Urban Safari

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My husband is off to Cape Town for the marathon, and as we have the HSC in this household, I'm stuck at home (but don't worry, my turn is coming, and it's WILD!). I just booked him on a safari to see the Big 5. I'm very jealous...so here's my own hometown version...with the small 5.

This egret was stomping round the beach while we were touring Wollongong.

As was the art work above.

And below. 

This little guy popped out while we were walking home from the Manning Bar after Daniel Kitson's Comedy Festival show. 

Every visit to the Opera House for me requires enough time to pop down to the stairs and see if the seal is there. Never fails to make me smile!

And after every successful hunt, you display your trophies....(these are at the Biennale of Sydney...not mine, obvs.)

Linking with #SaturdayCritters

The Little Things - April

READ When I was pregnant with my first child, I discovered Ariel Gore. I read The Mama Trip and the Hip Mama Survival Guide (I thought it was called something about Pregnancy but it's been renamed?). Over the years I would read her essays whenever I found them. Then not long ago I read her book on Happiness. Last week I stumbled across End of Eve, about the death (and drawn out dying) of her Mother. It's interesting to have read as both she and I evolved in our life journey at the same pace. I feel a strange connection to someone I don't know but know so much intimate detail about. 

I thought The Rest of Our Lives had a 'voice' very simillar to Lawrence Naumoff. I loved him in my late teens and early 20's, and there are 2 books written since I stopped devouring his work, so I've ordered them.

I've also ordered a Sparke Hayter book - I read all her books - such fun - back in the 90s. I've ordered Last Girl Standing because the website said it was published in 2017 but according to Wiki it was 2005, so there's a good chance I already have it and already read it...c'est la vie.

I'm trying to find out what Vicki Iovine is up to at the moment, as she and Gore were intertwined in my reading in that period.  Matching pace with babies and toddlers etc. If anyone knows, please let me know. It appears maybe she's just retired...

So I am reaching out through the years to authors that filled my life with vibrancy. I am seeing how they are now, though my current lens, of course, which is older and maybe wiser than it was.

Do you go back to long forgotten authors who you adored in a period in your life?

WATCHED Been going to a lot of comedy - Daniel Kitson, Daniel Schloss and He Huang were all great (note she still has dates in Sydney, Brisbane and New Zealand on sale). It's great to catch up regularly with a girlfriend I don't see often, and it's really great to laugh - cheap laughs too (so to speak) for the most part. Get out and take a punt on someone! Went to The River - it's an interesting play. I enjoyed it a lot. Also Sistren and Drive your plow over the bodies of dead animals. No movies at the cinema - try as we might there's just nothing on....

HEARD Been listening to the solo albums of Chimano since I discovered he's moved here and has a show on in Sydney this June. Alas I'm in Hobart that weekend but details here.

MADE Not much of a hole in clearing out. The book library is constantly full, working on finding homes for some CDs we will never listen to again (which honestly is all of them as we don't have a CD player except in my car which we are about to sell...)

WORE Not so much what I wore, but what I would wear, if I could get my hands on it, from the Vivienne Westwood exhibition at the NGV. I was amazed at how current she is, from back in the 1980s. She foresaw a lot of current trends, but was just incredibly early to create them! All the pics are dresses I would love to wear, and/or similar to my current styles.

I did get this bag in Melbourne from a fabulous social enterprise, Beekeeper Parade, which will have it's debut outing tonight....

MY TOP THREE MOMENTS FROM THE MONTH GONE BY I love doing this each month, and I really love that it's so hard to narrow down to three.

1. My Mother's Day celebration. We went bowling and played laser tag and arcade games. I love laughing and playing with the kids like we used to and I love watching them play together. It's so special, as I wrote in this post in 2024.

2. Ultra weekend - it's always such a vibe. Great food and fun dancing and being in the festival crowd.

3. Visiting Universities with my youngest was pretty special. Lovely to see what excites her and where she might be living. Miles stone moments for sure!

What's been your highlights?

Follow along on Instagram here.

Linking with #TheLittleThings and #Stylewithasmile

#TrafficJamReboot #TheMonthlyWrapUp

Autumn Skies

I don't know what it is, but the light changes with the season. Or maybe just the time of the light changes so suddenly I'm out and about for it.

It's taking longer for things to dry outside - not enough heat in the sunlight, or length of sunlight hours before the shade moves in.

Pretty though....I guess it's time to plan a chilly, crisp getaway.....

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Link one post that shows something seasonal. Traditional weather wise, a seasonal nature marker or a seasonal celebration or event.  Please link relevant posts only.

Make sure you link back to this #AllSeasons post. 

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Inception

I was walking to the elevator and suddenly felt I should be about to run up the walls...like I was in Inception.

Fleeting thought, obviously. Funny what image our eyes send to the brain.

(Full details on The Little National Hotel in Newcastle here). 

Linking with #KeithsRamblings #WordlessWednesday

Literal Street Art

Three times this week I stumbled across little pictures abandoned in the gutter or on the foot path. It is both sad and joyful at the same time. A delightfully whimsical addition to my dreary day, but also would a little person be sad when they discovered their loss?

By the time I found the third one, I began to feel it was like I was back in Dispatches from Elsewhere - was I being lured into a game of some sort?

As I wrote in my post on Whimsy 'It's one of the best parts of being alive and it's usually free. It's an internal thing, it comes from you, from how you view the world. It's you insisting on seeing the magic, however small, and discovering that can infiltrate your life.'

May our lives be infused with unexpected fun and meaningless moments that make you smile...

Linking with #WordlessWednesdays #AwwMondays - not the furry Aww but the little kid aww that seems so long ago for me, but something I still treasure - my big babies will always be my babies! And #TalkaboutitTuesday

Share Four Somethings - April

 And how is it possible we are already here again?

This month has FLOWN by!!

School holidays and a trip to Melbourne and suddenly it's all back to spreadsheets and talks with the accountant. Argh. 

Something we loved: Hard to narrow it down, been to four plays, a number of comedians and Ultra, which is my annual fabulous jaunt to Melbourne for a fun 24 hours of eating, art and dancing! But I will say I loved touring the University campuses with my youngest. It was great to see two of the regional Universities in detail and see what my daughter liked about them. It was a right of passage I didn't get with my others as they were going locally and just went off to look with their friends. 

Something that sustained us: Ultra. That  manically happy 24 hours of feeling free (in the sense of no one to be responsible for except myself - though my friend was recovering from covid so I was slightly worried she was pushing her self for my sake). I had to walk that fine line of being concerned but not being annoying...as the mother mode can occasionaly be overbearing. Anyway, it just made me pumped for the next occasion to dance!

Something we're carrying forward from this month to the next:
With the Comedy Festival in full swing, I've a number of nights out, all a good walk to and from the venues. Ditto I had two nights at the Belvoir, a theatre that takes me about 45 mins to walk to at a fast pace. So I've been managing to get my steps up and average 70-80 kms a week. One of my doctors, maybe the foot one - who knows, said 'it's counter intuative but you need to keep finding ways to keep moving and using it, even mindful of discomfort. Once you stop, it gets worse' and that has really stuck with me. I can't get less flexible, mobile, energetic than I am now. I look at my mum who does less and less and I don't want to become that. So finding ways to keep the exercise and movement up is something I'm working on. Another doctor said we (humans) rarely reach backwards so that becomes inflexible. I've been working on that too. A comedian, Jimmy O'Yang I think, but could be Ronny Chieng or Aaron Chen, made fun of his father and pointed out you never see elderly Chinese standing still. If they are waiting for a bus, they'll start doing exercises. That's what I've started doing. If waiting for the kettle to boil, in an elevator, whatever - I start doing ankle lifts or arm twists - whatever I can get a quick 10 or 20 done....

Something we're making space for: Writing. I really need to get my story submitted for Grief. I've written the bones but need to finish it this weekend. And submit it. I also have a number of blog posts to write and reviews. Just seem time poor constantly at the moment.

I've included two songs from Nimino who I saw this month and was fabulous. They've been on high rotation since....

Linking with #FloralFridayFoto #HappyNow #HappyTuesday - there's a lot in this post that made me very happy! #ShareFourSomethings. #MuralMondays #SeniorSalonPitstop

The Street art is from Melbourne's Ultra weekend.

The Easter Decorations are from the Langham, where I went swimming.

Easter treats are from Black Star Pastry. And were delicious!

Mario's egg as a promo for the movie - which I saw on our trip to check out Newcastle Uni.

The  Gillie  & Marc is at Newcastle University. They have 2 million trees on campus.

The flowers are from some friends after a minor surgery - biopsy clear. Yay.

And the dandilion is in B&W here.