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). 

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...

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 #ShareFourSomethings. #MuralMondays

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.

April Reading

 This month I did a little better in the book department.

A friend gave me this book and I really enjoyed it. I probably wouldn't have found it myself. A husband on life after children and a failing marriage. It's first person and I think that's an interesting perspective. I'm very close to all my kids leaving home, one went a few years ago and 2 will go by next year. It makes for a strange space, physically and mentally. Not that our situation is the same (thankfully) but you do wonder what it will be like. I also liked that you could be 50 something and still so lost in who you are and what you want to do. As are the people he meets up with from his past, or they aren't but they've created a funny life for themselves.

This was for the podcast bookclub - I do love reading what they choose and then listening to their discussion. I think I had read this long ago - I find all the Christie's vaguely familliar but I never remember exactly what happened. I did know who did it as I read along but I couldn't quite remember the how and why. Or maybe if you've read enough of her books you start figuring it out, even without following the clues. As I've said before, I'm more Poirot or Tommy & Tuppence than Miss Marple but I didn't find Marple as annoying as I normally do - maybe because she was in it less than in the short stories. As an aside, last month I read one of Christie's thrillers (not mystery) and it's really different and great fun.

I didn't love this - I didn't really learn much so for me it's not a must read. I think a lot of it is intuitive. As we have a lot of friends retiring, it was interesting though, as a lot are struggling with it. One went back to work after a few months! So the book is good if you've not really thought about things or if you wonder why you do the things you do. The starting point is the 110 year olds on Okinawa. I thought there would be some great insight there but I guess it's real life and that's made up of a million little things.

This was a book club book. I thought it was going to be terrible by the cover so I listened to the audio on Audible. You could say it was a little derivative - I had the feeling I was familliar with the story, but can't place exactly which book I was thinking of (so maybe that was just in my head). I was engrossed and really enjoyed it. It's a creepy, uncomfortable read. Definitely a great page turner!

This was mentioned by Kwarkito and I was intrigued. A few decades ago I started the New Words Dept and from time to time I would call out for the creation of a wrod among friends - it's a sort of game I play with my friends. This is the perfect book for me. I am carrying around when I go to plays by myself*, as it's the perfect dip in, dip out book. Really enjoying it. It's part poetry, part philosphy and part humour. It's also pop culture and art history and literary references too...I don't think it would work in audio but what do I know?

*I have a little theatre club and four of us go to plays together but I booked one and realised I was at Ultra so had to move my ticket, and then for the next play they all had to move their tickets due to work travel and I was already at a different play the night they moved it to, so again went solo. I think next play we are all together again though!

This was picked at random because I liked the cover. I was checking the library audio selection for The Others and this was on the landing page of BorrowBox. It's a young adult book but I'm really engrossed. There's a lot in in about happiness, mental health, fitting in and LBGT issues - predominately the bit that is really making me uncomfortable is the character who has not really come out and his internal monologue everytime everyone makes comments assuming everyone is heterosexual. I have to admit, even as a ally, I recognise I do this too. It's interesting the feeling Silver is creating in me. But that aside, it's also a rollicking action story. Creepy undercurrent of unclear intent and the reader is trying to figure out what exactly is going on, along with the characters.Would recoomend both for late teens and adults.

As an aside, Josh Silver is out for the Writers Festival at Marrickville Library on the 24th of May. It's free but you need to reserve a spot. He's talking about his new book, Fruit Fly. I would def go except I'm already at another ticketed event, which is disappointing. Bookings are here.

Linking with #TrafficJamReboot #TuesdayTwirl #SundaySalon #StackingtheShelves #SundayPost

Biennale of Sydney

Every two years art takes over the city. This year, it returns to White Bay Power Station, as well as many other locations around the city.

There are music events as well as markets, and of course exhibited art.

Best of all, most of it is free, so no reason not to get amongst it!

Enjoy the thought provoking ideas behind this year's theme: Rememory

Website is here for full details.

The Biennale runs from 14 March - 14th June. Don't miss it!

Linking with TforTuesday if the teapot counts?

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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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Ibis

I was walking by the railway tracks and this Ibis let me get very close. I've mentioned here I always think of this art work when I see them on bins like that.

I was excited to get the wings extended.

Coming home, the bonus sunset made me attempt to get the wings in full span, but alas, no luck!

Linking with #SundayBest #WildbirdWednesday #WeeklyWonder  #SaturdayCritters #GardenAffair