bilateral kellerberrin

ok, for a start, today i was thinking about the rigidity of the ‘rules’ i proposed for myself last night. I think they are silly – particularly the one about having to note them down on the day that i met the folks, and if i dont make it that day, then i miss out. The truth is, sometimes it takes a few days to process thoughts on a meeting, so it is perfectly valid to log thoughts whenever it takes my fancy. However, looking back on the first few days of notes, i come to appreciate their immediacy, so i reckon it IS a good idea to log daily – so as to map the changes as they happen. I become quite aware of the differences between my immediate thoughts and my memories. And that’s an interesting thing.

…
more folks i have met in kellerberrin:

*josephine, marlene, reynald, jeff:
today was cristina’s birthday. She came over before lunch and wanted to go riding. We only got as far as the ngugnar co-op when we saw her friend josephine. She seemed really nice. Also her mum, marlene was there, who invited us over for a drink at her house later. She drank cask, she told us. Reynald showed us the front window – paintings and didges, and he played one for us briefly. Reynald was generous with his time. He spent about an hour with us, explaining his tafe course on tourism for indigenous sites, and telling stories like “coffin rock”. He said he would show us some places when he goes there sometime, and Cristina was also interested in a hunting expedition. Jeff showed up, and said he had quit his job shearing and was going to work in the “abo” (abbatoir) in tammin next week. Jeff might take us out to look at shearers at work. He said the wages for shearing have dropped below the price of a middy. In keller you get about $2.10 a sheep but in some places where workers are scarce you can get more.

*Betty and Allan:
down at betties cristina was picking her brains on religion. Betty patiently drew up the history of the catholic/protestant schism on the back of an envelope. It was a bit sketchy, and she kept looking to me for backup, but i knew less than she did. She told cristina she should marry a nice catholic boy, and invited her to baptist church at the weekend. Betty said we should make sure we take care of ourselves if we go to marlene’s for drinks. Riley’s ranch, they call it. I bought a chess themed knitting pattern, and asked if they knew of anyone in town who played. Try scotty, betty suggested. Scotty is Roger.

*Roger:
roger came over to pick us up for the trip to kokerbin rock. Of course we werent ready, we had a coffee together and put a few things together for the trip. I bought some frozen john dory from the butcher so i could have something to barbecue. Roger thought my idea of planting a small crop of wheat in the backyard was interesting, and he reckoned james could sort me out for the seeds. He also liked my idea of varnishing the prev’s cross, so i’ll definitely go ahead with it. I showed him tehching hsieh’s one year performance dvd to give him an idea of some true pointlessness. Oh, and he is into chess, so perhaps we will have a game in the next few days. I had a notion of asking phil to teach me to make my own chess figures on his lathe.

*Roger, james, pauline, jocelyn, michelle, michael, joshua:
out at kokebin we drove up the hill just before sunset and it was the highest point as far as we could see. I took out my camera to take a shot, but it was pointless to even try, so i put it away again. Roger gave it a go. Michelle and Michael arrived with their son joshua. They were camping in the area, and had climbed the rock to see the sunset too. Michael had worked in the logging industry, in a mill, in Augusta, until the mill was squeezed out by the bunnings monopoly. I dont know what they do now, but their pratter irritated me. I could have used some quiet up there on the rock.

Back down at the barbecue site we met pauline and james, and their daughter Jocelyn, who works as a teacher south of perth. She’s just up for the holidays. Pauline, for no good reason, really irritates roger, and he tries to be nasty to her in public. James told me he’s been burning back the stubble, he did about 800 acres today, and he’s got about double that to go. Its done with a big lighter which uses a few litres of diesel/petrol mix, and you have to plough some firebreaks to make sure that it doesnt get out of control and burn neighbour’s land or nearby bush. We had a great barbecue. Roger had even made an apple pie, i was impressed with the effort he had gone to. He even mentioned jared diamond’s guns germs and steel. I think we are going to be great friends.