we need ...

haifa or redfern : its all soul

if you live in haifa, israel, then i urge you to attend this exhibition (flier above) - my friend, Naama Son of Josef, is an artist. and more than that, a beautiful soul. when i was lost and wandering literal in the biblical desert, naama took me home and said "rest" and when i was ready she turned me around and said "this is the way home. go."

___________________________

if you live in sydney, australia, i urge you to attend this gallery opening (flier below) - my friend KZ, Man of Woo, is an artist. and more than that, a beautiful soul. he seems to love, very well, someone that i love, very much.

billy

on saturday i had the greatest pleasure to meet gutter's new baby baby boy. billy.

beautiful beautiful boy.

billy is the first baby to come from our troop of boarders. long time coming baby. so glad you're here.

so sydney

ooh. on a sunday evening. after yum cha with mymama and then basking in bondi, ricebag walked home through the park.

so beautiful. so sydney.

off of wall street

this morning, around the corner from my house, in the very street i described 3 days ago, there was a fire. in the building of my dry-cleaners.

and 4 people got saved.

champion idealist

today at work baby was mildly psychometric tested. and told i am a champion idealist (also known as ENFP - Extraverted iNtuitive Feeling Perceiving using the Jungian Typology test).

it's not rocket science i spose. and i do think a lot of what is said below is true. for ricebag.

The Champion Idealists are abstract in thought and speech, cooperative in accomplishing their aims, and informative and expressive when relating with others. For Champions, nothing occurs which does not have some deep ethical significance, and this, coupled with their uncanny sense of the motivations of others, gives them a talent for seeing life as an exciting drama, pregnant with possibilities for both good and evil. This type is found in only about 3 percent of the general population, but they have great influence because of their extraordinary impact on others. Champions are inclined to go everywhere and look into everything that has to do with the advance of good and the retreat of evil in the world. They can't bear to miss out on what is going on around them; they must experience, first hand, all the significant social events that affect our lives. And then they are eager to relate the stories they've uncovered, hoping to disclose the "truth" of people and issues, and to advocate causes. This strong drive to unveil current events can make them tireless in conversing with others, like fountains that bubble and splash, spilling over their own words to get it all out.

Champions consider intense emotional experiences as being vital to a full life, although they can never quite shake the feeling that a part of themselves is split off, uninvolved in the experience. Thus, while they strive for emotional congruency, they often see themselves in some danger of losing touch with their real feelings, which Champions possess in a wide range and variety. In the same vein, Champions strive toward a kind of spontaneous personal authenticity, and this intention always to "be themselves" is usually communicated nonverbally to others, who find it quite attractive. All too often, however, Champions fall short in their efforts to be authentic, and they tend to heap coals of fire on themselves, berating themselves for the slightest self-conscious role-playing.

i've been called worse.

way to work

hola peeps

those in sydney know it has been raining. RAINING!! last week it was raining like it hadn't rained in lifetimes.

healthy, clean, washing-away kind of rain.

and heavy. heavy rain.

and when ricebag walked around the corner of her house last weeks view was like this:

and this weeks view is like this:

oooh. pacifica.

oooh. pacifica. pacific memories really. having a few echoes this week.

a lover to take back?

yeserday an old colleague, the cool cool JB rang to say "don't stay away so long you forget what it's like here [in png]". and i hear you lady. i mean, i know how close to the line all of this is and i promise i will do my best - i think that's all a baby can do (although i'm not sure just doing my best means i live up to My Promise (??)(and does that really matter??)).

ultimately (the way i feel right now) i want to be in png and thrive there and make babies there and create futures and ignite fires ... but right now i just can't envisage myself doing that without a Partner For Life and ... and ... and it seems to me i am just going to have to find a boy to take back there because when i was living there none of the men i met seemed to think i was the kind of woman they could throw their arms around and hold tight and say all of that feels like they were born to it. and i am not going to apologise for not being with someone unless they think i am magic.

so while i am away i shall play and pash a little too and get some funny and some hurt and maybe give some away ... but when i meet the man who says I Dig You, I Can Do This, Lets Play Forever ... Together. then i'll be ready to come home. i think. coz i dont want to go home trying to find a man to give me babies. if i did i dont think i'd have much luck. and if i am going to png. to live. and make babies. i definitely need a Forever Man to facilitate.

a lover to go back for?

a certain MissingB in Melbourne writes to say leaving PNG 4 months ago is also leaving ripples in her life and moving closer to Melbourne than Madang doesnt mean that one door closes - especially when you leave a part of your future behind and he calls you back there

and soon she goes back. not forever. but still returning.

lovers can wait

then of course i have pinkyu - who writes me well and hears i miss melbourne and understands me when i say i miss moresby too. pinky says baby should play and play in sydney. keep playing. soon a man is going to Stand Up and say You Totally Rock My World and Let Me Be The First Person You Call ... Ever Again.

and baby will say mwah!! and kiss off all the frogs.

until then pinky u says come come, she says to ricebag:

Hello darling,

It's time for you to take a break and come down to Melbourne.

You're coming to stay with us, and we will:

• wander around;
• sit in the backyard drinking wine and smelling the jasmine;
• eat the best food ever;
• drink tea in the middle of the night;
• eat goats cheese rolled in ash;
• giggle lots;
• paint the town red, yellow and black;
• wear sparkly things;
• watch the sun rise;
• eat copious amounts of vietnamese food;
• bemoan the demise of the op shop, but still shop in them;
• play;
• hug;
• etc.

I miss you!

Love and hugs and kisses,

Pinking

yesterday

yesterday i did not get out of bed. until 8am. pure. indulgence.

yesterday i was jewellery naked. i did not wear any jewellery. no bitty earrings. no silver fish bracelet. no london whitby. no glittering headband. nada.

yesterday was melbourne cup and. my horse. didn't. come in.

yesterday i wanted to. be. in melbourne.

yesterday i left work when it was still daylight outside - i havent done that on a weekday since august

yesterday i cooked dinner while it was still daylight outside - i havent done that on a weekday since i got here. not. in daylight.

yesterday i hugged a verrry good looking boy. goodbye. in my kitchen.

i offered him tan, turqoise or black. and he said. black. is. best.

yesterday i took my colleagues to the best yum cha in the city. yum. yum. cha.

yesretday i had. one tsingtao. too many. at lunch. and should have gone another.

yesterday a taxi cab driver took me the looong way around the city, across darling harbour and down the rocks. cost me $10 more. than it should. but i didnt complain. in the 4 months since i got here, that's the first time i have been down to either. darling harbour. or the rocks.

yesterday. it. rained.

just october

oooooh.

all my personal correspondences (read: email & textmail & voicemail) start with the word "ooooooh" these days.

o.

wow. october was a hectic month. HECTIC. my Beautiful Girls from PNG came down and we stirred some shit and struck up a few fires and fell in Friend all over again and it was just a beaut 2 weeks. I felt SAFE.

i dont know how else to say it. but i knew i would didn't i tell you?

so yeah. we played and ate and played some more and ate even more. we sunned it up and legged it around and danced a bit and prayed a bit and it was all promises and futures and the kind of giving that families do, not friends and so they re-ju-ven-at-ed me.

and then they left me. back. they left me back. while they flew back home. to pom.

so here i sat. and played 22 for a while. and its been fun.

riecebag has been one Serious Social Butterfly. baby. from sunday fishing on the harbour with little brothers of old friends and baby showers with beautiful mommies, from long leisurely 5 hour wednesday lunches at Watsons Bay to poetry readings in little dark theaters filled with affection; engagement parties on fairy-lit lawns in well-heeled burbs to naughty cones in the park; champagne breakfasts with ancient friends and beery afternoons with newer ones; old faces and older faces; festivals in the park with jazz on the corner and capoeria in the shade; a bottle of rose and balcony over the edge of history; boys met 7 years ago and boys met in the lift; juggling work and wise and the commute and the walk and the stalk and the drive and the thrive; dinner parties in bellevue hill with publishers and dancers and bowling in blacktown with MyMama and her crew; tuvalu on my corner and coconut bread in my local caf; twinkling lights above my head and a book a boy wrote for me to read; pubs called the rose and beers called yum with fried whiting and sunny hi; and all the time the same backdrop ... sydney.

ricebag has been a Whirlwind Of Play. just october.