Teach a girl to fish

As a single mother who lives in a country with ample access to education, resources and welfare support I feel more than a moral obligation to tout the stories of those in different situations. There are people all over the world who fight to survive. Women, like those living on garbage heaps in the Philippines for example, need to find a way to feed, clothe and shelter themselves and their children. These women have dreams, just like we do. We have ways to help them achieve these dreams that are simpler than you think.

Today's blog is a tribute. This blog is in support of an idea that has now become reality in poverty-inclined societies: that is the concept of microfinance or microlending. In short, this involves giving people who are resource-poor access to funds that help them to live out their entrepreneurial aspirations and thereby help themselves into a better place.

By writing this blog I hope to facilitate a contribution towards one of these blogging initiatives. A blogger, with some connections made through twitter called wonderwebby has explained it more on her page, click here to have a look.

A company called Incentive House have, in their wisdom, agreed to donate money based on blog tributes such as this one. Although I cannot hope to write as well or as detailed a dissertation as servantofchaos (Gavin Heaton), I would recommend you give his tribute a read. And Des Walsh wrote a tribute to entrepreneurial currently poor women.

So please, one and all, keep considering people who live differently to us. And pass on this message.

It is my humble hope that by blogging about this some money will go the way of these courageous and resilient women. Much respect.

Thanks for tuning in.

Make this video go 'round the world

Dancing by candlelight to the sound of our own song whilst Earth Hour is on... how wonderful.

Now here's some suggestions.

Step 1 - watch the video.




Step 2 - *after shedding a tear or two* pass it on.

Step 3 - consider:

• The earth needs us as much as we need the earth.
• Earth Hour is fantastic. It's Australian in origin.
• Permaculture is also such a wonderful thing. It's Australian in origin too.
• I'm not that special, but on the up-side, I'm Australian in origin and hey, if you're reading this I've done something good today.

Thanks - and please always, always keep on dancing.

3-second sunrise, buttons and more dancing

३ सेकंड are the beautiful characters that appeared in my subject heading line this morning. And that's how I learnt that you can enable transliteration into Hindi at the click of a button on blogger. Technology really amazes me - even though it's driven by buttons and touches, much as cars are driven by steering wheels and crazy people. I tested some of this technology out by embedding the above 3 second video of yesterday's sunrise from my bedroom window here. It was meant to be a photo, but I pressed the wrong button on the camera and recorded audio and video instead. You see, I'm an involuntary button-pusher from way back.

Buttons seem to be playing a large role in blog and life at the moment. With a button I chose this blog's name (albeit accidentally), with a button I found the exotic Hindi element of this blog editor, and if you push my buttons you will see me engage in evasive manoeuvres to avoid pushing yours back. I'm considerate like that.

Button-pushing, as opposed to bell-ringing, is actually a crucial part of modern life. Bell-ringing however, apart from evoking olde-worlde images of men in towers wielding long ropes, evokes for me the resonance of an old song by Anita Ward (listen to it here) which was remixed in the early nineties and became somewhat of an anthem. I may have been heard (whilst pointing fingers at the air, and wiggling my hips) to be singing 'you can ring my be-e-e-ll, you can ring mah bell' at certain undisclosed locations, at certain times of the night, at regular intervals during the nineties. Here's a reminder of what it was like back then if you care to investigate further. And before you ask, yes... I really was there.

A 21-year-old mate was telling me about this new song by Guru Josh called Infinity. Although I know of a re-release in 2008, I still can't bring myself to call this song 'new'. Seriously, I can see the original vinyl from here. And before you ask, yes... I really still own vinyl.

So as you can see I have one foot firmly planted in my past experiences, and the other stuck in the mud. Hurray for technology... now has anyone seen my daisy hat and doc marten boots?

For me, the dancing never stopped. I dance with life, technology, buttons, and even you if you'd care to visit.

Indeed, it's always a lovely night for dancing at my house. See a demonstration in this video by my young son.

And before you ask, yes.. it is hereditary.

'tis a lovely night for dancing

So it's actually morning here, nonetheless, whilst testing availability of blog names, I tripped on the keyboard, hit enter, and accidentally got 'Lovely night for dancing' as a blog name. The ghost of Bill Withers may have been passing over my house, which can only be a good thing in my book.

About 'my book' - it currently exists only in my mind, however will surely fall out of my consciousness in dribs and drabs as this blog progresses. For now though, 'my book' is the one (or seven) I am currently reading. Or perhaps it is the one that was dedicated to me by my loving father who actually IS a novelist. Shameless plug ensues - Bruce Russell is his name, more about him here, the book with my name at the front of it is 'The Chelsea Manifesto'. It came with a letter that said something along the lines of 'the book is to show that I understand'. And you know what, it does show he understands. How beautiful.

So in my signature way (alenaway + copyright symbol here), I have managed to create myself a blog with the random name of 'Lovely night for dancing' which actually and accidentally sums up much of my life. Dancing has been my happy place, my nemesis and my abandon. And perhaps this blog will be the same.

The lines surely are blurred between work/home and public/private now that one need decide to be 'friends' on Facebook with those one works with, or whether to add a contact on LinkedIn even though it's just some guy you smoked a spliff with at that party last weekend, but it will expand your online network, right?

Welcome to my blog.

Thanks for reading.

And remember, it's always a lovely night for dancing 'round here.