Vibrant embroidery through heavy eyelids

The last time I moved house I didn't sleep right for about 2 months. With my impending next move now less that 3 weeks away, the sleeplessness has just begun again. Oh, boy. The upside is I was done at work by 1.45pm and have had a blissful afternoon of veging out in front of TV of varying quality ranging from the crap (Entertainment Tonight and The Bold and the Beautiful - each full of freakishly proportioned semi-humans) and excellent (SBS Food Safari Pakistan edition. Mmm - Yum! and Seachange - I never saw it all those years ago).

The other lovely thing I've been doing this afternoon is exploring the world of Takashi Iwasaki's art and in particular his embroidery. I'm an instant fan!

Nyokinyokinijiirokousen by Takashi Iwasaki
Embroidery floss and canvas (hand embroidered)

Traffic Jam by Takashi Iwasaki

Mixed media on paper

Learning Auslan

For about 6 weeks now I've been attending Auslan classes at the Canberra Institute of Technology (CIT). Auslan is Australian Sign Language - the language of the Deaf community in Australia. (No, sign language is not universal - there are different sign languages all over the world, although Auslan is related to British Sign Language, in a similar way as Australian English is related to British English.) I am absolutely loving it. Our teachers are amazing and manage to make the 5-6 hours of classes a week fly by. I've been able to slot comfortably into a second-semester class with other students who have been learning the language for the past 6 months. I've been gobsmacked at this because it's been 9 years since I last studied Auslan and that was only one year at La Trobe University in Melbourne.

Words like proper nouns and technical terms are often spelled out quickly in Auslan according to their English spelling. "Reading" another person's fingerspelling is one of the skills that takes the longest to acquire, but it seems like I've picked up where I left off with this, which is wonderful.

Here is the two-handed alphabet in Auslan. It's the same as the British sign language alphabet. Some sign languages, such as the ones used in France, Ireland and America, for example only use one hand.

You can look up other signs at the Auslan Sign Bank, which is essentially an online dictionary.

Most people want to know why I am learning Auslan. For me it's not because I need to communicate with any people I know who already use the language as is the case for some of my classmates. I'm doing it because I think it's a beautiful language that for some reason it makes my soul happy. Maybe one day in the future I will have a professional use for it, but for now I'm happy just learning.

Exciting news

Back at the blog again after my first extended unexplained absence. For a while there it didn't please me to blog, but nothing much was pleasing me for a couple of weeks there. But things have turned around, as they always do and so this post is about a couple of things which have made me happy recently.

1. It's spring. Thank God winter is going away. This week, right on cue, flowers on the plum tree outside my bedroom window bloomed and I wasn't the only one to notice. I watched this Crimson Rosella munch flowers for at least 10 minutes this morning.

2. Here's the best news though: I bought a house! Yes, my months of househunting are finally over. There will be no more agonising over whether items on my wish list were really in the "must have" column or whether they were merely "desirable". There will be no more soul-searching over questions like, How much space in the garden do I really need? Would I really ride to work all that way every day? Is it really stupid to pay nearly 5% of my income in body corporate fees? Will my guests really mind sleeping in a second bedroom that is so small it could be mistaken for a cupboard? After seeing more than 40 homes before this and putting in 4 previous offers on other places and bidding in an auction, I finally nailed a sale! It took me about 3 seconds to know that I liked it and about 10 minutes to make an offer on the spot. Move in at the end of October. Can't wait! Now if I could just conjure up the same situation with a man...

Lovely north-facing garden.

Lovely sunny lounge room.

3. Had a good old scavenge at Second-hand Sunday today for stuff to put in the new house. Best find was a gilt-style picture frame around an oil painting that I don't really care for. So I'll carefully remove the picture and replace it with one of my photos, I think.


Then there are these awesome gum boots. Too small for me, but I have someone in mind who might like them.