The view from down here » ‘just of interest

heading to cold

Joanna — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 02:29:35 +0000

yes, I’m here. I went home to Orange — the kitchen goodbye and other matters. It was freezing. The food we ate out was good; wintery and clever as required. My food was I think reasonable but a couple of missing ingredients meant that I was good enough to be flexible (stew turned into stir fry, creme brûlée into a very flat flan). But it worked. And the other reasons for being home went by ok as well.

Now I have a head cold, not yet flowing, with really sore sinuses in addition to everything else.

The fact that a local girl Kate had won Masterchef Australia was lightly present. The fact that I wasn’t there over a weekend made a difference. The fuss if there was reserved to a note on the blackboard of the kitchen supply shop and deli and 5 centimetres in the Friday local paper. Perhaps it had already died down, by choice in Kate’s case?

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Saturday Snap: The view from down here

Joanna — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 20:47:23 +0000

I’d be interested to get photos of readers view from wherever they are and post them on the blog in a series. Maybe put a collage of them up in a header for a while. Anyway, what do you think?

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A few random facts about me

Joanna — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 09:18:16 +0000

I’ve got a few blog posts “in the wind”, as it were. But I don’t really have the energy to work on them at the moment and I wanted to put something up tonight.

So in the shadows of other great people have done this, here are 25 random things about me at the moment. Please note these are very in the moment and random. Please read them with good humour and curiosity if anything at all.

I tend to kill plants.
I don’t read enough fiction.
I want to be more disciplined.
I miss drinking red wine, but I do feel better not drinking it.
the heater is already on at home, in fact both of them are.
I’m reading Michel Foucault for the third time in my life, and the first time in my life I actually understand him.
I spent most of today crying, as well as a couple of days ago all over friendships.
I wish more people read this blog, but I love the people who do read this blog.
Paradoxically to the above I am quite shy although I’m not alone in that
I miss having a pet
my favourite colour is green, although most greens I can’t wear
I miss cooking
I am hoping to cook for a friend who just had a baby soup because despite her protestations I think she needs practical help more than company type help.
I miss being neat
I should be doing this assignment
my guilty food of late: I’m really enjoying the new sautéed mushrooms burger from McDonald’s
I have 141 blogs in my RSS reader.
I never finished reading Harry Potter books and have no interest in seeing the deathly Hallows
I have a getting things done methodology flowchart on my wall that I hardly ever refer to
if given the chance, with all the places in the world I’d like to go back to Cyprus
I’ve had 3 cups of coffee today, including three instant coffees.
I currently have five different perfumes on the go.
I can’t stop watching at just one episode of sex and the city, or the West Wing, or kitchen nightmares at a time.
After his apology and admission on Q and A last night I think Kevin Rudd will be Prime Minister of Australia again one day.
I feel like I let people down a lot, including myself.

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just for some fun — clay chess

Joanna — Sat, 02 Apr 2011 06:15:40 +0000

I never learnt to play like this.

via Happy Catholic

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Saturday Snap: Signature hat

Joanna — Sat, 02 Apr 2011 04:45:07 +0000

I’ve just decided the blog needs some more pictures, so a post on Saturday will be a photo taken by or in rare cases taken of me. My literal view from down here.

This hat just needs to live on my head from now on. Bought during a recent shopping trip from Rubi Shoes in the City for $16.95 (no commission). The shopping experience was pretty poor, the layout of the shop especially but I’ve been wearing the hat for the last couple of outings and it is gorgeous. Loving the feather!

Thoughts?

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the cost of fine eyes

Joanna — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 09:53:22 +0000

Overhead on the bus part of a discussion by three youngish American visitors.

“I did not expect to run out of mascara.”

“It was too expensive. I’m not going to pay $20 for it. I can get it for $4 at home”.

Wow no wonder Carrie Bradshaw on a writer’s salary could look so good

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Travels to the 70′s

Joanna — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 06:17:50 +0000

I’ve had a quiet few days since getting back from Orange. I found the whole coach thing great as my previous post explained. It was great to have an opportunity to look out the window at the world going past. The fuss level of the coach company was nice and low — although it was clear they were a bit rusty about the wheelchair. It was nice to feel it wasn’t my fault.

The connecting train while still a bit bone rattling was better because the vestibule where I was parked was wide enough that I didn’t have to move everytime we pulled into a station, so I got a whole section of Stephanie Dowrick’s Seeking the Sacred: Transforming Our View of Ourselves and One Another, which is actually lovely and already hot off the presses in Australia. I’ve finished the section on “reverence” and can feel the everyday experience, of observation and stillness changing because of it.

From the very profound to the not so, I had 5 hrs of board meetings on Tuesday followed by my second Christmas party of the season (another early night — although there is a photo of me no doubt dancing the twist!) Most of the rest of the week has been spent hiberating watching of all things The Brady Bunch on YouTube.

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A season too long.

Joanna — Sat, 23 Oct 2010 02:43:19 +0000

Having dinner last night with friends in the food court of our major shopping centre referenced here. As the lift doors opened, I was horrified to be greeted by three gold reindeer! But it’s only October. My mother’s birthday is mid-November and I used to object if I saw Christmas decorations before her birthday.

I don’t get it. I understand that it’s been a tough year commercially probably. Then how are we supposed to maintain interest in shopping for Christmas for two months. I’m not even really in my summer clothes yet!

Perhaps decorations have gone up this early in previous years. I haven’t noticed. But I really crave a rhythm to the year that isn’t disturbed by the almighty dollar all the time. Christmas is, at least for some of us both religious or spiritual and at points, somewhat painful. It certainly isn’t always about shopping. It seems a bit insensitive to make it so commercial given that even for those without religious conviction, it can be a sensitive period of the year. And in many cases, we all walk in their credit card statements in January and decide that it is also an expensive time of year.

Or am I just being a Scrooge?

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A dam saint

Joanna — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 12:15:48 +0000

This last weekend was a little about history, a little about tradition and a lot about courage. A saint was made; Australia’s first, and an engineering feat was celebrated, some 50 years after construction. The saint, the first one I’ve been conscious of as a catholic was Mary “of the holy cross” Mackillop, an 18th-century nun responsible for teaching known as the Josephites

It had been my intention to watch the canonisation on television. I had held that intention all day. The turn of events didn’t quite work out that way, and the afternoon ended up being quite scary. Nonetheless by Monday afternoon I had found a full video online and although I knew very little about her I was incredibly proud. Not because I’m catholic necessarily but more because I’m Australian, and a woman of faith and I hope of action. Regardless of whether I have been or not, I want to be a woman who despite her difficulties sees a problem and tries to solve it.

Meanwhile, an anniversary was being marked. The main water supply of the Sydney area was completed some 50 years ago. We have a family connection. This was another case of seeing a problem and just going about solving it. I’m very proud of both of them.

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Wet heat

Joanna — Fri, 17 Sep 2010 01:29:14 +0000

Backdated written in the early hours

Sat in a bookshop (Sappho) with tapas and a glass of wine tonight. Meaty and rich meatballs with a perfectly proportioned raspberry sauce – jam like, and chicken skewers. It was home like, very real and just what “the doctor” ordered for me. There was comfort too in sitting in a bookshop with old books, not just the new shiny ones. A bookshop proud of its neatly hand-printed labels which remind me of my fathers’ draftsman writing.

It is a cafe and even though I can’t as yet get beyond the 2 seater wooden table at the front (complete with polite but pointed note to likely try and prevent folks especially I would guess students from the nearby uni from camping there all day with laptops), I am confident that all the conversations was informed by the wisdom of the rooms air.

And now? Perched showered and not quite feeling clean in front of the gas heating diligently pumping out enough to leave the metal of my chair too hot and too pink but my shoulders are tight with the cool air.

I hear rain on the skylight of a reassuring weight. Here to stay.

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