Thanks to all those who have sent me great feedback on the blog. It has been great getting in contact with some of you again. Now I just have to find things to say to keep on going! My head is full of academic articles at the moment. I have started a Masters in Social Change and Development. One of my subjects is Management Sociology and I have to write an essay on "The Postmodern Organisation is a Myth." Not a subject I would have chosen myself, but I am actually quite interested in the articles I am reading on post-modernism and post-bureaucracy. A lot of the discussion is around the lack of clarity on the separation of work and private/family life. As I often sit at home doing work-related email with a baby kicking in my belly I find that thinking about my own blend of private/work life is interesting to consider.
A particularly negative quote about this that I have come across is: "An organisation has little reason of seeking to internalise family or community issues of its employees such as children's schooling, infidelity, etc. It has considerable reason, however, of seeking to exploit the personalities, social relations, and private interests, of individuals to the extent these may be valuable to its instrumental concerns." Soooo what bits of my personal life could be valuable to ADRA! The thing is that with ADRA being an NGO that relies on donor support I imagine that any personal contact of mine could be seen by ADRA as a potential source of funds. But it's alright, I won't let them know who you are....
In terms of private/family news, we took Alesia to the Play School 40th birthday concert in the concert hall at the Opera house. She was gobsmacked. Other kids around us were singing along and dancing like they belonged there, whereas Alesia just sat in her chair staring at the stage and occassionally clapping loudly and laughing. She has been talking about it since, so it has made an impact on her short-term memory. I was gobsmacked that the Opera House seems to have the original purple carpet in the foyers - and it is so 70s.
Otherwise we have only been doing simple things like fish and chips under the stars on the beach when it was 37 in Sydney over the weekend, or pizza in the park while Alesia plays on the swings at night. Simple things like that are still a novelty, as we don't have to worry about malaria or raskols - just fast cars on the road with their boom boom sound systems.
Chris and I had a "date" last night and went out to dinner alone and then saw a movie. We watched Little Miss Sunshine. It is fantastic and we both recommend it. There were links to our life in PNG when the car in the movie did a clutch and they had to push start it in third and then run like crazy to get into the car every time they wanted to go somewhere. While that was comedy for the movie we have seen that so many times in PNG that it is pretty normal.
Take care until next time,
Michelle
