Shouts From Down Under

When the pages turn to something unpalateable, stop eating..

Anyone sick of writing, sick of editing, sick of waiting for rejection slips, sick of rejection slips, sick of being sick of things?

Then just give up.

That's right, completely drop your bundle, leave off, give in to weakness; just be slack, lazy, useless, pathetic, depressed, hurt, humiliated and at your wits end. Just stop caring - about your writing, that is, and for a few weeks, come on over to Tasmania, Australia.



There's lots to do. You can go fishing, if that's your thing. You can see the sights around the place, see the sites, right now, below.

http://www.highlandcabinstasmania.com.au/

http://www.discovertasmania.com.au/what-to-do

http://www.tripadvisor.com.au/Attractions-g255096-Activities-Tasmania.html

Can you drive here on your licence? (Don't forget to drive on the left hand side! There have been fatalities...)
http://www.transport.tas.gov.au/licensing/newtotas/interstate

Do you have an unhealthy vision of books everywhere you look? I say unhealthy because maybe it's a bit obsessive of me to keep analogising everything into stuff to do with writers. But hey, why not? Not as if I'll contract a disease from doing so, or have a nasty visit from someone wielding a cosh.

Today I realised that a bin of humble potatoes is really a farmers book. Don't beleive this analogy? Can't see my weird "vision"?

Well, consider this.

He's made the commitement to grow a crop, for a purpose. He's obtained good seed (you'd hope) prepared it, sown the seed, with fertilizer. He's a bit of a gambler with the weather, but does what he / she can with irrigation systems and whatever else to optimise success. He hires a visiting agronomist to make sure he's doing the right thing to get the most in return. The most crop and the most profit with the least cost and loss.

He's writing a starchy book and has to start off with good ground in the first place.

Yes, he has to have a good plot idea before he even puts a shovel into the soil. He uses a tractor or whatever to plough up the soil, a rotovator to till it into a good, ideal seed bed. He chooses what variety (genre), sows the prepared seed (probably cut potatoes with an eye on them and rolled in concrete powder to prevent rot) and then sows the stuff in the soil.

http://www.goodmanseeds.com.au/certified-seed-potatoes

He's written words. He's compiled soil sentences with words in them. He's sown fruit in good faith, that barring some sort of catastrophe beyond his control, that he'll reap plenty of increase. He'll make good on the crop if all goes to plan. He's going to publish a book!

So, with a lot of patience and perseverance, he waits. He rows up the spuds and when it's the right time, he harvests the fruit. No not a fruit but for arguments sake he's on the right route isn't he, with this root crop?

They are harvested and put in half tonne bins. They are sorted / graded into sizing and the harvesting machine, unless he picks them up by hand, or pays someone to do this for him, the spuds are sorted, the bad ones and rocks removed, bits of rubbish and sticks are separated and so are weird shaped ones, and also the tiny ones.

The tiny ones are removed. Editing. He EDITS the tiny ones out. Just like an editor reduces the shorter words out that arent necessary.

A bin of spuds sits there with all of them crammed into the book...I mean BIN. You can see between the slats, glimpses of the potatoes, all cozilly sitting in there, peeping out at you. They are all saying, hehehe, we are in here, oh yeah and we are free! But they sort of aren't are they? They'll be free when someone buys them in the shop and takes them home, where they'll be cooked up (read, thought about, digested, enjoyed) and eaten.

A bin of spuds.



So these glimpses through the bin boards are like a little preview, a cover, a blurb. On the box is the farmer's name or the property name.
That's the title and author of the book the farmer has written.

Question is, those spuds are covered in a layer of soil. So, has he / she written a "dirty" book? Hmm. Not sure on that one.

All I know is, I LOVE mashed potato, and potato chips, whether crisps in a bag, or hot chips you get with the fish at the fish n chip shop.

This is what we had tonight for tea tonight - lamb off cuts, mashed potato, beans and gravy.



Need help cookin fish n chips? I'm sure Dave's video here will be of utmost help, even if he is a Pom. (No offense intended, just the old Aussie Pom rivalry of affectionate insults )



Tasmania is a special location to view chips, seeing as a major world supply factory exists here, right in our town of Ulverstone. I used to work there on the processing line, and in the packaging area of the factory. I also spent time in the bulk storage sheds (20 odd massive temperature controlled sheds that hold 5000 tonnes each).
Sadly, you can't come on holiday and see it, because the public isn't allowed in there. There are no tours. (The same as the Cadbury's chocolate factory that no longer has public tours in the actual factory part. This would require too much initiative and public liability insurance wouldn't it?)

http://www.simplot.com.au/about/locations/

Something I've never done in a blog, that I remember anyway. Very slack of me. But I'll say it now!

Many thanks to everyone who reads this weblog Shouts From Down Under. If you ever visit Tassie, drop me a line on here, and be sure to visit. You'll see what a real couch potato looks like.

Sparky

Featured as part of my signature, the video below is here to raise awareness of Carly, who thrives despite the difficulties of severe Autism. Watching and learning about her may change how we think of these people, and how we treat them.