.  It's just awesome - and I had my time extended there so will be doing this for a bit longer. Working there just doesn't feel like 'work' but more of a blessing.

Reading, writing, editing!  Ha yes, even editing.  It's something to enjoy, not detest, because when you are reading, editing and moderating other people's work, it gives you even greater ability to be detached when it comes to editing your own stuff.

I'm reading so much now, that I really know which things jump off the page at me.  This  makes me strive even more to write in a way that makes the reader want to read my work!

I am so grateful to many people I've never met, except through reading their blogs, or joining them in online writing projects.  They are brilliant because they inspire me with their comments, feedback and their own enthusiasm for writing.  I especially love the Monday Writing Sprint Group - !!!  But the ABC Open contributors and producers are pretty amazing too.  I also adore the Soul Food group of Heather Blakey and am enjoying getting to know the Write Practice Crew..

To unwind I head out and take photographs, like the one above.  I am so blessed to have such great settings to easily access.  There is magic in the cane.  I've even written a poem about 'Ghosts from the Cane' that follow you to the city.  All will be revealed in my poetry book.

That's all from me for now - you can checkout my work and if you feel inspired please leave a comment on my Pearlz Dreaming Blog or at ABC Open.

Many Sides to One Story

It's easy to have one major storyteller in a family - as one person may be naturally good at it. However, there are many sides to a story and multiple perspectives can be illuminating.

The above video is my son's perspective on Cyclone Yasi.

You can find the story of my family in the cyclone from the parent's perspective mostly in the house that shook although the kids view comes through as we asked them questions and included them in the video we took during the experience.

In my latest ABC Open blog Pam, Joe and the Mighty Yasi I suggest that people consider making a spoken story video not just a written or photographic account of their cyclone experience. In the advent of mobile phones, skype, and video accessibility perhaps a lot more than in the past can consider this, that's if they can embrace and explore all technology has to offer. ABC Open are providing summer schools to help people develop these skills.

If you have a bit of time on your hand you can produce a video documentary for future generations. With a bit of practice efforts can be sped up, although I find I want to spend a lot of time editing to get it just right!

My latest video editing attempts saw me trying to master more in the sound editing department. I wanted to weave music sound track in and out to accentuate the story and ensure it did not detract from the story. I worked out how to do it in Pinnacle, but I am wondering if there are easier ways to do it. Obviously this is the next part of my digital storytelling journey, working out more about sound editing!.

(c) June Perkins, all rights reserved.