Gainfully - and permanently - employed!

Since late May, Miss Eagle has been temping in a certain public institution in the eastern suburbs. After approx. two months in the position, it was advertised. Your Miss Eagle, dear Reader, applied for the position and has been appointed. On Monday next, she becomes a permanent employee (albeit on six months probation!).

Now Miss Eagle is pretty chuffed about this! Miss Eagle is no spring chicken. She does not look good in a mini-skirt and is well and truly over wearing long spikey heels and pointy toes. And, as a friend of Miss Eagle's once said, the competition tends to get younger, better looking, and better qualified. But here she is. Permanent employment is at hand! What with one thing and another - mostly ill health - Miss Eagle has not been an employee for four and a half years. So when all this is considered, the whole deal seems rather miraculous to your correspondent.

But Miss Eagle knows what human nature is like - particularly her own quirky brand of it. She keeps telling herself that in six months time, when the job may then seem mundane and repetitive, she must remember how she feels right now!

Happy Birthday to horses everywhere

To-day, August 1, is the birthday of the horse. So Miss Eagle takes the opportunity of wishing horses everywhere a Happy Birthday and hopes the next year brings lots of green grass, considerate owners, and a fruitful time of breeding, and winning.

Here are some famous Australian horses, including a reference to Miss Eagle's childhood favourite, Radish.

Bernborough

CarbineWinner
Gunsynd

Kingston Town
Might and Power

Phar Lap
Tulloch

Soap and fire : froth and bubble?

Recently, the back of the Nunawading Public Library underwent a metamorphosis. It became the Erinsborough Hospital. Neighbours had turned up. Stickers went on to doors and the roof of the library was alight with TV trickery. Miss Eagle was there to give you a behind the scenes look.

Any further bids on Risorgimento?

Denis Wilson from The Nature of Robertson posted a comment to my previous post. Denis, as will be seen from his blog, is a naturalist, birdwatcher, and photographer. So no one misses his beautiful thoughts on the seasons, Miss Eagle is copying them here:

As soon as the Winter Solstice passes, and days start to get longer, many things start to grow, (or bud, or flower). It is a huge seasonal divide, which is not noticeable to Eurocentric, and insulated, urbanites. I think country people (and gardeners) might be more in touch with this than true city folk.But the plants and animals know all about it (it is breeding season for Wombats).

Presumably the Aboriginals would have been in tune with this seasonal sense of anticipation (I believe there are many different names for "seasons" in the NT, for example. But I don't know about this in the southern states.I cannot come up with an "appropriate" name, just now. But something like the "return". What about the Italian historical term: "risorgimento" (resurgence) - it sounds better in Italian. It actually encompasses the sense of recovery, and the sense of passion and urgency which turns into the frenetic burst of growth with which we are familiar in Spring.The more I think about that name, the more I like it - "risorgimento".

Australian Spring

To read "Australian Spring" click on the picture for an enlarged version.

You should then see an enlarged version with on it a little square with arrows.

Click this little square and you will find the picture is now readable.

It is only July, but - after some clear Melbourne weather this week and seeing wattles and jonquils and fruit trees in blossom - Miss Eagle feels as though Spring is in the air. We Eurocentric people of the Southern Hemisphere still rely on the distinction of the Northern Hemisphere seasons turned upside down. So officially, Spring does not arrive here until September 1. Miss Eagle believes that we should pay more attention to our own environment not just in the Southern Hemisphere or in our own nation but in our own locality.

Miss Eagle thinks that if we were sufficiently in tune with our environment there would be a name for what is happening now. And for lots of other seasonal changes as well, seasonal changes that may not happen for a period of three months but may only last for three weeks or six weeks.

What would this present season be called? The Harbinger? Newness? Please let Miss Eagle know what you think.

The poem, Australian Spring, by Australia's leading suffragette and face-on-the-five-dollar note, Catherine Helen Spence, is from the State Library of South Australia and reminds us of the attitude of transplanted Europeans. Things have changed a century later - but not enough. Generally speaking, we Australians have not come to terms with our land. We have not paid sufficient attention to what it can tell us. In fact, let's ask ourselves if we are listening at all.

We are still seeing things through the eyes of elsewhere, not the eyes of the native born.

Melbourne Shopping Festival

Miss Eagle is gobsmacked. Who ever heard the like - a shopping festival!

Miss Eagle realises that there are many temples distributed around Australian cities dedicated to the gods and icons of Consumerism - but a festival! What does this mean? Does it mean that Consumerism, as a free-standing religion, will now establish its own religious calendar instead of converting the feasts of the Christian calendar for its own ends? Will the Melbourne Shopping Festival become the Hajj of Consumerism with Melbourne its Mecca? Will Melbourne business offer indulgences of huge percentages off in the same way that indulgences were sold once upon a time?

Miss Eagle thinks that one of the attractions for the powers-that-be in Melbourne is that a shopping festival could be run concurrently with at least one other major event on the Melbourne calendar. Perhaps there can even be more than one shopping festival fitted into the calendar. Shopping Festival and Grand Prix! Shopping Festival and AFL Grand Final! Shopping Festival and Melbourne Cup! You see juggling the circuses of Melbourne has become a game of increasing difficulty. This year the Grand Prix and the Commonwealth Games were jostling one another in a packed calendar.

Talk about Bread and Circuses!

Now Miss Eagle cannot say how many bakeries Melbourne has but this city - which boasts that it is the sporting capital of Australia - is well set up for circuses. There are more sporting arenas within walking distance of the CBD than in any other city in the country: the MCG, Olympic Park, Rod Laver and Vodaphone Arena, Telstra Dome, Albert Park with Flemington Racetrack being only a short cab or train ride away. And we won't go into the subject of theatres and public places and spaces like Federation Square.

One thing, though, that Miss Eagle wants to know. If there is to be a Melbourne Shopping Festival how will the Opp Shop clientele such as Miss Eagle and Gina be catered for? Or will we have to establish our own Fringe Festival?

The Man in Black for Breakfast

There is not much time for music on Radio National Breakfast on the ABC but for the last few mornings - including Geraldine Doogue's show on Saturday morning last - Fran Kelly has been playing a track from Johnny Cash's posthumous album, "American Five: a hundred highways". The tracks from this record were cut while he was ill in bed. He would sit up in bed and sing until he was to tired or exhausted and the tracks would be taken away and produced. Miss Eagle finds it difficult to listen without tears coming to her eyes. The great Man in Black in a weakened condition but still the music will out! And it has gone to Number One.

A corner of the Trad Pad

Herself has taken the Laundry in hand. At the Trad Pad, as in most homes, the Laundry (apart from the Loo) is the least room in the house. But at the Trad Pad, it not only serves as Laundry and Mud Room but it is the entry to the house for Miss Eagle and Herself and most of the visitors. You see, there is no road in front of the Trad Pad. Only a footpath. The only house in the street without a road. This is very confusing for first time visitors. They get confused in spite of clear instructions and directions and finish up all over the neighbourhood. So the front door is little used and entry for most is from the side street. So here is the newly styled laundry.

Milton House, Flinders Lane, Melbourne

Milton House has a point of difference from most of Melbourne's inner city heritage buildings - it's Art Nouveau style.

Milton House frontage in Flinders Lane, Melbourne

External fanlight and detail

Fanlight in portico

Frieze detail
Front doors in portico

Wall detail

Light shade in portico - one of a pair

A Latin lover?

Last night, Herself put before Miss Eagle a little translation problem. She had seen some young fellas with mohawks in a clapped out Torana and a sticker on the car which said in Latin:

Ego subdolus consilium habeo

Miss Eagle dragged her Grade 10 Latin up from the hidden dungeons of her memory and managed to translate ego and consilium and habeo. But that subdolus had her stumped. So then Miss Eagle got out a Latin dictionary on the 'net but still it did not seem to make sense. So Miss Eagle - at this stage she needed a sort of Latin thesaurus - went looking for an alternative word for her own translation of consilium. Herself was standing at Miss Eagle's right shoulder and we were puzzling over how to put "subdolus consilium" together when - and this was within 30 seconds, dear Reader - Herself's face lit up. She not only had the phrase, she knew the source and the connection.

Now Miss Eagle has googled the Latin phrase without a result. So she thinks there may be some small degree of difficulty here for some people. The phrase, in English, is on the 'net - of course from its source. So Miss Eagle is offering a packet of Tim Tams as the prize for the first blogger with the correct translation and its source posted in the comments. If you come from outside Australia, Miss Eagle has to advise that this is a much coveted prize.

FootFoot: a dog among dogs

Miss Eagle thinks that this photo of FootFoot demands a wider audience.

How gorgeous is he!

Warning! A whinge on wind

Please be warned this is a rant. Miss Eagle is ranting about the weather - Melbourne weather. Now, for those outside Australia, you need to know that Melbourne is notorious for its weather. Four seasons in one day. Conversation about the weather - because there is so much of it to talk about.

But Monday has been a piercingly cold day and then came increasing wind. And it is the wind, dear Reader, that drives Miss Eagle to distraction, towards madness, into grumpiness and now a rant. It is not only the force of the wind, not only the penetration of the wind, it is the noise of the wind.

Miss Eagle has lived through a few tropical cyclones in her lifetime and that is the only time - other than with Melbourne wind - that she has heard such noise associated with wind. And at 6.10pm out went the lights at Upper Gully not to come on until 7pm. So candles were lit, the camping fluoro came out for the kitchen, and meal preparation went ahead because we have a gas stove. And still the wind came, the noise came.

And so to bed with a book - Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver - and the electric blanket: shut-eye to shut out the wind. Miss Eagle is now awake in the early hours of Tuesday morning. The wind is subsiding along with the noise and the rain commences. Perhaps if your correspondent cared or dared to look out into the blackness she would find that the full moon is nowhere to be seen, hidden by bank upon bank of cloud.

And it is not just the wind of winter, it is the gloom of winter. Midday yesterday Miss Eagle looked at the lemony sunlight sitting on Melbourne's mountains beyond the northern suburbs under thick layers of grey cloud. It occurred to her that this lemony sunlight was familiar - it was the sort of colour that precedes sunrise in northern Australia yet this was noonish!

When this goes on for days, Miss Eagle is overtaken by S.A.D. - seasonal affective disorder. Not enought sunlight - certainly nowhere near enough for a girl from the tropics. Now Miss Eagle is not suggesting she has the deep melancholia of Finland (for Finnish insights see Anni Heino's blog, Mayday) but it is the blahs - only more so. To counter this Miss Eagle lights up the lights. The office where she blogs is well lit but on the desk is a fluorescent lamp and there is also a very bright standard lamp. Overlit the room may be, but it is an attempt to alleviate the symptoms.

There is a beautiful winter: the clearness of the Whitsundays; the view from Townsville's Melton Hill on a crisp tropical winter's day with air so clear you can almost see the people walking on the jetty at Picnic Bay on Magnetic Island; the stillness of the waters off Port Douglas. Oh, my beloved Capricornia, why can't I be with you!

Miss Eagle - the fair go feminist

Over at Dragon Girl, Jules has posted about the F word. No, not that F word. It's the other one, Feminism. She has asked us to post on what Feminism means to us. Well, to Miss Eagle it means the F phrase - a fair go. Without Feminism women do NOT, and I repeat NOT get a fair go.

Without Feminism some do all right. They always have. They use their feminine wiles and sleep their way to the top. (In fact, Miss Eagle knows of some who would own the feminist tag who still do.) They find the time honoured negative feminine skills of manipulation designed to deceive the gullible MOTS (male of the species). And there have always been the power-behind-the-throne types.

But for a lot of us who want to be able to earn a living without harassment and get a fair day's pay for it; to have access to a decent and worthwhile education again without harassment; to be treated as intelligent human beings and consumers within a health system which has a powerful male dominated medical profession then feminism has been the way to express our view points and demand an equal footing. This does not automatically make us man-haters, neglecters of children, and self-centered creatures.

Lest we forget, a century ago women were chattels of the MOTS without ANY fertility control. Women were passed from the control of their fathers to the control of their husbands and that was the way their money and their children went too.

Feminists come in all sorts of shades from lesbian separatists to Marxist feminists and post-modernists. Just like any other school of thought in the whole wide world there is diversity. But to get done what women have done over the last 3.5 decades, women have co-alesced and co-operated on major issues such as domestic violence; rape; childcare; equal pay; and access to education and healthcare.

And Miss Eagle wishes it to be known that her marching shoes have never gathered dust whether in the cause of peace, racism, working conditions, or feminism.

The demands of a whizzing calendar...

The calendar has whizzed by and Miss Eagle has been missing in action for too long. July is not half way over and it has been full and busy and does not show any sign of letting up until the beginning of August. The new full time job - although a contract role - is making quite a few demands on time and energy. However, bed time has been extended beyond 8.30 pm as Miss Eagle gets used to the demands of work. The position has been advertised as a permanent position. Miss Eagle has applied but she is sure there will be substantial competition so may the best woman - not trying to be gender biassed but females predominate in this sector - win.

Avec Amour is closing its doors at the end of this month and I have been assisting Herself by working Saturdays and selling off the shop fittings on Ebay. On Friday night your Miss E. had a marvellous time at the footy watching The Storm defeat The Broncos. Pop over to The Eagle's Nest and catch the excitement with a slide show of the event.

And, while your correspondent has been only posting intermittently she has also not had time to read her Feed and catch up with her favourite blogs. This week-end she has managed to catch up a little to find that, over at Loobylu, Claire has given birth to beautiful Lily and Ms Robyn has set up a new blog. Life goes on with Lazy Cow amid a haircut for The Boy, at Patra's Place handiwork is still being discovered, shared, admired and stored; Sharon's handiwork and lust for stitching books continues, Jane is knitting away and showing off summery toe-nails at Yarnstorm, and Suse at Peasoup is up to all her usual wonderful things as well as a new job at a nameless but eucalypt strewn university.

So this week Miss Eagle promises, dear Reader, to try a little harder to build a routine that will cope with life, work, and regular posting.

Some blokes take more than they are entitled to...

The fur has been flying this week in corporate Australia - in particular Channel 9 and PBL. The corporate culture at 9 and within its owner PBL has been revealed in a most unattractive fashion.

Julie Szego in her article Blokes on Top in to-day's The Age analyses it for its impact on women in corporate Australia, particularly in light of presenter of To-day, Jessica Rowe, and editor of The Bulletin, Kathy Bail. Both of these people and the way they have been and are being treated by PBL seem to give credence to the adage that women have to work twice as hard as men to be seen as being half as good. And guess who's in the thick of it, that sporting icon turned corporate executive, Eddie Everywhere. What a good look, Eddie! You've done yourself proud - I must say. And for all those blokes here in Melbourne who think Eddie is a creditable and shining example of Australian manhood, take a tip from Miss Eagle - he's not!

FEMALE EXECUTIVE MANAGERS
HOW AUSTRALIA COMPARES

What you won't get from the on-line edition of The Age that is in the print edition is the accompanying photographs of five top female Australian executives. Namely:

• Professor Margaret Gardner, Vice-Chancellor RMIT
• Margaret Jackson, Chair, Qantas
• Julia Gillard, Shadow Minister for Health and Manager of Opposition Business in the Parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia
• Gail Kelly, CEO, St George Bank
• Catherine Livingstone, non-executive director, Telstra and director, Macquarie Bank.

One "prominent male business figure" who declined to be named is quoted as saying that "more women will be appointed to boards when more put themselves forward". Well no wonder he doesn't want to be named - names won't be quoted to protect the guilty? Two points I would make to you Mr Cowardly Unnamed Businessman:

1. Representation by women on boards and in higher executive positions does not and should not rely on women "putting themselves forward". Women should be there because they are just as entitled - and frequently more entitled - than men to be there based on skills, merits, and their ability to communicate with a wider public.
2. If the system did rely on women "putting themselves forward", why on earth would they? Could Mr Cowardly Unnamed Businessman please tell Miss Eagle why any of the five women named above would want to or wish to or aspire to work in such a culture as that prevailing at PBL, The Bulletin and Channel 9? Why would any of those five women want to work with Eddie McGuire? What skills do Eddie McGuire and John Lehmann (who was preferred ahead of Kathy Bail) have that makes them stand out from a host of well-qualified women employed in media and business?

All Miss Eagle can say is thanks be that all this is being revealed. Too often, Australians are encouraged - particularly by political leaders - to admire business executives and directors as people of achievement and probity. If one thing is clear from the events of the last week, it is that these are shabby people doing shabby deals advancing people over whom hang doubts about whether their ability is of sufficient rank to justify their promotion.

And we are supposed to think that Australian business is operating at the height of efficiency and in the best interest of its "stakeholders"? Phooey!

From the desert prophets come - A.D. Hope

Sculptors Hill (left) Stephens Creek on Nine Mile Station (right)

Broken Hill, New South Wales

Into Miss Eagle's email to-night came some wonderful information from her good friend, Ian Robinson, who now lives in Perth but will be known to many in Sydney from his time as Minister of Chatswood Uniting Church. Ian, together with Ross Neville, is planning a wonderful desert journey under the heading of God Outback which will run from 21-29 August next. You will need to go the aforelinked website for registration but here is the info.

Based on a remote station property north of Broken Hill, we will be exploring the spirit of the land - aboriginal and caucasian - as well as the country, and the difference a person can make. Participants can be accommodated in shearers’ quarters; park a caravan next to the quarters; or camp in the creek - journeying and reflection will take place from the quarters.

We will encounter station life as well as the indigenous peoples of the Mutawindji National Park. Opportunities will be given to explore semi-arid country and the big skies. Time alone, time around the campfire, and hopefully one overnight campout. Things to see and do include: landcare by the pastoralist; regular operations of station life; visit deserted mine shafts, cabin sites etc of early settlers and miners; look at a mine on Nine Mile; understand western vegetation and animals; the unique hills, geology and plains of the area; study the stars; aboriginal culture sites and feedstuffs; quiet, spaciousness, unique scenery, sunsets, stars and colours; no rush…..

Ian Robinson has seen most of Australia’s outback, and led many groups on retreat. An ordained minister, he is presently engaged in research into the spirituality of the Australian deserts. He is married with three adult children and lives in Perth.

Ross Neville has lived in the central and western part of NSW as a farmer, counselor and Rural TAFE teacher. He has led and arranged camps all his life. He is married and has 4 adult children and is currently the Evangelism and Mission consultant with the UCA NSW Synod Board of Mission.

~~~~~~

Possible general program: The program will be flexible according to the nature and interests of the group

Monday Arriving: Sydney Train arrives 7:10pm Dubbo/Sydney Plane 11 am. Driving 15km Tibooburra Nine Mile on left. Settle in: Walk around creek area homestead area. BBQ dinner in creek with owner

Tuesday Tour around station with owner

Wednesday Party investigates particular part of the station

Thursday Friday Short walking trails on edge of property Sculptor Hill, Sundown trail, or station walks, Star watching night

Saturday Trip to Mutawintji National Park: aboriginal food, culture, overnight Sunday Monday Free time possibility to investigate parts of Broken Hill mines, art galleries…

Tuesday Train leaves 7:45 am Plane 11am

What to bring: Tent, if you want to camp. Day backpack, water bottle, walking boots, Sheets, pillow, blankets, if staying in shearing quarters, (or sleeping bag) bathroom items, warm and hot clothes, coat for cool winds, evenings. temperatures expected for late August 8-18 degrees (Can be 0-30) Optional (Folding chair), ground sheet, Binoculars/telescope, torch, Bible, notebook, camera, paints, crayons and musical instrument if you can.

Total cost $560 Reduced fee for camping. $40 Registration fee Includes 4WD hire, all food plus entry fees park, mine.

Problem with the cost?

Contact us - Ross Neville 02 6366 9698

Ian Robinson 08 8236 4236

Registrations close 7 August

Spirit Journeys

Carolyn Robertson

0425314863 or spiritjourneys@pnc.com.au

Words and pictures

Miss Eagle has chosen to post these not because of visual impact but because of the wonderful words and the fact that they are gathered together in one place.

Grand United Order of Free Gardeners

Did you get that, Miss Eagle asks?

Grand - United - Free - Gardeners

What do these words conjure up?

Green thumbed people who care passionately about freedom?

Not enslaved gardeners but free gardeners?

And they have got together in an order -

and order which is united and grand

and, above all, it is a friendly society.

How charming, Miss Eagle thinks!

The indulged and indulgent

A chilly Melbourne Sunday morning.

Time for cozying up on the couch.

This is Herself with FootFoot on the left of picture

and Trixie on the right.

Sheer indulgence, Miss Eagle says!

A beautiful Queen

The beautiful old buildings of Queen Street, Melbourne

No. 9 Queen Street

Bennelong House

And its detail

No. 15 Queen Street

The Lombard Building

No.18 Queen Street

Alkira House

A contrast in Art Deco

Rose in a basket

Look what Miss Eagle found.

Rose curled up on a stash of fabric in my basket.

All cuddly and warm on a cold, cold day.