We had a fantastic time in New Caledonia. I even did write a travel report with photos and if you are interested in this just ask me for the pdf file.
Re the french language: hubby reckon I was pretty good: I ended up being able to read signs and be polite. I could understand very short sentences. We bought the Les Nouvelles newspaper a couple of times and I could read the weather report and some other articles and reports. When listening to conversations, I could understand some words but not the meaning.
Was it worth spending all that time on it? Absolutely! It is a beautiful language and I enjoyed having a bit of a go at it.
Re Dorrie's coat: I made one, it wasn't great and I hadn't quite finished it off when I tried it on her. She wanted nothing to do with it! LOL Oh well, meant I didn't have to finish that particular job!
Friday, July 24, 2009
Saturday, June 27, 2009
The Dodecahedron
Click on the image to enlarge.Yesterday I dropped this piece into the Fernvale Futures Centre for their craft show.
It really is a gorgeous piece of work! Even if I do say so myself and the photos don't do it justice.
Next time I need to enter something and need something new, I might do another one. The hardest bit will be to decide on the theme: it has to be something that I can do 11 panels for. (Panel # 12 is the base and is just calico with the details written on.
It's french, french, french....
It really is an experiment: I am spending lots of time on the french study. Not only www.frenchpod.com , but there are so many other (free) sites to practice.
Phonetique voyelles is full of hearing exercises, you hear 2 words and you tick whether they are the same or different. You do not need to know what they mean, you just train you ear.
Mission Europe is a kind of game/story and it is set up by the EU, Languages Online is really fun too and importer - Dictionnaire Français-Anglais WordReference.com is a fantastic dictionary except it has an anti-animal-cruelty ad in the banner which I try to avoid having to look at because it upsets me.
RFI - Langue française - apprendre is a french radio station that has "learn french" sections.
I only spend minimal time trying to memorising lists of words or conjugations of verbs, it is all learning things in context. I find french songs: some in kids programs, others on youtube.
The experiment is to see how this kind of study will work out in practice.
My niece said to me: "Oh well, as long as you can understand what they say" but that is a lot harder than reading it, because of the rhythms of the speech and the "liasons" the way words are strung together.
Because there are so many different sites I can use, it does not get boring at all.
Of course, no drawing....
Phonetique voyelles is full of hearing exercises, you hear 2 words and you tick whether they are the same or different. You do not need to know what they mean, you just train you ear.
Mission Europe is a kind of game/story and it is set up by the EU, Languages Online is really fun too and importer - Dictionnaire Français-Anglais WordReference.com is a fantastic dictionary except it has an anti-animal-cruelty ad in the banner which I try to avoid having to look at because it upsets me.
RFI - Langue française - apprendre is a french radio station that has "learn french" sections.
I only spend minimal time trying to memorising lists of words or conjugations of verbs, it is all learning things in context. I find french songs: some in kids programs, others on youtube.
The experiment is to see how this kind of study will work out in practice.
My niece said to me: "Oh well, as long as you can understand what they say" but that is a lot harder than reading it, because of the rhythms of the speech and the "liasons" the way words are strung together.
Because there are so many different sites I can use, it does not get boring at all.
Of course, no drawing....
Sunday, June 14, 2009
Pastels? Maybe not for me....
Friday's art class was disappointing. We had a choice of 2 still lives and acrylic or pastel. I chose pastel but I found I was totally out of my depth. I don't quite know where to go with pastels from here, what I need is a specific pastel course, like Deb's drawing course. Actually I did do a 3 hour class with Helen and that was good, but there don't seem to be other classes planned.
Ah well, I am busy with french lessons and I am having a go at making a coat for our dog Dorrie. When we are in Noumea, she will have to go into the kennel and sleep outside, right in the middle of winter! She hasn't got a thick coat and is used to sleep inside.
Ah well, I am busy with french lessons and I am having a go at making a coat for our dog Dorrie. When we are in Noumea, she will have to go into the kennel and sleep outside, right in the middle of winter! She hasn't got a thick coat and is used to sleep inside.
Thursday, June 11, 2009
French lessons
Our 45th wedding annniversary is coming up and a reason for celebration! A family party is, at present, out of the question and a week ago hubby said "Why don't we go to Noumea for our wedding anniversary!" So now we've booked to go in a matter of weeks and I am frantically using online French lessons. I am using Frenchpod
Definitely a fun way to learn french and of course, I did french at school, grew up in an environment where I was more exposed to french and french culture than if I had grown up in Australia: living in Holland where we had as many french songs on the hit parade as english ones, seeing french movies ( with dutch subtitles) having a Belgian mother who had lived in Paris, spending holidays in Belgium which is bilingual.
I download the lessons to my MP3 player and wear it while walking, while doing the housework, etc.
Mind you, it may all mean nothing when it comes to understanding spoken French, but hey, I learned how to ask where the toilets are..that just HAS to be useful as long as I can understand the reply! As I said: these lessons are fun!
Definitely a fun way to learn french and of course, I did french at school, grew up in an environment where I was more exposed to french and french culture than if I had grown up in Australia: living in Holland where we had as many french songs on the hit parade as english ones, seeing french movies ( with dutch subtitles) having a Belgian mother who had lived in Paris, spending holidays in Belgium which is bilingual.
I download the lessons to my MP3 player and wear it while walking, while doing the housework, etc.
Mind you, it may all mean nothing when it comes to understanding spoken French, but hey, I learned how to ask where the toilets are..that just HAS to be useful as long as I can understand the reply! As I said: these lessons are fun!
Tarot
I asked forum members on the tarot site, could anyone suggest a name for my tarots. Next step, I was then going to order some blank, ready-to-print tarot cards and print a couple of sets.
One suggested Hetty's Tarot. Not bad, but I had already thought of that myself and it didn't excite me much! Someone else suggest "Threads of Fate". That I like a lot. I never thought to use the word "threads" , it is so appropriate. But then it becomes the "Threads of Fate Tarot". I thought it was a bit long, but it does have a nice ring to it!
One suggested Hetty's Tarot. Not bad, but I had already thought of that myself and it didn't excite me much! Someone else suggest "Threads of Fate". That I like a lot. I never thought to use the word "threads" , it is so appropriate. But then it becomes the "Threads of Fate Tarot". I thought it was a bit long, but it does have a nice ring to it!
Boots and hat
As I promised: boots and hat. Plus some stuff in the background!I haven't attempted any more drawing, because I got sidetracked with French lessons. More about that later.
But tomorrow I am going to my Friday art class and, unless Gina has something special she wants us to do, I am having another go at this, using the 2 pictures: one in colour, the other reduced to grey scale. You have to agree: it must be easier to work in pencil from a greyscale picture. I might even use my value scale: a piece of paper that has 10 shades, from white to black through grey. Deb taught us to hold the value scale against a section of the original so you can see how dark or how light you've got to shade it. Anyway, that's the theory of it.
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