Once again, I've been slack in my posts.
I don't have too terribly much to comment on, actually!

First of all, I simply must share this cute quote I stumbled upon:
All of us are born with a set of instinctive fears - of falling, of the dark, of lobsters, of falling on lobsters in the dark, or speaking before a Rotary Club, and of the words "Some Assembly Required”. --AUTHOR UNKNOWN

I am very happy to say that I have been officially inducted as a member of the Rotaract Club of Sydney City. I'm very excited to be a Rotaractor again, as I have thoroughly enjoyed my previous experience in Rotaract and had hoped to continue my participation. I am getting old, too...sadly, in a couple of years I won't be able to be a Rotaractor anymore, so it's nice to enjoy Rotaract while I can! (Then it's on to the bigger membership fees of Rotary (eeek!)

I am going to be directing a performing arts evening at a local primary school soon. I'm currently searching online for the internationall-themed plays that will be performed. I've suggested perhaps a dinner theatre, and I'm hoping that if they (being the principal and other administrators at the school) are keen, I'm going to suggest that the funds we raise go toward purchasing some school supplies for rural Aussie kids. I'm also suggesting a few other fun extras for the evening, but I'll not mention those just yet---it would ruin the element of surprise! *Mwahahahaha...*

I have a few speaking engagements coming up. I think I may have already mentioned these in a previous post, but after a while all the posts begin to run together, so my apologies if this is old news:
30th JULY: Rotary Club of Menai
6th AUGUST: Rotary Club of Parramatta City
4th SEPTEMBER: Rotary Club of Sydney Inner-West
5th SEPTEMBER: Rotary Club of Mosman
IN THE WORKS: Rotary Club of Sydney Darling Harbour
POTENTIALLY: Rotary Club of Dee Why-Warringah
Also, Judith and I will be visiting a club while in Broadbeach, although I'm not sure which club meeting we'll be attending. That will be exciting, as the club will be out-of-state and outside of my host district.

I don't have a lot else to comment on just now. I'll post more updates and further information soon.

Visit the RAC website:
Rotaract Club of Sydney City

I needed something mindless to do, so I just took the Which Fraggle Rock Character Are You? Quiz. Simply given the nature of this blog I felt it necessary to post the results (below). I wouldn't call Australians "Silly Creatures", though!
Anyhow...I LOVE Traveling Matt! He was one of my favorites.




Which Fraggle Rock character are you? You scored as a Traveling Matt Fraggle

You left everything you knew in Fraggle Rock to begin the exploration of the last great frontier of Fraggledom – Outer Space. You send postcards back to your nephew in the Rock from time to time to impart your wisdom to him in hopes that the brave service to all Fragglekind will be beneficial to those who need it. You're not sure that you want to come back home because the world of the Silly Creatures is very interesting.

I have made the most frightening amount of chili ever to have been cooked in one pot (well...not really, but I did make a lot!). My flatmate asked me if I used an Army recipe (specifically one to feed an entire platoon). *sigh* There was a time in my life when I loved to cook, but now (and especially after moments such as the Great 2007 Chili Incident of Undercliffe Road) I can't be bothered! I really, truly am beginning to dislike cooking.

I can just imagine my conversations for the next following months will focus primarily on the types of dishes that can be made incorporating a chili base. Imagine Bubba from Forrest Gump, only substituting chili for shrimp...chili cheese fries, chili jacket potatoes, chili and pasta...

I trekked out to Narrabeen on Sunday to assist with a Dee Why-Warringah BBQ at the Berry Reserve Markets. It's really lovely out in the Northern Beaches region. There are some truly gorgeous ocean views! I didn't get to snoop around much and explore, but I intend to go back soon and maybe spend studying out by the beach.

Narrabeen (above)

This is completely not related to Narrabeen or to anything I've really done lately, but it does pertain to where I'm from (literally)...

To me, it makes me realize just how fortunate I am to have this opportunity to study abroad. Obviously, I know of the poverty of my home region, and it's not something I forget about, but sometimes it's easy to take things for granted and to become a bit shortsighted.

Poverty tour returns to Kentucky
By SAMIRA JAFARI, Associated Press Tue Jul 17, 5:18 PM ET

As a 17-year-old living in one of the poorest counties in Appalachia, Evelyn Cosgriff eagerly listened to Robert F. Kennedy's early morning speech on Feb. 14, 1968 at the Letcher County Courthouse. His speech was brief, but passionate.

"There are great possibilities in eastern Kentucky," Kennedy told the crowd on this stop of his two-day, 200-mile poverty tour. "But there have to be people who are going to fight for eastern Kentucky."

"We thought he would be our savior," said Cosgriff, now 55 and still living in Whitesburg.
Nearly 40 years later, the towns on Kennedy's poverty tour continue to struggle with poverty. This week, Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards is making them a part of his own poverty tour, shifting the spotlight to the issue and in the process, linking himself to a Democratic icon.
But some eastern Kentuckians are less hopeful this time around.

"I don't think people around here will take it as seriously," said Cosgriff, a secretary for a local arts center.
Indeed, poverty tours are nothing new around these hills. President Clinton, the late Minnesota Sen. Paul Wellstone, the Rev. Jesse Jackson, Massachusetts Sen. Edward M. Kennedy and Martin Luther King III, son of the famed civil rights leader, have all trekked through central Appalachia on poverty tours — though many remember Robert Kennedy's as the most genuine and meaningful.
Lyndon Johnson declared his war on poverty here in 1964.

Edwards' tour began Sunday night in New Orleans' Lower Ninth Ward, still reeling from Hurricane Katrina. He traveled to sites in Mississippi, Arkansas, Tennessee, Ohio and Pennsylvania, and plans stops in Virginia on Wednesday before wrapping up with a visit to Whitesburg and a speech in Prestonsburg, Ky. — where Kennedy ended his poverty tour at the Floyd County Courthouse.
Still, Edwards has lost some of his credibility in this predominantly Democratic region. They don't forget $400 haircuts around here.
"A haircut's a haircut. You can get the same one for $10," said James Rudd, a 28-year-old Whitesburg resident who's spent the past 10 years mining coal. "If he's so big on poverty, then why don't he give the other $390 to some homeless person?"

Edwards' campaign has said his lifestyle of means shouldn't hurt his candidacy, pointing out the nation's 37 million living in poverty and that nearly all the leading candidates running for president in 2008 are wealthy, as well as those in the past who have championed poverty — including Kennedy.

In the past four decades, much has improved here. Four-lane highways have opened communities to retailers and chain restaurants and, thus, more jobs. Regional hospitals have put health care within reach. Community colleges have expanded into the mountains, making higher education affordable.
Yet, mobile homes built shortly after Kennedy's visit are now rusting and inadequate. People in remote hollows still await water lines. Many feel chained to coal mining — a fluctuating industry that's left many jobless due to mechanization.

Nearly 25 percent of residents in both Letcher and Floyd counties live below poverty, according to U.S. Census figures. It's an improvement from 40 years ago, when 40 percent of Letcher and 60 percent of Floyd lived below poverty, but remains a major problem. The median household income in most eastern Kentucky counties is at or below $25,000, with individuals making an average $12,000.

"If you compare the eastern Kentucky of today with the eastern Kentucky of the 1960s, then we are a very prosperous area," said Tom Gish, who has published the Mountain Eagle newspaper in Whitesburg for more than 50 years. "But if you ask me do I consider the area prosperous, I'd say no."

While Gish believes that poverty tours in the past have been "mostly rhetoric," he said it wouldn't hurt for another to come through and highlight the problems again.
Edwards "will just have to prove himself," added John Malpede, a Los Angeles-based documentary filmmaker who worked with eastern Kentuckians for a 2004 reenactment project, called "RFK in EKY," to rekindle Kennedy's 1968 visit. "People there can smell a phony. They are very acute judges of sincerity and integrity. They'll make the verdict."
Still, he applauded Edwards for tackling the touchy issue of poverty: "I think the case could be made that he's more credible and sincere than other candidates who don't want to touch it with a 10-foot pole."

Cecil Newsome, a 58-year-old disabled coal miner in Teaberry, a small community in Floyd County, was looking forward to Edwards' speech in Prestonsburg.
"He's for the working people and that's one thing that we need," Newsome said.
"He's not outgrown his roots. He was raised hard but he's been blessed to grow and prosper with money and it's not gone to his head," Newsome added. "He's like the Kennedys — they're down to earth people."

Eula Hall, the founder of a Floyd County clinic that serves the needy, said any effort to give national attention to poverty in the region should be encouraged.
Hall was a 41-year-old mother of four when Kennedy stopped in Prestonsburg. She didn't get a chance to hear him speak, but she says the problems today are nearly as bad as they were then.
"We didn't have running water, we didn't have a clinic, no black lung compensation," said Hall. "We still have poverty, a lack of jobs, education and affordable health care."
She hoped that Edwards' visit will result in change.
"In one trip, he ain't going to learn everything, but it'll help," Hall said.

Copyright © 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.

A Day in Parramatta

I spent pretty much the whole of Thursday in Parramatta. It was something of a school day for me on a number of levels...

The trip was intially arranged as a visit to Rotary Down Under House, where the Rotary Down Under Magazine is overseen. I started the day with a ferry ride down the Parramatta River which was just shy of an hour in duration. It was a lovely morning---so sunny and warm! It was so nice to relax, enjoy the sights from the river and read The Australian as we coasted westwardly. En route, and while wandering around, I composed a few lines of verse to sort of sum up what I saw...

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MORNING ON THE FERRY...
tired mangrove trees rise and slump from a swampy bed of tack-like scrub,
dipping heavy boughs toward the muddy Parramatta;
their lower leaves,
once bold green,
now mud-dusted and dull.

herons stand perched on water-polished stones,
phoenix-like;
their wings drying in early sunlight and cool breeze of morning.

AFTERNOON IN THE PARK...
from the bark-peeled trees comes the discordant
throaty laughs and purrs of birds
as a lone grounded magpie struts,
beak bobbing,
over dead leaves and scattered twigs
searching for some sign of sustenance
amid the humic decay.

------------------------------------------------------------

I had an absolutely lovely time meeting the folks who run the magazine and act as the administrative arm of Rotary Down Under. I found it a wonderful way to learn a bit more about Rotary in Australia, as well. I was given a great deal of information regarding the programs run by Rotary and how they are faciliated and administered.

I am running out of time, as I need to get to Just Enough Faith soon! Instead of providing a report on the two tours I went on, I am providing links below for folks to research them. The two locations: Old Government House and Elizabeth Farm, are very interesting places, and they figure largely in NSW and Australian history...so do check them out!

Old Government House

Elizabeth Farm

Sydney has gotten slightly cooler the past few weeks. I know, I know...it was necessary to experience a little "winter" for a change. I suppose if I were to liken the Sydney winter to a Kentucky season, I would say--in terms of temperature--it feels a bit like early spring. Interestingly, I find winter in Sydney to be rather like the winter I experienced when I was studying in South Africa. The day can be cool/breezy, yet the sun can still be very intense and warm at times.

I went to Balmain to assist with a Rotary BBQ on Saturday, and since the sun was shining and it seemed warm out, I left out wearing a t-shirt and no coat. What I didn't realize was that while the sun was shining and quite warm, the breeze was fairly cool. If you were to be in Sydney City at around 3 p.m., you would have noticed me as the only person in the City who WASN'T "rugged up"! I, of course, wound up with a slight sunburn and a chill (the latter inevitably fostered the runny nose I woke up with on Sunday). Ah, yes, silly me. Either way, I have learned my lesson: never underestimate the weather of Australia. Looks can certainly be deceptive!

Needless to say, I have a lovely time BBQing. I have become very fond of BBQs (granted, I always enjoyed having one back home, but the Aussie BBQs are classic). In fact, I'm on the list for a number of Rotary clubs to be called out for BBQ duty! ha ha ha...
This is completely irrelevant, but I must add a dialogue below that comes to mind when I use the phrase "a number of...":
*(Pardon me as I become Sophia-esque) Picture it: Pikeville College, 2003. I'm an undergraduate at Pikeville College and I am working as Dr. (Lori) Kepford's assistant.
Lori: (Handing me a sheet of paper) Make a number of copies.
Me: Any particular number?
Okay, so maybe it's only funny to me---but I recall completely cracking up when that little conversation took place.

Right...
So, Saturday I went to a BBQ and on Sunday I did some studying and chopped fruit at Just Enough Faith. I'm getting way too pampered for my own good. My delicate hands are the hands of a student who hasn't done manual labor in a long time (I did work on a few archaeological sites---so I do know what manual labor is like!). I actually developed a blister from chopping fruit today. A BLISTER!
Still...I had a nice time. I got to be a guinea pig/taste-tester. I'm always up for food! :D
The chef made a really nice mushroom soup that makes me want to make mushroom soup, too! I'm so lazy---I truly can't be bothered to puree the mushrooms!
My flatmate says I am very American in my approach to cooking---if it takes longer than 5 minutes, I can't be bothered. She, however, will make dishes that take AGES to prepare. She's Australian, though...she's not a lazy American.
To be honest, I do enjoy cooking---sometimes (if I don't feel like I could be doing about 30 other things). What I REALLY enjoy is baking. I love to bake breads and I do enjoy making soups. I think it's time for potato soup or chicken and dumplings!

I am giving a presentation tomorrow to a non-Rotary club. I'm excited to be giving another presentation! I haven't presented in nearly a month! (Wish me luck!)

There really isn't much going on, nor is there much on the horizon (aside from the usual, which is enough to keep me busy!). Oh! I do have to say that I'm hoping to get Pikeville and Balmain RCs linked through a project that Judith is running. I suppose the idea to get the P'ville club involved with this Balmain project is going to the club board this Wednesday. I think it will be really neat to have my two favorite clubs linked though an international project.

That's all there is to report on for now!
I'll post another time when I have more to go on about.