Monday, April 27, 2009

Stack



As I said to the tallier, "How can I feel so naughty and so happy at the same time?". UQ Alumni book sale! Wonderful wonderful wonderful. Do you know I got a copy of the Harrods cookbook with the famous pork chops and artichoke hearts recipe as an early birthday present for Ms Cutting? $2! Bargain. I also got Who's Who of Australian Women 2007 for $5! Bargain! And Gerard Millerson's Techniques of Television Production - $5! And...and....and...a word to the wise - take a shopping trolley with wheels on so you don't strain your back carrying around a box like I did. It's still going until Wednesday. OMG! I've just realised I can go BACK!!! I'm working tomorrow night so my day is free. This time I can be more organised and take my 50 Books for the Year list with me. I was looking for The Spare Room by Helen Garner - got everything else but - this review made me giggle - though I'm sure Ms Garner is not amused. Got Arthur Ransome's The Picts and the Martyrs though which I've never seen before so I'm pleased about that....(just realised that that is another Author's society I could join...I wonder if Violet Needham and Arthur Ransome would have got on????) and Crime and Punishment for $1.50 - Miss Pat and I will fight over that one. Honest to goodness - it's a booklovers dream. So very naughty today. Bought a coat for the big roadtrip to the Southern Highlands from Rivers. I have a coat already really but...it might get wet...best to have a back up. And the tax bonus has apparently been put into my bank account. It will go straight back out to dear Mastercard and other good creditors. I am like a pig in mud...only without the flu...thank you very much.

Sunday, April 26, 2009

Pumpkinpatch




It's another beautiful day in Brisbane. I have taken the dog for a walk and cleaned Tweetie's cage and put her out in the sun to talk to the other birdies. If you look closely at the photo you will see the beginnings of The Day of the Triffids in our backyard. This is the result of our cheerfully scattering to the four winds the remains of the guinea pig food when we clean their cages. Pumpkin seeds have obviously taken root and gone mad. At least we think they're pumpkins - let us know if you think they're something else. Did you know that the BBC is currently making a new series of The Day of the Triffids starring the gorgeous Eddie Izzard no less and Vanessa Redgrave and Jason Priestly and and and....Did you know that you can follow Eddie Izzard on Twitter? But I digress..

What else? Well I'm still ploughing my way through Dostoyevsky's Humiliated and Insulted. I am indebted to Tomcatmurr for lighting the way in reading Dostoyevsky. I have renewed my vows to lose weight and have joined WW online - hence the walk this morning.

I am getting very excited about taking Long Service Leave from 1 July. Plans so far are knitting; librarything; golf; bridge; building a vege garden; writing a family history book; de-cluttering and travelling. Can't wait!65 days and counting.

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

11:11



It's 11:11 by the Playschool clock. Robert and I in our early years used to look at the digital clock often and be astounded that it was 4:04 or 10:10 or 12:12. Did anyone else suffer from this phenomenon?

What's new in our world? Well check out this fantastic painting painted by none other than my Libby-Bel. We went away for Easter Sunday to visit Great-Aunt-Alice and Nanna Fay, Uncle Michael and Aunty Kath and this is what we came home to...pretty special isn't it?

What else is new? Well I went to see Tulpan tonight. Courtesy of the wonderful people at the Asia Pacific Screen Awards. . It is directed by Sergei Dvortsevoy and is set in Kazakhstan. If you've seen The Story of the Weeping Camel it is familiar territory.

I have been reading a lot of Dostoevesky lately - because of a group I've joined on Librarything. I'm up to Book Number 3. There are a lot of similar themes here.

The still you can see from the movie is the main character Asa who is filled with joy at the thought of winning a wife and living the dream of owning his own yurt, sheep and sundry other items e.g. Japanese solar panels. But Asa is blessed with unfortunate looking ears - rather like Prince Charles - and his dreams are thwarted. There are many great moments in this movie and so many interesting faces - with or without unfortunate ears. In the joyous still, Asa's friend is playing Boney M's Babylon on the truck cassette player - I suspect the only cassette he has in his possession.

Anyway - there are some wonderful scenes - perhaps you've heard about the birth of the sheep - 15 minutes of birthing - that sheep sounds like any woman in childbirth I believe. I liked the scene where the goat kisses Asa in the shed and the scene where the mummy camel gives the animal doctor on the motorbike with the sidecar a hard time. Her baby is in the side car. Yes, yes, I know - you're confused - just go and see the movie. You'll never complain about working in an airconditioned office again.

Back to Dostoyevsky. I am reading Humiliated and Insulted (can't get over a publisher accepting that as a title for a book - "you wanna lighten up a little Fyodor? - people want a bit of an escape you know - what about - For the love of Mike - now there's a good title.") So Natasha says to Vanya and I quote - "Somehow we've got to suffer our way through to our future happiness, purchase it by new ordeals. Suffering purifies everything...." Discuss.

I am meant to review "The New 50 Simple Things Kids can do to save the Earth" by The Earthworks Group. I was sent an Early Reviewers copy by Librarything - bless them. More than 1 million copies have been sold already - this is a reprint. It was originally published 20 years ago. Gosh.

The only way I think I can effectively review this is by taking action - which ultimately is what I believe the authors hopes happens as a result of reading this book...and given that I am an adult that should be easy peasy yes? So for the next 50 days watch this site and see how I go. First challenge - recycle glass. So easy. I already do that. So what can I do that I don't do already? Pick up bottles when I find them, the book says and take them home to recycle.

Thoughts so far about the book - is it preaching to the converted? What makes people save the earth? Reading a book? I don't think so. I think they need to be inspired by example. I handed out How to Vote Green cards for a friend at our last local election. I'm not a real greenie. Heck the real greenies were very reluctant to hand over the how to vote cards to me at the polling booth last election - "She wears pearls - she can't be a greenie!" Who inspired me? The mother of a dear friend when I was growing up. Mrs Davis. She would stop the car and pick up litter by the side of the road. Now that impressed me. She would write lists on the back of old envelopes. She would shop at St Vincents. My mother wouldn't be seen dead at St Vincents. Guess who's still alive?

And if you have a dream and think it is too late - think again!!! Check out the You tube clip of Britain's Got Talent from last weekend. Susan Boyle you are my hero!!!!Five and a half million people have viewed this clip already. When I first watched it this morning it was 3 million. Now that's a phenomenon.

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

therapy


Right then....because you are a select bunch ...you get a sneak preview of the forthcoming "blanky". If I was a decent upstanding citizen this would, on completion, be going straight to the poor folk made homeless by the recent bushfires in Victoria. I confess to being somewhat reluctant to parting with it - as no doubt they were somewhat reluctant to part with their homes, animals...oh all right...I'll give it to them...it's just it will be the first blanket I've ever knitted like and I feel it should be an "heritage" item like - passed down generation to generation - "Your great-grandmother Alex knitted this!"...."Well I don't bloody want it...what were they on in the noughties for goodness sake - Lithium? - it's hideous!" So let's see how we feel at the end of 60 L shapes. L for learner drivers. L for Loving. L for Leaving home. L for Lugubrious. Isn't that a great word? What does it mean? I thought "wordy". I was wrong...doleful, sad, mournful. Very apropos. "Bespoke" - that's another word that has been bandied around lately - sounds like a bicycle wheel - means custom-made apparently...there you go...a "Bespoke Blanky". My therapy in times of lugubriousness whilst teaching learner drivers how to love and leave home. Lent. A time of abstinence n'est-ce pas? Now finished. L. Loani - best friend and bridesmaid aka Grand Purl Baa. LOL - laugh out loud. Now that's more like it. Languish. Long. Lubricate. Goodness me. What a Lot of things you can think about when knitting Ls. That's aLL. Over to you. Leg up. Sorry - couLdn't heLp it. What's your favourite L word?

Sunday, April 5, 2009

OMG

Librarything is down. What's a girl to do? I work all weekend. I come home. All I want is my slippers and librarything. Is it too much to ask? I bought myself a bottle of Evans and Tate. This is what one does when there is a global economic crisis and your teenager won't come home. I am reading Suite Francaise. I will be very morose when I finish. The writing is so ...very...apropos...perfect...so contemporary...how can it be? It was written in 1940/1941. Nothing changes...we're all the same...year after year...century after century...well of course they didn't have librarything then but you know what I mean. Was Evan and Tate around then? Certainly good wine was around and about....will I twitter or won't I? I suspect I'd be a twat if I twittered. Right then, that's all I've got to say. I'd put up a photo of my blanket that I'm knitting but the cameras out of batteries. What's everyone going to do with their tax bonus thingummy? Mine's been eaten into savagely with a speeding ticket ....typical eh? I am the epitome of a dag and then I go and get a $200 speeding ticket...dag no more...double dag.