The Texan Mindset

I’ve got a few things I’ve been wanting to share since I last sat down and really wrote, so I’ll just catch you up in no particular order. The first thing I want to share is that my brother’s wife had a birthday a little while back, and Mum entrusted me to arrange flowers to be delivered to her in London. My brother was actually here with us for Nanny’s funeral, so he didn’t get to share her birthday with her, but I feel like the flowers we sent made up for that.

You can see them below, and I think they are the coolest flowers I have ever seen. They weren’t dyed, which makes me believe they were genetically modified — Nanny had roses like that, and they were similar, although not as bright as these rainbow roses.

I know I've touched on the fact that I've got this idea for a book, and I am going to Cambodia to do research for it. I'll sit down and give you more of an idea about my vision for that book, but for now, I will tell you that, while the majority of the story is in Cambodia, some of it is set in Texas. This is because the protagonist is the daughter of the Governor of Texas. I can't go to Texas to research this. This is because I've spent nearly all my money going to Cambodia, and also, I don't want to go to the United States alone. My brother works there a lot, and we talked about meeting in Texas, but he would only be able to give me a couple of days, so it's not worth me going there for that.

So, I put my thinking cap on and thought about how I could learn about Texas and get into the Texan mindset. The first thing that came to mind was that when I drive to Gawler for mosaics classes, I always see the sign for Lone Star Rib House on the side of Main North Road. I knew it had to be Texan. So I did some investigating, and the one I drive past is the Munno Para branch, but they’re everywhere around Adelaide.

So, when my brother was here, he agreed to come with me to the Norwood restaurant. We got Mum to come along too. They weren’t actually all that thrilled to go, but I told them it was really important to me, as I was looking for a place where I could sit down and write my book, and this could be it, since it was a Texan-themed restaurant. Lone Star is on The Parade, and below you can see the sign as you walk in off the street.

I was so enthusiastic about finding this place that I didn’t really think about the fact that I am a vegetarian and it is a rib house, but they did have two vegetarian options, so that suited me well. Inside the establishment, it sort of looked like an American diner, and I love that vibe. I could see myself coming in with my laptop and sitting down for a long writing session. Below, you can see one of the booths I would love to sit down in and write a book about the Governor’s daughter!

While we were in the restaurant, I was taking a lot of photos with my phone, and my brother told me that if I didn't stop, he would leave. So, I stopped, but I managed to get these two cool shots before my photography operations were shut down.

Finding the Lone Star Rib House chain of restaurants was something I believe will somehow make a difference in the writing of my novel, but I wanted more. So I searched around to see what other Texas-themed places were in Adelaide. I discovered that we actually have a Honky Tonk bar here called Shotgun Willie's. It's in Gilbert Place, and from their website, it looks like a lot of fun, but it also appears to be geared towards people maybe 20 years younger than me. However, I saw that on the second Thursday of every month, they offer free line dancing classes, so that is something I might check out at some point.

The free line dancing classes got me thinking about line dancing itself, and I found a place that offers classes just up the road from our house in Kensington every Tuesday night. I might stick my nose in one night and see what it's all about. The last Texas-themed place I found in Adelaide is a diner quite close to Rebecca's house called Texas Diner. I think I may have had some food from there before, but it wouldn’t hurt to drop in every now and then to get into the vibe.

Just over a week ago, my friend Andrew and I went to see Blade Runner at the Festival Theatre. They showed the movie on a big screen and had a group of musicians playing and enhancing the music live. It was so good—I loved it. The musos loved it too; they really got into it. I think I had seen Blade Runner before, but so long ago that I could only remember tiny little pieces of it. Sometimes I think I hadn’t seen it at all and was just going off bits I’d seen referenced in other shows, but regardless, it all felt new and fresh to me.

I think Andrew assumed I’d seen it, and I didn’t tell him otherwise. I don’t know why I didn’t say anything, but we had such a good night. There were so many people there—I think the stalls were close to packed out. Below, you can see photos of the sign out the front both in the daytime when we arrived and at night when we left, as well as a piccy of the inside of the theatre before the movie started.

Something I love about the Festival Theatre is that they have some pretty impressive artwork hanging on the walls. During this particular trip, I took notice of the political artwork. Below, you can see two pieces that depict former South Australian Labor Premier Don Dunstan. The first one, titled "Don Dunstan," is by Clifton Pugh and is a digital print on canvas. The second one, titled "Captain Adelaide," is by Nigel Murray-Harvey and is synthetic polymer paint on canvas.

The next piece of political art was of our current Foreign Minister, Senator Penny Wong. It is titled "The Senator and Ma" and was painted by Tianli Zu using acrylic on linen. This particular painting depicts Senator Wong as two people: first as a Senator and secondly, and most importantly, as a mother.

The last political painting I captured during my recent visit was a digital print on paper and a reproduction of an original oil painting on canvas. The subject is Steele Hall, and the painting is titled "Former Premier Steele Hall" by Robert Hannaford. As I understand it, Steele Hall was not a bad bloke.

The last thing I wanted to share with you is about mosaics. I have been going to classes on Monday and Wednesday nights, fitting them around other meetings I have on those nights. I absolutely love going, and even though it’s an hour’s drive to get there, I think I would drive two hours just because I love it so much. I think my teacher thinks I've lost my mind because I keep buying sheets of glass and cutting them into small little pieces, but I’ve been doing that because I want to master the art of cutting glass.

I’ve started working on a piece I showed earlier in this blog that I began about twelve years ago. It’s of the anatomy of the human heart. I got started with it because of the idea of “chambers of the heart, chambers of law,” but now I just like the idea of finishing it. Some of the women in the class have become very interested in my piece, and one lady even showed me on the drawing where she had surgery. She said something like, “I had my left ventricle moved to the aorta.” That definitely wasn’t what she said, but whatever it was, I didn’t understand.

I told my brother how I didn’t understand what she was saying, and he had a massive go at me, saying I was creating artwork without knowing what it was. He then went on to say I wasn’t living with passion and gave me a huge lecture. But that’s where I can say he is wrong. I do live with passion, and his lecture hasn’t inspired me to live with more passion—maybe just to make it clearer to those around me what my passion is.

Below, you can see two photos of the glass I’ve been cutting and my anatomy of the heart, yet to be completed.

Below, you can see a piece of glass cut to an average size, and the smaller piece is the size I want to work with for future endeavours. I love tiny pieces of glass for mosaics. However, for the anatomy of the heart piece, I’m going to stick with the larger ones.