Thankyou... with a cherry on top!

Imagine my surprise when I finally returned here to the land of my journal blog, as opposed to my crafty one which is still sadly languishing, to find a gift from Tamara whose blog Thyme for Tea inspired me to remember Paris in July.  

Not quite sure my blog fits the description, at least from my side of the screen, but thank you all the same.

AWARD RULES: a question to answer, some other blogs to foward the award to, and a thankyou. First the question: "If you had the chance to go back and change one thing in your life, would you, and what would it be?"  As I sat and thought about my answer only one thing came to mind.........  Despite a lot of things I would not like to REPEAT in my life (and there are quite a few of those!!)(wearing quilted brown velvet springs to mind for a start), there are few things I would change completely except this: I wish that I had been able to see the bigger picture of my husband's last year with us, to have been more understanding and perhaps less selfish, kinder and more accepting. 

Peter was slowly becoming less able to live the life he wanted while his heart and its various machines and medications struggled to keep him alive.  The rally driver was no longer able to drive, the mechanic was no longer able to do more than advise from the sidelines while his son struggled to teach himself to re-build his car, the photographer no longer had the strength to hunt out special locations, the engineer could only manage going into the office for a couple of hours each day.  Throughout this time I refused to cook the fatty salty things he loved, pestered him to get up, grumbled about rearranging my work to get him to and from his own and somehow think I lost my partner underneath the schedules and the medications and the ambulance rides and the maybe the desperation.  Now I wish I'd just curled up with him, lived the slowest life possible together, and maybe it might have been longer.  How could we know it wasn't something we could fix?  

Oh boy this takes me to places I didn't want to go just now, just ever.  But as I write I am trying to sit up, wiping my eyes for the hundredth time this week (it seems to be a raw time just lately) and taking heart from the fact that this blog has only a small audience and perhaps they will understand, and so it doesn't matter that my response has been more personal than perhaps it needed to be.  Maybe I should have written about regretting the brown quilted velvet instead?  I feel my mood lifting at the memory of that awful skirt.

Okay. Lightness.

Finding only 6 blogs that fit the bill is easier.  In no particular order, my 6 special blogs are:

1.  Nancy at Small World of Inchies and Twinchies - where tiny things are celebrated and wonders can be found.

2.  365 Cat Ladies and Friends - for lovers of cats and whimsy

3.  Lisa at The Craft's Meow - she has to be amongst the kindest and most thoughtful people I know, and we've never even met.  Such is the power of a blog.

4.  Electra at Wishin' I knew how to Blog - where you never know what you're going to find (and this makes two awards so that PROVES she's special!!)

5. Third Storey Window for intriguing things that get me thinking...
6.  Free Advice - still worth every penny - because I love Rosemary's sense of humour and pragmatism.


Now to thank Tamara properly for her kindness in bestowing this award on me..... I found your blog through Electra's posts and just had to take part in the Paris month.  It was a lovely time for me to hunt through the photographs and post some special moments.  Writing those posts gave me confidence to take up writing for pleasure again and I cant thank you enough for that small piece of motivation.

Thoughts on a book: Let Me Sing You Gentle Songs

I love holidays so that I can read and read and finish a book in my own time instead of snatching moments here and there and perhaps losing something of the thread.

This small book is a product of the author's life in both New Zealand and Sweden, and the images of each seem to ring true despite my never having been to either place.  The story is of two women who bring their memories and their wounds into their life together and forge something new and precious.  The book is set in present day Sweden and begins with Veronika arriving in a remote village to rent a house and perhaps to write the book she has been planning in her mind.  Veronika's neighbour is said to be a witch but is only a reclusive older woman living in the house her grandfather built.  Her name is Astrid.  The women share their stories in alternate chapters, going back further and further into the past, and deeper into the reasons for their individual sadness and chosen place of solitude.

A lovely touch throughout the book are the snatches of poetry which head each chapter - first in Swedish, followed by their translation by the author.  Each phrase is mirrored and expanded by the chapter which follows and had the effect of making me stop to reflect before starting on the next small journey that the pages would chart.

The book is essentially about love, loss, compasssion, accommodation and finally renewal.  The friendship between the women, so different in age and experience, is developed and nurtured with understanding and sensitivity.    Crisp and clear pictures are painted through the memories and the seasons.  While there is much sadness in the stories of the past it is not a sad book, rather a celebration of the small steps towards living with the experiences of ones life and reliving memories to keep the good and let the bad filter away.

"Come, sit by me, and I shall tell you all my sorrows; we shall talk to each other about secrets."

Read it.

"Let me sing you gentle songs" by Linda Olsson.  Penguin 2005 (255p)

Friday Fill-ins #190

1. Laughter is what keeps me sane.

2. "Got the details..." are the three words that started off the last email I sent.

3. What I'm most looking forward to today is staying home for a home cooked meal with friends....even if I'm cooking it myself.

4. The antics of my oldest cat as he works out the latest puzzle (think "How to open the bread bin" or "How to get into the pantry silently" puts a smile on my face.

5. Where in the world would I rather be?  Maybe Naxos with good friends.

6. That hot chocolate after work was just what I needed!

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to cooking up a feast, tomorrow my plans include going to Olga Berg's sale and Sunday, I want to dry the washing in the sun for a change!

Friday Fill-ins #189

1. Music is vital to life.

2. Waking up warm is what I like first thing in the morning, but its always quickly followed by having to let the cat out the front door followed by leaping out of dressing gown and back under the covers in a single fluid (who am I kidding?) movement.....

3. The first thing I said this morning was: "YES!  Saturday!" (because I'm late)..

4. Christmas Dinner in winter; it's what's for dinner tonight.

5. It's all been too much so I'm going back to my book and a box of chocolates (wishful thinking).

6. Curling up with a good book is what I feel like doing right now but the washing calls.  It is Saturday afterall.....

7. And as for the weekend, tonight (Friday) I'm looking forward to peace and quiet, tomorrow my plans include dinner with friends and fellow dragon-boat paddlers and Sunday, I want to fill the trailer and head to the tip on "free green waste day".!

Thoughts on a movie: Second Hand Wedding

NO SPOILERS IN THIS POST.

This little movie must have taken a while to get to Australia since it was made in New Zealand in 2008.  It is showing at my local theatre where quirky films sometimes find a home and often play for weeks to small but full houses. 

This is the story of Cheryl and her fiance Stew, and her attempt to have the wedding of her dreams without the intervention of her mother's penchant for everything second hand.  I loved the footage of Cheryl's mother Jill, racing between garage sales in her yellow Mini van with her dippy friend Muffy reading the street directory to find the most direct route and beat the dealers to every sale.  Where did Muffy get those coats?  Silly question, a garage sale of course.... where else to find great fluffy fake furs and black and white spotted creations that make her look like a demented sheep.  Her character owes much to the urban myths about scatterbrained blondes, but of course she has secrets and one of the best is revealed at the wedding in the final scenes of the film.

The predictable storyline is not the feature of this film, it is the vehicle to show how characters interact and weave the fabric of life.  There are lots of good deeds, a few bad ones, and many well-intentioned ones.  There is work-place tension and jealousy, a nightmarish vision of the possible wedding from hell, the bridesmaid who wants to look sexy; the family home has plastic fruit in the kitchen, a satisfyingly familiar pile of ladders and tyres beside the garage, and mis-matched mugs for serving tea.  The ending is funny and touching.  Watch out for the extra piece during the credits which explains the random appearances of the sign thief.

When Marian and I choose a movie it wont be a thrilling action movie with spies and gadgetry, and it probably wont be animated.  It might have subtitles (I loved The Hedgehog last week), it might be romantic and it will definitely make us laugh. Despite a couple of sequences that were a bit close to home and made me shudder just a little, this was a good movie that I'm glad we saw.

I like my books challenging and my movies like hot frothy chocolate.

Here's the beginning of the next 30...

31.  The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon

32.  The Sunday philosophy club by Alexander McCall Smith 

33.  The Believers by Zoe Heller 

34.  The Scarpetta Factor by Patricia Cornwell 

35.  The Book of Lost Threads by Tess Evans
36.  Cents and Sensibility by Maggie Alderson
37.  The Mystic Masseur by VS Naipaul

Friday Fill-ins #188

1. Life is full of friends who all like to go out to eat, and often there's chocolate involved.

2. Sometimes its hard but you've just got to keep going til you finish the block.

3. My last text message (or IM) ended in these three words: "....on Monday, ok?".

4. Pumpkin and spinach risotto is what I'm thinking about for dinner sometime soon.

5. On the 1st day of August I started the second year of my new life; not sure I like it yet, but its the only one I've got at the moment.

6. I used to be lively and energetic, I'm sure I was, once....

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to watching tv (at last there's something on that I like), tomorrow my plans include returning my Dad's car and Sunday, I want to get to the Education Show, but I may just sleep in instead!