At this point: Wordless Wednesday

Posted on February 13, 2019 by Irene Waters 19 Writer Memoirist
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Mooloolabah: Wordless Wednesday

Posted on February 6, 2019 by Irene Waters 19 Writer Memoirist
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Headless Rider?: Silent Sunday

Posted on February 3, 2019 by Irene Waters 19 Writer Memoirist
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Tales of Terror: Times Past

Posted on February 2, 2019 by Irene Waters 19 Writer Memoirist

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Happy New Year to all readers and contributors. Late I know as one month has gone into the New Year. School has just returned  from our summer holidays and again parents are lined up to collect children that they are too afraid to let make their own way home from school.

This morning I thought of our ex next door neighbours and their children. How lucky I thought that they lived next to the park and river and had that entire area as their garden to ride their bikes, skateboards and swim in the river. Then I wondered if they were allowed out without parental eyes watching them. Probably not. Although most people in the dog park are regulars and would notice anything amiss can you take the chance. Lucky for the kids their parents are adventurous outdoors people so they often get to be there.

As children we lived next to a park with a river flowing through it and we weren’t allowed past our boundary fence. I can remember only a few occasions we ventured over without an adult being present and on all those occasions there were more kids than just the two of us. What were my parents frightened of. Us drowning in the river? We were both strong swimmers. Perhaps a spate of well publicised murders such as the one at Wanda Beach. We didn’t know, we didn’t think about it but I know my Mum came up with stories to explain her actions. Terrifiying stories  that stuck even to this day.

Can you remember any tales of fear  that your parents used to stop you going out of bounds. Please join in giving your location at the time of your memory and  your generation. An explanation of the generations and the purpose of the prompts along with conditions for joining in can be seen at the Times Past Page. Join in either in the comments or by creating your own post and linking. Looking forward to your memories.

Baby Boomer – Rural Australia

One of the stories told to us by my mother ensured that we didn’t leave this beachy area of the river. It was a wonderful river to explore and one day we did just that, putting the fear of God into my mother. She was angry when we were found only a little bit further downstream. She then told us in vivid graphic detail death by quicksand. We could have the quick death by struggling against the sand as it sucked us in or the slow one by keeping one hand raised as though we were wanting to ask a question in shcool and allow the sand to slow engulf us. Keep the mouth closed and tip the head back so that the nose would be one of the last orifices to have sand enter. And pray. Hope that someone came along and could find then necessary log to put across the sand – this would sink slower otherwise our rescuer would probably find himself in the same predicament. She went on to tell us of the woman who’d sunk in this way, in this stretch of river. I have no idea whether this was true or not. Perhaps this could be my next research project but she did succeed in stopping us from wandering.

Baby Boomer – City Australia

Tales of Terror: Times Past

Baby Boomer – City Taiwan

Yes, I Miss Firecrackers

Baby Boomer – USA city suburbs

Tales of Terror: Times Past

 

 

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Words from Egypt: Five Words January Yr 4: Thursdays Special

Posted on January 25, 2019 by Irene Waters 19 Writer Memoirist

Each month Paula gives us five words to display as we like, whether it be one word or all, one photo or many. The words this month are:  crepuscular, coded, lofty, scintillating, and detox

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Crepuscular views are seen at twilight and the unfinished buildings are stark against the orange sky.

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Thank goodness for the Rosetta Stone that unlocked the code allowing heiroglyphics to be read  which in turn unlocked the ancient history of Egypt.

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Whether it was guards surveying from their lofty positions high above the crowds milling in the ancient temples

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or tourists aloft looking down on the sights of Luxor, the Valley of the Kings and the great expanse of the Sahara with the Nile snaking its way through the desert valley being aloft  was the best way to observe.

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Scintillate – emit flashes of light; sparkle. The whirling dervish satisfied this  criteria

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as did a 2am bus ride into the Sahara.

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Not only did the glass bottles catch the light and emit flashes of light the essential oils scintillated the senses.

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The Egyptian diet which was predominantly vegetarian would have been a good way to detox.

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The Egyptian Museum: Travel Thoughts 6

Posted on January 24, 2019 by Irene Waters 19 Writer Memoirist
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I love museums but the idea of travelling en masse with a bunch of people fills me with dread. Invariably I want to linger at items that no-one else is interested in and those that are explained in depth often don’t hold a lot of appeal to me. Not so at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. Currently housed in a beautiful old colonial building, which has outgrown its function, the museum is home to the largest collection of Egyptian antiquity and is arranged by kingdoms.

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We started at the old Kingdom which took in the reign of Menkaure approx 2490 to 2472 BC. Our Egyptologist guide gave us so much information it was impossible to take it all in but visually we started to learn the history of Egypt.

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The chambers and hallways were full of people .

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This statue was fairly normal for an Egyptian statue

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until you looked at it from the side

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and then the rear. The Falcon symbolised the Eye of Horus and the God Ra and denoted divine kingship.

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Dwarves were held in high esteem in ancient Egypt and there were several dwarf gods. Indeed, dwarfs still seem to be fairly common in Egypt as we saw more than I have seen anywhere else in the world whilst we were in Egypt.

From the Old Kingdom we moved to the Middle Kingdom 2100 -1650 BC

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These are ancient but roger and I brought one that looks identical to the middle right.

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Then into the New Kingdom 1650 – 1070 BC

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Examples of the inside of the tombs depicting the passage of the afterlife, the workers (not slaves as commonly thought but craftsman held in high esteem) and every day life.

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We progressed up to the upper level

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and found coffins

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intricately carved pieces of ivory.

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Probably the best known of Egypts antiquities is King Tut (Tutankanem) head piece. In Egypt he is seen as a very minor king and almost not worthy of mention. To us however, he is the epitome of Egypt being the only tomb to have been found intact in the Valley of the Kings and is surrounded by the mysterious deaths of those who entered. Photographs were forbidden inside but there was a small vantage point outside the room where I could see the head piece and I couldn’t resist getting a shot despite it not being a great one.

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Rooms full of mummies. They had to be kept at specific temperatures and humidities to preserve them for generations to come.

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Even though thousands of years old I still felt a pull of the heartstrings when I saw the size of this little mummie. The earliest mummies were done naturally by putting them in shallow graves in the dessert where The hot dry sand quickly removed all moisture from the body. However, when they started to use coffins they found that those placed in the coffins before the sand did not preserve as well and they started mummification procedures which involved embalming and wrapping in linen strips.

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There were artists who did some beautiful portraits.

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Papyrus scrolls

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miniatures

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and the extreme opposite

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and the boat that would take the deceased into the afterlife.

We only had an afternoon at the museum and it really wasn’t enough to see everything. For me a full day would have been better but I’m sure that museum buffs could easily fill in two days. We’d seen the pyramids and having seen the museum I felt that I had a greater understanding of the sights that I would see in the days to come.

The museum is moving however, and will soon close at this location. A world trip of the artefacts is planned and if it happens to be on at a museum near you I recommend a visit. I’d hate to be the person packing this lot up. It has been here since 1857 when the Egyptian government saw it as a way to keep the artefacts safe and in the country where they belonged. It has become too small and some items never see the light of day. Protecting them from the elements is also an issue and hence the purpose built grand museum of Egypt located at Giza (near the pyramids). Being purpose built it has climate control and interactive displays and much more. Of the 50 hectare site the building will occupy more than one third of it and for the first time will display the entire contents of Tutankhamun’s tomb.

I will probably never see this new museum but I’m glad to have seen this old one.

 

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Study in Minimalism: Black and White: Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge

Posted on January 23, 2019 by Irene Waters 19 Writer Memoirist
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In response to Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge where this week we can choose any subject as long as it is black and white.

 

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Big Swell: Silent Sunday

Posted on January 20, 2019 by Irene Waters 19 Writer Memoirist
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Weekend Coffee Share 19th January 2019

Posted on January 19, 2019 by Irene Waters 19 Writer Memoirist

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Welcome and come on in. Would you like tea or coffee or with the heat we are having perhaps you would like a cold drink. To tell you the truth we are lucky where we are. South of us are in the midst of a heat wave. Temperatures there have been consistently in the high 40’s for over a week. I emailed a friend who told me she would reply later – they had gone camping in the Barrington Tops to try to escape the heat – and she is someone who loves the heat. We are getting beautiful 28 – 31 degrees during the day. If you ask me that is perfect. What I would like is some rain. We are getting very dry.

This week has felt very quiet with our visitors gone although I have been busy with medical stuff for my Mum and of course my book. Nightmare in Paradise. I am organising a road trip, literary lunch, book launch and today I had my first book signing.

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I can’t say I was rushed off my feet but I did sell double the number that our ex Prime Minister did a couple of weeks earlier when he took up the same position. At times I felt as though I was an Egyptian market seller that the tourists avoided eye contact with. You can’t engage people if you don’t have that initial contact between eyes. At least I can’t. If I was extroverted I probably could but I’m not. I have learnt from this experience that a sign saying Talk to the author – you don’t have to buy anything  – she is bored. would probably have had more people having a chat and that would have been good as the time did at times go a bit slowly.

I have also started on my next project which involves interviewing a 91 year old nurse who had an interesting life. So far I’m not sure where I will go with this or if I will get enough information to use  because at that age the memory does start to have some holes.

Despite having a lot more free time I don’t know where it goes. I still haven’t managed to finish a book and I haven’t seen any films.

Now I think I have taken enough of your time –  over to you. Have you read any good books or seen any films that should be seen? Looking forward to seeing how your week has been. Thank you for dropping in for coffee, it is lovely to see you. Thanks to  eclecticali  who is our host of the weekend coffee share.

 

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Were the Pyramids everything I expected: Travel Thoughts 5

Posted on January 17, 2019 by Irene Waters 19 Writer Memoirist
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The oldest of the pyramids discovered to date are found at Saqqara which is near Memphis – the place that we visited on our first day in Egypt. These we visited in the afternoon after we had eaten lunch. This ancient pyramid (the Pyramid of Djoser )  had a flat top and was stepped in structure. Additionally, unlike the later pyamids it was made from cut bricks and not stone.

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It was constructed between 2630 BC to 2611 BC. To me those times are mind boggling. Further behind Christ than we have gone after him and just look how they have survived. And that is without considering that they constructed them with only the help of the stars and man power and no computers to calculate the maths that must have been needed.

 

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I don’t know if this mound is older, or whether it was  a burial mound but my thoughts are that it must have been something.

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We entered this  pyramid, crowding into the smal space

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and saw the first of many reliefs that were on the walls of the temples and burial places.

These small pyramids awed us

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but our first sight of the Great Pyramid of Giza literally dropped our jaws to the ground as it loomed up before us.

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It was bigger than I could have imagined. Made of granite and limestone each block weighed about 2.5 tons.

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We were given an option of entering but were persuaded that it was very musty inside, would cause us respiratory distress for little gain as the decorations were gone and there was nothing to see. Cameras were not allowed inside and for the price you had to pay to enter it simply wasn’t worth while.

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Three of our party opted to go inside whilst we wandered the outside.  They returned saying it was well worth the experience so I would recommend that if you want – take up that option.

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We were soon tagged by someone we thought was a pyramid official.  He insisted on showing us the best points to take photographs from but when he grabbed my camera off me I became particularly perturbed. The camera around my neck was from one who had gone inside.

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He had us posing  touching the top of the pyramid

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and showing how easy it was to lift a boulder. Then after retrieving my camera he demanded payment. Again this came as a shock but I had put money in various compartments so I could pull out a small amount  and not look as though I had more to spend. We gave him his tip.

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Then happily spent the time taking my own photos.

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The chap with the white turban was the one we thought was an official.

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From the pyramids we were taken to another vantage point but that is another story.

In answer to my question: Were the pyramids everything I expected and to tell the truth probably the main reason we wanted to travel to Egypt – I was not disappointed. They exceeded my expectations and I was surprised at how close to Cairo they were. I would even have considered them a suburb of Cairo. The other surprise, which just shows my ignorance, was the proximity of the Sahara Dessert to Cairo. Although we had only been in the country a couple of days we were starting to learn to not make eye contact with the local people which was sad as it would have been good to have some conversation without pressure to buy with them. That aside – yes well worth the trip.

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