treasures in storage

Had the most momentous month - new baby in the family, such a sweet, sweet angel. We spent too long in hospital with him, but now he is all better.

I also went through our stuff in storage, upset about how much junk there was, and then finding the occasional treasure.

I found this poem I had written when my son was not yet 2 and we were visiting Italy -

In a foreign country
Warm with Mediterranean sun
We seek the cool
of the local museum.

In a fine dusty building
With its impressive courtyard
We carry the pram
Up massive marble steps.

Not giving it much thought
We expected the baby to sleep,
Or failing that, watch the people go by.
But he found another use
For the large empty rooms
And high vaulted ceilings.

As we rushed by golden works of art
Nothing could stop his enchanted chirping
As he experiments with the echoing chambers.
All through the gallery,
His ‘singing’ could be heard.

As I nervously hushed him
One more time
An older woman stopped me,
‘Il contento’, she said, ‘he is happy.’
And we walked into the sunshine smiling.

So happy we have a new baby in our lives... just magic the gifts they give

Making up with make up

I want this. And the stupid thing is, that I barely wear make up.

I have a peculiar relationship with cosmetics. I actually sold cosmetics at the market for 3 years, as my college job, to pay for my car etc, and I loved it. I love the colors, the textures, like coloring in for grown ups. I even wanted to be a make up artist for a time.

So when I saw this professional home airbrushing kit I was filled with lust. Even if I never use it, I still want it (though for $225, I'd better use it occasionally!)

I actually collect cosmetics more than I wear them, but there is something about the colors and the selection, and the playing with them that I just find deeply satisfying.

Luckily I leave for Australia soon, so the need may pass... but then again, if you see me looking flawless in December, you'll know why...

Quote of the Day

I'll report on the Paul McCartney concert when DH gets his photos off his phone and onto the computer...

... in the meantime, here's a quote of the day:

"Do more than belong: participate. Do more than care: help. Do more than believe: practise. Do more than be fair: be kind. Do more than forgive: forget. Do more than dream: work."

by William Arthur Ward.

Good things to think about...

Fat Boy Slim

I had one of the best new years eves, ever, on Bondi Beach in Sydney, with 20,000 others, dancing to the amazing mixes of Fat Boy Slim. He has played in Brighton to crowds over 200,000. And then... came New York City. Cosmopolitan mecca full of sophisticates - and no one has heard of him. He's a DJ who produces his own music, he has a great best of album - with the fabulous title of Why Try Harder. He's cool and quirky and all things good. He charged face value tix of $120 for nye and suddenly he's charging $50 and not selling out...

He came out to Manhattan (he's English and UK based) to play in.. Terminal 5 - where we saw Tom Jones. It holds about 3,000 people. It must have been one of his smallest venues in years. I dragged two friends with us (dancing! house music! Excellent!) and literally counted down the days...

Firstly, I love Terminal 5. The roof terrace was opened and it's all so civilized. Just dirty enough to be rock and roll, but totally safe and with clean toilets (important to us over 35 crowd) It is a 3 story venue, with a huge dance floor and cantilevered balconies overlooking. There are places to sit, space to dance, 3 enormous bars, to buy the expensive but not ludicrously so drinks.

Then the master came out. There was that beat that enters your heart and take it over, the flashing lights and video clips that pull you in, the music, it gives you this trance like effect, no drugs needed.




The crowd was warm from the get go, and 10 minutes into the set were were jumping up and down. We danced till our feet hurt and then, all of sudden, it was 2 hours later and the whole thing just closed down - just before midnight, so working people could go home and get up the next day. I love New York! Sydney crowds don't even arrive before midnight and won't so much as rock their hips before 1 am. To find excellent music, a great venue, to start dancing at 10 and be in bed by 1 am... all too good to be true. I wish he was playing every week. I'd be there. I promise...

(this was a late write up, we went on June 24th. So wish he was playing again...)

Two Wolves

I got this one from my cousins on facebook (where else!) but I really liked it, so I'm copying it here...

A Cherokee Legend

An old Cherokee is teaching his grandson about life. "A fight is going on inside me," he said to the boy.

"It is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves. One is evil - he is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego." He continued, "The other is good - he is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith. The same fight is going on inside you - and inside every other person, too."

The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather, "Which wolf will win?"

The old Cherokee simply replied, "The one you feed."

Rules for Old Age

A perfect footnote for the previous entry - from teenagers to the aged, a 90 year old Rabbi talks of the benefits of aging in the New York Times today

He distills 6 benefits:

1. Increased Tranquility. “You have achieved in old age what you have wanted to, if you are fortunate,” he said. The important battles have been waged, the decisions made. “You no longer have to do the pushing, the striving, the struggle.”

2. A kind of zen caring. "You don’t rush to quick action,” Rabbi Haberman explained. “You’re more likely to stop and think.” These days he’s hardly indifferent to the world’s problems, he added, but he’s less inclined to think he can solve them, or that they’re soluble at all.

3.“The art of submission.” Americans are activists by nature, but “more happens to us than we cause to happen,” he has found. “You have to accept the unalterable.”

4. Able to consider the possibility he’s wrong. He labeled “liberation from the compulsion to set everyone else straight.” He has loosened up since his more dogmatic youth.

5. Gratitude - “I’m more conscious of the little favors people do — the driver who stops and lets me cross the street, the newspaper man who brings my paper directly to the door,” Rabbi Haberman said. He feels more aware of humanity’s interconnectedness. “I am a zero by myself.”

6. Connectedness to Family and Community.

You can find the full version of his sermon here

Now if only we could figure all that out when we were teenagers, what extraordinary adults we might become!


undated picture of the Rabbi

Rules for High School Graduates

The Internet is so funny, everyone acknowledges that Bill Gates did not in fact, make up these rules, but they are listed on google sites as 'Bill Gates Rules' as we have apparently all agreed to call them that. Having just argued with DS about manners and not had an open and accepting response, these rules resonated with me:

RULE 1 - Life is not fair, get used to it. (hence this great photo of a seagull snatching the dolphin's fish away. Those sneaky seagulls are everywhere!)

RULE 2 - The world won't care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something before you feel good about yourself.

RULE 3 - You will NOT make $40,000 a year right out of high school. You won't be a vice president with a car phone until you earn both.

RULE 4 - If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss. He doesn't have tenure.

RULE 5 - Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your grandparents had a different word for burger-flipping; they called it opportunity.

RULE 6 - If you mess up, it's not your parents' fault, so don't whine about your mistakes, learn from them.

RULE 7 - Before you were born, your parents weren't as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you are. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parents' generation, try "delousing" the closet in your own room.

RULE 8 - Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life has not. In some schools, they have abolished failing grades; they'll give you as many times as you want to get the right answer. This doesn't bear the slightest resemblance to anything in real life.

RULE 9 - Life is not divided into semesters. You don't get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you find yourself. Do that on your own time.

RULE 10 - Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.

RULE 11 - Be nice to nerds. Chances are you'll end up working for one.

Okay, some are a little harsh, and in the work place there are plenty of divas and coasters, just like in High School, but the idea of doing something hard for the intrinsic reward of a feeling of accomplishment, that is something I want to inculcate. And if we are creating rules, I would add - be polite, it costs nothing and leaves a lasting (good) impression.