Linotype Machines

"Linotype: The Film" is a feature-length documentary centered around the linotype type printing machine. It tells the story of people connected to the Linotype and describes its impact on the world.   My dad was a linotype operator.  He started his apprenticeship at the local regional newspaper and eventually ran his own printing business churning out race books, wedding invitations and commercial stationary in the days before letterpress was fashionable.  

I spent many a Saturday down at the shop decorating the display counter, making note pads and hanging out at the second-hand bookshop across the road.  So I have fond and sentimental memories of the linotype machine.  The smell of ink and the piston-like sound of its movement.  I have my name and address in linotype metal made by my father. Special. 

Having it all plus the laundry

Life is mostly froth and bubble,

Two things stand like stone,

Kindness in another's trouble,

Courage in your own.

***

Here I am, emerging from that strange other world which revolves mechanically around cut lunches, soaking socks, supervised music lessons (I use that term loosely, as I listen and shout encouragement from another room while stirring white sauce), Year Two Home Readers, water balloon games, unwrapped birthday presents, wiped food spills and overdue library books.  That is just my spare time. The bulk of the day is spent in the Big Open Plan Office reading and writing stuff of serious bureaucratic importance.  In addition to which, my work is entirely conducted in front of a computer screen.  In the remaining shreds of time at the day's end, therefore, I have hardly the energy to sit in front of computer even for leisure.  So this space if often neglected.

Lots of other women in this city juggle making or administering public policy with changing the sheets and pressing school uniforms. Most of my friends and colleagues are on the same mouse wheel. Sometimes I wonder if the hard-fought-for gains of the feminist movement weren't a little skewed.  It takes an exceptional person and lots of outsourcing of domestic tasks to keep a family afloat with two parents working outside the home.  Plus good parking or a fast commuter system.  I don't think you can really 'have it all'.  But the childcare industry, and a fear of not being able to exercise choice over essential items like health and education, creates an environment where we think we can, and possibly should 'have it all'. 

I read a ministerial press release today about measures to increase the standards of childcare in Australia.  It was citing the introduction of improved carer-to-child ratios and enhanced minimum training for childcare workers as huge advancements.  Indeed they may be.  But a small quiet voice in my head still thought that the care of children is best undertaken by a parent at home for the bulk of the time and that we have created an artificial industry out of Children's Services.   This is an issue I wrestle with daily. 

What do I tell my daughters and son as they work out their own careers? Am I doing the right thing? Is this a good example? Will I look back with regret at my efforts to 'have it all'?



Verse: Adam Lindsay Gordon, Ye Wearie Wayfarer

Images: Single quilt covers.  Laundry.

Henry King WHO CHEWED BITS OF STRINGS, AND WAS EARLY CUT OFF IN DREADFUL AGONIES

By Hilaire Belloc

THE Chief Defect of Henry King
Was chewing little bits of String.
At last he swallowed some which tied
Itself in ugly Knots inside.
Physicians of the Utmost Fame
Were called at once; but when they came
They answered, as they took their Fees,
'There is no Cure for this Disease.
Henry will very soon be dead.'
His parents stood about his Bed
Lamenting his Untimely Death,
When Henry, with his Latest Breath,
Cried 'Oh, my Friends, be warned by me,
That Breakfast, Dinner, Lunch, and Tea
Are all the Human Frame requires...'
With that, the Wretched Child expires.

***

No time for photos.  Busy as.  The eldest is at school camp.  In the wet and wind.  I'm indulging in some separation anxiety thinking of mud slides, treacherous seas and group tomfoolery.   That is when I'm not being driven into the ground with catering for the remaining crowd.  We got by with Steggles chicken fillets and steamed vegies tonight.  Somebody smuggled the bottle of BBQ sauce to the table.  The feta cheese in the home-made spinach pie did not go down well with the junior brigade.  Little S. was visiting and declared that she only ate peas with mint jelly and roasted carrots.  They're a tougher lot than those Masterchef judges.  Then the dastardly routine will all roll around again tomorrow.  I hope there's bread in the freezer.

Dinner Dealbreakers

When I see in a recipe with:

goat's cheese

440 grams of frozen raspberries (500 gram packs)

quinoa

muscovado sugar

sour cream

polenta

200 mls of white wine

chopped mint

rice flour

***

However, I can pull any number of meals together blindfolded with:

tuna in olive oil

tomato paste

mixed Italian dried herbs

dried yeast

frozen peas

balsamic vinegar

thickened cream

eggs

strawberries

rosemary

frozen spinach

oats.

***

It is amazing how I can stock the fridge drawers with a bag of limes and have to hand a tub of fresh ricotta cheese, and not find a suitable recipe using these items.  Then, just when I don't have these items in stock or they have turned rancid waiting,  I'll find a recipe for something perfect requiring the juice of one lime and 200 grams of ricotta.  Meal planning is not my forte.

A platter of dip and crackers and carrot sticks and tortilla 'pizzas' are not to be sniffed at for a quick dinner when you get home after six.   But having got the food to the table, it's as much effort again to have it consumed. Does anyone else's meals take five minutes to prepare but (seemingly) five hours to consume?  Ours go on and on, and on and on ... 

Fancy that

Peace, quiet and rest is her message,
Tired scenery heeds her call;
This gracious lady of Autumn,
Loveliest season of all.


Pamela Summers

***


My latest online obsession is TheFancy.Com. It's been suggested it will be a strong rival to Pinterest and appeal more to men.  I do prefer its unfussy look. 


My 11 yo thinks it pretty cool too. She shares my love of images although her focus is on photograghs of rad swimming pools, miniature terriers and lego constructions, and the thrill of sharing it with girl friends on the ipod.  She's enjoying a far richer slide-show before her eyes than the black and white world of my childhood.


Didn't Autumn come around quickly? I could do with that stamp.  This year has me flummoxed.  No stable work routine.  Home activities all over the place.  Still no decision on the blinds.


Image: Office Speak Rotating Stamp
Quote: On my desk calendar 2 March 2012

A Few Rules for Beginners
by Katherine Mansfield

Babies must not eat the coal
And they must not make grimaces,
Nor in party dresses roll
And must never black their faces.

They must learn that pointing's rude,
They must sit quite still at table,
And must always eat the food
Put before them--if they're able.

If they fall, they must not cry,
Though it's known how painful this is;
No--there's always Mother by
Who will comfort them with kisses.

***

Lesson Number One: These little fellows make changing the sheets a trial.  So I've decreed that henceforth no more soft toys shall be brought into this house.  Enough is enough.  No matter how adorable.  We cannot adopt one more free-loader.   (D'ya hear Daddy?)  Space is at a premium.  Once, it was all Beanie Bears.  Now the lastest obsession is with The Littlest Pet Shop creatures.  One little doggie crept home with us from the Royal Agricultural Show.   He has scored pride of place on the pillow but will no doubt be de-throned in favour of a distant cousin, also made in China as the weeks and months go by.  Affections are fickle when it comes to plush companions.

It's snuggle weather here with record-breaking rain.  The dams are bursting, sports grounds closed, swimming carnivals cancelled and that twice-daily cross-country walk to the office results in sodden trouser legs, if I'm not careful.  

Now and Then

As from the house your mother sees

You playing round the garden trees,

So you may see, if you will look

Through the windows of this book,

Another child, far, far away,

And in another garden, play.

But do not think you can at all,

By knocking on the window, call

That child to hear you. He intent

Is all on his play-business bent.

He does not hear, he will not look,

Nor yet be lured out of this book.

For, long ago, the truth to say,

He has grown up and gone away,

And it is but a child of air

That lingers in the garden there.

Robert Louis Stevenson

***

So true, my  precious little ones.  The days are long but the years are short.  We watched some of the SBS program, Who Do You Think You Are, tonight.  It's become a bit of a favourite in our house when we manage to catch it. My, what facinating stories they unearth and how it affects people to learn about the struggles of their forebears. Tears well up as the subjects are reconciled with the past and the jigsaw puzzle pieces of their heritage connect.  Some tough lives has been lived. Don't I know this more than most coming from tough Anglo-German-Swedish migrant stock. It taken many generations for my lineage to be able experience the opportunities my children currently enjoy. It's really a gift to know this.  I reflect on it often.