Life Long Learning

Since writing Blog 4 Cash I have been thinking a lot about writing in general. This time last year I was 90% of the way through writing my first book and have spend the proceeding year procrastinating over it. Simultaneously, this week I have been day-dreaming over how much more writing I can complete on my train ride to and from Melbourne for Business Mums Conference in a few weeks time.

So, my week at Glenormiston....

it rained. Some would say it was miserable. I, however, love the cold and rain and thought it was fantastic. It rained every day except for Sunday, the day I left to head home. And the wind, wow I forgot what *real* wind was! Blustering so hard that the rain was traveling almost horizontal coming in under the verandah to hit the sliding door at waist height.

So during the course I spent my time in the company a dozen or so other women working on their quilting with all of them more capable than me. Their motivation was either learning the finer points of the job, having extra hands to help them tack and complete big projects or simply having a week away from other responsibilities to just get projects completed. I was the 'baby' of the group and tried had not to need to wear a dunce hat as I was talked through the finer points of pieced quilting. I am now in the stage of finishing my applique work so that I can tack, quilt and finish off.

Of course, quilting was not all that was happening as part of the craft school and Wednesday night I took the chance to have a good look at other offerings. The course options included: watercolour painting, decorative painting, silk painting, crazy patchwork, felting, wool spinning, stone carving using Mount Gambier limestone and doll making just to name a few. I was blown away at the amazing level of talent held by so many people gathered in one place.

Rather than staying on campus, I stayed with my father who lived a shockingly long 6km from the campus. I also had William with me who I needed to shuttle to Mortlake for care which was my only excuse for not cycling to the campus each day. Oh well! William stayed with Cheryl, a lady from my father's church, who looked after him lovingly and was an amazing answer to prayer at a time when I was not sure what to do with him.

With all the rain that came down there was quite a 'puddle' not far from my fathers home. I commented to my father that there was quite a lake forming near the school and he responded, 'You mean Lake Tom Thumb?' Lost by the comment I realised the significance as that big puddle that formed in the rain was the actual Lake Tom Thumb from the novel 'I can jump puddles.' written by Alan Marshall. You see my father lives in Noorat, Alan Marshall's birthplace and home. I was even more surprised on Sunday to see photos of a strong and vibrant Presbyterian community from that era with a young Alan Marshall sitting in the front row with dozens of other children. It made the stories all the more real and if Lake Tom Thumb hadn't dried up I would have taken a splash in it myself!

Last of all, on my list of experiences in the week was that of the Mt. Noorat pub. They do a mean T-bone Steak for $20.00, putting it in the realms of the Dergholm Pub with their $15.00 roast, but I must say Noorat took the cake for being the first Aussie pub I have come across with carpeted toilets from basin to bowl in the ladies. What a hoot!

It was a lovely week but I am equally glad to be home now!

Came back from Sydney only to freak out at my Diary's contents.

Systems Testing Assignment due 4.30pm today.
Web Site Security Assignment due 7 April
Web Site Security Test 9.30am 7 April
Systems Quality CM, DR & SDR Reports due 11 April

Aaagghhhrr!

Add to that, I need to give Michael space to get work done before going OS which means that this weekend I will be breaking out and plastering our wardrobe by myself. I will then be painting it myself the following weekend so the new internals can be installed on the 21st.

Does life get any more full-on? Or is that a bad question to ask?

Thanks to g and the trip to Dunedin (there are some cool second-hand bookshops there) my reading list is getting pretty long.

This is just the bedside pile, so you need to add to this the laptop-bag pack collection, the office collection (for the Baby Steps web site and the ones that sit in my active basket with my cross-stitch and tapestry work.

Note to all: NO READING CONTRIBUTIONS UNTIL JULY PLEASE!