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366 unusual things: days 279 – 283

5th Oct – Heard this morning that Rwanda has more females in parliament than any other country – about 56%.

6th Oct – At the clothing shop where my son works, several members of the Rebels bikie gang came in to buy jeans, black only.  And shirts, also black.  And long-sleeved – “Don’t wanna look like a faggot.”

7th Oct – Today I read a blog written in three languages.  http://lespetitspasdejuls.wordpress.com/2012/10/09/oh-my-god-im-a-teacher/

8th Oct – Met a girl today in the flesh.  I’d previously claimed I hadn’t met her, though we’d been introduced on Skype.  Can you say you’ve met someone if it was on Skype?

9th Oct – Asked 2 libraries to get me books from interstate; both of them charge $16.50 for 2 weeks’ borrowing.  But I’ve also found the books for sale online and can buy second-hand copies for less than the library charges, and they won’t take much longer to arrive from overseas than books from interstate.

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Weekly photo challenges: Happy & Animals

Today there are two photo challenges that I can meet with one photo:  the weekly WordPress challenge to find a Happy photo, and Ailsa’s challenge to show animal photos.  She has posted some excellent animal snaps to celebrate World Animal Day on 4th October:  http://wheresmybackpack.com/2012/10/05/travel-theme-animals/

My picture does for both challenges.  It comes from an album of WWII photos that my father brought home in 1941.  Beneath this one he wrote ‘Syrian Bint’.  The dictionary tells me that ‘bint’ is colloquial and perhaps offensive, but then, its origin is Arabic, meaning girl or daughter.  So I’ll leave it as it is.

She’s beautiful.

Syrian bint, c 1941
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366 unusual things: days 274 – 278

30th Sep – Listened to a beautiful voice singing ‘What a friend we have in Jesus’ to the tune of Bette Midler’s ‘The Rose’.  This can also be done with ‘Amazing Grace’ and ‘House of the Rising Sun’ and the theme from Gilligan’s Island.  Keep the tunes, change the words.

1st Oct – Watched one of many episodes of a documentary about the Amish.  It’s unusual that so many thousands of people manage to remain separate from the rest of the Western world.  But for a safe and healthy life, the price is living with motorless transport and gas lanterns and fetching water.  Not to mention hands-off courtships.

2nd Oct – After watching several episodes about the Amish, I chose not to drive my car today because I have a perfectly functional pushbike.  I didn’t regret riding it.

3rd Oct – An author I work for always closes the door to the room where we work in her house, even though no one else is there.

4th Oct – Read about King Solomon’s 1000 women.  ‘Solomon held fast to them in love,’ the writer of 1 Kings tells us.  For a thousand nights he could hold fast to a different woman each night, then start again.  Wonder what the Amish think about him…

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Weekly photo challenge: Mine

I’ve been reluctant to respond to the theme of ‘mine’ – it struck me as a request to show how self-centred and unsharing we can be sometimes.  However, I’ve just realised that I have something I’m pleased to call ‘mine’ because I’ve been using a borrowed one for 15 months.  I don’t need to hang onto it very tightly:  it’s one of those things that no one else would ever want!

In June last year I began working on the translation of a story, reading from a library book which I was the first to borrow since the 1980s.  The story was so good that I soon tried to buy my own copy.  But it’s such a peculiar title and edition that my worldwide search turned up nothing.  Until 2 weeks ago.  I was reminded that persistence pays.

Here’s the library book I’ve been using, printed in 1980:

‘Un Hiver à Majorque’ in ‘Oeuvres Complètes’, George Sand, printed 1980

And here’s ‘mine’, the edition which rewarded my relentless searching.  It came from a bookshop in Geneva complete with an old folded 1920 invoice between its pages.  I was thrilled to find that the book is the original of the library version, meaning the page numbers are the same and I don’t have to rearrange my notes.

‘Un Hiver à Majorque’ and ‘Spiridion’, George Sand, printed 1867

My book is so fragile that page shards are appearing on every surface where I work with it.  But it’s mine and I don’t have to return it to a library.  Every one of its readers from the past 145 years is inspiring me as I translate its words for a new century of readers.

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366 unusual things: days 269 – 273

25th Sep – My son recited pi to 81 decimal places.

26th Sep – My Chinese student gave me a box of Moon Cakes to celebrate mid-autumn (in mid-spring).  Normally they have a dried raw egg at the centre – that’s the moon.  Mine are moonless.

27th Sep – In my husband’s car, a song title, incorrectly entered by someone in the process of ripping my CD, appeared on a digital screen in the centre of the dash, in big letters, as “Chest of Draws” instead of “Chest of Drawers” by Jenny Biddle.  It’s one of my favourite songs so I looked out the window until it was over.

28th Sep – Read on a French news site that J.K. Rowling’s new novel was released in English on Thursday and in French on Friday.  That’s confidence in her writing.  And the translator’s.

29th Sep – At the National Portrait Gallery today, saw a new and amazing portrait of the Queen in a reflective mood, painted by an Australian artist, Ralph Heimans.

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Ailsa's travel photo challenge: Foliage

Ailsa has posted photos of autumn foliage this week and challenged us to do the same.  Check out her photos:  http://wheresmybackpack.com/2012/09/28/travel-theme-foliage/

I have no idea what season it is in my photo (or rather, my father’s photo), but I’m guessing that in this boy’s part of the world it’s always warm enough to climb a tree.  In bare feet!  The photo suits not so much a foliage theme as a trunk theme.  But if the boy climbs for long enough he’ll get to the foliage and more importantly to the dates.

Boy climbing date palm, Egypt, c1941
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366 unusual things: days 264 – 268

20th Sep – Looked at a lagoon and a lizard on a log.

Frill-necked lizard, Korora Bay, NSW

21st Sep – Saw four dead gum trees on the clifftop boardwalk in front of a mansion with million-dollar views.  A huge Council sign says:  “These trees have been POISONED”.

22nd Sep – After 14 months of searching for an out-of-print book, I’ve obtained an 1867 edition, its spine broken, back cover torn, but entire.

23rd Sep – Heard on a documentary that enough sunlight falls on Australia in two days to power the whole world for a year.

24th Sep – An author sent me a manuscript to read and is eager to know if I’ll translate it.  Oh yeah!

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Weekly photo challenge: Solitary

Another photo from my father’s war album.  Table Mountain in Cape Town looks like a good place to be solitary (unless you’re with troops on their way to war).

This nurse wears the military uniform of Queensland nurses who joined up in 1940 and 1941 to accompany troops to the Middle East.  I don’t know her name but I hope someone sees the photo some day and recognises her.

My father praised the nurses in his poetry.  And when he returned home and married my mother, he wanted their first child, my sister, to be named after a particular nurse who had cared for him in the army hospital in Kantara near Cairo.

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366 unusual things: days 259 – 263

15th Sep – At a chocolate shop/café my cup of coffee came with melted chocolate dribbled, apparently decoratively, down the outside of the cup.  It ended up on my fingers in a great mess.

16th Sep – Went to a church in this seaside town where we are holidaying.  It looked conservative from the outside but the music was hypnotic, the last song line repeated 16 times, and the preacher didn’t preach;  he prayed for troubled souls until they fell on the floor.  I’ve heard of this but never seen it before.

17th Sep – Walking to the beach we passed a refugee and his sons.  We smiled and said Hi;  he hesitated, nodded ever so slightly, but didn’t smile.  I wondered what he was thinking.

18th Sep – Found out that a short piece I submitted to a magazine has been published, including two photos which I had taken for this blog.  Only, they attributed the writing to another Trish!  The editor promised to place a correction in the next issue.

19th Sep – Went to the porpoise pool and got kissed by a dolphin and a seal.

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Ailsa's travel photo challenge: White

Ailsa proposes a White theme in honour of the International Day of Peace on 21st September.  That’s today.

See her white things here:   http://wheresmybackpack.com/2012/09/20/travel-theme-white/

Some people, she says, observe a minute’s silence at midday, but that time has already passed for me.  It’s just after two in the afternoon and I’ve just received her email.  Still, I can observe it with my photo of two white figures on the steps of a white church, Le Basilique du Sacré-Cœur, in Paris.  As I stood watching this scene (2 years ago), it was mid-morning mid-week which confused me when I saw the bride.  She posed for so many shots that I wondered if she were modelling.  If she had indeed just been married, then her husband must have been a very patient man.

The other figure that looks like a white statue isn’t.  He’s another very patient man.

Le Basilique du Sacré-Cœur, Paris