The Return of Sparkling Adventures - Merge

[CheeseDeprived]

Crikey... I hope she hears about this before she goes gallivanting around Victoria, advertising their whereabouts and letting the girls roam unsupervised (not breaking link as it goes to news article):

http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/sex-m ... 2f9yg.html

He's been on the run for a few days, but it only just dawned on me how it may affect our favourite Sparkler.

[miffy]

Lauren would have no reason to go to dandenong. It's ethnic but not trendy enough. She will be staying with 'friends' in collingwood/Brunswick/fitzroy or being sparkly in belgrave.

[CheeseDeprived]

That's good - thank goodness there's still some non-trendy, inauthentic places on the map. :mrgreen: He could be anywhere though, so still a good reason for her to be cautious (was going to say "more cautious" but that would imply that she already exercises a basic amount of caution).

[August]

Just wanted to interject, Lauren's hair was extremely enviable pre dreads. It wouldn't have been a barrier to entering an alternative community anyway. She could have sold it for a wig and been alternative with a shaved head, if she wants to eschew all things superficial. I know it isn't in the hippy manual she is following but gee, she is rather

unimaginative for someone so 'creative'.

So Many Lies, if you don't follow every. single. rule. on every aspect of your life to the nth degree terrible things will happen, terrible. You're implying one can just pick and choose or freewheel along doing random things that sound reasonable. You can't! You must select a group or philosophy, seek out those who are most righteous in its application, and follow them. You can no more have long straight brushed hair as a hippy than you could live in a single family occupied house, or send your children to the local school, or avoid dancing around a fire all night every couple of months. It's just... unthinkable. Next you'll suggest that a christian could trundle off to church a couple of times a month and pay no mind to thoughts of religion in between. Clearly unthinkable, isn't it? And besides, she didn't get dreads to be beautiful or enviable, she's above such trivia, she got them to be authentic. Four hours every few months is a small price to pay to maintain your authentic self.

Unless it's the 60's. That's what you meant, isn't it? Unfortunately there was no draft for David to dodge, so she couldn't have long straight hair.

[Vex]

I'm just trying to imagine Lauren coming to the salon I go to.

It's pretty darn upscale. It's the kind of place that includes a blowdry, scalp and shoulder massage in the price of a cut and you get free champagne and wine while they do your hair. I've seen women bring in babies, but they keep them in prams or on their laps. I've never, ever seen little kids there. I can just imagine the look on the faces of the staff if she dragged in those poor dirty, bedraggled kids and asked for a dread tune-up.

One of my pet peeves is people who bring their kids into a place and let them run wild. I don't mind at all if kids play, or are a bit loud, but the supermarket or the hair salon is not a playground and the staff are not babysitters. There are a lot of salons that have play areas for kids, maybe she brought the girls to one like that and they played with something other than scissors for a few hours.

Lauren seems to have a weird hangup about being pale with freckles. So get a tan?

[August]

Never fear, Vex, she'll be having it done in someone's backyard like she susually does.

[Melissa19128]

The Sparkling One has a new post up. They are exploring a park in Melbourne. It looks like this visit was for David and the girls were able to see him.

She wrote:

"All day long, our girls are playing with little ponies that they received as a gift from David during this last visit."

[ladyaudley]

"All day long, our girls are playing with little ponies that they received as a gift from David during this last visit."

is this just bad writing? To me it implies they'll never see him again.

Glad to see Aisha smiling though.

[Blahblah]

I don't think she means they'll never see him again. In this context "last" just means the most recent.

I really wish she'd put shoes on the kids in bush land areas. Especially this inner city one where the likelihood of broken glass and needles is just as high as the risk of snakes and spiders. I'd bet she wears shoes.

[lilith]

I'm just trying to imagine Lauren coming to the salon I go to.

It's pretty darn upscale. It's the kind of place that includes a blowdry, scalp and shoulder massage in the price of a cut and you get free champagne and wine while they do your hair. I've seen women bring in babies, but they keep them in prams or on their laps. I've never, ever seen little kids there. I can just imagine the look on the faces of the staff if she dragged in those poor dirty, bedraggled kids and asked for a dread tune-up.

One of my pet peeves is people who bring their kids into a place and let them run wild. I don't mind at all if kids play, or are a bit loud, but the supermarket or the hair salon is not a playground and the staff are not babysitters. There are a lot of salons that have play areas for kids, maybe she brought the girls to one like that and they played with something other than scissors for a few hours.

Lauren seems to have a weird hangup about being pale with freckles. So get a tan?

I dont think she'd tan, hers looks like the type of skin that would burn and then get another layer of freckles.

[ladyaudley]

in this picture from elijah's birth story it almost looks like she *only* freckles where she tans.

put picture behind a spoiler because she's not wearing much, there's a newborn with umbilical cord still attached and I'm unsure what category of safeness that would fall under.

[miffy]

Just as I predicted, they must be staying in the 'authentic'(actually very trendy) area of Fitzroy or Collingwood.

I predict a visit here http://www.ceres.org.au

[Sister_Wife]

Just as I predicted, they must be staying in the 'authentic'(actually very trendy) area of Fitzroy or Collingwood.

I predict a visit here http://www.ceres.org.au

Of course, and the collingwood children's farm!

[Wolfie]

I dont think she'd tan, hers looks like the type of skin that would burn and then get another layer of freckles.

Yeah, I have skin like that and people who don't often don't understand that we don't tan.

[miffy]

Lots of people get sent to boarding school. Obviously her parents wanted her to be somewhat near her, otherwise she would have found herself left in Australia.

My grandmother was a missionaries daughter (Rev TT Webb, there is a lot of stuff on the internet about him). She was born in Arnhem land & was sent to live in melbourne with a very bossy great aunt when she was 7 or 8 because her parents wanted her to go to a good school. Back in those days you got a steamship from Darwin to Melbourne. So she was a VERY long way from her parents, never got to see her friends again, had to speak english instead of the aboriginal dialect which was really her first language. She didn't hate or resent her parents for that. They didn't do it because they hated her, nor did Laurens parents.

[truthseeker]

Sounds like there's a few of us 'Mexicans' on here ;)

The girls have always loved playing with ponies - it's been mentioned before. It seems that - whatever else he may have done - David remembered what made them happy. And agree, it is so nice to see Aisha smiling.

[ridethekick]

I love that the most recent blog post shows the Sparkly / neglectful one taking her kids to play in the water at Darebin Parklands. We used that park as a case study at uni, it used to be a quarry and then a landfill before it was turned into a park. Contamination is a big issue there, and the water and soil samples we took were crazy. There are signs up everywhere saying don't go in the water, don't let your dog do in the water etc. Naturally, the blog shows the kids frolicking at the water's edge.....

[August]

And now she's at a didgeridoo festival, of course.

[happy atheist]

Question for the Aussies: are didgeridoos a beloved cultural touchstone, an annoying hippie trapping, or somewhere in between?

For me (an American) they're a stereotypically Australian thing, which makes me think that you probably find it tedious to always have them associated with your country. I know there's more to Australia than kangaroos, didgeridoos, boomerangs and Men At Work.

Which brings up an interesting question. What do you see as stereotypical American things? Besides guns, of course.

[Guest Anonymous]

Gaaaaah! :twisted:

When you said:

I know there's more to Australia than kangaroos, didgeridoos, boomerangs and Men At Work.

My brain started to autoplay:

MeG-hNXXy6I

Sorry, I needed to share it, in order to get it out of my own head. :mrgreen:

[August]

Question for the Aussies: are didgeridoos a beloved cultural touchstone, an annoying hippie trapping, or somewhere in between?

For me (an American) they're a stereotypically Australian thing, which makes me think that you probably find it tedious to always have them associated with your country. I know there's more to Australia than kangaroos, didgeridoos, boomerangs and Men At Work.

Which brings up an interesting question. What do you see as stereotypical American things? Besides guns, of course.

AfAIK they're a revered cultural artifact of the aboriginals, appropriated and demeaned by hippies and wannabes. Is that correct?

OMG, OMG, this is awwwwwwwesommmmmmmme.

http://www.confest.org/thesis/sixindigen.html

Definitely worth reading the whole thing, you'll see such gems as

Aboriginality is thus mobilised to fill the void.

and

However, as a conduit between the sacred and profane (1994:93), the didjeridu's specified use in nascent performances ('didge healing' and the Toc IV fire walk) delivers us upon fresher ground.

and

Cuthbert and Grossman introduce the concept of 'new feralism' to describe contemporary Australian New Age primitivism, claiming that, through their pre-lapsarian return to the wild and 'metaphorical search for Lebensraum' (1996:23), ferals are the cardinal boogey-men of neo-imperialism.

in context.

[Blahblah]

My sleep fogged, random thoughts on Stereotypical American things? (I sense a thread derail coming up!)

Apple pie, cheesecake, burgers, hotdogs (I haven't had breakfast yet. Can you see a pattern?)

Baseball

Theme parks

Over the top, unbelievably expensive election campaigns.

Statue of Liberty

[happy atheist]

My sleep fogged, random thoughts on Stereotypical American things? (I sense a thread derail coming up!)

Apple pie, cheesecake, burgers, hotdogs (I haven't had breakfast yet. Can you see a pattern?)

Baseball

Theme parks

Over the top, unbelievably expensive election campaigns.

Statue of Liberty

Is apple pie unusual in Australia?

[Blahblah]

Of course apple pie isn't unusual in Aus and neither are burgers, hotdogs or cheesecakes. But there is the saying "As American as apple pie" hence, it's an American stereotype in my head anyway. And once I thought of apple pie, the other foods followed.

[happy atheist]

I didn't think apple pie was some weird, exotic thing for you guys, but I didn't want to assume.