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suesylvesterf · 9 months

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Hiii I hope this isn’t weird but I’m traveling to Australia soon and I would like to know

what to do{I got recommended The Blue Mountain(The3sisters)}

Is there things(places) I should avoid?

Is there any customs Americans have that should avoid doing while in Australia?

Thank you so much I appreciate your time and response ♥️

Hey! Depends on where you're going. By the sound of it, if you've been recommended the Blue Mountains you're going to NSW. I don't know anything about NSW unfortunately, but I can tell you some stuff about Victoria!

I'll try and write some general stuff up, but if you send me another ask about what sort of stuff you'd be interested in doing/seeing, and how you're travelling (if you're planning to hire a car, or if you're going to rely on Ubers and public transport), I'd be more than happy to point you to some specific things :)

This'll be long, so I'll put it under the read more.

It depends what you're after, really. If you want to immerse yourself in nature, then we have some really fantastic natural areas such as the Otways, the Great Ocean Road, the Dandenong Ranges (not to be confused with the suburb Dandenong), the Yarra Ranges, the Macedon Ranges, and Victorian High Country etc. These are really fantastic places to walk around in the beautiful land. All these offer different hikes/bushwalks/walking trails that you can enjoy either by yourself or a mate. All these areas are very safe.

AVOID: TBH Victoria and Australia as a whole are very safe places, the only places I would recommend avoiding are outer suburbs of Melbourne. If you're going to the countryside you're largely going to be safe, I wouldn't recommend Ararat at night (they do have a really fantastic Chinese Museum there though), or some parts of Shepparton.

If you're interested in hanging out by the beach, there's heaps here. I wouldn't recommend Brighton beach, just because if it's a pain in the arse to get parking there depending when you'll be here, nor would I recommend Rye because it gets mad crowded. I'd also suggest going to Phillip Island, which has some cool stuff to do such as A Maze N' Things, which I think is geared more towards young children/families but I can't really recall. Phillip Island is most famous for its penguin parades, where you get to watch all the tiny little fairy penguins arrive home from their long days of fishing and swimming about. If you're really keen on animals, I also recommend Healesville Sanctuary (near the Yarra Ranges, it's about an hour and a bit from Melbourne), Werribee Open Range Zoo, and Melbourne Zoo (if you go to Melb Zoo, leave the car at home and take the tram! There's a stop right out the front :) ).

If you're keen on relaxing there's Daylesford, which is known as Victorian Spa Country because of... I'm sure you've guessed, the spas! It's also nice and close to some beautifully country towns such as Kyneton and Romsey which are part of the Macedon Ranges I believe. I used to holiday every year in Kyneton and Castlemaine, and they're really beautiful places. Castlemaine has a really great farmer's market every first Sunday of the month.

Near there, about an hour away, there's Sovereign Hill, which I highly recommend as it's SO much fun! It's a historical town, where everything is built like it would have been in the 1850s during the goldrush. You can do fun activities there like ride in a horse-drawn carriage, make your own traditional wax candles, and pan for gold in the river. If you go, I recommend you buy at least two jars of raspberry drops from the gift shop there: they are the best that you will find in the entire world.

Sovereign Hill is also close to Ballarat, which is a massive country town with beautiful architecture and some pretty nifty restaurants if you know where to look. I recommend The Forge, really delicious pizza, all wood-fired so the bases have that beautiful smoky taste. It also has a really nice ambience, and is IIRC next to a cute alleyway that has 100s of umbrellas hanging over like a little ceiling which is a great place to take photos :)

I'd also recommend Echuca, which is a far drive away but is worth it. Another old-style town with old-style shops. They have a really fun old-timey PENNY arcade (for reference, we stopped using pounds and pennies and switched to dollars in 1966) with arcade machines from 1900 to 1950. They also show old silent black and white films there. Just be careful with the bloke who runs the store because he'll try and trick you into electrocuting yourself on the electrocution arcade game 💀 it doesn't hurt dw but it does feel really weird.

Now for Melbourne. If you're looking for nightlife recommendations, I couldn't really tell you--however I can ask around and let you know. I would recommend checking out Melbourne Museum, of course, which is FANTASTIC. Beautiful displays of insects, they're absolutely mesmerising. We currently also have a display on Horridus, the triceratops fossil. It's a beautiful exhibit and you might cry a bit (I def did). There's also the State Gallery of Victoria, which is great fun as well. Do Not Go To The Restaurant There. It's nice! But it's overpriced. From there, you can hop on the tram back towards Federation Square, where you can find ACMI (Australian Centre for the Moving Image--very interactive) and the Koorie Heritage Trust (which is a great place to go if you're interested in learning a bit more about the traditional owners of Australia and their art). If going to Fed Square, I recommend checking out Mabu Mabu which is an indigenous owned restaurant that uses native ingredients and flavours to make mega delish food. It can be a bit pricey tho, but definitely worth it!

Otherwise in Melb I would recommend the Queen Victoria Market (massive market with heaps of stuff for pretty cheap, can get really great food from here too!), Fitzroy Mills Market which is... it's a very trendy spot where you can get heaps of cool clothes and accessories. TBH it's not my cup of tea but there's also a bloke there that sells pretty nice toasties so it's fun to go to for that. I also recommend the Rose Street Market, beautiful handmade market with heaps of cool stuff. Can be pricey though, but even if you don't buy much from there, there's a lot of nice cafés and bakeries around that rule. It's also very close to the Fitzroy Market, so you can walk between them, as they run on the same days.

TBH for Melbourne, if you're interested pls send me an ask with stuff you're interested in, and I'll be able to narrow down some recommendations there. There's just a LOT of stuff to do in Melbourne as it is the State Capital.

Now for customs as an American that you should avoid while in Australia: this is a bit hard for me to answer as I've only been to the USA once so can't really remember that many differences so if any of these seem offensive to you, sorry. I would say you don't need to tip, but if you do it's appreciated. If you're on public transport, don't speak loudly on public transport, if you're driving, use your indicator/blinker. Our service culture is a lot different here, I would follow the etiquette of: the server/cashier/storeperson/whatever is doing me a favour, not the other way around, and this goes without saying but use please and thank-you with everyone for everything. Stick to the left!!! This goes for driving but for walking too, if you're walking around the city, stay on the left side of the footpath!!

God, that got long. Sorry!! Let me know if you have any other questions, esp regarding travelling around Victoria as I've done a HEAP of it with my family and can give you more specific recommendations if you would like :)

Most of all, when you're here, have fun! Strike up conversation with friendly looking locals and you will have a total blast.

#asks #anon #travelling australia

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owlflyingaroundthemoon · 4 years

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Doesn’t Carl deserve to find happiness too?

Umm... let's say he does. If he does, I would write the most boring film of all times where nothing climactic happens, nobody knows he cheats, his wife doesn't make him sleep in a box outside and the stuFf with Emily's family doesn't happen. He doesn't cheat anymore because he is just tired and old. They live. He retires from police.

...

He accidentally falls into the Yarra River. Oops, that is a different one-

#pq #ask #anonymous #caterpillar wish

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watchingninjago-archive · 5 years

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Season 3, Episode 1 - The Surge

Ah, good old S3. The one that I continually bring up as the first season Zane dies in, because a) the writers seem to love killing him, b) can the writers not do that that is incredibly rude

Well, that happens in the finale. I’ll let my dread build up for the occasion, then. Until then, we’ve got a good season to get through.

[22:10] oh what the hell!!! new intro!!!

[21:49] that fucking slaps

[21:39] The ultimate battle… where Lloyd got eaten by a dragon and then had the magical energy dragon he was riding explode the dragon he was eaten by.

[21:19] Huh. Looks like the “wait this is lego who gave them the right to be this dramatic” part of me finally kicked in. But man, that’s gotta suck for them to rebuild.

[21:09] Oh hi, dude in a wheelchair. That looks a bit… precarious.

[20:59] Wait, why New Ninjago City? That New ____ bit applies generally when it’s a seperate city or location, but named after an older city or location, like New York, New Mexico, New Zealand (Zeeland), etc. If you’re just rebuilding, it doesn’t make sense to add that, as it’s still the same city. Ninjago City was badly damaged by the earthquakes, but it wasn’t to the point of having to start completely over, right?

[20:57] Hovercar! --- wait. What’s the timespan for this?

[20:57] Huh. The ninja can move on with their lives for now, at least.

[20:42] Okay, we’re now watching Jay sneak up on somebody singing in the shower.

[20:39] Hi, Kai!

[20:35] Huh? What’s going on?

[20:33] Kai’s a teacher! Neat. And you can have hovercars, but god forbid we use a whiteboard.

[20:26] Zane and Cole are also teachers! And… and what do you mean on the friiiiiehwHY IS HE GLITCHING OUT

[20:18] Jeez! Not cool, kids!

...god i want to see a tacky poster explaining to the kids not to remote control the teachers please and thank you

[20:13] Ah. The wonders of education.

[20:03] I am going to fight a kid again.

[19:55] Oh! Sensei Wu took over Darkly’s!

[19:51] Jay’s a teacher too! I guess that just leaves Lloyd, Nya and Garmadon as characters who’d be majorly impacted by the end of the Age Of Ninja unaccounted for. I’m assuming Misako’s off doing research or something.

[19:57] your fave is problematic: cole steals his co-workers’ food from the fridge

[19:41] Oi. Where can I get that giant tea making machine?

But like… yeah. The ninja excl. Lloyd are like… adults. Maybe acting a bit like teens from time to time because kids show but… they’re adults with jobs and crap. That’s a very weird thought.

[19:33] Man, I love me them group dynamics

[19:22] Well, Lloyd’s doing a bit of award receiving, it seems.

[19:15] Nya’s a teacher too! So I guess that leaves Garmadon unaccounted for.

[19:06] Huh. That’s… not a good sign for Jaya this season. I’m a fan of Jaya so that’s, I dunno. Disappointing.

[19:00] Man, they’re either still in the Constant Threat mindset or are just really desperate to let loose on SOMETHING. Considering the kids they have to teach… it could be either.

[18:48] Aaaw! Jay’s geeking out about Borg Industries.

[18:45] Also the camera’s… really spinning. Really wants me to get that vertigo experience.

[18:42] Zane just snapped and kicked Jay in the leg. DJdfngjd

[18:34] Oh, look at you, Kai. Being all… cynical. I mean, you don’t really have a lot of past to go off of, y’know? The world was only made like… three generations ago. And also somehow a few thousand years ago…. What even is this timeline?

[18:30] Welp.

[18:24] Also, if you took the field trip on a dragon you do run into a lot of safety risks.

[18:20] god he’s desperately trying to be One Of The Kids… Cole this is the one time you’re not an eternal mood but I forgive you

[18:16] Also, Nya in the bg smiling at first but then just… dying inside

[18:15] oof

[18:07] But like… huh. I’m guessing it’s been a while since the events of S2. Logically in real life it’d be up to maybe a decade between seasons, but more likely it’d be a year or two at most, which is still a while.

[17:49] Man. NNC looks pretty cool.

[17:31] Well, I’m sorry sir, we can’t all have hovercars!

[17:29] Wait! It’s the postie. Man, that guy’s seen some crap.

[17:20] Cole remains just… frighteningly buff. I’m scared that if I shook his hand it’d break mine.

[17:09] (Wu) “Besides, it’s not like we can’t find where we’re going.” YOU SURE? Because I’ve gotten lost sometimes trying to find certain entertainment slash casino slash hotel complexes that will remain unnamed and it takes up like half of the Yarra in the city

[17:07] Okay, nevermind. That’s definitely like a beacon among the hills.

[17:04] Like… it’s very tall.

[16:59] ouch

[16:54] PIXAL???? I’VE HEARD OF YOU AND I LOVE YOU ALREADY

[16:42] Oh my god her voice is so relaxing though??? Like robotic, certainly, but not at all like jarring? Is that a weird thing to say?

[16:36] (Pixal) “What does ‘Zane’ stand for?” That’s just his name, m’am

[16:33] I mean, I hear Pixane is a thing that happens here? And I can understand the relationship part being rushed (god that is gonna be painful huh) but if I see Zane having a crush on Pixal I don’t really care. I don’t like how crushes usually somehow mean We’re Gonna Hook Up Soon but to be honest I don’t even have any form of romantic attraction, am human, and am having a bit of a crush on Pixal right now. He can do whatever, man.

[16:25] Welp! But goddammit, if it sets off my romantic repulsion I’m going to fight my brain, it’s! in! his! rights! to! crush! on! Pixal! Goddammit brain let me have fun here

[16:20] wait wait wait I just… man only in Lego can Pixal get away with having half her chest exposed.

[16:12] Okay I realise what I just said about Zane having a crush on Pixal but c’mon this is getting creepy what she’s on about now. NNC is reading more and more like a dystopia by the second when you think about it. Everything is connected. It’s being fed to Borg Industries. If BI isn’t doing good then what the hell would this mean?

[16:05] I- I. I mean, what DOES power him?

[15:36] WaaaAIIIIT. THIS ISN’T GOOD.

[15:16] Wait. Is this licensed? Also fucking… video games…

[15:05] “They have a Perfect Match console!” nsddhgiufsjd like that one Choices game? Also I heard we’re having a love triangle somewhere but this soon? What the hell, writers?

[15:00] UHHHH WHAT THE HELL. GODDAMMIT WE ARE NOT DOING SOME SORT OF AUTOMATED SOULMATE CRAP GET THAT SHIT OUT OF HERE.

[14:54] THIS IS CREEPY AS HELL… IS THIS SUPPOSED TO ALL BE *GOOD?*

[14:53] No. No, we are NOT doing this.

[14:50] I am going… to go commit... murder. None of you can stop me.

I am going to die before I get through this episode, jesus christ, let’s continue,

[14:49] PLEASE. MAKE IT STOP.

[14:47] WHHHHHY!!!!!

Usually I avoid anything with any romance in it like the plague (which is 99% of YA fiction aka stuff in my demographic) let alone LOVE TRIANGLES and now I’m seeing why Terrible Writing Advice has it as a running gag! If you’re not familiar with the channel, it’s exactly as labelled. It’s an author giving you advice on what NOT TO DO as stuff to do (but blatantly the first category). A running gag is that The Love Triangle Is Awful Author JP Fixall, which indicates how much the real JP hates them.

[14:44] (everyone gasps almost horrified at the results) THAT’S HOW I’VE BEEN FEELING FOR THE PAST HALF AN HOUR YOU GOOF! THIS IS A TEN SECOND SEQUENCE.

[14:42] WeLPPP WE HAVE TO DO THIS SHIT THEN

[14:34] Hey, Mr. Borg! So about that matchmaking machine you have in the video game floor downstairs… can we talk about that?

[14:32] Oh my god, I can’t even enjoy the episode because of the stupid love triangle I’m dreading.

[14:22] djdjdjd he really had to call out his parents for naming him that

[14:20] Why are you all acting so shocked? That looks cool as shit.

[14:07] UMMMMMM????? I’M SORRY WHAT

[14:01] Holy shit, um… they just killed him. They killed Zane’s dad between seasons, jesus christ.

[13:38] Man, but like. Huh.

[13:27] (Cyrus) “I’m glad it’s just you four.” UHHH

[13:15] It’s… a statue?

[13:11] (Kai) “Oh wow. It’s a statue. Of yourself.” I’m telling you that!

[13:04] UHHHH CYRUS? CYRUS YOU’RE JUST GONNA WHISPER IN KAI’S EAR ABOUT HOW HE NEEDS TO PROTECT THE OTHER NINJA FOR NINJAGO’S SAKE AND JUST… LEAVE IT THERE

[13:01] Oh, well, “them”, but I assumed it was the ninja based on context. Whatever it is.

[12:53] What the fuck is going on?

[12:22] Wait, since when did Kai hate technology? Was that something else from the pilot episodes? And… whelp, it’s broken.

[12:15] Ooooh. This isn’t good.

[11:53] Whelp! Time to protect them blades!

[11:49] OUCH

[11:19] And this is why you don’t build over where the Overlord was defeated, presumably. It curses the damn place.

[11:01] Man… those are some angry machinery.

[10:57] JESUS CHRIST THEM TOO??? PIXAL??? GUYS YOU’VE GOT KIDS WITH YOU

[10:23] Christ, why were they even allowed in there? This is a massive WorkSafe violation.

[10:13] God, I love the new technology based aesthetics we’re getting here though. I will confess, I love me them tech. I don’t really have the brains for it, but I wouldn’t deny it being cool as shit.

[10:10] Well! Let’s do this!

[10:06] Also, as always, the soundtrack slaps.

[9:51] And the music’s been updated to fit the technology theme of the season! In the previous two seasons, we got a lot of the classic Cinematic Orchestra (probably not the name but still). Now we’re doing a more techno beat… kind of thing

[9:48] (Zane) “It’s not sharp! Why even call it a blAde?”

[9:37] And thus continues the long tradition of the ninja almost falling to their deaths.

[9:29] Ow.

[9:27] Man, you really should find a stop to your fall soon.

[9:23] Conveniently placed … what do you call em

[9:16] Well!!!

[9:05] The Overlord’s back.

[8:52] Oh. Oh no.

[8:43] (laughs nervously) what the fuck?

[8:31] Man, this is really just going downhill. I knew there was something severely off with NNC!

[8:26] thROw mE!

[8:17] HELL YEAH!!!

[8:10] Oh! Hell yeah! Vehicles!

[7:47] Welp!

[7:28] Pixal what the hell

[6:47] Hell yeah!!!! Also, goddammit I CALLED IT NNC WAS REALLY OFF

[6:26] Man! You’re really ready to go kick some ass, huh? I literally cannot blame you.

[5:25] Wow! This is actually really wild and I’m really into it.

[4:47] So! New vehicles! Mainly to sell merch but man is this a fun way of doing it!

[4:10] god i love this show!

[3:30] uhhh what just happened

[3:26] Lloyd! thank you!

[3:20] And now they’re group hugging him!

[3:16] Shiiit. That goddamn Overlord.

[2:42] Alright! Let’s see what happens now!

[1:43] Oh!!! I guess the technoblades are with the ninja! This was just a false flag.

[1:30] OOOOH. IT WASN’T.

[0:52] god like… to Lloyd, all of the other ninja are the Dad Friend like… stop collecting dads Lloyd. you’ve got too many. put a few back.

[0:49] Oh god. Cyrus.

[0:38] OH NO

[0:26] Kids show! Now with 80% more body horror and 70% more useless romantic subplots!

#ninjago #jaime sobs over ninjago season 3 #the surge

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yarrayora · 7 days

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if i was a character attending a magic academy in some isekai manga where both commoners and nobles are allowed to attend and one of the stuck up noble kids is bullying a beastman claiming that there's nothing wrong with it because beastmen arent people but beasts i would go find a cute little kitten and demand the bully to prove their ideology right by stomping the kitten in front of everyone

after all, the kitten is a beast just like the beastman, right? so if it's okay to abuse them just because then there will be no repercussion for the bully if they were to kick a little cat around in front of everyone

there's no way they can do it without being labelled a monster, but any attempt to refuse to commit animal abuse will strengthen the argument that you shouldn't harm beastmen without having to go through the hurdle of arguing a bunch of racists about what personhood means

#yarra speaks #yarra writes stuff

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benevolenterrancy · 6 years

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Oh I see glad to know you're still in the fandom!! I sort of asked because I was looking through your old stuff and I really like some of your writing and headcanons and art and all and I wasn't sure if you still accept les mis asks and things... I'm constantly falling in and out of the les mis fandom myself although i will always love it and... I may send some asks sooner or later if you're not too busy? It's all up to you though. Vive la France!

Yes, by all means, send me asks!! As some of my followers and poor long suffering mutuals know (cough yarra cough) I do sometimes have a bad habit of hoarding asks with the intention of filling them out at some point and then... just... not getting to it. Whoooops. But I do definitely always enjoy asks and prompts, and I try to answer them even if it’s just a short headcanon :D And I’m glad you’ve enjoyed my old stuff.... though oof, some of that stuff is so old @-@

The actor is called Turlough Convery! His imdb has been updated to confirm that he’s going to be in the miniseries coming out this year! I sadly don’t know anything about him as an actor, but aesthetic wise I am absolutely delighted! He has a Good Grantaire Look and I’m gonna have to find time to doodle what his grantaire might look like... hopefully we get some in-costume pics soon!

#bene speaks #anon #chatter #les mis

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foibles-fables · 2 years

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Good morning fandom buddy!

Out of all your Horizon fics, which of them are you most proud of? Which of them kept you awake and plagued you throughout the day with thoughts about your blorbos? Are there any other fics that you're looking forward to writing, any ideas or themes you're interested in exploring?

-horizonwritersblog

HIIIII and thank you so much for the thoughtful question!!!

I think the one I'm proudest of is either won't you wander back to me? or if you held yourself up to the light. The latter is also the one that plagued me both as a concept and as a WIP for WAY too long, lmao.

I'm lucky to have a lot of exciting-to-me stuff in the pipeline. It includes (but isn't limited to) some more Aloy/Yarra, some angsty Hawk and Thrush bridging between the Sunhawk comic and HFW, and explorations of a particular facet of Talanah's character that hit me pretty hard after HFW. Some of this is gonna come out bigtime in a piece that's about 75% completed, hopefully done by the end of the weekend.

#I hope you're having the best day!!!

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mysydneymemories-blog · 5 years

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At the edge of the known world, natural storytellers spin their tales

We also offered a series of intensive classes in life-writing. Sixteen people enrolled. They contributed their own stories to the production and introduced us to other great storytellers in their community. We scoured the hills recording people with our iPhones. And we coerced them to perform in our show. Twenty Stories. Twenty Legends.

The Frogley family founded Healesville Cordial Products. Pictured with a distribution truck are Gerald and Pop Frogley with Eric Hook, Norm Frogley and his son Ray.

Hop kilns at the Coranderrk reserve near Healesville. The Frogleys were early joiners. Ros great-grandmother was one of the first residents of Coranderrk, the Aboriginal Reserve created by the Victorian government in the 1860s. She was Alice Zipporah Grant known as Zippy. Ros has a beautiful collection of photographs of the four generations of her family (the Jenkins) starting at the hop gardens at Coranderrk, where her great-grandfather Thomas was the manager.

The Healesville Cordial Products range included Totem soft drinks.

An advertising calendar for Totem soft drinks. Ros husband, John Frogley, has lived in Healesville for 71 years. His grandfather founded Healesville Cordial Products (HCP). Their soft drinks quenched the thirst of the Yarra Valley for 40 years. One morning, we were invited to Dougie Jensens shed. He introduced us to his wife, Martha, and to a circle of men most of whom used to work for the sawmills. We plonked our microphone on a stool, nursed mugs of coffee and recorded 80 minutes worth of stand-up comedy. Bonga: One time Im drivin' with Misery. Hannie: Whys he called that? Bonga: Cos hes a big tall streak o misery. John: He started out bein called Mystery. Dougie: He was the butcher. Sausages. Mystery bags. Hannie: Right. Bonga: So, this day were goin to Kyneton. He had some racehorses. Hes towin the horse float and he goes: Jesus, look at that! Fancy that bloody idiot passing me on a bend. And Im goin: Its our horse float. Misery goes: You forgot to put the clip down, didnt ya? When I asked these chaps if they would each tell one of their stories on stage, their response was categoric. No bloody way. I was disappointed. One of the joys of doing this kind of work is that you rarely see people who look or sound like these men on Australian stages. You can write them, but on stage they are played by pretty NIDA graduates. But there was no point sweet-talking. These fellas were too shy. Apparently. So we asked around town and found local actors men who shared this glorious Aussie sense of humour. One member of our writers team recorded Alf Rice, the local postman. But Alf was going on holiday when the show was scheduled. So veteran actor Michael Veitch played him. Veitch is also a local. Apart from those two scenes, everyone else on stage was telling their own story. Most had never been in a show before, so we rehearsed for hours in peoples homes, in sheds and in a room upstairs at the theatre. We spent weekends recording birdsong, animal noises and the sounds of rural life. We made this our soundtrack. The performance took place in The Memo, Healesvilles renovated Memorial Hall, where Dame Nellie Melba sang Ave Maria in 1928. We had teachers, students, farmers, shopkeepers and the president of the Healesville Historical Society.

The Hello, Healesville! finale, with Hannie Rayson centre stage at the memorial hall. Credit:Michael Dickinson The local CFA captain, Graeme Bates, told the story of the day fires were raging towards Healesville in 2008. He had his leg in plaster after a work accident and had despatched all 10 trucks to fight other fires. He got a call from a bloke in the watch tower just on the top of the hill, who said, This one is coming straight for you. Im watching this thing roaring towards us with a northerly behind it, Batesy tells the community. And Im thinking, were in trouble. For the first time, Healesvilles going to burn. Then, just as the fire reaches the crest of the hill, the wind changes and the fire turns away. Graeme Bates and I carefully chose his costume from the row of fire-fighting gear hanging on pegs at the fire station. The audience loved veteran lyrebird keeper from the Healesville Sanctuary, Kevin Mason. He began working at the sanctuary in 1960. He had recordings of lyrebirds imitating kookaburras, camera shutters and even a burglar alarm. Ovarn Brown migrated from Jamaica three years ago. On his first day in Healesville, the local bank had a sausage sizzle in the main street. He thought, what place have I come to that gives away free food? When he arrived, he could not get over hard rubbish. People throw away all this stuff, he told the audience, incredulously. In his home town in Jamaica, he had to ride a bicycle without a seat. There used to be an iconic Thai restaurant in Healesville called Poppys. Skye Macfarlane told of how her mother, the eponymous Poppy, came from a small village in northern Thailand. She won the lottery which was worth $32,000 and bought herself an airplane ticket to Australia. I asked my mum why Australia and not America? Skye told the audience. She simply said, I like the kangaloo. A midwife, Sunderai Felich, regaled us with her hilarious story of three encounters with Jimmy Barnes, during which the audience spontaneously sang Working Class Man. Everyone involved was charged with the responsibility of collecting red autumn leaves. We strewed the stage with them as a tribute to the beauty of the Yarra Valley in autumn. Local artist Jenny Reddin made a replica of one of Healesvilles iconic street lamps. One key to the show was the three-minute rule. You will be surprised how much you can say in three minutes. And how little you can say, if you bang on for 10. This was our golden rule. And we were fascists about enforcing it. With the Badger Creek Womens Choir, a cellist and a guitarist, we had 49 people and a large black dog on stage. They stood on the carpet of red leaves, against a projection of a huge tree at the Maroondah dam, in full red-leafed glory. I have been working in the theatre for nearly 40 years, and there is nothing like a community show to fill your sails with euphoria and joy. Work like this reinforces the power of theatre to transform peoples lives and to transform a community. Healesville has always been a special place and now we blow-ins know it, too. Most Viewed in Lifestyle Loading https://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/life-and-relationships/at-the-edge-of-the-known-world-natural-storytellers-spin-their-tales-20190610-p51w8c.html?ref=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_source=rss_feed

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koibitotedare · 7 years

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is there ever a moment you feel too embarrassed to post, or even write a fic?

I’m about to get really...real...and lengthy...sorry in advance... I’ll put in a readmore.

Everyday. I feel this everyday, with every fic, and every plot, and every idea.

Part of that is because I’m a lil bundle of anxiety and a general mess. Most of it streams from a past of being ridiculed for my writing and getting massively flamed to the point of leaving the writing world for YEARS. I dropped off the face of the earth so fast that I had my readers starting asking other readers who asked some fanartists I used to have, where the fuck I went. I got a bunch of PMs asking where I went and I don’t think I answered them for many years...because I didn’t even log on to see them until all those years later when I found out there had been searches to find me.

I didn’t come back into the writing world until just a few years ago (under a brand new username) and I still to this day suffer the thoughts of those comments, reviews, thoughts and opinions of other people. I used to have a very demanding and bad beta. That has also made me second guess my own writing and wonder if it’s even good.

Then there are lurkers. Lurkers are great, I love them really I do, but when there is static silence on my fics the thought “oh this is probably really bad and I’ve just embarrassed myself by writing it” is one of my first on why no one says anything. I always skip straight to “They hate it!!!” When they really don’t...probably. (if you’re a lurker don’t feel bad just keep lurking!!! I really don’t mind! I don’t want to make anyone feel uncomfortable or force them to do something they don’t want to do!)

However, there are many things I’ve learned from my lengthy period of inactivity and my non-existence in this world.

Number one: I love writing. I LOVE WRITING!!! It helps me to say that often because it is something I truly enjoy and even when I was full of worse self-doubt and embarrassment before, I still wrote.

Number two: I can’t let other people dictate what I write because at the end of the day I’m really writing for me. It just so happens that writing for everyone else gives me great joy too. I love being able to make readers feel to make them want to know more about my characters, my writing, even myself. I love sharing my stories and I love sharing the emotions we have through writing.

Number three: Not everyone is out to get me. Sure it feels like it sometimes. I’ll never get over certain things and I’m sure that I’ll always have negative thoughts first. Like for this I’m like “ahh Yarra has read something I posted and thought wow is she not embarrassed that she’s done this?” when in reality it’s probably nothing more than your simple curiosity or you reflecting on your own personal experiences.

I do have vast quantities of self-indulgent fics that will never see the light of the internet. They are...quite embarrassing. They will probably sit in my “current works” folder for the rest of their days until they are inevitably forgotten or deleted. Just as well as the “plot bunnies” file I keep. Some of those are too shameful to approach.

In the end though, the most important thing I learned is that even if it’s embarrassing or even if I’m ashamed by what I’ve managed to spew out and throw together it’s still something that can be shared. Someone out there will inevitably love it or hate it. But they will think of it.

I can’t stop every time I am embarrassed by something I do and not post it. I did that for so many years and I was miserable. I missed the interaction and the support. I’ll admit I am more sensitive to constructive criticism and working with my current beta (who is fabulous and I love) made me incredibly anxious in the beginning but I’m so so so so so happy I post now. No matter how embarrassing because there are now so many people who like what I put out and I like making people happy.

I also like to think that I’m helping to inspire people. Whether it’s because they read my stuff and go “oh god this is so bad I can do better than this just watch me!” or if it’s because they aim to get to where I am so they can surpass me, I like to think these people exist and it helps give me a gentle push when I DO hesitate to post.

Sometimes you just have to have that impulse moment. That part where you say “fuck it I don’t care if everyone hates it! I don’t care if I hate it!! I’m just gonna do it!” because after you post on that impulse by the time you have enough serious doubt to think of taking it down, someone has already given a kudos, or a comment, or a small word of encouragement and that makes all the difference in the world for next time.

Sorry this got so long but it’s something I think about often. How embarrassed I am to be posting smut so long after I stopped writing it from a comment. (It’s been about 8 years now). How embarrassed I am to share my ideas that sound a little crazy on paper. And how embarrassing it is to share your typos XD

but at the end of the day it just makes me happy so I have to find the courage to follow through. It just takes some time.

#yarrayora #answered ask #so short answer is yes #lol #honestly though if you do feel the embarrassment get a third party to read it #because they can be so encouraging #and yes I'm talking to you Sophie #Also just doing it is so helpful because if you impulse it and its good #great #if you impulse it and it's bad #you won't really know it as well because there are still people who will like it #I have lots of those fics out there rn #ahah

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meltedchandelier · 7 years

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an overly detailed analysis of the .3 seconds during while I smiled at Tom Ward

you have to understand how wrong everything had to go to make this moment happen.

i woke up before 9 yesterday, and I was going to get up and get dressed, and go to Prahran Market, which is supposed to be the foodie Saturday market, but instead I lollygagged in bed and pseudosexted with my pseudoboyfriend (e.g. me: "Sorry I was in the shower." him: "Wow, I wish I was there for that." exciting stuff.) Don't worry, Mom, no pictures.

so I'm basically wasting away an entire morning of my vacation even though I slept for 15 hours (with the help of rose' and Benadryl) so my jet lag should be gone. but here we are.

finally, I drag myself out of bed, and I put on clothes. and I decide fuck Prahran Market: I want to sit in an actual cafe' and have a cocktail, and way too much French toast. So I look up "brunch South Yarra" and the Google tells me to go to Darling Cafe, which is an excellent name and on a street I walked down yesterday so all that seems very manageable.

i get there, and there's a wait, because of course there's a wait, it's brunch on a Saturday when all respectable city dwellers worldwide stand around outside tiny cafes for an hour starving and pretending to be happy about it. But I put my name on the list and the girl tells me it's going to be 15 minutes.

i buy a coffee at the counter, and I stand outside, and I browse the Internet on my phone. And then I come to understand that the wait list is for inside tables, and the ones outside are up for grabs. So I flag down the girl and she tells me yes, of course, the table at the end is yours.

i sit. I pretend to read "Rivers Run Through It," and I pretend to write witty things in my notebook, but what I really end up doing is drinking way too much champagne before noon, and watching all the cute dogs and cute humans, and texting with my friend back in New York.

so I'm hunched over this little table, consumed by my iphone screen, my hair still wet, no make up when all of the sudden a man bends down to pet a dog at the table next to mine. and before my brain even processes "it's Thomas Ward!!!!" my face does the "it's Thomas Ward!" and i smile and we make eye contact and he smiles back.

or maybe he doesn’t. maybe he smiles at the dog’s owners. but I've been genuinely fantasizing about this moment for months, ever since I saw the first episode of "Please Like Me" and was immediately smitten with that beard faced shaggy haired man child. so im just going to pretend that he smiled. at me.

and then he's gone, bouncing off down the street to rejoin a female person in a stylish hat. He's wearing skinny jeans, and Converse sneakers, and carrying a sandwich (”fucking gluten!”).

i turn around. The girl at the next table, the one with the dog, looks at me. "That was Tom Ward yeah?" I say, and she nods yes. And that's how I knew that the Universe finally remembered that she owes me one.

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rueur · 7 years

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Morning Pages #7 (11.01.2017)

Wednesday 11th Jan - 7:48 a.m.

SO, as you can imagine, I slept so much last night and it was amazingly satisfying. I had no energy by 8 o’clock last night and just decided that that was it. I would be feeding the cats and calling it in. I didn’t even eat dinner. I had a handful of pretzels and a zooper dooper, that’s it. Actually, two zooper doopers sorry. It was a hot day and I had spent most of it outside along the Yarra: that murky brown, yeast-infested bowl of a river bend where the Abbotsford convent nestles undisturbed on the edge, and the Collingwood Children’s Farm accommodates the nostalgic sounds of sheep baaing and the evermore nostalgic scents of hay and barnyard excrement. This was actually the first time I’ve been exploring around the convent, rather than just going straight to Lentils. It’s honestly a fascinating place.

Sorry, I just took a massive break from writing right now. It’s 8:13 a.m., and I think I’m just feeling really good right now. Like really good, like happy. A little sick, still a little fatigued. My throat hurts, my stomach feels a little weird because I’m still transitioning back into eating properly, and I think I’ll have to take another break to feed the cats in a bit because I don’t want to keep them waiting too long after 8 o’clock. But things are getting a lot better between Ikaros and I. I was just on Facebook for a little bit, checking up on friends before I started really writing this morning’s morning pages (because I am a bit overwhelmed by what I have to write today, I mean what happened yesterday), and then realised that Ikaros had already added Lauren and Jacob on Facebook! Before he’s met them, before we’ve had a chance to organise something with them. It’s adorable. Hopefully Lauren and Jacob weren’t taken aback by this. I don’t think they would be, honestly. They’re too lovely. I mean if Jacob is anything like what Lauren’s told me he’s like, then they’re too too lovely. Okay, I’ve written just over half of this first page so I think I should go and feed the cats now. I’ll be back here in a minute or so. I’m sorry, this entry is going to be a lot of stopping and starting because I’m on my way out of a depressive slump. Life feels very oddly in a mix between erratic and orderly right now. I think I’m veering away from erratic and into a healthy orderly state.

Okay, I just fed the cats. It is 8:32 a.m., and I am ready to start writing again. It’s nearly been an hour since I started this, though. I think that already, this has been the longest time I’ve spent working on some morning pages. I don’t think I really want to write about what happened yesterday. Okay, basically what happened yesterday was I met Lucas. It was at 12:30 as planned so despite Malith and I relieving ourselves of about a month without conversation by sitting and chatting for around 8 hours, I managed to conjure together three hours of sleep before heading out to the Abbotsford convent. Lucas met me at 12:30 on the dot, but I was there about ten minutes early because I thought I’d get lost. I’d never walked to Lentils on my own before, always with Ikaros. And the first time I went, I went with Rhiannon and Cam and some of our other friends for Rhiannon’s birthday. I think this was during high school, that or first year uni. We volunteered for about an hour before eating for ourselves. I still remember that day really well, because it was so lovely.

Lucas and I decided to go on a walk first, along the Yarra, where we found ourselves on this cute and very scenic little ledge-walk. Lucas kept pointing out different kinds of trees, landscape features, some facts about the history of the area, and I was honestly loving it. One of the greater things about Ikaros was how much he knew about random topics that interested him. I also see that in Isaac. These boys google things or watch informational YouTube videos in their spare time. In regards to Lucas and Isaac, they read books and fill their heads with real world facts, not the fictitious drivel that I consume! No, I am a massive lover of fiction. In fiction we find a reflection of our own world, our own selves. Whilst non-fiction helps us understand the world around us, fiction writing helps us first see that world. I am enjoying reading David Foster Wallace’s essays, even though I read none of it yesterday because honestly all I had the energy to do was go meet Lucas and then collapse into bed.

Lucas and I were also very like-minded, I realised very early on in the day. We were equally interested in environmental studies and the natural sciences, in arts, in creative thinking and academic learning, in media, in spiritual beliefs! He was very interested in learning about my Buddhism and I was equally interested in his spiritual connections to Bali. He spoke briefly about a cleansing ritual he would do often during his time in north Bali, at the end of which he’d be given a colourful pirith noola. I was wearing a pirith noola when I met him, so that was how that came up.

All in all, we spoke for about three or so hours, had lunch at Lentils and then spoke for a little while longer. It was really refreshing, having that level of insightful conversation and getting to know somebody, focusing on that one person, for an afternoon. Marcus, Ben, Ikaros, that guy at that party, Isaac, Nick, Lucas. I have now kissed seven guys and zero girls and I am finding this outrageous. Maybe I should’ve kissed Lauren or something, but honestly I didn’t want to force it. She is insanely gorgeous, and hopefully that time will come.

Okay, this is ridiculous! It is 9:17 a.m. now, and I think it’s safe to say that I am procrastinating at this point. I just spent a bit of time sending messages to people, and looking up Melbourne’s School of Life because Lauren has been sending me a bunch of their YouTube videos over the past few days and I first of all, didn’t know it was a YouTube and now secondly, didn’t know that it was an actual school/cafe/store in cities around the world, Melbourne being one of them! Long story short, we are making plans to go and check out this fascinating, gentle global institution. I am excited, I really am. Looking towards the future, making all of these new friends during my time off and this being my last year of my degree, I am really really hopeful about everything that’s happening in my life right now.

Yesterday Lucas asked me what makes me happiest in life. Funnily enough, I was able to answer that question right away, I think actually it might’ve been because I only just came out of a depressive slump. I told him that what makes me happiest in life are those occasions where everything is going smoothly: those days or weeks or months at a time where there’s nothing standing in your way and you can live day-to-day without a hint of misery, yet you’re also as efficient as you’ve ever been. There have been periods of time in my life where I’ve experienced no form of emotional distress, no relationship issues, no work or school stress, and have just lived freely within the confines I have created for myself, and looking back on those times makes me infinitely happy. Because they were real, they existed. They are possible and thus, that state of being is an achievable long-term condition. That fact makes me infinitely hopeful and infinitely happy.

Lucas also told me that he and his girlfriend of three years broke up because of scheduling issues. With his university work, and her full-time, crazy shifts, they literally never had time to be with each other and every time one had time off, the other was supposed to be asleep, resting before their next load of work began. I told him that it’s always that kind of stuff that breaks up otherwise functioning relationships. It’s always the irritable little things that come together and create unscalable mountains. I said that that will always happen, because our everyday concerns are self-inflicted. If you take something soft and natural like human love and our relationships, and intersperse these natural concerns alongside mechanical or manmade concerns like paying bills and managing your workload in a systematic society, then those mechanical concerns will always interact with your natural concerns in a very jarring way. They don’t go together. Professionally speaking, human beings treat themselves like machines or computers, but love is our animalistic side and it’s that which we can’t shake that reminds us of the forever underlying fact that we are literally just animals. Our lives are held within the safe clutches of Mother Nature, not Mother Culture as Daniel Quinn would say.

I wrote a couple of essays and a bunch of stories along that thought last year, and shared it with Lucas yesterday, and he found it pretty interesting. Then he shared something he’d made with me, which was honestly really depressing to hear. Back when he was still missing his girlfriend and they just weren’t in sync, he had designed something for her: two towers with open roofs, one standing on either side of a large river. There’s a slit in the wall on the river-facing side of both towers, that allows you to see only the eyes of the person standing in the other tower. You can see their eyes like they’re right up next to you, but you can’t reach that person. And the river keeps flowing between you viciously, an uncrossable obstacle that mockingly gives physical form to the incessant passing of time. Over a while, you feel that although you’re staring into the eyes of this person, they’re not there anymore. And your believing that means that neither are you. You’ve both left before you’ve had a chance to leave at all.

#spilled ink #morning pages #stream of consciousness #diary #dating #7 #11.01.2017

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