Ann - John

Here endeth the travels.

Julie (227) - Jan & Marg, history buffs

Jan spent her working life as a journalist for SBS so knew many of the useful haunts for obtaining historical information. Marg, who has also recently retired, urged me to join the Society of Australian Genealogists (SAG), and I encouraged her to join the City of Sydney Historical Association.

Ann - Nairobi

David Sheldrick Elephant Orphanage

Julie (226) - Wendy, another collector

Wendy, having no chldren of her own, was getting her Family History collection in order to hand on to her brother's children.

She had the largest most ornate "bible" I had ever seen.

Ann - Nairobi

Once I took one, all the kids wanted their photo taken. Unfortunately very few came out. Taken in the National Museum of Kenya.

Julie (225) - Judy, a collector

I chatted with Judy prior to the session. She is a dedicated collector and went on a tour of the State Archives during the week. So much to do and so little time.

The thing is with going on courses: you hear about all the OTHER seminars that a range of people have attended. As you can see, we are all very engrossed in our hobbies.

Ann - Botswana - Take Away Chicken

Julie (224) - Nicole, another conservator

Oops, I meant to focus on Nicky here, not on the bloke whom I did not actually meet.

Nicky gave the second presentation which covered the best ways to preserve Family History. The cost is not going to be as much as I had first surmised. The biggest cost will be getting two books rebound, but they advised to always get quotes. They provided lists of conservators who work with the general unwashed joe.

This seminar cost $40 for 3 hours and 4 conservators which I thought was fairly good value. They said there was a limit of 25 to the course but I thought there could have been more than that. Attendees were overwhelmingly female. I think maybe 3 blokes were interested enough.

Peter 065 - Aussie

I didn't get her name, but I waved my camera at her and she nodded as she looked past me, scouring the member's stand for signs of celebrity.

Greasepaint and 35°C, humidity 85%.

"Green and Gold Malaria", Rupert McCall called it in his poem of the same name.

Ann - Zambia/Botswana

Julie (223) - Nichola, a conservator

On Friday, the State Library held a 3 hour seminar on how to conserve documents and items within a Family History. About ten years ago, my daughter and I spent quite some time making sense of all the documents and photos that came into my possession over the years. Now that I am retired, I want to house these more professionally so that they can be viewed and yet also saved for future generations.

Nichola gave the first presentation on the pitfalls of document storage. I recognised many of the pits!

Peter 064 - Murray

Murray is no stranger, we are both creatures of habit.

For half a dozen years or so we have met at the Gabba on the first day of the first Cricket Test of the new summer.

This year, he drove me to the match, and armed with such familiarity, I didn't ask him if it was OK to take his photo.

Peter 063 - Didier

For four months I wondered why I couldn't summon the energy to photograph people. It wasn't because there was a lack of opportunity, more I think that every time we met someone they became lifelong friends and the question never arose!

Didier was one of them, although neither of us spoke a word of each other's language at the time. We chatted for twenty minutes or so after he caught me photographing his corn stash. He lives in the little village of Choisey, in the manner of his forebears, with neither heating or ill humour.

I should have concentrated more on this photo, I wanted to reflect the animation of our conversation, and the nature of it, but I tried to hard at a shutter speed that was too ambitious. He told us of the centuries it took to build the church in the village, and of how many generations had lived in his house before him, but we didn't understand enough to make sense of the conversation, any more than he will make sense of the Christmas Card from Australia when it arrives.

Ann - Zambia/Botswana

Ann - Zambia/Botswana

Ferry across noman's land to Botswana.

Ann - Zambia/Botswana

At the border.

Ann - Zambia - Skull, skull, skull

Kathy celebrates her birthday.

Ann - Zambia - Lion Walk (3)

Little man, big gun.

Ann - Zambia - Lion Walk (2)

Ann - Zambia - Lion Walk (1)

The lion walk has to be one of the most amazing things I've ever done. My group walked with two 13 months old females and you had to keep reminding yourself they were wild animals as they were exhibiting normal cat behaviour and wanted to flop down in the shade and sleep or play with each other, just like big pussy cats. Then you looked at their paws and teeth and reminded yourself that, playing or not, they could still take your face off with one swipe.

If you want to read more about the Lion Walk, volunteer work or lion conservation and release program have a look here - Lion ALERT. The walk I did was the recently established one in Livingstone, Zambia.

Ann - Namibia

The cook at Ngepi Camp in the Caprivi Strip cooks up a storm on an open fire.