Old things in a new place part 2/2

Way back before we left, Ruthie and I looked around Melbourne to see if pottery courses were even offered.  They were, but we had no idea what my options would be.  Then we got settled, but it was more or less mid-semester, and there weren’t really that many good opportunities that I could see.  But then by word of mouth, I heard about a community centre not too far from where we live that offered pottery [and other art classes].  By sheer luck, I found out the info on the Friday before the first session.  Ruthie did me the fantastic favour of running over Monday morning to register me for the class.  [She also took the opportunity to register herself for a drawing class at the same time, which is cool.] 

Since then, I’ve had two classes [Ruthie’s only had one, though, due to scheduling].  I got there and obediently listened to the teacher, and worried that I might not be able to use the wheel at all.  But I had heard [again by word of mouth] that the instructor was super laid back and would let you work on whatever you want.  So when she was distributing clay to the class, I requested permission to bypass mould forms, pinch pots, and the like and just work on the wheel.  She said it wouldn’t be a problem and then we discussed what type of clay to use and a bit about raku.  She gave me some high-grog stuff, and honestly, I wasn’t prepared for it.  It tore my hands up a bit, but that’s okay.  I made three pots the first night, scrapped one immediately, and then scrapped one the second night [I wasn’t really that happy with it after the first night, but couldn’t quite commit to cutting it apart, but pulled the trigger the second night].  The second night, I trimmed the pot from the first week, failed one attempt with the sculpture clay, and switch clays.  Actually, I purchased a brown clay, but then the teacher had me try out this stuff called paper clay.  Kinda weird in that it actually has strands of fibre mixed into the clay.  One of my pottery books has section on it, but I haven’t done any reading yet.  Successfully made one with the paper clay, but I don’t know how satisfied I am with the clay. 

So two classes and two pots.  I’m doing my best to be super self critical and if I am not fully satisfied with how the pot comes off the wheel to kill it early.  I think I’m doing pretty good on that regard.  However, I’ve quickly learned that working with Gwalsh has spoiled me.  Down here, I’ve purchased a bag of clay, and that is my bag of clay.  When I scrap a pot, I am responsible for working it over some plaster and salvaging it for another attempt.  As opposed to simply horseshoeing it to let Gwalsh deal with it later. 

Now that I’ve got two classes under my belt, I’m hoping that I’m broken the rust off of the elbows and fingers and I’ll be able to get a couple that I’m truly pleased with out of this class. 

While I was wedging my clay on the second class, I fantasized about being a pottery apprentice.  How fantastically rough-but-worth-it it would be to be able to find some pottery master and just spend my time Mr. Miagi style: spend a month wedging clay, then another month centring clay, another month making the same cup over and over, and so on.  Sure, it sounds terrible to most people and very production-like to me, but in contrast to my once-a-week practice for a couple weeks out of the year, I feel like I would actually develop a style and a method and wouldn’t spend a couple classes struggling every time.  But, I chose engineering over starving artist for a reason…

-EP

Old things in a new place part 1/2

SueSue is here, and I’m sure there are things I should write about while/after she visits.  So before I create further mental backlog, I need to get some things written down.

Shortly after I got here, I learned about on-site volleyball.  With the onset of summer [and it’s supposed warmer weather], there are several teams [enough to make an A and a B league] and roughly once a week, I was heading out to the volleyball court [sand bit in the back corner of the installation] to have a “hit and giggle” as it has been described by our last-place team.  This has been fine and fun, but then I learned that a coworker was playing soccer once a week with another group of people around here.  I didn’t want to seem too desperate, and I had promised to play volleyball, so I stuck with it for 2011.  But when 2012 came around, it was time to get the soccer team together again, and I got the invite to join up.  So I threw the volleyball team over for my true love.  Since then, we’ve actually played two games and forfeit one due to lack of numbers.  Games are seven v seven, and we’ve only been able to bring four to the two games we’ve actually played [we picked up a few players that were loitering for those two we played]. 

Anyways, anticipating this return to the pitch, on my birthday, I went out and bought new soccer shoes.  Specifically, I bought turf shoes.  In neon yellow and purple.  Adidas [naturally].  They’re fantastic.  I’ve been joking with the folks around here that they’re my best attempt to harness the 16-year-old soccer player inside and my only source of skill. 

Shockingly enough we actually won our first game [and against last year’s champs!].  And I have to say, I was pretty pleased with how I played.  Definitely rough around the edges, but it felt great just to get out there, run around, and play some soccer.  It makes me wish I had been playing more over the past decade.  Our second game was a blowout against us of something like 1-10, but I scored our only goal, and the first of the game.  Additionally, I have been receiving quite a few compliments on my play.  Granted, we’re not really an exceptional team, and I’ve heard rumour that there are a few players scattered across this “league” that are exceptionally skilled.  But I have to admit, it does a boy’s ego well to hear these things.  Not to mention, I scored my fourth-ever goal.  Woo!

So that’s one old thing in a new place.  The next thing is pottery.

-EP

Motorcycle, finally!

I’ve counted it out: 97 days.  My motorcycle has been in the country for 97 days, sitting in the garage space in front of the Hyundai, collecting dust and not going any where. 

Then, on Wednesday 18 January 2012, after roughly seven months of not riding my motorcycle, I proceeded to give myself a cramp in my clutch hand by driving through the CBD to get to Vic Roads for our 8.30a appointment.  While Ruthie was actually more optimistic than me, giving us a 50% chance of the Aero finally getting registration and legally allowed to operate on the road, I had the sweaty palms reminiscent of college exams.  My main concern was that the guy who gave my bike a once over was a, going to have super hearing and able to detect as I brought the machine in that the pipes were too loud or b, ask me to turn the motorcycle on and rev the engine.  Mostly I think I was nervous because I didn’t want to get the mechanic who gave us the RWC in trouble.  Fortunately neither happened.  The guy only needed to visually confirm that the VIN and the engine number matched all the numerous documents that he had been given stating that’s what they were.  Then there were two phone calls that I couldn’t quite overhear from where I was sitting.  Then there were a couple more forms to fill out.  Then there I was handing over my credit card and he was handing me a license plate.  Huzzah! 

So, I finally am able to legally operate my motorcycle in this country.  I am very excites.  I took the motorcycle to work that day, and I put Ruthie on the back for a ride down the beach on the following Sunday.  We plan to keep riding it on good weather weekends.  I think this works out well with our goal to get out and act the tourists again.  We definitely have to work our way up into the longer rides again since neither one of us has ridden for very long in a long time [and Ruthie was a bit saddle sore after the first Sunday ride], but hopefully with all this crazy Melbourne weather, we’ll actually have another couple months to ride still.

-EP 

PS.  I penned this about a week and a half ago.  Since then, I've taken the motorcycle to work a time or two, and yesterday Ruthie and I took the motorcycle out to the movies.  Despite the sweating while riding due to the intense heat of this country, it's been good times with more ahead.