Sunday 28 June 2009

Mum and the Shoe


Mum: "Mana, I used your shoe."

Me: "Just one shoe?"

Mum: "Well that's all I needed to kill the spider."

Tristram and Chiara

This week, my soon to be ex-brother-in-law Tristram and an old friend Chiara are going to get married. They are a lovely couple and will be perfect together. Giles and his whole family have gone to their wedding in Italy. I always imagined I'd be celebrating that fabulous moment with them but I am left behind.

I wonder if Giles will sit there and listen to their vows and smirk at how they meant nothing to him.

If you fall in love and you get married, remember that forever is just that. There are good times and bad times. You work on being there for eachother and remember the love that ignited it all. Don't make promises you can't keep. These are not just words. They are a binding vow.

In sickness and in health.

I'll smile as I think of those two lovely people tying the knot. They deserve a happy life with beautiful children. I wish them all the joy in the world.

Friday 26 June 2009

Remember the time


On Twitter and Facebook, people are saying RIP Michael Jackson but I have nothing to say. There doesn't really seem to be a good way to express how shocked and sad I am about the King of Pop dying.

It's hard to explain to people who didn't grow up from day zero with Michael Jackson's music as a soundtrack to their lives, what impact he actually had. Unfortunately, most people only really remember his HIStory album and the crazy antics, operations and law suits to follow. To be honest, I don't remember him fondly after those events.

The important thing is to separate the man from the music. The music is the soundtrack of my life. At least the years as I was growing up.

My Mum used to play ABC by the Jackson 5, when we were learning to walk. My sister and I continued to dance to the Jackson 5 during our jazz ballet lessons, for years. We listened as we learned to moonwalk.

My family is still friends with the family that lived next door to us in 1984 when we first watched Thriller on TV.

BAD gave me the song Man In The Mirror, which is a song that told me how to do my bit to change the world. I still listen to it regularly.

HIStory was the round-up of that era for me. Black or White was the last song of his I loved and I still know every single word to it.

Today is a sad day. The end of an amazingly talented life.

Wednesday 24 June 2009

Missing


Taking 3 months off work has given me a lot of time. At first, I thought I'd fill that time to the brim with productive things. Make the most of my time off. Have a lengthy running list of all the useful stuff I had done over that time. Then I stopped.

The first 2.5 weeks of my leave of absence from work was spent sleeping and getting every possible virus going around. Apparently this happens when you stop running on adrenaline and slow your life down - your poor body crashes. Hopefully it only crashes and doesn't burn. In my case this was just a speedbump. Within no time, I was sleeping 8+ hours and eating regularly. With exercise and a conscious effort to slow my life down, things are starting to look up.

Who would have thought that slowing down was going to be so difficult?

It is difficult. It is hard. Stopping and taking the time to be mindful.

Meditation is helping. Leaving my normal environment and visiting supportive people has been encouraging.

What do I miss now?

I miss doing technical stuff - writing code and talking about technology and design.
I miss my kittehs - still in Sydney doing some human-sitting with a friend.
I miss my clothes - but I'm buying some great tropical stuff up here.

Life is wonderful.

Monday 15 June 2009

Distrubing window display

There is a shop that sells textiles (I think) in Surry Hills called Bird. A few nights ago, I walked passed it and was quite thrown by it's window display. It makes me not want to go in there at all, ever.

Wednesday 3 June 2009