22 August 2008

Emoh Ruo

Greetings,

On one of our recent early morning walks, the Love of My Life and I ran into a walking friend we hadn't seen for a few weeks. It's probably the same where you live -- you tend to meet up with the same people doing similar things at the same time during the course of your day. And so we have a group of people we pass every morning on our winter walks. 

I hate to admit to being such creatures of habit, but we even seem to meet the same people at about the same stage of our walk most days ... But I guess there's comfort in routine, isn't there?

Anyway, back to our absent friend ...

We ran into him at our Usual Spot where the following dialogue prefaced a long catching-up chat:

LoML: "Haven't seen you for a while, mate."

Friend: "No. I've been Home."

Now, note that our friend didn't say, "I've been at home." No, it was very clearly indicated that he'd been Home, with a capital H. As in where-the-heart-is-home, not where he resides.

Our friend is Maori, but has lived here since he was just out of his teens, so has spent the majority of his life on our fair shores. And yet, when he thinks of "home," it's New Zealand that fills his heart, not Australia.

My husband commented on our friend's strong ties to his land of birth and that got us thinking about just where in the world we think of as "home."

I've mentioned before that my darling mum was the youngest of five daughters: the first three were born in England (and were pre-schoolers when they made the voyage out just before the First World War), the fourth was born on the ship on the way over to Australia, and Mum was born out here.

Yet throughout their lives, my four aunts always spoke of "going home" to visit rellies in England.

We were both born here, but have moved around from state to state, from city to country and from town to town quite a few times. In fact, we're currently in our 12th home together ... that's counting rented flats when we first married and rented houses while we were waiting to buy when we undertook one of our Big Moves interstate. 

So, we wondered, when we both think of "home," what place springs to mind?

And what we came up with was the home we had when our kids were growing up ... from when our daughter was about 4 and our son 7 till they were both in their teens. They were wonderful years, because everyone in the family (including our parents) was young (or youngish) and in good health; the future stretched ahead of us and the possibilities were endless. 

Our current home is still home, but Home is where all those precious and relatively carefree memories were made. 

If your home is far, far away, you can still phone home and it needn't cost you a penny! Click for free calls to 30 countries around the world. (We've been using Skype for the past year and it's nothing short of brilliant!)

And if you haven't worked out this week's title yet, I'll tell you that it was a common house name out here in the 40s and 50s, popularised by people who thought they were being terrifically clever.

There is still a gaggle of house names you keep coming across on your travels ... the cosy cottage called Dunroamin' ... the house on the hilltop dubbed Dambreezy ... the tumbledown "handyman's dream" christened Gunnado ... the holiday house hopefully named Didgabringabeer.

Then there are the house names from the classics of popular literature:

To visit (or revisit) to Brideshead is always a treat.

For Rhett Butler to have scooped Scarlett O'Hara into a passionate embrace anywhere but in the grand halls of Tara is unthinkable.

But for me, the lay-down-misere, outright winner when it comes to house names has to be Manderley. The first three letters just force you into a sigh as you say it, then the assonance echoes through the word to finish on another lingering sigh in -ley. Daphne du Maurier deserves every penny she ever earnt simply for coming up with that name!

If you're planning to write about your home or any other place, you'll want to make sure you get the details right, and this week's Little Something Extra is an article that explains how to check the accuracy of your setting. And even though this article was written for those intending to write fiction, there are lots of tips you can use for non-fiction articles as well.

Here's a story about verifying your facts ...

A young woman of indeterminate hair colour went into a bank to withdraw some money. For security purposes the cashier asked her if she could identify herself. 

She opened her handbag, took out a small mirror, looked into it and said, "Yes, it's me all right."

This week's quiz:

Let's see how good you are around your home ... match up these D-I-Y terms:

dovetail, laminate, bevel, kerf, valance, corbel, dado, hinge, rout, soffit

1. drill or gouge out an area of wood for decorative or joining purposes 

2. a portion of material removed from the edge of a piece of wood 

3. decorative hardwood panel installed across an open area, generally used above desks or sinks 

4. box-out at the ceiling typically 12" high and 14" deep; often used for AC ductwork; kitchen cabinets are installed up to it creating a step effect 

5. deep channel or groove cut across the wood’s grain 

6. layers of wood are bonded together through a process of heat and pressure 

7. decorative wooden bracket used as a support mechanism for mantels, bar tops, etc 

8. mechanical device used to attach a cabinet door to a cabinet box 

9. saw cut that is made on the surface to relieve stress; used to create a curve, such as with a toe kick around a curved base cabinet 

10. term used to describe a joining process of two pieces of material; both pieces have wing-shaped notches that interlock; generally known as the strongest joint typically used in furniture and cabinet drawers 

And since we've chatted about our homes this week, here are some terms you need to be familiar with if you're planning any home handy-work ...

Halogen Light - A work light that lights up your backyard with the incandescence of a football stadium, causing you to cast a heavy shadow over the area you're working on so that you need to use a flashlight anyway.

Hammer - In ancient times a hammer was used to inflict pain on one's enemies. Modern hammers are used to inflict pain on oneself

Last week's quiz:

abseil, zipper, jumar, couloir, belay, chock, crampons, piton, rappel, snow fluke

1. angled aluminum plate attached to a metal cable; buried into snow, typically used as a deadman anchor - SNOW FLUKE

2. a descent down a nearly vertical surface by using a doubled rope that is coiled around the body and attached to some higher point - ABSEIL

3. fall in which each piece of protection fails in turn - ZIPPER

4. a clip or clamp used in rock climbing or ice climbing that runs freely up a slack rope but tightens around the rope in response to weight applied from below - JUMAR

5. something to which a mountain climber's rope can be secured - BELAY

6. metal framework with spikes attached to boots to increase safety on snow and ice - CRAMPONS

7. mechanical device, or a wedge, used to attach anchors into cracks - CHOCK

8. process by which a climber may descend on a fixed rope - RAPPEL

9. steep gully or gorge frequently filled with snow or ice - COULOIR

10. metal spike that may be hammered into ice or flaws in rock - PITON

And a little building mystery ...

A person is killed on the job site, and the police begin questioning the workers. Based on their past brushes with the law, many were prime suspects:

The plumber leaked these stories because he felt he was trapped.

The roofer had fallen on some bad times and went to the hospital with shingles. Everything was dropped because they felt his 3rd storey was ok.

The electrician was once suspected of wiretapping, though was never charged. 

The painter has had several brushes with the law; many times he tried to run, but his alibis were thin.

The mason was suspected because he gets stoned regularly.

And the cabinetmaker was an accomplished counter fitter.

A Little Something Extra

Researching the Scene

by Stanley Salmons

Placing your characters at the scene is an important part of story-writing, and you do it by recording the things that a reader would experience if they themselves were there. Do it properly and the story will be more vivid, more authentic. Do it badly, and the story will lose all credibility, especially for a reader who knows something about the location. Aim to convince that reader, and you have set yourself the right goal.

A lot of research can be managed with the use of books, maps, and, of course, the Internet. But there is a limit to the extent, and indeed the accuracy, of the information you can gain in this way.

When I was writing the final draft of “Footprints in the Ash” I decided to research every scene on site. I went to Campania armed with a list of questions, and there were some considerable surprises. A glossy volume on Pompeii had said that the statue of Apollo looked out onto the Forum. The Temple of Apollo is on one side of the Forum, but the life-size statue is totally enclosed by it, and faces inwards. Another book said that the last part of the Street of Abundance was closed to vehicular traffic, yet there are shops on either side that had to be supplied, and three vertical slabs to block vehicles from entering the Forum, so how could that be right? I trusted my own judgment on that one.

Extrapolating from these and other experiences, I’ve put together a number of questions that writers can usefully ask themselves and that they should, for preference, check by first-hand observation.

Even if your scenario is totally invented, as in writing fantasy or futuristic science fiction, you can use these questions to prompt the description of the world your characters populate.

Click now for these questions to check the settings for your novel or story: http://www.write101.com/novelsetting.htm  

Word of the week: Warp (vb) This great word has lots of meanings ... to bend or twist out of shape, esp. from a straight or flat form, as timbers or flooring; to bend or turn from the natural or true direction or course; to distort or cause to distort from the truth, fact, true meaning, etc.; bias; falsify

It comes from a Gothic word wairpan meaning 'to throw'

It can also be a noun and is used in the expression 'time warp' - a hypothetical eccentricity in the progress of time that would allow movement back and forth between eras or that would permit the passage of time to be suspended

Oxymoron of the week: cheap plumber

And a Latin phrase for those times when nothing seems to be going right with your home improvement efforts ...

[OWT WEE-ahm een-WEE-nee-ahm OWT FAH-kee-ahm]

Did you know that you can have your very own Latin reminders? How about undies proclaiming, Bene est rex esse? (It's good to be king) Or a shopping bag that warns, Emptrix nata sum (Born to shop)? 

Kind regards,

Jennifer

	Web www.write101.com

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Copyright  Jennifer Stewart  2008

Individual articles copyrighted by their authors.