This made for a strange antennae like look and had me very confused. Matt solved the mystery. The cable ties scare off magpies. There are often reports on the news of Magpies swooping to protect their nest and taking out some poor persons eye or making cuts large enough to need stitches. Who knew Magpies could be shooed away by cable ties? I learn something new everyday!
"My name is Morgan Hayton I am 16 years old. I have spent my winter school holidays for two years in Fiji volunteering at local school as part of my schools mission team. We visited a very remote school that is struggling and has only a handful of books in the whole school, the teachers there can only dream of starting a library. Have you ever wanted to change the world? But think it is impossible because we are just one person me too. But then I came up with this idea. We are going to build a library together One person, one book at a time. One person can't build a library but if everyone that gets into this group gets a book from their bookshelf (they don't have to be new) and posts it to Fiji we can do it together. We can build a library together." 
Morgan asks that you take a new or used book, write a little something about yourself in the front cover and mail the book over to Fiji. The address is Namara Village District School, Box 415, Nausori,FIJI. I think this is an incredible idea and if everyone sends one book this school can have a fantastic library very soon.
The American Women's Auxiliary is an organization of American women in Australia that raises money for the Royal Children's Hospital. They also put on a big Halloween party with Trick or Trunking. Since Trick or Treating isn't done alot here this was a perfect alternative.
en got dressed up as a bumble bee for the occasion. Tara was especially happy because she also volunteers at the Royal Children's Hospital. I sort of forgot to mention that this was after all a charity event. I was a little too into the decorating.
s a bit disappointed that adults weren't technically supposed to collect candy for themselves. She was also asking lots of questions about how much candy I got on a single Halloween night as a kid? How long did it take to collect it? How long did it take to eat it? etc, etc. All I really remember a
bout every Halloween is my candy always had to be safety checked before I ate it. For some mysterious reason there was always something wrong with the Snickers and Milkyway bars. It just so happens that Snickers and Milkyways were my parents favorites. Very Suspicious! 
itches Potion (aka Dry Ice) Cauldron was very popular I am pretty sure the guy who built a whole space station on his van may have won the prize. We all had a great day and Tara was told the money that was raised that day was going to buy new respirators for the hospital. Even Bosley had fun even though his tailed got pulled by a fellow bumble bee. We have even more Halloween fun planned for next weekend...WOOHOO!
ate our "meeting" anniversary Matt took me out to breakfast down at a cafe by Ricketts Point. Part of Port Phillip Bay, this marine sanctuary is full of rocky tide pools and sea birds. There was a bit of a jellyfish massacre going on. Dead jellies were everywhere which made for a tricky walk along the beach.
was very popular with the Heidelberg School which was an Australian art movement in the 1880' and 1890's. Charles Conder painted Ricketts Point in 1890. He was born in England and was shipped off to Australia by his father in an attempt to curtail Conder's love of painting. Life in Australia actually had the opposite affect with Conder becoming one of the main artists in the Heidelberg School before heading of to Europe to continue his career and pall around with the likes of Toulouse-Lautrec.
long the coastline. The beach was lovely but the flies were out in force. I felt like one of those kids in the Save the Children commercials. Flies were everywhere crawling and buzzing. I guess that's all part of the Australian summer that I have to look forward to. Yay!
My husband was very pleased with himself the other day. He made his first batch of Milo cookies and was incredibly proud of his perfectly round, "could have been store bought" cookies.
et off to Queenscliff which is a coastal town that is home to Fort Queenscliff which was built in the 1860's to protect Port Phillip Bay. Legend has it that the first British Empire shots of both WWI and WWII were ordered from this fort. There were loads of plaques honoring fallen soldiers and people who worked on various ships including one plaque on this mine.
home to the Black Lighthouse. I had never thought much about the color of lighthouses but this is one of a handful in the world that is made of unpainted blackstone and is the only black lighthouse in the Southern Hemisphere. 
n telling the history of lots of the historic buildings. My favorite was an old hotel. I like the look out part on top. I am sure there is a technical name for this part of a building but I have no idea what it is called. It reminded me of the next door neighbor in Mary Poppins, the old sailor who was always telling the direction of the wind. 
down to the beach to have a look for some tide pools. There were some sea snails, mollusks and lots of seaweed but not much else. It probably would have been better if the tide was going out instead of coming in. I didn't move quite fast enough and got a bit wet but the water wasn't near as cold as I thought it would be. 
e way. There was a shipwreck from 1925 and a wedding happening at an old bluestone mill.
vely yellow canola fields in bloom all along the drive.
in Nashville and does everything there is to do with music. And is just lovely...did I say that already? I realized today he even has his own Wikipedia page (did you make that yourself Mister?) I want one! Someday maybe when I do something like discover the cure for all koala diseases. And I digress again.... www.myspace.com/graingermusic 
r and I have been friends since we first worked with Young Life in Jacksonville. There were many nights at Einsteins and even more in college including this one where we got into my supplies for make-up class. I tried to go to one of her shows outside of Chicago once but the World Bank people just happened to be in town on the same night and the roads were all blocked by cops in riot gear...looked more like StormTroopers from StarWars. Laura has a beautiful voice and we hopefully may be working a little non-musical project together in the future.
was working with saxophones in the UK but not until recently that he had a band, CCQ. They are really good, serving up a mixture of such a variety of styles it's hard to categorize but definitely fun to listen to. Not that this is a surprise. Craig was always a really talented musician. www.myspace.com/ccqbristol 
t musical pick for the day, Damian Williams, the night swimmer extraordinaire. Damian was rocking the piano on the first night I ever went out with Matt. I have watched many a girl swoon over Mr. Williams at Zebra and rightfully so. He is definitely swoon worthy. "Live Lovely"?? Sounds suspiciously like a tattoo I designed for Cass, Mr. D!! Which came first the song or the ink? www.myspace.com/thekeyofd
ting spoiled with presents and birthday cake at Matt's mom's house we went along to check it out. I love downtown Melbourne (or the CBD as they call it here). It is very similar to Chicago minus the freezing temperatures and dreadful snowstorms.
r the festival with mirrors for faces. The other visual art section was actually on the river. Artists had made various blow-up pieces. 
were Clown 1 and Clown 2 by Brook Andrew. They reminded me of somethin
g and finally I placed it....Leigh Bowery. Back in the day when I was enamored with the whole Club Kid phenom I was really enthralled with Leigh Bowery. And these were two big ole Leigh Bowery balloons. I have no idea that the artist had any intention of making a "Bowery" balloon but he certainly did.
This is actually Boy George playing Leigh Bowery in Taboo (worst show I ever saw in London). But I digress....there were some good bands at the Dream Festival and we sat in the grass listening and people watching. There was lots of good people watching. 
Later on we met Rebe
cca, Nick and a bunch of their friends up at Crown Casino. I am not a big fan of casinos and wasn't feeling too good about the decision to go when we first walked in but on the upper level there is an outside bar on the side of the Yarra that has a fantastic view of the city. It was awesome and Nick's brothers decided I needed a fishbowl (biggest drink ever) for my birthday.
On the hour huge fire cannons from out front of the casino 
shoot into the air. The next morning the TV must have known it was my birthday. Rebel Without a Cause was on and I love anything with Natalie Wood. Then there was a live New Order concert and they did all Joy Division songs for their encore including my very favorite song in the whole wide world. Happy Birthday to me!
My niece and nephew came down with Rebecca and Tracy for a picnic at the park by our house. There is a really cool jungle gym shaped like a rocket. Unfortunately, I guess one little kid got a little to high in the rocket ship and threw up. No more fun in the rocket. We came back to the house for a little art and craft time. The kids are so cute!