Signs your city has been CHOGM-ed #7 (Charmed)

Everyone was charmed by Her Majesty, and it seemed to be reciprocated when the 100,000 strong crowd at the BBQ chanted Oi, Oi, Oi for her. So now the final CHOGM guests have left (almost), it's time to plonk down on the couch, kick off your shoes and raise a glass. There’s only one thing left to ponder.….whose turn is it to do the washing up?

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© The Ponder Room

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Signs your city has been CHOGM-ed #6 (Fraser's house is in order)

The invitations have gone out, the cutlery’s been polished, the windows have been cleaned to within an inch of their life, and uncle Peter has been ordered not to unleash his latest party dance.

You’re left sitting on the couch counting down those last few moments, pondering….

Will the guests arrive, or have the neighbours put on a better spread. Casting a sideways glance over the vats of fruit punch, and endless trays of pigs-in-blankets, you really hope someone comes up the driveway soon......oh was that the doorbell?

(Good luck to all the waiters/waitresses working at Fraser’s Restaurant)

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Signs your city has been CHOGM-ed #5 (Monopoly Flashbacks)

Around six months ago our Hoon laws were upgraded to ensure stronger consequences for people drag racing down the freeway, or doing donuts in car parks. Now CHOGM has turned us all into Hoons, as we join the masses doing incessant bog laps around Kings Park. No we’re not trying to find parking spots, those thoughts are long gone, now we're just trying to find a way out of the security maze.

As my last trip took me in ever decreasing circles, I found myself pondering about childhood games of Monopoly,…..if I kept driving in my tiny car player piece, would I soon hear, ‘go to jail, got directly to jail, do not go past go’, do not collect $200.



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 and just incase you didn’t get the message the first time…

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Signs your city has been CHOGM-ed #4 (Blue measles)

The inner city is festooned with a spate of blue measles, as security signs take hold. Dotted 5 steps apart they had me pondering…

1. It’s a wonder another government department hasn’t come along and erected luminous yellow, triangle safety hazard signs, beside each one.
2. When mankind first crawled out of the ocean, grew legs and started walking upright, did Perth residents only evolve to goldfish status, hence the need to be reminded every 3 seconds…..oh look at that a blue sign.

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Signs your city has been CHOGM-ed #3 (Forget the Black Eyed Peas)

Sure the Black Eyed Peas are an internationally recognised band who've sold millions of records worldwide, but hey….we’ve got the Sturt Desert Peas.

Signs your city has been CHOGM-ed.......

Tired daisies get replaced by attention seeking Sturt Peas, beckoning Kangaroo Paws, and laid back Lechenaultia. A floral posy fit for a Queen....if only we could find one.
(With thanks to Floraland Nursery for the spelling help).



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© The Ponder Room

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Signs your city has been CHOGM-ed #2 (Upsized Scrabble)

A massive sign appears on the foreshore to remind all residents where they live, incase the return address inside their underwear has worn off.....not quite the same as the Hollywood sign, but hey give us a break, we have less letters to play with. Clearly we're never going to win an international game of Upsized Country Name Scrabble

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Signs your city has been CHOGM-ed #1 (New knickers on the line)

So what does it look like when a city’s been CHOGM-ed, I ponder.....? When a heaving pack of world leaders schlep into your backyard for a tea party?

For those of you trapped at home with the kids, incapacitated in hospital, or with restricted mobility, I thought you might like to have another view of what's happening in Perth at the moment with the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM). And for those of you in another state or overseas, here are some signs to look for, incase you’re ever in need of clarification on this point.

For the next few days I’ll be posting a photo a day, minus the ones the police asked me to delete (seriously).

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So what’s the first sign your city has been CHOGM-ed?.......

Your usual, tired, faded Bridgette Jones knickers no longer flutter in the breeze for all to see. They’ve been ceremoniously removed to make way for a cleaner, brighter, breezier pair, just on the off chance that someone might peer over the back fence to check out what's fluttering on the line.

When is a movie not just a movie? (more news on The Hunter success)

When it turns into a successful calling card for its director and photographers overseas. After opening in Australia this month, The Hunter, its director Daniel Nettheim, along with photographers Matt Nettheim and Jason Boland, continue to inspire we mere mortals. News just in.....



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Director Daniel Nettheim has secured representation in the US with industry heavyweights, manager Bart Walker at Cinetic and talent agency United Talent Agency.

Cinetic specialises in the management of indie directors such as Sofia Coppola, Jim Jarmusch and Lisa Cholodenko.

United Talent Agency is one of the biggest agencies in the US representing directors such as Joel and Ethan Coen, Wes Anderson and Noah Baumach. Wow. Fantastic news, well done Daniel!!!!

Following its success at Toronto, the film played last week to full houses at Busan and Rio International Film Festivals and will play at Doha and Abu Dhabi Film Festivals next week, where it is in the running for the newly created OUR WORLD prize of 55,000Dh for environmentally themed feature films.

Director Daniel Nettheim said the response to his film has been fantastic....

“The level of interest in the film, both here and overseas, has been incredibly rewarding, and the Q & A sessions I’ve attended show that audiences are truly engaging with the film at a deep emotional level. The people I spoke with after the screening in Korea at Busan were genuinely moved by the film, and in awe of the natural environment it depicts.”

So far the movie has been successfully sold into international markets in the US (Magnolia), Canada (eOne), UK (Artificial Eye), Japan (BMS), Germany (Ascot Elite), Greece (Strada), Turkey (Umut Sanat) Bulgaria/Romania (New Films), Poland (Kino Swiat), Indonesia/Vietnam (PT Parkit), India (Pictureworks), the Middle East (ECS Film Distribution), and New Zealand (Madman Entertainment).

In yet more good news, the Society of Motion Picture Still Photographers in LA has honoured unit stills photographer Matt Nettheim, who took the amazing images used to market the film.

Matt, along with fellow Australian stills photographer Jason Boland, was awarded membership into this exclusive honorary organisation with only 35 photographers from around the world. 35!!!!

All of which leaves me pondering …

1. I know exclamation marks are meant to be used sparingly but sometimes you just have to go overboard, especially when a fellow Aussie makes good!!! see...even more so if you've been following his work on televion (e.g. Rush).
2. Hopefully this means we will see more work by Daniel on the large screen.
3. Here’s hoping he'll be able to cast some members of our fine  Australian film industry, in a couple of his upcoming productions, thereby ensuring success for even more Australians, woohoo!!!!...sorry....!

When product designers get it right

Over the past 20 years I’ve been involved in several product design projects, some good, some not so good, and some downright weird. On every occasion the inventors swear that their product is the next best thing. Sadly on most occasions they don’t make it to market. So on the rare occasions that I stumble across a truly great new product idea, it’s like hearing the captain say ‘cabin crew close the doors, and arm the plane ready for takeoff’, when the seat next to you is still empty.

Relaxing at the Byron Bay Writers Festival, enjoying the sun, while expanding my mind, it wasn’t long before I had to answer the call of nature, however this time the trip was enlightening as well as relieving.

There were three toilet blocks positioned around the Festival venue, each with the usual bank of soulless blue port-a-loo toilets. However at one block I saw something I’d never seen before, a wheelchair access port-a-loo. 

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I was so amazed I even pointed it out to the person next to me, and we spent the next ten minutes marveling at the sight before us. As with most successful new products, our reaction was ‘why hasn’t someone thought of that before?’

After talking to one of the wheelchair bound patrons, I’d say a big thank you goes out to the manufacturers, and to the BBWF organisers for having the wisdom to provide it.

Perhaps they should become mandatory for all outdoor events. The only problem I can see, is keeping everyone else out of their roomy Tardis-like interiors. Good luck with that.





A watery obsession....go fish

How do you know when your obsession with all things beachy is getting out of control?

thanks Vic DeLeon

When it’s raining outside, you're alone, and you find yourself lured in by I Fish, a fishing television program. If that’s not bad enough you’re gazing past the 40k giant trevally, that would look perfect with an accompaniment of fat chips, salivating instead over the glistening waves in the background. Roll on Summer.

Surviving Monday-itis (Job Satisfaction #2 Byron style)

Monday morning. You’ve made it through the morning madness of married life and family fiascoes. You’ve even tackled the tedious traffic trials and tribulations. You’ve made it into work and now the morning, day, week, month, year stretches relentlessly before you. More of the same, all over again, day after day. So how to survive?

While facing the stack of files on your desk, or end to end meetings in your diary, you could ponder what others face….this guy for example….. then the only thing left to ponder is …….how?

Perhaps his proboscis has been exposed to a rare pineapple petunia, perfume, permeating the poo bowl …..my bets on Nitrous Oxide being involved somehow. Or maybe it’s something peculiar about the diet of Bryon residents….I’ll have what they’re having. 

Byron Bay Writers Festival

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Byron Bay Writers Festival

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Soya Sauce Ice Cream (Robert De Niro’s Nobu restaurant Perth)

What would happen if you took Japanese food and added a dash of Peruvian influences?

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Nobuyuki Matsuhisa decided to find out, and quickly became the owner/executive chef of 25 highly acclaimed Nobu restaurants around the globe, with Robert De Niro as a co-owner. In Australia Nobu is  already in Melbourne and Brisbane and now Perth at the Burswood Entertainment Complex. While the wait list for weekends is horrendous, you can slip in during the week.

Inside diners have the option of several sitting areas – a drink in the bar; perched up at the sushi bar; in small tables on the way in; or in the main restaurant where there is lots of room between tables.



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No matter where you sit the dim lighting and brown hues make you feel like you’ve entered an underwater man cave. Very ‘man friendly’.

While the setting is beautiful, and the service excellent, it’s the food that you’ll still be talking about a week later.

Our party of three picked four dishes to share.

The sashimi salmon tacos were a nice starter.



Tacos © The Ponder Room



The prawn butter ponzu tempura was unlike any tempura I’ve ever eaten. Wood oven baked vegetables with Yuzu truffle dressing and Manjiumup truffle, was enough to make a meat lover turn. Then there was the signature dish, black cod with miso, it literally melted in your mouth. The only problem was how to share this amongst us, as we were only given a set of chopsticks each.



Blackened cod © The Ponder Room



It was a delight to be given decent sized meals, so much so that I’d only touched half my bowl of rice. Why fill up on rice when you have high quality, unusual offerings in front of you?

Although we could easily have left the meal there, the waitress had us intrigued with what sounded like soya sauce ice cream. Perhaps her thick accent meant we’d misheard.

Asking for clarification it seemed we’d heard correctly. Having already played rock, paper, scissors to decide who’d eat the strange red berry on the cod dish, we were primed to try anything.

Unable to decide which three desserts to try, we gave up and ordered all four that took our fancy.



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Banana Harumaki with Goma Ice Cream and Passionfruit Coulis; Satandagi filled with white chocolate and ginger, coffee ice cream and raspberry coulis (donuts);

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Ichigo Pannacota with Yuzu Granita and lychee;

Then the ice cream - three scoops, berry, cinnamon and soya sauce. If you go you have to give the ice cream a try.

Finally halting our chatter and looking up from our food we realised we were the last people left in the restaurant, and the chefs were cleaning the sushi bar.

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With some trepidation we asked for the bill.

The damage.....

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8 high quality dishes shared amongst three of us….we each paid $70, plus alcohol (that you don't need to know).

For more information here’s the link to the Perth restaurant......

http://www.noburestaurants.com/perth/experience-2/introduction-2/

 

Snowball survives hell

At the beginning of the year, when I ventured into Amanda Kendle’s UWA Extension course, I had no idea how much it would impact on my life. If you’d have told me then, that ten months later I’d have a blog, and be writing my 100^th post, my response would have been….. ‘there’s a snowballs chance in hell of that ever happening’. But here we are.



Thanks to mandiberg



Many thanks to everyone who has dropped by, and a big, big thank you to those who have stuck around and made a comment or two. It really helps to know there are people out there.

I sincerely hope your visits have added a small giggle to your life.

You may have noticed some changes to the blog since the beginning. A few months ago Amanda was running an advanced blogging course at UWA. Knowing the impact of the previous course, I desperately tried to resist the temptation, but in the end my resolve was weak.

By 9am we small band of ten keen students had stumbled into the classroom, each greeted by Amanda as if we were a family member. A self confessed travel addict and writer (see her blog link ) Amanda allowed us to sap her brain for the rest of the day. If I’m honest it was less of a gentle probe, and more of an industrial strength dredging. It wasn’t long before we were talking about gadgets, widgets, Google rankings, advertising and our respective blogging addictions. So now you know why things have been flipping around in here lately, and if you like the changes you’ll know who to thank.

On that note, a huge thank you to Amanda, I can’t imagine the number of people you’ve set on the blogging/social media road over the past few years. Your passion, ability to share knowledge, and patience when teaching is an inspiration.

So 100 posts on I am left pondering…

1. If you’re ever in a predicament pondering whether your widget should be falling to the left or the right, don’t panic, just cross your legs, hold your breath, and shuffle along to the next UWA social media course.
2. How best to brace myself for the next onslaught of blog induced life changes? So far my choices are – forge on ahead - lock the door, turn off the computer and open a packet of dark chocolate Tim Tams – or ask my friends to set up an intervention. Time will tell which strategy wins out.

The Whistling Assassin (Job Satisfaction #1)

Two hours later hundreds of bees were buzzing in the wall cavity and I was opening the front door to my savior, Mike from Bee Advice, or as I like to think of him, the Whistling Assassin.

  

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To be fair ‘assassin’ is a bit harsh. Mike spent considerable time lamenting the fact that, had he been a little earlier, he could have taken the bees away, instead of putting then to sleep.

Watching on from a safe distance I was amazed to see him don a pair of rubber gloves, and a floppy hat before venturing towards the mass, whistling loudly as he did so.

Once again I was left pondering.....

1. It’s heart warming to see someone who is passionate about their work, especially in the face of personal harm, and on a Sunday morning.
2. Perhaps Mike is safe from bee stings as the bees can sense the respect he has for them.
3. Or maybe the secret’s in the whistling.
4. In a world where human contact is being replaced by an ever increasing number of apps, it’s reassuring to think there will still be some opportunities for human contact, to share a yarn, and learn something from each other. Not only did Mike solve my bee problem, in our brief encounter he taught me about bee lifestyles. And in a complete surprise we spent another twenty minutes talking about out respective blogs, with Mike declaring that his blog was becoming more important than the Yellow Pages. 

   

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The Queen Bee ...literally

The scout bees having done their job on Friday, signaled the all clear for the Queen Bee to arrive.  

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© The Ponder Room

But as any diva knows one cannot simply slip in unannounced, one must summon up an appropriate entrance.



And so it was that the Queen bee arrived today, flanked by about 1,000’s of her most loyal footmen. 



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As the room instantly went black, I glanced over at the glass sliding door and pondered.....

 

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.... sometimes nature provides way too much excitement.

More arrivals join the Spring Dance

Let’s see now, so far this Spring I’ve witnessed fly by ducks and obsessive compulsive kookaburras, what next you ask? Well……

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As I sat at my desk today, head swirling with additions and percentages, I was vaguely aware of a distant hum. It was easy to ignore at first, as I was putting all my concentration on the vast spreadsheet of numbers before me. However after three hours fixated on the screen, my concentration started to wane. Consequently my hearing sharpened, allowing the mild hum to invade my consciousness. ‘That’s one huge blowfly’, I thought.

Venturing into the lounge room to confront the interloper, I was confronted with a bee instead of a fly. That bee was closely followed by another, and another, my quick head count giving up at 43 bees swarming around the room. Actually to be fair most of them weren’t swarming, they were prostrating themselves against the glass sliding doors, trying to understand how they could see the flowers outside, but not get to them. What do to? Panic? Well yes, but then what?

Fly spray was out of the question. While I’d like to think this was because I'd reached a new level of compassion after my recent three day encounter with the Dalai Lama, but the reality was, it was because the can was empty. Beside who knows how they’d react, and there were more of them than me. Close the doors? Sure, but looking around all the doors were already closed. How did they get in? Deciding I was no match for their superior intellect, I called in the experts, phoning up a well known pest control company for advice. Their answer….

‘They’re swarming at the moment, how many are there? Really hold on I’ll ask our senior expert…… Okay there’s nothing we can do until they find the nest and locate the queen. Even if we came out we couldn’t do anything.’ While she spoke I watched the swarm double in number. I asked if she was sure, the growing sense of panic obvious in my voice.

‘We’ve had so many calls, there’s nothing we can do I’m afraid…..I suggest….you.... avoid them.’

Brilliant, why hadn’t I thought of that. My silence prompted her to add ….‘or you could try …..opening the window and letting them fly out, sorry, good luck, bye.’

Great idea in theory, but the only opening happened to be at the one place they were all hanging around. And so the Spring Dance began. Should any of my neighbours peer over the back fence, they would have seen a brilliant rendition of …the hokey cokey….  as I put my right arm in, then franticly took my right arm back out and shook the bees about.

Eventually, doors open, I was back at my desk head buried in data until something caught my attention. A bird fluttered in through the open doors, along the long room and right up to my desk. I kid you not! Looking at me for a moment, it fluttered, then turned on it’s heels (if they have them) then took off back out the door.

As I sat stunned I pondered…

1. Perhaps I should show the spreadsheet to the bees, one look seemed to be enough to make the bird hightail it out the door.
2. In the meantime I guess the only thing left to do is sit very, very still, channeling the Dalai Lama, and meditating the bees out of my consciousness and out the door, hopefully.
3. Still at least I’m not in Byron Bay. An email just in tells me they’re being inundated by whales….now they’d be really hard to get out of the lounge.

How does a first time film director lure a Hollywood heavyweight into his movie? (Willem Defoe in The Hunter)

While Academy Award nominee Willem Defoe, knew where Tasmania was, he’d never heard of the Tasmanian tiger, so how does a distinguished Australian television director, Daniel Nettheim (Rush, All Saints), lure a Hollywood heavyweight into his first feature film, on the other side of the world?

Daniel Nettheim

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The producers of Animal Kingdom have brought us yet another terrific psychological drama that gives the world a peek into Australian life, without relying on jarring stereotypes, and pretty tourism images.

Drawn from the book by Australian author Julia Leigh, The Hunter follows Martin (Willem Defoe), a mercenary from Europe, as he journeys through the wilderness in search of the Tasmanian tiger. Employed by a biotech organisation, Martin is tasked with tracking the tiger and extracting genetic material. Shot in present tense, with no backstory to Martins character, and no voice over of his inner dialogue, the viewer is asked to join Martin on his silent quest through the wilderness, drawing their own conclusions along the way, rather than having things spelt out for them.

Martin is helped by Jack Mindy (Sam Neill), Lucy Armstrong (Frances O’Connor) and her two children, Sass (Morgana Davies) and the equally introspective son Bike (Finn Woodlock). Lurking in the background is acclaimed Australian actor Callan Mulvey (Rush, Thunderstruck). Subplots of conservation, forestry, family love, grief and jealousy add extra dimensions to the quest.

When asked about his influences, Nettheim points to Peter Weirs Picnic at Hanging Rock. Shot in Tasmania’s fog, cloud, and rain, The Hunter relies on atmospheric locales, rather than classic tourism shots. With a slow tempo, you can see the Hanging Rock influences. The use of locals as extras, added to the films authenticity.

‘Anyone with a nonspeaking part was a local’ explained Nettheim

When it came to casting Nettheim hoped he could interest Defoe. Indeed when writing the screenplay he’d see Defoe’s face 'appear around the corner, like it did in Platoon.’ So how does a first time movie director lure one of Hollywood’s heavyweights, to a movie that has a budget far smaller than he’s used to?