Lucy’s Blog

My cousin Row was telling me about how she was going through a phase of reading Kate Forsyth. I was at Ron’s Second hand book shop at Hawker and for $8 a book decided to try the first couple of her Witches of Eileanan Series. Glad I did. I needed a new author and a bit of a change. This one has a mix of outlawed witches and magic, dragons and some fairy stuff, with a hero or two thrown into the mix. Good strong female leads, with the interesting mirror twin thing thrown into the mix. Kate is Australian which surprised me as the setting for the books has Scottish sounding witches. Enjoyable escape.

Paperback pickup from the pile I borrowed from our friend Don.
This was a fantasy adventure novel published in 1988. The main character dies and is thrown back in time to 1963. He replays his life and then dies at exactly the same moment. Sort of like the movie Groundhog Day, but he has a while lifetime to redo. It was interesting seeing how each time the character tries different tactics and lives - wealth (via gambling/investment on known outcomes), escapism into extreme lifestyles, changing politics, family relationships, and seeking other people who have the same thing happening to them. He finds another replayer (female) who is trying to reach people in a spiritual way and a “true love” story gets thrown into the mix - the clever part being that they both die within hours of each other and then have to refind each other in their next replayed life. I liked the book as it explored a lot of different ways of dealing with life, what may happen if you are given a second or third chance, having lifetimes to learn and grow (each time was remembered). Thought provoking.

Driving home I saw Comet McNaught. It is putting on a spectacular show. I got Hugh and Rachael to go hunt for it and then we all watched it over at the oval across the road. As I haven’t got the photos from our camera up yet, you might want to look at the ones here.
Well worth spending some time sky watching at the moment. Fantastic tail!

http://www.spaceweather.com/comets/gallery_mcnaught_page15.htm

Ummm. Worst Christmas read. Very quick because it was fairly light.

The main reason I asked for this book was that it was written up as one that dealt with grief with wisdom and compassion - a book about our times. I had hoped for more than I got. Yes there were times the characters were interesting and a little dark but I was left with questions, all left unanswered and really annoyed about the stupid Epilogue at the end. Not written in one of my usual genres. Thumbs down on this one. Not for me.

This was my best Christmas read - and gobbled up in two days. Thanks Mum.

This novel is set in sixteenth century Renaissance Italy. It is written from the point of view of the Dwarf, companion and pimp to Fiametta Bianchini a courtesan. Well researched, good story and interesting twist at the end. I loved the book, it was real, dealt with a variety of “sins” without becoming too over the top. The characters were great and I found the history I had studied in my Theology degree coming into play (the fall and sack of Rome changes to Catholicism) and also an understanding of church as a social institution. From the feminist point of view, it was really interesting watching the way sexual power and politics were represented. Very clever, interesting.

Will have to read more from this author.

This book is at the end of a big binge of comfort reading. I like the way this book intersects with a short story about Runners (foot messangers) which I think is in the Legends Anthology. It also provides a good ending to what role the Dragons play once thread is removed from Pern.

In September 06 I decided to re-read the whole of Anne’s dragon books, so I did starting with Dragonflight, Dragonquest, Dragonsong, Dragonsinger:Harper of Pern, The White Dragon, Dragondrums, Dragonsdawn, The Renegades of Pern, All the Weyres of Pern, The Chronicles of Pern:First Fall, The Dolphins of Pern, Red Star Rising:The Second Chronicles of Pern, The Masterharper of Pern and the Skies of Pern. I even read two of the Todd McCaffrey new books but cant for the life of me remember their titles (DragonsBlood?).

I have to say that I still love the Harper stories best. There is not a harper character you can really dislike - even Petiron has his positives (Menolly’s teacher revealed in a later book). No matter how many times I read Masterharper of Pern I can still get emotional about the death of Robinton’s true love Kasia. I also love the way all of the other characters are filled out and brought to life.

The return to the fantasy world of Pern is something I need to do every couple of years. My cousin Row and I both share this understanding. We know the world and the characters - even the flaws of drinking too much vintage wine skins - Benden of course.

This was a pretty good holiday read, nothing quite as powerful as “The Power of One” but still there is the same sense of justice gained. Have not read this style for a while which was a good change from the usual. I do admit that some of the narrative side tracks got boring for me, but I enjoyed most it, yep I skimmed some of the pages till it got back to the main story.

The stories of the times about South Africa, Rhodesia, Kenya and racism between blacks, coloureds and whites was very true to stories provided from my family when they came to Australia to get away from all that. Liked the legal wind up at the end and the final two characters.

Borrowed from Grandpa Eric, via Mum.

I read this on someones email yesterday. Still laughing.

“Oh Bother” said the Borg, we have assimilated Winnie the Pooh.

the other ones I liked were

I am Wayne of Borg. - And I am Garth of Borg. Party on Wayne - Party on Garth - (Both): You will be assimilated…..NOT!

I am Rubik of Borg, and the cube was MY idea

I am Alzheimer of Borg. Resistance is… is… shit. Who are you? Where am I? And why?

Really? Another one? Back to work tomorrow, what tomorrow already?

We have had a pretty good holiday. There was a bit of travel involved as well with almost a week in Brisbane visiting my brother, few days in Canberra to convince the cat we still loved her and then we drove to the coast for Christmas.

Highlights of Brisbane were (in no particular order); building a gingerbread house, finding out that humidity causes construction problems with gingerbread buildings, Mark writing SOS on the top of the gingerbread house, Andrea jumping when her marshmellow snowman made an ouch noise (thanks Hugh) when she tried to attach it to the sharp sticks on the house, eating the house…. One of these days I will work out how to put photos on because it was really quite clever and I was impressed with our design skills.

In Brisbane we also celebrated my friends 50th Wedding Anniversary. I was really delighted to be there with their family and learn more about their lives. Well done John and Venice, your influence has been such a positive one on so many people.

Other things I enjoyed were; watching Aunty Andrea get Rachael ready to go to the pantomime (curled her hair with straightening tongs), Uncle Mark taking her to the park and rides in the truck, creative puppet theatre entertainment with home made puppets and story, visiting the wholesale kitchen shops to purchase the perfect christmas jelly bowl (fitted 7 layers of rainbow), watching the remastered Star Wars and trying to pick the new bits, seeing Christmas lights, playing killer Boggle, watching Chicken hunt geckos and best of all having Hugh there with us (Rach and I normally visit Brisbane in winter when he is at a conference in Canada).

I did go back to work 20th, 21st and some of 22nd. I managed to write the first draft of a document I have been researching and it all seemed to come together well. I managed to stay very focused and productive. I even managed to interpret information from one of the government websites and splice this in usable language into my document. Happy me! Pity the people I am working for as I was very manic and up about my victory…

We did a few Christmasy things in Canberra, dinner with neighbours one evening, family the next and then friends over on the 22nd. We went out looking at Christmas lights and I have even written out the route map for next year - every year I end up wishing I did this the year before well its saved now and in the box of Christmas stuff!

Headed down to my mums coast house at Maloney’s Beach on 23rd. Our very first trip with all our bikes on the new rack on the car, they traveled well. We visited Alli and Rusty at Majors Creek on the way, they seem well settled in and happy. The newest addition to their lives are 2 new labrador puppies who totally melted Hugh into baby dog loving mush. Very cute. We took the rain with us and Hugh was able to demonstrate how important it is to keep your watertank filters cleaned out, very wet.

Beach life is pretty easy. The weather wasnt great. In fact we needed to go into Batemans Bay to buy Rach a long sleaved top. Fish and Chips. Peaceful.

Christmas at the coast was pretty mellow. Santa found us. Rach had a virus and was tired so actually slept in for the first time ever! Our bonus was Rowena and Ben arriving in the evening to spend a few days with us - they camped outside luxury style. We also spent some time with our friends Chris, Fiona, Simon and Adrian. We borrowed a dog off them one afternoon - her name is Jess and we all like her a lot. She is looking for a new home but we are still making our minds up about this big decision - watch this space.

Time to get myself organised for work tomorrow. Must engage brain, lets hope I am able to remember how to login again…

Last week was pretty big. Rachael turned 7 on Monday. Deb left for Brisbane on Tuesday. Hugh handed in his Masters Thesis on Wed and I ran away from home for a scheduled breakdown. All pre organised.

After a weekend of 1) Rachael’s birthday celebrations (two friends came Sat for a sleepover - woke up 5:30 am Sun morning {what was I thinking}cooked breakfast, family dinner, cakes, symphony 4 kids) and 2) Deb’s church farewells (she juggled in the morning service, we had special family lunch, the fire staff came out in the evening service).

I was EXHAUSTED.

So I ran away to Sydney to stay with my cousin Rowena. I used to do this regularly. Something wierd happened with both our lives getting more busy. I couldn’t find that time to get away. But now I did and I’m so glad I did. There is some healing power my cousin has, I can just tell her every stupid little thing, the big stuff, the small stuff, whatever. Over the process of a couple of hours of us talking, the stress and bad junk melt away. There seems no topic to hard. I love her, she just lets me melt down and then reminds me of the good things. In the midst of my first download she just seemlessly made me lunch while I continued and continued till I was done and needed a nap!

It was wonderful not thinking about what I needed to cook, where I needed to be, jobs that were on the to do list.

I took some time to slowly shop, I like to go round the city Myer & DJ’s cosmetics & shoes just at a slower pace than “I have an hour to find this specific item”. Row had a job interview while I browsed. It felt like I was wagging school. We lunched. We went to the Ginsing Baths and soaked, got skin scrubs and korean massage. I unwound bit by bit. Row planned the meals and the schedule. I read my book in peace. I watched TV. I caught up on a few magazines I have had in a pile for three months.

We went and tried on the latest fashion. Oh how this laughter cures the soul. Apparently crew neck T shirts are out this summer. Therefore we must find a new style of summer top. Baby doll tops make our body shapes look huge. The perfect summer dress eludes us in style this year. Hunting these items caused hilarity in many different change rooms. The assistant in Cue could not even keep up the positive patter. Supre is currently full of bad 80’s flashback inducing clothes - with three levels of this stuff I was beside myself - fluro, tarten, pirate, nautical, do I mention the terry towling boob tube dresses in every bright colour possible? My face is sore from laughing. Why torture ourselves when Veronika Maine has things that look classy and still suit our age? Fashion - back to reading what Trinny and Susannah think is ok for inspiration.

We even came out of this time with a goal to travel together to somewhere neither of us have been. We plan to take three weeks out of our lives to explore another culture, something with an ancient civilisation and good food. The possibilities are endless..