GOULBURN

August saw the beginning of the Imagine Me Royal Rehab Rural NSW workshop series — first stop Goulburn.

I traveled out of Sydney on a dark and stormy day. As I drove along looking at this dramatic cloudscape, I couldn't resist stopping to take some photos.

Once in Goulburn, I had the chance to get my bearings and explore a bit. I stopped at the Grit cafe, well known by locals for its delicious food and accessible layout. The best thing I had was a salad of apple, celery and brown rice  to accompany an old favourite corn fritters with salsa. Yum!

View on the way to Goulburn

The Grit cafe

My first workshop was with Goulburn resident Jim Nichols. He was a pleasure to work with and had a lot of positive things to say about his life.

"Living in Goulburn is good. I know almost everyone. Have plenty of friends. One of the real pleasures of my life is to assist at the 2 local primary schools here in Goulburn. I help young children who have problems with reading and comprehension. To get a child to love reading, they have to read what interests them. I read them harry potter and flat foot rock! I was always a keen reader, when I was young I read comics – my hero was the Phantom!"

To reflect his love of books, we worked with this theme in his self-portrait.

While in Goulburn I was lucky to be able to catch up with an old friend from art school at her property near Collector, NSW.

Her home is on a beautiful sheep-farming property called Bohara. Walking around the paddocks in the early morning, I was happy to be out in the country again. It was still really cold and frosty at this point, with tiny, glittering ice particles covering the grass — and even the sheep!

Early morning mist

Blue skies and frosty fields

The next stop on the tour was a workshop at the Crescent School, a school that caters to young people with special needs such as intellectual disabilities and autism.

This workshop was quite different from my usual workshops teaching people with spinal cord injuries, and at first I was a bit anxious about how it would all work out. Luckily, the students and teachers were all so lovely and welcoming that my worries were quickly erased. It was actually really interesting for me to see how the Imagine Me program can work in different settings like this.

The students ended up with some great self-portraits and it was heart-warming to see that they were so proud of their finished work.

Working with a student

Before leaving Goulburn, I stopped in at another great accessible restaurant called 98 chairs.

Here I met up with my good friends Eloise Lindsay and Nugent Wade Brown. Nugent used to be a primary school teacher, and had been helping me out with the Crescent School workshops. It was so great to have him around to assist, as he has had years of experience teaching kids with special needs.

The restaurant served a totally fabulous gnocchi with smoked vegetables and cream sauce, which I really recommend to anyone who might be in the Goulburn area!

Nugent, Eloise and I

The chef at 98 chairs

Thank you Goulburn!

Next stop on the workshop tour is Bathurst, so look out for the next wrap-up post soon.