tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-86038530347222215862024-03-05T15:35:09.427-08:00There's Always A Story@ www.blogjulie.comJulie E Mullinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11564496695067616584noreply@blogger.comBlogger85125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8603853034722221586.post-52452848192200624342017-11-10T07:17:00.000-08:002017-11-14T06:01:32.173-08:00Values Matter<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">You don’t have to work in marketing to know that the
commercial world goes around based on a thing called brand and brand
values.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Whether you’re studying
organisational change, as I did at university, motivating your team in a
workshop to articulate what it is they think your business stands for, or clarifying
a sales strategy, the concept of values underpinning your brand should come
up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(Unless of course you work for an
organisation which displays a list of values under the Mission Statement but
doesn’t look at them again until the Annual Report is due.) </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">We don’t use the same vocabulary when we are subconsciously
assessing whether we want to be friends with someone (or not), but actually it’s
not much different.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For some reason we
decide we like them, we enjoy hanging out with them, and we want to go back for
more interaction.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That is because, on
some level, we share values.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not all
necessarily, but some.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We share a love
of musical genre, humour, food, intelligent debate, politics, religion, sport,
passion for the arts, gardening... or our children are at the same nursery and
we both care that the establishment looking after our precious infant provides
the quality of care they say they will.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>In all healthy personal relationships we want to be able to trust that
someone or something is as it says ‘on the tin’.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And those respected (or desired) qualities
and attitudes coalesce into our values – the things we want to be, the things
we would fight to protect.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Let’s take that a step further.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you are a writer, there is not a book
you can write or sell without understanding the essential nature of your
characters (their values, aspirations) as well as your audience (who are you
talking to and why?). <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When pitching to
an agent and publisher - or when writing a press release – you need to be able
to tell your reader your USP – unique selling point – in a sentence or two.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> (Indeed all products need this kind of definition to survive in a busy marketplace.) </span>One of the funny things about Hollywood, so I
believe, is that whenever you make an elevator pitch for a film there is only
one way to get yourself heard: tell your desired producer what<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> other</i> film your script is like, and then
highlight how it <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">differs</i> from
that.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In other words – capture in a few
words what we accept as good, and then show a layer of originality.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For example:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>your film is like <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Murder on the
Orient Express</i> but it happens on a submarine and the captain/detective is
played by Ethan Hawke.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ok, bad example,
as there’s little scenery deep underwater, but you get my point. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In that case we are projecting pre-existing
values (what is already familiar and can be counted upon) and some excitement
around the possibility of doing things a little differently (freshness, spice).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These are the underpinning values of people in
the story business.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Well, I should say,
in the commercial story business.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Where am I headed?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
have been thinking about <strong>#LondonIsOpen</strong> and<strong> #LondonIsOpenForBusiness</strong>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">I was delighted when the Mayor of London launched that
Campaign shortly after the disastrous referendum result.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It comforted me, because I felt what it was
saying to our European neighbours was not just ‘you will still be able to come
to London’.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But also that the people of
London were not all xenophobic or cynical, that millions of us still believed
in the great post WW11 experiment to foster co-operation, cross-pollination,
respect and peace amongst nations.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One
day the concept of a global, multi-cultural village exploded in our electoral
faces, and only days later one of our political leaders (at last) was saying “No,
Londoners have values, broad inclusive values, from which we will not part!” <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ok, the practicalities of that are far more
complex than a slogan – the bungled and slow negotiations for Brexit, a proof
in point – but the values underpinning that campaign is what has inspired (and
comforted) many. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">So where are we?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Every
day lately the world seems to have gone totally off its rocker.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There are so many crazy things happening that
I have to take regular radio-digital respite to avoid the negative energy waves
corroding my natural inclination to optimism.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Then three things happened as I moved around London in quick succession recently.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In isolation they didn’t mean much, but
together I realised it was a question of values (and the dissemination of those
values).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">1)</span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Walking along the edge of a busy pavement immediately
adjacent to a bus lane, my stride was interrupted by a teenage girl leaning
down in front of me and placing a can of coca-cola on the ground.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I had to stop or I’d have fallen into
her.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She stood up and turned away
without a word.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Automatically I looked
at her, then the can at my feet (registering it was empty), then back at her.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For a moment I think I was expecting her to
say something.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Nothing came.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Hey” I smiled, “you are going to pick that
up again, yeah?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“No” she spat.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was stunned.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I guess an innate sense of responsibility as
the adult in this scenario kicked in.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
spoke to her as I would to a niece or nephew, or to a student: “Oh, go on”
still smiling “be a good girl and put it into the rubbish”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There was nothing at all threatening or
aggressive in my tone, and I fully expected her to respect her elder and pick
it up; perhaps even be a little embarrassed that she was caught out.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Instead she said “F**k off”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The girl opposite her said the same.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A 3<sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">rd</span></sup> girl added “don’t tell us
what to do or we’ll kick your head in”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>And a 4<sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">th </span></sup><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>tried to
show how big and powerful she was by spitting: “or we’ll knife you”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">I was so shocked to be abused by teenage girls in school
uniform in broad daylight at Clapham Junction, that I actually laughed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A black laugh, but none-the-less out it
came.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Really?” I said to the 3<sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">rd</span></sup>
and 4<sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">th</span></sup> girls in particular.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“There
is no need to escalate such a small thing...” and I ran out of things to say for
a few seconds as my brain struggled to catch up with what had just
happened.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Again someone said “F**k off”,
by which time I noticed two girls on the outer circle looked very
uncomfortable.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They at least had a
conscience; aka better role models. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
knew it was time to leave but couldn’t resist , <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“What I am talking about is good citizenship. Why
don’t you look it up in the dictionary” and walked away. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">No, I did not need to leave with a sarcastic remark.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And if it had been a group of boys, or at
night, I’d likely have been more circumspect.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>However in no way did I deserve their rudeness and resentment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yet I have lived in London long enough to
know that fear of rebuke, or worse, makes many people stay silent in such circumstances.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Time and time again adults say and do nothing
when they witness bad behaviour by children and young adults (even if their intervention might
help restore to society some of what we believe makes us civilised and ultimately
comfortable).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is a very sad fact of
modern life and as I got on the bus I felt most for the teachers of those
children.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For how can they succeed in
preparing these rough and tumble balls of angst for the world if the adults of
their generation aren’t supporting them?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">2)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Only days later I went to the cinema with reserved
tickets.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was actually on a date, but
he’d stopped off to do get something and said he’d meet me in the seats.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When I got to Row J on the end of the aisle a
teenager was in my seat and a coat on the other.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This girl was white, pretty and privileged,
but when I said “I’m sorry, but I think you are in the wrong seat, these are mine”
(and held up my tickets) again I found myself in an unexpected, antagonistic
situation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Someone else is my seat so I’m
not moving” she complained.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No logic could budge her.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Indeed she said I
was irritating her?!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All the while I was
conscious a) my date would be coming back – which is not a nice way to start an
evening, and b) the cinema was full and the feature soon to start.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Please” I appealed, “I’m afraid you are
going to have to go and sort out your own problem.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Go and talk to whoever is in your seat and
show them your ticket... or get an usher to help you“.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But this stubborn, arrogant girl – who fancied
herself so much more grown up than she could possibly be - was having none of
it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>An usher was summoned, then a
manager, to no avail.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Finally she got
out of the seat only to plonk herself down on the lap of her girlfriend in the
next chair.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>More voices joined the
discussion: the man behind understandably complaining that she was too tall on
the other girl’s lap and he couldn’t see; someone else asking for their money
back to compensate for the disturbance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>But the young manager had so little training, maturity or confidence
that he had nothing in his artillery to persuade her.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I had been standing back against the wall to
let him do his thing, but as the movie started I sat down.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He was now leaning over me (and my date) trying
but failing to reason with her.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The ‘event
manager’ in me kicked in.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I whispered to
him solemnly that actually it was illegal for two people to share a seat, and
that he should hold the film and/or have her removed by security.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He simply could not let this situation go on
any longer – particularly when she had still not been able to produce a ticket
for any seat, let alone the ones in which she was determined to perch.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I also said that if he couldn’t fix it quickly
the best solution might be to refund all our tickets.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(My date was not in favour of this
idea.)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ten minutes into the film, the manager
found his spine and demanded that the stupid girl get up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Which to all our surprise and relief she did;
and he took her out of the cinema to calls like “I still want my money back...
this is ridiculous etc”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Needless to say,
by this time NO-ONE was feeling good about the Odeon brand!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">3)</span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Now let me jump to the positive side of the equation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>On a tube a couple of days later, I watched
the opposite kind of behaviour spread as infectiously – more infectiously in
fact – than the bad behaviour.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A middle-aged
lady got on the tube and a man offered up his seat.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then an elderly couple got on, the wife taking
the seat next to me, the elderly gentleman standing. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I stood up, as did another girl
simultaneously, and we offered him our seats.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>He declined.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But it was clear his
wife wanted him to sit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Please I said,
I have no doubt that you are well able to stand, but you would be more
comfortable sitting and I would be happy if you’d oblige me”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His wife smiled at me with great warmth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The gentleman took my seat and thanked myself
and the other girl repeatedly.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
district line continued a slow journey towards Tower Bridge. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>During the next twenty minutes I watched
person after person standing and offering their seat to someone older, of the
opposite or same gender, to a mother and child, to someone on crutches,
pregnant etc.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Only one person (I won’t
say if it was a lady or man for fear of making this a gender debate) in that
entire carriage had not changed their original position at least once during
the journey.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Generosity of spirit was
flowing, the atmosphere of the carriage light and positive.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>People were smiling.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>People were saying thank you, nodding and
bidding farewell as they stepped off the train.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Remember – like it was during London 2012!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">What can we call this behaviour other than kindness? Respect?
Or actually, manners - for manners in their essence are behaviours that have
evolved out of a desire to make people comfortable and welcome.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Manners is kindness and respect in action. </span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">So may I end this far too wordy blog to say that
<strong>#LondonIsOpen</strong> might also aspire to remind us that good manners can make our
daily lives, our commutes and our communities so much more pleasant, so much
more cohesive.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So perhaps we could find
a way to practise these habits?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Perhaps
find a way to collectively project those values ?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For it definitely makes us all feel
better.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><strong>#LondonIsOpen<span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>#MannersAreInfectious<span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>#ValuesMatter<span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>#BeKind</strong></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Perhaps we might ask the Mayor of London to dedicate a day
to remind us of these values?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now that’d
be a campaign I’d get behind!</span></div>
<o:p><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> </span></o:p><br />
<br />
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<u><span style="color: #1f497d; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";"><span style="color: blue;">Links:<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></u></div>
<span style="color: blue;">
<span style="color: #1f497d; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";"><span style="color: blue;">I wrote about the generosity and positivity which radiated
through London during the Olympics and ParaOlympics.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you need a reminder see:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: blue;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%;"><a href="http://theresalwaysastoryjulieemullins.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/volunteer-spirit.html"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "calibri";">http://theresalwaysastoryjulieemullins.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/volunteer-spirit.html</span></a><span style="font-family: "calibri";"><span style="color: blue;">
<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
<span style="color: blue;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%;"><a href="http://theresalwaysastoryjulieemullins.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/the-games-maker-legacy.html"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "calibri";">http://theresalwaysastoryjulieemullins.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/the-games-maker-legacy.html</span></a><span style="font-family: "calibri";"><span style="color: blue;">
<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
<span style="color: blue;">
</span><br />
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<span style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%;"><a href="http://theresalwaysastoryjulieemullins.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/good-deeds-good-cheer.html"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "calibri";">http://theresalwaysastoryjulieemullins.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/good-deeds-good-cheer.html</span></a></span><span style="color: #4f81bd; mso-themecolor: accent1;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="color: #4f81bd; mso-themecolor: accent1;"><o:p><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> </span></o:p></span></div>
</div>
Julie E Mullinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11564496695067616584noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8603853034722221586.post-57154864157598113762017-10-26T06:14:00.000-07:002017-10-26T06:14:45.310-07:00Sculling<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Until a
couple of months ago my only experience of sculling (or skulling) was downing a
pint of beer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then I signed up for a
series of rowing lessons on the Thames and ended up sculling in a tub for
four.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The plan was to get some
cross-training while preparing for a half marathon, give my knees a bit of a
rest, and enjoy the lovely river on my doorstep.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">For six
weeks things went well.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I progressed
from feeling uncoordinated and unnatural, to rather getting the hang of
it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was enjoying being on the water (as
I’m usually running beside it watching the rowers) and I found it wasn’t difficult
from a general fitness point of view.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Remarkably
for autumn, I was also Blessed with good weather every session.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Of course I had a few blisters on my hands to
show for it, but I was gradually getting confident enough to stop gripping the
sculls so violently.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And by heaven that
was a good thing, as the middle fingers on both hands were suffering some kind
of impact shock – my knuckles still locking on occasion, definitely a sign of
wrong technique and/or sudden onset of arthritis!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">So I
turned up for my final beginner class, ready to enjoy the low tide and sunny
morning.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As we waited for others to
arrive I told the instructors I would definitely be back for the intermediate
course, and they complimented me on my steady rhythm when in the stroke position
(seat 4) a few days earlier.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When enough
people arrived to make up an 8, I was the odd one out.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So I offered to try a single scull and the
tutor quickly consented.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was nervous
but excited to be trusted on my own after such a short time on the water.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">An
intermediate student helped me get the boat down the hill to launch, then
assisted me empty the water out when a big vessel went past unusually fast and
the waves flooded the place where I was about to sit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Little did I know that big boat would cause
me a lot more havoc down the line!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Finally
I got out of my wellies (aka gumboots for Aussies) and my feet were strapped in,
the seat adjusted so I could stretch my legs out fully in the backstop
position.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The instructor appeared nearby
in a dingy ready to shout out instructions and, hopefully, help me stay afloat.
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It might have been a beautiful October day
but the Thames is not clean and in low tide particularly sludgy, so keeping my
balance was the number one priority if I did not want to end up in the water.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">I had always
had a cox in the boat before, so had never had to watch over my shoulder.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The instructor had the good sense to navigate
for me, while we moved to the other side of the Thames to face in the direction
of Hammersmith.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was crucial that he called
out advice re which scull to put pressure on, or which one to use to turn, so
that I could take my time to get the feel of being on the water on my own and
find a smooth and rhythmic movement.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Once
we were safe in the opposite channel, close to the northern bank, he was quiet while
I got myself into ‘the zone’.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When he pulled
alongside again to offer further instruction, I quickly told him I realised so
much more, now that I was in a single, how important it was for both sculls to
go into the water to the same depth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It
had only taken a minute to feel the intermittent danger of tipping, when one
side catches more deeply in the water than the other.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We agreed that balance was the major element
to concentrate on, to which end I had to: drop my shoulders; keep the sculls at
an even height; keep my arms straight until my legs were fully extended; and of
course manage the feathering and even dipping into the water.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">For the
next thirty minutes I was all concentration, until I felt significantly more
relaxed and confident.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I had certainly
picked a nice gentle day for it, sun shining, low tide, few vessels in the
vicinity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Calls of encouragement, as
well as shouted tips when I lost form, were most welcome.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As was the help with navigation: such as warnings
to keep parallel with the riverbed but out of the shallows (which in a twisty
river like the Thames is not as easy as you might think). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Just at
the point I was feeling most satisfied with my efforts, it was time to turn,
cross the river to the other side, and make our way back to the club house in
Putney.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’d been stroking continuously
for about 45 minutes - no short periods of rest as we’d had in group tuition –
and no doubt my initial adrenalin had subsided.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>As I realised my upper body was tired, that I’d perhaps not saved enough
fuel in the tank for the return journey, everything negative happened at once.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">The
tide turned.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yes, you’ve heard the
phrase before no doubt: “the tide turned”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Off our tongues it rolls, glibly and without any visual or visceral appreciation
of what it means.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Well, I tell you, it
will never be said or heard glibly by me again.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>For the turning of that mighty waterway we know as the Thames is so much
more serious and strong than I could ever have imagined.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She is a monster.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And by God does she turn quickly and
fiercely!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">One
minute I’m sanguine and in control, the next I am being sucked up the middle of
the river in the direction of Windsor: too tired to resist her pull AND too weak
to reach the slower channel on the southern bank where I had been headed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The instructor is issuing loud instructions
but I’m beginning to panic, so I stop for a wee rest in hopes of re-establishing
my equilibrium and technique.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>WRONG! <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When you stop sculling against a fast tide you
not only <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">don’t</i> go in the direction
you wish to be heading... you go more quickly towards Windsor! <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Then
the bandaid comes off my most tender blister and things really get rough.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The pain in my palm is too great to apply the
pressure I need to on the right side, to get into the slower channel.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The instructor is getting concerned we’re ‘losing
ground’, which will only make things worse in the long run.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But I am going in odd directions, without a
fraction of the finesse or consistency I’d showed previously.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am also getting increasingly tired as
nothing is flowing naturally anymore.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Moreover
as my right hand starts to puss and seep, the pain is so great it is impossible
to control what I’m doing. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Start, stop, drift.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Start, stop, drift.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The instructor is nice but firm, yelling: “you
cannot stop Julie, you must keep going, you must!”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I get into the slow channel at last but I
have a long way to go and tide resistance is still strong.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For a few minutes I power through.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Perhaps it is going to be ok.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But then I’m too close to the bank, my scull
hits the sludge and pebbles, so I try to move out a little – only to end up in
the fast run again.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All of these
elements are compounded significantly by my inability to apply equal pressure
to my right hand/right scull. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Nor am I dipping
the right scull at an equal depth anymore.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The sculls are occasionally grabbing badly - my balance getting dodgy
right at the time there are more vessels (aka more waves) about.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">I’m not
sure what’s worse: the prospect of going into the water or the pain in my right
palm?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But finally I’m back again parallel
to the bank.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m hurting and tired.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But it’s a safer place to be and surely it
can’t get any worse? <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Oh yes
it can!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A huge dredging boat has taken
up a position immediately in front of me - one hundred meters ahead they have
completely blocked my path in the slow channel on the south bank of the river.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I now have no option but to leave the bank,
again, and to move to the centre. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
force from the tide pulling me to Windsor is now matched by the pull of the
dredger to my diagonal right.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
instructor is shouting: <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Julie, you have
to get far enough away from it so that you won’t get sucked in!”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I can see the water being sucked aggressively
beneath it, and feel trapped in some kind of torture vortex.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But try as I might, I don’t have any power
left.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Indeed if my instructor had not forced
me to keep going, I honestly would have dropped the sculls, cried, and floated
all the way upstream to Neverland. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Or to
that place the Hobbits and Elves sail to when the mission is complete.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I just wanted it to be over!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">OMG how
I did not fall into the water before finally getting back to our dock will
remain a mystery.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But as I nurse the wound
on my right hand I pledge the following: I will never again think the Thames a
small waterway (compared, say, to Sydney Harbour).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I will never again take for granted the ‘turning
of the tide’; never again row or scull without gloves and waterproof bandaids (and
I don’t care if that makes me a big girl); and never again show off so much in
the first half of the session so that I utterly wear myself out and nearly kill
myself in the second half!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Ok, I probably
will show off again; in life I mean.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But
not in a boat - where all the forces around me are trying to kill me!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am suitably chastened. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And yes, if you must know, chaffed. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> O<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">UCH!!!<o:p></o:p></span></span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
</div>
<br />
<br />
</div>
</div>
Julie E Mullinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11564496695067616584noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8603853034722221586.post-61916501917770799642017-08-14T03:22:00.001-07:002017-08-15T06:48:19.441-07:00Least Favourite Saying<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">I admit
it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My least favourite saying in England
is ‘Keep Calm and Carry On’.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I dislike the
bumper stickers and embossed cups, the t-shirts and tweets which glorify the passive
maxim.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I know that marks me apart as non-English
in character (though actually I was born in London) but every time I hear that
phrase I think “OMG it’s not the Blitz, can’t you think of something more
dynamic to inspire your life?” <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was
brought up in the new world – aka Australia, the former colony with post-penal
(is that a word?) rebelliousness - so I’m more of a “shake it up”... “only dead
fish swim with the stream” kind of girl. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I would suffocate without outbursts of
passion.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">Ok, keep calm
- now that’s off my chest I’m getting to the good bit. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">Yesterday I
encountered a living example of ‘Keep Calm and Carry On’ which is to be greatly
admired. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Indeed it was astonishing. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And as “there’s always a story” with me, I
arrived at the pub in bright sunshine in Clapham Junction and blurted it out to
my Irish friend, Siabhra, and most of the bar staff.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(Yes, I also talk to strangers – another non-London
trait – with a naive presumption they will be interested in my life... and sometimes
they are!).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Anyway another friend, Chun,
said “well there’s something to take you back to the blog you’ve been ignoring”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So BOOM, I’m back.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">I’m on a
packed 337 bus from Putney and a very young couple try to get on the bus with a
toddler and stroller.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The stroller
is packed high with renovation materials – tins of paint, primer, brushes and
trays.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The curly-haired, chubby kid is wriggling
madly and the tiny mum is having trouble, so it seems.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When the dad pushes the stroller into the
middle of the aisle it jams.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It won’t go
forward or back and, oddly, he doesn’t much mind.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He takes his hands off it in defeat and kind
of slumps. The toddler is kicking off.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The driver calls something out and the skinny dad goes back to talk to
him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I presume he needs to swipe or
pay.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So I jump up and try to move the
pram, as there’s no room to pass and clearly someone needs to help this young
mum who’s barely coping. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yet the
stroller won’t budge – too much stuff hanging over the side and banging into poles.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So I unpack it a bit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I lift a few cans of paint which are strapped
around the handles and detach them, resting them on my aisle seat.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I manoeuvre a few more bits and manage to
push the pram through the gap and into the wheelchair area.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The conversation at the front of the bus is
getting louder but I’m not registering what they’re saying, only that it’s
taking a while. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then I collect
the tins of paint from my seat and bring them over to the mum who is now
sitting all but one seat away from the stroller; a gentleman having given up his
place for her.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In retrospect, when I clearly articulate “these tins need to be secured, I’ve
only rested them on the top” the young girl seems vague.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Hindsight is a wonderful thing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
figure she’ll get him to fix them when he returns. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I sit back down. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">The dad walks
past me as the bus starts up again, and proceeds to cuss and grumble to his
partner about something the driver has said to him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I don’t make out details as I’m in my own
world enjoying the beautiful sun, until she raises her voice in high dudgeon:“ that’s
the stupidest f**in thing I’ve ever heard”...“who the f**k does he think he is”
etc, by which time I am vaguely gathering that the driver had a problem with
the paint being brought onto the bus, they are unhappy about being singled out
as unsuitable passengers, while also delighting in the fact they have something
to complain about (you know what I mean, it’s in the ‘oh poor me’ tone).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">It’s only
background noise so I don’t consciously piece this together, but one presumes their
occupation of seat and wheelchair space made it impossible for the driver not
to have moved off - well, not without a scene he must have decided to avoid.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So I'm blissfully unaware I have conspired
to help them frustrate the driver’s wishes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Nor am I cognisant of the risk.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After
a few short minutes we round the corner past Wandsworth Council toward
East Hill. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">Disaster. Bus
hits a bump.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Stupid parents have not
secured the paint.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>BANG.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Tin bounces out of the pram and crashes to
the floor, miraculously missing the silly girl and drenching an upper-middle-aged
lady sitting next to the wall with multiple coats of paint right down her left
leg, ankle and foot.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is as thick and layered
as an applied plaster cast.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Her bag
takes a dose too, and the rest flows plentifully across the floor of the bus
where masses of people throw up their legs like a Parisian Can Can or scamper
out of the way and up the stairs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Chaos.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Stunned silence.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Chaos again. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">The girl
screams at her beloved in words starting with ‘f’ and ‘c’, and he defends
himself as best he can.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He clearly isn’t
very bright.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A fact she keeps cruelly
reminding him about.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And the toddler
kicks and screams, such that if he doesn’t stop wriggling she is surely going
to drop his fat little bottom right into the paint.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(I have to admit that would have been
funny.)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But with the weight of him the
mum falls back into her chair, putting aside for the moment her desire to choke
the stupid ‘f’ and ‘c’; and probably him vice versa. That gives me an opening.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">I am able,
thank God, to creep between pram, paint and feuding couple to help the
paint-covered lady to stand up and try to delicately move from the position in
which she’s most uncomfortably trapped; the excited child and parents still
presenting something of a provocative possibility.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Taking one arm and her bag we somehow get her
up, the left sandal threatening to slip away at any moment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We hop, duck and weave to an
accompaniment of four letter words until we have her over the massive white puddle
near to the exit door.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The soon to be
accused don’t even notice.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Can I
smell alcohol on him?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Anyway his speech is
not clear, and hers all too clear.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Oh
dear, I don’t like that kid’s chances. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">Back to the
lady:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She, I, indeed most passengers,
stare at her leg and foot unable to comprehend what has just happened.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> A few</span> mutter “ooh, sorry” but noone
knows what to do next.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She has not
uttered a word.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> H</span>er face is calm.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My God it is
unbelievably calm.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Perhaps she’s just
numb?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That would make sense.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I try to speak: <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“I’m soooo sorry”. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Are you ok?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>This is so awful, what can we do... we need to get it washed off”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As the bus comes to an abrupt stop she
replies, “I’ll be fine”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Seriously?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Fine?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
couple are still arguing, but her face is placid, resigned.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There’s no fight in her, no defeat
either.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She is simply calm, stoic.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She knows you can’t get spilt paint back in
the tin so what’s the point of making a fuss. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And she didn’t even have to go through a
mini-hissy fit to get to that point... she didn’t even let off steam.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Wow. It is a revelation. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">There really
ARE people who Keep Calm and Carry On – even in the midst of an unexpected
onslaught.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She should have been a
pilot!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(Hmm, maybe she is?)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">As we slither
down onto the curb I adopt her optimism: “Yes, hopefully it’s
water based paint, so we just need a tap...”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>She pats my hand, in a way which is both comforting and dismissive, “Oh, I’ll just go home, I’ve not far to go now...”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The paint is dripping everywhere.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One foot is stepping, the other sloshing sideways
like a dead-leg. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Where do you need to go?”
I ask, wondering how in hell she can go anywhere with a leg and foot like
that!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I mean, would another bus driver
even let her on?!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then the bus driver
appears. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">Game on. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">He tells the
selfish couple how stupid they are and why he tried to avert this risk.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He doesn’t swear.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Everything he says is reasonable, albeit
impassioned.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When instructing everyone
to get off the bus he adds “you all thought I was mean to ask them to get off
the bus... but see what’s happened, now you know why”. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He looks at me accusingly. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(Or that may be my guilty conscience.) <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“I didn’t think you were mean” I attempt, “I
didn’t hear”... but he’s on to other things. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">When everyone
is on the pavement a few passengers get stuck in.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I join the fray: “hey you, don’t just walk
away, you owe the driver and this poor lady an apology”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Lady is still quiet, calm.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The only evidence of her distress is the
occasional confused look down at her leg as if she doesn’t own it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If she is greatly discombobulated it is
private.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She simply looks to the driver
for advice, waiting patiently until the other actors in this scene all calm
down. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">“I already
said sorry”, he replies pathetically.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Well,
why don’t you say it again so she can hear?” I add, perhaps trying to make up
for the lack of passion on her side.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But
when he does apologise I figure it’s time for me to shut-up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And the totally un-contrite mum is still
telling him off, so poor lad he really has bitten off more than he can chew
with all these responsibilities – when all he wanted to do was make their
little flat look better.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Oh dear, bit
sad really. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">Nowhere in
sight is there a tap.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No front garden
with a hose.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I feel culturally
discombobulated and useless.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So I
apologise to the driver.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I wish the lady
well <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>as she seems content to be left to
the driver to get sorted, or abandoned on the pavement I’m not sure which.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And I change buses.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Everyone on the next bus is talking about the
incident.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One lady saying: “They should
have caught a taxi.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Probably only cost £5”.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">Ah, hindsight
is a beautiful thing. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But now whenever I
see that sign “Keep Calm and Carry On” I’ll be visualizing that quiet lady
standing drip, drip, drip on the pavement in Wandsworth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>What a woman.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I do hope she got quickly
cleaned up and outside again to enjoy the wonderful sunshine yesterday!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">And I promise
myself I’ll write to TFL to tell them it really wasn’t the driver’s fault, as
no doubt the bus had to be taken out of service. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">T</span>hat’s my next bit of writing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">Get coffee and
carry on.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br /></div>
Julie E Mullinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11564496695067616584noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8603853034722221586.post-56019721973470596652017-01-28T17:37:00.000-08:002017-08-14T05:34:10.055-07:00The Big City<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Anyone who knows me knows I have to escape the big city
sometimes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Regularly in fact.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Anyone who knows me knows I love Ireland for
many of the (opposite) reasons I sometimes find London difficult.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But the fact remains: big cities are often
awesome.</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">After two months away from London I was wandering along
the Thames today with glistening light and fluffy clouds over St Pauls.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I chatted to a stranger from the Netherlands
I randomly bumped into.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I met a great friend
and sat in a coffee shop and talked about a fraction of the things in two hours
that we’d like to talk about.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And I went
to a Robbie Burns Night Party in Stockwell where the socializing, formalities
and recitations were theatrical and satisfying and I even genuinely liked
the Haggis!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">I confess it’s always hard to leave Ireland after a
sojourn (specifically, Westport).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But it’s
good to be back in Old London Town, for all sorts of reasons.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In just a few days I’m having meetings about
interesting work possibilities, looking at a lovely new house to rent, catching
up with mates, and been to a terrific West End show (definitely recommend <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Kinky Boots </i>for a fun night out). <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And though I fear this wee blog may sound like
a shameless brag, I simply can’t be apologetic... because it’s too funny.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I must share. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Here’s 4 random conversations from the last few days. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">1)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Van does a u-turn, stops beside me on the road near
Clapham North tube, young man leans out of window and calls: <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">“Hey, I just have to say that you have the most wonderful
hair.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s really beautiful.”<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">“Oh wow, thanks, that’s very kind of you. Actually I’ve
just been to the hairdresser.“<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">“I don’t often see hair that beautiful, could I have your
number......”<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Conversation continues during which I explain I’m just
about to go to Australia for a month so probably not much point.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">“What about a drink tonight?”<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">“Sorry I can’t, I’m going to the theatre...”<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">“How about after the theatre?”<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">“Ah no, sorry, I have a friend in the show and I’ll be
going back stage...”<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">“Then how about a kiss...........”<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Broad daylight.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Late morning. Not a bad offer,
even if I did – surprise, surprise – decline :) </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Off
I walked with an extra little skip in my step.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">[My hairdresser is good - thank you Toni from <span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/Artoni-The-Hair-Artist-159221227562184/"><span style="color: blue;">https://www.facebook.com/Artoni-The-Hair-Artist-159221227562184/</span></a></span> </span><span style="font-family: "wingdings"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-char-type: symbol; mso-symbol-font-family: Wingdings;">J</span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> ]<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">2) <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">That evening I’m going down the escalator at Waterloo
telling my girlfriend about the encounter.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>As you know my voice carries... g</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">uy below us a few steps looks up and says: <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">“Did that really happen?”<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">“Yes, absolutely”<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">“Did you give him your number?”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">“No.”<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">“Ah well, you can’t blame him for trying.”<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Then all 3 of us start laughing. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"></span> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">3)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Now I’m at the Robbie Burns Party and in the space of 15
minutes these exchanges with 2 different women I’ve never met before: <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">“Hey, are you an actress?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Were you on <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Home and Away</i>?”<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">“No, the other one.”<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">She calls out to her guy:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">“See I told you.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It is her.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She was on <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Neighbours</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I knew it was you.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How exciting.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>And wow, you haven’t changed at all in 20 years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Seriously, it’s as if time has frozen.”<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">False or true (I wish!) I’m feeling a few inches taller when this
follows from another woman. Indeed it's her opening line:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">4)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Hi.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You have great breasts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Have you had surgery?”<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">“No!”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">“And you haven’t any make-up on.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I think I hate you.”<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">“Well, I do have some make-up on.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m wearing tinted moisturizer and
a few hours ago I had a little mascara and lipstick, but probably worn off.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">“I still hate you.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>What’s your name?” <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"></span> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">I think the girls have it, don’t you?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Too funny. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">#LoveLondon<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
</div>
Julie E Mullinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11564496695067616584noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8603853034722221586.post-15606297044923875502016-11-12T03:15:00.001-08:002017-11-12T05:32:22.321-08:00Topsy-Turvy Terrible Trump<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p><span style="font-family: "calibri";"></span></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt 36pt;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">Topsy turvy!<br />
Everything is upsy daysy<br />
Topsy turvy!<br />
Everyone is acting crazy<br />
Dross is gold and and weeds are a bouquet<br />
That's the way on topsy turvy day...... *</span></i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 5;"> </span></span><sup><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">* from Disney’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Hunchback of Notre-Dame<o:p></o:p></i></span></sup></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">9/11, 11/9,
the world has gone topsy-turvy, Terrible Trump is taking the White House and
millions of munchkins are wondering when a massive storm might bring a house of
impeachment (or wave of civil rebellion) down on his ooh-too-orange-too-unnatural-scary-head
so that the rest of the world can come out from hiding and resume more logical,
joyful and humane activities. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">But the
Dorothy who might have saved us isn’t allowed in the White House because she is
a woman.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A woman perceived by the
disenfranchised munchkins and a bunch of sexist oompa-loompahs to be too elite
to rule. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It makes no sense. But when mercenary
media and the FBI conspire in myriad ways to make a heroine look bad, it’s only
in Hollywood that she comes out on top; or perhaps in New York. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">Don’t
believe me? Well – like or dislike our Dorothy – imagine a male replica of this
same candidate on the campaign trail and tell me (in these same circumstances)
that would not have led to the White House? Many an ‘ism’ is fuelled by
resentment. It doesn’t have to be on the surface to be a real contributor. But
the red heartland has too many strange lights in their eyes, bullets in their
guns, blocks in their brain, and kinks in their kindness to see what’s really
at stake.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">Not all the
American munchkins have distorted vision of course, near as many despise
Terrible Trump as idolise him. But, wish as we might, we find ourselves not on
the road to Oz or clicking our heels to return to Kansas, but falling down the
Rabbit Hole to a Mad Tea Party most of the world don’t want to attend – unless
of course you’re a Mexican munchkin in which case you can’t come in because
there’s a big wall keeping you securely in your third-world-
who-gives-a-shit-about-anyone-but-ourselves-place.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">At the new party
there are characters much scarier than the Cheshire Cat... there’s a couple of
self-crowned, cocky, foreign ferrets called Fuckwit Farrage and Bastard Boris.
There’s Pukey Putin and Terrible Trump, assorted apparatchiks and wicked wannabes,
all clapping their hands in glee, wielding Ursula-like tentacles to snatch and
grab, reject or wound at whim. This is a party without conscience or compassion,
it’s all ego and greed, the terrifying, I-really-do-feel-sick-and-sad, beyond
the Twilight Zone, OTHER PLACE . <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">Yes, the
other place we read about in 1984, Animal Farm and Schindler’s List... where
‘the other’ becomes a religion, and the Big Fat Male Pink (aka white) Pig
Rules. And it isn’t a dream or a story, it’s real.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">On the
upside, in this brave new world we should all be able to go for jobs we have no
idea how to do.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I want to be a Nero
Surgeon at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital. Why not, hey?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Perhaps you’d like to be an astronaut? It
doesn’t matter if you get vertigo, claustrophobia and fail the sight test,
qualifications no longer apply. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">In this
brave new world the outlaws rob the banks, tie up the sheriff, assault your
women, put your children in camps, then get a ticket-tape parade through the
main streets of the 1<sup>st</sup> world to celebrate.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">There’s no
income-tax. No public-services. No NATO or United Nations or international
goodwill.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">In this
brave new world no matter what you’ve done (or failed to do) you can get the
most powerful job in the land. This White Man’s Club (strangely supported by
some women and others who misunderstand what’s going on) is not a step back in
time to the vast and glorious Commonwealth, nor is it a Middle Ages Crusade - though
it may feel like it - IT IS THE FUTURE! <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">Or, as has
been said, BACK TO THE FUTURE! <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">But BEWARE, there’s
no special car waiting to magically take us all away to safety as lightning
hits the clock tower. There’s just an ugly finger hovering over a red button,
with keys to The Situation Room, and those fingers belong to a sociopath who
stoked the fires of selfishness, racism, sexism, homophobia, in many cases ignorance
and poverty, to believe the Wicked Witch was their economic saviour.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">It makes no
matter that even his aides thought him too irresponsible to do his own Tweets.
In this brave new world recklessness doesn’t stop you from scoring the top job.
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And more ironic: this particular Witch
has been a multiple bankrupt and tax-avoider, proving the greed and
irresponsibility which led to the Global Financial Crisis of 2008/2009 from
which so many voters are still suffering, is far from gone and probably stuck
in a sinister loop of circular-reasoning where Terrible Trump has no more idea
how to improve his brand of fabulously unfettered Capitalism than thousands of
others on The Hill. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">Nevertheless
in the topsy-turvy world of Terrible Trump, a character Doc Holiday might well
call “the Anti-Christ”, is given the keys to our earthly kingdom. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And we are powerless to do anything about
it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> <span style="font-family: "calibri" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><em>(Or are we?! <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>See Michael Moore’s FB page @mmflint)</em></span><span style="font-family: "calibri" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"> <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> But w</span></span></span>e can’t lick our wounds by saying “oh those silly Yanks”, because only five months ago roughly half of the
citizens of the UK gave America the quintessentially xenophobic example of
Brexit to feed their isolationist nationalism.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">It seems
many nations are caught in a BACK TO THE FUTURE psychosis of one sort or
another.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Unless of course you’re lucky
enough to be Canadian, God Bless them!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">So just for
the record: don’t ask me to be moderate in my outrage or concern, or in my
judgement or sadness, because the oompa-loompahs who have got us into this mess
have not been moderate in their intolerance or bigotry. And that fact remains
however you attempt to explain or justify their choice.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">Make no
mistake: this was not an election about left or right, Democrat or Republican.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This was not a debate about preferences or
even needs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This was an election about
morality - a time in history where our very humanity was at stake.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And anyone who voted for Trump (or UKIP or Brexit) bear
a heavy responsibility.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">So you can call
me arrogant, de-friend me, criticise or ignore me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am not afraid of free speech or the normal
push and pull of democracy; even if I doubt its efficacy when campaigns are
filled with lies and hatred, voting is not compulsory, people lack education or
are given too many examples of egoism-gone-mad to see the wood for the
trees.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But this election was different –
it was crucial - and I make no apology for being devastated or seeing the
outcome as grossly immoral.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">Germany and
Japan carry their collective conscience with great elegance and compassion, for
the writing on the wall they failed to see in the 1930s. They campaign in their
daily lives and in their parliaments for rigorous inclusion and munchkin-on-munchkin
respect. Bigotry and drums of war are not tolerated.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These countries now stand up proudly for
peace and human dignity. And that is why they now take their place as true
leaders of the world. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">You’ve
missed a key moment America. You have blindly but willingly walked into a war
of your own making – a war on compassion, tolerance and respect.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So how are you going to wind back the clock
and be sure the next Tea Party is less Mad and more Moderate, less Heartless
and more Humane?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">Because if
you think the economic spoils of victory will be better shared or distributed
this evil way, the Terrible Trump way... then you have no-one to blame for
finding yourselves on the dark side. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">Meanwhile
the rest of us munchkins can only pray we find our own Willy Wonka in the merky
waters of political leadership, our own transcendent Dorothy, so that you don’t
drag us into that ugly abyss.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">Oompa, Loompa, doom-pa-dee-da, <o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">If you’re not greedy, you will go far<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">You will live in happiness too<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">Like the Oompa Loompa doom-pa-dee-do.<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i><br />
<br />
<br />
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">Highly recommended: <o:p></o:p></span></span></u></b></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<a href="http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/an-american-tragedy-donald-trump"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "calibri";">http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/an-american-tragedy-donald-trump</span></span></a><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<a href="http://edition.cnn.com/videos/politics/2016/11/09/van-jones-emotional-election-results-sot.cnn"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "calibri";">http://edition.cnn.com/videos/politics/2016/11/09/van-jones-emotional-election-results-sot.cnn</span></span></a><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "calibri";">https://www.theguardian.com/uk</span></span></a><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zqOYBabXmA"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "calibri";">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zqOYBabXmA</span></span></a><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmOx_G_YdbE&feature=youtu.be"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "calibri";">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmOx_G_YdbE&feature=youtu.be</span></a><span style="font-family: "calibri";">
<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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#ProtestTrump (in your city) Don't be silenced!</div>
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Julie E Mullinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11564496695067616584noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8603853034722221586.post-8181458298223561202016-08-01T05:36:00.001-07:002016-08-05T05:48:25.110-07:00#Identity+<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">Beginnings
are important but it’s how a story ends that really counts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">I’ve
just had three glorious weeks holiday in Italy. I reconnected with friends,
made new friends, spent quality time with family, read novels, swam in the ocean,
drank wine, danced, sang, travelled from Rome to Tuscany to Sicily, and
indulged in every form of cultural and culinary tourism.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">When
I first landed in Rome I was tired and depressed, bruised by the disappointing
EU Referendum result and suffering existential angst (to borrow from Simon
Hattenstone @TheGuardian). At first I kept up with all the news, but after a
few days I knew that to relax and rejuvenate I was going to have to stop
reading.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I did, and was better for the escape.
<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">Nevertheless
every person I met or spoke to engaged me in conversation about the referendum
result. With only one exception, every person was shocked and anxious about the
development, fearing for what it might mean for Europe, now and in the future, for
international relations, security and prosperity in general. Some laughed at Britain’s
naivety and selfishness, not holding back when they said it would make the once
great nation a small shadow of itself. Others cried or shook their heads in
disbelief. What has happened to the British character they wondered? I felt
their pain acutely. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 18pt;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">Repeatedly these conversations moved
from the public and political to the personal.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Friends and strangers wanted to know what Brexit meant for me. Yet I
could only express something of the discombobulation I felt. I could only ponder
the impact on my sense of identity.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 12pt 0cm 18pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">[See my post immediately after the Referendum at </span><span lang="EN-AU"><a href="http://www.blogjuliearts.com/"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: blue;">www.blogjuliearts.com</span></span></a></span><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">]<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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</div>
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<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";"></span></span> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 18pt 0cm 10pt;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">Since the EU Referendum questions about<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"> identity</b> keep coming up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">They
say a swathe of people who voted out were troubled by concerns about identity. They
say they felt their national sovereignty was compromised by EU membership, and
that open borders and immigration threatened their sense of ‘Englishness’ or
‘Welshness’ as well as their economic opportunity. Whatever ‘Britishness’ is
for them, it means something quite different in London and other cosmopolitan
centres. But such was the myth and propaganda. While I empathise with feelings
of disenfranchisement, there are many reasons why their vote to leave amounts
to a misplaced protest vote. That however is not my focus here. What I find
ironic (and sad) is that if a crisis of identity and visibility were the
reasons for their choice, they have not actually advanced their cause an iota.
They have done nothing to redistribute wealth or enhance sovereignty or
democracy. They may only think they have - for a limited period before the
reality of Brexit (and its domino effect) takes hold.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">I
wonder too what Brexit means for the people like me whose identity is built
from an amalgam of cultural experiences and loyalties... whose inner
multi-culturalism has been formed by existence in an open society which depends
for its flourishing on freedom of movement... and whose modern, global
self-image, character and history is very much cross-border?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">There
are so many people like me!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There are
many who have ancestors and DNA from countries other than the one they are
living in. But more than that, there are millions of people whose identity has
been shaped by different colours and customs, by the arts and by travel, who
have deeply embraced new cultures and places in order to survive and thrive in
the world, in order to be true to the complexities which make them unique.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">How
can we be asked to choose one loyalty over another?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How can we be asked to think, to live, to
work, to create, to love, to move within a randomly redrawn boundary of such
narrower proportions?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What a cost it
will be to suppress our spirit and nature to the new agenda – the change few
predicted?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">I am, it must be said, furious about
the lies and manipulation of the Leave Campaign.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am disgusted by the lack of planning, lack
of a blue-print for a post-Brexit economy, and the shallowness of their
reflection upon the real meaning and consequences of their pseudo-nationalistic
lobbying. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am appalled by the loss of
integrity in our politicians, the ruthlessness of their egos, and the
degeneration of the media and public life to what feels like an all-time-low.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And I will support every possible project to
limit the damage they have done and hold them accountable.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">#StrongerIn<o:p></o:p></b></span></span></div>
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</div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">#BrexitJustice<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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</div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">#LondonIsOpen<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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</div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">#TheGuardian<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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</div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">#TheNewEuropean<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";"></span></span> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">But
I also want and need a new conversation. I don’t want to let myself run away
from Britain in despair. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">I
need to reach out to all the people like me who – beyond politics – feel the
need to do something positive and constructive in the face of daunting
negativity and right-wing nationalism. In the spirit of Jo Cox (who we simply
must remember) I have to believe that once the lies and referendum rhetoric
have been uncovered as false and irresponsible, that millions of people in
Britain - even those who voted Leave - will reflect long enough to see that
there must<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> surely</i> be more which
unites us than divides us; from each other, and from our European neighbours
and allies.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">If
you too feel your identity is cross-border and richly multi-cultural, please lift
your voice and resist the manipulative silence of xenophobia, the insidious
resentment of racism, and do all in your power to resist your family, workplace
and community becoming isolationist, defensive or irrationally suspicious.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Please stop listening to politicians or media
who would have us frame the world with ‘us’ and ‘them’, scape-goating ‘the
other’ for all that isn’t right in our lives.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Rather be all the more determined to celebrate the richness of diversity
and culture which exists in Britain; the Britain that will never be great again
unless we do something quite drastic now about the conversations we are having
publicly and privately. Because, just like Germany in the 1930s, if we do
nothing it could be too late.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">You
cannot resist a torrent once it is pouring downhill.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We can only avoid blood on our hands if we
recognise the warnings from history and turn the tide now. These are dark times
- the large number of hate and terrorist crimes across the world in the last
month, concerning and repugnant – and, whatever your view of Brexit, we need to
shake ourselves out of despondency or flippancy. We need to take seriously the social,
moral and cultural challenges we face, as well as the political. Our humanity
and our future depend upon it. This is something we can influence before the
next General Election. We can change the conversation so a new spirit informs
the political landscape and obliges our representatives to behave with more
integrity and conviction, more humanity and intellectual nuance.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">Please
raise your voice. In conversations and social media share <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">#identity+ </b>and tell your story about the cross-border loyalties
which shape your identity... which exist independently of a political party, a
vote or campaign. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">..................................<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";"><strong>Julie Elizabeth Mullins:<o:p></o:p></strong></span></span></div>
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<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "wingdings"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">Ø<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">I am more than any
temporarily elected minister or government tells me I am. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "wingdings"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">Ø<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">I can define my own
cultural boundaries and identify with many clans, communities, institutions,
religions and nation states.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "wingdings"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">Ø<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">I am filled with
experiences and values that are Australian - black and white – because that’s
where I was brought up and educated.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "wingdings"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">Ø<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">I am British born with
Celtic ancestors, red hair and freckles.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "wingdings"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">Ø<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">My first passport was
European and I feel European. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "wingdings"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">Ø<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">I cannot part with my love
and loyalty for Italy, Ireland, England or Australia, nor my need for deep
connection to them.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "wingdings"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">Ø<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">That complex jigsaw is me.
<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "wingdings"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">Ø<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">I am multi-cultural. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt 36pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "wingdings"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">Ø<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">I am a citizen of the
world. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">................................<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">In
the week between the referendum and my return to Italy (where I lived happily
for several years) an incident occurred which touched me deeply. I was in a sports
shop in London looking for some assistance. The young man who might have served
me was talking to a couple of friends in a language I didn’t recognise. When
finally I got his attention he was a little resentful of being interrupted and
responded a little abruptly. When he brought me the shoes from the storeroom
and I requested some socks he said “no, we don’t have them” and turned away.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A little surprised I said in reflection more
than challenge, “oh that’s strange, in Australia they always give you socks to
try on with new shoes”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He replied “then
go back to Australia to buy your shoes”. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">I
erupted.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Every frustration I’d been
feeling that week - with colleagues who failed to recognise something
monumental had happened and that I couldn’t ‘get over it’ in a heartbeat, and with
friends who I hadn’t realised were so differently positioned – bubbled to the
surface. I demanded to see the manager. He shook his head and moved toward the
storeroom. I insisted: “Get me the manager or this is going to escalate”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He ran into the storeroom and closed the door
behind him. Another young man tried to follow. I stopped him: “If you do not
get me the manager and you follow your mate into that room to avoid a customer
that is requesting your help, you are also going to be in big trouble. Get me
the manager – now!”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">Reluctantly
he used his walkie-talkie, where I heard the manager ask “what does she want?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I saved him the trouble and spoke into it:
“if you come here I will tell you <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">what I
want</i> face-to-face”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The salesman
backed away.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The only two other people,
Islamic ladies covered with a burka, looked on nervously.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was, it must be said, in full red-headed
flight.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">When
the manager arrived I prefaced my explanation with: “You better listen
carefully Sir, because this will not end here if I do not get a sincere
apology. I am very upset about the hatred and racism that is brimming beneath
the surface of this country all of a sudden. And I will not accept this
rudeness.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I told him the story. He drew
in his breath, paused for a moment, then apologised unreservedly and said he’d
speak to the young man concerned. I breathed out. The two ladies nodded in shy
(but surprised) agreement. I closed my eyes for a moment, then went back to my
shoes.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">When
the young man returned, suddenly appearing more lanky and vulnerable, he stood
beside me and quietly said “I’m sorry Madam I was rude, I apologise”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Thank you”, I replied, “I appreciate that
very much.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We can leave it there then. Now,
please, I’d like to buy these shoes if you’d kindly show me to the check-out”.
He seemed taken-aback, not quite knowing how to proceed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">As we moved slowly toward the til he added:
“Madam, I am sorry I was rude, I really am.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I have had a bad day” and the tone of his voice had changed to one of
sincerity and humility.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“It’s ok” I
replied quickly and thankfully. “That’s finished now. I’m sorry too. I have
been very upset this week about the EU Referendum result and sensitive about
any attack which seems racially motivated.” He nodded with implicit
understanding. “And by the way” I said as an after-thought, “you are very
welcome in this country”. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then the young
man hugged me. He stopped between the shelves and embraced me gently but firmly,
in what I could only feel was a sign of friendship and relief.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">It
was a brief physical moment but a powerful emotional message. We were on the
same side again. We were both human, vulnerable and in need of comfort, both
wanting to feel welcome in the land we’d chosen to make our home. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">As
I left the counter the lad was smiling at me, telling his friends what had happened.
I still didn’t identify the language. The manager opened the big front doors to
let me out, the last customer of the day. He apologised again and said he’d
talk to the boy about it. “No” I said, and I reached out to touch his hand. “You’ve
said enough, thank you. He understands. And we’re good now. So let us end it
here. I do not want him to get into more trouble. This story has had a happy ending,
and that is what counts. We’ve all learned something. And after such a
difficult week, it means a lot to me it could end this way. Thank you. Thank
you very much.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then he nodded in
recognition. The young man walked forward. We each waved and smiled as the big
doors locked behind me – divided not by a wall of fear and resentment but a pane
of reinforced glass.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">Walking
across the pavement to greet a girlfriend for dinner I couldn’t help feeling
just a little bit taller, a little less isolated, and a little bit more
intimately connected with humanity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">#identity+</span></b><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">We
all have stories. We all have hopes. Let’s share them. Let’s change the
conversation.</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";"><o:p></o:p></span></span> </div>
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Julie E Mullinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11564496695067616584noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8603853034722221586.post-51585059446261465442016-06-18T07:41:00.001-07:002016-06-19T00:36:16.349-07:00Scaffolding<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">I have seriously neglected my blogs in the last year.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s strange how you can totally rely upon,
love or need something for an extended period, and then suddenly not have
sufficient time or attention for it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Blogs are a gym workout for writers. They keep us fit, focused and
fast.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There’s no time for the finesse of
a published article or book, nor is there an editor and multiple drafts, but
they are a good discipline and satisfying.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>So why did I stop?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">Upon reflection, I realise blogs were the scaffolding for my development
as a writer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They gave me form in an industry
which is otherwise unstructured, and I imagine that’s what a regular magazine
or newspaper column does for writers; albeit with bigger readership.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s not that I don’t still need shaping –
artists never stop growing in their craft – but other projects have taken
precedence and, rather annoyingly, twenty-four hours in a day is often too
short! <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">A year ago next month I published a book, <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">To Kiss Or Not To Kiss</i></b>,
and I was happy not just because I think the design and narrative came together
in a finished product I could be proud of, but because it was the culmination
of many years of writing exercises, projects and books which hadn’t made it
out into the world. And though my ‘other job’ has kept me busy since,
commanding most of my available time and energy, I guess there was also a sense
that after being alone in a room for a long time (solitude essential for writing)
I needed to rejoin the working population and stretch the other side of my
brain. I needed to socialise and put £ in the bank. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And I’m grateful for all professional opportunities
– paid and unpaid, creative and corporate.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The challenge is to find the right balance.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">That’s what got me thinking about scaffolding.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We rely on it to achieve something else.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s a necessary step in construction, in the
process of creating something new or different.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>But there comes a time when it has to be removed – when the new creation
has to be set free, stand on its own two feet.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I was sitting on a hill in the middle of Tuscany once, when a children’s
bookseller from Perth was giving me advice about a manuscript I’d asked her to
review.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Her feedback was positive, but
the upshot was that she felt I’d taken too many pages to prepare the reader...
to walk them through the back-story (I paraphrase).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As she talked the truth dawned on me, and I
blurted out “I’ve left in the scaffolding!”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>“What?” she asked, somewhat surprised.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>“I can see it. Yes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’ve left in
elements of the process that I needed to create the story.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m showing the reader the workings.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have to remove the scaffolding.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She was delighted with this summary as hadn’t
thought of it that way herself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I went
on to explain that actors know well that the process we go through in the
rehearsal room has to develop and evolve before we reach the theatre.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We have to change gear. The audience doesn’t
want to see why we’ve chosen this or that trait for our character, they simply
want the character to live and breathe.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Theatre isn’t an intellectual exercise (though it can be intellectually
stimulating).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is a dynamic, live
construct, and it isn’t believable if the actors are living in their heads. Excitement
and drama happens in the moment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I learnt
a lot from that conversation about writing, and future drafts of those stories
were better.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">Scaffolding then is a stage, a temporary need.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Perhaps parenting is like that too.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Also teaching.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Adults provide a safe haven, with established
boundaries, within which a new and very individual person grows and, Please
God, thrives.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then one day they fly the
nest.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They come back of course, likely
to need you as a regular touchstone, but they are out there in the world, free
and ultimately responsible for their own destiny.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">I think sometimes we also get into love affairs for transitional
reasons.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There’s something we want,
consciously or otherwise, to help us get from A to B, and we reach for the
support we need at the time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is right
and normal that we do so, providing of course we’re also honest and
respectful.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Something doesn’t have to
last forever to be immensely valuable. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">Perhaps we find friends for the same reasons – for fun and spontaneous
identification with another human being – but we never know how long they will
or won’t be in our life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s organic,
uplifting and comforting to make new friends, it makes the world seem smaller
and kinder, and that’s a scaffolding I could never give up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Friends lift you higher than you could ever
climb alone and they pick you up when you hit the earth with a thud.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Think for just a moment about your dearest
friends, or the new friends who make you laugh or smile, and watch how your
heart swells. Friends are surely the very best of life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(And I count in that, family who are friends and
good companions.) <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">Putting the arts aside for a moment - a business which intrinsically demands
vulnerability - what happens in life when the scaffolding falls or gets pulled
away before we’re ready for it? Do things get seriously wobbly?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Scary?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Does it test our inner strength?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">Yes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It does.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But can it also be exciting?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Liberating? Can it open up horizons that we
might not otherwise have contemplated?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Yes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Of course.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">Retirement can be a joy to as many as it is difficult.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Separation, after a reasonable gap of time,
can be empowering – a rebirth of sorts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Even unemployment, if you’ve managed to save money or get a payout, can
be an opportunity like no other to consider what you really want to do with your
life.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">The point about scaffolding is that it can be viewed either way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It can be positive or negative. Perhaps, as with Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, it is possible for us to consciously acknowledge
fear or discombobulation then let it slide by.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
(Yes that is a word, communicative whether or not it’s yet in the dictionary.) </span>Or as meditation leaders counsel, nod to whatever’s distracting you,
then let it go.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Don’t fight or deny it. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Because the point is that wobbly, unfocused, or
scary feelings don’t have to confine or define us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They are just a part of the process of living
and moving forward. And in our bravest moments we acknowledge fear and do the
thing anyway.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">So today, consciously, I’ve returned to the scaffolding of my writing
practice.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(I think that could be
practice or practise.)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It doesn’t matter
who reads this blog.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I just needed to
write it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In a way I can’t explain,
simply know that it is authentic, I feel another creative chapter approaching...
a period without scaffolding... so perhaps I’ve been not so much ‘off the boil’
but ‘quietly simmering’ while I tasted some of the other things life has to
offer and solving some other problems. And actually, that’s exactly the kind of
variety and challenge I need and desire.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>And that’s just as well, because I don’t know any other way to live. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">Ah, I feel better now. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span></span></span> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span></span></span> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span><o:p></o:p></span></span> </div>
</div>
Julie E Mullinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11564496695067616584noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8603853034722221586.post-47766050783506192832016-02-06T05:33:00.001-08:002016-02-07T10:59:23.156-08:00A Scowl To A Kiss<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">How a day can change.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">I woke up at 5am one morning recently with a lot on my
mind. There was nothing to be done but to get up and jog. Before leaving I
checked my email and 20+ emails flooded in with pictures and problems on the
house I’m trying (and failing) to renovate and re-let from the other side of the
world. It’s been a pain for months and I spent 80% of my Christmas holiday
trouble-shooting, scrubbing and organising tradesmen. But here I am again,
seemingly mired in issues and hold-ups. This not only frustrates the project
manager in me, and the live-events manager who <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-AU; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">delivers on commitments despite the difficulty of a deadline, </span>but I am bleeding money with no end in
sight. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Meanwhile I am trying to stay focused on a project at
work, with the pressure over the
last couple of days mounting. I am
covering for my boss while she is away too and don’t want to stuff it up. I have
analysis to finish and powerpoint slides to prepare for an important meeting and
want to get into the office early.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">But hell, the time-difference to Australia is difficult
with these kinds of things.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The mental disparity
is jarring. And twenty-plus troublesome emails at 5am is too much.
I really have to jog; jog fast.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">The exercise helps. The Thames is lovely in the pre-dawn,
though I nearly slip over a few times on the damp and dark pavements. By 6.15am
I am home and showered. Then I chance upon a Facebook message I do not need to
see. It pertains to an ex who I do not want to be thinking about. And despite
best efforts it gets under my skin. In fact it makes me hopping mad. As he is
doing exactly the opposite of a thing I’ve asked him to do. And he’s doing it
publicly, either because he intends to cheese me off or because he doesn’t care.
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Negative energy is not the way I normally start the day,
but I feel it sucking me in. Murphy’s Law, how these things happen when you’re already
feeling sensitive.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">In five minutes I swing from the desire to ring him up to
tell him what a selfish bastard he is.... to never wanting to see, hear or
speak his name again. Oh that’s right, I no longer have his number. I hid it in
such a good hiding place I’ve forgotten where. That was a good move. So there’s
only bloody Facebook. Don’t you just hate FB sometimes. So I throw my iPad back
in a drawer where it’s stayed ever since.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>At least I’ve had the sense not to load FB on my phone. That way I can
ignore it for extended intervals without effort. I’m firmly of the belief that
if people really want to communicate they phone, text, or email (and even
those I don’t have on my mobile).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So I
now need to get that rubbish completely out of my mind. It’s a bad use of my
energy and exactly why I’m not waiting around for him anymore.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">After rapidly answering messages about my Aussie house
issues, I get to the office later than planned and feeling as tired as if I’ve
already done a day’s work. I get stuck into the list of things I need to accomplish
before 13.30pm.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s tight but if I stay
focused I should just manage it. Then all sorts of other things come at me –
dozens and dozens of enquiries I can’t possibly process in the timeframe
of the current project. Colleagues appear at my desk too, various things all urgent in their own way, but none of them directly related to the
work I’ve been tasked to deliver that day or by the end of the week. And unlike
the damn people who should be looking after my house – the worst being the Body
Corporate who after months of lobbying still haven’t fixed a roof leak – if I
say I’m going to do something I bloody well do it. Somehow I have to hold back
these other requests for attention and stay focused on priorities. Still
I feel the pressure mounting.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I care
about doing a good job. But I’m not coping as well as I usually do. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">There’s a moment of relief when I pop downstairs to get
some data from colleagues and they notice I’m flagging.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Anyone would think you have a lot on”, they
tease.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Agh” I reply, “it’s all very
well being Speedy Julie... but this week I’m trying to be Speedy Julie and
Speedy Debbie and my brain is about to explode”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(Speedy Debbie is the affectionate name I
give one of my bosses, both of them called Debbie and both tremendous women,
professionally and personally.)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
image of my head exploding like a manic episode from <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Young Ones</i> brings a smile to my face. If I can just get this
latest data into the slides in time for the 13.30 meeting, I can ask for guidance
about the stuff threatening to derail me. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">I do get the meeting slides together. Just. I grab my
lunch and head into the meeting room with piles of print outs. Various managers
assemble and my other lovely boss, Quiet Debbie, takes the lead.
This gives me a chance to eat. Oh yes. That’s better. Sugar reaches my needy
veins. Like a pot-plant starved of water inwardly I start to revive. By the
time it’s my turn to talk to a few points, I can structure my thoughts. Then
something lovely happens.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">I honestly tell the group, including the Programme
Director, that I am feeling a bit overwhelmed by what's landed
in my in-box and ask for guidance re how to juggle
the unexpected with the week’s agreed deadlines. As I say it, I feel the urge
to cry. Nothing bad is going on. I’m just tired (a bit PMT) and can’t absorb anymore. For a
change I’m not being Super Woman and ploughing on regardless of the effort to
output ratio, I am genuinely asking for help.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And I get it. They let me immediately off the hook.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Individually and collectively they each give
me a strategy for responding and an excuse if anyone complains. They are
sympathetic.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And seem to genuinely appreciate
the work I’m doing – which I didn’t know I wanted to hear, but find myself feeling
happy about it. They make jokes too, about the chaos we are collectively
swimming through, and the discussion takes a few enjoyable turns as people look
for suitable metaphors. It’s a good meeting. We get through the agenda, sharing wisdom, jokes and fears. I feel privileged, especially as a
contractor, to have been allowed to make a contribution; to be so welcomed by
the core planning team. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Phew.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Back at my
desk I breathe. I get back on track with core tasks. And I’m grateful to be surrounded by such a terrific bunch
of people. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">The rest of the day is comparatively quiet.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m approaching the challenges again with the
positive energy which is my default – providing I protect and nourish it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">At the end of the day there is only Quiet Debbie, the
Programme Director and myself left in the office. Something has just landed on
his desk which is disappointing and they are discussing the pros and cons and
ways they might respond. Instantly I recognise how much pressure this lovely
man is under all the time – and will be until he/we deliver this massive change programme. How he keeps his cool a lot of the time is as mysterious
as it is admirable.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The programme is so
lucky to have his calm and approachable influence.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When he looks over the desk and says “it’s
been a bad day”, I feel for him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is a
moment of quiet sharing, and not the kind of thing you usually hear from him. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“It really has been a tough day” he continues,
“one difficult meeting after another since 5am”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Wow, I am not the only one - an important
reminder when we forget that others too might be struggling.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then he smiles at me and says “except your meeting
Julie, you make me laugh. I enjoyed your meeting”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And suddenly I am moved and joyful. Quiet
Debbie smiles too.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“What a lovely thing
to say” I reply, “well, you took the pressure off me today when I needed it and
I am very grateful, thank you”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Our lunch meeting had been a little oasis, a refresher, in more ways than one. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">By then I’m putting on make-up and perfume so they guess I have a
date. Well, I’ve already told Quiet Debbie ‘cause I’m rather looking forward to
it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Have a good time” they call out as
I skip down the steps.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I arrive in the
meeting place first and order a beer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s
good to have a few minutes to process such a full and varied day, and to get
ready for what I think (but can’t be sure yet) is a first date.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We’ve only met once, had a couple of beers
together and exchanged a couple of emails.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That was a few weeks ago on the other side of the world and he’s just
flown in to London.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So I’m open and
curious as to what this ‘date’ might or might not be.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But of course I’ve dressed in something
better than regular work gear and feeling a small flutter of expectation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Suddenly he’s beside my table and greets me with a warm
hug.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In two minutes we are deep in
conversation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Hours pass between drinks,
dinner, more drinks, until we are sitting back in the first venue beside an
open fire and talking about when we might next see each other. It seems our new
acquaintance is of mutual interest.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It
is now 1am and the evening has flown.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As
a first date it is definitely a success. Comfortable. Engaging.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Great conversation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Shared interests.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Just enough flirtation to keep it interesting.
And a lot of fun. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">It’s one of those evenings where it doesn’t matter what
it is. It doesn’t matter what’s next. There’s no need to worry about anything. It’s
just really nice. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">So when we walk to a place where we can both catch a
taxi, the goodnight kisses are a bonus. Mmmm.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The Sweet Kiss. Perfectly pitched. Perfectly appropriate to follow the
evening we’ve shared. Perfectly given and received. Perfectly sweet. With no
downside. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">As he puts me in the taxi with another stolen kiss he says
“don’t write about me”. This makes us both laugh.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ah, <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">To Kiss Or Not To Kiss</i></b>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I told you I always err on the yes side of
that question! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Wow, how a day can change.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Good night and sweet dreams </span><span style="font-family: "wingdings"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-char-type: symbol; mso-symbol-font-family: Wingdings;">J</span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #4f81bd; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-themecolor: accent1;">p.s. If you’ve read my book <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">To Kiss Or Not To Kiss</i></b>
and haven’t already left me a review on Amazon, please do. You’ll find Author
Central pages in the US, Aust and the UK.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Cheers. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Julie E Mullinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11564496695067616584noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8603853034722221586.post-83320906540895727492016-01-15T21:25:00.001-08:002016-01-16T02:45:57.982-08:00The Light<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Nothing compares. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Nothing better: than diving into the light. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Lift your feet from the soft ground and drive your head through the cool
and bubbling wake. The sensation is complete at any time, on any day, but today
is special. The waves are breaking rhythmically. There is a pattern to their
arrival. A music of calm and activity, like notes and rests, verse and chorus;
the ocean subduing your senses, lulling you to believe it might be tamed. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Lift your feet from the ground, jump and break the water, your eyes
closed, then open. How can the sensation be so embracing, yet gentle; strong,
yet soothing? It is a visceral reminder of the surreal properties of water, of the
unique comfort of salt and sea. But today I am surprised. Opening my eyes underwater
is not as I expect. The light is mesmerizing. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>An expected turbulence of froth and bubble does
not obstruct my view. Instead, rays of light pierce from sky to sand. The water
is a bright conductor, light shining brighter than I’ve ever seen it. I cannot
look away. I forget to breathe.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The rays
above, before, and around me, are distinct; as you see them after rain sometimes
when an audacious sun forces its way through cloud determined to reach land, to
warm the earth which has been washed clean by unrelenting storms.
This light also emanates a united glow. I am, literally, if not originally,
bathed in light. I am a mermaid; a sailor and survivor in ancient water. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The water is still because I have timed my dive perfectly to miss the
rush overhead. The depth is a mere two metres, from shallow ocean floor to
surface, to the source of this celestial light. Is it the light of life? Does the
same light call us to death, softening the move between worlds we do not
understand? I know anyway that this kind of light is far from mundane. It is
not to be captured... only to be pursued... or waited for. It is something to
trust in. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">My skin tingles. My senses leap. Forced to breathe, I quickly dive
again. The same magic awaits me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Every
individual beam of light is discernible, so too are spots of sand floating
through the water like glitter or confetti heralding a celebration. The water
is a blue so soft it merges with the golden light, sea and sun as one. Until
this moment I had always thought an early Autumn blue the purest of
colours, the closest thing to heaven. Now I feel a veil has been raised and I’ve
seen and understood a deeper truth, a combination of elements I could never
control or prescribe, and therefore all the more intoxicating. I am transfixed.
I am in love with this morning, in awe of sunlight on, through, within and
seemingly born of water. My skin is cool but my eyes and heart are afire. I am
alive in ways I was not just seconds before. I am renewed. And I know it is a
gift. I know it is a sensory experience, a discovery, I will fail to describe
but inevitably I must try. And I thank God with every cell of my being, the
cells which now feel one with the Universe, charged by a force beyond, by the
miracle and wonder of Nature.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">This was my last swim in the Australian ocean, before boarding a plane
to fly to the other side of the world, a place buried deep in a different
season as the globe turns inexorably from one day, one month, one year to the
next. I’m in a new year and soon I’ll land in a new life – or an old life,
rebooted. But with me I’m taking this memory of sea and light, a sense of fresh
beginnings and an awe that can only conjure love and good spirits, when only
moments before I had felt afraid of the leaving, of again saying goodbye. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I know I’m taking that light with me. And that’s all that matters. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">..................</span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">It's nice to finally be back with my blog. Happy near year everyone!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">...................<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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Julie E Mullinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11564496695067616584noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8603853034722221586.post-54333500378398697582015-07-22T00:29:00.000-07:002015-07-22T00:29:32.094-07:00#tokissbook<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Today is THE DAY! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">My new book <i><b>To Kiss
Or Not To Kiss</b></i> - OUT NOW on Amazon and Kindle. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Tonight I’m having a soft launch with friends at The
Canonbury Tavern in Islington and I can’t wait to relax, forget about what isn’t
done, and mark this milestone in my life with a fitting celebration. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I may well have another launch, for the media, after I
lock down a bookshop distribution deal. But today is the important day for me personally. So thank you to all my blog readers and
future book readers, and to all the family and friends who have supported me to
get to this moment. I really hope you
enjoy my short stories – some romance in bite-sized pieces. It is the story of: <i>a sassy redhead’s quest for ‘the last first kiss’</i>. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">#love #romance #booklaunch #launch #adventure #humour
#thelastfirstkiss #itswhateveryonewants<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I’m touched that 30 YEARS OF NEIGHBOURS have posted an
interview with me today, to happily coincide with my book launch. So this blog
post is simply to say: here it is.
Read and enjoy!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><a href="http://www.30yearsofneighbours.net/julie-mullins.html#axzz3gb4zA045"><span style="color: blue;">http://www.30yearsofneighbours.net/julie-mullins.html#axzz3gb4zA045</span></a> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><a href="http://www.juliemullins.co.uk/"><span style="color: blue;">www.juliemullins.co.uk</span></a> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">(Read the introduction of <i><b>To Kiss Or Not To Kiss</b></i> and sign up for the first chapter FREE)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/author/juliemullins"><span style="color: blue;">www.amazon.com/author/juliemullins</span></a> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">(Check out the author page and purchase <i><b>To Kiss Or Not To
Kiss</b></i> or my children’s books in the <i><b>GirlZrock Series</b></i>)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Perfect
holiday reading or a naughty chapter on the way to work! </span></b><b><span style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-char-type: symbol; mso-hansi-font-family: Arial; mso-symbol-font-family: Wingdings;">J</span></b><b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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Julie E Mullinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11564496695067616584noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8603853034722221586.post-65630022934778342272015-06-20T02:07:00.004-07:002015-07-01T00:28:34.732-07:00National Kissing Day<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I discovered quite late yesterday that it was
#nationalkissingday.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> This</span> made me
smile for several reasons:</span></div>
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<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: left; text-indent: -18pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">1.<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]-->I rather like the idea of a whole nation celebrating
one of my favourite activities.</span></div>
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</span></span></span><!--[endif]-->It reminded me I really should remember to tweet
more.</span></div>
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<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt 36pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: left; text-indent: -18pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">3.<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span>And yesterday I launched my new website to begin to
publicise the upcoming release of my new book: <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">TO KISS OR NOT TO KISS</i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Perhaps it’s a good omen?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Or like the serendipity which goes into a good kiss?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I guess you’ll have to read my book and decide for
yourself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It will be out on Amazon and
Kindle on the 22<sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">nd</span></sup> July 2015. </span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">xxxxxxxxxx<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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</span><o:p><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Meanwhile, I was asked recently to make a comment about my
book for a press release. And this is what I said: </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><em>My interest in short
stories developed from my blogs, with female readers in particular responding
well to romantic yarns - the good, the bad and the ugly.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The book idea emerged over lunch with friends
and, as singing and kissing are two of my favourite things, that led naturally
to the book’s hook... and from there a theatrical title and musical theme.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It developed so organically I decided I
should trust and go with it – like a good kiss really... you don’t want to over
think it!</em></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">
</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So thank you to all my
blog readers over the past few years on </span><a href="http://www.blogjulie.com/"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">www.blogjulie.com</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">
and </span><a href="http://www.blogjuliearts.com/"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">www.blogjuliearts.com</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If not for you my focus for this project might
never have come together. And that’s why I’m making an exception today and
posting the same news on both my blogs.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">
</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If you like to kiss - or
you agree with me that a kiss can work miracles – please check out </span><a href="http://www.juliemullins.co.uk/"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">www.juliemullins.co.uk</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>for a little preview.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><em>TO KISS OR NOT TO KISS</em></span></b><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><em>.</em><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> Romance in bite-sized pieces.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">#tokissornottokissbook<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> #tokissbook </span>COMING SOON<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
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Julie E Mullinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11564496695067616584noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8603853034722221586.post-43703612214379473622015-06-02T02:31:00.002-07:002015-06-02T02:35:53.050-07:00Reclaim the F word<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">What exactly is feminism? </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">I do not pose this as an academic
or even a political question. I am genuinely interested to know what the
majority of people actually think this F word means?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Because frankly I’m pissed off that somehow
it’s managed, in too many circles, to be seen as a dirty word. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">I was on a date in Ireland recently with a nice man.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He’s too young for us to consider a serious
relationship, but we enjoy spending time together when we happen to be in the
same city. I consider him a friend, and we talk about all sorts of things –
including his more regular dating life and the joys (or otherwise) of
Tinder.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I guess our experiences are so diverse
that we learn different things from each other.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>And I wouldn’t have it any other way. I love having friends in every
decade and long may it be so. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">But I was surprised when we were taking a walk after
dinner when he stopped dead on the path behind me and said in an almost
concerned or disbelieving tone “are you a feminist?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I had used the word so casually,
automatically, I hadn’t really registered saying it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Of course I am” I replied, still actually
trying to unravel what had just happened.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>That’s when it struck me – he and I have interests in common, and we
are both educated.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yet we are divided
not just by culture, country and age, but by a political, social and economic
landscape that seems to have forgotten we actually need the word feminism, and
why.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Since that conversation it keeps coming up for me, my
focus and attention having shifted slightly.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>And I cannot believe how many misunderstandings of this word there are.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am not going to quote French academics or
suffragettes – though well one might – as in the confines of a blog that may do
more to alienate than elucidate. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Also
there are theories which grow up around a concept about which even those ‘in
the camp’ may take issue.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(If you don’t
believe me look at any political party and the variants of colour and belief
within it.) <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Such is the case with
Feminist Political Theory. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">I simply want to say that there would never have even
been the need for this infamous F word if there had not been sexism or
patriarchy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Really.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Feminism, pure and simple is about
empowerment of the sex that then, as now, did not hold the reins of power or
receive equal respect, remuneration or opportunity. Negative impressions of the word – whether they
be ridiculous undermining ones like hairy legs and no make-up... or bullying
ones like ‘club wielding’, men-hating women – have been created over time by
people (men and women) who resist that essential principle and only serve to
prove that the word feminism, and the belief system within it, is very much
needed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">To be a feminist is to be human.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is to be respectful and fair.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is to believe in equality - not identical
paths, necessarily; not unfeminine or unsexy or unmotherly or unhumorous or unapproachable...
or any other thing attached, negatively, to the notion of woman.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is to say that a woman has rights
(and responsibilities) that are equal in importance to the rights of man. And
that she should not be judged, limited or controlled – in the home or in the
public realm – with expressions and measures which are pejorative or skewed in
a man’s favour.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">So going back to my date in Ireland, it really worries
me that even intelligent and educated people can have such a misconception of the
meaning and value of feminism. I expect it, perhaps, of an older generation who
have grown tired of 60s and post 60s ‘revolutionary’ debates.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I accept hesitancy more quietly from
an older generation; just as I am more forgiving of people who fought and were
damaged by a war and find it hard to get past their memories of that war and
their feelings about the opponents they faced. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But when it comes to people in the prime of
their lives, people who have benefitted hugely from the debates which opened up
in the 60s and 70s, and with young people who presume equal rights as a default,
the ongoing misunderstanding of the heart and purpose of feminism reminds
me, in a very serious way, how much each of us, all of us, still have to do to
ensure this ‘ism’ continues and flourishes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>We would think of nothing less for gay rights, racial rights or
religious rights... so why is this concept so hard for people to accept
whole-heartedly?<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">I wrote about this on my arts blog when I was disgusted
with the ending of the movie, Kingsman.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And
though that article received more hits than any previous blog post, I still can’t
believe the community didn’t make much more of an outcry. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">So with that in mind, my dear friend Emma G and I, had
cause to edit our own language on Friday night when we found ourselves in a pub
saying someone did or didn’t “have balls”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>We’d used the phrase two or three times before we stopped ourselves... realising
that, actually, it was/is an unhelpful use of patriarchal language.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yes of course it’s innocent in many respects.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The whole purpose of language is to
communicate, so to use understood expressions or metaphors makes sense.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But do we always have to reinforce references
which are not helpful to a woman’s overall place in the world?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Why don’t we say instead “wow, she has
breasts!”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Or “he really has breasts!”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Or “he just <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">doesn’t</i> have breasts!” <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(Or
boobs, tits, knockers, puppies, whatever you prefer.)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">I am partly joking, but only partly.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For breasts, are human organs which succour
and develop life. They are not the only clever equipment women have for that (versatile
as we are) but they come in pairs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Breasts are visible, aesthetic, and make a strong statement; which
frankly is more than you can say for balls. Breasts are also more resilient than
balls; as many would argue are women.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">So try it out.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Hear yourself using expressions which don’t actually flatter or support
the empowerment and equality of women.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You
don’t have to change your vocabulary all the time – I offer this merely as an
example – but do listen for it, and let it tell you what it is we gals are up
against (at times, and in some aspects of life) and therefore why the F Word Feminism
is so necessary and so beautiful - in fact, as ordinary, and beautiful, as
breasts. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Let’s reclaim the F word and make it fabulous!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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</div>
Julie E Mullinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11564496695067616584noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8603853034722221586.post-13575032773668426152015-04-21T13:26:00.001-07:002015-04-21T22:53:16.514-07:00Sweet Surrender<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">In
2008 I left fiancé, job, career, home, community, friends, family and my adored Mum,
to head to Italy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I had no accommodation booked, no itinerary, and no idea where the
adventure, the escape, would end.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Perhaps I still don’t know?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">I
wrote two books about this amazing journey – the most challenging and rewarding
of my life – which are yet to be published.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>But I live in hope.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In fact after
I publish another book in the near future – watch this space – I will return to
those manuscripts with renewed vigour.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">Anyway
after a few weeks on the road, with what can only be described as disorientation,
fear and loneliness, I found myself one sunny morning in a town on the
Mediterranean called <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">La Spezia</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was about to explore on train and foot the
immeasurably beautiful <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Cinque Terre; </i>five
towns clinging to the rock-face above <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Mar
Luguria </i>with belligerent resilience.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>With few clothes and a small day-pack, I
hiked and hiked, absorbing every smell, detail and sensation until I was utterly
satiated and exhausted.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(FYI my rental
car with additional clothes was safely parked until my
blood-pressure settled and I was ready to drive on the right-hand-side of the road
again without nearly killing myself.)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">The
day I really began to ‘live the dream’... to walk again in my own skin... existing
deeply in the moment... with renewed optimism and levity... <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>was the day I munched on the world's sweetest
bag of cherry tomatoes and wandered with this song on my
ipod: <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN;"></span></i><br />
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN;">Lost and alone on some forgotten highway, traveled by many, remembered by
few.<br />
Looking for something that I can believe in,<br />
looking for something that I'd like to do with my life.<o:p></o:p></span></i><br />
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN;"></span></i><br />
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN;">There's nothing behind me and nothing that ties me to<br />
something that might have been true yesterday.<br />
Tomorrow is open and right now it seems to be more than enough<br />
To just be here today... and I don't know what the future is holding in store,<br />
I don't know where I'm going, I'm not sure where I've been.<br />
There's a spirit that guides me, a light that shines for me,<br />
my life is worth the living, I don't need to see the end.<br />
<br />
Sweet, sweet surrender, live, live without care,<br />
like a fish in the water, like a bird in the air.<br />
Sweet, sweet surrender, live, live without care,<br />
like a fish in the water, like a bird in the air.</span></i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN;"><br /></span></i><span lang="EN" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN;">
<!--[endif]--></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">I
was already travelling to a theme by Robert Louis Stevenson... but here,
unexpectedly, was my theme in song: written and sung by a man who has left a
wealth of inspiration behind him... the sentimental but extremely sensitive,
talented and loving, John Denver.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How
many of us can say we have moved and inspired as many people as he did in
his too short a lifetime?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And how many
of us will leave a comforting legacy that continues long after our death? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">If
you’re over thirty, frankly, you are unlikely to see “sunshine on the water”
without thinking of him! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">Anyway,
this anecdote came back to me today with immense clarity: when I was jogging on
the waterfront between <em>Port d’Alcudia</em> and <em><span style="font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Port de Pollença</span></em> in Mallorca.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was a busy time of day, with cars and
bikes everywhere, but the sun was shining and the sea was battering the coast.
Watching windsurfers jump the waves I was pondering my life and where my next
choices might lead me... as if one sea-side jog was going to deliver those answers
succinctly... when on my ipod, again, came Mr Denver’s inimitable song.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span></span> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Sweet, sweet surrender</i>...<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;"></span> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">Wow.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are all moved by music.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s the international language.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are also transported in time by it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And that’s as it was for me today – I was
simultaneously in Spain and Italy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was
immediately comforted and challenged to ‘surrender to the moment’...
to not ask for ‘answers’... or even to ‘see the end’... to see the path... but
simply to live... LIVE in the moment... without fear, judgement, pre-determination,
or even a map. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">And
so I kept jogging, jogging faster, easier, my strides longer and lighter until,
before I knew it, I’d done 10 kilometres and could have kept going had the
coastline allowed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(Instead I refuelled with
water and eventually made for a G&T... but that’s another story.)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">It
was, anyway, one of those FANTASTIC TO BE ALIVE MOMENTS: powerful and free. And I simply must thank God and John Denver
for it!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">Sometimes
it’s just the little things which make your day – to see, to hear, to run.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s more than many will ever enjoy and I’m deeply
grateful and recharged by it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN;">Go on.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Give it go.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN;">Sweet, sweet surrender, live, live without care,<br />
like a fish in the water, like a bird in the air... </span></i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<u><span style="color: #365f91; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-themecolor: accent1; mso-themeshade: 191;"></span></u> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<u><span style="color: #365f91; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-themecolor: accent1; mso-themeshade: 191;"></span></u> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: #365f91; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-themecolor: accent1; mso-themeshade: 191;"> <u>Highly recommended: <o:p></o:p></u></span></div>
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZ2VkWBf0v8"><span style="color: blue;">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZ2VkWBf0v8</span></a>
<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Sweet-Surrender-Digitally-Remastered/dp/B00136NJ5S"><span style="color: blue;">http://www.amazon.com/Sweet-Surrender-Digitally-Remastered/dp/B00136NJ5S</span></a>
<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"></span> </div>
</div>
Julie E Mullinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11564496695067616584noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8603853034722221586.post-78327957278276002302015-03-17T08:43:00.001-07:002015-03-17T09:05:03.409-07:00The illusion of love<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">“Mum, I know it’s quick.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But when you know, you know.”<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">I was so sure of my man in
that moment years ago, so in love and happy that I didn’t notice whether or not
my mother shared my confidence.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Like a smug
Dalai Lama speaking to the uninitiated, I looked over the beach to a fierce and
crashing ocean and smiled, cocky and carefree.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I was floating above the earth... at one with the elements... blind and
deaf to any possibility of disappointment.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">That’s how it is with
love.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">When you’re in love everything
around you is rose-coloured.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You walk
with a spring in your step and a sparkle in your eye.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">feel</i>
loved, you feel <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">alive</i>, special and
appreciated.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And it is utterly intoxicating
and absorbing. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">As he sees your beauty, so
you see his.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As he values you, so you
value yourself, and value him; your mutual stock rising with each endearment
and promise of a happy future.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You may think he’s perfect, or you may know
he’s not, but you feel everything about him is wonderful anyway – everything is
right for you.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And not for a minute do
you question: how could you when it feels so damn good.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You relish and treasure every element of
being together, of being close, of sharing the world which is now more
beautiful and irresistible than ever.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And that’s how it should be; how the elixir of
love is designed. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Even allowing for the
infamous potion or magic spell element of romantic love, I have always thought
‘falling in love’ was the wrong expression.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It seems to me more like ‘floating in love’ or ‘wrapped in love’.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yet I suppose whoever invented the phrase
meant ‘falling out of your senses’... or ‘falling into each other’.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For certainly the experience of falling in
love is a process in which you lose yourself... where, for a while, you aren’t
sure where you end and he begins.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You
become fused emotionally, mentally and physically.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">I suppose this fusion is
not unlike the closeness between a child and parent.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I remember from undergrad studies there is a
stage in Development Psychology when a child actually needs to learn that they
are their own being, separate from the people around them who respond to their
every need.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s the stage when a young child
will throw a toy or food repeatedly, watching to see if you are going to return
it to them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They are exploring that
sense of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">connectedness</i> and<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> separateness</i> for the first time, and trying
to work out the difference.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And, though
necessary, the journey to shape one’s ego can be frightening.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>By returning the ball (et al) you are showing
a child they are safe and cared for... while still allowing them to experiment
with their own will and independent sense of self.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">The same transition seems
to take place for couples, after an initial period of ‘falling in love’ in
which you can’t bear to be apart and hunger for one-another no differently than
a toddler longs to be nurtured.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s a basic
and ancient urge, a prime-evil response to sexual-romantic stimulus.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is disarming and hypnotic.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And ultimately, the experience of
overwhelming romantic love is a splendid and explosive mix of satisfaction and delight...
but it’s not without its risks.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">So what happens after
this immersive period of mutual obsession? <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It can’t all be a bed of roses or there wouldn’t
be so many sad love songs documenting pain and disappointment. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">How does one navigate the
divide from total in-love fusion to acceptable separateness?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This, counsellors will tell you, is the
tricky time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How do consenting adult couples bring that
love, and the best of its intensity, into a relationship which is more
balanced, which allows independence and togetherness, without losing the closeness
or security we all want?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How do we move
from ‘the illusion of love’ to ‘the real thing’?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And how do we know when we’ve done it? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">I guess we know because we
have stayed together.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If the reasons for
your instinctive, in-love, trust proves in practise to be well founded, you will
feel affirmed and confident.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If the character
features you think you love about <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>one-another turn out to be realistic (more or
less) and (just as important ) satisfying and comfortable over a longer period,
then you’ll be moving across good terrain.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>If you learn to let go a little only to gain more when you are reunited
because you have more from the world to share, to feed you, then you’ll be
embarking on something healthy and sustainable.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you can say “I love you”
without needing each other every minute of the day, but are also ready to ‘step
up’ and support and forgive each other when talk of love needs to be replaced
by generous deed and action, then your “I love you-s” will ring true and you
will know you are building on good foundation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Of course none of those
transitions happen overnight.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The exhilarating
phase of rose-coloured glasses, where love is filled with stolen moments and an
unending lust for intimacy, may go on for an extended period.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s gorgeous when it does.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Or it may be quite brief. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The tide of life may be so gentle for months
that you aren’t actually challenged to ‘test’ or ‘review’ your wonderfully smug
feelings of love and sensuality.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Or tough
things may come at you quickly and you’ll learn a lot from how you each mount
those hurdles, singly and collectively.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And it’s the context in which you find
yourselves that ultimately shapes the speed and timing of this transition.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But nothing is surer than that a transition
will come. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">In the best case, ‘the
illusion of love’ becomes something even more special – because it can be treasured
with a more objective and conscious realisation that what you share is precious
and worth protecting.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This love is more mature - the type of love you can build a partnership on, maybe a life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you dare to be passionate and spontaneous
it may also be intense and thrilling.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In
fact if the timing for each of you is good, your personal readiness strong, you may make the transition with great harmony and little consciousness
of the shift.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That’s how we’d all like
it to be.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">However if you get stuck
in the first flush of love and do not move forward... if you find yourself
floundering like a beached whale with ‘the illusion of love’ the only thing
keeping the wheels turning... you may well get ship-wrecked... one or the other
of you abandoning ship for a safer harbour or perhaps escape for escape
sake.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And then you have to ask yourself:
Did I really know him?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Did he really
know me?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Did we value what was really
important or were we kidding ourselves?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>There’s nothing wrong, per say, in those truths, however disappointing
the answers may be; providing you weren’t dishonest with each other.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">But there’s the other
thing: people have different capacities for honesty, just as they have
different capacities for love.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So a love
match, a successful match, is ultimately not only about feeling or attachment...
it’s about a balance between two people’s ability to be honest with themselves,
as well as their partner, and the capacity they have for active, generous and
unselfish love.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not unselfish all day
every day, of course, but still necessary for successful coupling is courage and a preparedness to give for the other person’s benefit even if it isn’t
particularly convenient.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For a big
difference between ‘real love’ and ‘the illusion of love’ is that it isn’t just
about you.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">And until you hit the rocks
and hurdles of life, or overcome them to sail off into the sunset (as it
were)... it will be well-nigh impossible to tell the difference between one type
of love and the other.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">That is the risk of
love.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And, when you’re lucky, the
reward. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
</div>
Julie E Mullinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11564496695067616584noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8603853034722221586.post-81945649091180694532014-11-22T03:06:00.000-08:002014-11-25T01:25:12.218-08:00Focus<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt;">Could the girl who has been variously
nicknamed Bubbles and Typewriter suddenly be getting economical
with words?<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt;">Unlikely.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt;">Still, it’s interesting my last two
posts had one word titles.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It wasn’t
planned.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yet as it’s rather a good
writing exercise to pick one word and weave a story around it, today I’m going to
follow up <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Perky</i> and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Tempo</i>, with <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Focus</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt;">The study of something’s opposite can
be instructive.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For example, my diet and
exercise regime has gone out the window since I completed my first
half-marathon on the 5<sup>th</sup> October – in a rather good time if I do say
so myself - at 1 hour, 47 minutes and 19 seconds. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At
first I had recovery as an excuse, then a friend’s wedding, then extremely occupied
delivering multiple events per day at work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>My free time vanished, the weather deteriorated, and I couldn’t find the
energy to get out of bed at 6am.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is
all true, I have been tired and busy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But
the real issue is a lack of focus.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt;">I haven’t been singing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I miss it dreadfully.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But why?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Lack of time?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But no, lack of focus.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is a dreadful thing for a professional to
admit, and it’s no excuse that I have several strings to my bow and currently
am working on the other side of the footlights, because if you don’t use your
instrument it seizes up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So does your
repertoire and employability.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Professionals
don’t make excuses, they deliver. So,
frankly, until I get focus back to singing regularly, get back to coaching and
practise, buy a piano to replace the keyboard which died (and the other one still
in Italy), then I really can’t call myself a singer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I need to set a goal, get a gig booked, and
get back on track.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt;">And Heavens - don’t look at my desk
and briefcase, or mountain of unread personal emails and bills, for my home
admin is currently a disaster.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This isn’t
always the case.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s the side-effect of
giving full priority to the contract I am working on – which is crazy busy and because
I care about doing a good job in the timeframe I find myself – so I’ve let lots
of other things slide.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My focus has been
work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So it’s no surprise that is where
my more recent achievements have been made. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt;">Because if life, at the base level, is
simply time... then how we spend our time, how we focus our thoughts and
activity, is closely aligned to how we spend our life. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt;">And the remarkable thing, is that when
we focus – on whatever or whoever – time expands to accommodate that reach like
a photographer’s lens.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt;">Such was the case with my
half-marathon training in the first two months of my current contract.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Focus kept me disciplined, discipline made
best use of my time. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I managed to jog
and work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I got fitter.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Work was easier. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt;">There’s a parallel in something which happened
this week.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt;">I enter writing competitions now and
again, but once the application has gone in I usually forget about it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However I returned home on Monday night,
utterly exhausted after a rough day, and after a bowl of carrot and coriander soup
I fell on the sofa like a dead weight.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Opening
my laptop there was a mountain of stuff I really needed to deal with - not
least, giving authority to my sister to attend a Tribunal in Australia
on my behalf, because some selfish and irresponsible people rented then trashed my house and would rather not pay me any compensation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt;">Then one email jumped out at me. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was immediately focused.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was being told I had won a little
competition with the Wandsworth Guardian to attend a Writer’s Masterclass at
the University of Roehampton.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is the
university on my London doorstep, and funnily enough the one I seriously looked
into attending for a Masters in Renaissance and Romantic Literature some years
ago.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt;">(Don’t ask me why I did a Masters of
Commerce instead, as sometimes I don’t know the answer to that question... but
such is life, and “way leads onto way”.)<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt;">The thing about this email was that
the Masterclass was the very next afternoon – with the hugely successful children’s
author, Jacqueline Wilson, who is also the recently appointed Chancellor of
the University of Roehampton.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt;">But... I hadn’t been thinking as a
children’s author since I put the first three books of a (potential) series ‘on
the shelf’ where it’s been gathering dust since I finished a writing-holiday in
Greece in August 2013.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Nor have I been
flexing my creative muscles enough generally - even my blogs dropping off due
to lack of ‘time’.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So to be able to seize
this opportunity I was really going to have to focus!<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt;">First I had to find my children’s manuscripts
on any number of hard drives.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then I had
to read them, shake up the grey matter on that side of the brain.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(Somewhere in there I slept.)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then I had to get into the office, delegate
tasks, clear my diary, work out how to get from Kings Cross to Roehampton by
3.30pm, make sure my boss was happy with this new development (which happily
she was), and then turn up at the Masterclass ready to write, read and discuss
topics that are a million miles away from delivering a live event, overseeing a
theatre, or analysing bar and box-office takings. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt;">Did I do it?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Of course I did.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And it was wonderful.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Wonderful to meet the inimitable Jacqueline
Wilson, to hear her stories and be led through some fun writing exercises; wonderful
to be in a room with enthusiastic writers, wearing a creative hat. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Was there much in the Masterclass I didn’t
know before.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not for me, because I’ve been putting myself
through a disciplined writer’s apprenticeship since 2008 (in a variety of genres) so I am
well on my way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But when I had my little
children’s books published in the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">GirlzRock</i>
series in 2005 and 2006 I knew one day I’d get back to the place I
started.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So was this session useful?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Absolutely.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It was a privilege to be invited.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Jacqueline Wilson is a legend, about to publish her 100<sup>th</sup>
children’s book. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">T</span>he Masterclass was
stimulating, a much needed personal ‘tune up’ and, above all, an opportunity to
relax and focus.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt;">Moreover because of that focus I could
refile a few little things in my head... seize upon an image, or collection of
words, which Jacqueline used to describe something I hadn’t quite perceived
that way... and this will broaden my palette and practice.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt;">Most importantly it reminded me of my
desire to finish this series; to do something with it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And it gave me the kick I needed to believe
again that I can do it, that my voice is alive and well even if it requires a
little shake up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt;">So, of course I had to write a blog
this weekend.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Writers write.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Joggers jog. Singers sing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt;">What are you going to do this week
that is all about you and what you do?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt;">Because all you need is a little
focus. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt;"><br />
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">
</span><br />
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><u><span style="color: #365f91; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-themecolor: accent1; mso-themeshade: 191;">RECOMMENDATIONS:<o:p></o:p></span></u></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt 36pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">1.<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><a href="http://www.roehampton.ac.uk/News/2014/October/Author-Jacqueline-Wilson--honoured--to-be-University-s-new-Chancellor/"><span style="color: blue;">http://www.roehampton.ac.uk/News/2014/October/Author-Jacqueline-Wilson--honoured--to-be-University-s-new-Chancellor/</span></a>
</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt 36pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">2.<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><a href="http://www.roehampton.ac.uk/postgraduate-courses/Creative-Writing/"><span style="color: blue;">http://www.roehampton.ac.uk/postgraduate-courses/Creative-Writing/</span></a>
</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt 36pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">3.<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><a href="http://www.roehampton.ac.uk/undergraduate-courses/creative-writing/index.html"><span style="color: blue;">http://www.roehampton.ac.uk/undergraduate-courses/creative-writing/index.html</span></a>
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">And because I currently work at Central Saint Martins I
must also mention: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt 36pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">4.<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><a href="http://www.arts.ac.uk/csm/courses/postgraduate/ma-dramatic-writing-drama-centre-london/"><span style="color: blue;">http://www.arts.ac.uk/csm/courses/postgraduate/ma-dramatic-writing-drama-centre-london/</span></a> </span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt 36pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">5.<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><a href="http://www.arts.ac.uk/csm/courses/short-courses/media-arts/evening-and-weekend/scriptwriting-and-storyboarding/screenwriting---beginners-term-time/"><span style="color: blue;">http://www.arts.ac.uk/csm/courses/short-courses/media-arts/evening-and-weekend/scriptwriting-and-storyboarding/screenwriting---beginners-term-time/</span></a>
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">
</span></span> </span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"></span><br /></div>
Julie E Mullinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11564496695067616584noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8603853034722221586.post-23493482401617766532014-10-19T03:40:00.000-07:002014-10-19T04:39:58.587-07:00Tempo<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">If you’re a singer fronting a band you have to count them
in.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You set the tempo for each number;
pulling the musicians together to conduct the ebb and flow of the songs and the
set.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s one of the most important
things you do, because if you don’t capture the right tempo, the right mood and
attack, your rehearsed interpretations will not hit their mark.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">There are many parallels: the captain of a yacht plays
with the angle of his boat to ride or resist the speed of the wind; dancers
glide through a waltz, kick through a cha-cha, and sass through a tango but
without the right tempo it won’t be convincing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Rhythm is just as present in sport: rugby and tennis players
change tempo to throw their opponents off guard, and when they find the opening
they’ve been looking for, they hammer a beat relentlessly to get the ball over
the line.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Lovers also mix up the tempo of play.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Well, I hope they do!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">As to the music, when the tempo is perfect and a band is really
hooked into one-another... musicians borrow from billiards to say it was “in
the pocket” – meaning not only that they brought the track home but that it was
comfortable, the music flowed how and where it should have.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">So often in life the harmony of tempo and place is what
we’re looking for.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yet so often it’s
just a wee bit off, like a distorted radio station – or worse – a singer or
violin slightly out of tune.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When things
are flowing at the tempo in which they are organically meant to be (and that is
different for everyone in a million different circumstances) there is usually a
greater sense of peace, of being at home, or perhaps being on holiday.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Indeed it’s in those sweet moments of good
alignment that we may not even notice tempos changing around us because,
whatever the speed, we’re flowing in a comfortable groove.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Yet alignment and perfect tempo setting is harder to
achieve in our modern world than it used to be.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Life is so often fast whether or not it’s reasonable or desired. We text
and expect an immediate response.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We
email and presume it’s been read.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We
rarely ponder over a ‘real letter’, sending thoughts that have been carefully
considered and matured.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We tease and
procrastinate about where we’re going and what we’re doing, often leaving
social engagements until the last minute so as to keep our options open.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yet I remember a time when you said “I’ll
meet you at Piccadilly Circus at 7pm Saturday week...” and that’s where you
went because you’d promised that you would.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>You didn’t have a mobile phone to change arrangements.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">One could argue that the world now has ‘fast’ as a
default, and that is no better or worse than an old world where perhaps it was
too often stuck on ‘slow’.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Perhaps.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">But for many reasons it makes me wonder about our ability
to know which ‘play’ is the right one for the moment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When is a ‘fast play’ or a ‘fast decision’ advisable?
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When is the ‘long play’ likely to reveal
a better result?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And if our big-city, global-world tempos are
stuck on ‘fast’, with sub-titles screaming “I want it now”, are we losing our
ability as a society (or a workplace, a family, a group of friends) to even
notice when we’re getting it wrong? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Thoughts about tempo have come to me after attending an
exceptionally good wedding last weekend in a country hotel in Surrey.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A dear friend was marching up the aisle (or
rather, waiting for his bride to do so) and as their engagement was short many
of us were still a little surprised to find ourselves gathered for such an
occasion. Their engagement, if you like, was a fox-trot... their wedding celebration,
by contrast, a slow and luxuriating rumba. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">We arrived at the hotel between 10 and 11am, and by 11.30
corks began to pop.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The ceremony started
at 12 (ish) followed by a splendidly languid period of champagne and
conversation, music and photographs, both inside a comfortable room and outside
on the luscious green lawn of a converted stately manor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There was no rush or bustle, tension or
over-fussing, we all sank into the joy of the day, renewing friendships and
quickly making new ones.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At 14.30 we
meandered down a corridor to greet the bride and groom at the doorway to their
beautifully decorated reception room.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>People
introduced themselves, friends of friends mingled, families smiled.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There wasn’t a hint of anything other than
sanguine waltz and leisure.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Then my inner tempo changed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I met someone.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I met someone to whom I was inexplicably but
immediately drawn.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And it was mutual.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Our inner sound track, whatever it had been
before, switched to swing... hell, a quick-step... and that was before we got
near the dance floor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Of course we were cooler than that in our outward
appearance, in our polite conversation, but within minutes we were (secretly) delighted
to find ourselves seated on adjacent tables.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Some days you just get lucky!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">But back to the wedding: the ‘breakfast’ and speeches
were chirpy yet serene, packed with good stories, great food and wine, and
without any sense ‘time was getting away’.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Only at 5.30pm did we take an interval of sorts, to return to our rooms
to rest a little and get changed for the evening festivities.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At 6.30pm it all started again – tables and
chairs had been pushed aside, a large dance floor uncovered, and a row of DJs
sat in a line preparing to work their magic.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>This room of guests were all lovers of jive – because the groom has run
his own dance company for many years – and so it is gross understatement to say
the “bridal waltz” was spectacular... for it was a jive/tango like no “first
dance” I’ve ever seen (well, outside <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Strictly</i>!).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">oohed</i>
and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">aahed</i>, and caught their wonderful
energy like a thrown gauntlet.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The dance
floor filled.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The style continued, the
DJs worked magic, and underpinning our mood was a sultry, passionate
beat, a collective delight that our friends had found one-another and taken ‘the
big step’, and a hunger to not let the night escape before we had sampled all
the good things life has to offer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Weddings will do that to you. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Of course our celebration of life was massively helped by
the fact that the wonderful hotel didn’t close the bar. They stopped the music
at an agreed time, but they left us to party as long and as wildly as we
liked.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was brilliant
hospitality.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And only when 80% had gone
to bed did the final 20% make their way up to various hotel rooms to laugh and
carry-on and no doubt annoy their neighbours.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>There was one major party room you could write a play about.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But there were others too, many rooms, many
couples, where the tangos and delicious rumbas went on through the wee hours of
the morning... where giggles and delight clung to our tired bodies until the
sun tipped over the horizon and we could twinkle our toes not a second
longer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The band, in the end, has to
stop. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">When we met again the following morning, there was a full
set of sunglasses and far less conversation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>We nodded and grinned at each other, but were hardly able to speak until
we’d topped up our reserves with a good English Breakfast.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then we moved (rather gingerly it must be
said) to another town, another country pub, and did our best to keep the
celebration going.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">I wouldn’t have missed that weekend for the world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was a most memorable wedding - for which
we can thank the bride and groom for their immaculate choreography, their
superior sense of tone and tempo, style and comfort, and their uncanny ability
to conduct festivities for their friends even as they retired to the Honeymoon
Suite.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Sweet indeed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And
much to muse upon.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
Julie E Mullinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11564496695067616584noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8603853034722221586.post-86555980697197606412014-07-21T02:42:00.000-07:002014-07-23T00:41:34.407-07:00Perky<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Perky.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Have you thought much
about that word?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">I hadn’t until
recently.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But I’ve decided I like it
very much.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s a flexible and evocative
word. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">It sounds... well...
perky.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Try it: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">perky</i>. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Say it with a smile: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">perky</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Say it with a skip: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">perky</i>. </span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"> Imagine all the instances
in which this sprightly and spirited word could be applied...<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Personalities can be
perky. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>People and moods can be
perky.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Responses to conversation can be
perky.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Parts of the body can be
perky.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">That’s how the word came
to me recently, in a rather intimate and flattering context.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So of course that made me utterly predisposed
to like it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Still, I think my admiration
for the word is well placed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And as
beauty is in the eye of the beholder, I wouldn’t dream of arguing with the
handsome man’s chosen application. I’ll enjoy the idea for what it is, just as
I enjoyed his perky charm.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">So now I’m back in London
after my perky Irish holiday, and I’m on the lookout.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Generally Londoners are at their perky best
at the moment, friendly on the tube, dressed in bright colours, because the
weather is glorious and every other day there is some kind of summer event. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If they’re not watching
an outdoor concert, play or opera, or rushing off to the Proms at the Royal
Albert Hall, they are sure to be stripped down to their shorts and reclining in
a park or holding a pint on the pavement outside one of London’s many fabulous
pubs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ties and suit-jackets have been
thrown aside, crowds of smiling people with rounds of lager that never tasted
so good, under a sun which refuses to set, the ambience and camaraderie distinctly
jovial, decidedly light, and unmistakeably perky.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">It’s true the Pommies
droop more in hot weather than an Aussie or Kiwi would, but even when they talk
about ‘heat waves’ that makes me feel a cheeky combination of proud and perky
that I’m southern-hemisphere bred; or ‘Tonka Tough’ as we used to say, after the resilient toys.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Drink some water”
I advise my wilting friends in a perky (and perhaps provocative) way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And they remind me then that “you aren’t half
so perky when it’s a long cold winter...”. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But at
the moment so long and thankful does the Summer seem, that I toss my long locks
with a dismissive shake of my head and a perky laugh. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">The thing about this word
is that ‘perky is as perky does’.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Take
that laugh, for instance: I might have said ‘cocky’.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yet one can feign cockiness.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It can be full of sound and fury. Whereas ‘perky’
is inevitably sincere: you can’t fake it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Good or bad, it is what it is.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s
an honest word.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>‘Perky Polly’.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There’s no arguing with it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">I saw one such little girl
on the tube the other day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She was so
gorgeous I wanted to scoop her up and swing her around and around in my
arms.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sadly the tube – and probably her mother
– wouldn’t have allowed it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So I teased
her instead.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She was on the other side
of the Perspex at the end of the aisle, initially with her back to me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Her little hat was white with swirls of colour
and butterflies which looked poised to fly away. Her sleeveless little sundress
had even more colour – awash comes to mind – in a pattern which recalled a free
and hippy time, though there was less than a meter of fabric required from her
shoulders to her knees. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">When she turned in my
direction she was singing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was a
sweet song but I couldn’t quite place it, and I smiled at her light-hearted and
innocent expression. Her eyes were as large and round as the little girl in<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> Frozen</i>, in an ancient dark brown that would
have defied the creaminess of her skin had it not been tinged ever so slightly
with a hint of olive.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Her hair was brown
and shiny smooth, cut into a perfect bob which framed her perfect face.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Her lashes were as long as a camel’s, her
nose and chin as cute as a pixie’s but rounded in such a soft and gentle way
that it suggested a struggle between ebullience and shyness.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Her song was as a Mermaid’s
to a Sailor: I longed to hear more.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But
she turned away again. And the tube was silent except for the metallic rock ‘n
roll of a raw and groaning track.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
poked my finger through the gap in the partition and touched the top of her arm.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She didn’t respond.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I wondered, like the Sailor, had I really
heard the music?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I tried again.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This time she turned those enormous brown
dials toward me, and the sparkle in them told me she knew what I wanted, she
knew I was under her spell – as surely hundreds of admirers have gone
before.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Please keep singing” I
whispered. She imperceptibly shook her head; though she seemed to like that I’d
asked.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Please” I proffered again,
hoping like many a performer that flattery would get me everywhere.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But she held firm.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She did, however, give me a smile that would
melt iron. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And for the rest of the
journey this perky little creation, spun away from me, and back, away and back,
in an elaborate game of ‘peek-a-boo’ with a stranger who was mesmerized by her
sheer unadulterated beauty and innocence.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">When she left the train, I
was not only dead jealous of her mother, and reminded (as I so often am) of the
love I have for my own nieces and nephews, I pondered how exquisite a phase in
life it is, around about four or five years of age, when everything about you
and within you is incontrovertibly perky.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Everything is bubbling, bouncy, curious, positive and pure.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">And now that sweet little brown-eyed
girl wrapped in a rainbow of colour and a halo of pure light will remain for me
a metaphor of all that is perky and good.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">That’s not to say, of
course, that perky can’t also be naughty... perky is as perky does... oh, a
most evocative and energetic little word. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt 36pt;">
<span style="color: #4f81bd; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-themecolor: accent1;">(P.S.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Thank you to my dear friend Jackie Manuel who,
after discussing my activities in Ireland, challenged me to write a blog with
the word perky in it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I think she
expected more moderation, but maybe not.) <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<br />
</div>
Julie E Mullinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11564496695067616584noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8603853034722221586.post-41647008498236263062014-07-05T10:10:00.000-07:002014-07-09T02:59:12.111-07:00Three marines and a sheila<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">If it’s true there’s
always a story, then you can’t find a better reservoir than Ireland.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">The villages are
packed with fodder – situational and character. And long may it be so.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">I came back
to Westport, County Mayo, for the Music and Food Festival last weekend.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was a cracking success – blue skies and
high spirits giving birth to many a yarn.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">A few days
later I’m in the pub made famous by Matt Malloy from the Chieftain’s, hatching a
plan to sneak in the back door of a comedy gig that’s sold out.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I rustle up behind a young man who seems to
be well-acquainted with the doorman, and without thinking I push up behind him whispering
“hey, if I stay close to you we might both get in”. Of course I haven’t stopped
to register my superior assets are pressing tightly against his back, so his
reply quickly puts me in fits: “sure, but you could at least buy me dinner
first”. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">And that’s
how the night begins.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>With a witty
Irishman called Kieran.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s always good
craic at Matt Malloy’s. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Observing
this play in the pub yard are three American marines.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Well, three military.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One is a fully-fledged, combat-strong marine
with a Viking heritage.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(His friends
think he’s bragging unnecessarily about this but, to be sure, he’s as
broad-chested and serious-looking as you might imagine a Viking.) Rob is now
technically civilian, working for the military on deployment in Europe,
but his service credentials are clear enough.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He
even has the remains of a bullet in his jaw.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Really he does.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I touched
it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">His buddy,
Mike, is former-navy, still in the thick of military management at a base in
Bavaria.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And the third of the musketeers,
Scott, is a NATO commander and pilot who must be very clever as he lands big
planes on comparatively small ships.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Of course, curious
soul that I am, I need to know how you prepare for such a task.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I wonder if they go to Wellington, New
Zealand, to make repeat attempts at her infamously short and windy runway?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But it seems they find a big field or desert
and artificially light/partition the ground in the shape and length of a boat,
to practise on dry ground hundreds of times before risking sea landings. It’s a
relief to know they don’t get all Top Gun until they’re ready.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I wonder if they have similarly smart uniforms
with shiny buttons, but after the boob-back-crush-affair I’m trying to be
demure. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Now this
particular evening I happen to be wearing a new shirt, decorated with stars and
stripes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And it occurs to us I’m in it a
day early – for tomorrow is the 4<sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">th</span></sup> July.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When I ask the lads how they plan to
celebrate American Independence Day they tell me they’re going to climb Croagh
Patrick. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then I really get interested. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Croagh
Patrick is Ireland’s holiest mountain, on account of the legend that Saint
Patrick fasted for forty days on the summit in 441AD – no mean feat, I can tell
you, when the mountain is infamously exposed to changeable and dramatic weather.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I had been wanting to climb “the
reek”, as it’s called, but lacked a companion; something necessary for safety
as the rocky terrain is treacherous when it’s dry, let alone-wet.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>By the end of a pint we’ve agreed to meet at
their hotel at 9.30am the following morning, ready to walk; rain, hail or
shine.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Famous last words.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">I head off
then to keep an appointment with a nice man – that’s another story – and it
takes some doing for me to get to bed at 3am and still honour my pledge.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But a good Aussie sheila keeps her word, so
at 9.30am I approach the hotel already sloshing through rain.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Unlike St Patrick, however, I have pockets
filled with chocolate bars. I’m also wearing two pairs of socks, a fleece and water-proof
jacket – which surprisingly, leaves me better equipped than the marines.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They must be really tough; only shoes and
muscles betraying their background. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">When we park
the car at the traditional pilgrim start, we can not only<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> not</i> see the 2,500 feet summit but, so thick is the fog, we can
barely see six feet ahead of us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Geraldine’s
welcome in the visitor’s centre says it all: “so you’re going to chance it are
ye?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There are grumbles about the
conditions but I am excited.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Surely I can’t
be better protected? <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m confident, anyway,
they’ll form a solid wind-break.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">So up we
go.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We now each have walking sticks,
recommended for the steepest incline and slippery descent. And though I usually
don’t like the interruption to ambience of sticks going “click, click, click”
on a path, water is gushing so keenly across ravaged stones I barely notice.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When we come to a sign which says “Do not
proceed if windy or wet” we stare in silence.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>This is the west of Ireland.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Rugged
is a given.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Nevertheless when the rain’s
trajectory pierces sideways into our ears the smart-talking kicks up a gear -
the boys’ humour as voluminous as the clouds and relentless as the howling wind.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I enjoy the banter.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I ignore the naughtiest jokes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have the perfect excuse.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But that only encourages them to engage me
further.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So I enjoy the attention.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s all good fun.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And a necessary distraction from the drudgery,
the pressure to kick this mountain’s proverbial however challenging the
conditions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I start to understand why
there’s good reason to relax a feminist-PC sensibility in the armed
forces.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You need latitude with jokes when
working under intense pressure.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Though occasionally
the boys go quiet when reminded this is a holy mountain and St Patrick is
listening.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">The strangest
thing is that we really have no idea where we are.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We can’t see.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>We could be climbing to heaven as likely as the white chapel hidden by mist
on the summit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When Rob and I take the
lead and look back about twenty metres to see how Mick and Scott are
travelling, they are only the faintest of shadows.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In space no-one can hear you scream.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I move a bit closer to Rob, letting him carve
out our path lunge by lunge. I’m tempted to ask him to carry me. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Instead I scurry in his slipstream.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When
we get to a particular plateau the wind is so strong it threatens to throw me
over the edge.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I feel like a munchkin in
a tornado.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We huddle in a group and
agree to persevere a little further before making a decision about the final ascent.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The wind drops a bit on the flattest part of
the mountain and this is a welcome reprieve.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>But it doesn’t last long.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At our
next drink break the gale mocks our resolve.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>If it were a ship we’d be under full sail travelling at thirty knots.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Mick, who’s climbed
Croagh Patrick before, thinks it’s too dangerous to continue.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Scott agrees.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Rob teases them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I can tell they’re
thinking of me, particularly with respect to the descent from the summit –
where stacks of small rocks (known as scree) threaten to move like popcorn on a
sloping tray. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But we’re already
drenched.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I don’t want to stop.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And the Viking offers to take me up and get
me down safely if I want to continue.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We
agree breaking into pairs is the only other option to four of us staying
together.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So after some predictable banter
and sledging, we say goodbye to Scott and Mike who find themselves on descent
in the worst weather of the day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They
get more wet than us and it’ll be over an hour before they get to the safety of
Campbell’s Pub – the ultimate watering-hole and reward for Croagh Patrick
pilgrims.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">It’s now just
the two of us on the mountain.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even the
sheep have disappeared. If anyone else is climbing this morning we sure can’t
see them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Anon I have a word with St
Patrick about the wind, pleading with him to drop it back a few knots, and to
our mutual delight he does.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The back-side climb to the top of the infamous cone is doggedly steep, but the wind is less and this energises
us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Viking is a good mentor, helping
me to use my sticks more strategically, and when we’re fifteen metres from the
summit and he says “look, there’s the white chapel”... I can’t see it for some
seconds... so thick is the fog.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But
after a few more twists and turns over the stones, pride in our achievement and
the adrenalin of victory, rush at me at once.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>We’re there!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There’s a sign to
confirm it; which is just as well because there’s no view.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There’s just the outline of a foggy chapel
and my marine.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And to thank him I push
my superior assets into his huge torso as he wraps his protective biceps around
me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Brilliant.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I think we’re legends.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">We don’t
dally up there though.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There’s no
pub.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And if this doesn’t deserve a
Guinness I don’t know what does?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">We take the
descent slowly, carefully, not wanting to disrupt our joy with a silly injury.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But once we’re down the worst of it we up our
pace.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then the fog starts to lift.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The sun is coming out.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s hard to believe how far we’ve climbed,
our journey having been cloaked so completely in white. When we start to see
the path we are even more impressed with ourselves.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Well, I am.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>He’s probably done many impressive feats of athleticism.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And in the second half of the descent we stop
to encourage climbers who’ve, sensibly, waited for better weather.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The best part is that we can now see
beautiful Clew Bay, miles and miles of green grass, interspersed with sparkling
water.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But it’s still a long way
down.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">As the sun
really warms up even little children appear with their parents to climb.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One little girl is exquisitely cute – with black
plaits and a perfect number of freckles across her milky-white turned up nose –
and she wants to know “what are you doing with those sticks?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m tempted to say I need them to beat my
Viking when he misbehaves, because though our conversation has been
delightfully various (affording an opportunity for me to learn all sorts of
things about combat, training and weaponry), he is irascibly cheeky.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Instead I just giggle at her cute little nose
and adorable Irish accent and explain that her knees are in better shape than
ours.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She doesn’t understand this
either, but clearly finds my accent silly and hides behind her Daddy’s
leg.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Over the last
rocky terrain we practise our jibes ready to tease the two Musketeers who
proved to be Girls Blouses.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Rob relishes
the opportunity he’s been given to get on top in their relentless bouts of mutual
mocking.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then once the glorious warmth
of our first hot toddy works its magic, and we follow it up with a Jameson’s
Irish Whiskey and the first of several rounds of Guinness and Seafood Chowder,
there’s not a joke or a jibe that’s one too far.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I surprise them, I think, with my ability to
join the fray – later explaining I’ve been prepared for just such an occasion
by my four brothers – and they declare me to be “an atomic sledger” and “an awesome
sheila”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">It is hard to
say goodbye when the boys drop me back into Westport, to drive on down to Galway.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They invite me to join them, urge me
even.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But I figure a night in a hotel
with them might be more dangerous than our treacherous mountain climb.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Likely a lot of fun... but there’s only so
many risks a girl can take in one day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Then after a
long bath, when I’m just about to eat dinner and go to bed for an early night, they
sweetly call me from Galway to tell me they are “missing me already”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I like my three marines.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’ve had a great 4<sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">th</span></sup> July. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I might meet the Viking on another mountain in
another land... wherever he goes next to conquer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But even if I don’t, I doubt there’ll be
another American-Irish 4<sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">th</span></sup> of July experience like it!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
</div>
Julie E Mullinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11564496695067616584noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8603853034722221586.post-65992964017527751212014-05-19T23:27:00.000-07:002014-05-20T20:23:41.329-07:00Passivity in threes<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">I’m having a gorgeous time by the beach at the moment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But a couple of weeks ago it was a disaster
which came in threes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Reflecting on the blows I wasn’t sure why I wasn’t more
stressed. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Was it the parallel joy of
reconnecting with loved ones in Australia?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Was I in a particularly sanguine mood?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Or perhaps too shocked to react? <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">I’ve decided it was simply that I couldn’t get the milk
back in the bottle.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The damage was
done.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Beyond my control. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So the
electrical circuits in my brain disengaged and watched from afar – waiting for
the future to slowly reveal itself... rather than fighting or resisting the
reality of the situation. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And it was this
passivity, this instant resignation, which I found to be far less stressful
than trying to affect change.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">In some respects this can’t be a permanent state of
affairs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Apart from the fact that I’m probably
the least passive person you could ever meet, there are practicalities which will
eventually demand attention and action. But in the short term, it was an
interesting experience in letting stuff wash over you.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And I’m inclined to think that lessons I’ve
learnt from living in a big tough city like London, have been unexpectedly beneficial.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">The three disasters: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">1)<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">My
house has been trashed. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There are holes
in the walls.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Broken doors.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Incredibly stained carpet.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A pesky cat who is busily pulling out threads
on the now wilting carpet. So much dirt, dust and clutter that who knows how
many creepy-crawlies have found a home.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>A collapsed retaining wall in the rear courtyard (which the Body
Corporate were supposed to fix over two years ago).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And everything is breaking at once such that
I have to quickly replace things like the oven, garage door motor, floor tiles
etc.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This was quite a shock when only
two and a half years ago the house was in perfect condition.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And the tenants smiled and told me they’d
cleaned the place in anticipation of my inspection!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Hmm, none so queer as folk... <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">2)<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">I
went to a new hairdresser to get a tiny bit of colour on the roots of my hair; just
to tide me over until I get back to London.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>And after decades of insisting on a natural look and only a subtle use
of highlights... the new brand she used turned a T shape stripe across my head
bright orange.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Seriously, Bozo the Clown
orange – not at all complimentary to my former golden-copper tones.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yes, aaaggghhh!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My hair is my thing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So what could I do except let her try to fix
it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She added another colour, then my
hair went purple.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yes, mahogany
purple.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The poor girl was as stunned as
I was.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She called the Hairdresser’s
Crisis Helpline (apparently there is such a thing) and they told her to give me
a bleach shampoo. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Really?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>On my very natural and never bleached hair?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Aaaggghhh again.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then my scalp and forehead went bright red
and started to sting.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She added more
colour, something to take the brightness out, and a few highlights to aid the blend.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And six hours later I left the salon with
patchy red skin on my face and still looking very much like a relative of
Bozo or a raging Drag Queen. I’ve washed my hair daily, my
scalp has peeled off in disgusting clumps, and only in the last few days has it
faded enough for me to not want to have a bag on my head.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But what could I do.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She didn’t mean it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She didn’t charge me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And she really tried to help...<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt 36pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">3)<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">I
received a letter from the publisher of my children’s books telling me with
pride that the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">GirlzRock </i>and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">BoyzRule</i> series have been released as
CDs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>An exciting development, after
several years, to have these new readers going out anew to school libraries.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I open the accompanying package with
enthusiasm and there is my name on the cover – spelt incorrectly!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am immortalized as Julie Mullens right when
I’m out there discussing publication of a long awaited new book as Julie
Mullins.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Doh!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">I was beginning to think I’d been jinxed, given these
three incidents occurred on three consecutive days.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However as I sit on the plane on my way to
Auckland, I can see the funny side.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And
I wonder how many hours it will take my precious friend Hayley to ask: “what
the hell happened to your hair Mullins?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">She didn’t exactly say that, as we were distracted by her
new baby and the toddler competing for attention.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But her honest friendship could be relied
upon when, after about thirty hours, I blurted out the Major Hairdresser Malfunction
story and she sighed “oh thank goodness you don’t think it looks good... I was
getting worried”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">So I did what you can do: I opened a bottle of wine and
tried to forget about it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There’s still
time to sort out my house and tenants... she says optimistically... my lovely
hairdresser, Toni, will rescue my locks the day I get off the plane again in
London... and I guess children aged 5 to 7 years don’t really care about the
names of authors on their books... so my ego will just have to get over it. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Meanwhile I’m at the beach in Kiama on the south coast of
NSW, the sun is shining, the water is gloriously warm, and I’m having very valuable
time with my dear Mum.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You’d be mad to
worry about much else really. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Ah, passive.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not usually me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But nice to try it on. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt 36pt;">
<u><span style="color: #1f497d; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%; mso-themecolor: text2;">Recommendation:</span></u><span style="color: #1f497d; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%; mso-themecolor: text2;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt 36pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">Toni Benjamin – my wonderful
(regular) hairdresser - <a href="mailto:artoni22@hotmail.co.uk"><span style="color: blue;">artoni22@hotmail.co.uk</span></a>
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">(ph) +44 7810 454389 </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"></span><br />
</div>
</div>
Julie E Mullinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11564496695067616584noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8603853034722221586.post-20654108509904138862014-04-22T18:46:00.000-07:002014-04-22T20:15:47.929-07:00Contrasts<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; tab-stops: 91.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Good or bad the human spirit
is made to get used to things.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We adapt.
Get familiar.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Make routine.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So often it takes change, and a break in
daily patterns and structures, for us to see things in a new light.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; tab-stops: 91.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">As someone who loves to
travel, who needs a large dose of freedom, it is these shifts in perspective
and consciousness which make me feel most alive. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; tab-stops: 91.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Here are a few contrasts
which have jumped up and clobbered me in the last few weeks since leaving London
and landing in Australia.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; tab-stops: 91.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">The smells: one minute I’m
in the city not smelling much at all (too much cement perhaps... not helped by picking
up a cold)... the next I’m standing in a forest surrounded by towering gum
trees and late summer, early autumn heat.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>They don’t say you can taste scents for nothing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was inundated with eucalyptus.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A glorious sensation and as familiar a
welcome home as one could get. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; tab-stops: 91.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Later came my reunion with
the Aussie sea: the salty air and sound of waves crashing, calling me from the
car the second I opened the door at my Mum’s beach house in Kiama... urging me to
run onto the beach to feel sand between my toes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ah, bliss.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; tab-stops: 91.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Of course I’m as white as a light-house at the
moment, after the best part of two years without sun-baking... so just as
quickly the searing sunshine forced me back indoors until I could: a) escape
the midday heat (you know, Mad Dogs and Englishmen and all that), and b) find a
huge tub of sun-screen and my old Aussie cricket hat with a wide brim. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; tab-stops: 91.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Another contrast is the
light.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Australia is so bright!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Seriously, every freckle and blemish on your
skin suddenly feels like it’s under a spotlight.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I ordinarily admire the skin of English girls
for its purity – but could I have turned into a scaly crocodile
overnight?!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s like the unforgiving
fluorescent lighting in nightclub toilets at 2am... where your slightly smudged
mascara takes on the look of a wanted felon.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Searing Aussie light also makes rogue grey hairs yell like Kath and Kim “look
at me, look at me”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ooh, not good.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Though past experience tells me it won’t be
long before they’ll be bleached golden by the sun; and if that fails there’s
always a hairdresser.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Meanwhile I’m in
and out of the fabulously warm water so much that my hair is frequently wet; not
to mention extra curly because of the vigorous sea-salt.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; tab-stops: 91.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">I could complain this extraordinary
light is playing havoc with my one dodgy eye – whose pupil was damaged such
that it doesn’t contract as it should – but it just means I must be vigilant
and not leave the house for a moment without wearing really good sunglasses.
Yet even that reminds me, in a strangely fond way, of the reasons Australia is
called ‘the sunburnt country’.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It seems
when it comes to vivid colours and natural spotlights, Australia is like a lead
actor down-stage centre in a special, while other countries hover in
comparatively subdued light like an under-appreciated chorus line.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’ve had similar experiences when sailing
around the Greek Islands or living in Tuscany, and many tell me the light in
Africa has a dramatic appeal, nevertheless this is a keenly felt contrast upon ‘coming
home’. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The surprise, is that I’d
forgotten. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; tab-stops: 91.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">A trivial but fun
contrast is that I’m driving again.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
hardly go near a car living in central London.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Down Under I am zipping around happily in my old Mazda – which friends
and family cannot believe is still going, but which I heartily defend as she’s
never let me down and as the engine works that’s all that matters to me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Oh, and the air-conditioning.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She and I have been companions for more years
than I can remember.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s a shame the
on-road taxes are now so high it probably doesn’t make sense to keep her going
in Australia while I’m spending most of my time in Europe, but it’ll be a sad day
when I say goodbye.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She’s cute and small
and would be perfect to drive around European cities if I could teleport her
abroad.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Otherwise I rather like telling
my young nieces and nephews “no, there’s nothing wrong with my car... it’s
called manual locking... “ to which they screw up their faces in
non-comprehension, only exceeded by bemusement “the car from the olden days” is
installed with something called a “cassette player”... not a CD or iPod
device.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’d have liked to find a tape to
educate them with a bit of Aussie rock from the 80s, but no doubt they’re lost or
stored in a box somewhere (like much of my stuff, scattered around the
globe).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; tab-stops: 91.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Another thing which seems
strange, is to be hearing Australian accents.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I know I still have the accent of my heritage... but I’m used to
listening to British accents on the street, in the pub, on the news, in the
theatre, with friends... so this is currently a marked contrast. It’s
nice.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But it’s different.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; tab-stops: 91.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">The price of fruit and
vegetables is a huge shock too.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Volume
ensures these products are far cheaper in the UK and,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>though that’s no guarantee of quality, it
does take some getting used to that a small bag of groceries from Woolworths
costs $50 whereas at my local Co-Op or Sainsburys in Wandsworth I’d pay £15 or
£20 for the same.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Thankfully, my sister Rebecca
has pointed out that legs of lamb are far cheaper Down Under, and access to quality
seafood is easy, so I think for the month of May I’m going to go on a protein
load-up.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; tab-stops: 91.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">When I first got off the
plane in Melbourne – after a particularly quiet and spacious flight on Royal
Brunei’s new Dreamliner 787 - a great mate, David, picked me up and drove me to
a pretty part of Victoria, the Yarra Valley.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That evening David and lovely Linda (and her mum,
Gwen) hosted an evening of music around a fire pit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jet lag had not yet taken hold, so I lay back
on a wooden bench listening to songs on guitar and blues-harp, and looking up
through boughs of gum-trees to a perfectly clear sky and hundreds and hundreds
of stars.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The flight takes a day, so it
was technically a day and a half then since I’d left the UK, and two days since
I’d looked up at the sky in suburban London, so the vision of these glistening
constellations - the southern cross as familiar as the eucalypt, the music, the
company and the beer - was a welcome reminder the sky is not only different
from one hemisphere to the next, but always a feature of
movement from the city to the outback or less populated countryside.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> that</i>
is a contrast of place which I need to feed my soul and bring me back to the
basics.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I could not have asked for a
softer landing on the other side of the world. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; tab-stops: 91.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Which brings me to one’s mates:
it’s sad to part, to leave friends behind for a time, but it is wonderful to be
reunited with the other people in your life, in your heart, who you’ve been
missing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s precious to find in that
place of contrast people who mean so much to you, and who are genuinely happy
to reconnect, to quickly fill the gap since you last met with stories, love,
memories, laughter and shared hope for each other’s prosperous well-being.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; tab-stops: 91.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Where would we be without our
mates, eh?!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s those contrasts, those individuals
who share a history and an affection with you that is unique, which is most
precious. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So if I haven’t seen you yet,
I’m looking forward to it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; tab-stops: 91.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Hello Australia and happy
Anzac Day!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; tab-stops: 91.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt 36pt; tab-stops: 91.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">[P.S.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sorry about the unusual gap of time since my
last blog post.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Moving apartments,
travelling, and a misbehaving laptop have proved distracting. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt 36pt; tab-stops: 91.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Thanks
for checking back in with ‘There’s Always A Story’.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Cheers, Julie] </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"></span> </div>
</div>
Julie E Mullinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11564496695067616584noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8603853034722221586.post-23812155944523743532014-02-01T10:44:00.000-08:002014-02-01T10:44:34.770-08:00Sniff & Sew<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">I have a friend who thinks
blogs are indulgent.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In fact he used a more
derogatory word, but as he can barely write a birthday card without his wife’s
help I’m unlikely to turn to him for artistic or literary advice.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And anyway, if somebody reads, identifies
with, or enjoys them then what’s the harm? </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"></span><span style="font-family: Arial;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;">I have other friends who are
encouraging about my blogs, and one gave me a small, bulky book for my last
birthday called “The Writer’s Block”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I’ve enjoyed dipping into it for random ideas but I haven’t actually
needed it. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"></span><span style="font-family: Arial;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Well, not until this
week.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When after a rough fortnight I
found myself suddenly, for the first time, unable to write.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I thought this only happened to other people,
I whined to no-one but myself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How come
I can’t find a single cohesive word when over the Christmas holidays I was
exceptionally productive?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Can one’s
imagination run out of juice that suddenly, or is stress giving me stage-fright
the way guys occasionally get performance anxiety?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Whatever.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It isn’t sexy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;">So, aware that a blog
composed as therapy leaves me open to criticism… I have dipped into an old creative-writing
exercise and chosen a couple of random words around which I have now set myself
the challenge of writing exactly five hundred and one thousand words
respectively.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I like alliteration so,
for better or worse, here are two stories on: ‘sniff’ and ‘sew’. </span><br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><br /></span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">…………………………..</span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;"></span><span style="font-family: Arial;">Have you ever considered murder?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not “I could kill him” murder… “I really hate
her” murder… but mapping out a route-to-action murder?</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">I did last week, on the
train from Wolverhampton to <st1:place w:st="on">Milton Keynes</st1:place>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And it wasn’t the route which proved
provocative, but the man sitting opposite.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">He boards at <st1:place w:st="on">Wolverhampton</st1:place> and wakes me by banging into my legs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He stands like an ominous shadow emptying his
pockets and dropping things noisily onto the table.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m in the aisle.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He claims the opposite window with his iphone
and other contraptions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When he moves to
sit he kicks my legs again.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Two minutes
later, wanting something he’s forgotten, he stomps on my toes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I keep my eyes closed trying to reclaim a
sense of peace, but his bulky frame inches from my face is distracting.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Eventually he sits with only one more kick.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No apology but at last stillness.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Then the disturbing behaviour
begins.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He sniffs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One long, loud, deep sniff so disgusting I feel
sure it’s a taunt.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yet upon opening my
eyes to glare he is fiddling with his phone and not at all aware of me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I close them again, discombobulated, but
figuring such behaviour must be an accidental one-off.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Wrong.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In a minute he does it again.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And again, and again, so as the train rolls
from an embarkation point of horror to an unsure hell I dislike this man more
than I can ever remember disliking anyone.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Sniff.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sniff. Sniff.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not in a rhythmic, regulated way – such that
I might prepare for the next onslaught - but in a random, in-your-face, assault
rifle kind of way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sniff, sniff, sniff,
sniff, sniff… loud, unpredictable, and in a tone so increasingly high-pitched
and filled with mucus I feel I might be sick.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Nothing could be more
gross.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And the idiot with no
handkerchief or manners has absolutely no idea what offence he is causing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Indeed he’s so ignorant and rude, hiding
behind his hoodie and earphones, he wouldn’t care anyway.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">So murder is my only
solution.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He is too big to abuse.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He might fight back.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There aren’t enough free seats on the train
to shift; if indeed other corners are safer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>He must be banged on the head with a heavy object and thrown off the
train while it’s moving.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The crows will
have their way with him and I’ll escape at Euston with no traceable evidence
because everyone else in the carriage is inexplicably still sleeping!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">I try to imagine Poirot working
backwards to solve a case of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Murder on
the Wolverhamption to Milton Keynes</i>… as I’m keen to avoid rookie mistakes…
but my weapons are limited and my plan starting to feel shaky when, suddenly,
the sniffing zombie stands, pushes past my legs, bangs me on the head as he
swipes his bag from the shelf above, and jumps off the train as the doors close
on Milton Keynes.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Oh the quiet, from there to
Euston, is one of the most pleasurable of my life. </span></div>
<br /><br />
<div align="center" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">………………………………..</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Aussies are very aware of
the risk of skin cancer; especially those of Irish or Scottish descent.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So a few months ago I present myself at a
skin-clinic in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">London</st1:city></st1:place>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Yes, there are a few freckles that have got
a little darker, but no great change” I say confidently.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The doctors get very excited and want to chop
three of them out.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">This seems a little
over-the-top, when monitoring may work as well, but if the NHS is happy to
volunteer preventative services then I suppose I shouldn’t look a gift-horse in
the mouth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I ring to make a hospital
appointment, only to be told “it will be an experienced GP carrying out the
procedure”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I baulk.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“I’m sorry” I say, quickly processing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“I’m sure he or she is very good, but I would
only be happy with a surgeon, a specialist thank you, otherwise I’d rather not
go ahead”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The secretary is
speechless.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She can not rationalise that
1) I’m not really used to the NHS and expect to have a choice, and 2) this is
advice I have received many times from my late father, himself a surgeon, and
nothing will provoke me to change my mind.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Correspondence is exchanged;
a new appointment made.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then as
Christmas approaches I find myself in hospital being prepped for
day-surgery.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I walk into the operating
theatre and suddenly I’m nervous.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Is it
the stark metallic table, the bright clinical lights, or the smell?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is not territory with which I’m
familiar.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The head surgeon who I have
met and agreed parameters, instructs me to get up on the table – which frankly
feels far too helpful, when even a pig will do her best to avoid being cut and
spliced.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No sooner have I wriggled
uncomfortably into position, my clenched and naked back exposed, she bids me
good afternoon and makes to leave the room.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>“Where are you going?” I call in alarm.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>“Oh, I’m not doing it” she says with a grin “I’m leaving you in the
capable hands of my colleagues”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And
she’s gone.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Well, if that isn’t pay-back
for insisting on the best I don’t know what is.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Damn.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">I nervously introduce myself
to the other doctors: one an apparently experienced surgeon, the other a
beginner.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>OMG he looks twelve and the cocky
nurse is bullying him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>God help me!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I start praying to my father and can hear him
saying: “Lie still and be quiet, Julie, if I hadn’t trained lots of junior
doctors we wouldn’t have the next generation of good surgeons”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This silent dialogue continues: “I know, I
know, Dad… but this is my back…my previously unscarred back…”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;">The older doctor is on one
side doing two excisions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The youngster
is on the other side handling just one.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>He’s being instructed every step of the way: “no, not like that… like
this… watch the angle… ok, now cut through the something-or-other layer of
skin… yes, straight in, that’s right…”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Jesus Mary and Joseph, do I need to be hearing this?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What happened to old-fashioned pethidine, the
fun drug which knocks you out in blissful ignorance?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">The tall young doctor with
huge hands and big eyes is mercifully being very careful, but the digging goes
on and on and he’s still going when the other doctor has finished double the
work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>On one side I’m being sewed
up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I can feel the push and pull of the
thread; also an occasional sense of metal on flesh.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s weird.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">I can be silent no longer,
and break the tension by commenting on the doctor’s talent with a needle.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“I reckon you’d be handy at home darning your
socks” I say with an attempt at humour, distraction, or anything other than
visions of gaping holes in my torso.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Oh
no, I wouldn’t want to over-use my skills” he replies.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Huh, I bet your wife isn’t very impressed
with that excuse” I jostle.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“You know”
he replies, after a rather meaningful pause, “you aren’t really in such a good
position to be teasing me…”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You’ve got
to pay that.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And we both laugh.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">This is followed by a chat
about how many weeks I have to abstain from exercise including lifting and
jogging.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Don’t you be showing up here
with torn stitches” he warns.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“I can see
you’re one of those exercise fanatic types… and you’re cheeky… probably can’t
sit still….. so when I say no exercise for at least three weeks I mean no
exercise.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“But it’s Christmas, I’ll get
fat...” I start.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However he cuts me off:
“if you think these wounds will scar… it’ll be a whole lot worse if you tear
them”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He knows vanity will get me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">At this point the youngster
has finally finished his excision.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Phew.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now he is trying to sew me
up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yet the senior doctor is not
convinced so instructions begin again: “don’t start at that end… why are you
going from that side… come around here etc…” until I suspect my flesh is the
first piece of human meat this doctor has had the privilege to practise
on.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Just my luck.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">When finally he’s done and I
can argue no more with the other doctor about the merits of exercise… I ask
“so, how did he do?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Well, it’s no
secret this was a lesson.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“What would
you give him out of ten?” I add.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And the
more experienced doctor answers quickly “nine out of ten. He did well”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I know this may be a lie but I turn to the
youngster who is looking relieved and smiling I say “Congratulations, I’m very
happy for you.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For me too”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">And for the first time that
afternoon the rookie speaks: “Well thank you Madam.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m going to go home now and practise on some
socks.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Funny.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He may have a lot to learn about excisions
and sewing, but dedication and a dry wit will take him far.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As for the wounds: thank you doctors, they
are healing nicely.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Thank God! </span></div>
<br /><br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
Julie E Mullinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11564496695067616584noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8603853034722221586.post-22916101097280397072013-12-31T05:34:00.001-08:002014-01-01T04:23:14.396-08:00Great craic & ceoil<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN;">Regular readers know I love all things Italian.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This week you’ll discover my delight in
everything Irish. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN;">I was keen to get out of the big city for Christmas this
year.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Apart from the sadness of losing a
couple of friends in a short space of time, not to mention the feelings which Christmas
brings up about other absent loved-ones, London is crazy at this time of
year.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So I bid goodbye to an Italian
friend who’s been staying with me and head off to the west of <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Ireland</st1:place></st1:country-region> to
visit family friends, surrogate Aunt and Uncle, Jo and Val, with whom
I am completely at liberty to relax and be myself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN;">When I first arrive I am so tired I simply sleep and
read.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Gorgeous.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Just what the doctor ordered to end one year
and prepare for the next. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN;">Then something in the Irish air or water gives me literary
inspiration and suddenly I have a rush of ideas for a new book.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I churn out chapter after chapter with barely
a pause and will soon be finished a first draft.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sometimes all you need is a safe haven, to
snuggle into, rest and revive. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN;">That’s when the partying begins.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I venture out into one of the many local pubs
and find live music.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In one room there’s
a spirited ceoil and in the other rock ‘n roll is raging.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the next pub I find dancing. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And so on and so forth until I’ve been singing
and dancing in so many pubs over consecutive nights that complete strangers are
stopping me in shops and on the street saying “ah, you’re the lass who was
singing in such-and-such the other night”… or “where are dancing tonight then
Julie?”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the morning I wonder why my
calves and throat are sore, then I remember the great craic of the night
before.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After a walk, a read and a nap,
it all begins again.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN;">I know it’s the festive season and, realistically, it
can’t always be so ebullient, but if you have any interest or energy for music you
are absolutely spoilt for stimulation in this luscious part of the world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN;">Here’s a few of the reasons why I can’t wipe the smile
off my face:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<ol start="1" style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="color: #333333; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN;">The men can dance, and they bother to ask you<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="color: #333333; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN;">Some of the men are such good jivers you wonder what world you’ve been
living in that you haven’t done more of it<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="color: #333333; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN;">Musicians appear from every corner and seem to be able to play any
song in any key <o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="color: #333333; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN;">It is strongly encouraged that if you can sing, you should<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="color: #333333; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN;">It is expected that the bustling crowd will shut-up and listen when
anyone gets up to give a song or a poem a go, and nine out of ten times
they do<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="color: #333333; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN;">Friends of friends open their homes to you and invite you in for
drinks and dinners and a warmth around the fire which is distinctly Irish<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="color: #333333; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN;">More friends of friends have dinner parties planned and it’s nothing
to add an extra plate for the Australian visitor<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="color: #333333; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN;">Everyone, and I mean everyone, is warm and welcoming<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="color: #333333; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN;">Just listening to the Irish speak is a lilting pleasure, and that’s
before you get them talking about literature<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="color: #333333; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN;">And the Irish men… well… they are charming and handsome and in such
apparent abundance that it’s like a chocoholic walking into Willy Wonka’s
factory… <o:p></o:p></span></li>
</ol>
<span lang="EN" style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN;">Ok, I’m slightly exaggerating about the latter, but only
slightly.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Charm and warmth are synonymous
with the Irish character and clichés come about as much from truth as idealization. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN;">This Christmas I am tapping deeply into my Irishness - my
Irish Catholic upbringing, education, musical training and genetic heritage - and
without becoming a Plastic Paddy it’s a scenario which fits comfortably,
organically.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In particular, my habit of
talking to strangers without hesitation, befriending people quickly, is here
not such an anomaly.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Here is a place
where strangers talk back without reserve or judgment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Gregariousness is normal.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You meet, you banter, you laugh, you flirt,
you dance, you sing, you eat, you drink, you welcome, you connect.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What could be better?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN;">And don’t be thinking that this welcome is superficial;
for already I have evidence it is not.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>There are, of course, the friendly acquaintances which stop at the
threshold as you go your separate ways… but others recur, you go back to their
house again, you go with the flow, and the friendship builds.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>People care what you’re about, what you’re
doing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They take you to their heart so
surprisingly quickly that, apart from the Irishness, you have to remind
yourself that is one of the huge benefits of not living in a big city.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For as Londoners know – it’s a lot harder to
take two tubes and a bus to visit your friends for a chat and coffee, than it
is to walk a few hundred meters up the road.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Of course intimacy is affected by access.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And over time that shapes a community, a
city.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN;">A few yarns from just a few days include:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN;">Monique, my cousin, arrives from <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">London</st1:place></st1:city>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>We enjoy some traditional music, then move into the back of Matt
Malloy’s (a west country icon) to dance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I make a complete exhibition of myself, dancing in various styles, alone
and with partners, until I’m wet from head to toe and have to sit down before
having a cardiac arrest.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Monique, as it
turns out, sweetly defends my virtue, saying to a lady whose partner I have
stolen “you don’t have to worry about Julie, she is just having fun, she loves
to dance”… to which the typically generous lass replies “ah no, it’s grand, I’m
glad she’s got him up”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Brig and Oliver,
Bernadine and Damian are typical of the couples we meet.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There’s warmth enough for everyone in these
parts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s great craic. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN;">Sunday afternoon we drive out to the edge of the world, or
so it seems, to <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Achill</st1:placename>
<st1:placetype w:st="on">Island</st1:placetype></st1:place>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is territory so remote, so sparse and
ancient in origin, that you have to be made of strong stuff to survive in
it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is also a gale so forceful it
lifts us off the ground.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And when we get
into the little church, where my friend Val is baptizing baby <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Florence</st1:city></st1:place>, the scream in the rafters is so
raucous we can hardly hear each other.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Monique remembers her convent education and automatically passes out the
hymn books. I sit under a blanket at the back playing some carols on an
instrument so old and colourful it looks like a painted-toy (thankfully without
pedals as I’m a pianist not an organist), not sure if I’m most worried about how
forcefully I have to pound the keys, how loud I have to sing to be heard, or
whether I might first freeze to death.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN;">One night I’m out on a date at a large hotel with a
lovely man I’m just getting to know… when the manager of the establishment
greets me saying “I understand you are an actress and theatre manager from
Australia… we have a show going on in the ballroom now, you’ve missed the start
but would you like me to walk you into the back row for a little look”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Of course we say yes, of course we stay and
enjoy it, and there’s even space for me to dance at the back as well as come
and go to a little bar on the side.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
meet one of the principals, a man called Seán Keane, famous in these parts… and
he kindly gives me a signed CD to take away.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Someone even welcomes me from the stage: “tonight we have a lady from <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Neighbours</i> in the audience, let’s give
her a big welcome… and if you ask her nicely I hear she might play the piano
and sing for you in the bar later..”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
have clearly been getting about too much.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>But it’s such a laugh, and though that evening I’m too tired to sing –
or perhaps distracted by some other charms – it’s another memorable experience.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">The music doesn’t really get
going in the pubs in town until an hour or two before midnight, so early another
evening I knock on the door of some lovely neighbours who I met on Christmas
Day when they had a splendid open house.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I am welcomed into the kitchen, then the lounge, which morphs into
dinner in the adjacent dining-room followed by more drinks and chat around the
fire.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is a glorious Georgian house,
its high-ceilinged rooms filled with features of interest and decorated to
perfection, yet it’s not the material beauty which touches me most but the
extraordinary warmth and conviviality of this family.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have only met them once before, they are
acquainted with the friends I’m visiting, and cousins to some other new
acquaintances, but I am quickly drawn to them on all manner of levels.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My wonderful hosts are a very special couple,
and you sense their love for each other and their family in all they say and
do.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They have five adult children, four
daughters and a son, each enormously hospitable, intelligent, sensitive, of
good humour and very much on the verge of life and adventure.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They are a perfect example of what it is to
be well brought up, well brought up in character and love.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They are all physically beautiful too, every
one, and when looking at them seated together I can only pray they have the
good fortune in life they deserve. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
‘guests’ were one of the girl’s boyfriends, clearly liked by everyone, and a
beloved friend they call ‘Granny’.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was
so lucky to be included at the table, taking up the tenth chair – the songs we
sang and the discussions and jokes we shared still vivid and enriching.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have a strange feeling too it won’t be the
last time I enjoy their spirited company… <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">Earlier in the week I am
sitting in a pub in a group of four, when a cute guy I have already noticed
across the room approaches our table and introduces himself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He doesn’t say much, Will just wants to say
hello.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Shortly afterwards he joins the
ceoil and sings a pretty song in gaelic.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Ah, cute and musical.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then he
disappears into the crowd.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Twenty
minutes later he’s back, again leaning across the table: “would you like to
dance?” he says to me with a cheeky smile.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>“Oh, thank you” I reply, surprised (as the dancing is in another room)
but pleased.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“What kind of dancing?” I
venture.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“I’m going to jive you around
the room” he replies with a beguiling grin.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>“Ok, that’d be lovely, but may I meet you in five minutes”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Ah sure”, he says, “but don’t wait more than
five minutes, my dance card is gettin’ full”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>And again he disappears.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My
friend Jo encourages me to join him quickly, and our new friends, Gareth and
Lesley, who are celebrating their engagement, comment on his direct but polite
approach and think it’s a good sign. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">When I walk into the dance
hall it’s hard to see him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He’s strong,
well built, but not particularly tall.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>He waves from the other side of the room, and once he has a hold of my
hand goes up to the band to request music with a faster tempo.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They immediately oblige – it’s <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Ireland</st1:place></st1:country-region> after
all – and it is only seconds on the floor before I realise I am with a really
great hoofer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’ve been doing jive
classes in <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">London</st1:place></st1:city>
just a few months, but Fred Astaire turns me into Ginger Rodgers in a few easy
turns.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ah, THIS is what it is to dance
with a strong leader!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is not only
easy, filled with variety, and immensely satisfying, it is sexy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now I know what it means to be swept off my
feet.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The dance floor clears and around
and around we whirl.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How did he know
from across the room that I didn’t have two left feet?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How does he make me feel so confident?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His arms and directions are strong,
commanding, and there is not a single moment when I’m not completely
comfortable, completely in the moment, completely thrilled.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It already feels like a scene from a movie,
and I’m rapidly falling in love with the whole idea, when suddenly he picks me
up off the ground and spins me around and around, my legs right up in the
air.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He is strong and I feel as safe as
if we’d rehearsed it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When the crowd
cheers and he puts me back down on the ground to end that dance with a flourish
of twirls, I am so taken by the feel of his arms I don’t want him to ever let
go.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">Yes, I’m a romantic.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yes, it isn’t every day you find yourself in
a scene from Dirty Dancing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But how could I not be in love with <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Ireland</st1:place></st1:country-region> after
that?!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">How fabulous to end 2013
reminded of the beauty of spontaneity, of openness, of warmth, of laughter, and
of the endless possibilities which music and dancing make you feel.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Happy New Year everyone.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>May we start as we mean to go on!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
</div>
Julie E Mullinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11564496695067616584noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8603853034722221586.post-64014410222562220922013-11-29T08:11:00.001-08:002013-11-29T08:11:46.702-08:00Bitter Sweet<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Have you noticed that as you
get older more moments have the potential to be bitter-sweet?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I don’t necessarily mean sad, but full, seasoned.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The history we bring with us can flavour occasions with memories, some of which are joyful, nostalgic or melancholy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Maturity inevitably makes one more aware of
complex resonances… and an aspect of this awareness is the knowledge that loss
can shadow (even chase) many of life’s riches.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">The expression, ‘the big chill’,
reminds me of this complexity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For its two
meanings are closely entwined: the first suggesting a relaxed and casual atmosphere…
the second a frosty, hard-edged environment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Strangely, they co-exist without dissonance, as if the contradiction
were by design.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Such is life. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">The use of this expression
as a title for a film was especially clever, because the production managed to
embody both meanings; the bitter and the sweet.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">On some levels, what greatly
moves me about <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Big Chill</i> is
obvious.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>People reunite after the suicide
of an old friend.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They loved him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They wish they’d known he’d lost hope and better
understood his journey.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In coming
together after many years, these friends are reminded of how much they have
missed one-another, and how much they’ve left behind.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In a long-weekend of friendship, familiarity,
regret and reflection they revisit shared joys and dreams, ideas of what their
life was going to be, and in doing so grieve for a loss of innocence, for failings,
and for the sense that choices have been which close other paths.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Their musings are particularly vivid because
the background to their youth was <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">America</st1:place></st1:country-region>’s revolutionary, idealistic
and hopeful 1960s. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Without hyperbole, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Big Chill</i> is a great film – a
resonant, surprisingly humorous, and insightful slice of life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The sound-track is legendary, of course, but
so too is the script, the direction and the performances.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The way themes and needs weave together is truly
a work of art, a classic.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">And to think that when I
first saw the film – was invited, in fact, by a film critic to accompany him to
a preview – I was bored and restless.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
complained after that the characters were indulgent and unsympathetic.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I also thought the humour abrasive.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Quite appalled, my friend looked down at me
from a great height – and I mean literally because he was a rather slim, tall
chap – no doubt realizing he was foolish to be attempting to court such a young
and innocent girl.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For no matter how
pretty, or promising as an actress, I clearly had bad taste.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Well, undeveloped.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The point was that I didn’t understand the
film.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">was</i> too young.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">was</i> too innocent and sheltered.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Life was going to turn out as I
expected.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If I did the right things and
followed my passion I would end up exactly where I expected to be.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So I thought.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">In retrospect, I must have
sounded like the character of Richard at the kitchen table: narrow and simplistic.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That evening he let my disappointing comments
slide with a mere shake of his head, but he didn’t take me out again.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He imagined, I guess, that it would take some
time before I could understand what was “wrong” with these people in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Big Chill</i>, “swapping partners and
taking drugs…”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Nor did I understand that
levity, even flippancy, can be a necessary part of grief, as we struggle to normalise
the shock; existentially torn between light and darkness, life and death. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Anyway it was nearly a
decade before I saw <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Big Chill</i> again.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I don’t remember where I was or who I was
with… but as every frame rolled I remembered that writer, Greg, and my own
naivety and lack of perspective.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My
teenage self stood so shamefully before me the poignancy of the film was enhanced.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At the time I was still younger than the
characters in the movie and my life was going very well.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was enjoying a long period of continual employment,
quite a luxury for an actress, and in many ways felt I was just starting
out.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yet I’d experienced enough heartache
– particularly the sudden death of my father - to empathise with the underlying
pathos of the film.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This time too I got
the film’s comic and ironic elements.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I also
knew I was destined to see it again… that over time my appreciation for it
would grow.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And so it did.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">X years later I watched it a
couple more times; and again the other night when I was moved to the point of
being choked up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After each heart-tugging
experience my appreciation for this film deepens like the lines on my forehead
or the annoying grey hairs that do their best to poke through as I do my best
to hide them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Eerie is what this film is
now… poignant and strikingly eerie... <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">But why?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What has Lawrence Kasdan captured which touches
me so deeply? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Is it that these likeable
characters can’t get the milk back in the bottle, and I identify with their
feelings about “the road not taken”?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Is
it the softening of revolutionary spirit that comes with age… the slide of
pragmatism which accompanies if not middle-age then at least middle-class
living?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Is it that Alex and Chloe’s
charming hideaway reminded me of the wooden cottage in South Carolina which a
dear boyfriend once presented to me with pride… and I’d been too young (again),
and giddy with the love of show-biz, to consider serious commitment?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As the film was in fact set in <st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">South Carolina</st1:place></st1:state> this
would be an inevitable comparison. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">It was some and all of those
things but, in a constructive way, what the film illuminates through the palpable
loss is that it is impossible to journey through life holding on to everything
as much as we may wish we could.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
same is true of our idealism and the plans we may make.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Alteration and adaptation is not only crucial,
it’s endless.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This does not make loss
any less painful, but there is definitely something healthy and compelling
about these friends coming back into a cocoon of sorts to support each other while
processing the challenges they are facing. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">I’ve had my share of death;
too large a share lately.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So the scenes
where the friends sit around remembering the person they desperately wish was
still with them, are achingly familiar.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>By
contrast, the recriminations between them, the tensions unleashed in the tide
of grief, seem comparatively modest.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">I was also deeply touched by
the respect and generosity of Sarah and Harold helping their friend Meg to
become a mother.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The film predates the
broader use of IVF so, looking back, the storyline was progressive.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> I</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;">f the morality of their
‘triangle’ strikes some as suspect, I can understand that.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If some think their choices too risky, I can
understand that too.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But the gentleness
and compassion shown here between them greatly warms the part of me which
wishes more often we saw such unabashed compassion in action – compassion
outside ‘accepted norms’, outside judgement.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Nevertheless perhaps the big
thing about <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Big Chill</i> is that it
shows people in the prime of their life learning that personal growth and
understanding is a grey business… a flawed and murky business… a journey far
from black and white, or pure good and bad.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Living and love, wisdom and wonder, go on and on in waves of bitter-sweet
experience.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Our job is to hang on for
the upside, and to keep loving no-matter how grey or imperfect circumstances and
people may be.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">In this the friends in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Big Chill</i> reinforce each other – eventually
venturing back out into the world ready for another round.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That’s what true friends are for - for many better
than family - and I think it’s this element which resonates with me most of
all.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For in that warmth and comfort,
frost and fear melt.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s ok to be less
than perfect, less than all-knowing, for your friends will love you anyway. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">That’s why <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Big Chill</i>, despite its plot, is like
a warm hug.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As well as a celebration of
the lives we are challenged to make the most out of while we can.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<u><span style="color: blue; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">NOTES:<o:p></o:p></span></u></div>
<br />
<i><span lang="EN" style="color: blue; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; mso-ansi-language: EN;">The Big Chill</span></i><span lang="EN" style="color: blue; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; mso-ansi-language: EN;"> was released in 1983
and filmed entirely on location in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Beaufort</st1:city>,
<st1:state w:st="on">South Carolina</st1:state></st1:place>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Principal Cast: </span><br />
<ul type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="color: blue; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; mso-ansi-language: EN;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_Kline" title="Kevin Kline"><span style="text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;"><span style="color: blue;">Kevin Kline</span></span></a> as
Harold Cooper<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="color: blue; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; mso-ansi-language: EN;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glenn_Close" title="Glenn Close"><span style="text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;"><span style="color: blue;">Glenn Close</span></span></a> as
Sarah Cooper<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="color: blue; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; mso-ansi-language: EN;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Hurt" title="William Hurt"><span style="text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;"><span style="color: blue;">William Hurt</span></span></a>
as Nick Carlton<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="color: blue; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; mso-ansi-language: EN;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Kay_Place" title="Mary Kay Place"><span style="text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;"><span style="color: blue;">Mary Kay Place</span></span></a>
as Meg Jones<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="color: blue; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; mso-ansi-language: EN;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Berenger" title="Tom Berenger"><span style="text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;"><span style="color: blue;">Tom Berenger</span></span></a>
as Sam Weber<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="color: blue; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; mso-ansi-language: EN;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JoBeth_Williams" title="JoBeth Williams"><span style="text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;"><span style="color: blue;">JoBeth Williams</span></span></a>
as Karen Bowens<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="color: blue; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; mso-ansi-language: EN;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_Goldblum" title="Jeff Goldblum"><span style="text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;"><span style="color: blue;">Jeff Goldblum</span></span></a>
as Michael Gold<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="color: blue; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; mso-ansi-language: EN;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meg_Tilly" title="Meg Tilly"><span style="text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;"><span style="color: blue;">Meg Tilly</span></span></a> as
Chloe<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="color: blue; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; mso-ansi-language: EN;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Galloway" title="Don Galloway"><span style="text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;"><span style="color: blue;">Don Galloway</span></span></a>
as Richard Bowens<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></li>
</ul>
<span style="color: blue; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">The
director, Lawrence Kasdan, has made several splendid films, including another
favourite, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Accidental Tourist</i>,
where he worked again with William Hurt. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
</div>
Julie E Mullinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11564496695067616584noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8603853034722221586.post-20186535575877517102013-11-11T16:31:00.000-08:002013-11-12T00:38:42.539-08:00Barbarism and Civilisation<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">I went to a moving service
for Remembrance Day on Sunday in London. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The minister
gave a good homily about war and, by implication, peace… during which he said
“barbarism and civilisation are as far from each other as a varnished sword is
from rust”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He suggested evil and
goodness, virtue and human-failing, operate on a delicately poised scale and ready-to-swing
pendulum. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">His message was that to preserve
our humanity, moreover to grow and improve, individually and collectively, we
need to remain aware of our vulnerability to corruption and indifference.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And one doesn’t have to be religious to know
that his observations of human nature and society are apt.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">At the more trivial end of
the spectrum, do we push and shove and behave aggressively in peak hour?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For a few moments I had the moral
high-ground on Victoria Station on Friday night when a guy with a bicycle
pushed it through the crowd and slammed it into my leg.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I asked him to stop moving as my leg and
jacket were hooked on his pedal, but he continued to push forward violently,
dragging the metal deeper across my calf.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The expletive I called after him added unhelpfully to the agro of the
commuter mosh-pit, not to mention fell on deaf ears. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What was the point of it all?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He didn’t get to his train any quicker than I
got to the pub. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">There are many moments when
we have to choose between kindness and selfishness – regularly when living in a
city surrounded by extremes of wealth and poverty – and even at the
water-cooler we may not realise we are being asked to choose between judgementalism
and gossip, and the opportunity to give people we encounter in our professional
and personal lives the benefit of the doubt.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">War and peace are extreme
examples – strong juxtaposition aiding our ability to identify good from bad,
courage from weakness.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is right on so
many levels that we ‘celebrate’ November 11<sup>th</sup>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This consciousness is as important for the
living as it is for the dead – even ninety-five years after the end of World
War One. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">And that brings me to my
reason for writing: if barbarism and civilisation lie, at times, a mere knife-edge
apart… how close is enrichment from loss, comfort from abandonment, and life
from death?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Destruction in the <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Philippines</st1:place></st1:country-region> in
recent days is so deeply tragic… so widespread… it makes for a painfully vivid
reminder that life (and what equates with civilised living) can be wiped out
brutally and on masse if you simply happen to be in the wrong place at the
wrong time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">It is different to the
suffering in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Syria</st1:place></st1:country-region>
only because a typhoon is not of man’s making.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Similarly, George Orwell describes a slippery-slope from affluence to
poverty and marginalisation eloquently in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Down
and Out in Paris and London</i> – a small book everyone who can really ought to
read – but that journey is a slow and inexorable one.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Philippines</st1:place></st1:country-region>, it is the suddenness
of the typhoon which shocks and overwhelms.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>We feel numb and powerless in the face of such a large-scale ‘natural’
disaster. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Many tens, even hundreds of
thousands, of people are dead and/or suffering in the torrential wake.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We don’t yet know the half of it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Like the Boxing Day Tsunami it is too much to
take in, and will surely take years to remedy their physical lives, let alone
heal emotional scars. So I don’t mean to minimise the catastrophe by shifting
focus from the whole to the particular, but I have lost a friend in this
tragedy; in circumstances which are complicated and sad.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Since I got the news I keep
thinking of my friend.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I see him body-surfing
happily in the ocean; laughing over a bottle of red; exploring the churches and
monuments of Rome and Assisi; passing round beers while I rough up some dinner;
listen to him comment on (or argue about) the rugby league, the news, the latest
item of political interest; riding his motor-bike; surprising me with a bottle
of lemon-cello because he knows I’m missing Italy; encouraging me to play the
piano while he competes with his good friend, Ray, to win at billiards; eagerly
talking to bunches of school children who look up at him with fascination; standing
fervently on the Altar celebrating Mass, during the dedicated years he gave his
life to the church; celebrating Mass in whatever intimate place he found
himself with a few friends or parishioners; starting every sermon with a joke; raising money to build a new church or support an orphanage; sharing
his Faith and compassion with all he encountered; praying often and long for people who were sick,
troubled or deceased; caring about people; and only a very short time ago making decisions which
were to separate him from many he loved, from a vocation he loved, and, most
sadly, lead him to the place where he would lose his life in massive tides.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Technically, the distance
from life to death is a breath.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Whatever
the prelude, ultimately the change occurs in a moment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Our challenge is to fill our breaths, however
difficult at times, with as much richness as we possibly can… so when that last
breath comes we have as few regrets as possible.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Whatever else he did, this friend gave out an
abundance of love and kindness.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He spent
the majority of his life in the service of others.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His life has been cut tragically short, but
it was a full life; a life which did not shirk many difficult questions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He was not always right.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not always prudent. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He stuck his neck out rather than sit on a
fence.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But the majority of the time
Kevin had available, he fought the good fight.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The fight to ensure forgiveness and love rises above the attitudes which
take us closer to barbarism, to coldness and isolation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Knowing that, knowing him, the nature of his
passing - alone on the tropical island where he hoped to find a new kind of fulfilment - seems all the crueller.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">I’m certain many lives lost
in the <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Philippines</st1:place></st1:country-region>
deserve their own story and reflection. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">Yet i</span>n
the end it is only the sincerity of one’s heart and conscience, and what we
leave behind in the hearts and minds of those who knew us, which counts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And this friend deserves to be remembered and
prayed for, for the life in his life, the spirit in his Faith, his passion for
social justice, his love of God and humanity, and his certain belief that, whatever
our mistakes, ultimately we each earn the right to be reunited with and
welcomed by our Maker.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He has left a lot
behind.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He made a valuable contribution
– perhaps most when he was least aware of it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Many will miss him and feel the pain of his absence and loss. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Nevertheless, despite our tears, all
we can do is follow his example and trust the best of what he told us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So for Father Kevin and all those lost in the
<st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Philippines</st1:place></st1:country-region>:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt;">Eternal rest grant to
them oh Lord, and may perpetual light shine upon them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt;">May they rest in peace
and rise in glory.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Amen.<o:p></o:p></span></i><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
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Julie E Mullinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11564496695067616584noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8603853034722221586.post-52352639582637713032013-10-30T05:33:00.000-07:002013-10-30T13:57:16.096-07:00Fear, Films & Fiona<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">I have a way of seeing
connections between things which some think odd.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But it’s not my issue if people’s brains work
differently.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">The last two movies I’ve seen
at the cinema have reminded me hugely of two dear friends called Fiona and of our experiences
around fear.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Your loved ones don’t often
know when you are thinking of them and missing them on the other side of the
world – ‘little Fiona’ in Brisbane and ‘the other Fiona’ in LA – so I figure I
may as well write a blog about them as anyone else. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">The films I’m referring to
were superbly made and highly recommended: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Rush</i>
directed by Ron Howard, and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Captain
Phillips </i>directed by Paul Greengrass.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Both these craftsmen know how to make a great movie which girls as well
as guys love, because they have human nuance and compelling narrative as well
as thrilling action and speed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I don’t
even like Formula One and I was engaged by <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Rush</i>
from the earliest frames.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> <span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-AU; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">And anyone connected with the making of the brilliant
Bourne Trilogy</span></span> and I’m hooked. So Howard and
Greengrass: in your enormous fields of achievement these were exceptional
efforts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Thank you!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">As it happens I’ve never
taken speed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Apart from health or legal
concerns I have absolutely no need.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’d
be like giving uppers to the Eveready Bunny.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>But these films made my blood pump.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Glued to the seat, all other realities evaporated as I utterly suspended
my disbelief and sank into the drama.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At
the end I felt like I’d been running a marathon and was desperate to get
outside into <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">London</st1:place></st1:city>’s
chilly Autumn air, walking home with wind blowing in my face
and image after image replaying in my head.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I dreamt about them too – Tom Hanks’ final scenes exquisitely moving. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">So what is it about fear
which is so simultaneously frightening and compelling?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’ve sky-dived, scuba-dived, heli-skied and
fallen out of a white-water raft in a most inconvenient <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">rocky river</st1:place></st1:city>… but I wouldn’t class myself as a
high-risk sportsperson.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I never go to horror
films.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yet these movies frightened the
hell out of me and I loved it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Perhaps the
characters and story-telling won me over to the extent I endured the fear as an
inescapable bi-product?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yet I suspect
Howard and Greengrass are so clever they understand how to take an audience to
the brink of their coping threshold - dangling us in a metaphorical bungee-jump,
where a collective addiction to narrative unites with a carnal hunger for
wildness and beyond-our-boundaries experiences.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">The element which really
made my heart pound in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Captain Phillips</i>
is the lifeboat. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That small capsule with
a lid was far more frightening to me than the pirates or the prospect of a
bullet.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I could intensely feel the heat
and lack of air, to the point that I had to repeatedly concentrate on slowing
my own breathing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How can one survive
such a long journey so confined?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was
torture.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How do people in prison cope
with four close walls, especially those thrown into dark dungeons without trial
or justice?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All through the film I kept
thanking God for Amnesty International and promising I’d give them some more
money. (Can someone please hold me to that so I don’t forget?)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">Of course, Hanks’ brilliant
performance and the director’s intense building of tension are sufficient
provocateurs, but my projected fears enlarged the experience. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am a little claustrophobic. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For years I’ve had a recurring dream I am
trapped in a box or a cupboard.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And time
and again I’ve woken up banging the wall behind the bed trying to get out.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">In life I do whatever I can
to avoid peak-hour public transport, especially undergrounds.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>On planes it isn’t crashing which freaks me
out, but rather waking up in an overheated cabin with insufficient oxygen. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Occasionally this has threatened a mini panic-attack,
but thankfully it only seems to happen in economy; which is great incentive to
fly at the front of the bus.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">Anyway thoughts about “facing
one’s fears” brings me to my friend, Fiona.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">When we flatted together in
Bondi in our fun-filled, wonderfully courageous, it’s-all-ahead-of-you 20s,
Fiona would confront any hesitance or fear she felt, by saying “there’s nothing
to fear except fear itself”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m
inclined to forget Franklin D. Roosevelt and attribute this phrase to Fiona,
for I never hear it without thinking fondly of her.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">Now fast-forward to the <st1:place w:st="on">Mediterranean</st1:place> in 2009 when I’m showing ‘little Fiona’
around the Cinque Terre.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Setting out on
the coastal walk from <span class="ndesc1"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Monterosso
al Mare</i> to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Vernazza</i>, I call out:
“Walk at your own pace, Fifi, you can’t get lost, there’s only one path… I’ll
wait for you somewhere on a rock”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
wind is whistling, a delightful breeze tickles the pre-midday leaves, and
hundreds of metres below steep cliffs I find the sound of crashing waves
utterly invigorating.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Various parts of
the path are infamously narrow and rocky but I’m in my element – out in the
world, fit and free, luxuriating in the sights and smells of my beloved <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Italy</st1:place></st1:country-region>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">Some time later I am perched
in shade admiring the infamous blues of this great sea, and I hear footsteps
approach.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Turning around with my
lemonade (a treat offered by neighbours on route made from delicious local
lemons) my sweet but somewhat pale-looking friend walks slowly toward me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“What’s the matter?” I ask, bewildered.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“It’s really high, Julie” she says with more
shock than malice.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She then adds quietly:
“I think you’ve forgotten I’m afraid of heights.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>OMG, I had COMPLETELY FORGOTTEN.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What a dreadful friend – a most awful thing
to do to someone who has travelled half way across the world to visit you!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">“I’m sorry.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m sorry” followed, but the girl with the most
generous nature in the world would hear none of it: “But I did it” she said humbly.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“I was scared.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Especially the difficult parts when I thought
I was going to slip off the edge.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But I
did it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I took my time and I was fine”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What can you do but hug a girl like
that?!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I love her to bits, then and
now.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And after a refreshing glass of lemonade
we continued the walk to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Vernazza</i>, wandering
quietly and contentedly together – the making of a very precious memory. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">Now I’m thinking of ‘the
other Fiona’, which is how I distinguished my <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">L.A.</st1:place></st1:city> friend from ‘little Fiona’ who my Tuscan
mates had met and taken to their hearts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I am sitting on a bar stool near <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">San
Gimignano</i> recounting an extraordinary adventure to the Ice Hotel in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Sweden</st1:place></st1:country-region> with
‘the other Fiona’.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have the whole
room’s attention for this story, something I clearly enjoy, and the audience
should be praised for accepting its meagre delivery in a mix of English and hand-waving
Italian with conspicuously dodgy grammar.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I’m making my point anyway, sometimes jumping off the high-stool to act
out various parts. But this Ferrari-loving race is hooked.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I skim over the details of meeting the chiefs
of Audi while swigging vodka in the Ice Bar – a compulsory part of the Ice
Hotel experience – and I’m up to the part where this divine group of
‘strangers’ have taken Fiona and I, and assorted journalists, out into the
middle of a frozen lake in Lapland for the launch of a new Audi Sports
Car.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(Don’t ask me which model. Not my
thing.)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The sun is setting and in the
far distance six spotlights cut through the haze.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Lights race toward us across a wide expanse
of ice, until we recognise there are three pairs - three very fast pairs on
bright red cars.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Audi has arranged for
their European Racing Team to arrive… and arrive they do like James Bond or
Jason Bourne… pulsing hot-rods soon inches from our twitching toes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You’ll have to buy my book to get a full
description, but suffice it to say the experience was nothing short of
spectacular.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">The point about fear is
this: Fiona and I were taken by each of these hot, racing-car drivers out for a
spin on the enormous lake. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Scream?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Are you kidding – it’s a wonder you didn’t
hear us in <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">London</st1:place></st1:city>!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These guys were out to give us the ride of
our lives and the more we spun, the more we screamed, the faster they went…
with an ocean of slippery ice between us and the nearest tree they played those
cars like a Stradivarius… the little sports-steering-wheel so small yet powerful
in the hands of truly great drivers.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">Adrenalin pumped.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Curiosity peaked.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So much so I had to stop screaming and ask
questions – while still the car spun, sped, reversed and raced while the driver
calmly informed me about things I previously never thought interesting.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In love with everything Audi, everything
fast, and everything stimulating, we returned to the Ice Bar for more
vodka.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The anecdote has followed me
around the world never failing to amuse.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>And this fond and familiar sensation tugged at my heart during every
scene of Ron Howard’s brilliantly rendered, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Rush</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">OK, my thrilling European
Rally Car had a proper roof.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am still
terrified of the risk Formula One drivers face with burns and injuries and the
sheer insane noise of it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But if my
racing-car story is not about overcoming fear, it is certainly about embracing it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">Rewards are all the richer,
whatever the activity or goal, if we face the risks and do it anyway.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So thank God for friends, for my pals Fiona,
and for films and experiences which take us out and beyond ourselves.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><br />
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<u><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"></span></u><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> <u>Recommendations:<o:p></o:p></u></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Captain
Phillips</i>:<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1535109/"><span style="color: blue;">http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1535109/</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Rush:</span></i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> <span style="mso-tab-count: 3;"> </span><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1979320/"><span style="color: blue;">http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1979320/</span></a><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></span></div>
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Julie E Mullinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11564496695067616584noreply@blogger.com