Like a Red Rag to a Sheep

Bit of a odds and ends day today. Getting organised for a 4 day training course at Bowral. Leadership Dimensions. I am really looking forward to it. Lots of introspection, self awareness, analysing strengths and weaknesses, that sort of thing. The preliminary workbook on conflict management was pretty spot on for me I think. My default position was nurturing-assertive but when things go bad I move to a position where I try to make sure everyone is happy. I give ground and make concessions to avoid upsetting anyone, even to the point where I am way beyond my own tolerable position....right up to the point where I snap and brutalise everyone left standing. There is, of course, the wierd aberation in which someone working in retail or a service industry can get me there almost instantly but those of you who don't work with me will just have to take my word on it, that it takes quite a lot to wind me up at work. But we've discussed this particular character flaw before....

I am strugling to get everything in my small suitcase. Somehow I've managed to to end up with a giant suitcase (very very handy for the lengthy Christmas pilgrimage to Tassie) and a tiny suitcase (very hand for the short business trips here and there) but nothing in between (which I imagine would be quite handy for the current problem in hand). Never mind, the itty bitty suitcase will encourage me to efficiency in packing. besides, I can get some books into my briefcase and as everyone knows, you can't travel without a good supply of books!

Speaking of books, I received an amazon order today. Some lovely hard-cover editions of the Iliad and Marcus Aurelius' Meditations.

Anger be now your song, immortal one,
Akhilleus' anger, doomed and ruinous,
that caused the Akhaians loss on bitter loss
and crowded brave souls into the undergloom,
leaving so many dead—carrion
for dogs and birds; and the will of Zeus was done.

Brilliant! I think before I am crowded into the undergloom I would like to read classics at Oxford or Cambridge and read the Iliad in the original greek. Dactylic hexameter doesn't really work in English, but in the greek the sound of it courses through your mind like the drums of a thousand galleys and the march of the greeks going to war. Here's an interesting thing I learned recently. Originally for a poem to be an 'epic' it had to be written in dactylic hexameter. As, I mentioned dactyls are a tough poetic foot in English and are usually done as:

• stressed syllable ---- non-stressed syllable ---- non-stressed syllable

sort of arrangement rather than:

• long syllable ---- short syllable ---- short syllable

arrangement, which is how they are in greek. I tell you it sounds like an incantation being intoned in greek, but of course you lose some of the effect because...well..its all greek to me.... Most of you would know Tennyson's crack at dactylic dimeter with the Charge of the Light Brigade. You can really hear the dum-da-da dum-da-da rhythm of the syllables reminding you of the drum of the hooves.

Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon in front of them
Volley'd & thunder'd;
Storm'd at with shot and shell,
Boldly they rode and well,
Into the jaws of Death,
Into the mouth of Hell
Rode the six hundred.

I also took the wildly outrageous step of getting a hair cut today. That is, rather than just shaving it all off again as soon as it annoyed me, I went to the hair dresser to get it 'styled'. Don't worry, its nothing too outrageous, but its freaking me out a little. I had to buy gel too. How there can be 6 shelves of different types of gel stuff is beyond me. I was very close to phone-a-friend time to help figure out what I was supposed to get. So no more 'bother boy' hair cuts.

The pavers for the floor of the Chook House arrive tomorrow. As do 20 small sleepers for more garden beds. The timing sucks as they will sit in the driveway for 4 days shile I am in Bowral. Maybe I'll ring them and get them to pop them inside the gate.

The Goulburn Poultry Fanciers Society Spring Show and Breed Sale Road Trip is this Sunday. I think I have 9 takers now. Lunch is booked at the Goulburn Brewery which is conveniently (and totally luckily) located over the road from the show grounds. Should be a fun day. Also I have the concept for the next road trip ready too. September 30th.....The Running of the Sheep at Booroowa. Its like Pamplona only funnier :-)