Big bowl 'o' coffee

Had brunch with my lovely sister today at as nature intended and order the big bowl o coffee. I assuming it would be a large bowl-shaped cup. Nope. It was truth in advertising...

This is... what gives me goosebumps

Strong, powerful music gives me goosebumps. If it has heartbreaking lyrics then I'm all the more goosebumpy. For example 'On my own' from Les Miserables - "But I know its only in my mind...' or from Paul Kelly's 'From little things, big things grow' - "If we fall, others are rising". Lots of others that I can't remember... but you get the idea!


Photo credit: Mervyn Bishop 'Prime Minister Gough Whitlam pours soil into hand of traditional landowner Vincent Lingiari, Northern Territory' 1975. Collection of the National Gallery of Australia

This is... what makes me happy

Ah. I'm big on searching for happiness. I don't often consider that I'm happy, but I think that's because I'm constantly pursued by the black dog and only catch the happiness in glimpses as I bolt past... I strive to be happy, by reading books like 'Choosing Happiness' by Stephanie Dowrick, reading sites like Authentic Happiness and the Happiness Project. But ultimately, these things make me happy...

1. Listening to Lily tell me stories before we go for a lunchtime sleep
2. Watching Paterson's face light up when I enter a room
   
3. Seeing a flower in the vase beside my bed, knowing that Nathan has left it there
4. Seeing plants begin to flower, or sprout, or produce fruit.
5. Certain foods - I apparently do something that Nath calls the 'happy dance' when I have something that I think is particularly yummy.
6. Spending time with two special people; my sister and Big Lilly.

(NOTE: The picture above will one day be the cover shot for a book I'm planning to write 'How to keep your house clean and look after the children'.)

London - a memoir

I found this in an old Word file the other day. I don't remember writing it, but it certainly still resonated.

London

What is it I miss so much about that city? It was frustrating, dirty, superficial and over populated. But there is a security in all these things and the belief these things will never change. Things have always been the same and will continue to be so.

I miss walking through Covent Garden and hearing an Australian inflection with a stab of pride. The street theatre and drunkenness on a rare sunny afternoon gave a feeling of comfort and wellbeing. Experiencing the claustrophobic crush upon leaving the tube station made the fresh air on the outside seem glorious and pure; all the time knowing the air was probably a carcinogen.

Drinking latte on Fulham Road gave a feeling of affluence - the clothes and lack of possessions not withstanding. Staying of the edge of the lifestyle which I would like to become accustomed. I would never assimilate of course but we could watch and see those who lead the lifestyle and feed vicariously from them. Taking tit-bits from them and their ways.

Strolling aimlessly and deciding, on impulse, to ‘get some culture’ as if it were unobtainable elsewhere. Staying at the address with the good connotations. Seeing places millions of others have seen in ages past and feeling they were somehow over rated. Finding something obscure and believing it better than all the 'sites' put together.

The feeling you fit in. Being part of a brilliant minority; transient and visible. Being someone totally different, reinventing. Liking the invented person better than who you thought you were. This is what I miss.

I don't so much remember the smog, rudeness, crowds, superficiality, cold, poor plumbing, accommodation and cuisine - although I’m aware of the contribution they made to my perception of the city. I remember me. Being me. Liking me. All because of London.

Ironically I don't think I was really any more comfortable in my skin in London than at home. Maybe less so. I was going to include a photo, but thought it best not too - primarily because I was much larger, had even less fashion sense than I do now, and was seemingly always swathed in a driz-a-bone...

Didn't we have a lovely time

Yesterday we went to Currockbilly. Nath's Aunt and Uncle have a little property out past Braidwood and yesterday we took LilyPad and our nephew Marcus out to see the cows and have a BBQ. It was such an adventure for the kids, even if we had to resort to Dora-esque type distractions toward the end of the long trip (ie First we go over the little bridge, then onto the dirt road, then through the watery creek. Bridge. Dirt Road. Watery Creek. Say it with me...) We saw the cows - one of whom rudely poked out his tongue. We wandered around the tall grass. We played together. I played around with the macro setting on the camera. We had a photo shoot on top of a windy hill (cut short when I was setting up the camera on my 'pile-o-rocks' tripod and spied a nasty spider about 1cm from my eye... much scrambling from me. and amusement from those looking on.) Then we headed for home. I did the driving (in the dark and the rain - erg) and the rest of the tribe did the sleeping...

k2tog

How wonderful is this???

Check out this talented artist here and here...