Blessings

Another day in paradise. A pod of whales were frolicking off South Bondi this morning. They didn't come in close but seeing their spray, and a few mini breaches was the perfect kickstart for my day. And hasn't it been a lovely one? All yours again my darling in just 1 more week. Not that I'm excited or counting or anything.

SPC: PopArt Final - Look in the Mirror

I feel so sad about the debacle which saw the Socceroos booted out of the World Cup early this morning. It isn't fair or just or deserved. The referee needs to have a good long hard look at himself in the mirror and hopefully never make such a bad decision again.

More SPC'ers over here.

0:0

Nil all is better than being behind at half time, but we've had some scares. Alot of them in fact. Australia look good but so do Italy. We've had way more possession though but when Italy had the ball they seriously did more with it.

Good luck Australia, my fingers and toes are crossed!

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I'm not changing the title of this post despite the fact that Australia were beaten. Not so much as beaten by the better team but by over the top and ourageously inconsistent officialdom. It seems that there really should have been more penalties given during the game if the lunge by Neill was considered unfair play. Go figure.

Bravo Australia - it was another brilliant game played and I'm so sad you guys didn't get to leave the competition in the manner you deserved.

You're all winners to me!!!

We Love You Socceroos!

Australia vs Italy in less than 7 hours.......aaaaaahhhhhhhhh!

12 degrees is COLD!

After 3 days of sitting on my butt, I needed to move. My circulation feels bad, my hands and feet are cold and seeing a beautiful blue sky I thought I'd have morning walk at the beach before meeting my plumber and inspector from the Waterboard. But it was so bloody freezing. I hadn't dressed warmly enough and had bare feet - bad decision. The sand was hurting my feet it was so cold. I aborted mission when I looked up at the temperature display on the surf club - it said 12 degrees - ouch! I couldn't believe people were swimming without wetsuits.

And on the way home my plumber calls me to tell me the inspector has called off the meeting today, and pushed it to Thursday this week. I didn't believe a word and called the inspector myself who told me he hadn't cancelled. I feel like such an idiot for having paid my plumber the whole amount last week - because what's in it for him now to come back to my place? Or is he now trying to piss me off by wasting my time and setting up appointments that he cancels?

This weekend's module was pretty full on. I had the pleasure of giving someone a pretty amazing and deep balance. The goal she had set was one she has been working on the entire year and this weekend we cracked it - she allowed herself to really surrender to the process, and most importantly trusted me enough to open up and divulge and be honest about what the issues are that are holding her back. I feel like I've made an upwards shift in my development as a Kinesiologist which seriously motivates me and reinforces for me that this study is so important and I'm so completely motivated. I love it!!!

And I realise that my idea to share my favourite links on Mondays hasn't really happened since the 1st one.....so I think I'm going to rename it "Monthly Monday Linkages" - and that way I'm sure to not let myself down.

The One and Only

Eleven years ago tonight, my step-father passed. I remember looking at the moon the night after he died, and it was just a sliver of moon, but it was placed like a smiling mouth in the sky. It was dead straight ahead of where we were driving and I pointed it out to my Mum. It was such a beautiful sign for us. Brian had suffered a long time battling cancer, and during that time our immediate family - my sister and Mum and I tried to come to terms with it all - and the biggest help was reading "The Tibetan Book of Living & Dying". In the final hours of his life we sent him loving energy and approval and acceptance for him to go - my Mum especially so because their attachment was huge. Being with him, sitting at the foot of his bed, with my Mum and sister either side of him we all experienced the most wonderful gift, the most precious exchange of energy and love and intensity. Life and death and the process was so completely present in the room and with his last breath a huge energy came out of him, all over my Mum and into the room, it was light and heat and tangible. It touched me so deeply that all I could do was smile and send him on his way. And then the tears came. It took me several years to really get rid of that gnawing pain of grief, that hollow empty feeling that you feel in your gut and heart and throat. Today is different, the grief has gone. But I'll never forget how important he was for me and my understanding of life, his love, the good times, and for making us a family.

Just to further put things in context, the beautiful experience of passing 1st hand was repeated again when my nieces were born. I again had the privelege of being present, and all I can say is that the exact same presence of energy was in the room as the babies came out into the world as when Brian passed out of the world. I felt this physically in my own body all 3 times - like a huge welling of energy and a definite sense of being connected to that energy as well as an all consuming presence of GOD or whatever you want to call that. In my short life (ok, so I know it's not that short anymore) I can honestly say I feel like the luckiest girl on the planet to have had experiences like this.

It's Dark Outside But The Fires Are Warm Within

1-1 at half time. It's been a nervous 1st half for Australia. After the Croatians scored within the 1st 5 minutes we needed to level up quickly but it took half an hour. Phewww......Getting up at 4.45am wasn't too bad......and I've possibly already hurt my throat screaming after we evened up the score. Better quickly go make another cup of tea.

With fingers crossed - I hope I next post with an Australian victory behind us.

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OH MY GOD - WELL DONE THE SOCCEROOS!!!! THIS WAS AN UNBELIEVABLY TENSE GAME OF FOOTY. I WAS SO NERVOUS I WAS SWEATING. SO TODAY IS REALLY ONE OF THOSE DAYS THAT WILL GO DOWN IN AUSSIE SPORTING HISTORY. LET'S HOPE THIS DREAM CONTINUES PAST OUR NEXT BIG TEST AGAINST ITALY. I CAN'T BELIEVE WE'VE MADE INTO THE FINAL 16.

BRAVO GUYS!!!!!! BRAVO GUUS!

I'm Hot, I'm Cold

Huge G'day to my old friend Nancy in New Jersey who tells me she's now reading this old blog!!!!! This is Bondi 2 days ago - I can't wait to bring you all here.



It's raining again today. Pouring on and off again. Thank God it was fine on Monday and Tuesday so the plumbers could work and didn't have to traipse mud through the house.



Tomorrow I begin Module 5 of my studies which means I'm half way through for Year 1. This year is flying! So much to learn and so little time.



And I'll now leave you with a little haiku, inspired by Kt, a most charming and ridiculously intelligent friend and that US soap that's been around for decades:

Like sands through the hour glass
So are my songlines
Through this precious land of ours.

Mittelpunkt

Every time someone has asked me lately how long until JD gets home, I've been answering with 4 weeks. But I've just checked and it is exactly 2 or less. My strategy of not keeping track of the day this time has paid off and it has been far easier to handle.

Last night I watched "Walk The Line". Loved it. Cried quite a bit. Think both Phoenix & Witherspoon's performances were outstanding, convincing and seriously had their own life on the screen. Highly recommend - 4 stars.



The rain returned today. I hope it fell in the country too.



Today is the Winter Solstice or the Summer Solstice depending on where you live. I wrote a list of things I want to change about myself, aspects of myself I don't wish to be or demonstrate anymore and then burnt the list. Sunset tonight was just before 5pm. Goodbye short days.

SPC June PopArt

Andy Warhol's quote that "everyone will be world-famous for fifteen minutes" has always stuck in my brain. Warhol's obsession with fame, youth, and personality is very interesting. And it seems that this obsession is becoming more prevalent. TV shows like Big Brother and Survivor and all the other reality-tv spinoffs prove just this. The contestants on these shows want the fame and viewers are obsessed by them. Even when the shows are over. Not to mention gossip magazines and the way the music industry has headed. We care more about what celebrities eat for breakfast than global warming. We care that Nicole gets her romantic wedding this time around instead of worrying about the lack of funding to the Arts sector. Very strange stuff indeed.

So do you want your 15 minutes????

I Feel Bad

Yuck what a morning - I hate confrontation, and standing up for what I think is right, when I don't know exactly what is right.

Yesterday we started the final stage of the new plumbing work so we don't have anymore of those ugly incidents. It all cost an absolute fortune, there are compliance issues, certificates are needed for works done and the Waterboard needs to make inspections and our neighbours who had the same problem want to know that the works we've done is all kosher and hasn't damaged or hindered their work etc etc - basically a whole bunch of stuff I really don't know anything about and I'm handling it all by myself.

So even though the job was quoted at 2 full days - it was all over by 9.15 this morning. I'd called the Waterboard earlier asking for information about what I should expect from the plumber on completion of the job - and I did this because at the end of Stage 1, the plumber kept putting off sending me an amended receipt for the work - because the wording was all wrong and I just didn't want there to be issues like this again, especially if we're able to get this back on insurance.

Let me point out though that the plumber and his assistants are all lovely guys and I felt totally comfortable having them in my home and I trust they've done excellent work because they manage themselves professionally, but JD and family had been adamant when they were telling me to get everything before paying the whole amount.

So the guys have packed up, and my plumber presents me with the receipt and the compliance certificate. We debated for a good 10 minutes about how this isn't exactly the compliance certificate because the Waterboard haven't inspected yet and it's more like the application. This goes on and on with him telling me this is what he always does etc etc and I'm starting to get nervous, and irritated, and less sure about what I'm saying but know I can't do this......so when I say to him well I'll pay half now and the rest when I receive new diagrams etc from the Waterboard he isn't shy about telling me he isn't happy. So without any other options I asked him if it's cool if I call the Waterboard and ask them a few questions. He agreed, and after we were put through to the inspector for my area himself, an appointment for next Monday had been made. Phew. I apologised for making my plumber feel like I didn't trust him and thanked him for everything, but I know he thinks I'm a mega bitch from hell. This feels horrible.

I called the Waterboard inspector back and thanked him for helping me out. He agreed that the plumber had been too casual about it all, and if there were any future problems I have now covered myself. He was also confused about why the plumber hadn't organised the inspection considering that he'd paid for it (or rather we'd paid for it as it was in our quote). He also told me that these sorts of problems actually come back to bite you on the butt, especially when it comes to selling a house because the sewarage diagrams are all wrong and don't make sense. I complimented my plumber because I don't want to rubbish his name at all, but he really wasn't doing the best thing for us by doing it that way.

It's all over now - and now I need to get out of the house and breathe some sea air.

Valiant in Defeat

So we lost 2-0 but it doesn't really matter. We were playing the World's Best after all. And at the end of the game the Brasilians were swapping shirts so that can only mean RESPECT.



I was speaking with my darling JD throughout the game, who was watching from the historic Domplatz in Magdeburg with his work colleagues. The huge crowd were loving how the Aussies were playing and the German commentary was completely impressed too - speaking only praise and admiration. The Germans are seriously having a lovefest with Australia during this World Cup and it seems like the feeling is mutual. All reports are saying that the Aussies cannot believe how generous and friendly and hospitable the Germans are and the Germans are adopting the Aussies into their hearts and because I know what the Germans are like 1st-hand - once you're in you're in, and the friendship bond will never ever falter. Which makes me feel very proud of the Germans because I do think they tend to get a bum steer by the rest of the world and are often completely misunderstood. And proud that we Aussies, who are a pretty endearing bunch when you scratch beneath the yobbo surface are being embraced in this way.



So I am feeling completely envious about not being able to share all of this atmosphere. If only my studies could allow it. JD had also just spent a glorious summer day on a motor-bike (a Suzuki 1200) travelling the secondary roads and passing fields covered in poppies and all sorts of flowers and summer crops. This is how we spent the summers together - packing picnics and jumping on the bike, throwing a blanket down in a field and hoping the farmer wouldn't come along, buying berries of all descriptions from the grower and stuffing our faces, driving through beautifully scented forests and crossing rivers on tiny punts. The summers 96-99 in Germany were amongst the best I've ever lived.
Which is reminding me how badly we need a scanner because that whole time was documented on slide film only - and it's been a few years now since we've had the projector out.

Nil All So Far

Aaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. The Aussies are playing pretty well - played some good defensive footy and really disciplined, and the Brasilians aren't looking in normal let alone good form. Hopefully this mix works for us and we can keep the ball out of our net next half.

I set my alarm clock for 2am, and missed the whole anthem stuff which is a pity. I hadn't got much sleep in because something was going down nearby around midnight. Cop cars driving so fast, and sirens I've never heard before going on and on - so I'm not sure what they were, and then helicopters hovering. I'm sure I wasn't dreaming it.

A dandelion tea, a quarter of a block of Almond Black & Green's and a bowl of Kettle Chips under my belt - I think I'm easily going to stay awake until the end of the match.

So fingers crossed that I'll be posting tomorrow some time and the score hasn't changed or only moved in the right direction for us.

Go Socceroos!!!!!

It's Sunday Again Already

A friend was in town from Brisbane so a bunch of us met up for dinner in Bondi. Jindi is now the oldest of all the kids - I remember when she was the first.



Doll was taking a photo of me with my step-dad's old camera.



How can trees still be producing colour like this in winter?

Not being a regular coffee drinker anymore, after yesterdays 2 latte's, Chai was all I could think about today.



Hope your weekend was swell.

Tonight Australia takes on the brilliant Brasilians in München. It's going to be interesting!!!!

Chocolate Maths

OK, just received this via email - which usually I detest, but I like this one, probably because it's about chocolate. Give it a go and see if it works for you like it did with me. Go on.......


1. First of all, pick the number of times a week that you would like to have chocolate
(more than once but less than 10)

2. Multiply this number by 2 (just to be bold)

3. Add 5

4. Multiply it by 50 -- I'll wait while you get the calculator

5. If you have already had your birthday this year add 1756....
If you haven't, add 1755.

6. Now subtract the four digit year that you were born.

You should have a three digit number, right.......

And the first digit of this was your original number (i.e., how many times you want to have chocolate each week) and the next two numbers are YOUR AGE! (Oh YES, it is!!!!). This apparently works for this year (2006) only.

f R i D a Y : r E d

I don't know the name of this tree but it produces these gorgeous seed pods which break open into these glorious red flowers, making this bare winter tree so beautiful. The bright blue behind it is the same sky we've had all week. The skies are so clear and cloudless, and on waking this morning I was able to stare out of the window and into a black sky with stars. Really such a nice way to start any day.

T h U r S d A y : B l U e

It was a toss up between showing you an image of the sea or the sky. Everything here is so blue and bright. But I choose this image because of the sheer power in the ocean. Which I find awe-inspiring. These waves were huge, slow and gentle and moved a long way before they broke near the shore. Why we don't harness the energy from the ocean that surrounds our continent and country is beyond me. Same goes for capturing the sun's energy. It's such a no-brainer. It's renewable. It's clean. And best of all - it's abundant.

W e D n E s D a Y : b L a C k - G r E y

The full moon a couple of days back was so stunning. I was mesmerised. As I started to make dinner on Monday night, it felt like a neighbour was shining a huge torch in the window - so I looked out and saw the hugest moon. It was glorious!

Self Portrait Challenge : PopArt

Not sure if you can call this popart, but with my tools and expertise this is all I can come up with today. It's also kind of green & gold, the colours worn by our winning Socceroos last night! Can't wait for our next match against Brasil.

T u E s D a Y : B r O w N

If I hadn't eaten all the Green & Blacks Organic Almond Chocolate last night, I would have taken a photo of that to represent Brown today. So this is a beautiful wall just around the corner from my house. I love the old style smaller brick they used for the facade.

M o N d A y : W h I t E

Mav & Stephanie have come up with another top idea - a week of COLOUR. If you want to join in, just post 1 photo each day:
monday is white
tuesday is brown
wednesday is black/grey (not a B/W photo)
thursday is blue
friday is red
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I loved that the sun was shining today, and so we went down to the harbour for a picnic. It was so rejuvenating. I've missed the blueness and the brightness of a sunny day. Tonight the Aussies take on the Japanese in Game 1 of the World Cup. Go Australia!!!!

I'm Famous

Flickr is so cool. An artistic friend of mine has used an image of mine (I'd posted here a while back when I was so proud of this skirt I made) - in her web design for the Australian Women's Archives.

This is the first time any photo of mine has been used in a public way (outside of this blog and flickr which I realise are very public and googleable) and was made possible by Flickr. Thank you!!!!

A Weekend in June

The rain and cold continue. It's a real winter this year and I'm loving it. I love this radical change in season. I love rugging up and wearing lots of layers and all my jackets from Germany and beanies and scarves. I love feeling that the climate can still make a cold winter and rain is falling. Tomorrow the swell is going to be huge - 3 metres or something, like how it used to be when I was a kid and not like this past decade. Sydney has seasons!!! And yesterday Europe had a scorcher - all I can say JD is soak it up because you'll be indoors again all next week.


Had a fantastic night. Possibly the night of the year. Our dear old friend AJ had his 40th and put on a cool do down at Coogee for a whole hoarde of us. It was a night of catching up with shared friends that you just somehow don't get to see that often anymore, but everytime you do you realise how much you love them and how much they mean to you. I am always amazed and feel very blessed to know some amazing people.



It ended up being a late night. If I'm up past 1am, then I can go and go and then have to force myself to sleep, knowing if I don't that I'll feel really bad tomorrow. Sometime after 3am I went to bed and woke quite early but decided to just lie there for a few more minutes thinking I'd just enjoy the warm sheets against my skin and listening to the wind howling outside a little longer - and then was rudely woken at 11.08am with a telephone call.



And today we celebrated the impending birth of a friends baby and then later on my bro-in-law's birthday which was really last Thursday - HAPPY BIRTHDAY SM!!!!!!!

Bubbles Don't Belong in Your Eyes

Several times this week I thought the rain had gone away enough to have a beach walk - and then I'd arrive and so would the wind and a downpour.



Caught up with some lovely souls again at another Sydney flickr meet. But this sake put me to sleep.


My nice hot shower before bed last night resulted in tears. Lots of them. I've got a pump style lovely organic flaxseed with orange bodywash and sometimes the opening gets a little clogged. I hadn't noticed this and pumped once and WHAM a whole load of soap straight in my eye. It was horrible. Knowing that flushing the eye out with water was only going to spread it and make bubbles made me just want to get my tears happening instead. My eye felt raw and scraped. It was so red and this morning I really do look so lovely, it's still puffy and I look stoned.



So me and my fellow students are meeting with our teacher tonight to air our concerns and worries and basically vent out frustrations. I've got a bit to say to her because there have been some things happening that I'm not happy with but I'm not feeling the venom some of the others are and I'm kind of scared about how heated things may become tonight. Let's all breathe deeply now.



I was so happy and so relieved to hear from JD this morning that success may be just around the corner in this project. Please please please. He's under a huge amount of pressure and has been working ridiculous hours and it makes me feel so helpless that I can't be there to help him feel better. I've also been dreaming so much about Germany - walking the streets of Hannover. When I lived there I thought it was boring and was often heard whinging about this and that that was wrong or missing about the city - and now I feel nostalgic about it. And TD is heading off there tomorrow to work on The World Cup and then the cricket - and basically be paid to watch top notch sport in Europe for the summer. Some of us do have a hard life. Fingers crossed to JD & TD catching up and downing a few German beers together. Good luck also to the Diegels who should be leaving today for Germany - I hope you're all well enough to fly.



It's raining here again today after yesterdays respite and glorious blueness. Everything feels so clean.

W i N t E r

Pouring rain. Icy cold winds. I saw most of yesterday through the windscreen of my car.



And sat practically on top of my gas heater once I'd come back home. And ate so much chocolate I couldn't sleep until 2am.



Seasonal change is very cool.
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Huge congrats to Lis & Andy and welcome to their baby Max, born on Sunday close to midnight. And Renate I hope your stay in hospital is brief.