Resting up in Galloway near Dumfries with Silvers friend Erica. She is great and its nice to be in the one place for a day or 2 and enjoy great cooking, conversation and the country side. I check with the breakfast politics website to see if anything has changed. Some of the footage of the Independents is interesting when they talk about the 2 party system failing and we need to have more smaller parties who form coalitions and consensus arrangements.

Photo 1 Road to Ericas; #2 Style at Hadrian's Wall [Silver and I got over and settled in for a wee and next thing some hikers popped up and started walking towards us...oppps! but the question is will we see these people again!]; #3 Hadrian Wall in paddock; # Cottage at Craig Fechen in Wales; # 4 public art in Chester. Not sure what is was about but painted Rhinos sponsored by different groups. Very colourful

Two Parties NOT preferred election!

While going along the A1 last night we were looking at the results! In each of the electorates it seems the Libs and the ALP lost and the Greens gained their loss. Jimbo in Mayo on 2pp [two party preferred seems to be in a safe seat but he only increased his margin by .6!

If it is a hung Parliament what happens ...we vote again?

If the Mad Monk gets in what happens to the 'Basin' Plan and all the good works done to date?

The SA Government seems to be stealthy moving towards the making the bunds permanent at Clayton...Lake Albert doesn't get a mention. Those acid sulphate soils are goina raise again!

[Perhaps I have spent too much time in the revival tent!

Off to Scotland today to see Erica, one of Silvers Greenham Common friends. Then on Tuesday down south, brief stop over in London and hen off to Spain before heading home.

Arrived UK this morning!

Chicago

Great Place! Heres a few pictures

The mirror image is in Grand Rapids the take off point for the music festival.

Done USA!

Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival

Again this was an extraordinary experience with wonderful food [all vego cooked on wood fires and lots of broccoli], fantastic acts and wonderful womyn. There was one Australian womyn, who happens to come from Adelaide called Sia on the night stage. Had I heard of her ...well no but Silver had mixed her some years ago at Women Performing. She had changed a bit since then and everyone seemed to like her as she belted out a few songs and assisted the protest ‘Trannies belong on the land’ protest group to stand up for a moment but it wasn’t until that we knew what that was all about! Impact zero!

Silver and I camped in the same area as some women from Chicago who looked out for us and let us sit on a comfortable chair for a few minutes! There was also a woman from NZ, who had worked in Sydney and was a trying to emigrate to Canada! Apparently you need a lot of money so you don’t cost the country money when you get older!

Best act for political content was the ‘Slanty Eyed Mamas’, 2 Anglo Chinese Americans who sang about their experience and also played an amazing electronic violin. They were poitical, very funny and in your face. I went to the Lesbian Revival tent with Sister Caroline of the Sisterhood of the Sacred Synapses. It was very satirical and used the whole evangelistic style of presentation to discuss very important issues! Check Sister Caroline out online.

Another workshop, run by a very able woman who trains across the UK, US and Mexico for a living, was on ‘Internal Misogyny’. Sounds heavy but it was for a great reflection time, sitting under an Oak tree in the woods. Probably the most practical discussion that was on was called ‘Chicken Chat’! It was good to find some women who were thinking about recycling, growing food and enjoying the process. We ran out of time. The chicken bag was a feature of the discussion.

Each festival there is a quilt constructed from scratch. This year it was particularly brilliant. It is paraded on the last night and is one of the raffle prizes. I would like to say we won it but it was not to be! I would have made an exception and bought another bag to bring it home. [photo quilt]

There was a lot of discussion on the political action, working together, coalitions and the American way of life. Holly Near left us with this thought of Dr Bernice Reagon [from Sweet Honey in the Rock] ‘that if you are doing coalition work and it is easy, then you are not doing coalition work’ ....hhhhmmmm?

Just been stymied by the ultimate piece of capitalism. There is an announcement to say free internet! I hooked in only to discover access to the home page was free but to do anything else apart form look at their site costs money!!! I would prefer to go to McDonald’s so my posts are a bit later than I had hoped.

Dunno what to call this!

I don't seem to be getting the time to put stuff up and it is not relevant time wise so you are gunna get what you get!

We arrived in Chicago 3 nights ago! The Conference is over, papers presented, posters talked about. The poster will be back in Australia next week. New Orleans is a great city and we got to do a lot of things even with the Conference to attend! The feature for me, and I think for Silver too, is getting to talk to people and hear their stories. One of the highlights was going out into the swamp with a creole fisherman and listening to the stories he had to tell.

He showed us a Cajun Fishing Village and told us the house standing had water 2'deep inside the house and the house next door had been lost during Katrina. We went into the swamp, which is the water settled and spread out over the land [no mozzies so still moving water]; bayou is the area craved out by the river in a flood [billabong or annabranch] and the river itself is very fast moving!