Educating Alice, by Alice Greenup

'A girlfriend should know her place, Alice. First comes the mates, then the ute, then his hat, dogs, horses and last of all the girlfriend. Get that right and you might just stick around. Try to jump the queue and you’re history.’
‘Well then, I’ll just have to be his mate.’
‘Girls can’t be mates, Alice.’
‘We’ll see.’

From this book:

I was lucky enough to win this book after a contest on Bush Babe's blog and it showed up at my doorstep last week, after hoofing it all the way from Down Under to my doorstep in downtown Montreal. (The link answers the questions we posed to Alice, the author.)

I've had a fascination with All Things Australian since I read My Brilliant Career by Miles Franklin and then saw the movie with Judy Davis and a very young Sam Neill. (sidenote: If you have a Kindle, you can download My Brilliant Career for free!) Written in 1901 and set in the Australian Outback, My Brilliant Career is about a headstrong young woman named Sybilla, smart, spirited and very rebellious, this is a woman who lives life on her terms.  She flips the bird to a traditional life when she refuses to marry and settle down. There's drought, a father who drinks and lands the family in debt, and ultimately triumph when she chooses a life of her making, that of a writer. And funnily enough, Educating Alice has a lot of these elements too.

I began Educating Alice with the hope that this might be a juicy, real life Australian adventure, and I was not disappointed. In fact, it has an opening that did not allow me to put the book down until I read it straight through to the end.

This is the memoir of Alice Greenup, a self-described city chick from Melbourne who at eighteen years old, tells her mum she's leaving university to "find herself" then hops on the back of a motorbike driven by her brother's mate. On a whim, she lands herself a job as a governess on a Queensland cattle station and falls in love not only with a handsome "jackaroo" but eventually, life in the bush. They end up marrying and buying a homestead of their own, but along the way there are many obstacles to overcome as she learns about cattle, drought and real life in the bush. Greenup offers a brutal and unflinching look at her life, and we learn this is one very determined and tenacious woman. She tackles all challenges head-on, and not just severe drought and financial setbacks, but most especially, an accident which she describes in such vivid detail it gave me chills. That she went on to become a winner in the Meat and Livestock Australia when she couldn't tell a bull from a cow, or that she fought her inner demons (she calls these dark thoughts her whispering "genie") and won Australian Women's Weekly's Most Inspiring Rural Woman is a testament to her courage and fortitude.

Besides enjoying the story of her life, I took particular delight in the discovery of new words and expressions that are unique to Australia. I kept a list of things I looked up, words and expressions that are second nature to Aussies but foreign to a girl from Canada. Here are some that made me smile:

A dingo's breakfast -  a "piss and a good look around."

"Farmers have built-in wanker radar." (So true.)

Jackaroo (and the female equivalent, jillaroo) - one who works on a cattle or sheep farm

Smoko - afternoon tea in the Outback (and by "outback" I don't mean a Subaru)

Larrikin - (loved this one)  a "mischievous or frolicsome youth"

Akubra - type of Australian cowboy hat, handled and worn in a Very Specific Way. Available in Montreal, should I ever wish to acquire one for myself, though now I'm afraid to touch one in case I pick it up incorrectly and embarrass myself. Maybe I'll stick to touques.

Ute - this is the Australian equivalent of the pickup truck.  I think it's short for Utility Vehicle

Bogey - shower (not a nose nugget)

Waddy - strange

Humpy - a small, temporary shelter made of tree branches and bark, used by Aboriginal Australians

Bitumen - asphalt road

Besser bricks - cast concrete blocks

Eskies - Aussie slang for portable coolers, also known as a "chilly bin" in New Zealand

Baked lamingtons - squares of sponge cake, dipped in chocolate and rolled in coconut.  Usually seen at school fairs and bake sales. This, in and of itself, is enough to make me want to go.

Brumbies in the sand hills - meat and veg mixed with batter and fried

Doona - it's a duvet!

So there you have it. 

If you'd like to read Alice's book, and you live outside Australia, you have three options.

1. Go to a bookstore in Australia.

2. Visit me in Montreal and read my copy.

3. Order it in eBook form for your Kindle.

There are no physical copies are available in the U.S., Canada or U.K. because the publishers are wankers. Not really. I just wanted to put my new found vocabulary to the test. I don't know if soft or hard cover copies are available in Sweden, Togo or Croatia either, but I rather doubt it. Again, wankers. But you know, this is the beauty of the Kindle. You can be anywhere in the world and download this book and be reading it in minutes!

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to whip up a batch of brumbies in the sandhills and lamingtons after I've had a nice, hot bogey.

Fast Food for the Soul

When people

undermine your dreams,

predict your doom,

or criticize you,

remember,

they're telling you

their story,

not yours.

cynthia occelli

Kick Your What Ifs In The Butt

Always go out there

fearless,

without hesitation,

and

give it

everything you've got.

Because if you don't,

you will always ask yourself,

"Did I do enough?"

As long as you can answer

yes, yes I did,

then it's okay.

AddendumdumDUM: I'm putting my answer here instead of the comment section because I want to make sure a certain someone sees it.

As long as you give any effort everything you have, even if you fail, you will be able to say at least I tried and I did my best.

The worst thing, the absolute worst, is not to try at all, or make a half-assed attempt because you're afraid of what people will think or you convince yourself you can't do it.

Go to the edge and jump.

GO TO THE EDGE AND FUCKING JUMP!

Do not listen to other people. Most people are cowards. And those cowards love to tell others "you can't do it" because they're too afraid to try themselves, and pulling you back justifies THEIR decision not to try.

Failing is not something losers do.

Failing is something winners do, repeatedly, until they succeed.

Real failure is not trying.

Why Big Dreams Matter

"Everything is incredible and people don't accept it."

No one has the right to tell anyone else that what they're doing is unimportant.

If it matters to you, then do it.

Stay with it.

Never give up.

Meet Agustin, from Siguatepeque, Honduras.

Ravaged by childhood polio.

Confined to a wheelchair.

Lived his entire life in poverty.

Worked as a shoemaker.

He decided to build a helicopter using pieces of scrap metal collected at the dump.

And pieces from his new wheelchair, sent from the U.S.

He began in 1958.

1958.

When you are tempted to give up, think about Agustin.

Beautiful People Don't Just Happen

found right here

A Most Excellent Way to Start the New Year

Inspiration

Attitude is Altitude. Or to put it another way, if you're tempted to whinge and complain about your life, consider the next video.

Meet Nick Vujicic, from No Arms, No Legs, No Worries. This amazing Aussie says,

"Motivation gets you through the day, but inspiration lasts a lifetime."

Stop what you're doing, watch this, and be inspired. Believe me when I tell you it's worth four minutes of your time.

Nick's website, and the rest of his story, is here.

Thanks for bringing this to my attention, Kathy Down The Road! (And is there any chocolate cake left?)

And I feel compelled to mention our own homegrown inspiration, Montreal's Lazylegz.

Luca "Lazylegz" Patuelli was born with arthrogryposis, a disorder that affects bone structure and muscular growth but not, apparently, break-dancing which he's been doing from the age of 15. Look closely. You'll see lots of cool shots of our city in the background. (The building you see around 1:25 is my old office building! Which probably excites no one but me. Carry on...)



And if your heart can stand it, read this story about a tire iron and tamale. I literally wept all over my cereal when I read this over breakfast this morning, then I cut it out (the article, not the crying) and taped it to a kitchen cupboard so I could re-read it a few times. It just really got to me. Amazing what one little tamale in the right hands can do.

Your little ticker's cockles will be toasty warm after reading this piece. Trust.

Why It's Okay To Suck

Maggie Stiefvater, best-selling author, artist, musician and wise woman, offers up some advice on why it's okay to suck at something. She is talking about learning to play the bagpipes, and how it applies to writing or drawing or knitting or taking photographs or anything else in life you choose to try.

Becoming good at something is not just about diligent practice, although that is part of it, but also about being terrible, I mean really sucking at something, but not letting that part define you or convince you to give up.

Learn to persevere. Keep at it. Then you won't suck anymore.

I believe it was Yoda or maybe Churchill who said, "Life's real failure is when you do not realize how close you were to success when you gave up."

And it was Churchill, or maybe Yoda, who also said, "Do, or do not. There is no try."

It was definitely Churchill who said, "Success is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm."

And Groucho Marx said, "Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana."

So hop to it. Stay with it. Succeed and then sing about it from the rooftops. Or pick up your bagpipes. Whatever floats your boat.

And in other news, I am not heading downtown to pick up my new car today. Yesterday, it was so hot I was in shorts to walk the Budster and we both came home panting from the heat. Today? This is what I woke up to. A record breaker. Because Mother Fricking Nature likes nothing better than to rain on someone's parade. Unless it's snowing on someone's parade.




(Psst. Don't forget to have a look at the landscape photos in the post before this one and let me know which ones ring your bell.)

The Benefits of Failure

And the benefits of choosing ancient wisdom over career ladders.

Every once in a while I stumble upon something - a video, a poem, a speech, a book - that really inspires me, and calls me back again and again to fill up my creative wellspring which sometimes comes close to running dry.

Set aside a few minutes of your day to listen to J.K. Rowling's brilliant Harvard Commencement Address. I can never finish it without tears. You can also read the entire transcript HERE.

Some highlights:

I was set free because my greatest fear had been realized.

I had an old typewriter and a big idea. And so rock bottom became a solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life.

Some failure is inevitable.

It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all, in which case, you fail by default.

You will never truly know yourself or the strength of your relationships until both have been tested by adversity.

Personal happiness lies in knowing that life is not a checklist of acquisition or achievement. Your qualifications, your CV, are not your life.

What we achieve inwardly will change outer reality. Plutarch

The great majority of you belong to the world's only remaining superpower. The way you vote, the way you live, the way you protest, the pressure you bring to bear on your government, has an impact way beyond your borders. That is your privilege and your burden.

If you choose to use your status and influence to raise your voice on behalf of those who have no voice, if you choose to identify not only with the powerful but with the powerless, if you retain the ability to imagine yourself into the lives of those who do not have your advantages, then it will not only be your proud families who celebrate your existence, but thousands and millions of people whose reality you have helped changed. We do not need magic to transform our world. We carry all the power we need inside ourselves already. We have the power to imagine better.

J.K. Rowling Speaks at Harvard Commencement from Harvard Magazine on Vimeo.

Scum, a few loose screws and ingenuity

For years, I'm talkin' years people, a leaky pipe underneath the aptly named Hell Gate Bridge has been causing a major disruption on a busy sidewalk in Astoria, Queens. In summer, the entire width of the sidewalk, more than a hundred square feet, is covered with a stinking cesspool. In winter it's even worse as an icy scum-rink stretches to the curb. It even has a name.

The Astoria Scum River.

Despite numerous complaints, the city has lounged on its bloated duff and done nothing to fix the problem. That is, until a guy named Jason Eppink decided to tackle the problem. Taking matters (and a hammer) into his own hands, he gathered bits and pieces of recycled materials like a discarded work bench and used screws, then he got to work. On December 30th, 2009, he built a bridge spanning seven whole feet across this frozen sludgsicle, finally offering safe passage to the innocent wayfarers of Astoria.

He called it The Astoria Scum River Bridge.

On January 25, 2010, city council was finally shamed into fixing the problem.

Jason says of himself, "my work crosses the line between art, activism and pranks."

If you want to read more and see photos of the Bridge Over The River Slime, go to Jason's post HERE and another article and followup at NO OOZE IS GOOD NEWS.

Hip, hip to the power of One!

Your But Is Too Big

No, not that kind of butt.


I mean the kind of "but" that slows you down and prevents you from reaching your full potential.

To all those writers out there who need a bit of inspiration, get off your butts and check out Nathan Branford's guest blogger Jon Gibb and what he has to say about Writers' Buts.

A bit of a grumble, and some inspiration

Like many writers, I have my ups and downs. I've been sick since Easter with this rotten cold, and therefore unable to sleep properly or commit fully to the exercise goal I set, and have been following, since January. (A minimum 10,000 steps a day, made more interesting by charting it on a virtual trek across the UK. I'm stalled somewhere around the 310 miles marker in Chesterfield and creeping slowly forward, which is very nice but I'd like to get the heck out of Dodge at this point.) Even my writing has been suffering the last few weeks as I haven't written as much as I should. Okay, not should, as much as I'd like to.

So I'm mired. Flopping about in the mud of Chesterfield while simultaneously wringing my hands and whinging about it (now there's a mental picture.)

But I'm on the mend, and working my way up to my 10,000 daily steps again. And the writing? I have to constantly remind myself that the writing is about me, and not anyone else, and that negative thinking is counter productive. If I critique what I'm writing before I'm finished, or ponder whether or not what I write even has a market, I'm sabotaging the work. It is immaterial at this point and it only bogs me down. The only solution is to just sit my bum in a chair and do the work, without over-thinking it. It's odd, but I don't seem to have this problem with photography. I'm still learning, make lots (lots!) of mistakes, but it doesn't stop me from getting out in the field and fooling around. I still feel that keen sense of excitement that the work brings.
So, what metaphorical smack upside the head works on that inner critic? By understanding and accepting that fear is normal, that a lot if not most artists feel it, but the successful ones just keep on creating. I used to think this kind of thinking was idealistic and therefore foolish, but I have come to realize that idealistic and optimistic are two very different things, and that the latter, when it is applied to writing or anything else in life (like walking my 10,000 steps) is more likely to bear fruit. (Mmm, fruit. Strawberries and whipped cream....)

There is a great little book called ART & FEAR: OBSERVATIONS ON THE PERILS (AND REWARDS) OF ARTMAKING by David Bayles and Ted Orland. This excerpt really rang true for me. They write about a ceramics teacher who, on the first day, divided the class into two groups.

"All those on the left side of the studio, he said, would be graded solely on the quantity of work they produced, all those on the right solely on its quality. His procedure was simple: on the final day of class, he would bring in this bathroom scales and weigh the work of the "quantity" group: fifty pounds of pots rated an "A", forty pounds a "B", and so on. Those being graded on "quality", however, needed to produce only one pot - albeit a perfect one - to get an "A".

Well, came grading time and a curious fact emerged: the works of highest quality were all produced by the group being graded for quantity. It seems that while the "quantity" group was busily churning out piles of work - and learning from their mistakes - the "quality" group had sat theorizing about perfection, and in the end had little more to show for their efforts than grandiose theories and a pile of dead clay."

So what's the lesson here?

Get out there and play with your lumps?

A different way to think about creative genius

Another great TED lecture on creativity, this one by Elizabeth Gilbert who wrote EAT, PRAY, LOVE. She talks about success and the impossible expectations we impose on artists. It's inspiring and really funny and smart and spiritual, just like Elizabeth herself.

Sometimes what follows a brilliant performance in dance, say, or an author's first novel hitting the bestsellers list, is anguish. There is a belief secretly harboured by the artist that maybe once executed this thing can't ever again be duplicated, that expectations can never again be met. Elizabeth says that maybe one doesn't have to be quite so full of despair. That perhaps there is a glimpse of the divine (or at least, a "divine cockeyed genius") in all great creative work, and we just have to view it in a different light.

"If you never happen to believe in the first place, that the most extraordinary aspects of your being came from you, but maybe if you just believed they were on loan to you, you know, from some unimaginable source, for some exquisite portion of your life to be passed along, when you're finished with somebody else."

Dance. Write. You might be touched by the divine, or not.

But just do it. And don't ever stop.

Feeling deep today

...so I dipped into my inspiration file and found this:

If you want to find joy in your life, you begin by changing how you think.

Your feelings turn into your thoughts,
Your thoughts turn into your words,
Your words turn into your beliefs,
Your beliefs turn into your behavior,
And your behavior turns into action
which produces a result or reality.

Abraham-Hicks

And if that doesn't work for you, try chocolate.