Duck… Flying Week!
This week has been speedy. I love it when Friday arrives before you know it.
I went to see Carrie and friends this week with Rhonda. I miss her. It’s made life very different working without a close friend to exchange life, at a gentle pace, with everyday. We catch up now at least once a week usually, but it’s not the same as that daily interaction. We have these rushed catch up conversations highlighting the peaks and troughs, but lacking in detail and that constant supportive presence. It was nice to sit with someone who laughs at the same bits.
Life just constantly changes doesn’t it? No matter how much you try to cling on to the lovely bits, they move on and no matter how much you despair at the tough times, fearing they will never leave, they do.
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First Day Back
So many things happen in a day at school. Today was no exception. When you interact with so many people, both staff and students it makes for a very full day. It was great to catch up with Rhonda. I hadn’t seen her all holidays and I missed her. I chatted with many of the students today and caught snippets of how they’d spent the weeks without school. I tried to mend a relationship that had gone astray in the rush of the end of last term, not sure how I went… time will tell.
After school we took Jack to see ‘Up’ 3D. I think Darin and I enjoyed it more than he did, although he assured us it was great. I laughed and cried and reflected on life’s adventures and appreciating all the precious things great and small. It was a great film. I like the 3D thing, I think it’s the first time I’ve experienced it in the cinema. There were some scenes in the animation that were dark and I kept going to take my ‘sunglasses’ off, and then everything was just blurry!
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Halfway
I haven’t blogged since last week! The weather turned a bit rough so I turned to inside activities mostly, though we did get some gardening in on Thursday. It was long overdue with some garden beds needing to be mowed rather than weeded. I want to do so much outside it is overwhelming to start sometimes. It looks much better now, yet I still see a lot to do.
We had the kids for a night last week, which is always fun. One of the kids decided to stay with her mum, I noticed her absense. I missed her actually. We didn’t get out with them curtailing our tendency to always go out when the kids are here. Darin thought it was time we did a bit of normal hang out stuff. I remember when my kids would go to their dad’s for the weekend, they tend to have high entertainment expectations when that’s what usually happens. It’s so interesting being on the other side of the ‘every second weekend’ family.
I watched a few films, the most interesting was ‘Flashbacks of a Fool’ with Daniel Craig. I have also been introduced to Carl Baron and laughed till my stomach hurt watching his DVDs. I had no idea he was so cleverly funny. I watched the Grand Final, half heartedly baracking for the Saints. I fell asleep though so I didn’t get to experience the loss. I’ve watched the Grand Prix as well on a few occasions during this season. I can barely contain my advertising analysis though whilst watching these ‘blokey’ things on TV. It’s a whole new reality to me.
I went for a drive to Golden Beach and had a long walk along the beach Saturday morning.
Yesterday we went to Ikea in Richmond to get some cutlery I wanted and as you could expect walked out with a few more items. We went to the National Gallery to see the Salvador Dali exhibition but the queue was for an hour so we took in the rest of the Gallery and resolved to go back during the week. I don’t know why I thought doing this on a Sunday was a good idea…. Ikea was packed also. We had dinner at Bukhara’s in Warragul on the way home. It was my first visit, Darin thought it wasn’t as good as it once was, I thought it was yummy.
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Harry Potter
Asha and I went to gold class to watch ‘Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince’ this week. I missed Tom. I have such great Harry Potter memories with my kids. The most amusing was when we lived at our old house and the kids climbed up on the garage roof, with a chair each and read the books (they’d both bought one each) so I couldn’t con them out of it to read it myself. They were quite smug about it, ignoring my pleas from the ground with their noses in their books.
I enjoyed spending the day with Asha though. We met at the Jam Factory, had lunch and a shop, then finished off the day with the film. This film was different to the others. I think because the characters are older and the focus was more on relationships. I don’t think younger children will enjoy it as much as the other ones to be honest.
The kids are here tonight and we got the Wii game from the film. It’s got a different focus to the film and you have to collect things, play quiddich and make potions.
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Wintry Nights
I have to go out tonight. We have an information session at school for potential mentors. I can’t believe anyone will turn up on a cold, wet and dark night like tonight. I’ve been dreading it since I got home. It’ll be better once I actually leave so I can stop the dread! Darin will cook dinner for us and I can look forward to that when I get home.
The Capricorn moon must be working it’s thing on me right now though because I have managed in this time to complete the ‘reports’ task I set for myself to do tonight. I didn’t do as much over the long weekend as I should have so it’s a relief to tick some boxes. Today was quite productive. I did break half a tooth though, so that kind of put me off my nougat chocolates that I’ve been consoling myself with. Looks like I’m going to have to switch to a mushier treat to get me through this week.
I am feeling more upbeat today than I have for a little while. I talked to Tom tonight and he sounds well. No work yet, but he has plans. He sounds healthier too and he assures me the warmth there is having a positive effect. I am happy with that. Darin and I went to see ‘My Year Without Sex’ yesterday. We drove to Southland. Those good films never make it here and I didn’t want to miss it. I really enjoyed it. I appreciated that he drove all that way for me in the cold and rain after having very little sleep the night before. His daughter was up during the night with a bad cough. Not only did he go to that effort, but he also enjoyed it with me. He is quite a lovely man.
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Weddings
Tonight I watched ‘Four Weddings and A Funeral’ again. I haven’t watched it for years and I forgot the ending, which was kind of a bonus. It reminded me of the youtube clip that has been mentioned on Twitter and some blogs in the last week ‘Brian and Ellen’s Wedding ‘Music Video’. It’s quite watchable for a wedding video. I’m curious about whether it was taken at the actual wedding though and how much the filming impacted on the day or whether it was as casual and fun as it appears.
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MIFF: Kate Bush Under Review
Last night after work I headed to the city to see the film ‘Kate Bush Under Reveiw”, which I discovered last weekend whilst browsing what was offered at the Melbourne International Film Festival. I loved Kate Bush from the first time I saw ‘Wuthering Heights’ and have purchased every album she released as soon as possible. I’ve found few friends who have enjoyed her as I have, but as one of the Kate Bush commentators said last night, her music is really personal and probably not something you would sit around and enjoy with friends. I think she is an amazing creative person, who has focussed on her art and expression and I just love the experience of listening to her music.
I’ll review the documentary on ‘Falling Brick’. I want to comment here, how annoying I found the audience. I think the control freaky teacher in me was rising throughout the evening. I had to fight the urge to stand up, turn around and ask them all to leave and meet me in my office at lunchtime. The inappropriate laughter everytime the words sexual or sensual were mentioned, was what I would expect from 15 year 0ld students. I wonder if they had any idea about what they were coming to see and just couldn’t get tickets for the footy or what? It irritated me no end. The giggles became infectious and the collective group of fools began laughing about all kinds of trivial things. What were they expecting? I felt embarassed to be amongst them.
I enjoyed the documentary style film. I was familiar with the time periods and have purchased the DVD from Amazon this morning so I can enjoy it in peace. There were some interesting comments and reflections made that I would like to hear, without kidlike cackling. I think I am becoming anti-social.
It is going to show again in Melbourne so if you are a fan, check it out here. If not, find something else to amuse yourself with. Grrr
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Visiting Albury
I left home on Saturday morning, heading towards Albury/Wodonga, with no real idea how to get there. I can read though luckily so I just followed the signs. I was staying at my old friend Glenn’s on Saturday night and had intended to visit Kat first in Albury. I had no idea how far away it all was! I thought it was about 3 hours from my home, but no, it was 3 hours from Melbourne, so that made it a long trip. I slashed the idea of visiting Kat first and went straight to Glenn’s. He lives near Beechworth.
It was marvellous to see him after probably 6 years. We have chatted a couple of times on the phone in that period, but hadn’t seen each other for quite a while. I expected him to be married with kids based on our last conversation, but not yet. We have so many interests in common so chatted happily away about astrology, why our relationships haven’t been what we expected, dreams, learnings and memories from our shared times together. It was really enjoyable and I learnt a bit as I do around Glenn. He is very creative and his home is packed with books I’ve always wanted to read, instruments and toys I want, like telescopes and lots of projects. He was digging dirt to install some solar heating contraption when I arrived. So Glenn!
It’s very beautiful where he lives. I want to come back another time and spend a longer time, perhaps when it is a little warmer. It is so pretty though, the hills and farms, wineries, orchards along windy roads that are great to drive on. I didn’t go back on the highway as I headed to Kat in Albury.
I’m blogging from Kat’s house now, whilst she is at work. I’ve spent a great couple of days with her. We saw a beautiful film last night ‘The Painted Veil’ and we’ve eaten great food. She’s shown me the libraries, the city one as well as the Uni one, as she had to return some overdues. I remember Uni libraries – always the overdues ended up costing a weeks worth of food money when I was there! She lives in an amazing house that I really love. There are four students living here, but it is an old house that has great space and there are plenty of places that offer privacy. I really like it. It’s rainy today so I haven’t ventured out to look around as much as I intended, but I will be back!
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10 Things I Hate About You
We had a lively discussion in my two year 9 English classes today. We’re studying ‘Taming of the Shrew’ and ’10 Things I Hate About You’. I’ve viewed both films with two classes this month. For the last couple of years this unit has been popular with year 9 English classes. The conversations and comparisons create so much discussion and response from the students – it’s right up their alley. This stuff is constantly on their mind at this age, so it really takes little prompting or convincing of the value. Hands shoot up to comment and give perspective. They listen carefully to each other.
I always aim to have time to view ‘Kiss Me Kate’, yet have never managed to squeeze it in.
Both classes had a pretty thorough appreciation of the differences between the films as well as the similarities and especially noticed the role of women had changed since the 1967 version of Shakespeare’s romantic comedy. Students reveal their perspectives as girls and boys. In particular the scene where Patrick (played by the late Heath Ledger) creates a spectacle singing and dancing at the sports ground. The girls love that scene and would love to receive that attention. The boys say it would be incredibly risky to behave like that and they feel they would never do it. They explore the bravery and courage behind grand gestures of love, and perhaps the reality. It is so timely for year 9 students to look at relationships, romance and love from a bit of a distance from their daily angst.
Classes like those never feel like work. I was feeling pretty cranky and tired today, yet those 2 hours shine brightly in an overpacked day.
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Patchwork Gift
Thanks so much to my wonderful Auntie Jude for the gift of this gorgeous patchw
ork work of art! I appreciate the work that goes into patchwork. When I was a Neighbourhood House Co-ordinator we had a patchwork class and the ladies in the class worked on some wonderful gifts for their loved ones. A lot of effort and love goes into putting them together.
I have always longed for a Patchwork made by someone who loves me. One of my favourite films is “How To Make an American Patchwork Quilt”. It’s embodies warmth and care to me.
Thankyou:-)
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