The Zeppelin Museum and the truth about swivel chairs revealed!

The truth just occurred to me.

The truth about swivel chairs.

You know all those severe, haughty looking business men in their intimidating black swivel chairs, steepling their fingers. The ones who can barely deign to look down upon mere mortals who weren't born into a position of entitlement and privilege. You know the ones, the media barons, the mining magnates, the arms manufacturers ...

The truth is that when there's no one in the room they act up just like the rest of us when we think no one's watching! Unlike the teacher mentioned below, they just haven't been caught ... yet!

Their black leather covered, official looking, high backed, swivel chairs are really the corporate excuse for a trip down fantasy lane and into the realms of childhood!! But they probably won't admit it ;-)

... and maybe, just maybe if they could allow themselves to make a habit of enjoying the fun and fantasy and Mindfulness, (read on!) the world would be a happier, healthier place.

While on the subject of fantasy, aren't these playgrounds superb! (yes, I can see they're not covered in umpteen centimetres of soft material for the children to fall on, perhaps German children don't whinge if they fall and their parents expect them to hang on tight.) They're in Friedrichshafen Germany, the city which is home to the arty, interesting, wonder inducing Zeppelin Museum.

A kiddy sized zeppelin complete with lookout, steampunkish wheeled swan/boat, and slide; and while I was tempted to shoo the kids away and have a play, I put on my grown up face and took photos instead, secretly imagining I was in the lookout, flying over the town.

Speaking of flying, sometimes you can be really lucky. I could hear a low droning, humming sound coming from over the lake, and overhead, pushing through the clouds was ...

 ... not a fabulous building with interesting reflections, but a dinky di blimp!

It was funny to watch people diving for their pockets and dragging out their phones all with the one purpose - to take photos. I don't know if the blimp we saw was as big as this, but the models give a real sense of scale of the Hindenburg - it was HUGE.

This is just one tiny section which has been reconstructed so you can climb up, 

 walk through and get a sense of the living and sleeping quarters and the immense scale of the structure

 functional art

intricate criss crossed beams (?)

 ... and the beauty of the workmanship.

This is a different kind of fantasy and shows the result of a productive, creative imagination (and impressive engineering).

But back to playgrounds as a powerful device to promote a rich and full inner life for the young and not so young! Cogs, shells, sea creatures and propellers ...

 which could lead the imagination to who knows where ...

Clearly much loved and buffed to a lovely copper colour where countless children have sat and imagined who knows what ...

This magnificent playground is a superb example of a rich imagination, a city prepared to celebrate art and sculptures, excellent craftsmanship, and shows how playgrounds don't have to be garish plastic sanitised clones of each other.

 Weird and wonderful humanoid rabbit/seal/Idon'tknowwhat creatures

So, in the spirit of nurturing your inner child, take a moment to slow down.

Without comment or criticism, notice what your thoughts are doing. Notice what you can hear, see, touch, taste and smell.

Feel the weight of your bottom on your wheely chair.

Put aside the serious you for a moment.

Give your hips an experimental wiggle.

Feel your muscles stretch and tauten as you twist back and forth.

Feel the fabric of your clothing as it pulls against your body and the way your lungs expand with the anticipation of action.

Place your feet against the floor and feel the pressure of your feet as they push against the floor.
twist right
twist left
twist right
spin!!!!!!!

Notice how your face forms a goofy kind of smile, a little embarrassed (was anyone watching?) but oh, so satisfied!

Note the physical sensation of slight, but pleasant dizziness. There was possibly also a sense of exhilaration, of daring to do something different and perhaps a bit naughty? What would people say!?

Make room for your thoughts and feelings; allow them to flow through you. If your inner critic is wagging it's derogatory finger, observe it without buying into the "shoulds" and "oughts" for a moment.

Breathe, have a little shake and relax.

Reconnect with your values and choose a course of action.

And notice ... the desire to do it again ;-)

Immature?

You bet. But it's also ...

Mindfulness in action!

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Gingerbread Melbourne

Knowing how hard it is (for me at least) to create reasonably flat, well proportioned gingerbread shapes and stick them together so they don't slither and slide creating something more like a disaster zone than a stable building, I'm super impressed by this creative Gingerbread Village by Epicure in Melbourne this month.

Here's the real Melbourne Town Hall

and the gingerbread facsimile, complete with wreaths and snow. 

It'd be a bit of a shock to wake up and find snow in Melbourne, but you can always dream!

The Arts Centre from the back of Fed Square (Federation Square) looking across the Yarra River.

The gingerbread Arts Centre complete with spire - no seagulls wheeling above it thankfully! The MCG (Melbourne Cricket Ground) is in the background. The Christmas tree with star that you see at the bottom of the photo is in the next shot. 

without snow, thankfully!

and a close up of the MCG complete with the towering lights, spectators and players. 

A structural masterpiece!

I suspect this is Flinders Street Station, normally seen without the reindeer and Santa!

 Santa and an elf have come to life!  Taking a break to sample some gingerbread.

Playing hide and seek amongst the forest of plastic trees at Fed Square. It would have been a real challenge in gingerbread as it has fantastic angles. Flinders Street Station is the sandy coloured building with the dome in the background.

And for those dreaming of jingling bells, there's always the possibility of enjoying a horse and carriage ride. Just beware of the rhinoceros on a skateboard! (A clever advertising strategy reminding people that trams don't stop quickly or easily.)

Now, back to trying to make something presentable out of my own gingerbread disaster. The roof insists on slithering off...sigh.

I cheated this year, and bought a kit from the supermarket - Never again! Whilst the shapes are neat, it smells all wrong, it's sickly sweet and I suspect the flour is coloured rather than oozing ginger and cinnamon; it doesn't smell like Christmas. Smell is such an important sense, it seems a pity to shortchange it, don't you think? It's a bit like the plastic tree we resorted to a couple of years ago during the drought - ok, but not quite right.

Celebrations and smells. What does Christmas smell like to you?
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Nesting

I wonder if the owner of this nest thought it was strong and secure. The bird has woven in baling twine, very solid fencing wire and different coloured lengths of boating rope. There are twigs with gumnuts adding a rather whimsical tone, and it was well and solidly worked into the fork of the tree.










Unfortunately the tree needed to be lopped. My friend was pleased that the tree surgeon rescued it from the mulcher and it's been added to her artistic displays.

Art. A-Z April challenge.

East Side Gallery. Berlin - AWESOME!

Accomplished artists often anticipate riches using the skills they’ve accumulated over many years. They give advance alerts to devoted advocates and approach award winning art galleries to appraise their work for purchase by the aristocracy. Their often angsty work (rarely of angels) is arranged of the walls at appropriate angles to appeal to authors who will write well articulated articles which often appear in August in Australia.

Amber is an argumentative albino artist who appeared wearing azure anklets made by Ambrose. Ambrose, from Adelaide, advertises widely and absorbs the huge amounts of adulation and applause that greet him on arrival.

Amazing carved wood in Venice. I fell in love with it!

Adulations to Arlee Bird at 'Tossing It Out' and her amazing crew for hosting this awesome challenge.

Addendum:
I'd like to Add my Apologies for my recent tardiness and Appearing not to visit other blogs. I seem to be having Added difficulties in Accessing either your blogs, the comment boxes or the whole thing just stuffs up and times out. I feel a bit Aggrieved but it could be my techno Awkwardness coming in to play. Anyhow please accept my Apologies if I seem an inAdequate blog buddy.
Oh dear now I’m up to 70 words and I feel the Drabble Addiction is going to hit me Accutely and now I want to Add Additional A words. Aaaarrrggghhhhhhhh!


If a drabble is a story told in 100 words, no more and no less. What does than make 2 Drabbles?

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Corporate cows

"Bovines bathe at Busselton beach"

Isn't that a fantastic header! I suspect the journo had fun with the whole article too.

It's so easy when driving for my brain not to really concentrate on what is being discussed on the radio, but this one got my attention.

The idea of a small herd of scrubbed cows being taken to paddle at a beach, with their farmer owners in top hats and tails - well it's different! The artist Andrew Baines has produced some unusual paintings in the past. He combines the sea and corporate types, putting them in the water to show them getting away from the city to enjoy nature. The paintings are dramatic, and encourage one to pause and think about the message.

I understand that he created this "surreal bovine installation" in part to highlight the difficulties faced by dairy farmers with the current ludicrous pricing of milk.  The price of a litre of milk is not much different to a bottle of water. No wonder the farmers are grumpy. I hope this bit of artistic expression helps raise awareness about their plight.

Somehow, I can't imagine the cows I photographed being remotely interested in paddling,  they look too happy relaxing in the paddock.

A video clip of cows, beach and spiffied up farmers and a brief interview with the artist Andrew Baines is available here, and an article with fantastic photos at the link up the top.