I love him - a ten year old's perspective.

When I saw my niece Heidi last, she asked if I could make her a koala. I like to say yes if possible, so I did and thought I'd just figure it out later.

Today is her tenth birthday and I finished this fellow and popped him in the post during the week. He started out as a series of nondescript grey shapes, then a series of grey balls. As I assembled him, attached his eyes, ears and nose, he gained a personality. I felt vaguely worried as I sealed him in the darkness of the post bag and then put him in the letterbox!

Introducing Mr Chub, the koala
© 2014 divacultura

She texted me last night to say hello and let me know that she had learnt how to do a fishtail braid on hair. And that she was watching the Smurfs and that it was her birthday tomorrow. Today she gave the Smurfs five stars.

When we first spoke this morning, she was yet to receive my parcel. I asked her about how her day was going. She told me about her gifts, including a saddle blanket. I asked her to tell me about it and she told me it was red and navy blue with her name and her logo on it, as though it was perfectly normal for a ten year old girl to have a logo. I haven't even sorted out the logo for my business yet! I asked her what my logo should say and she replied without hesitation "Tanya's Knitting Service". 

The child is Nostradamus. About half and hour later Heidi called me again to tell me she had received her parcel. She expressed her feelings: "I love him!" 

This was such a relief. Clearly I will have risen in the Favourite Aunty Stakes. I'm still scarred from when my nephew pointed at my sister-in-law identifying her as his favourite aunty.

"Do you think it's a he?" I asked her.

"Yes, I do," she replied solemnly.

"I like his nose." 

"He's eaten a lot of eucalyptus leaves!" she laughed.

"Why do you say that?"

"He's so fat!"

"Well I had to make sure he didn't starve to death on the way up to live with you Heidi. Is he okay? Is he still alive?"

"Yes. His eyes are as big as Sofia's." Sofia is Heidi's younger sister.

"I know! He's definitely an Edlington."

She laughed and I asked if she had a name for him yet. She hadn't yet and promised to send me a message when she had come up with his name.

A few hours later, I was informed that his name is "Chub". He'd better not lose weight now that he's survived the epic journey.

I'm off to work out how to make a kangaroo for her sister.

Photo of the day - A CORNER OF YOUR HOME

The theme for today's photo is "a corner of your home".  As soon as I saw this, I knew exactly what I would photograph.

(c) divacultura 2012

This is a corner I look at all the time.  It makes me happy.  It's the top of my very special stepped book case and houses a small collection of special things.

The hands are hand carved sandalwood.  I bought them when I was in India.  They were very expensive and I shouldn't really have been buying them, but I had never seen anything like them.  I kept going back to look at them and knew that I just had to have them.  They are so intricate!  The scent of sandalwood has faded over time, but I am so happy that I decided to buy them.

Next is a very fine porcelain tealight holder.  It glows red with a lit candle inside.  It's so fine it's almost translucent. It is a recent purchase from a gift store in Seddon.

The wooden carved candle stick came from the Eumundi markets in Queensland many years ago.  I love the curves of the wood.  It makes me think of a whale tale.

Sitting on the base of the candle stick holder is a tiny enamel bell given to me as a birthday gift many years ago by a very dear friend.

Next is a carved granite Buddha's head.  I also purchased this in India from a boy who took me around the streets of his village in the south.   He was attending a school and learning to carve.  He came up to me in the street and asked me where I was from.  As soon as he discovered I was from Australia he wanted to know if I was friends with Ricky Ponting and Shane Warne!

Lastly there's a pyramid of zebra rock which another friend brought me from the Northern Territory.

Observing this corner of my home makes me happy.  By candlelight it is even better.

Visiting my home city

Yesterday a friend from interstate had a whole day to hang around until the thing he was here for started in the late afternoon.  I was thrilled to have a friend to play with on a week day (usually everyone else is working and I have to keep myself company) and then I started to think about how to fill a day.

We met at Southern Cross station and walked up to Hardware Lane for a late breakfast, coffee and general catch up.  The city working crowd had thinned by this time and we were able to sit outside and enjoy the gorgeous day.  My friend is someone I only see every now and then.  We met at Summersong a couple of years ago and collaborated to write a song in 2011.  It was over breakfast that he chose to present me with a gift for the day.  More on that later.

After breakfast we went to the State Library to see the Modern as Tomorrow photographic exhibition.  It was free and not crowded.  The conversation flowed around what we were seeing and what we love about black and white photography, especially when looking at the photographs on some album covers.  They really lent themselves to imagining what the people in the photographs were thinking.  Our stories became wilder and more imaginative as we were exposed to more stimulus from the exhibition and the people around us.  Walking out of the building we saw a man talking animatedly on his mobile phone.  He was sitting on a bench in the front garden.  It was his clothing (or rather, his colour palette) which distinguished him.  Apricot coloured shirt, apricot/dark salmon coloured pants, with hair dyed to match.  I admired his purple suede boots as we walked past.  He may have been a second cousin to the Mustard couple I wrote about the other day.

We set off in search of lunch with no real plan and were distracted by a trip up the stairs to Metropolis book shop on Swanston Street.  With its light, airy space and books sorted into categories like graphic design, architecture, typography it's easy to lose yourself in beautiful books and images.  An early Justin Townes Earle album was playing and that made me like it even more.

I struck up a conversation with the guy attending the shop about his choice of music.  He seemed happy to talk of his love for Justin Townes Earle:  "His first two albums ripped my heart out, threw it on the ground in front of me and stomped on it."

From the intensity of the statement I gathered that this was a good thing and nodded enthusiastically.  I was nervous about revealing my love of the third and most recent album.  The minute I did, he shook his head and the passion cooled.  I felt the need to justify my taste:  "I only discovered him through this third album and have gone back.  He's GREAT."  I kept my tone and facial expression carrying a suitable level of gravitas.  We were friends again.

Neither of us walked out of the shop empty-handed - I found two books about creativity from Keri Smith which another friend had tipped me off about and I'd been looking for.  One of my favourite titles was a collection of passive-aggressive notes by some pretty unhappy people - usually involving food in communal fridges in work places and share houses.  A book about paper engineering may require a return visit.  I think I have a new favourite book store.

For lunch I offered Federation Square or Degraves Street and we had Japanese share plates sitting outside at Chocolate Buddha in Federation Square.  On our way to the tram, we were lucky to encounter one of the Theo Jansen "Strandbeests" that is roaming around Federation Square at the moment.  They are amazing to look at, with a strangely organic, animalistic vibe - hard to achieve when you consider they are made out of PVC pipe and lots of cable ties.

Then it was time to get in the car and take my visitor to his event.

Spending time in your city with a visitor is a wonderful thing to do.  Apart from the opportunity to hang out with a friend,  I saw my city with different eyes.  There were little geranium covered balconies hanging off buildings I'd never noticed before, pieces of graffiti I'd never seen from that angle before.  And on the drive, the best sight of the day: a blokey looking bloke driving a pastel coloured 4 cylinder car while looking a little self conscious.  On the side of the car was a sign advertising "Jade's mobile waxing".  He looked like he wanted to explain what he was doing driving that particular car!  But maybe that's just my assumptions clouding the real story - why couldn't he be Jade, the waxer?  Maybe he's a floor waxer...

Anyway, my friend (who is a type designer) presented me with a wonderful gift over breakfast.  It embodies the things I think make a great gift - simple, meaningful in a way which tells you the gift giver has thought about what to give, memorable and unwrapped.  I held out my hand and was given a wooden uppercase  letter T (my initial).  I loved it instantly.

It's not perfect.  It's a little bit rough around the edges.  One side is dark and the other light. There's a splinter missing on the cross bar but it's a strong, true letter which can not be mistaken for anything other than a letter "T".  It suits me to a tee.

(c) divacultura 2012

What I heard

"They've had a new baby called Salad.  I've sent them a bowl as a gift."  These are the words my friend spoke over the mobile phone.

Wow, I thought.  That's a little bit cheeky.

For a few seconds I considered "Salad" as a name for a girl.  Quickly I decided that she need not worry because she'd be given any number of nicknames by her school mates.

"Leaves".
"Caesar".
"Greek".
"Dressing".
"Side".
"Waldorf".
"Garden".
"Fruit".

The list went on.  Being called Salad was probably the least of her worries.

In these days of unusual names (think "Apple", "Blanket" - I even heard of a "Pod" closer to home) Salad seemed a little safe.

Turns out, I had misheard completely.  Her name is Charlotte and he sent her a doll!

What unusual names have you heard lately?  What name-appropriate gift would you give?