21 August, 2011 -Great Graffiti

Just love this graffiti. It is brilliant and a Banksy no less. Walls seems to be the story of my life. All the huge solid walls one has to climb over. It certainly expresses my sentiments, although am one to climb over top. Except this one looks daunting indeed.

Am guessing it's the wall in Gaza.

Thank you Banksy. And see you are exhibiting on Cockatoo Island here in Sydney. 

19 June 2011 - NASA Global warming listings

Interesting article on 

Global Temperatures from NASA at
http://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/
There are some pretty obvious statistics
showing how the Earth is warming up overall.
Sure the temperatures seem extreme at times,
like getting colder in the temperate climates where
higher than normal snowfalls are happening.
An deluges of heavy rains and overcast weather
causing cooler summers in the more tropical climates.
Seems to all come down to excess water in the atmosphere
of the planet. And this might just be due to the "greenhouse
effect" which is curiously something one doesn't hear
much about these days.

14 June 2011 - Climate Change

Found this article in the UK Guardian on Climate change, greenhouse effect etc.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jun/13/extreme-weather-flooding-droughts-fires

Exceptionally good to read in order to get clear on what is happening around the world. We can sure get rather isolated in the antipodes, so it was such a relief to read this. Also reassuring to read because, out this way. we have so many skeptics of the effect of human population on the planet. As as scientist pointed out there is just not one cause for the "weirding" out of the climate, but beyond doubt, many causes. Guess it all depends on whether one likes to know the truth. I, for one, found reading this article rather soothing even though challenging. We are all becoming very confused here in Australia as there is not much good debate on the subject. So much so, many people remain very put-off and dubious when the subject comes up, as if not to know what is going on nor wanting to, through fears, annoyance, and just plain wanting to remain ignorant. Best not to know as it's too frightening sort of stuff. We are all different and some people survive very well not knowing. Other people need to know for their own peace of mind.

8th May 2011 - Dysfunctional families

It's Mother's Day here in Australia and the US but not the UK.
Lately I've been researching all over the internet re Dysfunctional families, and finally found a very good site which is not doom laden at all...most websites, on this subject, are religious and recommend therapy as self and in a group. Plus that there is often no way out of this awful dilemma in life. There is! and to briefly sum things up of what I got from this site is...
Coming from a dysfunctional family, one develops survival skills because, well, one is forced to. These survival skills could be quite useful, if looked at and turned around to suit life as an adult.


When people within the family are so full of themselves and one can't get a word in edge ways, it will develop a finely tuned empathy for others, about the importance of listening. And learning how to listen is not a bad start in life. 

Control freak parents are always telling their children what to do, and can be over organizing and over protective, in what they will talk about. They will often tell other people what to do out in the world too. So one is not alone. 

Often those from dysfunctional families can be highly successful in some area of their lives and are often resilient to stress and adaptive to change. Again this comes down to the mere survival level, one is literally reduced to within the family.


Due to the incredible stress the emotional self is under, in these families, with lack of emotional support or only the negative emotional stuff to be seen, one would need to learn to identify and express one's emotions. Getting it out there in the open. Hard to do, so might be good to keep a daily feelings journal. Practical realities often asks us to be careful who we share our feelings with. So need to be selective about this.


It is okay to feel angry about what has happened in the family. Often venting is for the best, and much pretense, denials, repressions and keeping family skeletons in the closet is not good for anyone, even the people who are beholden to do this. It would be helpful to find productive ways to vent this anger, with the clear goal of expressing, releasing and letting go. There is nothing wrong with two people agreeing to disagree after a lifetime of acknowledging nothing. Harboring negative emotions about a person for a long time, and giving out all the signals over the years, is a very toxic situation. Agreeing to express the negative emotions about each other is a great watershed, because then there is the opportunity to start over. It becomes a mile post which is reached, and then a new journey can be started.


One needs to learn to trust again. Okay! so if someone comes clean about what they think and the other does too, then there rises a trust that the two have had similar emotional feelings about each other all along. You both know where you stand with each other. Solid ground is where things can start to grow again.


One needs to take good care of oneself when lacking the support of a close knit family, or enduring a very destructive and condemning family. Part of this is not getting caught up in fears, and having the courage to be a little self-ish for a change and take care of number one.


Much of the pain one carries from "bad" families can become compulsive. Substance abuse is often what comes out as compulsive. Food addiction is probably the most widespread.


There is a need to change one's relationship with the family and not roll along on the same old mindsets. Most people within families seem to have hedged themselves in, are comfortable within the space and very fearful of any change. They will hold on to their relationships for dear life, often to the point of scapegoating another permanently. Thus one would need to be patient with such people until they learn, not to do this. They are fearful of not having a family at all so will hold on, no matter what. So it is a big ask as they continue to feed the negativity within themselves.


Many people just change their relationships with dysfunctional families by moving aside from it all. And this is okay. There are many instances of an orphan, a child from single parent families, an outcast who have done exceptionally well in the world without the support from the status quo definition of families. Curiously it seems to be that, the very strong bow to the contrary, can shoot the arrow straightest and strongest.

12 Feb 2011 - Australia's great inland lake

Our inland "sea" here in Australia, Lake Eyre, is presently filling up with Summer flood waters finally making their way down from the extreme floods in Queensland and/or Cyclone Yasi. It's usually a dry dusty desert out there, with mostly salt pans in low lying areas. This is first time since 1974 it has filled during the summer months. 
Apparently with the lake filling, all the creatures which are usually hibernating dormant underground over the long periods of dry weather, crawl out of their desert holes and scurry around celebrating life again. Birds flocked to this inland sea when it filled last spring, and there is much natural activity to be seen. Some birds actually know months ahead when the big wet is coming to inland Australia, migrating here from all over the planet. This is the largest inland lake on the planet, so it has a global reach for the bird being attracted to this rare event. The lake bottom is 12+ metres below sea level but remains dry for most of the time.
I wouldn't mind seeing it actually but it would be expensive to get out there, no doubt.