GALFROMDOWNUNDER UPOVER

Pole Dancing [def:] A type of vertical gymnastics using a stationary or spinning steel shaft and usually, footwear with a sharp heel. Said to have been invented by a bored cleaning lady in a fire station one evening, although this has never been verified. The Carousel: rather like twirling honey on a spoon - when you're not falling flat on your ass "Pole dancing? Want to try it? BYO pole!" I'll try anything once, maybe thrice, and I know who I get it from: my 69-year young mother of all mothers.   She greeted me at Sydney airport with her latest "why the hell not?" idea: pole dancing. Specifically, a website scribbled on a piece of paper: www.polestars.com.au Her intention was that I do it, not "what?-me-with-my-bad-back?" she, but I secretly signed both of us up for the $A39, 2-hour "taster lesson."  On the big night, we took ourselves into town on the bus, armed with our "Virgin Polestar" e-reser

I was originally putting all my book, talks and DVD news on a separate Livejournal blog, but now I'm going to simply start putting it on GALFROMDOWNUNDER.BLOGSPOT.COM You (and I) can reference that earlier material here: http://gfdu.livejournal.com

The view from my homestay in Kaneohe, Oahu First, a mini movie review ... I'VE JUST crawled out from under a crocheted cushion after 'viewing' the Wachowski Bros (Matrix) 1996 movie, '"Bound." I don't think I'll sleep tonight, I'll need a stun gun and a Valium to close my peepers... which were closed for probably 60% of the movie. Extreme suspense, violence, Joe-Pesci-at-his-damndest dialog, a severed digit (or ten) thanks to a pair of garden clippers, plus a rather topical twist: a lesbian couple star as the glam Bonnie and Clyde. Topical, because I've just seen "Brokeback Mountain", this year's darling gay western flick. 'Bound' has terrific acting and plotting, highly recommended. Warning: it contains some serious Vaseline-covered lens action. I'm now holed up in Oahu, via the Big Island, Kaui and Maui, as the guest of Bike Friday customers Ralph and Bernice. Ralph is the Bike Friday Club of Hawaii leade

This story originally appeared on the Bike Friday website (now on the Internet Archive) MOVIE CLIPS UDPATE Dec 2006: See this interview on ... YouTube - click on the movie below. “I MAKE an instrument for the future, but alas, in the present,” laments David Hannauer, pulling various egg-shaped pieces of clay from their protective socks. Laid out before me is a small ensemble of his vast ocarina collection, “small egg-shaped wind instruments with a mouthpiece and holes for the fingers”, according to my laptop dictionary. All but two are the careful handiwork of David himself, who dreams of the day he can get enough people interested in this quirky, glorified whistle to form an ocarina “choir”. David hails from a family of musicians – he was a child cellist, his mother is a volinist, his sister plays with the Brooklyn Philharmonic orchestra and his dad sings. Happy birthdays and Grace at the Hannauer house were always rendered in pitch-perfect six part harmony. Born to

I used to maintain a LiveJournal blog called gfdu just for my book and work kudos, but being a Customer Evangelist means there's no distinction between work and home life. That journal was also a repository for some very interesting shots and story from my readers who visited some of the people mentioned in my book - including the guy in the front cover! Take a look

Galfromdownunder in Hawaii 2006 PHOTO GALLERY AND MOVIE CLIPS The Gal's Hilo Photo Gallery First week in Hilo (5 Mb Quicktime movie) Biking Hilo's Old Scenic Highway (8 Mb Quicktime movie) Sorry to rain on your mental image of Hawaii ... Gray skies. Rain every ten minutes. I'm wearing a pair of long johns. A-ROH-HA! (as my Shanghainese father would say). I hallucinate that I never got on a plane at all, that I'm still in 34 degree Eugene, Oregon, about to put on five layers of hi-tech thermals to go check the mail. No wait ... the windows here are wide open. All eight of them. I'm mincing around in a floaty islandy dress I splurged on just yesterday (30% off – how could I refuse).There's a cacophonous bleating of small, rubbery critters - coqui frogs, I'm told - coming from the bowels of the jungle outside my window. I'm scratching a moonscape raised welts on my arms and legs despite the fly screens and my chemical warfare repellent. I am on Hilo, on t

During my 10-day silent and gruelling  Vipassana  course my brain was doing so much unfettered plotting and scheming that I hatched a game plan for 2006 (2007, 2008 ...). See below. Are you an empty nester? Do you have a spare room or sofa where the Galfromdownunder , Bike Friday scribe and Customer Evangelist could lodge, experience your town, get to know you, do her travel slideshows and book readings - and *PAY* you something for the privilege? I have been trying to come up with ways to experience more of the USA and meet more of the wonderful Bike Friday community without bankrupting myself or Bike Friday, and I suddenly hit on this idea: telecommute my way around America! Most of my work is now done online - in fact, I am probably writing this from my bedroom or holed up in a cyber cafe in Botswana. Many BF customers and friends have invited me to stay with them over the past 4 years - I've enjoyed every moment of these stays. I've even been able to reciproc