15 Jan 2013
I spent twenty years in Canberra. I moved there when I was 5 and left there when I was 25. That means I spent my childhood there and a lot of Sundays.
Growing up, Sundays tended to follow a fairly familiar pattern. First off – church. Normally in your ‘Sunday’ best which was actually ‘all the time’ best because lets face it – when you’re that young you don’t have much opportunity to dress up. Then because the shops didn’t open on Sunday in those days (I KNOW WHAT WAS THAT ABOUT?) you used to go with your Dad to the rubbish tip (which you could do for FREE and you were allowed to sit on the trailer when your dad reversed it and this was considered fabulous child suitable entertainment) or maybe to a family/friends bbq lunch where you’d climb trees and steal extra fizzy drinks when the grownups weren’t looking. Long afternoons playing in the backyard followed before your parents made you come in and have a bath and then – provided you hadn’t been caught stealing extra fizzy drinks or standing on the trailer instead of sitting – you’d be able to turn on the TV for 6.30 pm to watch The Wonderful World of Disney.
And it would silence all of us. Even if it was a repeat. The opening sequence would roll, the music would play and a simple story would transform the evening. Even when we were too cool to technically be watching so we had to hang over the back of the couch on the pretext of annoying the younger siblings.
It was a magical halcyon time which no child today will ever get to experience. And I can say that now because I’m officially old (like over 30, closer to 40) and because it costs so much money to go to the bloody tip these days you’re better off paying less for real entertainment. And also, because at 6.30 pm these days they insist on putting terrible current affairs programs or reality shows which tend to crush dreams rather than cherish them.
Now that I have girls of my own, I look for opportunities for them to nurture their imaginations and thankfully, Disney are still pumping out magic – albeit in different formats. The Little Mermaid, Pocohontas, Toy Story, The Lion King, Monsters Inc, Finding Nemo, Brave – these are all feisty tales where good triumphs, evil loses and a catch phrase is born.
The traditional and enduring Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Donald and the gentler and darker tales of yore such as Mary Poppins, Jungle Book, The Aristocats, Snow White, Cinderella and so on are still lurking about the DVD shelves enabling me to share some of my fondest Disney memories with small people who can access children’s television 24/7 if they want to do so. It’s a different world. Not better, not worse. Just different.
Which is why it is exciting for me when shows like Disney Live! Mickey’s Rockin’ Road Show start touring and somewhat bittersweet when their best show of the tour is scheduled for the AIS Arena in Canberra. Mixing old school favourites with modern heroes such as Woody and Buzz and the awesome Jessie ensures that not only do I enjoy the show but my daughters do too and it means I have to return to the stomping grounds of my child hood and annoy my parents (lovingly). Win! Win! Win!
And even better – I’ve been given some tickets for the show at the AIS Arena on 9 February 2013 for a family of 4 (all sorts of family configurations allowed – under 12 months on a knee go free). If you don’t win the tickets you can always do it the old fashioned way and just phone.132 849 or go to
www.ticketek.com.au. Click on the picture above right to get more details on the show.
But back to the free tickets – if you want them – all you have to do is comment on this post citing which Disney character you would most like to sing a duet with, what song would you choose and why? Like if I wanted to win the tickets I’d say that I wanted to sing with Sebastian from The Little Mermaid, singing Under the Sea and its basically because I have an awesome little ‘air drumming’ routine which I am hoping will go gangbusters just like Psy’s Gangnam Style.
Best answer in by 6.30pm on Sunday, 27 January (for old times sake) will win.
And please enter and spread the news – get your friends to enter – otherwise my first sponsored post will be an abject failure and I’ll feel terribly sad. And that wouldn’t be very Disney now would it!?
7 Jan 2013
If it gets to 43 degrees tomorrow, please disregard my post here. You may bitch and moan about the heat for a whole day. But then you must go and see The big rubber duck and desist as you remember that such a sight would be less fabulous if the weather was cold.
7 Jan 2013
Tonight I’m going to be hanging out with one of the most amazing girls I know. I’ve known her for the best part of twenty years and she’s been inspirational, hilarious and so amazingly honest in the way she’s approached life that I love spending time with her even if we never get around to talking about anything serious, because I know that inside her head she’s probably got a whole lot of awesomeness bubbling around ready to spew out at some time.
Even having a conversation about bad traffic gives her cause to laugh. She’s just positive. And when she’s negative, she’s pretty bloody positive about the negative and you understand that sometimes being negative is a positive. Because it is all yin and yang at some level. And probably funny. But definitely worth thinking about. But not too seriously. Or too often.
From her point of view, her life is just ordinary. And she doesn’t see herself as anything special. And I’m not saying she’s perfect because that would burden her and me with a weight of expectation that could ruin a friendship. But she’s a lovely human being. She is so awesome that when she doesn’t know something, she asks. And when she doesn’t understand something, she says so. Can you imagine if we all lived that way?
And while we live hundreds of kilometres from each other and real life gets in the way of speaking as regularly as we used to, the idea of having her stay as she takes her boys on a road trip north is fabulous. It’s making Monday sparkle like its been bejazzled by a bejazzling fanatic.
4 Jan 2013
Motivation is a capitalist stratagem.
There I’ve said it. I realise that I’ve just exposed a trillion dollar self help industry with such a statement but I really have had it with the elevation of motivation to big religion status. It all starts with irritating questions and rises to a crescendo of fevered spending to help you ‘achieve your goals’. And largely it’s unnecessary unless we buy into conforming to one view of what a person’s life should look like.
It starts with questions such as what motivates you to go to work? stay healthy? exercise? And goes on to a level of bullshit unseen since the ‘reds under the beds’ hysteria of fifty years ago.
What motivates you to go to work?
Well money obviously. But that is not really a motivation is it? It’s kind of necessary if I want to live in a house, feed my family and afford Chardonnay. So while it might adhere to the strictest definition of the word its not motivation in the way that people say it. Like, dude, what MOTIVATES you to go to work? Sigh. Money. Obviously if I like the people I work with that helps, and if I enjoy my job that helps. But if I like people you don’t have to pay me to hang out with them and if I don’t enjoy my job I still have to feed my family. You see the hamster wheel of motivation here?
What motivates you to stay healthy?
Well not dying obviously. Once again, healthy is much cheaper so it reduces my need to work as much so I can afford more Chardonnay, but I am not motivated to be healthy just for the hell of it. It’s just good sense. I want to stay alive to hang out with my lovely husband and children. But then I have to work more to fund my longevity, so the incentivising effect of good health being cheaper starts to cancel out with funding my retirement Chardonnay supply and the Christmas gifts for the great-grandchildren I’m now going to live to see. You don’t see the self help books mentioning this now do you?
What motivates you to exercise?
Well if you’ve seen me lately you’ll guess that I’m not. What might start me? Getting fatter means buying new clothes and I hate shopping and I have to work more to fund those new outfits and they dig into the Chardonnay budget and the gifts for those great-grandchildren so this is where the strictest definition motivation as goal oriented actually starts to come into the equation. I’m motivated by the fact that essentially I’m a lazy lush who despises clothes shopping. But still – it’s not quite the mantra that the exercise gurus are peddling as their advertising slogan is it?
If I want to do something it’s generally because I want to do it or I need to do it. And that’s not motivating. That’s just life. It doesn’t make it saleable. It doesn’t mean I need to see it in every news article and magazine and feed as part of “Theme January: The New Year Resolution and how money can be made out of people’s good intentions.”
Perhaps its my ‘leftie leanings’, but I’m over the the motivation mantra and giving them my money. I aim to be a good person, leading a good life and if I’m not the richest or the skinniest, perhaps it’ll be okay after all. And I’ll definitely have money for Chardonnay. Now that’s motivating.
28 Dec 2012
Gratitude is defined as ‘The quality of being thankful; readiness to show appreciation” and as we come to the end of 2012 I am very conscious of the blessings in my life. So, in support of lists and clarity and end of year bollocks – I thought I’d share five things for which I am grateful this year.
1. My beautiful man – together for over eight years, married for over three and parents to two small forces of nature, it’s been a huge year for us as a couple and parents. Its been tough at times, ugly at times and sometimes it has seemed like we haven’t had a conversation or a sleep in weeks, but through it all he remains my best friend, my mirror and my world. He has a big heart, a stubborn streak and procrastinates to Olympic level but to have him any other way is not to have the real him. I am grateful for a love that is steadfast and unwavering and kind.
2. My wonderful daughters – these two loves are fabulous and fierce individuals seeking to find their own way right from the word go. With only 19 months between them they have bought chaos and love and terror into our lives and I am so thankful to have such wonderful individuals to try my parenting on. My biggest fear as a parent is that I’ll fuck it up but despite me, they are fantastic examples of humanity. I love them for their independence, their smiles, their inquisitive minds, sticky hands and cuddles. I am grateful for the opportunity, that so many others are denied, to be a parent.
3. Friends and family – I know this is clichéd but I am blessed with a plethora of people from whom I take inspiration, am offered support, share experiences and spend time with. These people are all unique in their own way and enhance not only my life but that of my little unit. We have laughed, bolstered, been bolstered, cried, eaten, drank and danced our way through a year of big highs and big lows and I am grateful for all those that have been part of 2012 whether its for a season, a reason or a lifetime.
4. Self acceptance – as result of a PND diagnosis I embarked upon ‘therapy’. It’s been a challenging journey as I don’t fit my own idea of somebody that suffers from depression but exploring the inside of my mind has been rewarding in that I am getting better at self acceptance and viewing my world in a different way. This has given me the freedom to try new things, be more of myself, actively accept others as they are and to sweat the small shit much less. I’m extremely grateful for the support of people around me as I’ve evangelised about ‘owning the diagnosis’.
5. The internet – I know! Weird huh? This year me and the internet have really come into our own. But I am very thankful to all the anonymous people that invent crap like the internet and zip lock bags. The internet has given me access to the world. It has educated me, amused me, entertained me, infuriated me, connected me. Ignorance is no excuse and our ability to explore ideas, enhance our understanding and connect with people across the globe that are passionate about so many wonderful ideas and concepts has never been so easy as it has in 2012. I am very grateful for the opportunity to be exposed to so many exciting thinkers, doers and Joe-ordinaries who are changing the world one step at time.
I am of course grateful for many more things in life but I find it harder to explain how Neapolitan Twist icecream and fresh blueberries made 2012 a great year. But trust me, they’ve had their place. 🙂
27 Dec 2012
You know, I’m a big fan of the list. I have been known to write lists of lists so I can keep track of where I am up to and what I need to do. I have shopping lists, work to-do lists, home to-do lists, packing lists, lists of movies I’d like to see, lists of books I’d like to read, lists of places I’d like to see when I travel somewhere, lists of cards to send, lists of presents to buy, lists of people to call. Tick!
So the fact that Santa himself needs to write a list, check it twice. I get that. I bet he has an ‘end of lists’ list as well – the one you write that has the one or two things from all your other lists that haven’t yet been checked off but if you have them on one list you feel more organised. Streamlined as it were. Tick!
And I’m not the only one that loves a list. If you google ‘power of lists’, pages upon pages of people are talking about harnessing creativity, clearing your head, establishing personal process, efficiencies, visual achievement, accountability, enhancement of effort and so on. My favourite advice is to start every list with ‘write a list’ so you’ve got a head start. Tick! And ticking things off a list – well that’s just happiness in a pen stroke. Tick! Tick!
The world is full of lists – it’s just that sometimes we call them other things. Like a recipe is just a list of things you need to make something, followed by a list of processes that helps you achieve that. A timetable is just a list of times indicating when your train will come. A TV guide is just a list of shows you might want to watch along with the times. A catalogue is just a list with pictures of things you might like to buy. A contract is a list of rules and regulations by which you do or don’t do something. And anybody that has written a book about how to live without lists has properly got chapters in the front of their book. And that’s just a list. Tick!
With me? I’m right you know. List makers rule the world. They are behind all the great religions, all the great organisations, all the great companies, all the great achievers.
So basically, I’m in good company. Tick.
