Morning Song : When Love Takes Over

20 Nov 2012 2 Comments

by Catch Up With A Mate in Odes to the Ordinary Tags:

Is it asking too much to insert song lyrics into a blog post and expect people to read it??!!

Well, hold onto your hats, for the 200th post in the Catch up with a Mate series, that is what I am doing.

I awoke this morning, and true to form, I walked over to my cd player and pressed play….expecting the soulful tune of Ms K.D Lang to herald in the morning. For seasoned readers, you will be aware that Ms Lang’s music has been played on high rotation in my home for the last 9 days.

K.D Lang Post to bring you up to speed

But not today…the tune that filled my tiny bed sit was David Guetta feat. Kelly Rowlands ‘ When Love Take Over’

And I just had to dance…right there and then at 6.23am, in my pyjama’s and bed hair….for I just LOVE this song!!

I connect to it…It makes me feel good….it forces me to be in the moment and be thankful for all that is good in this world.

Above all it speaks of love…and of late…that is all I want to hear about!!

It’s complicated, it always is, that’s just the way it goes
Feels like I’ve waited so long for this, I wonder if it shows?
Head under water now I can breath, it never felt so good.
‘Cause I can feel it coming over me I wouldn’t stop it if I could

When love takes over, yeah
You know you can’t deny
When love takes over, yeah
Cause something’s here tonight

Give me a reason I gotta know, do you feel it too ?
Can’t you see me here on overload, and this time I blame you…
Ohhh… Looking out for U to hold my hand, it feels like I could fall
Now love me right like I know you can, we could loose it all

 When love takes over, yeah
You know you can’t deny
When love takes over, yeah
Cause something’s here tonight

If only everyday could start with a song and dance..to welcome in a new day, new beginnings, new possibilities and opportunites to surround yourself with things you love.

If you could start each day to song, which would you choose and why??

I would just LOVE to know.

Unexpected Gifts…The Best Kind

05 Nov 2012 2 Comments

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A few weeks back I took a lunch break by myself.

I left the office uncertain of the direction I would take, where I where go, what I would do.

When I arrived some 20 minutes later at a charity shop on Broadway, Sydney…I knew this was where I was meant to be.

I had fun rummaging through clothes racks, eying dresses and tops up and down, before deciding on the purchase of a jade green denim skirt. I did not even try it on…I had faith it would fit me.

Whilst paying at the counter, the sales assistant informed me that clothing items with an orange tag where half the marked price. My skirt purchase came to a grand total of $3.00.

Feeling the need to offload a little more cash, I bent down and started looking through a stack of cd’s that where gathering dust.

As a kid who once owned a walk-man, listened to cassettes and did not get a mobile phone till 2003….I have always felts slightly behind these technologically advanced times.

I have not joined the Apple revolution, and whilst I no longer listen to cassettes…I am a cd girl through and through.

Rumour has it no one buys cd’s anymore…..music is downloaded, or uploaded, side swiped or something!!

The cd I was to buy was  Bic Runga’s second solo album of 2002  ‘ Beautiful Collision’….Yep ,10 years behind the times in getting into this particular jem…but when you listen exclusively to cd’s  you get used to being behind the times!

I had seen Bic sing in May of this year at Sydney City Recital Hall, and 6 years prior to that at the Basement, Sydney.

She is by far one of the most beautiful performers I have ever had the privileged of seeing live.

I had only ever purchased one of her cd’s, her debut album ‘ Sway’ in 1999, and I remember thinking at the concert in May of this year…it was time to acquire more of Bic’s tunes.

Sometimes, without trying too hard, things just happen, come to you….they appear out of no where…true gifts.

I was meant to wonder aimlessly that lunch break, through the tree-lined park, past a bakery and into that charity shop….all the stars had aligned, it might have taken 10 years, but on that particular day I was ready.

Ready to take on board lyrics and melodies that have since struck a chord with the place I currently find myself residing…a happy place, one of certainty, self-assuredness and beauty.

Listening for the Weather- Bic Runga

So I’m listening for the weather to predict the coming day
Leave all thought of expectation to the weather man
No it doesn’t really matter what it is he has to say
‘Cause tomorrows keep on blowing in from somewhere

All the people that I know in the apartments down below
Busy with their starring roles in their own tragedies

Sunlight sends you on your way
And those restless thoughts that cling to yesterday
Never be afraid of change

CUWAM- Numbers

16 Mar 2012 3 Comments

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I have neglected my true calling of late…that of a writer.

As an administrator I have been hit by a tsunami of paperwork, emails, letters, faxes, courier pigeons….complaints, tears, tantrums…the occasional smile…but by and large…the last four weeks have felt like one long, long whinge.

There I said it, got it off my chest…and I feel GOOD.

I actually feel GREAT, for tomorrow I fly to the West Coast of Australia for 7 glorious days of fun in the sun. A three-day self-imposed silent retreat at Rottnest Island, followed by a further 5 days on the main land with my beautiful friends Steve and Lisa.

Looking back on the week that was, well, you would have read about the highlight that was dinner at Jamie’s….and that was pretty much it….Everything else can be summarised in number form…Number of days till I got on the plane ( finally the figure is in single digits) number of times I abused my computer screen ( 127), number of times I am sure my colleagues cursed me and silently wished that I would just get over it (352), number of alcoholic beverages consumed to ease the pain of administration madness ( could not put a figure on it)

Yes, I have said it before and I will say it again….hours have felt like days, days like weeks, weeks like months, month like years…

And while number and digits floated around it my head…the photo essay that I took on Crown Street. Surry Hills on the weekend just past, also captured this theme….

I ate breakfast at FourAteFive cafe…I took a sneaky shot of my favourite Crown Street Pooch, Dasher, who resides at home number 433…who is super cute, ageing and as the signs implies ‘ on a special diet’

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When I next write I hope to be inspired by a boost of vitamin D, energised by the seaside beauty of Rottnest, the calm of the waves, the smile of a local…Paradise awaits…Office maddness can be placed on the shelf for a while…It will be waiting for me on my return…but for now, paradise awaits…..

CUWAM- Office Warfare/ Weekend Cease Fire

06 Mar 2012 3 Comments

by Catch Up With A Mate in Odes to the Ordinary

It is Tuesday, and I am a day behind in the weekly Catch Up with a Mate post…

Last week…seems a distant memory, purposefully repressed, compartmentalised in my brain, in a newly sign posted area: ‘ Caution: Danger Zone- Enter at your own risk’

Office warfare, with colleagues, clients ( students) we are designed to serve, with academics, service staff ,IT consultants, bus drivers, dogs off leash in parks…you name it…Warfare on any front..it was ON.

9am-5pm office warfare…from sunrise to sunset ..we assembled each morning, a motley bunch of office admin staff, ready to do battle with 500 eager students, ready to take on the best that Australia’s oldest learning institution had to offer…in learning ( not administration)

It was a bitter battle, a daily assault on the  humble office worker, attempting to assist not wound the moral of the newly arrived student. Paper stacks of academic transcripts, subject approvals and  identification paperwork formed barriers between ‘ us’ ( the worker) and ‘them’ ( the student) Try as we might to promote a peaceful transition for all new students into academic life at our place of work..it was futile…. Our cheerful office worker smiles often induced tears and tantrums….hand gestures that were not of the friendly hand shake variety…. On and on the war went….Each day the humble office workers came back for more…minutes turned into hours, days into weeks, weeks into years ( you get the idea)

Oh I forgot to mention that it rained all week…homes in the Sydney region were forced to evacuate due to rising rivers and risk of flooding…Entire days passed without the sun bothering to grace our summer sky for a mere 5 minutes…..and to add insult to injury….I had the flu..I was sick…the kind of illness that plants a message in your brain that you will only recover if you spend long stints wrapped up in your doona ,, watching ‘ Days of Our Lives’ episodes, whilst sipping camomile tea….S.I.C.K….It was the kind of message I really needed to follow through on…but how could I?? Our office was under attack, troops were needed to keep the enemy at bay…I had no choice but to take my germs to work and spread the misery….

Ah…but there was but one glimmer of hope, ray of sunshine offered last week. A pearl of wisdom was imparted…My manager saying that she could see a future for me at an airport, as a check in assistant for those passengers who had the misfortune of missing that precious flight to Germany, or who lost there passport ’ somewhere’ in the duty free shopping centre…My manager said I would prosper in a career calming down the hyperventaling, the distressed, the angry, the fatally wounded….and I found peace with this?

Yes I did…For all week I assisted the hyperventalating, the angry, the tear soaked….and I did it to the best of my ability…Sure I copped a bit of abuse whilst I did this…But I was able to provide compfort and care…and in most cases ( not all!!) send the distressed soul on the path to happiness, to locate that lost shoe or student card! Oh….what a F.U.N week

So I guess it comes as little suprise that this week, in the evenings, in my ‘down time’ I took time out to watch the BBC series’ Come Fly with Me’…a mocumentary about a fictional airport in Britian…and the ‘characters’ responsible for making the  experience of flying ‘special’ for each and every one of its customers…Take a look at the snippet…I think we can all learn from this series, produced by the boys responsible for ; Little Brition’:

I guess it is important to advise that the weekend did come…Nursing my war wounds, I took my sorry self out for breakfast on Sataurday morning, to Bills in Darlinghurst..Happiness on a plate…but I sat next to…a student…Oh well….With Mardi Gras Parade on the the city that weekend, the cafe was abuzz with spray tan, sequins and squeals of delight..and I quickly forgot my weekly occupation and got caught up in the party vibe.

Time spent in the garden resulted in a fresh war wound…a palm branch punctured my toe…nothing a coffee with the parents could not fix, then a catch up nine years in the making with the devine Ali, a travel friend of mine, who after 11 years in the UK…has decided to come home ( and I could not be happier)

A catch up nine years in the making was always going to be intense…more coffee eased the pain of racking over nine years of hot gossip in a Paddington Cafe….On Sunday the sun shone, and I decided to spend the day indoors at Bondi Westfield spending money from a wonderful source: credit card

And at the days end, I shed a tear….for office warfare was to begin again….and I found myself feeling slightly uneasy…determined to self settle myself I pressed repeat on the DVD player….an in an instant my happiness returned…’Come Fly with Me’ transported me away from my office based fears to a tropical island in the Bahamas….as the character Precious Little would say ‘ Praise the Lord!!!’

CUWAM- Living the High Life

28 Feb 2012 1 Comment

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I am slowly losing the will to live ( within the confines of an office block anyway)…but the will to blog remains….it  grows stronger each time I am sidetracked from my ‘true calling’.

I am a day behind in my blog entry and each time I answer a work related email, or provide some awesome level of customer service to a newly arrived University student, a voice inside my head say ‘ You need to work on that which is MOST important, that which brings you most happiness, your true calling in life…the life of a writer’

Well maybe the voice is not that DRAMATIC, but I honestly have been wanting to hit the keyboard from the past 27 hours and have failed miserably each time I have thought the moment to write was upon me…until now.

There is also another factor plaguing my writing ability….I am sick. Struck down with a summer flu, feeling blue….hard of hearing, heavy of head…the usual tale of woe that goes with flu-like symptoms….Looking to anyone for sympathy, rarely getting any and just having to ‘ get on with it’…even though you feel like staying in bed, and sleeping off this dreaded head cold, awakening hours, days later if necessary, all shiny and new…fabulous and fancy free!!

But no…I have had to muddled through the past couple of days in a daze…I long for the light at the end of this summer flu.

The week that was, last week, was golden….till I got sick that is….So forgive me if I glance over Thursday through to Sunday ( and all the people I spent time with during that time period, please take no offense…I truely enjoyed your company)

Monday and Tuesday: Movie Nights. I saw the ‘ Dictator’, the new Sacha Baron Cohen Film and ‘ The Separation’ , an Iranian film which won an Oscar last night for best foreign film. Both movies were interesting in their own right, and could not have been more different ( from that sentence you can tell my forte is not film reviewing)

Wednesday: An after work swim at the devine Wylie’s Baths in Coogee with friends, following by burgers and chips from my favourite Clovelly Burger shop: ‘ Out of the Blue’ on Clovelly Road…Burger heaven…Do yourself a favour and next time you are in Sydney’s Eastern Suburbs….Burger it up!!

Thursday: The Highlight

A roof top swim in Kings Cross in the early evening….Following a body pump session at a Darlinghurst gym ( a session which reduced my walking skills to a mere shuffle by Saturday…the pain of avoiding weights for 8 months and then assuming your body can take it….oh so wrong!!)

But the roof top swim…what was not to love? I have ideas above my station…A roof top swim on NYE 2011-2012 developed in me a preference for swimming in pools at skyscraper level ONLY…. for water frolics that allow the swimmer to feel as though they are amongst the clouds…who is really into earth-bound swimming anyway?

Thanks to a body beautiful colleague, a Thursday night roof top dip was possible…This was followed by ice cream, sushi and wine.

The next day I awoke to sickness….

Friday, Saturday and Sunday…whilst I did my best to will my sickness to the back of my mind….and get on with my life as best I could….I faltered often. In between naps, and drinking lots of fluid, I caught up with my wonderful God Father in Haberfield and dined with the parentals at my new favourite restaurant in Randwick: Chat Thai.

Monday- I have repressed it

Tuesday: The day I found the time to blog, and put my sickness to the side and hit the keyboard running….

CUWAM- ‘ They had it all….then they ATE it all’

30 Jan 2012 Leave a Comment

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Late last year I joined the online writing group ‘ Write on Wednesday’…it was a great descision….Each week a writing prompt is given and you have 5 days to submit a short piece of writing. Last weeks prompt gave much joy…it encouraged us to listen into other people’s conversations, in the hope of hearing a ‘pearla’ of a one liner….A line of conversation that you could take away with you, and later, in front of a computer, with a glass of wine, write a fantastic story.

I was lucky enough to over hear the line ‘ My heart says’…and so naturally my head told me to write a story about love….Yet the Write on Wednesday prompt seemed to creep over into the everyday… I began to listen with great intensity to everything around me. My cat Flora snoring in the early hours of the morning, the bird songs, the muffled music coming through the headphones of the young school boy on the bus, the sound of my fingers hitting the keyboard, pumping out emails at a fast and furious pace.

Summer sounds also echoed through the television…that was on quiet frequently. The Australian Tennis Open, 2 weeks of high intensity, gladiator style encounters, where men and women do battle with racquets and green balls. Commentary provided some light relief as men and women staged epic battles, lasting for up to 6 hours….My favourite line from Jim Courier during the mens’ final between Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal was ‘ The chair ( umpire) is on fire’ in reference to the accuracy of his line calls….Loved it!! I am sure there was plenty of other great lines, but I retired from the match at 10.30pm…and another 3.5 hours of tennis still to unfold!!

And then there was my favourite line that came through my car radio as I drove to Ramsgate, South Sydney for a catch up lunch for my wonderful friends, Al and Steph…Ramsgate RSL…It was a pleasure. Yes, I overheard a classic promotional line for the new series that airs this evening on Channel Nine’ Excess Baggage’…. A show about down and out celebrities who have all gained a few too many pounds since finding fame….The radio promo bolding claimed…’ They had is all…..Then they ATE is all!’….I just think that is pitch perfect….And sadly I can’t weight ( pardon the pun) to see K-Fed ( Brittany Spears ex) hitting the tread mill…Heart attack scares , time in Mount Druitt Hospital, some might say that K-Fed is accruing baggage of another type whilst attempt to lose the weight….But I am hooked…and I have not even seen one episode….As the billboards state…’The weight is OVER’…the show beings tonight….

I was privileged to hear to sublime sounds of Megan Washington and her band at the Sydney Opera House on Wednesday night…The last hurrah in my Sydney Festival ticket binge….well worth it.

It was a week that I participated in a  casual hit of tennis after work, I took to the treadmill at Kings Cross gym and puffed and panted my way through a 30 minute workout.

I listened to barista’s frothing milk at my favourite Potts Point cafe, Cafe Hernandez, paying $4.50 for a coffee on Australia day and then tipping them 50cents…an expesnive but tasty brew. I spent the public holiday at home with Flora, watching tennis, cooking a lamb curry and generally lying horizontally on my bed.

The weekend came and went all to quickly….there was the birthday lunch, a catch up coffee with my friend Sarah, and a quiet Saturday evening at home, watching the splendid Australian movie starring Sam Worthington and Abbie Cornish ‘ Sommersault’….a movie I watched many times, I just love it….Whilst it is not the most uplifting film, it is beautifully shot, the acting mesmerizing, the  soundtrack pure bliss…

Sunday was spent lazing around on Coogee Beach with new Mum Elena, her bub Søren, and comrades Jane and Glen…We cramped ourselves under a single  beach umbrella, frolic in the sea and ate fish and chips on the sand…A perfect day….

On reflection, the week was near perfect….but I could not help but think back to my motto for 2012….Expect the Unexpected…The only time I questioned this approach to 2012 was on Saturday night, when I curled up with Flora on the coach for a DVD night…knowing full well that nothing unexpected would happen…I had even seen the film at least 10 times before…..

If I am to embrace 2012 will gusto I am going to have to up the anti…no more Saturday nights in front of the tellie…..This is my solemn pledge!!

CUWAM: Expect the Unexpected

16 Jan 2012 Leave a Comment

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2012 is the year I will adopt the following mantra ‘ Expect the Unexpected’….It is a new outlook that sprung to mind as I walked through Central Station train terminal on Friday morning…it is the well-worn path I take on my way to work each day…Ho hum, ho hum.

But on this particular Friday morning, at 8.23am , an Elvis Presley look-alike competition was taking place…a make shift stage had been erected and  middle-aged men donning rockabilly black wigs were all  performing ‘ Hunk of burning love’. It was almost too much to take so early in the morning, and my gut reaction was to walk in the opposite direction whilst covering my ears.

But before I could quick step it out of the terminal, a smile had begun to spread across my face…what was not to love about this scene….Grown men, with their wives and or girlfriends in tow, aka their ‘ Priscilla Presley’s', in bell bottom pants , tight tops, drawn on side burns and wigs…It was actually quiet hysterical…There was pandemonium at the station, people were swing dancing and singing along, swaying their hips and dancing check to check…And all before 9am…It was a sight to behold.

Who would have thought eh, an Elvis Presley convention at Central station Sydney at 8.23am…..You would not have dreamed it possible….But it happened and I was privileged to witness this early morning spectacular…it provided great joy, a permanent smile for the whole day…and inpired the mantra that I will live by in 2012….’ Expect the unexpected’….

And while this mantra was closely rivalled by the slogan adorning one of the die-hard Elvis fan’s at the early morning convention ‘ Live the Dream’, by living by ‘ expect the unexpected’  in 2012 I am willing the the joy of the unknown to inspire some great blog posts….

The week that was did contain the predicatable….the mundane, dry and boring.

  • Work and the daily commute
  • Housing Keeping ( random intervals throughout each day)
  • Bad weather ( Sydney’s summer season has more often that not resembled thunders storms, rain clouds and puddles)

But it was far outweighed by the joy brought on by the following events

  • Sydney Festival Fun- With my friend Jill from Edinburgh in town, the pressure was on to maintain the party pace that had been established the week before….So we attended the show Circa at the Sydney Opera House on Monday night. To quote the Opera House website, Circa is a’ breathless cocktail of circus’ ,an awe-inspiring mix of acrobatics, gymnastics, aerobatics and out of this world performance stunts….On Thursday, Jill and I, this time accompanied by our mutual friend Aaron saw ‘ Son’s and Daughter’s‘, a Scottish rock band from Glasgow…who were hot, hot, hot….I always enjoy listening to live music, and never having heard this band before, on Jill’s recommendation, we had purchased our tickets….worth every cent
  • Dinner and dancing- When you have a friend in town, you play host…..Sydney took on the feel of a big summer play ground, and despite the poor weather, Jill and I travelled around the city in my little car. We had dinner at inner city dumpling houses, shopped for clothes at Rozelle Markets and had coffee in Balmain. Saturday was to be our last hurrah, for Jill was leaving Sunday. Celebrating 10 years of friend with fellow travellers Aaron and our friend Marty, we had dinner and drinks in Newtown and then danced the night away on Oxford street at indie hang out Sprectrum….We went out in style…calling it a night / day at 4am Sunday morning…Feeling fragile, Sunday was about bed rest, comfort cooking and DVD watching….

So here’s to 2012….and too unpredictability, throwing caution to the wind and going with the flow…whatever that may be….And I guess I should say thank you to the King for this sunny outlook….Thanks Elvis…xxx

CUWAM- 5 weekly DVD rentals or 1 Blockbuster Overnight Hire??!!

28 Nov 2011 Leave a Comment

by Catch Up With A Mate in Odes to the Ordinary

The week that was can best be described by the title of this blog entry…..Does one splurge on the blockbuster, new release DVD, with which you have it on loan for a mere 24 hours  or do you  spend the same amount of money on hiring 5 weeklies?….with you can be yours for 7 full days?

The week that was , was a ‘ 5 weekly DVD hire’ kind of week….the kind of week that is comfortable, you have seen much of its content before, it is familiar, rarely causing you to break out into a sweat, induce tears, contagious laughter or fits of terror….A familar week with familiar routines….Kind of like hiring ‘ ET’, ‘Ferris Buellers Day Off’, ‘ The Goonies’, ‘ Beaches’ and ‘ Dead Poets Society’….movies you have seen time and time again, movies so familiar to you that you can recite line after line, movies that no longer surprise or shock…but films bring lends themselves nicely to fond childhood memories,  you laugh, cry and cheer in all the right places….That was my week…

Work…ho hum, ho hum…it was BUSY….I assumed title of data entry Queen…and I will wear that title I fear for some weeks to come…There was gym sessions, works outs on the dreaded tread mill, and stair climber….Nights in front of the tv, watching the X-Factor final ( I can’t help but like little Reece, but I found his duet with the Queen of Pop, Our Kylie, kind of creepy…she is old enough to be his Mother…there, I said it and got it off my chest), time spent chatting to family and friends, facebook time, blogging time…just passing time.

The blockbuster event of the week, the stand out for me was catching up with my wonderful friend Fernanda, dining at a vegetarian restaurant Crown street Surry Hills, with mother to be Elena and her confidant, Glenn,  followed by Fernanda and me  catching the 352 bus to the Palace Cinema in Paddington to see the movie-doco  Bill Cunningham’s New York

What a treat, what a story….a whimiscal true tale of a man, his camera and the delight he gets from capturing the every day beauties on the streets of NYC…Having just returned from this city, it was wonderful to see the Big Apple on-screen, and both Fernanda and I lost ourselves for a couple of hours as we got to see NY through Bill’s eyes….To quote the man directly, ” He who seeks beauty shall find it’……and that is what we, as audience members saw , beauty in the ordinary, the familiar, the everyday and the extraordinary……

I returned to my weekly rental approach to life with a thud the next day, having left my umbrella in the cinema the night before, I was sadly aware that I could not get by without by rain protection device ( for Sydney was in tantrum mode, it had been raining for fours days straight) I would not survive….So Thursday night was spent collecting my lost umbrella and returning home to watch ‘ Escape to the Country’ on digital tv….

The weekend came and went all too soon….Saturday, a baby shower, and my role was games master, the Andrew O’Keefe of Deal or No Deal, but with a baby theme….I treated those in attendance to baby food Masterchef and baby trivia….the third game, choose to eat either a pink or blue biscuit, sadly did not make the cut, and I returned home that evening with 30 iced biscuits decorated with jelly babies….On a side note, Flora the cat quiet fancied the butter icing….

Sunday I visited by Aunt and Uncle in Gosford, a lovely town about 1.5 hours North of Sydney….A place I wished I had visited sooner….On being greeted by my Aunt, I remarked, ‘ So how long have you lived here, is it two years?’  The response came as a shock ‘ Nine years dear’….Oh dear indeed…

I was treated to a divine lunch, the smell from the kitchen stuck me as soon as I entered the house…’ It smells just like Nan’s house’ I remarked…and that it did….My Aunt cooks just like my Nan used too….Home cooked meals, meat and many vegetables, gravy….a glass of red…dessert, with lashings of cream, cups of coffee and home-made chocolate slice….

My Uncle  is not well, and time was spent talking to him, talking about life,the good, the bad and the ugly…. Chatting about his work as a writer, and his dedication and commitment to story telling….when he suggested he include a chapter about Flora my cat and I, I advised against it, stating that he has a best seller on his hands….a chapter on Flora and I would be a disservice to his work!!

Today I am back at work…I am unsure of what this week has in store…I could cope with a week full of blockbuster action, then again, I could quite happily settle for a week full of everyday rentals….

CUWAM- Strong People Endure

31 Oct 2011 Leave a Comment

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This week I started and finished watching Tim Winton‘s ‘ Cloudstreet‘ on DVD….and while I could not wait to start watching…I knew as credits rolled on firstly, disc one, then disc two…I was getting ever so close to the end of the series…So I started rationing my intake of disc three…watching it over a period of 4 days….I had been greedy with Disc one and two, devouring them in one sitting each….

And when it finally ended….I felt a sense of loss….no longer daily run ins with the Pickles and Lamb family…such wonderful, sturdy, stubborn, flawed and humourous characters..They provided much enjoyment and escapism in an otherwise drab, rather dull week.

To quote Oriel Lamb…’ Strong people endure’… Strong people endure life, they do not give up no matter how hard the task ahead, no matter how over whelming the challenge or how mind numbing a situation….My week was all of that and more and Mrs Lamb provided me with the strength to go about my daily business with my head held high and a smile ( which disapered sometimes!) on my face.

There was work, the 9am-5 pm drudgery of that is office administration….with small pockets of joy, a lunch of sushi in Victoria Park with cousin Liz on Monday….followed by the only other work highlight of the week some 5 days later…the Friday morning tea in the office, a smorgasboard of mini quiche, pies, sausage rolls, gluten-free delights, fresh fruit, cakes, cheeses….Our office does not do things in halves…the Full Monty approach to eating…so much so that most office members forgo lunch on Friday, the 10.30am feeding session providing enough fuel till Saturday breakfast…

Two work highlights, and a few of the after work variety…two gym workouts ( or torture sessions)…necessary to let off office aggression and personal let downs….Dinner at the Carlisle Castle Pub, Newtown, with my former neighbour, Ms Mel….The Sydney Crave Food festival having teamed up with the Carlisle, and a pie of pork bellie, fennel and black-current, served with peas and mash, and a schooner of Coopers Pale Ale, was the perfect way to end a working Wednesday…

A Friday morning pre-work shopping session at Paddy’s Markets, Haymarket, was both exhausting and inspiring….An amazing array of fresh fruit and vegetables, colourful characters and sweet aromas welcome the bargain hunters…and I left with three bags full of goodies…7 punnets of strawberries, 4 mangos and all the ingredients required to make chill corn bread…yummo!

A mid-week conversation with my parents from Marseille, France…jelously is a curse…For Mum and Dad were calling from a small, cobble stoned, rural village…peace and tranquillity could be heard down the phone line…’ So have you applied for any jobs in NYC?’ asked my Father….’ No Dad’ I responded’ I am trying to focus my attention on falling back in love with Australia’….

A free coffee from MacDonalds…not something I would normally included in the blog, but my friend Jess had intrusted me with a few coffee voucher from McCafe…and ever so curious, I just had to try it out….Not bad….and free….Thanks Jess…

Joining in the online writing forum ‘ InkpaperPen’…or Write on Wednesday for the first time…What fun! The topic ‘ What I thought I saw’….viewed oh so breifly on Monday afternoon, and my writers brain kicked into over drive…So caught up in the possibility of the suggested topic…I quickly rephrased the title to my own liking ‘ What I saw’..and ran with it….Oopps…The rules stated you must write under the heading ‘ What I thought I saw’….when trully I believed the topic to be ‘ What I saw’….Confused? I was……

And to the weekend, Friday afternoon cider with work colleagues, Saturday morning baking session, 6 trays of corn bread prepared for a friends engagement party….A long car journey to Normanhurst for the festivities….Summer sun, Happy Goblin beer on tap and much fun with friends, toasting the happy couple, Colin and Elena..complete with baby on the way…A great Saturday afternoon…xxx

And to Sunday, early morning cooking session, adults only fruit salad prepared for my friend, J.K’s Mum 70th b’day celebrations…Adults only as the ingredients consist of strawberries, mango and dessert wine…yummo…Coffee and time for morning cuddles with Flora in my hammock, a sun shower and then a retreat inside….to where I now find myself…typing away about the week that was….

Strong people endure…they keep on trucking….So soon I will set off in my hyundai getz for another celebration, a family coming together to wish their beloved Mum, Grandmother, neighbour and friend a happy 70th Birthday…I can’t wait to get amoungst it….

CUWAM….Loosing the will to blog

28 Jun 2011 1 Comment

by Catch Up With A Mate in Odes to the Ordinary

Them some would say…give up, you’re said what you wanted to say…call it a day…the month is nearly over….

But I knew that I was just suffering from a bad case of Monday-itis…a condition that is only treatable by long lunches, coffee breaks and lots of good office conversation ie sledging, whining and salacious weekend gossip.

So that is how I approached the morning….Sure I updated an excel spreadsheet and answered a few emails but I made sure that my morning was balanced…With my boss returning from a 5 week overseas trip, the customary duty-free chocolate nibbles took care of that…my mid morning I could barely see my computer screen through all the lolly wrappers!!

I was learning life lessons on Monday morning at work…that is it wrong to assume in any given situation…I thought I had got a grasp on that old chesnut….But no, and things of high importance ie my impending trip to Melbourne was viewed in a more uncertain light….no accommodaiton, no transport…but my attitude, poorly though it was, was ‘ Who cares!’

To lunch, a shared Chicken Schnitzel lunch at Essen, Broadway, with a fallen work comrade and fellow office inmates….If Chicken Schnitzel can’t solve your problems, nothing else can…well, 3 plates of cabbage salad may solve certain problems….

And back, ever so briefly, to office admin, more work on excel spread sheet, numerous hits to facebook and the smh.com.au site and it was just about home time…well gym time…

The day, apart from Schnitzel had been rather ghastly, too many student enquiries, I had almost done a Jane Fonda aerobic workout the number of time I had been called to the customer service counter to partake in yet another Q & A session….but I felt that my workout needed more structure…so to Newtown Gym for 20 mins on a treadmill, 4 mins on a bike…and from there to the supermarket…to buy…one capsicum….

And home sweet home, a chicken soup dinner ( with out capsicum…that will feature in tomorrows meals!!) a quick phone call to a mate to line up $3 taco night at the Norfolk in Surry Hills ( excitement!!) and retiring to bed to watch a DVD, ‘ The Sweetest Thing’ starring Christina Applegate, Selma Blair and Cameron Diaz…outrageous movie…all I could think whilst watching the film was that two out of the 3 main stars were now Mothers….are Mothers meant to act like that.?…my new attitude gets the better of me…’Who cares!!’

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