Live I Must

Well yes, Spring has been around for a bit but it was only today that I really felt it. I was doing some gardening in the backyard, and all at once, my house, street and neighbourhood came alive. So it seemed. The birds in our gum tree would not stop singing (not that I wanted them to), planes kept going overhead, Arky was digging like a maniac into the fresh compost heap, the sun was beating down onto the pavement, lawnmowers were going off, but it was all overpowered by the demolishing that was going on next door. The jackhammering (or whatever they use for that kind of thing) was so loud, and to me it was the real sound of winter being well and truly over. (I found out yesterday morning that the next 2 houses down from ours are being demolished to make way for a block of units. We heard the banging over breakfast–we thought it was on our own roof! ) (I’ve never seen a house being demolished before… with every swing they took at it, I felt somewhat sad for the home.)

I also felt like I was a character in a classic novel today, and as I listened to the sounds around me, it was like I was hearing an author describing the passing of time, from winter to spring. And the demolishing… it was signifying new visions, new projects, more changes are on the way. A reminder that life moves fast.

Speaking of being out with the old, the pot above was left behind by the previous owners of our place. The plant had died and the soil was beyond hard. It took me so long to get the hideous, stubborn mess out of the pot. At one point I almost gave up (if I could’ve lifted it I would have thrown it) as I have never seen such a grotesque, not-going-to-budge root system like that before. But it felt so good when I tipped the (terribly heavy!) pot to the side, gave a tug and the mess just slid out… Speaking of in with the new, the pot will get a paint job, and then I’ll plant a crazy, out of control herb. Probably mint.

The new house has got me really inspired lately. I’m having to look at lots of pretty things as part of our renovation process, too. I’ve decided to blog about my online discoveries in a side project called Nifty Things. Here’s the address. It’s very visual, not much text, just letting the images speak for themselves and hoping that others are inspired by them, too. (All images contain a link to their source!)

I’ve also extended the categories to other lifestyle stuff like kids, cooking and gardening.

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It just so happens that it has been many years since my last visit to the Adelaide Royal Show. (I’ve been with my hubby since 2002 and we’ve never even visited in that time–that’s how long ago.)

My son was only a few months old when it was on last year and so I thought taking him would be pointless then. This year I was torn, cause I really wanted to go for his sake, but I knew how painful a visit to the show can be. Heh. And then I discovered there was a Buzz Lightyear show bag (my son’s favourite film is Toy Story without a doubt) and I was there. I wanted mr hubby to come too, but he couldn’t get the time off work and tomorrow (Saturday) wasn’t an option. Boo Hoo.

So on the Wednesday morning just passed, my sister joined us and I braced myself for a mini nightmare. But to my surprise, I ended up having  fun, and much more than I thought I would. I was seeing the show through a 17 month old’s eyes after all, and what a delight it was. (It also helped that we went during one of the quieter times; being pushed and shoved in the showbag pavillion, or crowdsurfing in Sideshow Alley was not my idea of a good time!)

After arriving, we breezed through the showbag hall and I bought the Buzz showbag as planned. I felt good! Felt like I’d accomplished all that I’d set out to do, and would have been okay to go home at that point. Hehe. I also bought the Lazy Town bag. While there, we dropped in at the Port Power stand, my son got himself a free sweat band, and we said hello to a friend. Then it was time to check out the animals…

I ended up laughing lots at the alpacas. They looked so apathetic, or were very good at poker faces, oh those poor guys to be cooped up like that…  One of them (see image below) was oblivious to a piece of hay hanging from the side of his mouth (for ages) and there I am making stupid hand gestures to will him to shake it off. I was totally cracking up. After that, my son had his photo taken with the biggest piece of living dairy I have ever seen. My boy wanted to look, but didn’t want to, and he was borderline-scared, but I was very proud of his bravery. His facial reactions, which were mostly a subtle kind of disbelief, were absolutely hilarious. He sought short-term comfort in the animal worker there while posing next to the cow.

After the farm stuff, we bought a ticket for the mini merry go round. I was allowed to sit on the base and hold my son up. It was difficult to hold him in place and I was paranoid he was going to try and get off and consequently fall. I don’t think he enjoyed it much –  he whinged a tad towards the end — but there were no tears. Phew! I wasn’t wearing my glasses (never do) and by the end of it I was a bit dizzy. Someone’s gettin on a bit. Team me up with Ferris – not!

Major highlight was the poffertjes… even if they were a bit doughey (and not as good as the ones I got used to in Brisbane) but still very yummo. My son tried some for the first time as well and would have eaten the whole plate if I let him.

Rather than see events from start to finish, we caught glimpses–ducks dressed in formal gear pecking at people, the last minute of a wood chopping competition, a pet show that had a squirrel jumping hurdles, and my boy found himself head on with a huge sheep’s bottom wet with poo. Nice!!! Little things, but incredible snapshots for a 17 month old to see.

Right at the end, we paid $5 for one of those good ol’ clown head games (the ones where the ball goes in their mouth etc) except these were farm animal heads instead. Every one wins a prize the lady had said, so why not. My sister  helped my boy place each ball and I took photos.  His prize was either a blowing bubbles set, or a pack of power rangers. Of course I went for the rangers.

So we only spent a couple of hours there, as my son had grown tired and my sister had to go back to work. I do wonder if staying longer would have killed the experience but I suppose when you pay so much to get in (we were fortunate to have a free pass though) then you want to get your money’s worth.

I had almost forgotten to buy a little something for hubby, and thought any one of the chocolate showbags would do, but my generous sister ended up buying him The Family Guy showbag out of sympathy.

During the walk back to the car, my boy was already fast asleep. He may have been dreaming of the Lazy Town magnetic dart board that he was going to be spending hours playing with. (Big hit that has been and best $10 I have ever spent. Hehe.)

Yes, it seemed to be the right thing to do: build my son his first house out of the cardboard box that our new dishwasher came in. It was the perfect size for my son’s little abode.

The box had been sitting under the pergola in the backyard for the last couple of weeks and it was only today that I decided to bring it in and do the cubby thing. My efforts were fairly make-shift, figured hubby would do the more technical stuff later. We tipped the box sideways, invited Teddy and Mr Giraffe, brought in some plasticware, a flute, and an old blue bedsheet. We had ourselves a little housewarming party – if I may call it that.

Gotta say, I’ve never done the role-playing thing with my son before and I think he was a little fascinated by it all. As I interacted with the stuffed guests, my son was kind of looking at me as to say, “you expect me to believe all of this?”. It really was hilarious. I’m hoping that I will find him hosting his own tea party one day – I’ll probably faint from how cute a sight that would be.

We then decided to invite Arky the dog (our real dog – not a toy!), and things were okay for a while there. No doubt we were cosy, but we were happy. My son even fed him some “food” from the plasticware. (I couldn’t stop laughing cause he was mimicking the way I had been interacting with Teddy and Mr Giraffe.) However, Arky soon tried to eat Teddy and that’s when things started to get out of hand. While the dog was eating one of the guests, my son did a mini chuck and Arky thought that would be something better to eat, and so I had to evict him before things got totally gross. Arky was banished from the house, the spew got cleaned up, Teddy recovered, and we all decided it was best to give the new house a break.

Later on that day, the house got tipped the right way up, and my dear hubby cut out some windows and a nice big door. He also lined the base of the house with some wood (that originally came with the box) to make it all sturdier. I’m thinking that I’d like to paint the house a nice vibrant colour at some point, too. We’re in renovation world at the moment (having just bought our new house a couple months ago) and so I think some cubby window furnishings are going to be necessary, too. Hehe.

We moved into our new place on Friday, and this is the first proper chance that I have gotten to sit down (headache-free) and catch up on all my online happenings. Mess is all around me, and it’s going to take so long to clear it all, especially when you are planning to renovate, and when you have a little one on your back too.

We were supposed to be out of our old house by 12pm but we had so much stuff–I was opening cupboards and junk just kept coming out! My heart sank when the removalist told us that they needed to make 2 trips. This meant that we didn’t get out til 2pm! Thank goodness that the new owners had the same problem as us; they were still stuck at their place clearing out gear, even by the time we had left. Phew!

It feels so weird to move from a relatively modern home into a much older home… there are lots of big things to be done here, lots of dodgy little things to fix too, although there are so many cool things here that I have always wanted in a home.

As for my dear little boy, he has taken the transition very well. He would live outside if I let him… he is a totally different kid when he roams the backyard — it’s so fantastic! There is now lots of space for him and my dog, and finally a decent space for us to dine outside and catch rays…

This morning, we happened to be outside and my son was mesmerised by a flock of birds that were continually circling the sky. He would laugh and clap every time they flew by. It was so awesome to see his reaction. This would NEVER have happened at our old house. Our little courtyard just wasn’t that inviting. So, as of Friday, we really do feel like a totally different family!

I was very sad on moving day–I took five minutes to back out of my driveway for the last time, and while there were some moments when I thought, omg, what I have done, and why didn’t we just stay put, I’m now really glad that we made the move and I can’t wait to make this house feel like a real home.

( I can’t help but feel a little guilty sitting down right now, enjoying a cup of tea, because hubby is slaving away in the first bedroom, sanding down walls in preparation for painting. But he’s been itching to do it, and he makes for a very cute newbie tradie.)

I’ve taken part in a July edition of the Absolute Write Blog Chain — ah, the good ol’ days! At the end of the entry, we need to ask the next blogger a question.  Benjamin Solah was before me and he asked me this:

Does your online writing and presence help or hinder your other writing projects? How would like to better adjust your online work to cater to your offline writing or creating?

Firstly, it must be said that I am not doing much, if any, serious writing these days. This is quite obvious from the nature of my posts over the last couple of years. Fortunately, the little smidgen of writing that is going on in my life is just enough to keep me in touch, and to be able to honestly answer Benjamin’s question.

My web journal is the main writing that I am doing, and this helps me because it’s still writing nevertheless. It keeps my brain stimulated. This “work” is very different to what I would write (and have written) offline. There are a couple of ways that I could use the web presence as an advantage, which has worked for me in the past. One is posting snippets online of my offline work, and then using any feedback given constructively. Sometimes, the feedback gives me the warm and fuzzies, and serves as a nice personal validation for me.

I think the only adjustment that I could really make is to decrease the amount of time I spend writing online! And this is purely because I am trying to juggle a gazillion things at the moment: I’m also a mummy that has launched a new online business — need I say more? If I had to choose between a colourful web journal and a polished piece good enough for submission, then, er, give me the latter thanks! I love contributing to my web journal, it’s fun and it makes me feel connected, but developing my other writing is far more important.

(Excuse me while I laugh at myself. It’s easy for me to write that, ’cause for the time being,  there’s no actual “other writing” going on over here.)

The other great thing about the web stuff is that it’s a brilliant procrastination. Well, depending on which way you look at it, as it may not be so great, but I (like most writers) have a deep fear of submitting my work. The web writing is a way for me to avoid the rigmarole of it all. I don’t quite know what I am waiting for. Really.

I guess I’ve made it sound like the online writing is coming off as a hindrance, and that may be true, but to be honest, I like the groove that I am in, and I like what the web offers me today. And although my writing bone may be brittle at the moment, the good news is that I am still creating! (Besides, I have promised myself that I will make a comeback some day. Complete with ‘68-comeback-special-style black leather suit and everything.)

Cheers to Benjamin for the question. Next up is Lady Cat of Random Thoughts and I would like to ask her:

If you had to publish a book for writers starting out (think King’s ‘On Writing’ or Bradbury’s ‘Zen In The Art…’), what kind of approach would YOU take?

In order, here are the very cool participants of the blog chain:

• DniC: Four-Lettered Words
• BigWords: The Graveyard
• Fokker Aeroplanbau: I’m Always Right, Far Right
• harri3tspy: spynotes
• Razibahmed: Blogging37
• Forbidden Snowflake: Delirious…
• bsolah: Benjamin Solah, Marxist Horror Writer
• jen.nifer: Live I Must
• Lady Cat: random thoughts
• Fame<Infamy: Ambiguous Vindication
• Rosemerry: Beyond Tourism: Florida’s Yesteryear
• aimeelaine: Aimee Laine
• Proach: Deanna’s Information Center
• Apelle: Ghost Words and Other Echoes
• lostwonderer5: Lost Wanderers Writing Blog
• upsidedowngirl: UpSideDownGrl’s Writing Blog
• JamieMT: The Variety Pages

Last Tuesday evening, I had a magnificent experience at the Simon and Garfunkel concert. It was a musical journey, and I visited my childhood along the way. At various stages, I visualised myself in our old lounge room… lying down on our purple and blue carpet, running my fingers across the plastic pockets inside my mum’s vinyl record covers.

At the concert, one of the things that stood out for me was how most of the songs appeared to be slowed down; it was like they were dwelling on the notes cause they knew we wanted to savour their music. Oh, rightly so. I love music with layers and richness… this was them all over.

Kathy’s Song starts and I am off with the fairies in a very good way. And when they did Bridge Over Troubled Water, I was so moved. I know the Eva and Elvis versions back to front. It’s just really special to me that I got to hear these beautiful songs live by the ‘original guys’ and the best bit (and probably odd) was that I felt like I could still hear Eva and Elvis singing them while Simon and Garfunkel were. (Nothing worse than hearing an original song after you are used to a cover version, and you prefer the cover version still!)

I’d like to add that when Paul Simon sang Diamonds On The Soles Of Her Shoes, I could feel the African heat on the stage. It was more than a song. It was a multi-dimensional musical story… actually, each song was like that… they really took you there.

I also thought they were such humble guys, personable, happy to talk to the crowd, and performing like they have never fallen out of love with their tracks. Happy Jen! Happy me! I feel emancipation coming from somewhere. Their music is freedom.

My one criticism — they didn’t sing Wake Up Little Susie. Hehe. I know that it’s not their song (apparently they are huge Everly Brothers fans) but I must’ve played their recording of it a zillion times as a child.

I’ve been to a lot of concerts over the years, and this one has to be right up there with the best. I was just so grateful to be a part of their audience, and to see their brilliance on the stage.

It just doesn’t compare to the music of today. This makes me sad.

Sadly, my mum couldn’t be there due to health reasons. If it wasn’t for her, I wouldn’t have known their music the way that I did. I thought of her right through the concert. However, I have my generous little sister to thank for this wonderful night. We are nine years apart, and she has great taste in music, and really appreciates the old gear. I am so glad.

So, I’ve been playing their tracks non-stop this week. My son seems to particularly like ‘I Am A Rock’, especially the ‘I am an iiiiiiiiiiiiiiisssssssssssslllllllllaaaaaaaannnnnd’ part…

When I was a youngster, I spent hours choreographing a dance to MJ’s Bad. It was possible that I used it for a choreographic competition at my ballet school–I’m not sure. I got so engrossed, that I’d go to bed with every note and lyric from the track sounding in my head. I wanted an outfit just like the one he wore in the video clip, too.

Well they say the skys the limit
And to me that’s really true
But my friend you have seen nothing
Just wait til I get through . . .

When I was younger still, my mum made me a sequin glove just like the King Of Pop’s. I wish I kept it. That would have been a really cool keepsake.

Around the same time, my hair used to do weird things whenever I came out of the shower. Someone once said that it made me look like MJ. I remember being really upset by that comment. On this day, the comment makes me smile.

Now that I think about it, a lot of his songs were background music to my childhood and early teenage years. I remember listening to Man In The Mirror over and over and over, and believing every word that he sang each time I played it.

I’ve been stopping in my tracks when I hear people say that he was the Elvis of our generation–those who know me well are aware of the huge Elvis fan that I am.

On another note, I can’t help but feel disappointed when people feel the need to define him by the scandalous events that the media couldn’t get enough of. The reason that he we celebrated him in the first place was because of his music, and so why can’t that be the reason that we remember him when he died…? I don’t understand it.

This little post is a sincere farewell to the man who blamed it on the boogie and who had every right to.

Just over two months ago, I wrote that we were looking to move house. It ended up taking us about 6 weeks to get our house ready for sale, and then we were lucky to get a buyer after the first open inspection.  We were a bit shocked at how quickly it happened, and resigned ourselves to the idea of renting–even though we knew that doing so would suck really, really, badly. We threw ourselves into a vigorous search for a new place. Last weekend, we found a place, but talked ourselves out of it, and then talked ourselves back into it. Now, a week later, it is ours. It has mostly what we need, but more importantly, it has loads of potential, as well as room for expansion–should we want to stay there long-term. Settlement for both houses is on the same day, which is about a month from tomorrow. That’s kinda done and dusted from this angle. Who would have thought it.

We’re terribly excited about the whole thing and I can’t stop buying home magazines.

My creative activities are a bit non-existent at the moment, due to the impending move (and due to the Borderline Hippy store picking up its pace, too). I don’t think I need to remind readers that all the while I am running after my son. ;-) That little boy of mine refuses to sit still, and although sometimes I am stuck for ideas on how to amuse him, we still make it, and he never fails to bring me joy throughout the day. I can really only rely on his sleeps to get any decent work done; however, that’s the challenge that I embrace because I want to be the best mummy that I can be.

Late last night, my dog Arky pulled a stunt that I thought was way too adorable.

He climbed into a box that had clothes intended for a thrift shop, and he thought he’d make a bed out of it. (I didn’t notice til about 12 am, when I was on my way to bed, and I cracked up at the sight of him.)

He’s found some great sleeping spots over the years and this one tops them all!

I ended up dragging the box (with him still in it) out into the kitchen area. He stayed inside the box the whole night long!