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.