Maize Festival 2011!

My goodness. What a very grateful couple of days it has been!

Yesterday, Friday, was the night of the procession. So grateful to all those fantastic people who helped decorate the 'Moulin Rouge' float and made it look as spectacular as it did,  thank you! And to all the dancing girls on the float, and Will, my escort, thank YOU!

To Neal for the truck and driver, Debbie and Mark Redding for the loan of your space for our float storage-and-decorating, Karen for my lovely makeup, DCS for my sponsorship and my family for all the love patience and support. Thank you to everyone who showed up and supported us :)

So indescribably,. overwhelmingly grateful and honoured to have been chosen as the 2011 Maize Festival Queen. So ridiculously excited and grateful that I met such wonderful people and had such a good time along the way. We had so much fun and all got along so well it hardly felt like a competition at all which was really, really lovely :)

Saturday, grateful for 15 hours, the most sleep I've had in months, and a beautiful dinner out with the other Maize Queen entrants and Helen :) it was a lovely night.

Sunday, grateful to see both sides of the family and get some study done to boot :)

Goodnight, ladies and gentlemen, and I hope your weekend was just as exciting! Thank you to everyone for their kind words an well-wishes :)
Much love,
Lise xx

Sprinkle.

Good evening, all :)


A little bit sad that last night was our last official Maize Queen event, the cocktail party, before the big street parade tomorrow night, but grateful that it was a lovely event and for some kind words about my articulation :) haha. Grateful also for the lovely, spectacular and amazing sounds of Rere singing away in the corner. That voice is so much joy :)

Grateful, today, that my math assignment is done and biology is well on its way, but I needed a little blogging study break :) Grateful for a giant freckle from father, all the way from Brisbane, and for the silly rubbish we get up to in Biology :)

May you all have the sweetest of dreams.
Lise xx

They're Fireflies, That Got Stuck Up In That Big, Bluish-Black Thing.

Grateful tonight for stars and big breaths of fresh air.

The sky is clear tonight and the stars are so crisp and beautiful. So far away, in such a big universe that it makes our tiny lives and problems seem almost insignificant. Which, you know, they probably actually are.

I was also grateful for Kamal the tiny Arab, with his little hat made of a gum wrapper, and to the crazy ladies who aided in his creation - Becca and Rere, and Chanie, for her appreciation of him :) haha fools, we are.

Bit of a sombre one tonight, ladies and gentlemen. Those who've tried will understand how impossible it is to photograph the night sky, so yet again we are pictorial-less.

I love you guys, you know. You're all so very rad. Everyone is, really. I'm rambling. I'm gonna go.
Lise xx

Two Consecutive Blogs. We're Back.

Grateful for the day off to recover from an oncoming cold, grateful for a scrumptious, albeit odd, lunch and grateful for a lovely chat with an old friend about road trips, bonfires, fruit and copyright :) Andrew, you are a spectacular human and I will get a mobile soon, in case such a thing ever happens again :P I miss you.

Grateful for a Full Noise ticket, purchased today! Very excited! :D

Best be off-Biology time!

All my love.
Lise xx

Much too long.

Again, there has been a noticeable lack of daily blogging. This is due to a hectic schedule, no laptop, intense study and the like. I've still been grateful for things every day, but haven't had the opportunity to share these past five days :/

Grateful for the continuing Maize Festival events - masquerade Maize Ball last night and the races today :) We also went out to look at the truck that is being very kindly loaned to us. The end of the whole process is near, Friday night. It'll be a bit sad to see the end of it but I've had some lovely experiences with some lovely people :)

Looking forward to the end of assessment.

Best be off, as aforementioned assessment calls me. Goodnight, all!
Lise xx

So, its been a week.

A long, stressful, tiring week, but nonetheless seven days since I have posted a blog. Mostly due to the loss of my laptop! But that's no excuse. Over the past week, I've been grateful for a lot of things;

For all the people who came to my Maize Queen Fundraiser on Friday - Jarrah, Rere, Holly, Bonnie, Matt, Ted, Becca and Aunty Bec- I am terribly grateful to you all, thanks for your support :) And so grateful to Jodie for the donation of her time and skills to help me fundraise! Grateful for an enjoyable time at the three Maize Queen events which took place in that time frame; Carinya morning tea, VP day and the interviews. A little nerve wracking but nonetheless exciting and a lot of fun :) Grateful to Brooke for the loan of her suit for my interview, for meeting new and lovely people in the other Maize Queens. Grateful for a fantastic talk to a woman named Shirley Stewart who I spoke to at Carinya - she talked about her family, the other people around her, how she loved to play cards but had no one to play with, how she was head of Atherton maternity ward for 27 years. She was one of the most interesting people I have talked to in a long time and later invited us in to have a look around her room. It was covered with photos of her grandchildren and great-grandchildren, of her when she was younger. We also visited the special care unit, for the residents with Alzheimer's or dementia, etc. We met one woman who spent a considerable amount of time flipping through a magazine to find a picture to show us, a weather map at which she laughed uproariously. There was a tapestry on the wall which had been made by one of the residents - the plaque said it had taken her two years and that she had lived to be 102 years and 3 months old. The whole visit was just a really moving experience :)

Grateful for the TimeOut concert, a lot of fun even if I was horrifically tired :) Really enjoyable night; slept all the way home :)

Grateful that my chemistry assignment is done and dusted, no more to be done on it, ever! Its handed in and gone, thank heavens.

I will put up photos and the like as soon as I have the means. I love you all :)
Lise xx

Mid.Week.

 ~
His back is hunched with the music of the ages,
His fingers dance, like spiders over a web,
Weaving the notes into a melody so gossamer-fine,
That it falls from the stage and over us all
~

Another atrocious effort in terms of every-day-blogging.

Over the last few days, I've been grateful for a very, very impressive piano recital, as pictured, some very deep conversations about the past and the future, mushrooms, a nostalgic playlist, understanding math and chemistry, and just, people. People that I appreciate and enjoy being around. Right now there aren't many, but grass people? I love you dearly.

Goodnight, all. The due-on-Monday Chemistry calls to me.
Lise xx

" Life is there to be lived, and anyone who doesn't live it is missing somethin'."

Quote of the day from Grandad Mal, almost 70. A lovely gathering was had today for his 70th birthday, and this was what he said to me as we all got in the cars to leave after packing up and locking up the venue.

Today I was grateful for the people in my life. For my wacky family [planking in the park?!], and the people that I count as my true friends, as well as for the generally nice people who are sharing the world with us, even the ones I don't know very well. As I grow up, I'm finally coming to realise that you don't need to be liked by everyone, you don't need to be friends with people who anger you or are careless with your trust, and it doesn't matter if you can count your best friends on one page, one hand or one finger. The ones who you truly trust and love are worth so, so much more than the ones you smile awkwardly at in the hallways. I'm learning and working on this, and it brings me joy to be around just the people who really do care and who I really do care about. I'm lucky to have some amazing people in my life and I hope you all know how much I love you.

This has turned into a bit of a ramble.

I was also grateful today for the kindness and generosity of strangers. I am an entrant in the Maize Queen Quest this year and part of that is that we have to sell Art Union tickets. My uncle works away, in a mine and offered to take a book of tickets with him to sell to his workmates. I appreciated the offer but didn't expect much, as these men didn't know me and the prize is $2000 to spend on the Tablelands, a way away from where they are. But when the tickets and money from that book were returned to me today, there was almost $40 more than there should have been in the bag and my uncle explained to me that they'd all thrown in a little extra when they bought their tickets. I felt so very grateful for these men's generosity, and ended up writing out extra tickets for all of them :)

So, I had a very grateful day. A nice start to the week.

I love and appreciate you all. I really, really do.
I can't express it through these simple letters on your screen, but you're wonderful.
Lise xx

Some Inconvenient Weather.

Grateful for a somewhat epic weekend at Rere's, staying over Friday night :) Supposed to be filming for her Film TV and New Media assigment, but very few of the outdoors shots got done due to the drizzly weather. Grateful, however, for all the fun in between. For an awful lot of coffee and pancakes of a rubbery consistency that were nonetheless delightful with jam, dressing up as a cheerful corpse, photos, tomato sauce in the hair, a froggy not-really-rescue, big shirts, ridiculous breakfast serenades about nothing in particular, hoodies, a bus trip, standing under a coat in the rain, sitting on the fence, tying our sleeves together, Charlie the all-knowing dog, and many other bizarre and fantastic things. Rere, Jarrah and Becca, you are all such very rad people and I am so immensely grateful for each of you :)
All my love,
Lise xx

Hello, Thursday.

Grateful for a comforting cup of tea, a teary night at dancing, a silly and drizzly lunch time and the excitement and adventure of setting up my Biology experiments, which generally involved climbing through paddocks and under fences, unlocking and relocking seven gates and generally becoming damp and disgruntled. Grateful, so grateful, for 'Warren the Wonderful' and all his help with my setting up and finding equipment. As well as for his lovely conversation :)

Grateful for Internet-bought dresses for the Maize Queen Quest which arrived in the mail today! Only minor alterations needed, veryvery pleased :) also for a lift to dancing from Miss Annie in her little red car! Nice to chat with her and Helen :)

Looking forward to filming and chilling this weekend with Rere, Becca and Jarrah, as well as Grandad Mal's 70th birthday party :) 

Much love, so much love. For all of you, really, truly.
Lise xx

Birthday :)

Happy Birthday, Mum :)

Grateful for another chilly day of QCS practice tests, or rather, grateful that they're over. Grateful for a family gathering for the birthday and an afternoon nap.

Night! Sorry its short tonight.
Lise xx

I Know Some Crazy Ladies...

Grateful for silliness and strawberries and mathematical success.

A very long and draining day in the hall for our practice QCS test. Not too bad, but not the best fun I've had :)

A wonderful, random, silly time with Remy, Jordan, Talia and Grace at the studio tonight. Must be their post-ballet exam stress being released, or something ;) lots of fun, anyway :)

Best be off to bed. Mamma's birthday tomorrow!
Lots of love.
Lise xx

A different perspective.

We all need one sometimes. Sometimes it comes from other people - they are better at telling you when you're wrong than you'll ever be, so listen sometimes. We all need occasional constructive criticism to try and be better people, and I'm grateful for the people who are brave enough to give it.

Grateful, too, for a [very long] afternoon nap, curled up in the sun, a fairly successful day at school, an English lesson of sitting in the sun and chatting and discussing the Maize Queen Quest with two other entrants and not reading Othello. :) The usual hilarious and inappropriate banter in Ancient History, a lunch time shaking test tubes in the lab and the other eating rice snacks in the sun. All in all, an easy going and pleasant day. I hope yours was as relaxed a Monday as mine was :)

All my love, you pretty people.
Lise xx