A Hater No More

R-Fed takes out A-Rod.

I have always hated tennis but this week have been trying to get into it (so that there is a sport E and I can both like). It's growing on me. Last night was pretty impressive.

ps- yes, I did write this post so that I could use the term 'A-Rod'.

Song of the Week

'Waterfalls'

Paul McCartney (1980)

Listen--

Money Bags

Am I the only person who finds it hard to get rid of shrapnel (ie, 20c and smaller)?

Around the house I have a couple of containers overflowing with small change. Last night E was cleaning out a cupboard and got a little chizzy as she found another container full, from some time past.

There are two causes for this. The first is that I don't want to keep people waiting. So rather than dig around in the coin bit of my wallet I'll break another $5 note. The second is that I get embarrassed handing over a hand full of small change when I get a coffee or something. I don't think this is unwarranted either-- I'm sure the person behind the counter has rolled their eyes at me when I've tried.

Anyway, then when my wallet bulges and starts to give me back pains when I sit down (like George Costanza), I surreptitiously unload the hefty wad of coinage into one of these containers, a dirty little secret that I won't return to, though I kid myself that I will.

I bet if I added this all up there would be a hundred bucks or more. It's crazy. So is it true that if I took a big bag of money into a bank that they would count it up and give me a nice new note? I would do this but I sense there would be a fair whack of eye rolling and sighing as they did it.

Anyone ever done this? Anyone have the same dumb problem? Any tips of how to use it up?

Shorts

The simple pleasures in life are the best ones.

One of the best bits of my day is when I get home from work and say to little e "I'm hot, I'm gonna go and put on some shorts", and she excitedly says "shorts!" and follows me into the bedroom.

She sits on the bed while I get out of my hot clothes and put on my shorts, and then we have a long wrestling/tickling/laughing session. Then we lay there and I ask her about her day, and tell her about mine. It makes me feel immensely happy.

Thursday Peanuts

A Conversation

Apparently President Barack Obama gave Prime Minister Kevin Rudd a call yesterday. When I heard this I was very intrigued about what the conversation would have been like. I imagine something like this--

KR: Hello, Rudd household, Kevin speaking
BO: Hi Kevin. Barack.
KR: Oh, hey B, how's it going?
BO: Not too bad, not too bad. Not calling during dinner, am I?
KR: Nah, we've had it. I'm just doing the washing up. What can I do you for?
BO: Aww, nothing much. Just touching base, having a bit of a catch-up. How's your week been?
KR: Pretty good. Keeping out of trouble. Had a family BBQ the other day, but apart from that, nothing much. You?
BO: Yeah, been a bit of a big week. Just doing a lot of unpacking. Still a few boxes to go. We'll get there. Just settling in and making a few phone calls.

Also apparently "The two leaders reconfirmed the closeness of the Australia-US alliance and foreshadowed an even more active partnership into the future."

BO: Anyways, just wanted you to know I got your back, bro.
KR: Yeah, same here, mate.
BO: Well, better go. Gotta couple more calls to make before So You Think You Can Dance starts. We should catch up for a drink some time.
KR: Sounds good. I'll talk to Therese and let you know some dates. See ya mate.
BO: Bye chief. (click)

Bit of a Blow

How's this for a headline?

So, seven people are very sick after eating the reproductive nether-regions of a poisonous fish. Call me unfeeling, but I don't have a lot of sympathy. You are very sick and that is sad, and I really hope you get better soon. But, come on.

I'm feeling a bit peckish. Hmm, lets see.. Maybe a nice ham and cheese toasted sandwich.. No, I know! Poisonous fish groin.

I'll admit that I may be a little narrow minded about what people eat in other countries, and that there are probably a lot of things I would like if I gave them a go. But look, some things are just off limits, and it's simple common sense. Nothing to do with culture, or narrowmindedness, just plain common sense.

This thing is 100 times more poisonous than cyanide. It can kill you in an hour. And you're not even going for a nice side fillet or something, you're taking what should only be seen by the fish himself, and maybe his wife.

Okay, let's just say that if prepared correctly, and cooked by a master chef, these little numbers are delicious, and won't kill you. Let's just say. Well, answer me this-- how did you come to discover this? What part of 'poisonous' and 'fish testicles' led you to this experimental fry-up?

Regardless of what our answer is, I think you really need to repent.

One Of Them Days

Y'know, I just don't have anything to say today, friendo's.

Maybe tomorrow.

A Simple Life

Drew posted some helpful thoughts on living simply.

I need to spend some time thinking about this I reckon -- how I can organise and declutter.

Good Onya, Jelena

I hope she keeps it up.

Day Off

So how was your day off? What did you get up to?

Ours was nice. No sleep-in as the kid was up at 6, but sleep-ins are but a distant memory nowadays. We went over to my folks' place for lunch, which was a nice relaxing time. Little e likes playing with 'ma-ma' and 'did-dad'.

In the arvo me and the girls wandered down the street from our place, where there was a bit of an Australia Day fair. It was nice-- had a bit of dinner (Thai on Australia Day?), watched some people dressed up as animals singing cheery songs about extinction, watched some tribal drumming group, shared an ice-cream and wandered back home in the rain.

A good day.

Heatwave

Well, back at work after a nice three day weekend.

Saturday was insane-- it reached 41 degrees in Sydney (or 105.8 Fahrenheit for you US readers), but felt more like 50 inside our place. I went to a bucks party, which was a bunch of hot whinging blokes sitting outside in front of a big BBQ cooking steaks and sweating into their beers.

I reckon it was the hottest day since that New Years Day a couple of years back. Global Warming, people, GLOBAL WARMING!! Fear! Panic! Paranoia!

In the evening though came a beautiful cool change, and it must have dropped twenty degrees in a couple of hours. It was magic.

Happy Australia Day!

Enjoy your day off :)

Sunday Spurgeon

'If God cares for you, why need you care too? Can you trust Him for your soul, and not for your body? He has never refused to bear your burdens, He has never fainted under their weight.

Come then, soul! Have done with fretful care, and leave all thy concerns in the hand of a gracious God.'

Song of the Week

'Same Old Song and Dance'

by Aerosmith (1974)

Listen--

McLaughlin and McLaughlin

Little e and I have been working on some tunes together lately. When I get home from work I say "do you want to go and play the guitar?", to which she yells "A-taar!".

I sit on the floor and play, and she stands close beside me, behind the neck of the guitar. We usually warm up with the classics; a bit of Twinkle Twinkle and Baa Baa Black Sheep, then move on to our own competitions. Our first piece was entitled I Like To Dance, which is basically the blues in the key of E major.

Our latest work is called Busy Bee, which is Twinkle Twinkle with fresh, new, edgy lyrics--

(Verse)
Busy busy busy busy busy busy bee,
Busy busy busy busy busy busy bee.

(Chorus)
Busy busy busy busy busy busy bee
Busy busy busy busy busy busy bee.

c. McLaughlin & McLaughlin, 2009.

Thursday Peanuts

Finish This Sentence:

If I had the day off I'd...

Patriotism

Well Barack certainly drew a bit of a crowd the other day.

It's at times like these that you realise how different we are to America in this way. Less excited, more cynical and less patriotic. Maybe you disagree with that, but that's how it seems to me.

I wonder why this is the case? What are the contributing factors? In a sense we are descended from similar 'stock', so when did we part ways so significantly in our attitudes?

I think it is very easy to say one is good, one is bad, but I personally think there were things to both cringe at and envy on display the other day, and likewise things to cringe at and be proud of in our own country. I think Australia in general is too quick to scoff at patriotism in ourselves, and in other countries.

So where does this fervour and patriotism come from? Would you consider yourself patriotic? Any American readers out there, would you consider yourself patriotic?

Gonna Be Another Hotty Today..

Don't forget to deodorize and drink six to eight glasses of water.

I only want what's best for you.

Brush With Fame

I got in the lift with Claudia Karvan yesterday.

Pierced

Here's a question for the ladies.

How old were you when you got your ears pierced? I saw a baby on the bus yesterday, probably only a few months old, and she had her ears pierced. I know it's not really a big deal, but it just seemed to me kinda slack, to do it before the kid has any say in the matter.

'Here, beloved child, just hold still a moment while I permanently puncture your flesh.'

Also it seems a bit like, well, do you really want your kid to grow up that quick? I know I don't. Did you have to wait a long time to get your ears pierced when you were a kid?

What do you reckon is a good age? Ten? Thirteen?

Ch-Ch-Changes

The company I work for just got bought out today.

I don't really know what this means for me, but the head honcho said there would be 'changes'.

Nobody likes 'changes', least of all paranoid, pessimistic ol' me. Oh well, being able to support my family was a bit of a lark while it lasted.

Last Legs

That old fella with the little dog stopped to talk to me again yesterday while I was waiting for the bus. Before any hello's he launched into a story about how his dog was sick and blind, seventeen years old and on it's last legs.

Now, as you may know, I am not a dog person, and I'm about as interested in patting them, as say, a pig. But, in order to extend the hand of friendship, and pass the proverbial peace pipe, I crouched down and went to pat the sick little ball of fur, putting on my most convincing 'dog-person' voice (eg. Heeelllooo! Good GUUUUUUUURRLL!)

As soon as I touched it though, it yelped, and flew around, quickly transforming into an evil biting blur, and I jumped back just in time.

"She bites, you know", said the man. Oh, really? I would never have guessed.

He then went into a very detailed story about how she's a little too good at licking herself clean, and that the balls of fur she swallows are giving her bowel problems. You'll be pleased to know though, that the vet gave him special gloves to get his fingers 'right up there' to pull out the blockages.

"Great, big long bits of fur they are", he said earnestly, and then turned away and walked on, the blind little dog following close behind.

And there I was left standing, a little repulsed, a little shaken, and with 'dog-hand' and an hour to wait before I could get to a tap to wash it. As I watched them leave, I can't be sure, but I think I saw the little hellhound look back and wink at me.

Just Jokes

Simone's got a good joke. Here's mine for the day--

Q: What's E.T. short for?

A: He's just got little legs.

Seven Years

Seven years ago today E and I got married. Seven years... that feels like quite an accomplishment. Apparently the seventh year is the one notorious for separations and divorces, so unless something drastic happens today, we will have gotten through that little challenge unscathed.

Even though the anniversary's today, we kinda celebrated it on Saturday, and it was a really nice day. We went out for breakfast, and had a nice lazy day after that. Then in the evening my Mum and Dad came over and minded little e so we could go out.

We went to a nice restaurant in Glebe called Roxanne, and then took take away hot chocolates and a picnic rug down to watch some Shakespeare in the park. It was really nice. We saw "A Comedy of Errors". Funny stuff.

Happy Anniversary, E.

Sunday Spurgeon

'You may be sighing and groaning because of inbred sin, and mourning over your darkness, yet the Lord sees light in your heart, for He has put it there, and all the cloudiness and gloom of your soul cannot conceal your light from His gracious eye.

You may have sunk low in despondency, and even despair; but if your soul has any longing towards Christ, and if you are seeking to rest in His finished work, God sees the light.'

Closing My Fists

I read this quote yesterday on Ali's blog, and it's been on my mind ever since. It really hit home to me.

The objects of most of our desires are not evil. The problem is the way they tend to grow and the control they come to exercise over our hearts. Desires are part of human existence, but they must be held with an open hand ... The problem with desire is that in sinners it very quickly morphs into demands (‘I must’). Demand is the closing of my fists over a desire.

Even though I may be unaware that I have done it, I have left my proper position of submission to God. I have decided that I must have what I have set my heart on and nothing can stand in my way. I am no longer comforted by God’s desire for me; I am threatened by it, because God’s will potentially stands in the way of my demand ...

--Paul Tripp

Last night E and I were looking at this passage from James 4, and it seemed to tie into this same idea. I reckon I've got some thinking to do about all this.

Now listen, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money." Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, "If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that."

Song of the Week

'Walking On A Dream'

by Empire Of The Sun

Listen--

Unfair

I read an article yesterday about child brides in Afghanistan, and some head Mufti bloke defending the practice said something along the lines of 'it's unfair to these young girls to say that they are not mature enough for marriage. A girl of 10 or 12 is well able to perform her wifely duties and chores.'

Yeah, head Mufti bloke, that's what's unfair. Not stealing the youth of a child, not a kid having to marry some 50 year old creep, not child labour, certainly not pedophilia.

No, what's really unfair is saying that a kid isn't mature enough to do the ironing.

Thursday Peanuts

Scorcher

Man, how hot was it yesterday and last night. I slept on top of the covers with the fan on and the window open, and still I was sweating. I wonder what the temperature was..

At dusk I couldn't take any more and ran a cool bath and just lay there for ages. I didn't turn on the light, and as the sun went down I just stayed there, having a bath in the dark, breathing slowly, and letting myself unwind.

Yesterday

Well, yesterday went pretty well over all. The assessment was in the afternoon, which wasn't good, because I had the whole morning to stew over it and get into this really dark, fearful mood, and had a bit of a melt-down when it was time to go. But like most things, the fear was far worse than the thing itself.

I drove out to this deserted university campus for a few hours and talked a lot, revealed a lot, realised a lot, did long, probing questionnaires, and found out more about the course in general. I found it very draining though, and was sort of thinking through things that I hadn't even realised about myself. Having everything out in the open was really quite a strange feeling.

I was trying to think of how to describe the feeling. It's like you were living in a really messy house. You had been there forever, and had just let it go, and in unnoticeable increments had gotten worse and worse. In the back of your mind you knew it was pretty messy and dirty, but you didn't spend much time thinking about it or looking very closely at anything. You kept the curtains closed so you couldn't really see the thick layer of dust covering everything in the house. Deep down you know your in squalor, but on the surface it's your house, and your private place, and you are mostly comfortable and at home there.

And now what it feels like as I face this stuff, is as though all the curtains had been taken down, and suddenly all this blinding sunlight is pouring into the house. It's warm and good, but also completely shows things for what they are. The dust and stains everywhere are visible and exposed, and you are repulsed and shocked at seeing what deep down you always knew was there.

So, on one hand I am overwhelmed at the mess and daunted by the long road ahead, but on the other, I'm so relieved to see and feel the sunlight, to see things for what they are, and to know the curtains have been taken down for good.

Anti-Word Verificationalists

It's often at times of great celebration that people let down their guards and allow their true (and somewhat muddied) colours to be seen.

Yesterday we saw, in the midst's of euphoric celebration, some Anti-Word Verificationalists show their true natures and hoist their black flags of discontent.

And so for you, angry mob, Word Verification has gone the way of the Dodo. Truth is I never knew you could turn the thing off. Let me know if it still comes up.

Actually the real truth is that I was just trying to expand your vocabularies and teach y'all some new big words. Sorry for caring.

Mopyc- (pronounced moe'pique) An ancient noun of French origin, meaning 'pretty awesome'. eg, 'Ben's blog celebrations and dramatic readings last night were so mopyc'

Vanishing Point Turns 1

Well, a year ago today I started this here blog.

It's been a good year, and I'm glad to have a bit of a documentation of it. Also nice to get a year under the belt and not feel like such a newbie around all you old-school bloggerators.

If you come around to my place tonight, I will be doing a recital of selected posts, with the assistance of a string quartet and an interpretive dancer, to mark the occasion. Supper provided.

Assessment Day Tomorrow

Tomorrow I go in to Lidcombe Hospital for a three hour assessment thing for the intensive speech therapy course that I start in February. I gather that they get me to talk a lot, and tape and video me, in order to assess what point I'm at, and what sort of treatment will suit me. Should be a barrel of laughs.

I am simultaneously excited, apprehensive and terrified. I am excited that this whole thing is getting under way after all these years, apprehensive because I don't know what it's all going to entail and what the results will be, and terrified because I'll be facing head on this thing that I've tried to hide from and not deal with.

All that aside, I am happy and really looking forward to getting into it. I'll let you know how this thing tomorrow goes.

The Wrong Platform Blues

In the afternoons my head has been scrambled lately. I don't consider myself to be a vague person, but I've been doing some dumb stuff. On Friday I fell asleep on the train going home and ended up at Woop Woop, and then yesterday I got on the wrong train and ended up in Parramatta (again).

This was entirely my fault, but I still was filthy about it, and called down curses from the Heavens on poor unsuspecting Parramatta. They were my Ninevah.

A two hour trip home on a Monday is not a good start to the week.

Packing Up and Taking Down

I had mixed feelings last night as E packed up the Christmas tree, took down the lights, and put the decorations into boxes.

Sad that it signalled the end of Christmas, holidays and the approaching end of Summer.

But happy that the reminder of these things was put away, as I need to face the new year looking forward, not stuck in sentimentality about a season that's gone.

You Kin Always Get Somepin Outa Psalms

Tom sat down in the firelight. He squinted his eyes in concentration, and at last wrote slowly and carefully on the end paper in big clear letters: "This here is William James Joad, dyed of a stroke, old old man. His fokes bured him becaws they got no money to pay for funerls. Nobody kilt him. Jus a stroke an he dyed." He stopped. "Ma, listen to this here." He read it slowly to her.

"Why, that soun's nice," she said. "Can't you stick on somepin from Scripture so it'll be religious? Open up an' git a-sayin' somepin outa Scripture."

"Got to be short," said Tom. "I ain't got much room lef' on the page."

Sairy said, "How 'bout 'God have mercy on his soul'?"

"No," said Tom. "Sounds to much like he was hung. I'll copy somepin." He turned the pages and read, mumbling his lips, saying the words under his breath. "Here's a good short one," he said. "'An' Lot said unto them, Oh, not so, my Lord.'"

"Don't mean nothin'," said Ma. "Long's you're gonna put one down, it might's well mean somepin."

Sairy said, "Turn to Psalms, over further. You kin always get somepin outa Psalms."

Tom flipped the pages and looked down the verses. "Now here is one," he said. "This here's a nice one, just blowed full a religion: 'Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.' How's that?"

"That's real nice," said Ma. "Put that one in."

Sunday Spurgeon

'The capacity of our wishes who can measure? But the immeasurable wealth of God can more than overflow it. I ask thee if thou art not complete when God is thine? Dost thou want anything but God?

Is not His all-sufficiency enough to satisfy thee if all else should fall?'

In Him We Live and Move

'The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else.

From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. 'For in him we live and move and have our being.'

--Acts 17:24-28

Song of the Week

'Blindsided'

by Bon Iver

'I crouch like a crow
contrasting the snow'

Listen--

Lounge Lizard

This was little e's favourite game when we were on holidays--

Kicking Habits

Four and a half weeks 'clean' so far.

My longest ever.

Holiday Rekkids

When we got to the holiday house (shed), I was very excited to discover a little record player, with a rather comprehensive collection of records-- and not dud ones either, but actual good stuff!

The Beatles, The Beach Boys, The Smiths, The Doors, Velvet Underground, New Order, Happy Mondays, Jesus and Mary Chain, Sugarcubes etc, etc

The owner obviously had taste!

Literature Meme

Thanks Ali for tagging me for this meme thing. It was fun, but it made me realise I haven't read many of these books. Bit of a dodgy list though, in my opinion. Bridget Jones? Literature??

Anyway, here's how it works:

1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2) Italicize those you intend to read.
3) Mark in a different color the books you LOVE
4) Reprint this list in your blog.

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen (well, about two thirds of it--for the HSC)
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy (didn't read, but we listened to the cd on a long car trip)
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare (nah, but a fair few at school)
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck (reading at the moment- part way thru)
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame (only got half way, would love to finish it)
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34 Emma - Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis ummm?
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meany - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding --nope. if i was on a desert island and this was the only book i had, i'd use it to get my campfire going
69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

I won't tag, but give it a burl if you'd like and let me know, so I can have a squizz.

Thursday Peanuts

Started

A hundred or so pages in to The Grapes of Wrath, and loving it. Looking forward to watching the old Henry Fonda film when I'm done.

What are you reading at the moment?

Finished

In the holidays I finished Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger.

He only wrote four books, and having now read them all, I feel kinda sad.

I spread them out as long as I could. My favourite was Catcher in the Rye, maybe my favourite book ever.

Through The Gate, Kangaroo Valley (2009)

Through The Gate, Kangaroo Valley
Oil on canvas, 2009

Four Trees, Kangaroo Valley (2009)

Four Trees, Kangaroo Valley
Oil on canvas, 2009

Summer Afternoon, Croydon Park (2008)

Summer Afternoon, Croydon Park
Oil on canvas, 2008

Pedestrian Windows

You know the window between a red light going one direction, and a green light the other? That small window that as a law-breaking pedestrian, you can use to dash across despite your little man being red?

As you know, this is a window that must be judged on it's own merits, as there are differing variables for every road and occasion. But generally, a young and lithe person may safely cross in a window, if he has his wits about him.

Yesterday I encountered severe window misuse. The Windowee had not their wits about them, and were definitely not young and lithe. A rash decision nearly cost them.
The light turned red and a window opened, a brief fleeting portal. I checked the surroundings and judged it hazardous, a window that would not last. The woman beside me however, got that mad gleam in her eye. Now this lady was not in her prime. The walking frame, white hair, faded floral dress, frail body and limp attested to this. And yet she got that gleam and did the bolt, leaving caution
standing safely back at the curb.

The light changed and two lanes of approaching cars began to move. The Madwoman had only made it a fifth of the way across, and she looked up, realising her terrible mistake, yet all she could do was hobble on, as fast as her walking frame could carry her (ie, not very).

The cars drew to a stop, a metre in front of her, the drivers letting out a collective eye-roll as she slowly finished her journey. They spared her dignity by not honking, though my mean nature thought she deserved at least a little toot.

You are never too old to respect your windows.

Day at Gerroa