I begin my 3rd module of study in a couple of hours and will then be MIA all weekend.
Tomorrow is my birthday. Happy Birthday to my sis Milva too!!!! And Suz & Shawn are getting married - which we can't be involved in because it's up north and I'll be head down at school - so congrats & have a wonderful day guys.
See you all next week & until then enjoy some pics from our bush walk earlier this week:
First town you ever lived in: Surry Hills, NSW, Australia First album owned: Abba "Arrival"
First pub gig seen: First gig was Midnight Oil circa 1983. First pub gig may have been Hoodoo Gurus.
First Celebrity Crush: Michael Jackson pre surgery days First Film you remember seeing: The Little Prince.
First time you drank alcohol: Apart from a few sips of beer as a kid, it would have been around 14-15 and I distinctly remember getting blotto on a flaggon of generic white wine with friends and barfed out of the window of the taxi home and all down the side of it and then continued most of the night much to mother's horror as I slept leaning over the toilet bowl.
First paying job: Got both these jobs in Year 10 at high school -Hair salon hair washer/tea maker/hair sweeper + tennis court receptionist. First Kiss: My first meaningful kiss was with Ben and I was about 15.
Now here's something trivial, but some of you may like to know that on the 4th of next month at two minutes and three seconds after 1:00 in the morning, the time and date will be: 01:02:03 04/05/06
That won't ever happen again in our lifetime. In fact it will be approx 400 generations before it happens again.
The blogosphere is full of so many fine talented creative brilliant souls. This week mav is contemplating why we blog at all.
I suppose I blog because it's a forum, a space and place in the world for me to put out there some part of me. It's self-publishing, it's about being seen and heard with a veil of anonymity. I can reveal parts of myself that haven't had any exposure before. But it's also because of the ever-growing number of you people who care, give validation, give thanks, share so much of themselves and inspire me.
I am a hungry soul, and adore and need loads of visual stimulation. Blogs and flickr provide for me a sumptuous feast, a never ending labyrinth of photos, paintings & drawings. I am astounded by the quality of so many blogs. I am amazed that more of you aren't writing for a living. I love the interconnectedness and linking to each other, despite my own woeful lame attempts at this - and I do endeavour to try to link more. Some blogs are the best creative search engines. Magazine publishers would envy the sheer amount of information being uploaded daily.
As I said to mav earlier this week: blogging is about connecting with all the beauty of the universe.
My sidebar has a bunch of you who have inspired me for a long time. This post is reminding me to update it so I can add more of you.
Despite the weather forecast we decided to drive south into the National Park. We were both in need of a nature-fix. And of course it rained. It was only light, but constant and so we cut short the walk we intended on doing. We still got to enjoy the rugged beauty and the elements and changed "the scenery" - sometimes living in the city just gets too much for me/us.
Visited family and again due to the weather forcing us indoors we decided to make Anzac Biscuits (an Aussie standard crisp but chewy biscuit , especially made on April 25th to remember our diggers). Our diggers meaning the men and women who fought for Australia and England and the Commonwealth since World War I days. I do not believe in war, nor in glorifying it, but I do pay respect to all those who lost their lives and for those who came home changed. It makes me so sad to think any one of us has to go through something like this.
It's Sunday night. That lengthened time concept stayed with me again today. I wonder why time has suddenly expanded - is it because I'm living in the moment? Or is it my impeccable time management? Whatever it is, I'm loving it.
Last night I joined a hen's night gaggle and had a few giggles. And learned a few new things - but not as much as most of the group who had earlier had a pole-dancing class: including how to take off a g-string and a bikini. But I now know that Morris Dancing/Dancers exists, that there is an International Pirate Day and the word "y'all" means just you but "all y'all means you all.
The wind irritated me today. It was too cold, and blowing way too strong to enjoy the beach in the clothes I'd worn. And so I sooked out and didn't even have a swim. But I was told that the water temperature is still about 24 degrees and it was almost impossible to get out, so tomorrow I'll be diving back in.
The rest of the day was spent cooking, eating, entertaining and enjoying.
I hadn't planned it this way, but I'd had an appointment booked with my teacher for a few weeks already. I'd woken yesterday with a wonderful sense of calm, clarity and peace. I felt like something deep within myself had shifted. I was in a new space. I really didn't "need" another balance as I'd only just had one the day before, but went with it anyway and now I know I've shifted things further, peeled back layers, released and corrected stuff that doesn't suit my purpose anymore.
And now the weekend is here. Time to be with my loved ones and friends. And today has had that special feel where time has expanded and it seems we had many more hours in the day. How lovely. Nothing rushed. Alot gained. Purely just living in the moment and enjoying it.
So the summer that doesn't quit turned it on for us again today folks. It's just unbelievable. And makes it really hard to worry about the dam levels when you're drying off on the beach after swimming in the divinely warm Pacific Ocean.
This morning I went and had a look at an apartment for sale in Bondi, quite near the beach. It was really nice, light, airy & didn't need much work done on it at all - and then the clunker - the real estate agent, nonchalantly and without batting an eyelid tells me the guide is upwards of $700K - yeah right dude - for a 2 bedroom flat without a view. Truly sick.
Jindi is an amazing girl and has a supremely divine energy about her, but this is going a bit too far don't you think? Now she's even performing miracles.
After our swim my sister gave me a balance and it all felt so right and so good and then when it came time to burn up the notes from the balance, this bizarre and turbulent and ferocious wind blew in and shook me up and it felt like whatever we'd just released and welcomed was physically there and it gave me goose-bumps and cold shivers for a few minutes. It was really powerful. And amazing. Something has definitely shifted.
So I feel like I'm standing on a ledge looking out into the yonder and all I see and feel is positiveness, opportunity and love.
Huge congratulations to my cousin Erika (yes another one - I have 26 1st cousins) and to Dr. Rob!!!!!!
It's always such a shame to know though, that you lovely guys share the same day as Hitler. But we won't focus on that now ok.
Last night, the Sydney Flickrheads supported one of our own at a very nice space in Balmain. There were some really beautiful nudes on show. The group is growing - and the never-ending pub crawl is ticking up the km's across town. I am still shocked to know how a group of people who met on the internet can be such a nice bunch of people. One lovely outcome has been the coupling up of 2 sweeties - and I wish you guys (who can't keep their hands off each other) only happiness together. [if some photos get posted from the group i'll nick a couple to show you all - i didn't have my digi camera with me].
There are only two mistakes one can make on the road to truth:
Not going all the way
and
Not starting
How I wish I could grow magnolia's. Aren't these perfect? [this photo is courtesy of the talented Ralph "nardell" - do check out more of his work & thanks for letting me showcase this image here]
Today my cousin turned 40. We celebrated together, her and her sister and me and my sister, 4 cousins ploughing onwards and upwards separately but together. We met at Balmoral Beach, a lovely little harbour spot on the north side.
Our mothers are sisters. We spent the early parts of our lives living as neighbours. Their big family (6 brothers & sisters) and our small one were intertwined until we were about 10 years old. For a long time now we have only got together on the occasional big family do like a wedding or the big birthday, but today we decided to surprise the birthday girl and we spent the morning and afternoon together.
It was nice. But somehow our discussions always end up coming to our family history and the weirdness and strange goings on and the kind of stuff you'd only talk about with your family and it got kind of depressing in parts. We were wondering whether all families have similar strange stuff going on and I'm sure all families do but you can't help thinking that perhaps our family may be one of the strangest.
It was good to spend time this way.4 closely related women and all so different. All our birthdays are in April and so we've decided to start some kind of tradition (lacking in our family) to celebrate at least once a year together.
I've been lulled into a false sense of time and time off and everyone being on holiday and spending each day as cruisey as you can get it because of this whole Easter holiday stuff and I suppose JD getting back just in time for it has warped it all even more. Why can't this be how life could be every day? Where the most important questions asked are: Which way is the wind blowing? Shall we go down to the beach early or when it warms up a little? What are we going to do for lunch?
Which restaurant will we meet at tonight?
Shall we drive down south and go for a big bush walk or shall we stay in Sydney?
It has been a really lovely Easter. Seeing family, seeing friends, running into old friends & being in nature. But I've not eaten one Easter Egg - is that some kind of record? And the best thing I've just realised - next week we've got another public holiday. Yeah!
The roads are so quiet. The shops are mostly all closed. There seems to be so much more space, less people, less noise, less hassle. This is wonderful. Why can't every day be more like this? We need more holidays! Less consumerism, more time with the family - with your loved ones, and more meaningful work for everyone.
Took total advantage of this beautiful beautiful day this morning. Walked a few laps of the beach to warm up enough so that the first dive under the clear green water felt so esquisitely divine all over my body. And then the next duck dives down with my eyes wide open looking at the tiny little fish swarms and watching the white sandy seabed rolling on and on and onwards into the depths of the wide Pacific was like an underwater meditation.
A quick dry off and then home to start Part 2. Yum Cha with my family couldn't have come soon enough because breakfast had long worn off and it was now 11am - the sun and sea does that to you.
So who's a lucky little brat sitting with his legs elevated and supping on champagne in the upper deck? JD that's who!
It is so amazing how your head-space is completely turned around once you hear the words "Sir, would you like the aisle or window?", knowing that this means that your crummy little pre-booked cattle-class seat is being plumped up for someone else's butt and finally, after the 6th attempt of requesting an upgrade - finally Qantas are gleefully grabbing back those 90,000 points, in return for some peace of mind , more space, better food & some levitation for 24 hours. You deserve it & please have a safe trip home!!!!!!
Only 2 more sleeps until JD walks through the airport doors and into my eager arms. Despite my obvious excitement, I’m also realising that our tiny house needs to be big enough for 2 people again. I’ve been slobbing out a tad, using the kitchen table as my study area and never, ever, cleaning it up – just making bigger piles and pushing books out of the way to make room for a plate or bowl or tea cup. There are advantages and to flying solo and having a whole house to yourself is one of them.
So today was all about chores: Put JD’s car in for a service, pay bills, deposit cheques, get money back from MBF, do a grocery shop, clean the house, sweep up all those leaves, do some loads of laundry. Blah blah blah.
I did manage to sneak in a short stroll and 10 minutes of just staring at the ocean this morning so I shouldn’t complain. Can you believe the energy out there? The ocean is so wild right now and there is so much salt in the air - it's so invigorating! But shitty for cars - that rust never sleeps.
