This last couple of days have been spent away from Granite Glen - if you have been checking my twitters at all, then you might know the lengths to which I went to avoid packing properly til the last minute. It's a specialty of mine, but this time - when our darling son was heading one direction for a 5-day long camp (his very first), our sweet daughter heading another for a 'sweepover' at her cousins', and Mr Incredible and I driving a third direction for various bovine-related business (before Violet and I head for the Big, Big Smoke for a couple of days) ... well, it very nearly sent me into meltdown.
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As you have no doubt deduced, I did not.
Meltdown completely, that is, although my washing machine may never be the same. (I actually boasted publicly that for a brief couple of hours, NOT ONE THING was dirty in my house... laundry, I mean. And if THAT ain't worth twittering, my dear feathered friends, then NOTHING is!)
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So where was I?
Oh yes. Heading northwards towards our bovine business events.
Hopefully with the correct suitcases.
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Among my tasks here (as I tap away on my staggery old laptop in a town 300km from home) is to present a promotional DVD to fellow cattle breeders. The same promo which is (fingers crossed) being shown somewhere in Paraguay this week to promote Australia and Aussie Brangus cattle. To explain, in a couple of years time our cattle association is holding a World Congress (think 'conference' but with heaps of laconic Aussie hospitality, side-trips to cattle properties/ranches, a couple of tourist attractions, and plenty of beef-related gourmet feasts). And we want people to come. From other countries. Or else the 'world' part of the title will look a little superfluous!!
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The promotional DVD for this project has kept me fairly busy in the past few weeks. The aim is to provide the information and intrigue needed to entice Brangus breeders from around the world to check out how us Aussies do it!
(Breed Brangus cattle, I mean... what did you think? Sheesh!)
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I had visions for this clip - grand, grand visions. Sweeping footage of our landscape from snow-capped mountains to vast red deserts, clear blue skies and plains of green grass (oh, and sleek black and red cattle, natually!). These magnificent image would be set to some fabulous background instrumental from our own Keith Urban or Lee Keraghan?
Can you see it?
Feel it?
*sigh*
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It all started off well. We atttended a well-known sale and got some great footage with a real Aussie flavour...
Our cameraman hard at work as the bulls are sold in the timber sale ring.
Please note the green grass - courtesy of a sprinkler! The only green grass outside a houseyard lawn for hundreds of miles!
Bids being taken and RM Williams boots in foreground...
Ooohhh... he's nice!
(But more on him later...)
And even billies on the boil - how 'Aussie bush' is that?
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Of course, as an Aussie Prime Minister once said:
Life wasn't meant to be easy...
and that sure rang true for this project.
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Not only were my timelines extremely short,
and our budget not QUITE up for sending a cameraman around the entire country,
but a guy we had lined up to help out was in a bad car accident
(he is recovering thank goodness,
but gave everyone a terrible fright, not least himself)
and there was THIS little weather event...
... when the lights went out for a few days
thanks to the enormous duststorm that swallowed up the East Coast of Australia.
It put paid to about half of the location shoots we had organised.
The timing was bizarrely immaculate.
Like Mother Nature was messing with me.
(In case you are wondering, I did get a grip and realise that perhaps a duststorm hitting half a continent was probably not aimed PERSONALLY at me.
Cause Mother Nature knows I generally love her work.
Cause Mother Nature knows I generally love her work.
But this dust storm business?
Just not funny when you want your cattle gleaming in the sunshine
Just not funny when you want your cattle gleaming in the sunshine
and your skies royal blue!
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Nonetheless, our intrepid cameraman Brad soldiered through and after a few hundred kilometres and many, many emails, we finally (within an hour or so of deadline) got the thing done. The end result is not EXACTLY what I had planned, but it has sleek black and red cattle, some mustering Aussie-style, bottle trees, kangaroos, and a cute blond kid with no front teeth entreating the viewer to:
"Come to Othtralia, to thee my Branguth". 
(Wonder who that could possibly be?)
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And tomorrow - as the promo goes to air in Paraguay - I present the finished product to our event committee...
And I feel just like I did as that final load of washing
went into the dryer late at night Sunday. 
Kinda relieved but afraid to relax and celebrate too much...
Sure, it's DONE.
But is it ENOUGH?
Or will it all need to be DONE AGAIN in the very near future!
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Perhaps I could spin a variation on Forrest Gump's famous line...
Life is like a basket of laundry...
You never know if the job is EVER done.
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Oh... and THIS guy...
he's waiting at Granite Glen for us when we finish this week of Mad Travelling.
he's waiting at Granite Glen for us when we finish this week of Mad Travelling.
Cause we found time in amongst all that video stuff to put our finger up at that auction.
And we nabbed this gorgeous beast...
He well might give Elvis a run for his money!
