[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-HLAadICuNU]
Month: March 2011
Hats off to a great broad
I’m totally shocked. Last night I dreamt about Elizabeth Taylor. We were seated next to each other on a train. She was incredibly beautiful and reading a fashion magazine featuring her on the cover We were having a conversation about something and I remember saying how honoured I was to be sitting next to her which she brushed aside and continued talking to me. In the dream she was incredibly sassy and down to earth.
I woke to the sad news that she has died at 79.
Dreams are such strange and puzzling things. I’ve often dreamt lines and scenes from my books. But never have I dreamt about Elizabeth Taylor.
I remember Johnny Depp in an interview saying he had become good friends with Elizabeth Taylor and how down-to-earth and what a terrific broad she was.
They don’t make them like Taylor much anymore, alas.
RIP Elizabeth. Hats off to a great iconic dame. xx
image of older Elizabeth link
Harvest Moon over Dickson Street
Hurrying to my spiritual women’s group meeting, carrying deer antlers. The rain-soaked, almost deserted city streets. Shop windows dummies in vintage clothes observing me with detached boredom.
The blues are playing in the corner pub but I’m blown with the Autumn leaves along the soggy streets.
I love the cooler seasons.
The edit is nearly at an end which also brings me immense relief and pleasure. A few more loose ends to tie together in a bow before sending to the publishers.
Life seemed full of magic and possibilities last night.
I half-expected a golden deer with vivid blue eyes to come strolling towards me as I scurried along to my meeting.
And the super-moon so large, it kept me awake until 3am, pulsating with the tides and beating dreams away.
This morning, my daughter wakes me vomiting and is kept home from school – sick again. The hours I had looked forward to for editing are bid adieu.
Outside in the garden, the tracks of a deer lead away from my writing shed.
The Nigella Effect
Yesterday I took an impulsive break from my edit and attended the very packed Nigella Lawson book signing at David Jones.
When I say ‘impulsive’ I mean very last-minute decision to go. I literally shut the laptop and ran for the train wearing my comfortable writing clothes (read ‘scruffy’). I arrived at David Jones just as the signing was starting and thought I had found the end of the queue until the frazzled-looking security guard kindly showed me the end of the queue was way, way, way, way, way back snaking around the shopfloor.
Ever the optimist, I jumped right on the end and began making new friends as we waited patiently in line for the domestic goddess herself.
It was a lot of fun to observe normally too-cool-for-school Sydneysiders going slightly crazy over Nigella. She is obviously well-loved in Sydney.
In our house alone, David loves her, as does my Daisy and I have all her cookbooks. Well, I have now that I bought Express yesterday. My middle-sister who has been going blind for years is also potty over Nigella and has been following her movements from her country house in Tasmania since she arrived. I think she admires her for her tenacity in tough times as well as her domestic artistry when it comes to the kitchen.
Amongst the madness and fun, the ever-game and smiling piano player played on in David Jones You can see a better post HERE where more shots were taken including of the smiley piano man .
A sales consultant had fainted. Whether from the excitement of Nigella or from the crowd, I’m not sure.
All good things come to those who wait. It was my turn to meet Nigella when the woman in charge realised I didn’t have my book purchased for her to sign. Total chaos! I quickly had to buy one from a valiant sales consultant.
And in the above image you see Nigella smiling at a scruffy looking writer as I threw myself at her like an excited puppy-dog. Note that big smile even though she has been smiling and signing for close to an hour by this stage.
And for those who are curious of what she was really like, I can divulge she has beautiful, pale skin, intelligent, kind eyes, and a very down-to-earth and warm persona. I was thrilled. Too often, I’ve met famous people who disappoint in real life but Nigella is the genuine article. She may adopt a character for the screen but her charm was sparkling through as she interacted with the people who had queued patiently to have their moment with her.
As I left the store, I was intrigued to see the staff member still lying on the floor nearly an hour later obviously waiting for the ambulance. Hopefully that woman is okay.
I remember when I saw Jerry Hall in the street once. I do love the very Sassy Jerry Hall and I was so impressed by her strut and the way she worked the gawking crowd. There were a bunch of workmen to who she waved and they began singing out to her. She was incredible. Being a person who tends to prefer to observe others, I’m often impressed by those who court fame. That Jerry Hall moment worked its way into my book when my bohemian writer, Pearl in the 1930s thread, struts her way down the main street of my Tasmanian sea-fishing village. Pearl may be clothed in the fashion of the 1930s but I was also seeing Jerry Hall as I wrote, long blonde hair swaying, high heels clicking as she sashayed through a modern-day Sydney street.
Who would you wait in queue for to grab a moment with? When it comes to celebrities it’s obvious I’d wait days for Johnny Depp, Tim Burton and Helena Bonham Carter.
But I was very glad I got a chance to finally meet the sensational Nigella!
Returning back to my edit, I submerged myself back into the world of Pencubitt in the 1930s and was surprised to have a call from the school. Was my daughter sick? No, she was waiting with the Office Reception as I had totally forgotten to collect her.
Such is the effect of the brush with fame for us mortals. I’ve never forgotten to collect my daughter and so that’s what I call the Nigella Effect.
A Crack in the Blue Sky.
We celebrated Daisy turning six on the weekend. It was all rather a blur of Princesses, Pirates, sword-fighting, Piñatas and lollies cascading through the air.
I made the party bags and David created a Pin The Sword On The Pirate game, which went very well.
The little boys who came dressed as pirates and reminded me very much of Peter Pan’s Lost Boys.
David also dressed as a pirate for the day and I wore a tiara. Daisy had wanted me to wear a pink dress and pink high heels but I settled for yellow high heels.
I was still creating my party bags at midday on the day of the party. Very stressed! Thankfully, Daisy’s Fairy God Mother turned up to assist in time.
All I can remember is Abba music, sunshine, the sky so blue it hurt your eyes and Daisy dancing against the blue in a pink Princess dress. Life with all its frustrations and sadness could still not be sweeter than watching her dance against the sky.
The edit of Poets Cottage continues and I am frantically doing one last check knowing that once it goes back to the publishers I cannot change anything major. I am stitching the beak, the eyes, checking the stitching of my loved bird before I release her back to my editor for her to do another check if she is flight-worthy. Editing is exhausting for me. Writing is so much easier. The Autumn sunshine is so mellow. Such a beautiful time of year. But my thoughts and prayers are with Japan and her people very much this week.
My daughter finds cracks in the pavement and tells me that an earthquake has happened in Sydney. She talks about the big wave in Japan but it’s impossible for her to comprehend. When David and I visited Pompeii several years ago I was struck by the poignant powerful sadness I felt when viewing the figures, preserved for all time, trying to escape the volcanic ash.
This week when I think of Japan I keep seeing those figures. It’s too hard to explain to a six-year-old why cracks appear in blue, perfect skies.
In Praise of Women
To celebrate International Women’s Day, here’s one of my fave inspiring women, Amanda de Cadenet in action.
I love this woman’s photography and the way she works to portray women through her photography of all shapes and sizes. Her lovely photos are always a joy to browse. She has a wonderful community site, for women which is located HERE
And here’s a link to her official Blog as well which you can find HERE
amanda photo link
QUEEN OF PREENS AND AUTUMN FIRES
How refreshing to know we have finally reached Autumn in Sydney. The humidity is still high but thankfully nowhere near the recent heat wave.
I’m also nearing the end of my edit for Poets Cottage, also an enormous relief. I’ve reached that stage where it’s becoming difficult to read the MS one more time.
I’ve been busy planning my daughter’s sixth birthday party (Pirates & Princesses). This is taking enormous energy and is drama on a high scale. In fact I was so engrossed in my edit and life dramas that I missed a couple of very important medical appointments for Daisy.
Sometimes it’s hard to live in alternate worlds when you are working with fiction. And being a stay home mother has its own challenges of trying to juggle domestic artistry and a small child on top of writing.
And last night wasted a few hours of my life, which I’ll never get back, watching the Academy Awards.
I used to be a big fan of the Awards but there’s something repellent about the smugness and preening on the red carpet. For me the highlights of the night were:
Shaun Tan’s Award for best animated short film.
Penelope Cruz’s va va voom, sexy post-baby body and radiant smile.
Helen Mirren who is always spectacular.
Florence Welch also spectacular with her dramatic hair, and pale skin in Valentino.
And Helena Bonham Carter who I adore and can do no wrong. I love the fact she wore a gown designed by Alice In Wonderland costume designer, Colleen Atwood, as a reminder of what the awards should be about.
Helena is a true original and dazzles – unlike all the over-plucked, waxed, bronzed, bleached and perfect tube women.
I am being harsh here and last night David pointed out, as a couple of fashion commentators on FOXTEL heavily criticized some of the frocks and women, that this sort of attitude filters down to the school yards and results in bullying. Even though my retort was that the celebrities are over-paid squillions of dollars to deal with this sort of sniping, I concede that he is right. I should really have just turned the television off earlier.
Happy Autumn days if you are in the Southern Hemisphere. Hope this season is filled with abundance and fiery creative passion for you.
Autumn Fires by Robert Louis Stevenson
In the other gardens
And all up the vale,
From the autumn bonfires
See the smoke trail!
Pleasant summer over
And all the summer flowers,
The red fire blazes,
The grey smoke towers.
Sing a song of seasons!
Something bright in all!
Flowers in the summer,
Fires in the fall!