AUGUST

We landed in Broome with sore heads from the far too many functions attended. Now I must gather a little more energy and somehow celebrate the fact that I have been alive for five decades. Is this a milestone? Must I write a speech? Will it be just another boozy evening? Shall I feel unwell for a few days with post birthday depression, dehydration and the shock of discovering half my life is gone? Probably but that’s life. Carolina managed to acquire a brilliant birthday fish-cake to help ease the pain of celebration. As I have a strong love of these Thai savoury cakes and not being a sweet tooth kind of guy this was my ideal cake.

Next amusement will be the infamous Broome Cup event where horses run around a red pindan dirt track and people run around the horses wearing hats, sweating, laughing, screaming and drinking galore. I can do that surely!

My Broome exhibition at Short St. gallery titled SECRET GEOGRAPHY takes a peek at a number of locations I have visited around the planet from high up in the Andes to way down on isolated sub-Antarctic islands. Please visit the website www.shortstgallery.com.au

An informal dinner party was arranged in my studio to meet and entertain an excellent mob of roaming artists who were in the middle of a road trip across the NT and the Kimberly region. Tour maestro Steve Eland along with artists Sam Leach, Cang Xin, Tony Lloyd, Shi Jingsong, Ben Armstrong, Wu Daxin and writer Ashley Crawford all survived my Roo Randang (Kangaroo coconut curry), Chinese dried and steamed sausages and a slab of beer. Over dinner the group prepared themselves for more bush camping then much more kilometres onwards to Beijing and to Lhasa for the second leg of this collaborative Aussie-Sino trip.  Their visit was a great break from my sweaty regime here in the hot green shed. The Shinju Matsuri festival is also on this month celebrating the multi-cultural aspects of this town along with the interesting pearling industry, which basically built Broome.

Carolina has slipped back to Argentina in order to resume work at the Bodega. Our separation will be far less than last year but still a separation. We both work hard at our individual chores as we watch the weeks slop along.