I hope you had a lovely Christmas and New Year. We escaped to my favourite place on Earth – my home state of Tasmania – for a family Christmas.
I sighed over houses in Bellerive.
Ate fish and chips at Mure’s
and saw the incredible MONA gallery which has to be one of the most exciting venues for contemporary art in the world. A must-see if you’re heading to Tasmania and really worthy of a blog post of its own. Hats off to the flamboyant David Walsh, who chose to put the fortune he made from gambling into art.
Bless you, David Walsh, for creating such an exciting and rich exhibit for Hobart. Not all of the works were to my taste but that’s part of the fun. You select what you love and hate with the O machine that you carry around; you can also see how other visitors voted. I found the Poo Machine really silly (I couldn’t stay in the room with the stench) and the Vagina Wall wasn’t really my cup of tea, but it’s all interesting. It wasn’t as shocking as I imagined but then I did spend three years at the College of Fine Arts so it takes a lot to rock me. But MONA was way, way better than I had envisaged it would be.
We journeyed to Bruny Island for a few days where we fed wild quolls, watched hard-working fairy penguins and shearwaters return from a day at sea, and explored desolate beaches.
Daisy swapped television and city streets for nature, no shops, very late nights with our wildlife watching and the most pristine air and views imaginable. Not to mention the most luscious food on the planet. If you haven’t eaten fresh Tasmanian raspberries, just-picked peas in the pod and my total favourite of them all – pink-eye potatoes – then you must or bust. I’m always a glutton in Tasmania and the owner of the unit we stayed at on Bruny claimed the food is better because the climate encourages a slow growth which makes all the food tastier.
Josephine Pennicott and Daisy on Bruny Island
When you have a parent die so near to Christmas, the day can never be as magical as it would have been. Despite the silence that fell upon us at times there were many treasured moments.
I love the fact my daughter is still so innocent and believes so strongly in the magic of Father Christmas. She did ask David why so many of her toys were made in China. As he paused to consider a reply, she said with a triumphant chorus, ‘I know! It’s because the elves were lazy and bought them from the shops!’
It’s always so difficult for me to return from the shimmering beauty of my home state. Returning to Sydney on New Years Eve, we were greeted by the rudest taxi driver you could imagine and the usual long queues at the airport and gritty industrial city streets. ‘Welcome back to Sydney’ I sighed to long-suffering David who knows he is now in for several months of me frantically trying to come up with every reason why we should all relocate to Tasmania. I can spend hours surfing Domain, dreaming as I cluck over the houses and prices. ‘If we sell up here, we could buy a house and a boat in Tasmania’ is my current, cunning lure to my Sydney-loving man.
My daughter is home on school holidays which always impacts on my word count. Just before Christmas, I had the agony of my new laptop falling from the bed, breaking the hardrive and I lost a week of unbacked work on my Currawong Book. Luckily, my characters are patient with me. This book is different in that a lot of it came to me already fully formed – unlike Poet’s Cottage which flowed as I wrote. I knew from the beginning with Currawong Manor, where it was heading and all the character’s secrets. Hopefully, it will work. The first draft is always a vexing time and often it feels as exciting as my Foxtel guide.
Josephine Pennicott and Allison Dubois
And I have launched into 2012 with a very spiritual week ahead. As you can see from the photograph which I posted on my Facebook, I once again was in a VIP audience with Allison Dubois of Medium fame. Alas, no connection was made for me but many interesting and poignant stories from the audience, including a suicide and a murder case which Allison channelled a lot of information through. It’s the second time I’ve been in the VIP audience and although disappointed not to be selected for a reading, it’s always emotional to witness the shock, elation and tearful joy of people who receive strong readings from Allison.
On Saturday I visit renowned witch and tarot reader, Ly de Angeles who has quite a reputation for giving you the hard truth. You can read more about her death prediction to one of her clients HERE. I’m looking forward to meeting with Ly as I’ve read quite a lot about her over the years. She sounds like an amazing character and I’ve wanted to have a reading with her for years. Fingers crossed for this session…
Wishing you a magical 2012. May this year be the one that you follow your Bliss, appreciate the present moment and live the amazing life you deserve. I’m very into Gratitude at the moment and have started a second blog to journal online a year of gratitude. I’m not expecting anyone to follow this one but I do feel it’s important for me to appreciate what is here right now as I tend to always be focusing on the absence. I’ll post a link when I get it up and running.
Here’s to being present and appreciative in 2012.
Thank you for visiting me. xx
How I read your words and feel the pain of leaving my home of Tasmania…I spent 10 days, reuniting with family and extended family that I had not met, but we all share a mutal love of each other and love of the place we were born in. Despite the loss of my only child in 2011, I too am trying to find one thing each day that I feel grateful about, enjoying the warmth of the sun, the smell of the flowers and the phone calls from friends that may not always come at a time when we want them…but they call because they care. I miss the fresh foods of Tasmania, the warmth of the smile of the check out person, and the hello from a complete stranger ….. please never change…be “backward” as most people call us and remember our heritage….we are convict stock and proud…we are Pennicott’s….extending out of a small village of Oatlands, some of us have never met, but we are “family”…. thank you Josephine for being a wonderful author and a proud Tassie girl…. Stephanie O’Connor ( nee Pennicott)
Great post Jo! We’ve been talking about gratitude here too, so are looking forward to your blog.
xox
k and b
btw, adore tassie completely too 🙂
I went to MONA when I was in Tassie in April. It’s pretty amazing. I was fascinated by the poo machine (but then I’m a complete anatomy dork – when you’ve seen live dissection you don’t really bat an eyelid at a poo machine!)
Despite having lived in Tas for most of my life, I have never been to Bruny. it’s on my to do list! It looks like such a beautiful place, and quiet too. I love that beautiful picture of you & Daisy 🙂
happy new year, lovely! glad you had a beautiful tassie soujourn, it sounds perfect. i loved mona and the way that such a unique environment had been created to immerse oneself in. some fantastic pieces and i liked the juxtaposition between ancient artefacts and contemporary art. take care, jxx
i really enjoyed reading your post, laughed at your daughters “made in China” answer, cried about you missing your Dad, drooled at all the fabulously fresh foods of Tasmania and was intrigued by your appointment with Ly de Angeles
cannot wait to see what you thought, will go and check her blog when i finish here).
Here’s cheers to following our bliss!!
Carla x
Love the picture of you and your daughter – you are both so beautiful! Happy new year to you. Found your medium reports fascinating. Alison is quite notorious here in America after appearing on a reality TV show where she was shown in a bad light but from your picture she looks like a lovely lady! xo
Hi Josephine, how did the reading go? As someone who reads tarot, im often tempted to go to a professional to see if they get the same themes as I do, but I’m also quite wary of being taken advantage of……..
Hello Laurie, thanks for your interest. I realise I left everyone hanging there a bit! If I have a chance, I’ll do an update on this post later this week. Stay tuned. Please kindly remind me if I forget. I can be a bit woolly headed with the blog. xx
I’m just a naturally curious person! Especially when it involves divination 🙂 Have been a devoted blog reader since I came across The circle of nine books. I’m a full time grad student, new mum & (hopeful) one-day-published writer from NSW.
Congratulations on your new baby. I wish you all the best with your writing as well. Yes, I’m a curious cat as well so I relate. Thanks for reading my Circle of Nine series. I hope to return to fantasy in the future but life is a pretty full juggling act for me. I’ll do my best to do an update on this blog post very soon. xx