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June 29, 2009

Oh Chocolate ...

I’m reading a book about the history of chocolate. The opening paragraph gives an extract from the film ”Chocolat”, as follows : “In my dreams I gorge on chocolate (don’t we all, honey).  I roll in chocolates (Oh?!) and their texture is not brittle but soft as flesh, like a thousand little mouths on my body, devouring me in fluttering small bites. (You’re losing me). To die beneath their tender gluttony is the culmination of every temptation I have known”.  Good Lord! 

The book “Bitter Chocolate” goes on to trace the history of chocolate from it’s known beginnings as a delight in central America in the 1500’s, at a time when cocoa beans were revered as currency, in the same way we value gold and silver.  And they were very casual about their gold and silver, the way we might be about chocolate. 

It seems there was always a secret to it’s delights, depending on who you comission to investigate it for you.   Mind altering anti depressant chemicals, love drug, antioxidant and cancer inhibitor. It seems to triple as food, drink and cure-all. No mention of cellulite or diabetes. Yahoo. 

As an anti depressant, chocolate goes a long way to doing my brain in. Valium, I’m sure, would rate a poor second. When the housework is done and the occupants asleep, I boil the kettle to steal another half hour for my private thoughts. But there is nothing to shatter the serenity of the sleeping masses like the hysteria of the mother when she goes to the pantry to find all is not as she left it, and the screams can be heard for miles .... and miles ... and miles.. 

 “WHOOOOOO   TOOOOOK   MYYYYY    LAAAAAAST    CHOCOLATTTTTTE?”

Here's a blog link for the chocolate lovers. 

June 26, 2009

Somewhere over the rainbow

Here's why we love Rainy Days.

IMGP7089

June 23, 2009

Wondering what to write on your blog today?

Sholem Ash is quoted as saying "Writing is a lot easier if you have something to say".

So if you're writing a story, make sure you get to the point.  Same in conversation.  Same on your blog.  So there's your challenge.  What is it you're trying to say without boring the pants off everybody else ???

June 18, 2009

Photos of Hanging Rock and Mt Macedon on the new Blog

I love photography, so I've set up another blog of photos.  Some have been published, and some are just of Hanging Rock and Mt Macedon, as I see them from my back verandah at various times.

I am looking at doing a range of greetings cards from the Macedon Ranges.

Let me know what you think.

Sunrise June 09
Sunrise 2 june 09

June 14, 2009

Spiderbait's Whitt & Something 4 Kate's Clint

If you're still hanging onto your old vinyl collection, which is almost back in vogue again, you can listen to these guys talk about the role of technology and it's effect on the music industry and how we consume music these days.  Both have been performing for about 20 years, Whitt as a guitarist and Clint as a drummer.

June 11, 2009

Feeling the cold? Read on and share the pain

For Lynne, who is forever freezing, poor Love.

All hail the wood man. 

There’s so much we’ve dispensed with these days.  The House Cow, the brunch coat and the lamp lighter.   Even the bank manager is old news.  But not the woodman.

And don’t upset him!  He has the power to make or break you.  When the wood heap is a cut lunch and a compass on a cold and frosty night, and you’ve already changed into your jammies and moccies (don’t tell me you don’t have ‘em.  Everyone south of Seymour does), you may find you’re down to your last three bits of wood, and oh what agony it is to find that they’re just cut an inch too long, or half an inch too long, or just right with a gnarly knot that can’t be tangled with.  You shove and curse and attack from every angle, but no amount of geometry is going to get that bit of wood into the combustion stove or wood heater.  You vainly seek out your Mothers Tool Kit in search of a pocket chainsaw to perform wood carving miracles on the kitchen floor, but to no avail.  It’s all pink gardening gloves and diamonte hammers in there.

WHAT TO do … What to DO??  Do you put on another blanket and go to bed, and run out in your dressing gown before the kids get up?  Or do you brave the ghosts and wild dogs in the depths of the night so you wake up to a warm house? 

Either way, the decision is incredibly painful, and there’s not an internet solution to be had.   No www.fetcherofrightsizedwoodforyourfireinthemiddleofthenight.com.au  

Yer on yer own honey.  It’s decision time.  You can go out and face the Misty Monster, or you can make a hot cuppa, don the flannies and snuggle up to the dog.

Be nice to the wood man.   He hasn’t a blog or a website, and he’s not on Twitter, but … he has the power !!!

Pissarro_woodcutter

June 05, 2009

Rotunda in the West - Leunig and my stand up routine.

Michael Leunig spoke for about an hour and a half and kept the crowd enthralled about his childhood in the Western Suburbs.  He revealed the fact that he failed English twice and laughed that he was now back as a guest of the institution that once locked him out.  Lots of thoughtful insights and funny moments.

Leunig-2


The comedy students followed with their stand up routines.  I guess the trembling knees were obvious to the 100 or so guests, but I did hear some laughter from various corners of the room, so it was not a total failure.  I spoke for about 5 minutes and was chuffed to hear the head of the department shriek "Oh Kathy!!!" at one point.  I don't know if that was in delight or horror, but it was getting a reaction anyhow.  

June 04, 2009

Michael Leunig

cartoonist, poet, essayist
Michael Leunig
in conversation with Paul Bateman (State Library of Victoria) and Bruno Lettieri (VU teacher)
 
Thursday 4th June,2009
 
6.30pm for 7pm start-please come early, settle yourself in
 
Venue:   Toniq Bar (drinks at bar prices)
Building M Level 0
Footscray PARK campus
Victoria University
Ballarat Road
Footscray

June 02, 2009

Stand Up Comedy - What's funny?

What's not funny, is me doing my first and only stand up routine on Thursday night, talking about the airline pilot going into the ocean when Air France have yesterday done just that !

So, I've changed it and taken out all the airline and ocean stuff.  It's not funny you see, when it's so tragic and current.

What IS funny however, is this .... from Thank God You're Here.

Make sure you're seated.  It's very very funny (cos it's not real).

Here's praying to the Comedy God Thursday is less painful for the audience than it will be for me.

June 01, 2009

the tropics

It was a hormone fuelled creative frenzy in the tropics.  I was having a daughter.

So much pink ....

Cushions