Year 3 of the 52-Week Illustration Challenge, Week 26

Week 26: Shoes.

"There was an old woman who lived in a shoe; She had so many children she... decided to renovate and add a summertime verandah." Cartoon in black finepoint Sharpie and watercolour.

A thong for Australia Day

A bizarrely Aussie way to celebrate Australia Day...

I had just walked past the taxi rank, up and over the railway station, and was halfway along a looooong, lonely bitumen road, which was melting in 42 degree C heat, when one of my thongs had a blow out. The only way to walk home was to tie it to my foot with strands of buffalo grass and stalks of paspalum.

The strap on these Kenji flip flops is fabric and there was an almighty snap yesterday! Not sure the fashion will catch on, though. The new strap is rather scratchy, attracts stray cows, and requires mowing (or is that mooing)?

What made it all worse was that, while I was limping home in the heat, a stoic young guy in his late teens went striding by in bare feet, carrying his thongs in his hand. I swear I almost considered offering him cash for his footwear, especially since He Wasn't Using Them!


Happy Australia Day

Toe-tal healing

As you may recall, I injured my left big toe two Saturdays ago, by dropping an eight-VHS boxed set on it. I've been hobbling ever since.

Happily, the injury seems to be healing very nicely. Twice-daily bathing in Dettol, lots of Savlon cream, etc, seems to have kept all trace of infection away. I was able to wear slip-on, covered shoes to work on the Thursday and Friday, and the area around the cuticle seems to be repairing itself, and no trace that the nail will drop off. Whew! (I was determined not to see a doctor unless infection sprung up, either under the nail itself or deep under the damaged cuticle; I simply couldn't see what else a doctor might do for it - would it be worth the several hours of waiting for my name to be called down at the medical centre?)

I am fascinated with the human body's amazing ability to repair itself, and to remember where everything needs to go; if you'd seen my toe last week you wouldn't have been able to imagine what was needed to get it looking normal again, at least not without antibiotics, or maybe some medical glue. Certainly, although the skin near the nail had split in two places, there was nowhere to even consider putting in stitches, so I figured waiting it out was all I could do.

Today, the toe's looking almost normal again. Luckily I've been able to spend most of the week shoeless and sockless. Despite the lower Canberra temperatures at night, the days have featured glorious thong-wearing weather (that's flip flop-wearing weather for all you suddenly-horrified US readers). Getting some fresh air to my toe has definitely helped.




Rainbows are possible, even on sunny days, in Canberra!

Perth or bust! - and back again already

Thanks to the wonders of the wonderful "Post options" command, I've been in Perth, visiting with my parents. Not having to dart off to Internet cafes to post blog entries - well, that was the intention, to back date some entries and pretend I was keeping a daily diary of events - but I'm back already. I actually thought I'd be missing for only the two weekends (plus the week between them) I was away, but catching up on all the goss is so overwhelming, I've been another week getting around to actually typing up something.


Handpainted religious artifact (above left, made in El Salvador) and purchased in New Norcia, Western Australia, plus a resin thong (or flip flop, above right) magnet from Perth.

I've been composing entries in my head all fortnight, but now I'm drawing a blank on everything I wanted to say. I'll try and elaborate during the week, but essentially: I got to remember all the good and bad things about living with one's parents again after so many years of being independent; I caught up with Adam, a long lost Star Trek pal from the 90s who, it turned out, lives only ten minutes away from my parents' place (and even still had two videotapes of mine); and I did plenty of catch-up Star trek novel and comic reading, so I owe you some reviews.

Over on TrekBBS, meanwhile, some fans are proudly announcing their intention to boycott the new movie, for a myriad of reasons. Ho hum. They are scared about the writers, about the new young cast and about any possibility the Enterprise will look different.

Hey, I heard people complain about changes made to the Enterprise, internal and external, and the SPFX, for ST:TMP, way back in 1978. Many of them changed their minds once the movie came out, and some even denied ever hating the idea of change.

But a boycott? I couldn't bear knowing there was a new Star Trek adventure out there that I hadn't seen yet. Quality just doesn't concern me in that first instance (but quality will influence how many times I go back to the cinema to see it again before the DVD comes out, just like the last ten movies.) In fact, it already drives me crazy that I haven't got back to the US for a visit since the Las Vegas Hilton opened its two Star Trek rides. New live-action footage, and I haven't seen it.

Thanks to De for noticing I was gone, and for his concern!

Sunday October 07's magic number: 93.8 - a slight rise, thanks to Mum's home cooking. Oh well, just as well I did long walks around the block every day.

Sunday October 14's magic number: 93.1 - and falling again. This is despite the fish 'n' chips on a Fremantle wharf. A highlight of my first night back home that the weight has been maintained despite having three square meals a day!

Sunday October 21's magic number: 91.3 - finally caught up to below where I'd been before I left for Perth. Hopefully it's all downhill till Christmas.

Thongs to thing for Spring

Yesterday, a week before September, the men of Sydney doffed their Winter socks and runners, and dug out their trusty thongs (flip flops for my US readers), from the dark recesses of wardrobes all over the city, to enjoy more fully the gorgeous Sunday sunshine that we received.

I went down to Penrith Showground to check out the annual display of students' art and craft in the Penrith District Show - my class really cleaned up on prize ribbons last year - and although my school did quite well, I didn't have the same emotional response since - now I'm in the library - I'm not teaching any art and craft. Sigh.

In any case, as I was saying, yesterday there was an hilarious increase in the number of Aussie men displaying tanned legs and lily-white ankles above their thonged feet. You'd think they'd spend a few days getting a more even tan around the backyard before venturing out, but no... yesterday was the first appropriate day for thong wearing, and wear thongs they did! Tan lines? Who cares about tan lines!

I would guess that, in a few more weeks, the fashion conscious guys will realize that last summer's thong varieties are so passe, and there'll be a sudden switch of styles. Gone are the days when Aussie double-pluggers were manufactured here (by the Dunlop tyre people, of course), and worn for years until the foot outline wore through to the pavement underneath, and the thongs literally fell apart. (Unless the lugs broke on the straps first.) Nowadays, Aussie men are allowed to be metrosexual enough to own several pairs of thongs at once (eg. Bodie in "Big Brother" this year entered the house boasting seven pairs, each pair colour-coded to his designer outfits!). Keeping up with the new season's designs is almost compulsory.