Little Artist

I do love to watch an artist at work so it was a real delight to arrive at Emma's the other day to find 3 1/2 year old Sophie up to her armpits in green and blue paint creating a wonderful masterpiece on a large piece of perspex... The lighting in Emma's back yard is quite beautiful, suffused through huge overhanging trees and the surrounding greenery of their very lush garden. I had a lovely time snapping away like a Japanese tourist... as you do. To see some more pics, go to Emma's Feb 07 under My Pics.



My decision to leave the country has inspired a myriad of 'we must catch up before you go's so it's a bit pack-one-meet-one at the moment... Each church I go to I join a home group that meets during the week for bible study and sharing and one such group from a few churches back (I move a lot) has become affectionately know as Ye Olde Home Group which I'm thinking might be better shortened to Ye Olde Homie. We try to catch up here and there and seeing that I'm about to leave the country we had a get together yesterday. It was well worth the long trek to Yagoona where Pete & Reg live which is truly in the middle of nowhere - I thought to myself on the way - but then having ample time to reflect upon it, I realised that it's probably more Manly that's really out-of-the-way. It was an especially good reunion this year with the addition of 2 new off-spring from various of us... Little Lana who's just 2 (and can tell you so) and wee Benjamin who's a mere 5 weeks old and so doesn't do any tricks yet other than looking very small and adorable... For more pics see the Ye Olde Homie album under My Pics.

Packing, packing...

I'm surrounded by boxes which must be a sign that I'm making progress with packing up my life (once again) and readying things for the move to Hong Kong. The pile of Will-Be-Taking is growing at an alarming rate and may have to be further sub-divided into Definitely and If-There's-Room. I've booked my plane ticket so I really am going for those who've been mislead by the whole 'hongkongmoo' thing and wondering why I'm still in the country... it's anticipatory... a sort of closing-of-one-chapter-beginning-of-another thing... So, I'll be going on March 8.

I have to say that the social calendar decidedly more full in this new chapter of my life. It's pretty special to be able to pack a box or three and then go and meet someone for lunch... I even took the Schnitzel Challenge at the Belgium Bier Cafe in Manly with a friend who wishes to remain nameless for the fact that she single-handedly ate an entire plate of pork schnitzel (quite a large one), thereby winning a shot of peach schnapps which she lovingly handed over to me, with a full-of-schnitzel look in her eyes, saying "I did it for you"... Well, halleluja! I couldn't eat all my schnitzel but I got the peach schnapps! What a friend!!

Of tea-towels and diggers...

I went round to Olivia's new place for lunch the other day. It was built in the 60's so has some wonderul classic 60's features, including 3 very distinct places in the kitchen specifically dedicated to hanging tea-towels - one of them is a special swing-out cupboard thingy wholy devoted to the tea-towel. Perhaps the lady of the house had a special collection of them? Or just required that one be at hand regardless of where it was in the kitchen she stood? Or perhaps this obvious devotion to the tea-towel was something that died out with women's lib, so we just don't quite get it.



While we marvelled at the tea-towel phenomenom, we also marvelled at the fact that boys don't need to be taught to love cars and trucks and diggers... that whole nature/nurture thing... boys and trucks is definitely nature. Case in point was when we took 4 year old Matty to the zoo last time Phil was here and he followed us round while we pointed out each new species with enthusiastic statements like "Look, a bear!", "Giraffes!", "Lions!" But nothing could compare to Matty's cry of passion when he saw the new elephant enclosure construction site... "DIGGERS!!!!!!". It eventually took three of us to ply his hands off the mesh fence in order to move on... Anyway, the pic above is Archie with his big fire truck that has a battery operated ladder that goes up and down and up and down and up... hours of fun! (For a few more pics see the Archie & Olivia album under 'My Pics')

A movie or two...

This will probably be a completely boring post, but I really have a sudden urge to list all the movies I've seen in the past 12 months. Here they are in rough order of viewing... (I've put an asterix next to the ones that were the stand-outs for me)... (ps: this pic and the last one posted are odes to Trish's spectacular bumper crop of cosmos... beautiful!!)

Jindabyne
Separate Lies
Hidden
Da Vinci Code
Click
* Proof
Pirates of Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
* Tsotsi
Superman Returns
* Ten Canoes
Ballet Russe
Wah Wah
* World's Fastest Indian
Take the Lead
The Break-up
Narnia
Faliure to Launch
Brokeback Mountain
TransAmerica
Capote
The Squid & The Whale
The White Countess
The White Masai
American Dreamz
* Tristan & Isolde
Goodnight & Goodluck
* Live & Become
Memoirs of a Geisha
The Weatherman
* Kinky Boots
Casanova
Walk the Line
* March of the Penguins
Two for the Money
* The three burials of Melquiades Estrada
Eight below
* Inside Man
Just Like Heaven
* Match Point
The Catapilla Wish
On a Clear Day
You, me & Dupree
* Sophie Scholl
Syriana
Prime
The Sentinel
The Lake House
Friends With Money
Beyond the Sea
Thank you for Smoking
49-up
U-Carmen
The Departed
* Kenny
* The Devil Wears Prada
Little Miss Sunshine
Wind that Shakes the Barley
A Good Year
Eragon
Candy
The Prestige
The Holiday
The Queen
Happy Feet
Babel
* Miss Potter
* Stranger than Fiction
Little Children
Music & Lyrics

Sometimes life seems unfair

A rabbi went on a journey with a prophet. They walked all day, and at nightfall they came to the humble cottage of a poor man, whose only treasure was a cow. The poor man ran out of his cottage, and his wife ran too, to welcome the strangers for the night and to offer them all the simple hospitality which they were able to give in straitened circumstances. The prophet and the rabbi were entertained with plenty of cow's milk, sustained with homemade bread and butter, and they were put to sleep in the best bed while their kindly hosts lay down before the kitchen fire. But in the morning the poor man's cow was dead.

They walked all the next day, and came that evening to the house of a very wealthy merchant, whose hospitality they craved. The merchant was cold and proud and rich, and all that he would do for the prophet and his companion was to lodge them in a cowshed and feed them on bread and water. In the morning however, the prophet thanked him very much for what he had done, and sent for a mason the repair one of his walls which happened to be falling down, as a return for his kindness.

The rabbi, unable to keep silence any longer, begged the holy man to explain the meaning of his dealings with human beings.

"In regard to the poor man who received us so hospitably," replied the prophet, "it was decreed that his wife was to die that night, but by his grace, God took the cow instead of the wife. I repaired the wall of the rich miser because a chest of gold was concealed near the place, and if the miser had repaired the wall himself he would have discovered the treasure. Say not therefore to God: Why are you doing this? But say in your heart: Must not the Lord of all the earth do right?"

(From 'The Once and Future King' by T.H. White)