February 2008

I should be blogging about how it’s good to finally be back home in my own bed, my reflections on a great holiday and plans for the next few months….

BUT

we’re not home yet!!!

We should have had a leisurely 3½ hour stopover in LA but the flight out of Sydney was delayed and we just missed our connecting flight.

And there’s only one flight per a day.

So, here we are, in the Holiday Inn LAX, (room and food paid for by Qantas, thank goodness) twiddling our thumbs and battling jet lag before (hopefully) flying home tomorrow. Every single flight on this trip has been delayed. Let’s hope tomorrow’s breaks the pattern.

The most annoying thing about it is that the whole trip was scheduled around getting home on this date. Rocky flies off to Toronto for a conference on Saturday morning, so we planned to have 2 nights together at home, with both of us there to cope with the kid’s jet lag. Instead he’s going to have only 12 hours at home before more international travel, and I’ll be left fielding requests from the kids for breakfast at midnight.

I’m so sick of travelling….

Just a quick one since we’re getting on the plane today…

I’ve been interviewed over at Aussie Bloggers, so go over there and check it out if you’re interested in more of my ramblings!

The holiday is coming to an end.

It always goes so quickly, particularly when you are racing round like a headless chook for the last few days. I’ve lots more stuff to fill you in on from the last few days - a trip down south, a beautiful wedding and my first child free night in more than 2 years - but that will have to wait till I have a bit more computer time.

Tomorrow we fly out to Sydney for a few days of whirlwind family get-togethers (my extended clan) then back to Mexico on Thursday. For the few days in Sydney I will probably be *gasp* without internet access. I may suffer withdrawal symptoms, requiring a massive dose of online time when we get back.

So, guys, talk to you soon, when we’re back in Mexico.

Adios Perth!

A few nights ago I was lucky enough to attend the first preview showing of a new play - The Turning, a production that is part of The Festival of Perth on at the moment. It’s an adaptation of the book of short stories by West Australian author, Tim Winton.

I am a huge fan of Tim Winton’s books, with Cloudstreet being high up on my list of favourite books of all time, and the stage production of that book was a fantastic play. The Turning is an incredible book; so beautifully written (as all his books are) - touching, funny, sad and very very West Australian. I guess that’s one of the appeals of his writing, that the stories are set in such familiar places and tell of many familiar experiences. I usually don’t like short stories but this one was an wonderful read, perhaps because the characters were so well-developed even just through the snippets of their lives that we see. The Turning tells the story of the evolution of a family, growing up in a seaside town in WA and then in Perth, the action spanning 30 years or so.

There’s always some trepidation when approaching an adaptation of a much loved book, whether in film or on the stage (although plays always seem to do it a lot better than movies) but this production of The Turning was beautifully done. It was innovative and engaging, the actors were superb and the direction fantastic. I laughed, cried and hung on every word. It was the perfect celebration of the things I love about Western Australia.

I’m not sure exactly what a preview performance is. It was much more than a dress rehearsal, but the tickets were slightly cheaper and perhaps it is a chance for the crew to fix any glitches before the official opening night. The production was quite technical, using video screens to show landscape images (like beach scenes) and as active backdrops. One character delivered her monologue into a handheld video camera which was beamed to the screen. It all worked so well together and really portrayed the locations wonderfully, which are such an important part of the story. We had seats right up the back and were able to see the tears glistening in the eyes of the actor using the video camera. It was very powerful. It was also really funny, with a great mullet-haired character, Ern, with classic Aussie lines such as

“It’s not a f…ing truck, it’s a Landrover!”

All the actors were excellent, with some of them playing multiple roles. The ease with which they switched from one character to the next, often with quite emotional scenes, was impressive.

I can’t recommended this play enough. It was wonderful. If you’re in Perth, do whatever you can to see it. If you’re somewhere else in Australia, find out if it’s coming to you soon. If you’re overseas, I’m sorry . (Actually I saw the production of Cloudstreet in London, so it might end up touring there)

One of the new social networking crazes doing the rounds at the moment is the Entrecard. You might have noticed one in my sidebar with the line “Get one” or “Drop Yours”. It’s basically a mutual advertising system where you drop your virtual business card on someone else’s blog, earn credits that you can then earn to advertise your blog somewhere else. Sound complicated? It is and I am no good at explaining it, so if you want to check it out, visit their website. I am still in 2 minds about it, mostly because I haven’t had much time to do the rounds of entrecard sites dropping cards and building up credits.

I have found quite a few new blogs through it though and I recently got tagged for 3 memes about entrecard sites, so I don’t mind showcasing a few new blogs. There’s nothing like a bit of free (linky) love. Cellobella recently wrote a post on Aussiebloggers which pretty much sums up how I feel about memes. Despite hating chain letters and emails I am still strangely excited when I get tagged for a meme. But I’m not at all offended if you choose not to do the meme, so it’s your choice!

Firstly, Jayne and Andrew tagged me for the Chain Drop 8 Above the Fold Meme

Rules-

Create a post on your blog that links back to this post

Tag 8 bloggers who display their Entrecard widget above the fold and have great content.

Leave a comment on this post and share the link to the post you made.

Jayne already tagged most of the entrecard sites I know, but luckily a few new people have joined up recently, so I tag:

1. Cellobella at Sultana Blog - fellow Perth girl
2. Mummified Times Five - Tina’s blog about her life as a Mum of 5
3. Picklebums - see this post to find out all about Kate
4. Ian at My Big World of Crap - the man with the best blog title ever
5. Swollen Pickles - lots of entertainment on this site including movie reviews, funny videos and photos popular news items
6. AKA Mum - Aussie Mum’s blog about life with her 2 boys
7. Blogging Sueblimely - heaps of great information about blogging
8. The Tall Poppy - One of my new discoveries!

Secondly, Tina of Mummifed Times Five fame tagged me for the Simple Entrecard Meme.

Simple Entrecard Meme Instructions:

1. Read these instructions twice;
2. Drop your EntreCard at this site;
3. Drop your EntreCard at the 5 EntreCard users’ sites listed below;
4. Choose 5 other EntreCard users;
5. Copy these instructions to your own EntreCard meme article and tag (link) those 5 people;
6. Include a link to the EntreCard meme article of the person who tagged you;
7. Link to the original article “Sam Freedom’s Drop Squad - the First EntreCard Meme Known to Bloggers“;
8. Notify the people you choose that they’ve been tagged;
9. Comment below so even passers-by can drop their card at your site, too (it shows you are active and will likely return the favor)
10. (optional) IF you tag your blogs, use both “entrecard” and “entrecard meme” as tags so that others can find them AND so that we can find them all later as this grows. (If you don’t know what tagging is, don’t worry.)

*Sigh* I’m a bit confused! It’s actually the not so simple entrecard meme. Anyway, I think I did everything I was supposed to do. I’m going to tag everyone lusted listed above (or anyone else who wants to join in ) to do this one too if they want.

Thirdly, Bruce from No Nonsense Internet Tips tagged me for a Best Value Widgets meme, where, through the new improvements to the Entrecard statistics, you can tell which adverts you placed gave you best value, ie, most clicks per credit spent.

Here’s the rules

1. First link back to this post so people will know where the meme came from and link to the person who tagged you.

2. Link to each of the blogs listed in your Best Value by Widget table. Once you link to them send them a message and let them know they were tagged.

3. Now go through everyone of the blogs you list and stumble, sphinn, digg, submit to propeller, submit to reddit one of their posts or any other methods you can think of to help the blog’s traffic, such as favoriting the blog on technorati. You can do any or all of these things, but the more the better it will be for everyone.

4. Once you post  the meme message the person who tagged you so they can go to your site and stumble, digg or whatever to help the people you tag. It would also be nice if when you passed a site with this meme posted if you would hit all the sites listed with a little social media love. It will only take you a minute to help out a fellow blogger.

5. If we can get quite a few people doing even half of this meme, then everyone involved should see a dramatic increase in traffic to their blogs as well as help them build up their backlink count.

You know, in reading those rules, I am going to put my own caveat on it. I really don’t expect you to stumble my blog just because you get tagged for a meme. I don’t really feel that comfortable about asking for a stumble, digg etc. And I don’t even know what sphinn, propeller and reddit are - I presume they are more of the same thing. If you like something I’ve written then a stumble is always welcome, but don’t do it just because I tag you!

So, I am going to look at all the blogs in my best value widgets list and I will do something to help their traffic, which might include a stumble or something like that, but I’m going to take a bit of time to look through posts and choose one I really like. I’m not trying to go all power hungry with my my “stumbling might”, just that I’d prefer to stumble a really interesting post than a filler or a meme, which we all write from time to time (look at this post for example!).

So, my best value widgets are:

• Tamara Wilson
• Mummifed Times Five
• Our Great Southern Land
• RTW Girl
• Monkeys & Princesses
• Shamelessly Sassy
• My Big World of Crap
• Adelaide Green Porridge Cafe
• Confessions of an Organized Mess
• Kin’s Home of Slightly Cracked Dreams

So, that’s it for my entrecard memes.

Phew!