I’m really pleased with how my balcony garden is coming along. I’ve got chives and mint and three aloe veras; I’ve got three baby lemon trees competing for domination in a pot; I’ve got a couple of ferns and a couple of just plants, but I have to say that though I love the ferns, the just-a-plant plants are my least favourite. I love the plants that have a use, and I’m already planning more and more trays to plant with useful, edible things. I want to try shallots, and baby carrots, and more different kinds of asian greens. I’m thinking about balcony compost – too smelly, do you think? - and while I’m typing this I’m realising how much happier I am entertaining myself with no money than working for someone else and wasting the beautiful days just to have some pocket money to spend.
No, the music festival job didn’t work out. But that’s fine, really, and there are no hard feelings at all. Basically, I did a two-day trial for them, and after that they told me that they were grateful for the work I did, but they couldn’t afford to keep me on in a paid position. It was such a relief. Obviously they were hoping that I would offer to work for free, but that offer is just not in me any more. Not for a classical music festival, anyway. I used to feel much more strongly that classical music concerts were a god-given right, and that it was the government’s duty to fund them. Now … it’s not that I think that classical music should be allowed to die out, and I don't think it will die out in Europe or Brittain, where it does actually represent the musical tradition for most of the people. But for Australia, whose culture is built on so many different traditions from so many different countries, it's not so relevant. Australia's population has grown mainly from immigrants who have come into the country poor and looking for a better kind of life (my own ancestors included, quite a few generations ago). Classical music was never the music of poor people, and these days I am much more in favour of the government funding other, more inclusive kinds of music.
I wonder what I do feel passionate enough about, to work at it for free? Maybe planting in a community garden, if Townsville had such a thing?
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What is it with the working for free thing? I get sucked into these projects all the time. Stick with the garden. One can't have too many chives if you ask me.
My mum just told me that my great-grandmother and grandfather used to play fiddle and piano for the local dances around Kiama in NSW. Later, when they moved to Queensland, my great-grandaddy won a prize for a pound tomato. Yeeha, Granpa!
Yeah, the words "balcony compost" reek of some kinda Holden St style experiment... I've heard that baclcony worm farming works a treat though :) Mxx
The Holden Street courtyard stink-o-rama was exactly what gave me pause this time around. And with no other flatmates this time, I could blame no-one but myself. Could be awkward.
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