I received this email this morning-

We are very excited to be releasing this new event in 2010 to encourage adults to take part in the MS Readathon (which has now been running for 30 years). The Novel Challenge provides the opportunity to our older entrants (we only mean those over the age of 18) the chance to take part, re-connect with their childhood, read some books and fundraise for Australians living with multiple sclerosis.

Go here to sponsor me 2010 MS Readathon – Kylie Willison

I have a good friend with MS so I’m really happy to be able to do some fundraising!!

I am having a wonderful time with a group of ladies visiting Adelaide from Fregon (see previous post)

Today I learnt a little about their traditional basket making. I’ve started a rafia basket which I hope to finish at home. I’ve done a little bit of basketry before but this is a whole new technique, it’s quite simple but I’m sure takes ages to really master. Theresa is a wonderful teacher and loved talking all about the baskets and what they’re used for. Spinifex is the traditional grass used but rafia has become more popular and she loves to use some coloured rafia, emu feathers and beads for decoration.

We’ve shared a lot of singing, I’ve also had opportunities to play my flute for the ladies too but the highlight for me was today when they sang a song in Pitjantjatjara (that I knew) and I was able to sing along in English. It brought tears to my eyes then and does again now as I’m typing this. It was beautiful! There was no language barrier, we could all join together.

She didn’t want to lift her head in this photo.

But when I asked her she did for this one with her granddaughter Gail.

Theresa and I talked about our families, walking back to the Teen Challenge centre after lunch, this is what I call a privilege – for such a sweet, gentle, shy woman to trust me enough to talk to me.

Fregon is an indigenous community in remote South Australia.

Kay and Theresa sang us an ‘inma’ which means song in Pitjantjatjara. It was beautiful! They’re teaching us their pictograms and some words so that we can translate parts of the Teen Challenge curriculum into Pitjantjatjara.

Freecycle_Adelaide : Freecycle Adelaide

The Adelaide Freecycle(TM) group is open to all who want to”recycle” that special something rather than throw it away. Whether it’s a chair, a fax or old door, feel free to post it. Or maybe you’re looking to acquire something yourself!

This is a great way for our ‘stuff’ to be reused instead of going into landfill! You can also save money by picking up some awesome bargains 🙂

Business Spectator – Conroy's wrong on net filtering – Blog – Simon Hackett

Senator Conroy took on his critics yesterday in a blog titled ”the truth about net filtering” that defended the government’s mandatory censorship policy. I think it’s important to set the record straight and look at the “truth” behind each of his assertions.

1) “We have never said ISP-level filtering alone would help fight child pornography or keep children safe online.”

Unfortunately, ISP-level filtering will not help fight child pornography and it will not keep children safe online. It will have absolutely zero effect upon either aim.
Read the rest of the article here.

I just made a list of all the Genealogy cdroms I have and stuck it on the wall by my computer. I can refer to it easily instead of looking through a box of cds. I went through each cd and listed all the resources on each one. The Who Do You Think You Are Magazine cds have more data resources than the Your Family History ones. It’s really handy to know as this will affect my magazine buying in the future. These are both English magazines. I like the English magazines as nearly all of my ancestors are from the UK. The only Australian magazine I’ve bought is Australian Family Tree Connections.

Next I’m going to do a list of my books and magazines. I don’t have many so this isn’t a large task but I want to do it now and keep adding to it as I buy more.

Does anyone have any tips they’d like to share?

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Headstone at Payneham Cemetery, South Australia Last week I was looking for another one and found this headstone instead.