Hot Property

Well, it would appear my house isn't, as the sale fell through and now I don't have to move! YAY me. However my housemate is moving to Darwin and so I am looking for new housemates. I am meeting one on Monday night who might move in as early as sometime this week. We're going to check each other out on Monday to make sure we're not psychos.

But in regards to the title, apparently I am. I have accumulated a stalker and a subtle admirer (I think he's an admirer, but hey, let's hope I'm wrong :P ). And who wouldn't admire someone who looks like this:

The stalker seems to be leaving me alone now that I am ignoring his txts, but it got nasty for a while there. Giving me a whole new level of stress to add to my already undelightful work situation. But enough of that, I wont harp on about it here, I'll just let you know when it is all resolved - hopefully soon.

So. The main reason I'm writing is that it's been a while. Also, it's a request for comments, cos I would love to know what you guys are up to and I never have time enough to email everybody individually.

I really loved catching up with everybody in Melb. and those with whom I didn't, thanks for your txts and facebook comments - we'll do it next time; maybe over xmas.

Well, it's late and have a staff meeting tomorrow, so be safe, stay well, party on, and I'll try not to leave it too long till the next installment.

Adieu.

Katherine Times and the headlines are cheesy.
Cane toads are jumping,
And river is high.
So the mango’s rich,
And the paper comes weekly.
No rush little baby,
It’s NT time.

One of these mornings,
Big mob of campers and caravans,
They’re gonna fill the streets
As the road trains drive by.
And from that moment,
Beneath the cloudless heavens,
You’ll finally notice,
You’ve come to the dry.

If I were a linguist, I'd know when to use subjunctive case

Howdy, and welcome to another edition of 'Let's talk about me!'

Firstly, I'll update you all on the Piano:

This is my lovely ex-housemate Lyndoll and I being great female stereotypes in THE LAUNDRY (no, not the rocken bar in Johnston St, Fitzroy). But, rather than doing the washing, we are playing the ancient traditional tune: choppus-stickus. Yes that's right: the removalists thought they'd be able to get a Piano into an upstairs house with only two people. Hmph. I didn't witness the debacle, but apparently, their attempts were so nail-bitingly frightening that Catherine and Lyndal had to hide inside lest they witness the not-so-silent slapstick splat of Piano-falling-on-man.

They came around the next day, this time with four people, and all went according to plan. Urrah!

In other news: Work is quite stressful, but this week has also yielded some rewards and I feel like I've acheived something. Sigh. Next week is the second workshop for the Diploma of Interpreting. After that it's a drive to Alice, a flight to Adelaide, a linguist-nerd convention (I mean, conference), and a roadtrip to Melbourne.

I'm really hanging out to see the cats. Apparently Ferdinand is giving mum the silent treament since she got back from the beach. I hope I don't cop the same. Beatrix is a loveable as ever.

Well, catch you in less than a month!

xx

If I was a real Linguistics Nerd…

I’d tell you all about how delighted I was to find a minimal pair for the retroflex and regular lateral in Mangarrayi.

I’d join the Facebook group ‘So, you’re a linguist, how many languages do you speak?’

I’d tell stories in eight languages with all my linguist nerd friends.

I’d make the punniest jokes.

Oh boy, if only I was a linguistics nerd….

Hang on a minute…… !!!



So anyway, what have I been doing in this fine Katherine Region since last we spoke?

Well, we had a staff meeting in Ngukurr and got to check out Wamut’s language centre. We were all blown away at the amazing work going on there. The journey was 4.5hrs each way. And we managed to get addicted to a card game called Liggretto which Betti, our German work experience girl, brought from OS. Here is the road we travelled:


Fathers’ Day passed fairly quietly with txt messages from Mum, Ned and Imo. Hope you guys are all doing well, miss you, love you etc. A cool thing Ned discovered through predictive txt was that ‘David’ and ‘Father’ share the same letters (well, up to the e anyway). So all our Farthers’ Day messages were unwitting txts of memorandum. Kind of cool.

Over the last couple of weeks, I have become addicted to Facebook. In fact, we three housemates sit in the house and, rather than talk to each other, we all sit at our computers and ‘poke’, ‘superpoke’ and ‘pokepro’ each other (not to mention, the bumperstickers, pirate/zombie games, and the newly discovered ‘Scrabulous’ – online
Scrabble). A quite (what I think) strange phenomenon to come from this FB experience, is that it seems to be taking over real life as well. Every time I go to a party, or sometimes in other casual conversations, FB comes up and we all start talking about the online events that have taken place. I am glad for the opportunity to join the groups ‘So you’re a linguist, how many languages do you speak?’ and ‘When I was your age, Pluto was a planet’. Much fun and tongue in cheek to be had, but one must escape back into reality sometimes. This is the place where things like Work and Social Life take place; I must convince myself!

In other, more exciting and more real news: I am getting a Piano (yes, that’s right AJ, a capital P and everything!) delivered on Thursday. Hazzah! (Although I do not relish the thought of discovering just how much technique I have lost since last I tickled the ivories.)

Well, I seem to have rabbited on quite enough. Please update me with all your news. Even if it’s in the comments, or a two line email. I’m really looking forward to seeing most of you in my trip down South next month – Erica, let me know if you’re in Adelaide when I am.

In the words of AJ,

Ciao for niao.

See you on FB! :P

Bloggers' Block

Hmm… Long time between drinks. Few half backed excuses – the most recent being that I have had bloggers’ block, something which can only be overcome by writing about it.

Prior to suffering the blockage, first I was sick (I was out of commission for about two weeks with a flu/cold combo which left me energyless, exhausted and braindead). Luckily I had accrued enough flextime to get to work late and leave early. Am better now.

Then came the intervention. I had to organise interpreters for many of the community visits which was quite stressful, and filled with many hiccoughs. The stress left me functioning at a bare minimum when I got home, and it was all I could to do lift the remote, turn on the TV and vegetate. A pretty poor excuse for not keeping in touch as much as I’ve been meaning to, but I think I was still getting over the dregs of the cold. Anyway, that’s nearly all over now, and I’m learning all sorts of new and wonderful ways to cope with stress. I must be far down the road to superherodom in that regard (own horn: toot toot!).

If you are interested in reading first hand accounts of some community visits, Wamut and Jangari give their accounts at that Munanga Linguist and Matjin-nehen (the 'h' is pronounced as a glottal stop) respectively.

The most exciting thing happening now, is that I’ve finally been doing some linguistics. And I’ve started on the road to learning a language that has only two fluent speakers left – two sisters. Learning this language involves such wonderful outings as going fishing and recording stories and songs by the river. I have been instructed by the ladies that I must make recordings and listen to them on tape at home, as a previous anthropologist did. Aside from that, after this post I am going to stick posters up on my walls of all kinds of funky pronouns and grammar. You’ll know when I’m starting to feel more confident about it all when I change some of the headings of this blog to language headings, as Jangari has done.

At the moment I’m reading the Diary of Anne Frank. It’s amazing. Highly recommended to anyone with eyeballs.

Another thing I’ve been doing is volunteering at the Book Exchange. I sit in there for 2hrs on a Sunday morning, spending my ‘time of worship’ amongst the books – fitting, think not you? Sometimes it’s busy, sometimes hardly anyone comes through. But you never get bored because you’re surrounded by everything from Romance novels – titles include Indiscretions, Practise Makes Marriage, Husbands on Horseback – to spiritual healing books, children's books, history, geography, science books. I spent this morning reading Here Comes Snoopy – very cute, inflicting all kinds of nostalgia.



Oh, and I have been learning to be hospitable in my new environment – night before last, made a pavlova, and last night had ppl over for DVDs. Thanks Mum: the DVDs you sent up finally arrived this week.

SWOT that issue!

Secretariat of SNAICC (National Aboriginal and Islander Child Care) has heaps of links to articles and discussion on the child abuse issue. It's also got links to articles which expose the Howard government's continued cuts to funding of projects which were combating the issues of child abuse. Here is an example.

Posting posting sorry to be so few and far between

Any News or Scandal?

Sup dawgs? Things are just plodding along here. Pretty hectic actually; am looking after a friend’s dog for a month while she’s on holiday, and will be looking after Lauren’s wallabies while she’s out bush next week.


Tilly the dawg


Wobblies Isha and Willum

In other news, I have made my first MD recording: Now I'm a real live linguist and will be archived into the work library and everything!!! :)


So, that’s some of the good stuff that’s happening at the moment.

However, not all is as peachy as that. John Howard’s response to the inquiry into child abuse, Ampe Akelyernemane Meke Mekarle “Little Children are Sacred”, has left us quite devastated. He has proposed no solutions to the problem of child abuse, and is using this as an opportunity to take control of Aboriginal land. I hope none of you down south are buying into his bullshit. I wish I could be more eloquent about it, but at the moment, my brain is frozen up in horror from his unbelievable propositions. Please keep your ear to the ground about this issue.


And before I hear off, I'll leave you with some images of me under a pile of kids from next door: