evaluations & realisations...
When I was nearing the end of my 12 month contract working as a nanny at Pear Tree Farm, it became apparent that it was going to be time to move on. For one thing, neither of the wonderful kids I looked after really needed a full time nanny, and for another thing I was starting to realise how much I missed working with pre-school age children.
Don't get me wrong! The kids I nannied there were terrific! I learned a lot from both of them, as well as from my own experiences along the way - and I know we will stay in touch and remain friends! There is something, however, to be said for the privilege of working with small people who are busy exploring the world on such a basic level, finding their own place in the family, the local community and eventually the world! They are seeing things as if for the first time on a daily basis, and learning from every experience with a mind that is hungry for more, more, more information and more ways to work out who they are in relationship to the things, people and events that shape their lives!
Just having a simple meal can be a huge experience for a child under 12 months! The smell, look, texture and taste are all carefully considered and evaluated by the growing infant, and their tastes can appear to be fickle as they decide one day they prefer the slippery texture and smooth taste of avocado to banana, and the next day they cannot get enough of the apple you offer them in preference for their previous choice. Their expression of hunger, tiredness, thirst or just their desire to be cuddled and reassured are surprisingly simple and to the outsider very similar, but to someone who is with a toddler or an infant on a regular basis these expressions are as complex and varied as those of any adult.
The ability to look at ones surroundings and daily tasks that must be completed, and find challenges and learning opportunities for the young child is something that comes with experience and a creative mind. I was raised by a mother who was trained in Early Childhood Development, and worked as a kindergarten/pre-school teacher for many years. I am also the eldest of 3 children - both my sisters have their own children and I am very blessed to have been a big part of their lives!
So, when the time came to move on and seek new opportunities I knew it was with these younger little people that I was called to work! Many children had been in my life in this year! The two adolescents I cared for had a baby half-brother born during this time and I was so privileged to visit him on the day he was born, and to babysit him from time to time. At 10 months old he is thriving and developing at an amazing rate! No matter how often you watch a baby grow you are never less surprised by the incredible rate of progress they display! I was also able to spend some time with cousins who live in Kent, and their 3 year old daughter and 9 month old son provided more joy for me and another opportunity to flex my 'preschool' muscle with animated story telling, feeding, singing and lots of imagination! The management of a 3 year old who is attempting to negotiate and shape her environment by one means or another is very different to a baby who is still learning to communicate his desires on a basic level.
Then there is precious Elly! My friends daughter who is now 7 1/2 months old, and who is delightful! I have loved every minute spent in her company, from the chuckles and toothless grins to the exploration of baby-led weaning, to the night time crying sessions (I swear they last all night, but somehow we get some sleep still!) to the snuggles & sleep times, she is a joy to watch as she grows and explores and observes her world!
I am so excited about what the future holds for me! I might have been a little unfortunate in not getting a job or two which looked promising, but I know that the right job is out there and possibly just around the corner! I have been interviewing and enjoying the process, and have more interviews to come! Whichever family I feel I am supposed to be with (who, of course, feel they want me to join them, too!) will have the same ups and downs as any family! Their children will need to feel safe, supported, nurtured and guided through their most formative years with love, patience, vision and creativity! Those are the skills I am really looking forward to tapping into again!
I will definitely look forward to sharing my experiences with friends and family and my insights with my online community of friends, but I also know I shall learn just as much about myself as I do about any infant or toddler, preschooler or young child in my care!
posted by The Crazy Purple Wombat at 5:06 PM
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I also have a lot of wonderful friends whom I have met initially online, but have also spent precious time with at Dragon*Con. To me that is worth all the time on a plane, all the money on airfares and hotels and every moment that I lost out on sleep for the manic 4 1/2 days in Atlanta!
It's funny, because in the lead up to Dragon*Con all you seem to hear about is the guest list! First Jewel Stait, then Morena Baccarin then Nathan Fillion and Alan Tudyk... and is he or isn't he... Adam Baldwin...? (He didn't in case you're wondering...)
Then there's the added bonus of knowing other shows you enjoy and other actors you admire will be there! Meeting Edward James Olmos was a highlight for me, and one of which I have no tangible evidence. I saw him sitting in the 'Walk of Fame', but with autographs costing US$60 each I simply couldn't afford one! I decided to say hello all the same, and I went over and shook his hand, introduced myself and told him that I was a fan who had enjoyed many hours watching him in various roles, and that for me he made Battlestar Galactica the high standard program that it is! He was a lovely, charming and easy-to-converse with gentleman, and I shall treasure that memory for a very long time!
In addition, you actually meet folk for the first time. When wearing your Firefly themed costumes you get a lot of comments from other fans of the best show in the verse, you see the same people over and over at panels and parties and in queues... and then there are the people you know from online but never really 'got to know' until you met them in person... of course they can be the very best - but I might be biased there because last year I had barely exchanged one or two comments with 'Naughtyman' from fireflyfans.net, but when we met and talked and spent time in person it was a different matter... in case you're wondering he is my Frank, and we are planning to spend Christmas together this year!
I love the time spent absorbing people's accents and the way they animate when they are talking with you! I love to see them in person and bump into them when wandering around the convention! I love the fun and relaxed time, which is both surreal and more real than you could imagine! I love the fun, the random jokes, the imagination, the chemistry and the comraderie that comes from getting together with a few thousand folk, many of whom you know in one capacity or another, and just celebrating the things that brought you together as friends in the first place!
Most of all I love the memories, the photographs and the stories shared for days and weeks afterwards, and the build up and anticipation of next year's convention! I can tell you that at the time of writing this blog there are 323 days to go until I am meeting up with friends from near and far, embracing folk I know in person, from telephone conversations and from online forums, and laughing and anticipating time spent with my browncoat family!
If you ever want an experience like no other, come to Dragon*Con, Atlanta, Georgia for the long weekend which ends on the first Monday in September! If nothing else it will be something you will never forget! 
And if you were there - it's for you too! 
I had such a lovely time wandering through the garden via the many paths that criss-cross and wind their way from formal and open areas, to herbaceous borders to the wilderness section of the garden with its many different varieties of oaks… there was even a eucalypt! The wilderness section was possibly the first of it’s kind in England, and was started in Tudor times by a previous Lord Sackville, and is mentioned in the diaries of Lady Anne Clifford, who was one time Lady Sackville, and was also the heir to Skipton Castle in Yorkshire. I actually read her diaries many years ago, never dreaming that I would, one day, wander in her wilderness for myself! 
One of the things that makes this place so magical to me, is that whilst being a remarkable grand house, really on the scale of a palace, it is also a family home. There was evidence in the vast gardens with the tennis courts, swimming pool (covered for the cooler season, and probably for the safety of small children) and the small see-saw just outside one of the doors, near a vast area of lawn! It was almost exactly like one which the children I nannied for 7 years had in their play room, and I thought how similar children’s taste in play things is the world over!
I kept coming across the house from different angles, all of which were impossible to view from without the Medieval garden walls. The sun kept peeping through the dark, clouds and the sky was stunning! I was thinking “this is a jigsaw puzzle photograph!” Just inside the gate, where visitors enter and exit and private gardens, is the herb garden. I loved the way it was laid out, in a wheel-like formation, with a cherub statue in the centre, and different species of herbs of many varieties both within the the ‘wheel’ and around the edges of the garden, which is enclosed by a hedge. It was fragrant and pretty!
Knole seems to have some kind of magic to it… I am drawn to this place, again and again! When I first saw photographs of it I thought it looked grey and dull, and nothing near as exciting as nearby Ightam Mote, but each time I visit I am amazed to discover something new about the house, the park, the history and the magic of the place! The surrounding park, in case I failed to mention, is the oldest existing deer park in England! The deer are so beautiful too, and although still officially wild, some of them will let you get quite close.
I suspect I shall keep returning to this ancient seat of the Sackville family many more times whilst living in Kent. I also suspect this shalln't be the last blog I write on the subject! It’s a topic that is already very dear to my heart!
Roads - I have yet to come across a 'grid' formation in any town or city, let alone a village. Whereas in Australia much of our boom happened in the last 150 years, meaning that more planning of expansion of road trasport occoured - even in the days when that still meant horse-drawn vehicles and cattle drays - in England many of the roadways were originally footpaths and legal 'rights of way' from one village to another, possibly following a, now redundant, stream, or going the most level way. There are few roads which give you more than a few hundred metres of visibility once you are off the main motorways... come to think of it the main motorways often only give you a few hundred metres of visibility! The narrow, twisting roads from village to village are tretcherous, and I actually prefer driving on them at night when headlights give you an early warning if there's a vehicle coming (at up to 60mph/100kph) around the next sharp bend! 
The age of things! - In Australia we get excited about something that is more than 100 years old! I mean - that's almost half the age of our 'modern history'! Anything that goes back to convict days, or to the gold rush of the 1850s is remarkable! Here, it's pretty ordinary to see houses which have dates on them from the 17th & 18th century which are still lived in. The fact that parts of the farm house I live in are 200 years old is barely worthy of comment... In addition to the amazing age of current dwellings, there are churches which have Norman towers (like the one in Hadlow) and castles dating from around 1070 in their origins (as in nearby Tonbridge) and Roman ruins dotted here and there, not to mention truly ancient monuments such as Stonehenge 
Traffic lights - There are many, many more roundabouts in England - and you will rarely see traffic lights at the end of an off ramp from a motorway, as you do in Melbourne. Granted there are many more traffic lights in London than in the country, but even larger towns like Royal Tunbridge Wells has more roundabouts and pedestrians crossings than traffic light controlled intersections. Somehow it works better too, although I don't think it would in Melbourne. To be honest drivers here are more patient and polite and will give way to folk waiting to turn, or show basic courtesy when there is a traffic jam. The state of some of the roads would cause accidents and public outcry in Australia, but people here accept that it's part of life, give way to someone else, and wait their turn.
I was glad I did the walking part coz I had known there was a big cycling event on in London today, and had seen clusters of folk on bikes, many of them in sponsorship safety vests, but had not seen any of the closed roads I had heard about... On my way to the tube I crossed an overpass and saw hundreds of folk on bikes taking over the streets of London! It was wonderful to see!
We did not ascend the stairs, however, and continued along the same coridoor. All was very pretty and clearly the workmanship was top quality and had been carefully restored, but nothing truly remarkable, expecially to a girl from Marvelous Melbourne! For those of you who don't know it, Melbourne was, for a brief period in the 1860-70s, the wealthiest city in the world, on the floor of money coming in from the Victorian goldfields. The resulting wealth was displayed by banks who wanted to appear more grand and sturdy, or safe, to their prospective customers so some magnificent Neo-Gothic buildings were constructed. Many of them, along Collins Street and Spring Street still stand today, and Melbournians are proud of their rich, Victorian heritage. So, visiting a building of Neo-Gothic architecture, which was entered from the more humble areas, was wonderful and interesting, but not worthy of goosebumps... yet!
The India office has some really lavish details to it, mostly because, at the time it was being built, India was bringing a huge amount of wealth into Britain and the architect of the interiors, Matthew Digby Wyatt, had pretty much a 'bottomless purse' to budget with. The next room I entered was The India Office Council Chamber, and I thought this was lush and beautiful. I was completely taken with the dark, mahogony surfaces, the rich, deep pinks of the curtains and carpets, and the huge marble mantel piece and carving above it. The whole room had been enjanced with much gilding of cornices, wall surfaces, cabinets and even minor details. It had a lot of natural light from the nearby Dunbar court yard, but was also lit by beautiful lamps hung from the ceiling.
As I dragged myself away from this lovely, warm and inviting, yet still business-like room, I mentioned to the guard that I knew what everyone was talking about when they recommended I visit today. He told me, "you ain't seen nothing yet!"
Enthralled I carried on, and when I entered a corridoor which had vaulted ceilings and a deep, rick blue background to gold stars and supporting arches I stopped to take a photograph. The guard seemed amused, and I smiled at him, but a moment later I realised that in my enthusiasm for the narrow corridoor ceiling I had walked past double doors to yet another magnificent saloon. This was more breathtaking than any I had yet been in to! No wonder the guard smiled at my excitement for a mere vaulted ceiling!
The next room, which actually was rather small by comparisson and was a connecting room to two larger ones, was the official dining room of the Locarno Suite. This entire area, I later found out, had all been given false ceilings, the decoration covered up and partitioned off into tiny, artificially lit office spaces. It was now as opulent and rich as it had first been envisaged to be by the original architect, George Gilbert Scott. The colours were very different to the two adjoining rooms, and the room had a very different ambinace to the other two in the suite of three. 
From here I entered a real masterpiece! The main, Reception Room of the suite had high, vaulted ceilings which were painted with various constellations and symbols of the zodiac. Their design had been lost long ago, and the renovators of the post-WWI 1920s had used pumice stone to remove most of the decoration in here. To the astonishment, and delight of the restoration team they had failed to complete the tast properly, and there was one section, which together with written descriptions meant they were able to restore this amazing room to it's original design as well. The light poured in through arched windows on both sides of the length of the room, and the effect was almost breathtaking.
This is the room where the the Locarno Treaties, designed to reduce strife and tension in Europe, were signed by all the involved parties, after being initialled at Locarno in Switzerland in October 1925. The only room considered large enough at the time it was rather shaby even then and lots of huge paintings and portraits were hung to cover the decaying decoration on the walls. Of course, this historical moment is where the suite of rooms gets it's current name. So I sighed a contented sigh and left what was surely the last of the magnificent rooms of the tour... but whilst correct in it being the last room, I was not prepared for the hallway and grand staircase beyond it! 
The magnificent Grand Staircase contains marble columns, a duplicated split staircase, rich, deep red carpets and magnificent murals all depicting different aspects of England as Brittania! The light in here is again a combination of natural and arificial. I really didn't want to leave after all of this, but I lingered around the sides of the upper level which the public had access to, stopping briefly to admire the informal sitting room of the Foreign Secretary, and then on down the staircase, feeling very underdressed in jeans and a t-shirt, and so out to the huge courtyard through which I had entered over an hour ago! This had been a visit well-worth making, and if any of you are ever in London and have the opportunity to see the FCO I highly recommend it!
Of course I went a bit snap happy, whilst up there, but I was really anticipating the amazing, spiral staircase which leads from the 9th floor down to the 2nd floor and directly into the Council Chamber itself!
On my way down, and when I was in the exhibition, I met a wonderful lady. Actually I was looking at some artwork on the way down to the lower level, and paused to take some photographs. This lady was chatting with some other people and I thought she had a lovely vibe to her. A moment later she was chatting with me and I realised she was the artist whose work I was photographing, and she said she was happy for me to do so! I was taken with her sculpture of two synchronised divers and we chatted for a while, she was such a lovely person, very warm and her work had really caught my attention, with its Art Nuevo and Art Deco influences in the lines and shapes, and the colours she had selected where colour was used. 
Her name was Ginger Gilmour, and although a native of the USA, she now lives and works in the UK. We really clicked in a short time, and I came away with a lot of pictures of her lovely work, as well as a catalogue of her beautiful creations, which we both know I can’t afford, but she wanted me to have the pictures in it anyway. Her website is here: 
The whole building seems to reject any preconcieved notion of what a building should look like, and is non-symmetric, but flowing, and despite some really odd angles to it, it feels balanced and secure! The views from outside were wonderful – the view from inside was fantastical! From above it looked like a glass whirlpool, or water funnel! 
It seemed like I was walking down a staircase which was impossible! It didn’t flow in concentric circles, nor did it really go in circles at all, but rather in ovals and swirls… it reminded me of an apple peeling a little… I took so many photos, and I really love them! There is, of course, a sizeable set in my flickr account here: 
The fact that I have never really given modern architecture much consideration, but now feel I am rather passionate about this building, as well as London’s famous ‘gherkin’ (30 St Mary’s Axe) says a lot about the impact of this remarkable vision made a reality! 
Last Saturday was the first of two days of the annual London Open House weekend. This is a non-profit organised event when people can visit buildings not normally open to them, with a view to learning about the architecture, and appreciating the history.
The dwelling and official rooms in a separate building which 
On the upside, walking and chatting with Bridgette meant we discovered that we had some things in common, and without intending to, we ended up spending the next 3 hours together, wandering from Whitehall, via the Horse Guards and King Charles II street (near the Foreign & Commonwealth Office) to Westminster, across the bridge to the South Bank which we followed along to the Festival Hall and watched a free dance performance which Bridgette knew about. She showed me where to find out about any free or discounted activities in the Festival Hall, and shared some of her experiences as a singer, actor and photographer. Bridgette showed me where the Library of Poetry was, and I was able to aquire a free book from them! Then we headed over to the National Theatre, where she showed me more places to find out about free performances and opportunitites for special events, and through to the next building where we heard a friend of hers playing in a jazz trio, saw a terrific exhibition of theatrical photography, and a general art show, then back out to visit a food festival where I was happy to be able to shout her some food after all her time showing me the ins and outs of the theatre scene in London. One of the highlights, for me, was discovering the British Film Institue's Media Room where you can go in and book a screen for up to 2 hours and watch all manner of random things. The selection ranged from really old silent movies, to weirdly bohemian 1960 'art theatre' (the one with Germain Greer singing 'Do you Love Me?' will be burned into my memory forever!) to classic films such as 'A Room With a View' and others... commercials and shots from the cinema of the past, short documentaries and stand up comics are included in the collection, and it's all free!
Unfortunately there was a strict no photography rule in the Buildings, which included the courtyard, but the previous week, and the next day, I took a couple of photographs of the building from the street. Such as they are, the set is here: 
Margaret is actually my Dad's first cousin, and she and her husband, Roy, visited Australia in 2003 so that was the last time I actually saw them, and apart from family correspondence, and a recent phone call, pretty much the last time we were in touch!
Isobel is bright and intelligent and has a gorgeous disposition! She really was enjoying having her Granny, as she calls Margaret, there as well as adoring her baby brother, and relishing her role as a big sister! Daniel is a settled and happy baby, and possibly having a growing spurt given the quantity of milk he consumed while I was there! We had a fun day of exploring the back garden, being shown around the house by Isobel, getting to know Philippa and catching up with Margaret and Roy.
I truly miss you all and wish you were here to share my adventure with me! I love who I am, and where I am, and what I am doing with my life! I just wish you were all a little bit closer and we could share it together!
I have been living in Kent, England for the last 5 months, have enjoyed another summer, and am planning to visit Boston for Christmas with my wonderful man, and then head to Nevada for the marriage of two very dear friends of mine, and act as maid of honour for my precious friend, Lila.
I miss my Frank in Boston! We met at Dragon*Con last year, and kept in touch by email, then by phone and finally, on my way to the UK, I visitied him in the USA. We spent 3 1/2 weeks together which was wonderful, and since then I have visited him for 10 days in late June. Unfortunately he was unable to join me at Dragon*Con this year, but I am looking forward to Christmas with him in just 3 months time! He is wonderful, talented, sweet, caring and generally awesome! His girls, Lucy & Maggie, two gorgeous dogs, have taken me to their hearts as well and I miss taking them for walks almost as much as I miss snuggling up with Frank in the evenings!
I love the pubs here in England, I love London with all it's rich and varied history as well as imaginative modern architecture. I love the green countryside and the wildlife. I love the people, who are generally very friendly, courteous, warm and polite! I love the supermarket I go to, Waitrose, where they have the friendliest, most helpful staff I have ever come across, and the food is fresh and in many cases, organic. The way it's laid out is spacious and light and yet it's much more environmentallly friendly than any supermarket I've visited in Australia! I love the little Fiat Punto I drive, and I love being so close to so many amazingly historical places including castles, houses, parks and manors! I love the tiny little villages so close to where I live, and I love the laneways I get to drive along every day!
