Midwinter Madness

WBM and I spent Easter packing up Mum and Dad's house prior to sale. The buyer is very keen for a quick settlement and wants to be in by early May so everything had to be done quickly.It was quite an emotional and yet at the same time cathartic Easter.

To be honest, packing up my family's final house was something I'd been dragging my feet about. There's so much sentiment involved; what to keep, what to store, what to sell (who the hell will buy that??) and what to fling...  

Now the baby grand was a given. It's gone into it's own special piano storage, waiting for the day when our house renovation is finally done and it can move in with us. Besides, Mum always said she would haunt me if I sold it after she died - and I believe her!

What to with the furniture was another matter. Right from the heart of the '70's a whole house full of Davis "Priory" pieces. Solid Victorian Ash timber, leather seats and tapestry upholstered in '70's brights. Retro is in, but apparently "... we are still in the early seventies Scandinavian phase". The Salvation Army didn't have room for it and we didn't want to send it to the tip - but finally we found somewhere for it to go. Mrs Secondhand decided that it was perhaps the next thing in seventies retro and was willing to have a shot at selling it on consignment. We'll see.

So... for anyone into Lord of the Rings re-enactments; perfect for that fantasy role playing evening, as seen in Oblivion ...

Apart from the piano and '70's styling, Mum and Dad loved ceramics and cut glass and had been collecting since their marriage in 1956. Stuart and Staffordshire, Waterford and Wedgwood, Coalport, Carlton, Poole and Ellis; the house had become a hoard of knick knacks, objet and whimsies;

 

But Mum's particular passion was for Midwinter China. Pride of place in the collection was a hand engraved Midwinter Modern Fashion Shape dinner setting in the Bolero pattern. Quite rare and collectible I'm told; created in 1955 by Midwinter's celebrated designer Jessie Tait.

 

Not only that, but this set is the full catastrophe, a dinner service for 8 with all the trimmings, cups, saucers, jugs, tureens, teapots, cheese platters and dishes;

...and my favourite of all, the cruet set (sweet!);

Apart from a little crazing due to age (and we all know about that don't we?) the dinner service is in perfect order without a single chip or mark. It was rarely used - even at Christmas. Mum would make an exception for extra special dinner parties, but even then John and I were not allowed to wash it up (suited me fine!) It's still as bright and vibrant as the day it was painted.


Fear not Ma, I'll be keeping the Bolero; I love its cheery '50s eccentricity. Guess I'll have to take over the washing up though :(

Of a less certain fate is the Midwinter Stonehenge "Earth" dinner service. Once again, the whole guacamole;place settings for 8 - in fact sometimes 10 - Mum always bought spares just in case,  particularly after Anne and I were born! 

Yet again there are plates,jugs, bowls, salt and pepper shakers and 3 - (count them), 3 casseroles. This set was used a lot for Mum's dinner parties but is so darn heavyweight that it just couldn't be broken and is still in wonderful shape. But "Earth" is so relentlessly seventies, so brown, so made to be with the Davis/Lord of the Rings furniture. And oh those "Eye of Sauron" dinner plates...

Should I keep it - where would I put it?
Should it go? - but what about memories of those seventies parties? 

• Avocados & prawn cocktail
• Coq Au Vin or Stroganoff
• Apricots in Brandy or Cherries Jubilee
• Seppelts Moyston Claret
• Percolating coffee in the background
• Dudley Moore on the stereo

Hmm, maybe it should go... Anyone???

iCrap

It was one of those days today. I spent the morning busily processing photos, writing up a new pattern and blogging. Very productive. 

Yeah, right. You see, my computer the iCrash 1200 had other ideas. I don't think it's too much to ask of a computer that it can run for 30 minutes without overheating and closing down. This behaviour started around six months after I bought the iCrash. Ever-helpful-Dell (their actual trading name) told me that it was a known "feature" (their words) of the model I had (funny didn't see that anywhere in the product information). They advised me that I would need to buy a stand to lift the thing off the tabletop - thus ventilating the fan. Grrrr. 

The only "Apple" thing about this computer was the sticker...

Now, normally I would have stood my ground with Dell and got them to take the thing back. But I had a major paying project on at the time and was in desperate need of my computer. So I shelled out the $25 for a piece of recycled plant pot to act as a throne for the iCrash. And it did work for a while. But with the start of the "hot" weather, the laptop started daily crashes, twice daily crashes and encore performances.Today's repeated recalcitrance and phone syncing hystrionics were the last straw. Goodbye to much of the work I did this morning and goodbye to the iCrash - the thing crashed when I was backing up!!!!!!! It's over - finito - you're history!!!!!! 

Bahrain

Images of conflict in the Middle East have become so common over the last 40 years that it is easy to become desensitised to them. From Australia it seems worlds away and unreal. 

John and I were in Bahrain in September,October & December 2010. Blogging was blocked in while we were in Bahrain, but given recent events I thought it would be timely to load a few photos:

Al Fateh Grand Mosque; main mosque of Bahrain (Al Fateh = Conqueror)

Bahrain has been going through a construction boom, built on the labour of guest workers from Pakistan, Indian and poorer nations in the Middle East. There are signs of Western influence everwhere in architecture,consumer goods, cars and food. There is a MacDonalds on both sides of the causeway that connects Bahrain with Saudi Arabia and shopping malls are replacing traditional souks. An inevitable sameness with the rest of the world is creeping in.

On the Bahrani side of the King Fahd Causeway (linking Bahrain & Saudi Arabia)

Being a Muslim country, alcohol is banned, but Bahrain has one discrete retail outlet which sells wines and sprits to non Muslims. The car park was full of the cars driven by wealthy young Bahrani men; unable to buy for themselves, they would send their Indian and Phillipino servants in to shop for them.

With elections looming there were rumblings for change to the minority ruling elite, repression of the workers, lack of representation of women in government. The local media are officially pro monarchy -

Daily Tribune: September 30th 2010

but were also starting to publish other views: (Both pieces from the Daily Tribune, September 2010 - the national Bahrani newspaper)

Daily Tribune: September 30th 2010

There were no protests on the streets while we were in Bahrain; but there were many security guards and police, particularly around the major roads and near the King's palace. I was unable to get a photograph of the Pearl Monument Roundabout (centre of recent protests) - it was patrolled by armed guards every time we drove through. Possibly the most surreal sight of the trip came on a trip to the supermarket; there was a military exercise immediately across the road in the desert.

Tanks across the road from the Seef Mall Supermarket

I've put together a small video piece on our trip - soon to be loaded to YouTube.

Sunset at Qal`at al-Bahrain - World Heritage Fort

And here it is...

Military Craft aboard USS Midway Museum

USS Midway

The Mushy Zone is back in active press with WBM visiting San Diego for the TMS annual meeting.
Arriving Friday 25th on a QANTAS flight to LA from Melbourne that was actually early, I get a good run through customs and immigration (Border Protection seems so much nicer under Obama(!?)and catch my San Diego flight in plenty of time. It was late leaving but early arriving (again!). My luck continues as I arrive at 11:30 and check in is 4pm but my room is ready. Then I head out toward the water front. The forecast is for heavy rain but as soon as I leave the hotel the sun comes out and stays out for the rest of the day.
Having noted the huge grey hulk of the Midway lurking on the water front during the the 10 min taxi ride from airport to the hotel I make my way along the front to check it out. It's a museum. I have some idea the Midway is historically significant. At the ticket counter the gods continue to smile on me as the "senior" in front has a $2 discount voucher but as a senior she already gest a discount so she gives the voucher to me.

There is an informative audio tour that assails me with statistics.
-longest serving US air craft carrier in the twentieth century
--commisioned 1945
-- involved in WWII, Korean war, Vietnam (first and last MIGs shot down from planes off Midway), Flagship of the desert storm operations.
-- too big to go through the Panama canal (trivia question: if you go from the Atlantic to the Pacific via the Panama canal, which way are you headed?)
--weighs 69,000 tonnes
--carries a crew of 4,500
--2,000 compartments
--100,000 gallons of fuel used per day
--1001 feet long (308 m)
--20 tonne anchors
--4.02 acre flight deck
-- 18 decks
-- 10 tonnes of food daily
--5 doctors
-- 3 dentists etc.
The cabins etc are all laid out well with lots of info.The animatronics are a bit cheesey. There are many full size planes and choppers on board.The only aircraft I could id w/o assistance where the FA-18 Hornet and the Huey but the excellent sinage and audio tour info tell me all about the different planes (must be nearly 30 different aircraft aboard). Generally you can wander at your own pace except for the bridge and flight command centre where you have to go in a group. Turns out one of my group is an ex captain of the Midway. I think it was captain Robert Owens ( captain in 1982) from the photos of past captains in the captains quarters.

He had a few things to say but the tour guide wouldn't let him tell us much. After his term on the Midway he was flying a desk in the Navy for a while then got bored with that and has now gone back to flying-- with Fedex. I thought it strange that he and his family wouldn't be afforded a private tour or given more respect during the public tour.