Peddling Gold Coast

All right, so you’ve lived here forever, or, maybe you’re new to the Gold Coast…

Why not hit some of the Gold Coast’s cycle tracks and take the time to  leisurely cruise the streets and check out our city?

You will be amazed at what you see from the bike that you miss when zipping around in the car or bus.

There are great parks all over the place – check out the Councils’ web page for maps of the “On road” and “Off road” cycle ways from Beenleigh to Coolangatta.

Why cycle?

• Good exercise – check out this cool site – you can put in various activities and see how many calories you burn at Fitness 2 live
• It’s good fun – cycle with a mate
• It’s good for the environment

You might also want to have a look at overview of  bikeways on the Gold Coast City Council website for a guide to cycling on the Gold Coast, safety tips, road rules, bike security and contacts to report damaged bike ways.

Check out what’s happening with Vibe and see where professional BMX rider Tim Wood will be hosting his Coastal Grind BMX Workshops and Jams.

Classic books hit screens for Christmas

If you’ve nothing better to do, staring down the barrel of another six weeks until the end of term, you might like to start looking forward to the glut of movies that get released for the summer holidays. In amongst them are movies adapted from two classic books: A Christmas carol by Charles Dickens and Where the wild things are by Maurice Sendak.

I think A Christmas carol has been done to death – there have been so many TV, movie and pantomine productions of it – The Muppets did a version, and so did Blackadder - even Barbie has her little plastic heart warmed. Plus, this one’s got Jim Carrey as Scrooge and all three of the Ghosts of Christmas (you know, Past, Present and Future), and I’ve already seen the movie of Dr Seuss’ The Grinch who stole Christmas, so I figure that’s enough for me of Carrey going from an unmitigated grump to an all round nice bloke through the healing joy of Christmas.

Cynical? Maybe.

BUT I’m way, way, way excited about Where the wild things are. I love that book and the photos of the movie are amazing – they look exactly like Sendak’s illustrations. I’m just hoping that they’ve done as good a job with the plot and dialogue – I imagine there are a few challenges making a full length movie out of a picture book.

What does everyone else think – will you be seeing Max in his wolf suit, or Scrooge in his nightcap?

Don’t dump it…Donate it!

Save the Gold Coast environment and recycle your mobile phone!

Dispose your unused mobile phones, BlackBerrys, Palm Pilots, iPods or PDAs responsibly by donating them at Gold Coast City Council drop-off points throughout the city.

This will help reduce the leakage of environmentally hazardous materials and raise $5.00 for WaterAid Australia or the Animal Welfare League. (It also helps our cousins, the great apes).

National Water Week is a national schedule of programs and events that encourage the protection, rehabilitation and improvement of water environments such as streams, wetlands, waterways, beaches, and estuaries.

Every item listed below is recycled through the Australian Recycling Program, an Australian mobile phone recycling program that helps clean up the environment.

• Mobile phones (batteries and accessories)
• BlackBerrys
• Palm Pilots
• iPods
• PDAs

Drop-off points for each charity:

• Coomera Police Station - 11 De Barnett Street, Coomera
  (8am-3pm, Monday to Friday)
• Office of Councillor Grant Pforr: Division 3
  - Corner Falkinder Avenue and Bayview Street, Paradise Point
• Runaway Bay Library – Lae Drive, Runaway Bay
• Southport Branch Office– 47 Nerang St, Southport
• Southport Library – Corner Garden and Lawson Streets, Southport
• Nerang Administration Centre
  – 833 Southport Nerang Road, Nerang
• Surfers Paradise Administration Centre
  – 135 Bundall Road, Bundall
• Robina Library– Robina Town Centre Drive, Robina
• Office of Councillor Greg Betts: Division 12
  - Corner Ocean Street and Park Avenue, Burleigh Heads
• Burleigh Heads Library
  - Corner Ocean Street and Park Avenue, Burleigh Heads
• Palm Beach Library – 11th Avenue, Palm Beach
• Coolangatta Library
  - Level 3, Showcase on the Beach, Griffith Street, Coolangatta

For more information visit here.

Tales from a werewolf princess

I picked up Jatta by Jenny Hale because of it’s gorgeously dramatic red, black and white cover (you know and I know, and the marketers know, that we all judge a book by its cover). In some ways it’s a classic fantasy (young adult members of the royal family of an alternate world nation go on a quest to save their father’s kingdom from a rival, aggressive nation) and in others it is refreshingly different – why shouldn’t the sheltered and timid little princess turn into a monster? and why shouldn’t the hero prince have nightmares about killing people? And as for the lord magician who will save  them all…?

If you like fastasy then Jatta is well worth reading – it’s nicely paced, with dark humour, and the werewolves and Undead of Dartith are different enough to avoid being supernatural stereotypes.  Have a look at the website for the book to find out more about the characters and the Aussie author.

Living in the past

Instead of just reading about times past, and wondering what it would be like to have lived then, some people take the next (we can call it logical) step and try to recreate as much of that time as possible.

If you’ve ever been to one of the medieval fairs in Brisbane or at the Abbey Museum near Bribie Island then you will have seen the Knights Guild of Wessex and Mercia and the members of the Society for Creative Anachronism’s Loganlea based group – the Shire of Bacchus Wood – in action. Some of them will have been hitting each other with large bashy or pointy things and others would have been demonstrating the arts, crafts and culture of medieval times.

A little closer to home, up in the Hinterlands, there is a Viking group called Jorth Gar who enthusiastically demonstrate viking culture at an annual festival on Mt Tamborine (I’m not quite sure where they launch the longships…) I’m also not sure what other groups are around on the Gold Coast (but chances are good that there are more out there).

What really intrigues me about “living history” as a hobby, is not just the big investment of time and money that people put in making and buying authentic costumes, weaponry and other accessories. It’s the application of the immersion approach to learning – like moving to France so you can learn to speak French properly, but since you can’t really live in the past, they recreate a version of it around themselves. 

Maybe someone involved in one of the groups could comment further (and with more knowledge…) 

Meanwhile, I’m going to go and borrow the Lord of the Rings DVDs again – and watch hordes of people hitting each other with large bashy or pointy things.

Sesame Street retro cool

Come with me on a trip down Memory Lane… actually, down Sesame Street.

There’s probably not that many of us who didn’t visit this New York street at some time in our childhood. In fact, for a lot of kids this is where the first magic of reading began - learning letters and how to count, with Count von Count.

What you may not know is that Sesame Street is celebrating 40 years of educational, Muppet-driven television this year: on the 10th of November to be exact (although they didn’t reveal their furry goodness on Australian TV until 1971).

For a chance to spot your favourite (and see some you may have forgotten) scroll over a picture of 101 Sesame Street muppets.

Call me a traditionalist, but I like Ernie best (I just love that rubber ducky song). 

Ponyo Ponyo Ponyo

I went to the advance screening of Ponyo on Monday night. What a fabulous movie! Watch the trailer.

For those of you who don’t know, Ponyo is the latest offering by Studio Ghibli and Japanese director Hayao Miyazaki. Ponyo is a goldfish who befriends a five year old human boy named Sosuke. Ponyo and Sosuke become firm friends and are totally amazed by each other. (Oh, Ponyo by now has turned into a human girl, with magical powers) Ponyo, the movie, not the girl, then goes on a wonderful underwater and above water adventure. I don’t want to spoil the movie for you so I won’t tell you anymore.

Just go and see it! It’s a glorious movie, but it still doesn’t beat My Neighbour Totoro. Screenings start tomorrow at BCC Pacific Fair, Dendy Portside and Chermside cinemas in Brisbane. Tell us what you think.

The library has a few Ponyo items on order. So get in quick, while you still can!

Friday Five: Fab 4 Ingredient Afternoon Snacks

Hands up if you get home from school, sport or work  feel like a quick afternoon snack?  I don’t know many people that would say no. And imagine if all these snacks could be made from 4 ingredients?!

Two fabulous authors, Kim McCosker and Rachael Bermingham have written several cookbooks with recipes using 4 or less ingredients.  The recipes are really easy and make it fun to whip up a tasty afternoon treat!

 Here are my top five:

1. Mini Pizzas

2. Coconut Macaroons

3. Peanut Butter Cookies

4. Fruit Kebabs

5. Honey & Cornflake Cookies

You can find the recipes for all of these treats in the 4 ingredients books which we have available in the library.

4 Ingredients: over 340 quick, easy & delicious recipes using 4 or less ingredients

 

4 Ingredients. 2: over 400 fast, fabulous & flavoursome recipes using 4 or fewer ingredients

 

4 Ingredients: gluten free

If you like these recipes why don’t you come along with mum or dad to see Kim and Rachael in person on Thursday 3rd September 2009 at the Nerang Bicentennial Centre Community Hall at 10am. Just call Nerang Branch Library to book on 5581 7180.

Step into the worlds of Coraline

So, has everyone been out to see Coraline yet? And more importantly did you see it in 3D? This is a great movie to discover (or rediscover if you are a little over the hill like me) the magic of 3D. Even the smaller cinemas like Australian Cinemas Nerang have now got 3D available so even the budget conscious viewers don’t have to miss out.

Coraline, for those of you who have had your heads buried in the sand, is a story about a girl who moves into a new house with her parents and, while on school break, is bored out of her tree. Her parents are workaholics and she is surrounded by fruity neighbours.

Coraline discovers an ‘Other World’ through a door in her lounge room. In the Other World she finds her Other Mother, Other Father and lots of Other things that seem close to perfect. Everything is fun and exciting and her Other parents actually want to make her happy.

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realise that despite all its amazingness there is something seriously wrong with the Other World. The fact all people in the Other World have buttons for eyes is a little bit of a giveaway, especially when Other Mother wants to replace Coraline’s eyes with them. Coraline goes on an adventure to save her parents, some friends she makes along the way and herself from the clutches of Other Mother.

Coraline is based on the story by Neil Gaiman, the legendary author of works like Stardust, the Sandman graphic novel series, and Mirrormask. It has been brought to our big screens by Henry Selick the maker of other great films like Nightmare before Christmas and James and the giant peach. Neil Gaiman’s story has been somewhat developed giving the events more depth.

The most impressive change was to add a garden to the story. I hear you saying “a garden, how uneventful” but this is no ordinary garden. When Coraline crosses over to her Other World she finds this garden. It is beautiful, what Coraline would want in a garden, until she she starts being attacked by the carnivorous plants. This garden is particularly wonderful in 3D as things snap out at you. For all you arty people check out the Coraline movie website www.coraline.com which allows you to go into her garden and design your own flowers.

My favourite parts are the spooky scenes, especially the giant spider attack, and I love the cat with attitude. Any movie that can have a cat as a hero wins a thumbs up from me. This movie, although a little spooky, is for anyone who wants to team up with a gutsy girl, step into an awesome imaginary world and fight the baddies.

The library has Coraline as a graphic novel or as a paperback so check out the different ways that storytellers imagine a story.

RSPCA Cupcake Day

What a great idea!

I love animals and I love cupcakes. My two favourite things.

Cupcake day starts off on Monday, August 17. All you need to do is register on the RSPCA website to be a cupcake cook and get cooking for the big day. After registering the RSPCA will send you some goodies in the form of a cupcake kit to promote your event – posters, balloons and other pretty things.

Next, whip up your favourite cupcake recipes (using cruelty free or  free range eggs) and then on the 17th ask your friends, family, teachers and/or colleagues to buy your delicious cupcakes. Doesn’t that sound fabulous? We get to eat lovely cupcakes while at the same time helping to support and care for thousands of animals.

The RSPCA have even supplied some decorating ideas here.

Have a great Cupcake Day!

I know I will!