Dili, East Timor

Safe arrival in Dili, East Timor.

After a 4.30am rise, and a 6.30am departure from Darwin, I arrived in Dili early this morning and was driven from the Airport to the Army/ Medic base to meet my colleagues (a lot of familiar faces from Honiara, Solomon Islands), and complete an orientation process.

A short while ago I arrived at my home base the Beach Resort Hotel, to settle in and unpack. The room is very deluxe and I have internet access so I will be able to regularly skype, blog, and email... I am feeling relaxed, well prepared and looking forward to working/living here, but with another deadline due this Friday; I am also aware that I need to stay focused for a few more days.

Right now though ... everything can wait. As I'm really in need of a hot shower, a cup of tea and bed!

Until later...

x

East Timor

Carefully packed into my travel bag, are some beautiful Christmas trimmings to bring light, love and delight to my world in East Timor. Tomorrow afternoon, I am departing for Darwin and on Wednesday morning I will be departing at dawn for East Timor, to undertake another 6 week deployment contract for Aspen medical.

In preparation, tonight I savoured one last cycle along the bay at twilight.

The wind on my face and stillness in the air, made me feel calm and still. And with the formidable pace and unrelenting juggling act of commitments behind me, I found myself smiling at the elderly Greek fisherman who looked forlorn as he gathered his rods and empty bucket as we exchanged a few words. Like music, the sea seduces us in different ways. For this gentleman it is about tending the green waters and waiting piano piano for the staccato at the end of his line, while for me it's the crescendo of the next wave and the way the sea allows me to explore distant horizons, and then welcomes me home at the end of my so journ. 

Despite the constant challenging pace, it has been a rich, inspiring and fulfilling year and I have experienced great joy in realising how much can be achieved things align...

x

Mum & Dad's 50th Anniversary

Mum & Dad would have celebrated their Golden 50th Wedding Anniversary today and to celebrate I took Mum to attend one of history's greatest operatic love story's Madame Butterfly, followed by celebratory drinks at dusk and dinner at Sake at Southbank.

How beautiful to love someone for fifty years and to truly cherish the person you married and the wedding wows you exchanged to one another.... to keep your promise to be true to them in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health and to love them and honour them all the days of your life.

A Glimpse

Two glimpses in two days. A sparkle from your eyes and a promise...

 ...and then there was the production of Glimpse at forty-five downstairs, Flinders Lane, CBD.

Allora & Calzadilla

For the 26th Kaldor Art project, internationally renowned artistic duo Jennifer Allora  (1974 Pennsylvania, USA) and Guillermo Calzadilla (1971, Havana Cuba), present Stop, Repair , Prepare: Variations on 'Od to Joy' for a Prepared Piano.

The artist duo have produced experimental and interdisciplinary body of work combining performance, sculpture, video and sound. Throughout their diverse past works, they have often explored the histories and meanings implicit in the culture that surrounds us 0- from architecture and objects to music and bodily movement - reconfiguring and recontextualising these elements to create their poetic artworks

This music-art installation was first exhibited at Has der Kunst in Munich in 2008 and has since been presented at MOMA in New York (2010).

Stop, Repair, Prepare creates a relationship between the sculpture, the piano player and the piece of music. The artists have cut a large hole from the centre of a Bechstein grand piano and made adjustments to the pedals, to allow the pianist to enter the piano ad play it from within, bearing it with them as they traverse a choreographed path through the gallery.

The works draw on Fluxus artist and composer John Cage's 'prepared pain' performances from the 1940's and 50's, in which CAge altered the instruments's timber throughout eh placement of objects such as screws or bolts along the piano strings and hammers. Here the artists' method of 'preparation ' is more dramatic, recalling the circular segments cut from Gordon Matta-Clark's architectural interventions, they completely alter the function of the piano, techniques required to play it and the experience of the audience.

The composition is the 4th movement of Beethoven's famous 9th Symphony, known as 'Ode to Joy' and widely understood as a hymn to humanity, a testament to human fraternity and brotherhood. This piece is performed hourly, with pianists stepping under and into the piano and caching over the top to play.

In Allora & Calzadilla's variation, the work is recognisable but incomplete as the cut renders two octaves of the piano inoperable and the resulting keys leave only a hollow resonance. Although it was advertised as a "poetic meditation on art, idealism and power" the performance lacked some dynamic energy and the acoustics within the State Library of Melbourne, failed to create sound immersion.  

A month or more...

After a much needed sleep in, I've just wandered back from the local cafe after having had my Saturday morning latte and perusal of the weekend paper, whilst seated in the sun; and I've been thinking...

I love being in Melbourne because I love being near family and close friends, my abode by the bay, my study and professional commitments.

Teaching nursing students has reignited my passion and is so fulfilling. This position has given me the ability to express myself intellectually; to foster a new generation of nurses; to nurture, mentor and inspire them; immense freedom and autonomy. It is a great joy and I feel fulfilled and blessed.

After much hesitancy, debate and day dreaming, I commenced a study plan towards a Masters in Art Curatorship at the University of Melbourne this year. Although 'taking the plunge' has been exciting and challenging, the new perspectives that have developed, have been illuminating. 

My period in Italy in June/July brought the clarity and closure I had been yearning for. Even though I was heartbroken, the experience enabled me to finally understand and to truly know. Since returning, in this aspect of my life I've been able to pause.

Play-time and moments of reflection have been rather sparse and unconventionally conventional this year and my most favoured activity has become sleep. On paper, life looks balanced, but I know I need more spontaneity and carefree expression...

In three weeks I am leaving to undertake another international multi disciplinary medical team deployment contract to East Timor. A wonderful opportunity both personally and professionally. My contact concludes on December 31 2012. Actually my flight is scheduled to a drive in Melbourne on New Years Eve at 23.59hrs. Interesting hey....

2013.... What will next year be about??? At the moment I don't want to contemplate it. I couldn't imagine designing another year's worth of commitments - not now... I've planned to take two weeks off in January 2013 after I return from East  Timor. Two slow, lazy, sleepy, fish n'chips on the beach, sun-kissed and water lodged weeks by the bay. Then during this time, I'll gather thoughts and plan the year.

One thought I have for the coming year "is to fly away and spend three months somewhere that inspires me artistically and culturally". Because for as much as I love Melbourne, it doesn't nurture me on that level.  I crave immersion in foreign landscapes and ancient Architecture, languages and expressions, handsome men and women, textile draped silhouettes, the scents and ambience. I need to connect to that trilogy between: who I am; how I see myself; and what I want to be. 

I have come to understand that the opportunity to work in Europe is nearly impossible and that being in these historical and fantastical cities alone can be at times lonely and confronting, especially after having experienced it "so completely"; but I miss being there (not every day, but particualrly when I stop and think about it, or hear someone refer to Florence, Paris etc on the radio or in the paper). I can't explain it any other way, except that what I want for my life is to know that I can "be" "there". And I know now that I don't need to explain it to anyone or have anyone understand it. I just need to honour this belief. And so somehow or in someway I will continue to find a way to return for a month of more each year. 

Visual Aids in Clinical Teaching

As did Leonardo da Vinci, I have always believed in a nexus between art and health, medicine and nursing education. I recently presented this interdisciplinary relationship and the evidence from research and professional experiences, to professional peers at St Vincent's Health.  

Additionally, as a portal for discussion, resources and further information in this area I have developed another blog site entitled Visual aids as a Clinical Teaching Strategy.