coming to town…
April 19, 2008 
… well melbourne town (until about friday).
my mum and i will hit the road this morning from sydney to melbourne (because why would you fly when you can drive…) 
so for anyone in melbourne who feels like meeting up – leave me a comment and i will check them all by monday.
happy blogging!
playing the victim
April 16, 2008 
last friday i volunteered to be the victim of a gas explosion to allow the 2nd year paramedic students from St Johns Ambulance to practice their skills.
it was interesting to watch and learn how it all progressed – the system of first giving each victim a status card: either walking wounded, 2nd priority, 1st priority or dead. waiting for more crew to arrive. getting victims out of the building (where the explosion occured). sectioning off areas for conscious and unconscious victims (i was a conscious victim both times). getting to ride in an ambulance (for a total distance of 20m).
and then repeat (the 2nd years were split into 2 groups).
the IT guru has explained it all better over on his blog, and has put up some photos from the day on flickr
i had the opportunity to be in the car the second time round.
as you can see from the photos – the car had already been involved in a real accident. the car was there for the firies to practice using the jaws of life. so we had to clamber into this car (the doors did open) and then settle down and prepare to be cut out. it was scary first getting into the car, and trying to arrange yourself comfortably – the roof came down low enough that you couldn’t sit upright.
i hope none of you are ever involved in an accident where you need to be cut out of a car cos its bloody scary .
April 16, 2008 
inspiration
for the last 6 or 7 years i have been gradually building up a scrapbook of clothes/fashion images taken from magazines. at the moment most images come from second hand magazines (vogue & marie claire mainly). i found a british vogue issue today which had some excellent fashion:
i love vogue magazine – generally interesting and beautiful clothes (though not always to my taste and not what i can afford…) – however my local library has unsubscribed.
a thought about plagiarism (and crafting)
having read here, here and here about plagiarism in the industrious world of craft (and having seen the chaser performance last night) made me think of this:
I am not suggesting that we should follow suit with ACA (a current affair) and TT (today tonight)*. I think that shaming and naming is maybe a bit extreme (though saying that there might be a time when it is necessary). this is just something humorous to share – and make sure you watch the whole clip – the best bit is at the end.
For international people (or anyone living under a rock) ACA and TT are 2 of the worst and stupidest programs on TV that are regularly satirised by the Chaser – they report of social issues (like people who are ripped off by banks or the like, people on welfare, etc etc) but dumb everything down, report on really pointless events and pass judgement on anything regardless of their knowledge of the subject.
The chaser
the IT guru and i saw “The Chaser’s Age of Terror Variety Hour” which was absolutely brilliant and funny.
we are both very bigs fans of the chaser’s war on everything – very clever, amusing, and sometimes outrageous satire and comedy. for international readers or anyone who doesn’t watch the ABC you can check them out on you tube.
so last night’s performance was a bit like their tv show with a few more musical items thrown in. i think my favorite sketch was when Craig Reucassel demonstrated the effectiveness of tv advertising – by using his ass as an advertising logo… (anyone who watches the chaser will know this is not the first time that nudity has been involved, nor the first time (i think) that we have seen his backside).
Check out the chaser website and if you haven’t missed it – go and see it!
crafty update
current projects:
2 bags with bias tape edgings. trying to work out a more efficient way to edge the handles, as its taking me a long time to sew on the bias tape.
a pair of knitted and felted slippers. pattern courtesy of tingletangle. due to a lack of yarn and foresight, one slipper will be green the other black. probably with white edging…
finally cut out a dress, having only had the fabric sitting around for 2 or so months…
