Namowrimo Abandoned for Beach

I concede defeat. If you look at my stats, there is very little hope for me. Last year I predicted my inability to do it and didn't try, this year I am quite willingly surrendering. It must have been beginners luck the first year and I feel doubly successful in my original effort now that I appreciate what it must have taken. I take my hat off to all those who are soldiering on with it and will now be a supporter from the sidelines.

My weekend went in directions I didn't expect. I was too leisurely on Saturday, although thank goodness I did clean my house! Often I put that off till Sunday as well. I enjoyed it all very much though and feel no regret for the price I have paid.

On Sunday after his work, my son suggested we get out of the house and go to the beach. So we did. He brought a couple of friends and Rhonda called and decided to join us. We took our work with us, study, unfinished essays, corrections were all packed up and away we went. Driving there, about an hour away from home, the sky was dark and rain spits were disheartening on the windscreen. Rhonda in her car was thinking I was mad.

We arrived at the beach, whilst most were packing up to leave we enjoyed a couple of hours of swimming and lying in the gentle afternoon sun. It had been hot and muggy at home, yet was clear and still warm on the sand. The sea was refreshing and I enjoyed playing in the chilly waves. We then went into town and the six of us ordered a variety of yummy food and sat out on the street table and satisfied our after swimming appetites, tasting all the variety and laughing a lot. The sun was setting as we drove home and the world was beautiful. As we came through the hills the air smelt of eucalyptus's and the thunder storm we could see ahead.

It did my spirit good. I'll write the novel another day. Now I need to get moving for the busiest time of my year. Corrections, report-writing, Christmas shopping and mega birthdays (including my own!) all loom in the next month. This time next month I will be in WA with Jane, so I need to be effective in my actions and letting go of NaNoWriMo is the first step.

'Lies', 'Once' and personal clips

Last night I went to see 'Once', I have reviewed it on 'Falling Brick'.
This is a track from the film called 'Lies'.
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This YouTube clip is a scene from the film that particularly touched me. On IMDb I read about the film, it mentioned in the trivia the clip was of the director, John Carney's real girlfriend. This added to the appeal of the film for me. It was a very real and amazing film.

I love to make clips for people I love. I have just finished making one and sent it to Andy in Tasmania. I want to edit it already! Little snippets of our time together through my eyes. He probably hasn't even seen it yet. Lucky he never reads my blog - would blow the surprise.

Last Christmas I made one for Jane and we added a Christmas message to the end of the collage. She lives interstate, so it was fun to do. I love that too. I made one for my Pa's funeral that is particularly special to me. I have promised family members to distribute it to them. I must do that soon.

I started off making them for my homeroom class and giving a copy to each child as a gift for the end of the year. A couple of my year 9s have told me they still watch them and treasure the one I made for them in year 7. They are just really collages of photos and small videos taken with a still camera. The limitation of 30 seconds that my digital camera has, makes for easy editing. I then edit them in Microsoft Movie Maker. As I said, it is a very simple and inexpensive way to give a meaningful gift. Microsoft also have a program called Photo Story, if you only have photos.

This year at school, my digital storytelling class is making a clip for each homeroom. They are doing a great job. Some of them are using Flash and I am getting them to teach me about it as I haven't used it before.

Girlosophy: A Soul Survival Kit, by Anthea Paul

Get 'Girlosophy: A Soul Survival Kit' for your girls, you'll be glad you did.
When you open this book, vibrant images, colours and words almost bounce off the pages. In the style of billboards or large stunning posters, the sound messages of this book are delivered in a very asthetically pleasing way. It's like flicking through a glossy magazine, yet instead of false images, the truth is revealed.
The messages in this book are nourishing and good. If you have a daughter, this would be an amazing gift. I thoroughly enjoyed it myself and thought several times as I was reading it from cover to cover, I wish someone had told me that info at an earlier age. For me it was everything I want my daughter to know about being the best she can be.
I have taken this book (as well as some others), to school this week and the teens I work with have all flicked through them and shared with each other the bits they found particularly interesting. Many of them asked me where they could buy them and how much. So it's not just my older eyes that saw the beauty in it. The boys too were quite interested and much of the information is human rather than female.

My Truth about Beauty

Your beauty takes nothing away from mine! There is space in the world for each of us to be beautiful. Our uniqueness, rarity and individuality makes each of us gorgeous. When we try to subscribe to the media's notions of beauty is when it all get's ugly. I love the Dove commercials. Especially this one:


It is sad to see people in competitions about beauty. These range from the school yard quasi popularity contests to the pageants and contests held all over the world to determine beauty. We all know these kinds of things are fleeting, in the eye of the beholder and irrelevant to the real things in life. Most of us are aware of the forces that come into play when these contests occur. Look at the movies about them:

"Little Miss Sunshine", "Beautiful", ,"Miss Congeniality" ,"Drop Dead Gorgeous" are films giving some insight into the ugliness of the beauty competition. It's all wrong!

I remember when my daughter was a baby, one of my most embarrassing memories was putting her in a baby photography competition. I knew she would win because she was divine. She was absolutely gorgeous. My best friend Jane, whom I dragged along with me, begged me not to do it. She sanely pleaded that it was a stupid idea. I couldn't see the harm. I'm not sure what it was I wanted to prove to the world (and a small world it was). Strangely my daughter did not win. I was shocked, as was every other parent in the room whose child didn't win. We all know our children are amazing and beautiful and the truth is they are. I didn't make that same mistake with my second child.

I have been showing my students the evolution clip this week and discussing with all classes the impact of what we see in the media about our gender, beauty and sexuality. It's been interesting and has been inspired from the great talk I heard on Monday by Anthea Paul. I have purchased 'girlosophy' and have loved what I have read so far. It is visually stunning.

Girlosophy and Anthea Paul

Last night I went to see Anthea Paul speak at the Gippsland Womens Health Annual General Meeting in Sale. She is one of the most engaging speakers I have listened to, in a long time. I was very overtired and nearly didn't bother - I'm so pleased I did!

It helped that her message is exactly the kind of message I try to get out to my students every day. It's easy to like someone who agrees with you :-). Yet seriously, there is a woman who is a fitting role model for young women. She is passionate, intelligent and articulate. She recognises true beauty and spirit for what it is and casts all imitations offered to young women today aside.

Anthea has written a series of books for young women, which I will be purchasing and reading. I will no doubt share them here, when I am done. Her message is worthy and I intend to take it up. She is currently visiting a number of schools and communities in Gippsland, so if you have the opportunity to see her, do whatever it takes to get there. Take your daughter!

Beautiful World by Colin Hay

I heard this song for the first time today and just loved it. I heard it on a remix (Shift Happens) of that great clip : Did You Know/Shift Happens . For anyone who is interested the original presentation can be accessed at this blog The Fischbowl.


Getting back to Colin Hay, I recognised his voice, which pleased me. When my pa died I listened to his song "Waiting For My Real Life to Begin" over and over. I'm not sure why, I just found it quite soothing and comforting. I guess my pa was always a bit of a dreamer and perhaps it embraced that. This song 'Beautiful World' is lovely.

I showed the clip to my year 9 students today in the Careers class to assist them in thinking about the kinds of jobs that may be available in the future. They responded so well to it, I shared it with my year 9 English class as well. They found it interesting and inspiring.

Links to Great Online Posts

I've read some really inspiring and uplifting blog posts this week that I'd like to share. It's a good place for me to store them too I might add, I'm fairly confident I'll want to reread them.


Christine Kane: 9 Irresistible Reasons to Go Complaint-Free Starting Right Now
Christine Kane's blog is usually a great read and one of my favourites. Going complaint free seems like a very positive way to make a major change in your life. It sounds simple but I'll let you know how I go!


Ruth Ostrow: Seek Your Own Fez House
This is just the kind of inspiring story I love. It involves renovating and exotic locations and throwing caution to the wind.


Craig Harper: The Choices We Make When We Choose Nothing
Another great reminder from Craig Harper about being proactive in our lives. He makes me laugh, even when I intensely dislike the truth he is telling.


Duncan's TVAdland: Dove Boy Meets Amy
I love these Dove Self-Esteem fund clips and this latest one is simple, yet beautiful.

Doing the Deb

For months our year 11's have been preparing for the debutante ball by learning to dance, handing over large sums of money and fantasizing about what 'the big night' would bring. I know this because my son was one of them. In the beginning there were the 'who's partnering who' conversations along with last minute upsets and broken agreements. Then came the girls chatter about dresses and shoes. The eager mum's joining the 'deb committee' to ensure they got front row seats (I didn't venture and thus was seated firmly at the back wall) and their child the 'right' night. I've seen all this before as outsider (teacher) and insider when my daughter went through similar motions 2 years ago. Never was brave enough to go on that committee though!

The last week has brought partner gift exchanges, hair disasters, makeup trials, and that nervous excitement we all know before a big event. Yesterday, the climax was finally reached. We (son and I) went to the home of his partner, where four stunning girls had gathered to create the kind of glamour and beauty you could expect at such an event. They all looked amazing. There were few stressful moments and last minute crisis, before they climbed into the limo and were taken to the venue for photo's and goodness knows what else.

Four hours later we arrived and watched them 'be presented', smile, dance etc and then the deed was done. The big footy match was listened to with discrete earphone, by a few suffering parents. The sacrifices they make! I must say, having taught many of these kids when they were in year 7, 8 and 9, it was touching to see how they had grown up. They are a great bunch of kids. There was food, music, dancing and glitz.

The after party was attended and in the wee small hours I was driving a carload of teens back to my house to sleep it off. It was twilight when I got into bed.

Is it all worth it? I don't know, but it has been done. Twice now. If you ask my kids, they would say yes. They enjoyed themselves and love the sense of occasion and formality. I did my deb and although I wouldn't have dreamt of not doing it, I wouldn't again if I had my life over. I thought it was overrated as far as experiences go, personally.

For those of you who are not familiar with this Australian rite of passage, see this wikipedia extract, scroll down the Australia and there you have it. Our students were 'presented' to the local Catholic priest.

I Heard the Owl Call My Name

This book, written by Margaret Craven, is a truly beautiful book. I thoroughly enjoyed it. It is the story of a man who works in a remote place with people whose culture is eroding and being absorbed by the wider world. It is just lovely and I highly recommend it.
It is a book that calls you to enjoy it, I thought about it during the busy day and couldn't wait to get to it. It is a small book, too small - it didn't last long enough.

Luckily I have a mountain of other great books waiting, or I might be miserable right now having completed it.

PS: There is a movie, so I will look out for it!

Wollongong Trip - Cooma to Nowra

We left Cooma quite late and had to shop for socks at Rivers as Andy hadn't packed enough! We drove to Braidwood for a late lunch in the park and had a stroll down the historic streets there. They had a great display on the local National Parks and Architectural features of the town, which had buildings from many eras.
We headed through Morton National Park on our way to Nowra. It was like driving in the clouds and we stopped and checked out a beautiful waterfall in the late afternoon.

We camped on the river at Nowra and read and had an early night. I was woken a couple of times by young people celebrating New Years Eve, and the next day I waited for the decent hour of morning to arrive before phoning my kids to ensure they had survived the revelry.

McNaughts Comet

Last night we saw the comet in the sky and it was a thrill. My son was away from home so I phoned him and via our mobile phones heard the joy in his voice when he spotted it as he and his friends had also rushed outside and searched the skies. It was great.
I remember when the kids were little I would wake them in the early hours of the morning to go outside and look for this or that heavenly body passing in the night skies. It was fun. I adore seeing a shooting star.
This picture on flickr (which I have not participated in at all, but must one day!)captures what we saw brilliantly. There are a pile of pictures on flickr here. Some of them are quite amazing and wonderful.
I got out my binoculars Andy gave me for Christmas last year, they are great and had a good look at it. It was fun. It was a wow moment.
Jonathon Cainer discusses the astrological significance of the comet in his 2007 The Year Ahead Article among other things.

Rednose - A treat

This morning I have found the website REDNOSE. The puppets and images are touching and I encourage you to take a look. A very special artist.

360 degrees

I wish I was there again today. I didn't sleep well last night. I didn't think I was feeling anxious or anything, but maybe subconsciously I was. Anyway today was a typical first day back.

Walk to beach

There was a short walk through the tea tree to get to the beach, that was totally vacant. I never saw another person on that beach for as far as I could see.



There were amazing shells on that beach.

Not going to the Park

Earlier in my life, I lived in the Berwick area on and off for around 10 years. I must have driven past Wilson Botanical Park literally 100s of times and never took the opportunity to visit. Today I was visiting old friends in that part of the world and my best friend and partner had an appointment there. It has changed heaps. I don't know why but I decided we should go to Wilson B. P. for a check out. It was amazing. A really beautiful space in the heart of the hustle and bustle of an overgrown village. If you live in that area you really should check it out and spend some time there.
You can see forever. It is refreshing to be out of the rat race and it is just delightful.
We shouldn't take these things for granted because our wild spaces are shrinking. There were very few people there, which is amazing considering how busy the rest of Berwick is. I hope that it always remains a sanctuary for the wildlife and people who do need to see nature.

Above the clouds

Our last camping night was spent above the clouds at the Mt Skene lookout. I was so tired from the fear and supressed rage of the day that I retired to the tent before the sun left the sky. I am glad I took this photo of the wildflowers and the tops of the hills or I may have missed the beauty of the place entirely.