At a local festival street parade held recently, my husband’s colleague was disappointed at the lack of representation by her own section of the community, the Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islanders. She decided to try and do something about this and wrote to the Elders and other leaders of her community with an invitation to become involved.

She was having some trouble getting the right wording, so my husband offered to help. I’m so impressed with the message they came up with together.

“This year I was rostered to work the XYZ Festival Street Parade and while I watched all the floats pass in the parade in a celebration of being part of the XYZ community, I became aware that a section of the community was missing and unrepresented: the Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander community of XYZ.

I was disappointed and saddened to think that we have such a rich and diverse culture, that I for one would like to showcase to the wider community.

We talk about cross-cultural training, and educating the community to break down the barriers of ignorance and dispelling of social stereotyping, and wanting to foster a greater understanding of our cultures. I believe by participating and taking an active role in these types of activities and festivities we show we are part of and proud to be in the XYZ community, as opposed to being possibly perceived as being separate or unwilling to join in. What better way to get our message out and show that our communities have so much to offer to enrich our total XYZ community and the enhancement of understanding and unity.

“We are all working toward the goal of having understanding. I have spoken with some of the Police Officers I work with, and I have come to understand that some of the youth in general in XYZ feel outside the community resulting in them engaging in anti-social behaviours such as graffiti, gang violence, damage to public property, etc. The result being the continuation of the stigma associated with XYZ. This is not isolated to any particular community or group. However we are all aware of the problems facing our youth today.

“Perhaps as Elders, leaders, and respected members of our communities we lead by example and make an effort to join together with the larger XYZ community. Let us show the youth and our children that not only do they belong to our communities but they have a place in the wider community XYZ, and the world.

“If by doing this we may be able to encourage our youth to take an active role in these activities and to develop a sense of general belonging to XYZ, taking an active interest in the area creating pride and ownership in XYZ. Possibly diverting their energies into something productive, creative and away from being drawn into the anti-social activities or ways of thinking which is not only destructive to the community but the individuals involved.

“I accept and know that all of us are flat out with work/family and have little time to do anything but, I don’t believe that we alone are the only ones in this situation, and that if other organisations and community groups can make the effort and take the time to participate, I believe we can too.

“I would like to get together with people/organisations and discuss ideas, suggestion and obtain feedback as to how we can best achieve an active participation in organised events in the XYZ area such as the parade, so that next year our community is involved and represented. To show and encourage the talents of our community and youth and children, and the pride we have in our community and the greater community of XYZ, joining in and having fun, working to create the type of society we would all like to live in.”

Perhaps it is a simple thing to be part of a street parade, but grass roots is where the message spreads and hope for the future begins.

Movie starring Keanu Reeves, Sandra Bullock.

An interesting house, an interesting story. Two people correspond through a magic letterbox that carries their letters through time, at the Lake House – a beautiful glass house built on the edge of a lake by the architect father of Reeves character Alex Wyler.

Bullock plays Dr Kate Forster in present day 2006; Alex the architect/developer is still in 2004. This creates some interesting plays on time, as their relationship develops and they endeavor to finally meet.

I enjoyed the exploration of each main character’s relationship with their parents – and the relationship between the parents. Alex’s father, played by Christopher Plummer was a particularly fascinating character.

The story is all about finding and holding onto the special people in your life. The time factor creates an interesting twist, although the lack of plausibility can be irritating. If you go with the flow though, it is a beautiful story and the acting is real.

Harmless trivia: John Cusack was the first choice for the role of Alex Wyler, but he declined. I’m glad – if Cusack had taken the role I think it would have been too reminiscent of Serendipity (his 2001 movie with Kate Beckinsale).

Bollywood is the name given to the popular Mumbai-based Hindi language film industry in India. The name is a play on the words Bombay (former name for Mumbai) and Hollywood, the US film industry centre.

Bollywood music or filmi (from Hindi, meaning “of films”) is an essential element of the movies. A Bollywood movie without songs and dances would need to be particularly strong in other departments to avoid being considered a rip-off by the Indian audience!

Songs from Bollywood movies are generally pre-recorded by professional playback singers, with the actors then lip synching the words to the song on-screen, often while dancing – few actors actually sing. Playback singers are prominently featured in the opening credits and have their own fans who will go to an otherwise lacklustre movie just to hear their favourites. Their songs can often make or break a film.

Songs typically comment on the action taking place in the movie, in several ways. Sometimes, a song is worked into the plot, so that a character has a reason to sing; other times, a song is an externalization of a character’s thoughts, or presages an event that has not occurred yet in the plot of the movie. In this case, the event is almost always two characters’ falling in love.

Remixing of filmi songs with modern beats and rhythms is a common occurrence today, producing a beautiful blend of the modern with the traditional.

– Extract from Wikipedia

Last week our refrigerator started making funny sounds and everything inside went into meltdown. We were pretty dismayed at this, since the fridge is only three years old.

After transferring everything to our old fridge (which we dragged over from the shed last Christmas – it’s lived on the back porch ever since) we phoned a repairman.

“It’s probably the compressor.” surmised my husband. The repairman arrived and listened to the fridge for about 20 seconds.

“It’s the compressor.” he announced, and handed us our bill for $80 “You’ll pay a pretty penny if I order in the part and replace it for you, but it is probably still under warranty.”

As he left I was still reeling about the $80, while hubby phoned the shop where we bought the fridge. We couldn’t find the paperwork and weren’t confident about the warranty. Duly we were informed that IF it was the compressor gone, parts and labour would be covered under the sealed parts warranty, hooray! BUT, they had to have one of their own technicians take a look at it..

It would be nearly a full week before they had a technician in our area, so during this time I was trotting back and forth to the fridge on the back porch, looking forward to the day when my other fridge in the kitchen was working again.

Yesterday the technician arrives, and silly me expects him to have the part with him and repair done on site. No.. he was only there to look at it. He turned on the fridge, listened for 5 seconds and handed me a bill for $90! “It’s the compressor,” he says (surprise, surprise) “we’ll be by tomorrow to take it into the workshop”.

Well it’s now halfway through “tomorrow” and I’m waiting for their truck to appear. Nobody seems to want to fix it for us, although we’ve paid plenty of good money already for people to tell us it’s broken. We knew that already!

What other mini dramas can a fridge on the blink create?

Our friend Lesley is expecting her second baby in December – a boy. She already has a beautiful baby girl, Ariane.

Jo and I went to see a live performance by the Harvest Rain theatre company yesterday. So glad we did, we were not disappointed by the performance despite Jo feeling a bit under the weather with a tummy bug.

From the moment we took our front row seats in the audience, it was like stepping into the play ourselves. The stage was set as a dressing room and the “chicks” busied themselves in preparation for their performance. One of the girls floated around the audience offering her jar of “the most delicious lollies”.

Watching this performance was like watching a group of girls having the time of their lives with outrageous costumes, makeup and Shakespeare’s plays! The fun was infectious and the gags were non-stop.

The highlight of the performance for me, was the most serious part – an enactment of the scene in Othello where he kills Desdemona. There were two enactments of the scene: in the first, the actors hammed up the performance to demonstrate how little empathy the writer could have had for women. The second enactment was pure drama, a jealous, violent husband and terrified wife..

Although it was my favourite part, it did not fit well into the rest of the show. Some of the audience did not seem to pick up the shift from comedy to drama, and tittered inappropriately.

I came away from the show feeling entertained, and highly impressed with the ability of the actors, particularly Sarah McCoy who showed immense range: from a bubbly bimbo, to a diabolical Lady Macbeth, then an estranged Othello. Hers is one name I shall watch out for!

Reviews:

612 ABC Brisbane – Justine Cawley
The Courier Mail – Emma Rodgers