We went up to the Blue Mountains for the weekend to visit Dr Sista Outlaw and warm her beautiful house. From the moment we got to the outskirts of Sydney until a couple of hours before we left to travel home, it POURED with rain. Mountain residents seemed very blase about the incredible amount of water falling upon them, but we felt like the fish of Lake Eyre. I haven't had an entire weekend of heavy rain for YEARS. The rain was so hard on my in-laws' tin roof that it. kept. me. awake. Both nights. I feel moisturised. I feel hydrated. I am secretly quite glad to get back to cool dry climes.
The housewarming party was very good as well, despite all plans having revolved around outdoor activities like BBQs and bonfires. We all managed to squeeze into the lovely 1940s metal-clad fibro gem and no-one scratched the floorboards too badly. There was a fantastic array of interesting people, and the kids managed to stay reasonably out of the way.
We spent Saturday morning cruising the main street Katoomba, and I visited my favorite junk & antique arcade, Macarthur Arcade, a conglomerate of dealers wrangled by Mr Pickwick of the famous bookshop next door. I was trying to find Bumblebee a cheap leather jacket, as his heart yearns for one, but instead I found one of these:
It's an Adana five-eight tabletop press. I couldn't help myself, I bought it. I'd just borrowed one from Poppy Letterpress (who is about to pop a sprog at ANY minute) to try and get some batches of small printing done, and now I have my own. I won't say how much I paid for it, because I probably paid a bit too much, even though I haggled and won (and Mr P threw in a handful of comics for Bumblebee), but when I later figured out auction fees and freight if I'd bought it on the net, I think I probably did ok. Now I just need to make time to clean up all my presses and get jiggy wiv dem.
I'm still waiting for my room brochure essay to arrive on the Craft ACT website, and apparently the Canberra Times is writing about my bookbinding show some time this week, so I'll keep you all informed when that bunch of excitement happens.
In the meantime, I have a whole other bunch of excitement to get done such as a PhD layout, an exhibition brochure, masses of photos to resize for a book and an index layout. Not cutting edge stuff, but they will, thankfully, pay for the press. I'd better get down to it, if I want the day to go well and get me to the studio...
POSTSCRIPT
OH noes! Have been derailed by snortingly funny post called Pride and Twitterverse!! must. get. back. to. work.
5 comments:
Allow me to apologize sincerely for cutting into your work time. It's amazing how a series of 140 chars can combine into a frighteningly lost post. Next time I will endeavour to focus on both ends of the truism "brevity is the soul of wit."
Thanks for the link.
Oh, no, thank YOU! Absolute sheer fecking genius. Worth every minute of snort.
Twitter P&P absolutely hilarious (thanks to Zoe, who tweeted it yesterday and cheered up an otherwise bleary work arvo) ... BTW, you made my house sound so glamorous (thank you), but it did have a lovely rosy glow on the night. Musta been all the great people squooshed into it!!
And Mad, you are truly the awsumness
Ooh an Adana, most excellent! What a rare find, too. Is it in good condition?
I've been out of touch with your blog lately (bad blog reader, I know). Good to see this today!
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