All posts tagged: personal
Buying fresh vegetables today made me feel sick
Hello Folks, thanks for dropping by. I live in a small country town on the Eastern point of Australia, and have spent more than 20 years supporting the local farmers growing markets. I love nothing more than fresh green vegetables, handmade products like aged miso, red curry paste, macadamia nut butter, and of course the pastries and croissants. Every Friday I get up at 6.00 to be at the markets when they open, and home in time for work (I need to factor in at least 30 minutes for hello chats with various other friends and locals). But today, as I bought firm cucumbers and zuccinis, piled high in my bag with plump carrots and sexy round-arsed sweet potatoes, I felt bile rising. I looked at the happy birds-nest-haired kids playing together, or hassling their parents for another sweet treat, and I nearly burst into tears in the tomatoes queue. WHAT IS HAPPENING IN GAZA?? Why is no Aid getting through? Why can’t governments make it happen? And how can anyone, ANYONE, condone starving children …
Tiptoeing through tulips towards love, perhaps?
Hello Folks, thanks for dropping by. Now, I loved my Dad, who died in 2008 aged 73. Too soon, too young. He taught me to play Backgammon when I was only 3 or 4, helping me understand the rules and vagaries of chance with every roll of the dice. The year he died, I’d sit up late at night playing Backgammon with myself, all the house lights blazing, while a depressive fog of grief and loss rolled over me for months. One of our other favourite games, when I was similarly small, was a song we’d sing while I stood barefoot on his feet, my nose to his belly, as he high-stepped round the room, holding my hands tight. “Tiptoe, through the tulips, through the tulips, that’s the way we’ll go, We’ll tiptoe, through the tulips, Today… “ I’ve no idea the provenance of this rhyme, or what else it may say? Perhaps I’m even recalling it wrong? But we giggled and stomped, getting faster and faster, as I tried not to fall off! Such …
Does Chaka Khan know I polished Gertie the Giraffe for her at Australia’s recent Blues Festival?
Of course she doesn’t. But I do. Hello lovely folks, thanks for dropping by. I am recovering from four days of a Blues music festival (as punter, not musician- not yet anyway). And three days full time work helping to set it up before that. “Artist Decor Assistant” is the official title; what it really means is lots of climbing up and down step ladders, staple gunning vintage fabric to the temporary walls of incoming artists’ dressing rooms. It’s the second time I’ve done it, and I loved it even more this year. Transforming a big, blank, box of a room filled with even smaller blank boxes into a vibrant, welcoming, eclectic and interesting creative space is thrilling to me… especially when one of the performers is Chaka Khan! This year’s line-up included one of my favourite disco singers; who here over 40 hasn’t danced to ‘I’m Every Woman’? Exactly no one. So when I was told to polish Gertie the Giraffe ‘… because she may go in Chaka’s room…’, I leapt to it. Never …
Revisiting this blog brought me old favourite stories, almost 10 years old now. Do you recall it?
From rockstar to writer: the return
Hello lovelies, how are you all? Having just spent 3 months very focused on my punk cabaret band Mutton, including touring to 5 different venues, and being away from my beloved rainforest home for WEEKS, I’ve had an epiphany! I’m still a writer, even when I’m not writing. Which means I’m also still a blogger, connected to this community, albeit while it constantly morphs into something new. Of course, a writer needs to write, and practice their craft; gone are the days of my thrice-weekly blogging, and the constant commenting and connecting we all used to do here. Part of me misses those days… but they were also a particular time, pre-Covid, pre-TikTok; we are ALL different since then. So I write killer arts grants, for myself and others. I write songs now. I’ve entered a few Slam Poetry competitions, and will continue. I still write in my journal (although not daily). Last month I kinda wrote a love letter. Sure, I’m not published, other than a couple of short stories in anthologies years ago, …
In her honour, we played our first ever gig as The Ruths
Have you ever been in a band? It’s a complex juggle of personalities, skill, nerves, and creativity. Hello Folks, thanks for dropping by. I’ve been ridiculously busy lately, but in the best way for me: various art projects, which of course also includes grant applications/rehearsals/long-distance driving to gigs/exhaustion/recalibrating. I’ve written before HERE about my ‘Band Me Up’ project, inspiring local women who always wanted to play music to actually give it a go; finally, our weekly rehearsals culminated in our first performance at a local pub’s [very low-key] Sunday afternoon Open Mic. It was a process to get there, let me tell you! Seven women, at seven different stages of musical prowess, including our funky bass player who only picked up her guitar three months earlier. She started out on tamborine, tried backing vocals and the drums (but I was very hard to prise off the throne), then finally found her niche. ‘But we’re not ready,’ some of us said. ‘You’ll never be ready, and you’ll never feel good enough,‘ advised one old musician. ‘You …
Too old to learn the drums at 56? Hell no! One year later…
Welcome Folks, to the best year of my life. I mean that. Twelve months ago exactly I bought my first electronic drum kit for $400, played it for 2 weeks every day, then upgraded to a $1500 kit. I wrote all about it HERE. A couple of months later I spent $500 on a cute blue acoustic kit (which means the proper ‘drum kit’ you see with rock bands), then again upgraded to my now-much-beloved-almost-new-proper Pearl kit, with pride of place in my living room: And yes, I’d sleep there if I thought it would help me learn quicker. For me, drums are the perfect combination of rhythm, dance, meditation, creativity, focus, play, fun, and discipline. I try and play every day for an hour (sometimes more), and let me acknowledge here what a privilege this is: I don’t have to deal with a fulltime job, 3 kids, a struggle with homelessness, or even just grumpy neighbours. I am SO blessed. Last week marked six months of weekly rehearsals with my group of over-45 women …
It all started 9 months ago, and no, I’m not pregnant, (at nearly 57): it’s musical
Hello Folks, and thanks for dropping by. My new direction began on a Wednesday evening, having a 5Rhythms dance in a hall with buddies, when a friend asked if there was anything I wanted to do that I hadn’t done yet? Great question right? To my utter shock, despite quick thoughts of “Dismantle the patriarchy/live in Berlin or Paris for a year/hike Machu Picchu/write a book/achieve world peace/horse-ride across Mongolia/install a plunge pool with infrared sauna” etc, a wide beam of light shone down upon me from above, and what came out of my mouth was: “Play the drums.” I kid you not: I surprised even myself. But I got goosebumps; I felt a rush of excitement and glee; my heart felt like it grew wings. And if there’s one thing I’ve learnt in my creative life, it’s to listen to those somatic messages. So I took a deep breath, and just let the concept hum through my body. Luckily, my friends smiled and cheered; it was a vulnerable moment of truth, and no one …
Has the new visual media stolen me from WordPress? Our online community has changed so much
Hello everyone, thanks for dropping by; I know it’s been a while since I was in your feed. I’ve been blogging since 2008, and this is my fourth blog. Like Sandy in Grease, I was ‘totally devoted’ for a long time, and relished my sense of community and connection here. Some of you were with me from the beginning, when I holed up in an old Barn in the South West of France, blogging to stay in contact with my friends and family, giving my son ‘ThenOnly15’ a taste of life away from Australia (I wrote one of my favourite pieces there (please click that link), as the countryside changed around us). Some of you have survived my many romantic adventures, from the highs to the lows (this blog evolved into an online dating report for a while…), and have been so generous with advice, support, and deep caring when I sank into the challenges of losing my Mum to dementia. I thank all of you for being here; for being witnesses to my life …
bone&silver 