What I've been up to (not too crafty)...

I realised I haven't written anything for a little while, just posted lots of pictures, so I will attempt to account for my movements over the last few days and hopefully say something vaguely interesting.

Last monday I went to a talk on Affordable Housing and Community Land Trusts by Earthsharing Victoria.
It was very interesting and it really made me think about how home ownership is not an option for so many (including me) people who work hard and do ordinary jobs like teaching and retail and service work. Thus everyone rents. Where I work its got to the point where students are so pushed out of the rental market (since there are so many who can't afford to buy) that they are sharing not only rooms but now beds. It's terrifying to think that there simply isn't enough housing. Chris and i always thought we could move before we get married so we could make a 'fresh start' so to speak, but rental accomodation in Brunswick is so precarious that it's barely even an option.

On tuesday night Chris took me out for a yummy dinner followed by a performance of The 39 Steps. You can read a review hereby someone who knows far more about theatre than I. It was enjoyable but a little hard to follow at times as I am not familiar with the film or book. The backdrop and props were wonderfully executed and very amusing.

On Friday Chris and I got up at 4.30am to go to the Dawn Service for Anzac Day. I've never actually been before, as I've always thought of it as glorifying war, but I found it alot more about commemorating lives and the humanitarian work Australian military has done in South East Asia and surrounding areas. I think this is more about appeasing the changing nature of people who attend rather than to delineate the fact that we have still involved ourselves inappropriately in other nation's battles. It's nmot like I'm a fan of war. The evening was topped off by going to see Oasis, Oasis, a play written by a Ballarat University graduate. It was quite well written and featured two female protagonists as the cast. However it smacked of student theatre, even though I quite liked the characters, and the delving into magic realism was a little indulgent.

Saturday was rather crazy. I went to the optometrist and found that my glasses prescription hasn't changed too much but the keratoconnus has gotten worse. The only real options at the moment are magnifying bifocals which will make things bigger but not clear(no thanks) or hard contact lenses (even worse). I find it frustrating as I am struggling with things like threading a needle and getting alot of eye strain which makes me tired alot. A woman at work gave me some info on a woman who teaches eye exercises so I might give it a go. There's no cure but anything that helps is good. I ended up with a mega migraine afterwards and crawled to Bunnings to buy plants (no other time to do it) went home, was sick and had to go to bed. Luckily later I was ok so I went to Afterdark with Chris and saw some good bands then onto IDGAFF for Gareth's farewell. Hard to believe he'll be going back to england on wednesday night! It was fun as I caught up with some people that I like alot that i haven't seen for a while.

Sunday Chris, Casey and I went to see some gallery exhibitions including a gallery of black fashion



How awesome are these shoes!

We also saw an exhibition by Otto Dixon war drawings which was incredibly powerful. Besides the content of the pictures i really liked the craft of using etching. It's not something I know much about and i'd definitely like to learn more. I also did some gardening so I'll post some photos in the next couple of days.

Craft wise I've made a soft toy elephant out of an elephant printed pillow case (pic to follow), some cassette wallets and comic purses. I'm planning on getting cracking on some embroidered gloves tonight and bits and pieces. I'm also quite proud that I did some mending I've been putting off for ages....