Precipice of time, valley of life...and Dream Team

Warning:  Amateur philosophy ahead!

The girls from dinner last night...shame the camera made us all look like we were from the Village of the Damned!

Last night after a lovely dinner with wonderful and beautiful friends I came home still smiling to myself.  Time with friends goes so fast but it excels in enriching the soul!  Don't you think?  I made a cup of Sleepy Time Tea, had a good cuddle with Miss Molly on the sofa - Mr G was sound asleep - and experienced a kind of epiphany.  I started thinking about my life and came up with this scenario....

Age is like climbing up a mountain; sometimes steep, sometimes easy, and sometimes so tough it seems like you can't hang on any longer.  But with each climb opportunities arise to take a break.  The climb levels out, you get a chance to stand on a precipice and look down at the valley of life to clearly see where you've been and how you got to this point.  

From this overlooking ledge there's an opportunity to stop a minute and take stock....has the climb been worth it, have the decisions been OK, have you been kind and respected others and the animals and the ecosystem...have you been lucky to surround yourself with the people you need for love, support and enrichment?

Too deep?  Sorry.  But I felt very philosophical last night...and the feeling is still with me today.

So what did I see when I looked down from that ledge at the valley of my life.  I saw that I've been so very very blessed in everything!  Great friends in the USA and here, a long and good marriage with a lovely husband, a chance to move to Australia, health, an opportunity to have a career and, so far, a happy retirement.  WOW, so much good stuff!  Today I've probably told the Universe thank you a million times.  THANK YOU again.... I am GRATEFUL!

So what prompted this deep look at life?  It was the women friends I had dinner with.  They are part of my past ... a  Dream Team of workmates over many years.  A group of very talented women and - our 1 man - who endured the fast paced manic nature of business at Fox Home Entertainment to become great friends.  There were many missing at last night's dinner.  Everyone has children, busy working lives and many demands on their time so its hard to get everyone together.  But a few times each year we try to make it to see each other, laugh a lot and report on our lives.

We met over almost a quarter of a century....from 1983 to 2007 when I left Fox.... and, in many ways, we grew up together both professionally and personally.  Even if we don't see or speak to each other for months it doesn't even take a second to jump straight into the VIBE.  Last night was no exception.  It made me smile to see that within minutes everyone was talking & laughing...across the table, diagonally across each other ... in 2s and 3s and then altogether.  Fantastic! 

This is what I mean by blessed.  I am so lucky to have this group of smart beautiful women in my life...along with all my other friends .. its an honour to be here and share bits of my life with them.  I'll say it again...THANK YOU UNIVERSE!  And thank you Dream Team....I love our times together so much.

Boomer home alone with her thoughts ... a 'sort of' rant

Mr. G got up this morning with a bee in his bonnet.  He HAD to go to the boat to do stuff.  Now "stuff" often consists of a bit of tinkering here and a bit there, a little lunch and a nice lie down on the gently rocking boat for extended nap time.  I am being dismissive here (sorry, Mr G).  He does a lot of maintenance on his boat alone days...things that I - thankfully - don't have to do.  Like oil changing, sanding and varnishing and general stuff like that.  Let me say right here and now...THANK YOU MR G!  And, just a little thanks for a day to myself as well...nice.

So, what to do.

I started out with the girlie upkeep things...did my nails, washed my hair, put on fake tan, etc., etc.  Duties that, at my age, seem all that more important because, with every job, you're working on holding back the years - as best as can be done.

Then I sat down to read my two favourite online resources... The Hoopla and Sydney Morning Herald.  Let me say, as loudly as possible, right here right now - I LOVE THE HOOPLA!!!!  If you haven't discovered it yet please do.  Here, let me give you the link right now... The Hoopla - Stay in the Loop .  Subscribe to the daily newsletter, for me it provides some kind of solace from the usual news crap instead of wanting to scream at the computer screen or TV.

In the constant barrage from the 24 hour news cycle these independent writers - mostly women - appear to me to be the only sane voice out there spruking the news.   Take today for example.  The morning programs --- especially Chanel 9's Today show, which is unashamedly pro Tony Abbott, and against the government - and the Murdoch papers --- were shouting about another "disastrous" poll for the government.  But The Hoopla's Corinne Grant wrote a marvellous common sense article in which the polls were just one of several areas in her Rage Index.   Her quote was the best I've ever read about political polls...

"Unless you decide who to vote for based on who other people vote for and not on what is best for you, there’s not much point paying polls any attention."

Amen.  Here's a link to the whole article Corinne Grant's Rage Index  and also, while I'm at it, here's another great article by her relating to our upcoming election in September Policy and Crap Guide

I didn't fare as well enjoying the Sydney Morning Herald.  Too much opinion about the Oscars.  Hey, it's a show celebrating Hollywood.  What do you expect... End of story.  Of course there were the obligatory stories about fallen sports start - which seems to be de rigueur these days.   And then articles about the opposition and what they will do when in power.  Talk about counting your chickens before they hatch.

I got hot under the collar when I read that Joe Hockey, Abbott's right hand attack dog (I can hardly stand to type either man's name...they are so despicable to me), has raised the possibility of compensating big companies for any costs if they are under way with refits to compensate for their carbon emissions. WTF!   Compensation for carbon refits.

Science, citizens and governments, all over the world, know that to ensure the Earth is sustainable for future generations we must make some changes to what we do NOW.   Even China is waking up to the fact that they can't keep building power plants with no regard for the environment.  So our illustrious opposition leaders can't wait to abolish the carbon tax - which is flawed but politically and environmentally a good start - and they're going to pay polluters to go back to the way they used to go about their business!  This is CRAZY!!!

Mahatma Gandhi once said, "The future depends on what we do in the present."  Somebody - lots of somebodys - need to remind our political parties of this.

Enough ranting for one day.  Time for a cup of tea.

Wildlife! ... Australia is a wild wild place to live.

Wolf spider

There were a number of things in my mind I planned  blogging about today...spiders weren't included in the original list.  But, as I was going to the laundry, Mr G arrived on the back porch to ask me to come inside and look at something.  Dutifully putting down the laundry basket I followed him into the house & into the front bathroom where he pointed to the wall.  There, happily sitting above the shower, was a wolf spider the size of a horse!

 

I don't like to kill things - especially spiders that like to eat mosquitoes (my nemesis) - so I looked at Mr G and asked him how he planned to get him out of the house.  "I'm not touching him" came the reply...so the door to the bathroom is shut for the near future.  Luckily we have another one.

 

It made me think of all the wildlife we have around here that are, quite frankly, taking advantage of our hospitality lately. 

 

We have a lot of little and medium size lizards around the yard.  One in particular, a garden skink, has been hanging around the back porch for a while.  He's pretty big...maybe 10 cm long.

 

Garden Skink

Lately he's decided he wants to come in the house...which I'm not happy about.  Last Thursday night I went to the kitchen, when, out of the corner of my eye, I caught something long, brown and shiny under the counter.  "Shit!", I yelled.  Mr G and Molly both reacted with yells and barks (respectively).  I thought it was a snake but it was our back porch garden skink...come to check out what's cooking.  I scared him as much as he did me and he escaped under the stove.  Then this morning there he was again in the living room.  When we caught sight of each other he just turned around and went out the back door .. under the screen .. completely nonchalant.  I'm starting to get jumpy and I'm not alone...Molly doesn't like them much either.

 

Mr Blue Tongue

Molly was barking like crazy at something in the yard a day or so ago.  It was a very large blue tongue lizard.  They are lovely and I respect them for their place in our ecosystem ... but I think I prefer the mammals to the reptiles and spiders.

 

Now, along with the parrots and the possums, we have the spiders and the lizards to enrich our back yard.  Maybe we're too welcoming?

 

On a final note - Australia is a WILD place and not just because of the animals.  In December we had record heat and massive fires burning across the continent, in January we had cyclones and floods and now in February we have storms, waterspouts, tornadoes and more floods.  The wind has been up to 45 and 50 knots all weekend with wild seas.  I told Mr G I never want to be ON the water in our little boat in conditions that wild.  What an interesting place we have the honour to live in.  I do love it!

 

Wild seas along the NSW coast

Flashback Friday

A long long time ago in a place far far away there lived 2 young women in a magical castle with three majestic felines and many strange and wonderful friends.

Well sort of. 

A few posts ago I mentioned my "colourful" past in the 1970s.  It was my most read post since I started this blog.  So in an effort to share some (just some mind you - the ones I can remember) of the fascinating stories from my youth I'm going to start a regular feature in this blog - Flashback Friday.  Here goes.

I was blessed to find my soul sister early on in life.  My BFF and forever sister - Jae.  We became roommates around 1972 - I think.  I had moved around a bit before then, had an apartment in an old house burn down, and crashed around on people's sofas for a while (thank you Ellen and Amy and everyone else!).  Jae was already in our "castle" sharing with a friend of mine from high school, I stayed on their sofa for awhile too.  When I came back from backpacking (that's another story!) around Europe I moved in when the other person moved out.  And this was our castle....

Jae at the mailbox.  We shared the apartment upstairs..it was very small but still 2 bedrooms.



Not much to look at really...and not any better from inside.  But it was a unique and truly magic place.  In fact the whole street was just like something you might see in a film about the hippies made today - very iconic.  We had great friends downstairs, across and down the street and around the corner.  You didn't borrow sugar from the neighbours but joints!  There were people there always.  It was fun and wild and I haven't laughed that much since...I don't think I ever will.

 

As for the felines...there were 3 females and later another one arrived.  A stray male the girls brought home one day....it was a recurring theme with the humans too.   The girls were - get these names and guess, if you can, where they came from - ... Roxy - pure white and the leader of the pack; Pearl - pure grey and very laid back; and Ziggy - tortoise shell and the cute baby of the bunch.  Goodness me, we had a blast with those cats running around the little apartment and occasionally bringing in chipmunks and moles as presents for us.

 

 



As you do in your twenties we LIVED in that little place.

There were the parties and boyfriends you would expect but the really special things came from the time in history we shared.  The Vietnam war was all over the TV every night.  Some times there would be 5 or 6 people there just to watch Walter Cronkite report on the scenes we were witnessing.  Never before had a war and its casualties been telecast nightly across TV screens.  After the news we would have debates and discussions well into the night about politics and the government ...  And then there was Nixon and Watergate unfolding every night as well.  It was both terrible and exciting.

During that time a landmark program also made its debut on TV - Saturday Night Live.  We had the only colour TV on the street at one time (I think) so throngs of people would come over on Saturday to see SNL.  Sometimes we had 3 tiers of people just sitting in the lounge room - back of the sofa - on the sofa and on the floor.  Laugh!  Great fun.

A typical Saturday Night crowd.

When we eventually moved out, Jae and I expected the house to fall down out of pure sadness to see that time come to an end.  It didn't.  Our castle on Marlbrook stood through a few more hapless hippies over the years then fell into ruin and finally, long after I had moved to Australia, Jae sent me a picture of it being knocked down.  Very sad to see it go but it will always stand in our minds .. and in the minds of many friends as well I guess.

It may not look like much now but I feel very blessed to have had this part of my life ... the places, the people and the point in history were special.  I know Jae feels the same.

OK...that's enough for one post.  I'll save the many strange and wonderful friends for next Friday.

I promised Jellyfish!

In my last post I promised to talk about ... and show ... the huge jellyfish we saw in large numbers in the national park last week.

This photo - I lifted from another site - better represents what the swarms would have looked like from underwater.  We witnessed them floating in groups that were literally 100s strong.  Big brown ones, some almost white and some small baby ones.  We've seen them many times before around this time in Pittwater and in the Broken Bay National Park area...but never in these numbers.  So I did some research....this is what Wikipedia says...

The Jelly Blubber (Catostylus mosaicus), also known as the Blue Blubber Jellyfish, is a species of jellyfish from coastal regions in the Indo-Pacific. It is the most commonly encountered jellyfish along the Australian eastern coast and large swarms sometimes appear in estuarine waters.

In Sydney waters, the Jelly Blubber's large bell is a creamy white or brown colour, but farther north in Australia it is usually blue. This is because the jellyfish has developed a symbiotic relationship with algal plant cells that are kept inside its body. These plants vary in colour from region to region.  It grows to a diameter of 35 centimetres (14 in).  The sting can be painful but generally poses no serious risk to humans.

So now we know.  Its important to learn something new every day!  Unfortunate name though don't you think - Jelly Blubber?  Mr. G and I chased them all around Stingray Bay trying to get a good enough picture for this blog.  We didn't do so well...but here is a sample.

 

Boatless days no more.....

The late summer sun has been almost flawless this weekend.  There have been late evening and early morning showers...but days are perfect.  Much like the theme song from the film "Camelot" which says something like, "by law it only rains at night".

 
We've been on the boat since Thursday which ended a 2 week (maybe a bit more) stint of boat less weeks.  The reason?  An air leak in the dingy.  Mind you this leak has been plaguing us for some time now...at least a year I think.   Mr G has doggedly tried to repair it with endless bouts of little circles of PVC glued in various suspicious places down one hull and then the other.  He refused to take the wee boat in for repair over and over again with the belief  he would eventually stop the leak.  When it became increasingly apparent that the leak was too evasive he broke down - amid some considerable nagging from me - and took it to be repaired.  He had decided that the repair would end up costing more than the dingy itself...so we went through a few days of worry - only to find that the bill was going to be a reasonable $300 or so.  Anyway... it's done now, back and working a treat. 

The dingy.. at work off the back of the boat.

We've ventured to different parts of the area this week.  The rainy nights and early mornings - plus the fact that the holidays are well and truly over - mean that during the week days there is hardly a soul out on the water.  Thursday night we moored in a little bay called 'Stingray Bay'.  It is lovely and very representative of the Australian bush in surrounds...rocky outcrops, big gum trees, and very wild looking.  The bay has an area that runs creek like way back into the bush.  We took a ride way down into the bush in the dingy with Molly and took these photos.  Molly, of course, taking every opportunity to hop ashore to sniff and pee until she was content she had left a mark.  Me, I was concerned for poisonous brown snakes...but, as usual, Mr G paid no attention to my concerns.

We're spending tonight - Sunday night - in a bay called Coasters Retreat or The Basin - before going back to our mooring and then home tomorrow.  This is a lovely place only accessible by boat.  On one side there are a few dwellings..houses clinging to the hill in what must be blissful or difficult seclusion ... you would have to be people living there to know the true definition.  On the other side of the bay is a popular campground run by the National Park.  Again you have to either take a ferry there or come in a private boat.  There is always a ranger or two on duty there so its very well regarded by families.  Here what it looks like from where we are now....

Home tomorrow and I'll show you the HUGE JELLYFISH we've seen all over during this voyage!

My 'confinement' has ended...thank goodness!

The 'powder room' door.

One of the many challenges of getting on in age is making sure - very very sure - you keep your health.  Let's face it, when you're in your 20s or 30s it seems like you'll live forever.  But in your 60s you can hope you have at least another 20 or 30 years - at least - to go.  So you better make sure they are good ones.

This means, regardless of being a man or woman, there are many tests that one must endure on a regular basis.  Clearly I know there is much that has to be poked and/or prodded as we go through our adulthood - especially being a woman - but the tests as you get older become less about gender and more about mechanics.

Health was at the top of my mind when I agreed to the latest invasive test - a colonoscopy - and the doctor added a gastroscopy for good measure.  One end and then the other so to speak.   I've had several friends go through the same thing which meant I knew what I was in for.  I was warned to not plan to go anywhere the day before or the morning of the test....due to the evacuation effect of the pre-op stuff.  So, I confined myself to the house all day Sunday and Monday.  To all and anyone who may go through this in the future my advice is to DO THE SAME!

Now that it's Tuesday I can happily say it is all over.  The results were good, amazing really.  After 62 years - with 30 of those lived and partied rather hard - there were no polyps!  Polyps are the things that can turn to bowel cancer.  As I said to my friend Steph, "nothing spoils the look of your jeans like a colostomy bag!".

On the other hand - or other end - the doctor did find a few things to investigate with biopsies.  I'm not quite sure what they are because she came around to talk to me while I was still in recovery.  And she told me - while I was still pretty groggy from the anaesthetic that it could be blah/blah/blah - which I either didn't understand or can't remember - and may need treatment or medication depending if it was blah/blah/blah. So, nothing to see here until I see the doctor again next Tuesday.  Again, I think my life in my 20s, 30s and 40s may have contributed to inconsistencies.  I used to be about 10kg overweight, drink way too much and I ate badly...along with a few other things.  But, since turning 50 and then on into early 60s I've calmed down A LOT and find life well worth living without the accoutrements of youth or corporate life.

Health is up to us all whether we like it or not...Take care of yourself!

Lincoln - The Movie

Poster image from the IMDB site.

There are few films that Mr G remembers hearing about from either me or the news or reviews or the paper.  Even fewer that he actively wants to see from day 1.   "Lincoln" was one of the few. 

 

Yesterday, on opening day for the film, we went to an afternoon screening of "Lincoln".  Unheard of before being retired - afternoon screenings of films tend to be de rigueur at the moment ... deliberate appointment viewing without the crowds but lacking a "date night" feel.

 

The film is, in my view, a masterpiece of storytelling.  The dialogue is so strong... this is intelligent and very adult entertainment.  Everyone in the film is outstanding with Tommy Lee Jone's performance almost as strong as Lewis'.  However, Daniel Day Lewis quite literally becomes Abraham Lincoln.  He portrays him so brilliantly that I came from the cinema almost feeling like I had spent over 2 hours in the presence of the actual person.   The depth of Lincoln's desire to end slavery forever in the USA and the effort he had to go to find the right level of compromise in order to bring the 13th amendment into law is carved into the actor's face.  It is mesmerising and emotional to watch.

 

I didn't know that Lincoln was a teller of stories aimed at getting his point across.  The film includes many parables which he uses to get those around him to see a different point of view.  

 

The press has been quick to point out the factual flaws contained in the film.  But this is, after all, a film... a brilliant piece of storytelling from a master of great storytelling, Stephen Spielberg.  I came home after the film and Googled all I could find about it wanting to understand what was fact and fiction.  I think the following from a 'New Yorker' article says it best ....

 

Afterward, mulling over my complaints, I felt a little ashamed of their cranky pettiness. So, as I say, I went back and saw it again.

 

I now think that I initially reacted to “Lincoln” the way that so many Radical Republicans reacted to Lincoln himself: I was demanding perfection, and pouting when perfection wasn’t forthcoming. But compromise is inevitable—in life, in politics, in movies. That’s one of the movie’s messages, and one of its meta-messages, too. On second viewing, I put aside the nitpicking. I realised that the very narrowness of my complaints was backhanded evidence of the enormous amount that the film gets right. And, indeed, virtually every point that the story and script of “Lincoln” makes is grounded in historical fact, even if the conventions and limitations of a theatrical film, especially one that eschews narrations and “crawls,” sometimes require awkward or contorted “exposition.” If some of the dialogue “sounds written” rather than spoken, that is because so much of it is drawn directly from letters, memoirs, and speeches.

Read more: http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/hendrikhertzberg/2012/12/what-steven-spielbergs-lincoln-got-wrong-and-what-it-got-right.html#ixzz2KJExmzJT

 

I loved the film...so did Mr G.  See it if you can. 

 

Letting go; Explosive 9/11 Doco; Atheist Commandments; Great 'Hunk' Ad....

There's so much I want to share right now which means this is going to be a bit of a long post....stick with it, I think (hope) you'll find something worth while.

1.  Letting go and ready for another chapter.  Mr G got a big bee in his bonnet yesterday and started to clean out our 'shed'.  I highlight the word 'shed' because the structure is not the standard - run of the mill - kind of backyard shed.  In reality it could be any number of things because Mr G, when he built it, created a building that could be and withstand anything.  Double brick with a tiled laundry and phone + gas connections meant we could pretty much live in if we needed to/wanted to.  We've been living in this house for well over a decade now and its amazing how much junk has accumulated.  Now that we're retired and preparing for our boat cruise the time had come to let go of it all.  I gave the Salvation Army as much as they would take and the rest has to go to the tip.   Mr G did a great job with load #1 and there's plenty left for load #2.  I tend to be more sentimental than him and saw much of it representing well earned memories but there comes a time when you have to let go and move on I guess.  Besides if I had gotten in his way - he was definitely on a roll - I could have ended up at the tip too!



Packed and ready for the tip.

The 'shed' being cleaned...Ruthlessly!

 

2.  Explosive new documentary about the 9/11 events.  I read the Sydney Morning Herald on line most days and noticed this doco advertised in their masthead last week.  I had a look at it on Saturday morning (and again today) and, I have to admit, it shocked me.  Have a look at it when you can ... it raises many new facts and questions.   Be prepared, its long... 1 hour and 28 minutes...but I found it very interesting.  So many people think conspiracy theorists are at work trying to get the US public to ask more questions about how 9/11 actually happened...and WHY.  BUT the guys that made this doco are architects and engineers and they have much science to back their questions.  SMH - TV 9/11 Explosive Evidence

3.  The 10 Commandments for atheists.  Again, I read this article in the SMH this morning.  The writer and philosopher Alain de Botton has published 10 Commandments for virtuous atheists.  They clearly equate to what it takes to be a nice human being in today's mad mad world.  The whole article is well worth a read .. but here they are if you don't have the time or inclination to click through to the whole article.  Spot on don't you think?

Alain de Botton's 'list for life'

1. Resilience: Keeping going even when things are looking dark.
2. Empathy: The capacity to connect imaginatively with the sufferings and unique experiences of another person.
3. Patience: We should grow calmer and more forgiving by being more realistic about how things actually happen.
4. Sacrifice: We won't ever manage to raise a family, love someone else or save the planet if we don't keep up with the art of sacrifice.
5. Politeness: Politeness is closely linked to tolerance, -the capacity to live alongside people whom one will never agree with, but at the same time, cannot avoid.
6. Humour: Like anger, humour springs from disappointment, but it is disappointment optimally channelled.
7. Self-awareness: To know oneself is to try not to blame others for one's troubles and moods; to have a sense of what's going on inside oneself, and what actually belongs to the world.
8. Forgiveness: It's recognising that living with others is not possible without excusing errors.
9. Hope: Pessimism is not necessarily deep, nor optimism shallow.
10. Confidence: Confidence is not arrogance - rather, it is based on a constant awareness of how short life is and how little we will ultimately lose from risking everything.

4.  Ad made for women by women - Very Entertaining!  My friend Stephanie posted this on her facebook this morning.  Well worth a look...very clever.  Mamamia - Ladies, rethink breast cancer - Here's how you touch yourself

Random Acts of Kindness

Image from PenandBell.com

My friend MJ has a terrific blog about raising her daughter - BumpyRoadtoBubba - and in it she mentions random acts of kindness and how she tries to do them as often as possible.  I agree with the endeavour but inevitably wait for the opportunity instead of just doing it...which is the true test of being random.

 

This afternoon I was offered the perfect chance to put myself out there and do something totally unexpected.  I was leaving 'Sam, The  Cake Man's' shop - which by the way has the BEST pastries on the North Shore - and rain had just started to come down hard.  My trip across the parking lot wasn't going to present a problem because I had the foresight to carry my umbrella.  As I came out of the shop I noticed this young woman standing under the building overhang.  She looked worried and was checking her watch and looking out at the rain pounding the expansive parking lot.  There I was with my bags of shopping in hand and my rather large umbrella - safe - with not too far to go.  I thought, "I should see if I can help, maybe she's going my way".  So I walked up and offered to shelter her to her car.  Wow, she looked surprised!  "Are you sure?"  "Yes, come on let's go".

Off we walked through the driving rain huddled under my umbrella.  We passed my car, then passed the middle of the car park and kept on walking.  She was lovely, talked about her kids and how much she appreciated my help....and we kept walking.  Finally with the rain now pelting down and almost to the end of the car park we came to her car.  She said another heartfelt thanks and asked, "which car is yours?".  I said, "Oh, its just back a piece".

 

I turned and started back to my car which was up near the shop and the rain got heavier.  At one point a gust of wind caught the umbrella, whipped it back from my hands, dumped water all over my back and left me standing there in the driving rain.  Stunned at first into a shocked WTF expression I then burst out laughing!  And laughed all the way back to the car.

 

Arriving home wet and cold - but still feeling good - I knew it could all be fixed with a cup of tea, chocolate cookie and Molly wagging her tail.  Kindness feels good.