We left Sydney on Friday midday and stopped at Kiama Blow hole ( I have not see so many patriotic Australians all in one town), and then Jervis Bay which was had some really nice beaches. Then we kept driving south and decided to camp near the small town of Congo at Eurobodalla National Park. It is really a nice camping spot, with a lacustrine lagoon that goes out to sea, with many sea birds. The campsite was full of people though over the Australia day weekend, and I had a bit of trouble adapting to the long drop toilet.
On Saturday we drove further south and ended up going to Eden where the nice lady at the tourist information told us about camping at the National Park.

We had Jas's new phone GPS with us and Tim the English voice on the GPS telling us where to turn and how long until the destination. I was navigator the whole trip so that was fun.
In the end we camped at Ben Boyd National Park at the camping site called Saltwater Creek. There is also another site called Bittangabee Bay on the south side of Twofold Bay on the Green Cape promotory but there were signs saying that the campsites were booked until the 27th Jan and most people would have booked ahead.

Jas and I liked the Saltwater creek and had fun with the friendly and quite curious eastern grey female that stayed near our tent and was lured by the smell of our roasted chicken sandwiches. We did not feed her and when we packed up and put the rubbish in the bag and in the boot she began to look around elsewhere.
I heard a lot of animal noises outside our tent all night. In the morning I saw more kangaroo prints, and fox prints along with bird prints. We had some breakfast early Sunday morning and packed the inside of the tent up, however we left the rubbish bag out and went down to the beach for a swim. On the way we saw a big goanna near the bbq area and a man feeding it. Jas took some photos and I stood and watched and the goanna felt I was too close and came after me. I moved away and was quite in shock but the goanna did not continue chasing me. So I was a bit fearful of the goannas during this trip.

After our early morning swim in the beach we got back to find the rubbish bag that we had left by the tent opened up with contents sprawled on the ground near the tent. We picked up the pieces and put them back in the bag and started to unpack the tent. I told Jas we should put the rubbish bag back in the boot of the car but he explained to me that no animal would be brave enough to come close to the bag while we were packing. Well that was not the case, while Jas was putting the tent away he was practically attacked by another hungry goanna going for the bag again. I was quite fearful of the goanna and jumped in the car (suddenly there were goannas coming to us from all directions lured by the rottening smell of the chicken from the rubbish). In the end Jas was ingenious and used the tent poles to make a telescopic pole to pick the rubbish up (what was left of it) and get it away from the tent and the car.

Well we finally got the tent down, and put away and cleaned up the rubbish and threw it away in the big bins that were outside the campsite.
It was a bit scary to see the goannas so used to people and so close to us. Makes me become aware how we have to be careful with what rubbish we leave behind and how we dispose of it carefully specially when camping. The thing that was interesting is how close the kangaroo came to us and wanted to eat our food, even though they are herbivorous grazers.
We finally left the campsite and went exploring around the area to Bittangabee Bay and the Lighthouse. After this adventure we drove home and as Tim from the GPS said we ended up arriving in Clovelly (home) at 8.30pm.

I really would love peace, understanding, happiness and love.
I am still quite emotional and as I watch the carols I cry whenever they show little children there in Melbourne where it is very cold tonight.

Tomorrow we are having Christmas lunch with Jas's family. Jas's mum is going to make a seafood salad with scallops, prawns and salmon, avocado and all lovely things. I don't think I can eat much seafood being pregnant. But i am better with food now, and can eat almost anything without feel ill in the stomach or wanting to puke a bit.
We also are going to have more salads (asparagus), prawn and scallop skewers on the barbie, plus bowls and bowls of prawns. For desert there will be a pavlova (Jas and I have to make it tomorrow morning), rum balls (Made by Jas sister and little 2 year old niece, and mars bars slice.

Tomorrow everyone will open their presents, and the little ones are so excited as Santa is coming. Jas has to get some horse poo (fresh of course) from the paddock to put out at the front of the house to imitate reindeer poo.

I am chatting to my brother with google talk, he is in Patagonia with my parents and his girlfriend and told me not to be sad by Christmas and he saw a documentary on all the poor people in Argentina.
I know that is the reality check, there is so much poverty and war and disasters in this world. He said these people don't even have pan dulce or Christmas cake, but they have each other and he said we have each other too.
That makes me cry even more...

I guess Christmas does not mean that much to me or my family as we are jewish but growing up in Australia one gets accustomed to Christmas and presents and eating.
We will spend Christmas and new year up here in the upper Hunter Valley with my other half Jas and his family and go back to Sydney in January with Jas.

In Early January I have to go to a prenatal hospital appointment. I am also going to New Zealand on a paleontological dig so that should be exciting but a bit terrifying at the same time. I hope we find great exiting new fossils.

Well I do wish everyone happy holidays and I do hope there is more peace in 2007 and war ends in Iraq and injustice ends in the world. I hope poverty will subside and all those who do not have food may be able to have food and fresh water and the necessities that we all in the first world take for granted.
xxxx

I have had such weird dreams since I became pregnant. Now I am nearly four months preggers, I get up every morning at 3am to go to the toilet and can't go back to sleep until about 4.30. I have never had insomnia like this. I then can't sleep and think about life and problems and issues and worries. I guess it is all related to the amazing changes occurring inside of me. At least now I am feeling better than in the first trimester.

By the way Volver the movie was so good at the Moonlight cinema in centennial park. I cried and we were all surrounded by the fruit bats flying above us into trees and their loud vibrant chatter. There is a review today in SMH and an interview with Penelope Cruz.

This week has gone fast already and I have so much to do, I have not done much but I want to catch up on some things.
Jas also got tickets to see Volver at the Moonlight Cinema in Centennial Park. There are different movies on at outside cinemas all around the country. I think that will be relaxing and quite exciting as I have wanted to see that movie for a while. I actually saw it being reviewed on the Sunday show 2 Sundays ago, and for some reason I started to cry. I am quite sentimental.
Lately I have been sentimental, I think I know why, but it is strange as a few months ago nothing made me shed a tear not even puppies looking for an adopted home on tv, or animals being born. But not the slightest cutest thing makes me cry. It is silly, hormonal.

I think this is cute though, it a baby elephant in the womb, it was taken with an ultrasound scanner then digitally enhanced. The elephant embryo undergoes an epic 22-month pregnancy, with the foetus eventually tipping the scales at 120 kilograms. Around week 18, it will start exercising its legs and trunk to strengthen muscles and increase dexterity.

I wish I could watch the documentary In the womb on National Geographic Channel, my parents saw it the other night in Esquel, Patagonia with Seba and my grandfather. I told them to copy it for me if it comes on again.

It seems to me that many North Americans have left the USA to live in Argentina as it is cheaper and Bush is not the president.

My friend Ivana who lives in Capital Federal recently told me that Caballito (a barrio or suburn in Buenos Aires where I lived) has changed since I was there 6 months ago, there are all new buildings going up. The government and the people are worried there will not be enough infrastructure to support all the people and buildings such as sewerage and electricity.
My parents also tell me the small town they live in Esquel in Patagonia is also going through a building boom, that there are a lot of tourists not only for the winter ski season but now during spring. The clarin newspaper just published a report that states that:
"En el tercer trimestre del 2006 visitaron la Argentina 492.254 extranjeros. Esta cifra marca un incremento del 6,5 por ciento en el turismo receptivo" Tourism has increased by 6.5% from this time last year with 492 254 tourists visiting Argentina in the third trimester.

I also came across two blogs by Australians living in Argentina:
One by a an Australian chef married to an Argentinian called:
La otra dimensión - cocina asiática-australiana moderna
about One frustrated foodie's musings on life in Buenos Aires.
Another called Heidistar: About an Australian girl living the last 15 months in Buenos Aires.

I am happy so many people are writing about Buenos Aires, and Argentina but so many things I have read I have heard many people say before:
That Friendship means a lot to Argentinians, butchers kiss you hello and are so happy to greet you when you walk in finding out what the meat special is.
That there is corruption and bureaucracy in Argentina
How cheap Argentina is

I guess I have seen all these things before personally, these things I am reading about that catches everyone's attention. As not only was I born there, had my parents tell me so much about it while growing up, I also went there by myself to experience it when I was 15, went on Exchange there when I was 18.
I also lived there for over 5 years with my parents when I was 24, during the Crisis when I really understood what it felt like to be out of money, poor and have no food in your fridge and no food on the table. Lucky for my grandmother who would hand us a box of edible items such as bread and tinned veges.
I also lived there with my Australian boyfriend for over a year in 2004, experiencing Buenos Aires as an adult with a partner.
I think that year was probably a good year to experience Argentina.
I guess what it comes down to is that many of these things I read in blogs I have seen with my own eyes and taken note, as these are observation one makes as an outsider coming from a non-latin country like Australia or North America. However i do believe I do not write these experiences as good as others do so i congratulate all these bloggers for their eloquence and ability to portray some sort of reality and at the same time mysticism that represents Argentinian culture.
Even though I am currently living in Sydney and Australia is my home away from home, I feel very lucky that my boyfriend loves the Argentinian culture and does not want me to lose it or if we have children for them to abandon it. I also count myself lucky as I have been able to experience two cultures in depth the Australian multi-cultural and somewhat anglo culture, and the Argentinian multi-culture, somewhat natonalistic and spanglo-culture.
Now I feel things have changed and it is more expensive and not so off the beaten track. Don't get me wrong there is still so much to experience there, still so much to enjoy and to learn. On the downside there is still poverty, ignorance and dis-equality. Hopefully one day this will change. I guess I am just slightly sentimental as I write this and missing my family a bit.

I just have found some good blogs written by expats in Argentina.
Here they are:
-Tangospam: la vida con Deby
About: an American woman who sold everything she had to live in Buenos Aires with her dog and dance tango
-Suitcase on wheels
About: A software developer by trade, traveller by choice, English teacher by necessity. Now a wannabe van driver!
-Expat Argentina
About: an expat American guy who works in Argentina in a managerial position and has a lot of ideas and knowledge on how to live in Argentina.
-Asado Argentina
A blog about Argentinian food mainly asado and meat but great photos.
-Idle words
Written by an artist who spent time in Argentina. His stories "Argentina on two steaks a day" made Jas and I laugh so much as they were so true!
-Tango in her eyes About: A girl that loves tango so much, it has brought her to Buenos Aires, and it's her love for the city that keeps her returning. She is again there for the third time living amongst the porteños.
-Clarin Article
On how expats blog about Argentina
-Bloggers in Argentina Blogs More blogs written by people in Argentina.

You can see it here on utube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcSezgbEJjI

Lyrics
Rechiflao en mi tristeza hoy te evoco y veo que has sido
en mi pobre vida paria solo una buena mujer;
tu presencia de bacana puso calor en mi nido,
fuiste buena, consecuente, y yo se que me has querido
como no quisiste a nadie, como no podras querer.

Se dio el juego de remanye, cuando vos, pobre percanta,
gambeteabas la pobreza en la casa de pension;
hoy sos toda una bacana,la vida te rie y canta,
los morlacos del otario los tiras a la marchanta
como juega el gato maula con el misero raton.

Hoy tenes el mate lleno de infelices ilusiones,
te engrupieron los otarios, las amigas, el gavion;
la milonga entre magnates con sus locas tentaciones
donde triunfan y claudican milongueras pretensiones
se te ha entrado muy adentro en el pobre corazon.

Nada debo agradecerte, mano a mano hemos quedado,
no me importa lo que has hecho, lo que haces, ni lo que haras
los favores recibido creo habertelos pagado
y si alguna deuda chica sin querer se me ha olvidado,
en la cuenta del otario si queres se la cargas.

Mientras tanto que tus triunfos, pobres triunfos pasajeros,
sean una larga fila de riquezas y placer;
que el bacan que te acamala tenga pesos duraderos,
y te abras en las paradas con cafishios milonqueros,
y que digan los muchachos: "Es una buena mujer."

Y mañana cuando seas descolado mueble viejo
Y no tengas esperanzas en tu pobre corazon;
si precisas una ayuda, si te hace falta un consejo,
acordate de este amigo que ha de jugarse el pellejo
p'ayudarte en lo que pueda, cuando sea la ocasion.

Also love the song by Anti-folk chanteuse Regina Spektor called Infidelity.
Here is her web site
I think this song will remind me of October 2006 for ever. I heard it first on Jtv when Rosie said this song is from a Russian singer who lives in New York and has a headless man in her video.

You can also hear and see Infidelity by Regina on utube here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4NBArHgZntE

The thing is in my dream I was a bystander, not really standing but watching the crocs scare the swimmers, not only that I knew it was all a joke. As I watched from the other end of the pool the swimmers swimming frantically to get away from the crocs, I realized it was all in jest, and then the crocs came to my side of the pool, and got out and started talking to me.
That’s right the crocs were talking crocs. Not only that they were working, talking crocs, which were paid by the pool people to scare the girls. No one knew they talked except for the pool staff and me.
So we all had a good laugh with the croc.

I do not know what this dream means, maybe it has to do with the Croc Hunter Steve Irwin, and how saddened and shock I was to hear about his death.
Maybe it has to do because I have been hearing the word Crocodile so much on tv, and reading about it in the newspapers.
The thing is I always had a thing for crocs, I remember the first time I saw fierce crocs was in a movie. I watched this movie in an outside cinema with my parents when we lived in far north Queensland, over 20 years ago. The movie was about a giant croc that begins its life as a pet in an apartment in New York City and then gets flushed down the toilet as it gets too big and out of hand. Then the croc survives and lives happily ever after in the darkness of the NY sewer system. What happens is someone has also dumped a whole lot of chicken carcasses with hormones and so the croc has a field day eating chickens and so the croc begins to grow and grow. It transforms into a giant croc, and then decides to leave the sewers and ran a riot in the streets of New York.
That movie frightened and terrified me, not because of the giant croc, as in Australia and Queensland during the 80s there was a obsession with giant objects the Big Pineapple, the Big Banana, the Giant Shark, the Big Apple. I think Queensland has the Biggest of ICONS out of all the Australian states.
I have also seen the Big Easel with the Giant image of the Sunflowers by Van Gough in Emerald QLD, the Big Crocodile in the Humpty Doo in the Northern Territory and the big croc in Normanton Northern Territory, the Big Bull in Wauchope NSW, the Big Merino in Goulburne, NSW. The list goes on…

Anyway I always knew crocodiles were magnificent creatures, I think I learnt that from living in a place that had many crocs, knowing I could not swim in the ocean as there could be crocs, and sharks, and blue box jelly fish.
But truthfully I have always thought crocs were cute, with their long snouts and teeth poking out, white, glistening and so conical, and their leathery skin wrinkled and textured.
I really do respect crocs, for their long history, for their endurance on this earth and for not changing during their long evolutionary development.
I mean it is crazy but in Patagonia you go out to the field to the dry Patagonian desert, and find croc bones that are over 70 million years of age.
Maybe that is what my dream was about, a respect I have for crocs.

The title of the movie means Return and the song from the movie is Volver the tango I love so much by Carlos Gardel. In the movie the song is sung in a spanish stlye like a bolero sung by Estrella Morento. It is quite nice. You can hear it on the Volver web page under music.
Tango reminds me of my grandmother Maida, tango reminds me of Buenos Aires and my parents. I reminds me of going to dance tango at la Viruta on Friday nights in Buenos Aires and really feeling the music growing up.

Lyrics Volver by Carlos Gardel

Yo adivino el parpadeo
de las luces que a lo lejos
van marcando mi retorno.

Son las mismas que alumbraron
con sus pálidos reflejos
hondas horas de dolor.

Y aunque no quise el regreso
siempre se vuelve
al primer amor.

La vieja calle
donde me cobijo
tuya es su vida
tuyo es su querer.

Bajo el burlón
mirar de las estrellas
que con indiferencia
hoy me ven volver.

Volver
con la frente marchita
las nieves del tiempo
platearon mi sien.

Sentir
que es un soplo la vida
que veinte años no es nada
que febril la mirada
errante en las sombras
te busca y te nombra.

Vivir
con el alma aferrada
a un dulce recuerdo
que lloro otra vez.

Tengo miedo del encuentro
con el pasado que vuelve
a enfrentarse con mi vida.

Tengo miedo de las noches
que pobladas de recuerdos
encadenen mi soñar.

Pero el viajero que huye
tarde o temprano
detiene su andar.

Y aunque el olvido
que todo destruye
haya matado mi vieja ilusión,

guardo escondida
una esperanza humilde
que es toda la fortuna
de mi corazón.

Volver
con la frente marchita
las nieves del tiempo
platearon mi sien.

Sentir
que es un soplo la vida
que veinte años no es nada
que febril la mirada
errante en las sombras
te busca y te nombra.

Vivir
con el alma aferrada
a un dulce recuerdo
que lloro otra vez.

I do not want to talk about death, but death is nature, I want to talk about returning to life con la frente marchita, with your head held high, knowing life is just a breath of air.
I don't want to talk about war which should not occur, or natural disasters, or how humans are using so much petrol and oil and not putting money into more important things. I won't talk about the worries that I have, as we all have worries. The fear I have that humans have only a short time left on this earth, I do not want to be pessimistic as this is based on my fears not on real science real facts.
I try to do my bit on this earth, be happy, make others happy around me and do things that make me happy.

This is what Almodovar says his first memory is:
THE RIVER.

The happiest memories of my childhood are related to the river.

My mother used to take me with her when se went to do the washing because I was very little and she didn’t have anyone to leave me with. There were always various women there washing and laying the laundry on the grass. I used to sit by my mother, putting my hand in the water trying to pet the fish that came atracted by the call of the ecologic soap that the women of those times used, and which they made themselves.

The river, the rivers, were always a party. It was also in a river, some years later, where I found sensuality.

There is no doubt that the river is what I miss most about my childhood and my puberty.

Speaking about volver, we all volver al primer amor (go back to our first love), I am going back to my first love, trying to get involved in paleontology here in Sydney and have got a few things up my sleeve. Seba my brother the (doctor in astrophysics now, just bragging a little about my brother) is in Argentina in Esquel he is skiing and he said 30 cm or more on the mountain. My grandfather is also spending time with my dad and my brother in Esquel, he is very sad after losing his wife, my grandmother and has told me how hard it is for him, how he misses her so.
It has been raining in Esquel, and raining so much in Sydney, I wonder how all the birds get on with so much rain and wind, all weekend raining and windy, but we all need the rain.

I cherish this life, I cherish my family, Jason, and my close friends and i guess I am reminiscing now as I am with my brother who is handing in his thesis in astrophysics on Monday and we have had such little sleep and also because last Saturday my other grandmother my father's mother- La Abuela Maida passed away suddenly at her home in Buenos Aires.

I miss her a lot and she was a loveable grandmother in her own funny way, always cooking a lot of food (the Italian Nona in her) and worrying about silly things. She taught me how to respect myself and loved to always look good. She had beautiful violet blue eyes and always a hearty laugh. She always wore her little gold earrings and a simple gold necklace, she loved using colognes and smelling nice and having her hair colored and permmed.

I miss her when I used to give her a kiss or hug her tightly she would give me her cheek and tense up when I hugged her so much. I guess she did not recieve so many kisses in her life but Sebastian and I always showered her with kisses at every opportunity we had.

My father misses her I think a lot so does her husband my grandfather. She would do everything for him, make him lunch and dinner and clean the house and wash, iron and mend his clothes. But I remember clearly how my grandmother enjoyed my grandfather bringing her breakfast in bed. It was a ritual and every morning hw would wait by the side of their bed with a cup of mate cocido and some dry crackers for breakfast while she was still in bed. He showed her love in his own way and I think it is just lovely to think of him doing that. They always had their fights and arguments and both were very stubborn. I remember days when my grandmother would not talk to my grandfather and I used to get upset and told my Abuela "please don't fight please make up!!!". They always would make up as next time I would come to visit they were talking and drinking mate sitting in front of the television together.

I loved how my grandmother used to prepare little nibblies on the table when we would come for Sunday lunch, little plates of chips, olives, bread, and little plates of delicious pickled garlic capsicum. I miss my abuelas roasts, roast vegetables, her chicken with rice dishes. I miss her when she sang tangos, for she loved tangos. I miss her as I think I did not have enough time with her, to learn about her and her family.

I will miss you abuelita mía, gracias por todo, por cuidar a mi papa y cuidarme a mi y mi hermano cuando éramos chiquititos.

Drinking mate in Buenos Aires, in honor of my grandmother who taught me how to pour a good mate and in honour of her mate loving ways

Sydney Costal Walk
I have been doing long walks around Coogee to Bronte and walking through the Waverly Cemetery originally established in 1877.
Here is a list of famous people that have been buried there including poets, gold medal swimmers and judges.
It is great to see people walking and even swimming in the small pools in Clovelly. I really admire people who get out and are active during cold wet days.

State Library of NSW
Another thing to do is visit the State Library of NSW. I went there yesterday as I had to find a really old book (1792) and was quite delighted to see the Library after so many years and relish at how a beautiful a place it is. I really liked the Mitchell Library as it stores the old books and I think there is free wireless there so you can pop inside and sit with a laptop and do work and surf the web. There are cafes and many exhibitions. Currently the Eora exhibition is on, along with 2 others and they are all free and very informative. I have always been interested in Aboriginal culture and after reading the book A commonwealth of thieves by Thomas Keneally and now am interested in the Aboriginal Sydney during the time of the First Fleet.

Image: Nouvelle — Hollande. Gnoung-a- gnoung-a, mour-re-mour-ga (dit Collins), Barthelemy Roger (after Nicolas-Martin Petit). From François Péron, Voyage de découvertes aux terres Australes, Paris, De l'Imprimerie Imperiale, 1811

I did not get to spend a lot of time in the exhibitions so I want to go back and see them before they finish. There is also an exhibition called The Heritage Collection which displays some of the rare, famous and historically significant items from the State Library of New South Wales' world-renowned collection. There is a book from the Voyage of the Beagle with Darwin and a drawing of a Scelidotherium a fossil edentate from Argentina.

Free talks at UNSW
Another thing that we did that was free in Sydney and educational was going to hear a talk at UNSW on Climate Change by Prof. Matthew England. The talk was about research into C02 (carbon dioxide) emissions and their effects in Australia, the Australian ocean system and Antarctica. He gave an overview of the effects of global warming on the climate, in specific, the southern hemisphere.
He also discussed issues such as weather systems, ocean currents, Antarctic sea-ice, sea levels, extra-tropical cyclones, and rainfall. It was interesting as research now shows that Antarctica sea ice is not melting at such a rate as the ice in the Artic. However C02 emissions have increased a great deal in the last 200 years (over a 1000 year period)due to industrial revolution and modern man.
The next talk is on the History of Prostitution in Australia and is on the 16th August at UNSW see the Alumni pdf for upcomming events.

I am happy Italy won, I guess because I have some Italian blood in me, and an Argentinean soccer player was playing for Italy (well there was also one playing for France).
My grandmother Maida (my dad's mother)is Italian and catholic. She lives with my grandfather (who is son of a russian jewish man) and my aunty and her family in Buenos Aires. She does not travel much, she loves to cook and stay at home, she also sews a lot but I did not grow up with her as I left her, my grandfather and all my family when I was four to come to Australia. However she used to look after me when I was little and said I always wanted my clothes that had been washed by her and put on the line to dry, to come down damp so I could put them away before they were dry.

My great-grandfather (her father) was a hairdresser in Buenos Aires, and one of the first woman's hairdresser with a salon. So my grandmother and her sisters were always "coqueta" (tried to look their best). His surname was Robertazzi. My great-grandmother (her mother) was a toba Indian from the North of Argentina from the province of Chaco and her family name was Tobares.

Photograph taken in Buenos Aires ca 1910, in the Tigre River, by Harry Grant Olds called "El Tigre".

Here is another link with more photos by Harry Grant Old of old Buenos Aires.

The toba Indians are also known as "guaycurúes" and the area where they reside is called the "Chaco" or is also known in the aymará tounge as "lugar de cacería" or place of the hunt, and embarks more than one province of Argentina. This area includes the Province of Santa Fe, Santiago del Estero, Salta, Formosa and extends to Paraguay.

Originally the Chaco was made up of an immense forest with a great variety of species of trees and vegetation, such as the "quebracho tree".
The tobas were a nomadic group that lived by hunting, fishing and collecting and had a cultural society with advanced elements such as pottery, weaving with vegetable fibers and cestería.

Now the Tobas people are oppressed and live in great poverty and many did not work in the logging industry as it was sacred to cut down a quebracho tree.
Now they continue to fish in the Bermejito River and sell their crafts but tourism is not that popular in the Chaco area, many chaquenian women work as domestic cleaners.
(Source http://argentina.indymedia.org/news/2003/04/101871.php).
The toba indians are still being repressed today and live in absolute poverty.

This is a great article about the Tobas called The flowers of the earth.
However last week I saw a great documentary on SBS about Rugby in tobas community and how an ex Argentinian rugby player is teaching the kids from a tobas community how to play and play well. The documentary is called "La quimera de los héroes" by Daniel Rosenfeld, made in 2003.

I have been thinking a lot about my ancestors, i guess it kind of started yesterday when Jas and I finally left the house at about 3pm walked down to Coogee had sushi train and then Patagonian Argentinian icecream. The icecream is made by an Argentinian and has the same flavours one can get in Argentina such as Dulce de Leche and it is sold by the kilo too. Jas was saying "Where in the world can one have sushi train, followed by Argentinean icecream and then walk on a beautiful clean beach with white sands and the pacific ocean at your doorstep?" Mar del Plata? (no) it is Coogee!!!!
We then walked towards Bronte, but could not get there before sunset and had to walk through the historic Waverly cemetery. We both were thinking how many people have lived their lives and only are remembered by a tomb stone and how many people today decide not to have children and they will probably be never remembered. I mean it is not egotistic thinking that it is important to live a life and remembered, but it is important to do things that matter in your life. I told Jas it does not matter as these people surely have their genes and part of themselves carried on from one generation from the next, from their ancestors to the next. Most of the names we saw on the tombs were very formal Victorian English names.

Then we walked home in a pensive state and by coincidence watched a science show on tv about how our human ancestors actually shape our lives.
This was proven by investigators in Sweden that demonstrate that during a bad harvest the Swedish people from a small isolated town suffered great famine and grandparents who were around during this famine were responsible for diseases in their grandchildren decades later. This was demonstrated by data from the small town which kept information on family relationships, genealogy, diet and environmental records (harvest conditions) from this small town in Sweden. The scientist showed that baby girls who were in the womb during the famine would later have grandchildren that got sick with diabetes, while boys who were going through puberty through the famine also had grandchildren with diabetes. This is because women form their eggs and genetic reproductive material while in the womb and men form their genetic reproductive material during puberty.

Blurb on the documentary:
SCIENCE - THE GHOST IN YOUR GENES

Would you believe that your genes are shaped in part by your ancestors' life experiences? This documentary looks at how epigenetics, the new genetic discovery, is revealing the hidden influences upon genes that could affect every aspect of our lives. Epigenetics adds a whole new layer to genes beyond the DNA. It proposes a control system of ‘switches' that turn genes on or off – and suggests that things people experience, like nutrition and stress, can control these switches and cause heritable effects in humans. At the heart of this new field is a simple but contentious idea – that genes have a ‘memory'. Featured in this documentary is Professor Wolf Reik, a scientist at the Babraham Institute in Cambridge, who has carried out research with mice that shows that genes and the environment are not mutually exclusive but are inextricably intertwined, one affecting the other. According to this program, epigenetics research is at the forefront of a paradigm shift in scientific thinking and it will change the way the causes of disease are viewed, as well as the importance of lifestyles and family relationships. What people do no longer just affects themselves, but can determine the health of their children and grandchildren in decades to come. (From the UK, in English)

1) Kangaroo teeth This is an image of a desert rat kangaroo Caloprymnus campestris drawing by F. Knight/ANPWS and taken from Fauna of Australia by CSIRO publishing authors by J.H. SEEBECK & R.W. ROSE

2) Danish furniture and designs

3) inspired by designs i find in this webpage about design books as I want to design an office/place to have files and do some art here in the flat. These images are from a japanese book called Lady Artists studio published by Jeu de Paume Japan.

4) winter coats

5) Staying up late or getting up early and watching the Soccer on SBS and am so happy that Australia has gotten in the top 16 and Argentina is now in the quarter- finals and will play Germany in the Berlin on Friday (1am Saturday, Sydney time) OH NOOO!!!!!

6) Singing Vamos Vamos Argentina vamos vamos a ganar and being inspired by soccer players.

7) Today I am going to start excercising again now that i feel a bit more relaxed.

8) I also found a web site on photos of clovelly and coogee

Yesterday when I was working, and I had stopped to make lunch, I looked out the window and saw a furry little thing lying very still by the door. It looked like a rat and I thought it might even be a marsupial. It was killed by one of the cats here in the house, the big black cat that is allowed out at night and probably kills anything in its wake.

I was really worried that the dead mammal was a marsupial and that would have gotten me very angry as I am against cats being let out at night and let loose to eat and prey on native wildlife and even becoming feral cats.
Here is an really insightful Pdf you can download about Feral cats in Australia and when they were introduced to Australia, (in the 17th Century by Dutch sailors)

Well I don’t know if it kills the animals, it must play with them and they fret, I later went to check on the dead mammal and checked its teeth, it has large incisors with yellow enamel so I can to the realization it was not a marsupial an antechinus but a Black Rat, even though it was grey and had soft fur and a creamy white underbelly, it had a very long scaly tail and it would have been a young’un as it had a roundish face.

It is funny that I saw the dead mammal as I have been thinking about all the mice that are used daily in lab experiments, tens and even hundred million rats are killed every year in lab experiments.
Every paper I have read in the last few weeks has used white bred lab mice. I do not know how this makes me feel, part of me makes me feel bad, and another part makes me feel numb.
There is actually two article in this weeks Nature magazine (1st June 2006).
One on how Researchers have a duty to use the most humane means available of killing laboratory animals and one on Bioethics: An easy way out? This one is about how Scientists say they gas mice and rats with carbon dioxide because it is humane. It's also simple, cheap and keeps their hands clean.

However why should I worry about lab mice, when in fact there are far greater problems caused by man occurring in our world this very minute: Deforestation in Africa is a big one, deforestation in Brazil Is another one, and injustice to human being is another the list goes on.....

I like most people I have met in the last 5 years, am really against the war in Iraq. So why is Australia there?
I also consider there is a very big problem on Australians door step, the Aboriginal people of Australia are going through a tough period. Aboriginal people have had their culture dimembered into tiny pieces and their land and survival taken away from them sistematically (like all native cultures in our world), and then everyone critizes them because they are alcoholics, they abuse their young children and break up homes given to them by the Austalian government...

For example there are problems with aboriginal babies whereby an Aboriginal infant is three times more likely to die than a non-indigenous baby, a new study shows and aboriginal baby death rates resemble that of Australia 100 years ago. So i don't know what is happening, is Australia getting richer or just going backwards.

The results, published yesterday in the medical journal The Lancet, will focus world attention on Australia's worsening performance on Aboriginal health at a time when social inequities are already under scrutiny at home. The study's leader, Dr Jane Freemantle, said more Aboriginal babies died between the age of one month and a year than in the first four weeks of life - the reverse of what happened in the rest of society. "Those deaths are potentially preventable," said Dr Freemantle, of Perth's Telethon Institute for Child Health Research, which Professor Stanley heads.

Dr Freemantle said the findings were a mark of "the long-term effect that racism, discrimination and dispossession have had on Aboriginal people". Infant death rates have fallen across all groups, but the drop has been proportionally smaller for Aborigines, resulting in the growing discrepancy."

I think there is still a misunderstanding of Aboriginal culture and that has led to racism and ignorance.
So instead of fightings someone eles war, why doesn't Australia fix it's own problem it has in its own back yard. Why is there a hospital bed shortage, why does Australian govnt want to sale the Snowy Mountain Hydro Range, why is there problems with workplace laws???

I just had to vent all my anger I have. Back to work....