'Make my day' - a day of my life in Canberra

Over the last couple of weeks I have taken part in a Canberra project called 'Make my day'. 'Make my day' is a Design Canberra project organised by Kate Shaw.

The aim of the project was for participants to take photos during their day every couple of hours. Kate collated the photos to make a shared story of how Canberra defines participants and how the participants defined Canberra. The final product was displayed in an exhibition last weekend in Northbourne Street.

I submitted photos from Friday 20th and Sunday 22nd November. My favorite photo was taken first thing on Sunday of a pair of shoes that a girl had left lying on the pavement from the evening before - I hope they weren't too expensive.

It was fascinating to see all the photos put into themes and made into a giant mosaic. 

 
Canberra clearly is a very busy place, and at the same time means so many different things to different people.

I expected to see many glossy "posed" Instagram photos, but was pleasantly surprised to see very ordinary pictures which felt so much more authentic.

Canberra get a bum rap from many people who pass by, but to those of us who live here, Canberra is a vibrant place with many faces. 

 

Lessons learned from being guest blogger at the 2015 Canberra Film Festival

I was very lucky to have been invited to be a guest blogger for this year's Canberra Film Festival with my daughter, Ellen. 

The 2015 Canberra Film Festival was very enjoyable. I loved the new venue at the National Sound and Film Archive - the film screen is second to none. The program was interesting. The greater emphasis on local film makers and documentaries from the Asia region was a change from the more main stream films that have been shown in previous years. I certainly had my eyes opened by some of the documentaries, and the local films illustrated the fabulous talent of film makers that live and work in Australia.

Being a guest blogger for a film festival is great fun, not least because I got to see films than I normally would not go to see. At the same time, it was tiring because there was a pressure to get reviews written in a timely way. I found it a challenge to write the reviews in a way that demonstrated I knew about film-making but bringing a personal slant. Rotten Tomatoes was a useful resource to check out what professional film reviewers thought about a particular film. But inevitably, my opinion differed from the general view on that website, probably because I am not a film professional, and was writing purely from an emotional point of view, as opposed to a more technical one.

Here are the reviews that Ellen and I wrote about the films we saw.

The festival has now finished, and I am feeling a degree of film withdrawal. But I am reassured knowing that two outdoor cinema seasons are coming up -  Ben and Jerry's Outdoor Cinema and Sunset Cinema.

What would be your review of the latest film you have watched?

Nominated for the Princess Srinagarindra Award 2015

I have been very privileged to have been nominated for the international Princess Srinagarinda Nursing and Midwifery Award this year with my two wonderful friends and colleagues, Deborah Davis and Annette Dalsgaard. 

The nomination has been in recognition of the online work in midwifery education and continuing professional development we have been doing for the last eight years with the Virtual International Day of the Midwife (VIDM), and the Massive Open Online Course: Evidence-Based Midwifery Practice. Both of these initiatives were the first of its kind for midwifery, and in the case of VIDM, to my knowledge, in health. 

 

We did not win the award, so it's just as well I didn't rush out and buy a posh frock. Nevertheless, it was a huge honour to have been nominated by the Danish Midwives Association. Annette, Deb and I have put in many, many volunteer hours over the years into these resources to make them freely available to midwives all over the world. So it was very gratifying to have our efforts recognised by a national midwifery organisation. 

We couldn't have achieved what we have done without the help and support of so many other people who are equally as passionate about open learning and midwifery. And in particular, I am very grateful to the VIDM team who have worked with me over the years, and the speakers and participants of VIDM and the MOOC who have all freely given up their time. 

I am equally as grateful to my family who have supported me over the years and haven't moaned too much about all the time I spend on the computer.

And of course, it goes without saying that Annette and Deborah have been wonderful to work with. It never fails to amaze me what we manage to achieve considering we live half way around the world from each other, and that we've only ever met face-to-face a couple of time.

Thank you.