This is…my favourite thing from nature.

One of my favourite things are birdies. Native birdies mainly, mostly parrots and honeyeaters, but I also love magpies, as any regular reader of the Portion may know. So it goes almost without saying that this is one of my favourite things from nature. This page describes the call as: “A loud musical flute-like song, often performed as a duet or by groups. An uncommon alternative name for the Australian Magpie is Flute Bird.”

Another favourite is the call of the Butcherbird, although I’m not as happy if hear them around as they like to menace the budgies. But still a lovely sound. As I’m a bird nerd I’m loving this list of birdcalls. Every day is a good day if I’ve heard some magpies (and birds in general) singing outside my window.

Theme this week by Cloth and Fodder, this is hosted by Three Buttons.

This is… a favourite quote

Further to my previous post, I thought this quote was lovely:

“Perhaps they are not stars, but rather openings in heaven where the love of our lost ones pours through and shines down upon us to let us know they are happy.”
~Eskimo proverb

This is at Angela’s place.

Happy at Mikes.

Photo credit:
McNaughts Comet Eyre Peninsula South Australia, originally uploaded by john white photos.

This is…something I’m surprised that I like

I’d never been here before until I met my husband over 10 years ago …and now I’m a Frankytown resident. (HP refused to move to the city.) The place has a bad reputation, as the home of bogans and general scrotes, but like any large town, it has it’s good points and bad.

Bad =
-Railway station, smells like pee and always has dodgy types asking you for cash. Further to that, the train ride seems to take agggggggggggges
-Young Street, especially near Railway Station crossing
-NQR in Beach Street is always full of deadshits (but I still shop there)
-Obnoxious people at the pubs/nightclubs on the weekends (but that could be anywhere)
-The fact that the lovely Art Deco building that was once the Post Office is now Kittens fanny-dancing club
-The fact that the stip style Nepean Hwy shopping centre has suffered as a result of the big enclosed shopping centre development a few blocks over
-The Peninsula Centre – the biggest eyesore on the landscape

Good =
-I live here!
-Proximity to beaches, bays and the goodness of the Mornington Peninsula
-Op-shop joy – I seem to be in the minority in my love for vintage goods and recyclable kitsch
-The new Waterfront development is looking fab
-The view from Oliver’s Hill
-Big Spotlight 3 minutes from my house
-High availablity of snot blocks
-Can always park near your house – none of that parking 4 blocks away like I had to when I lived in St Kilda
-Local library = excellent
-Mornington Main Street shopping 15 minutes away

-I’m here! (oops I already said that.)

When I first moved down this way, it was a bit of a culture shock and I didn’t think I’d get used to it…but it’s okay. 10 years later, don’t ask me for street directions, I still couldn’t tell you, but I like living here. But that doesn’t mean I’ll be here forever…

This is…via Three Buttons. This week’s theme courtesy of Earl and Cookie.

Photo source here. [taken in 1971 folks]

This is..my favourite film

Hooray for Miss Hollie Hokey for suggesting this week’s theme. My favourite film is this one from 1987:

Hopefully these clips will give you a sense of the setting of the film, a small Aussie country town in the 1960′s. I can relate to this film a lot, I love the characters, the teenage angst, the struggle to be an individual in a small town where fitting in and doing what your parents did is the norm, and the sense of isolation and yearning that Danny (Noah Taylor) feels. So much Aussie goodness… And as a bonus, it has Ben Mendelsohn in it, who I adore!

“This is…” brought to you by Three Butttons.

[Credits: Clips are from this wonderful site, and are provided for non-commercial/educational purposes only.]

This is…my current reading material

I’m very non-committal about reading lately. It’s just hard to find time to knit and read and embroider. (Yes, I know, talking books/books on tape are the answer.) Anyway, apart from all the magazines I buy and don’t get around to reading, these two are on the go, borrowed from my sis:

This week’s theme from My Champagne Dreams, home of “this is” – Three Buttons.

This is…my favourite kitchen tool

I actually don’t like the kitchen much. I don’t enjoy cooking, but can on occasion get excited about baking cupcakes. Most of my time in the kitchen seems to be occupied by cleaning, and making tea. (HP is the cook of the household.) But a fave kitchen tool…of course, it’s my Sunbeam Mixmaster (of which I actually have two…one is a parts machine). Mum had one of these when we were kids (and still does) and so the Mixmaster is of course associated with childhood cakey goodness. HP bought me one last year and I do love it…even if I don’t cook much! In an ideal world, mine would be blue, green, pale yellow or pink, but the prices these colours fetch now is ridiculous! Mine was tucked away in the cupboard this morning, so I’ve relied on teh good ol’ interwebs for some Mixmaster prettiness:

Sunbeam Mixmaster, originally uploaded by Miss Retro Modern.

I’m pretty sure mine is the same model as Karen’s above, and I just have to find the small bowl still. I also have the juicer attachment, but I haven’t been game to try it out yet!

Sunbeam Mixmaster Manual (1939) Women in Aprons, originally uploaded by Rick Rack Attack!.

And look, for everything you EVER wanted to know about them, a delightful site here.

Flickr group for Mixmaster goodness is here.

This is…hosted by Three Buttons, this week’s theme courtesy of Handmaiden.

This is …show off time

A hard topic this week, contrary to my usual boofy behaviour, I’m not actually good at geniuinely showing off…you know, self esteem issues and all that. But for this week, I’ll show off an old picture of me taken when I was at uni, that my friend Jana took, that is half decent. I hate having my photo taken, and usually find the results cringeworthy. But this is one of a whole B&W roll of film of pics of me, I’ve lost most of the others, and I keep it as proof that I was young and sorta good looking once upon a time. Ahahhaha.

Thanks for this week’s topic Katie!

This is…what I wanted to be when I grew up

Laughter Captured, originally uploaded by Pink Sherbet Photography.

Cindy, apart from having a fab collection of furry coats, has picked a hard one for this week. You know, I can’t actually remember clearly, I had a phase where I wanted to be a nurse, and a zoo keeper (so I could get near the lions)…but nothing concrete. I never had dreams of a white wedding and being Mrs So-and-So, nor did I want to be a ballerina. Isn’t it funny how you thought you had to “be something” when you grew up, as opposed to just “being”?

When I was at high school and you had to make choices about these things, I went for Cartography and Architecture, with Art as a back up…but my maths sucked, so gave up on that one in year 11. Around this time I also wanted to play in a symphony orchestra when I “grew up”, but my parents didn’t think music was a serious job prospect. Somehow, after Uni, I ended up in a State Government job, with no idea still of where I really want to be or how I even got here. But that’s okay, now that I’m pushing 40, and I look at my circle of friends and family and realise that the important thing to “be” when you “grow up” is healthy and happy…and that happiness comes in various forms, not always the ones you dreamed of or expected when you were little. And I’m still hoping I’ll get there.

[Play along with "this is..." Hosted this week by Handmaiden]

This is…what I do with a spare 10 minutes

today’s cuppa 2, originally uploaded by drewzel.

Have a cuppa. Actually it’s about that time now.

This is, hosted by Handmaiden for Angela, current theme from Hoppobumpo.

This is…my favourite band

I don’t have a favourite band now…I have lots and lots! So like Curlypops and August street, I’m looking backwards… When I was a primary school kid I was obsessed with the Beatles, and then through my teens moved onto the Smiths.

The first time I remember hearing the Smiths was about 83, on Radio2SM’s Sunday night show, in all it’s crackly glory, going straight to a bedroom in Creswick.  [My sister and I had read all about Morrissey in the English pop magazine 'Smash Hits' - the bedroom walls were covered with her Duran Duran cutouts from that same mag] Then I remember seeing the vid for "How Soon is Now?" on Rock Arena a couple of years later.  The lyric "There’s a club if you’d like to go/you could meet somebody who really loves you/So you go and stand on your own/and you leave on your own/And you go home/and you cry and you want to die" appealed to the teenage me sooo much. 

My sis was the Smiths fan really, and when she moved out in about ’86, she’d bring home Smiths LPs and I’d tape ‘em.  My fave to this day is ‘Hatful of Hollow’ closesly followed by ‘The Queen is Dead’.   In HSC English Lit when we had to do an essay on song lyrics as poetry, my cool friend Kath did the Triffids, whereas I focused on the Smiths’ ‘There is a Light that Never Goes Out.’ By my early 20′s I’d become slightly embarrassed of my love for the Smiths’,  and who can forget local band Mr Floppy’s ’100000 Morrisseys’? (Well probably quite easily really – "what shall we do/what shall we do/when one hundred thousand Morrisseys come marching over the hill?") Now with the hindsight of the years, the songs stand up well.  And I still love them.  Thanks Moz.  Now that I think seriously about it, it probably wasn’t just teenage angst at all, I was chronically depressed, even back then. *sigh*

In year 11 I moved on to obsessing about the Wreckery…but that’s another story…

This is…hosted by Three Buttons and handmaiden while Angela is away.  And thanks to Cam for the grouse theme!