do you go to the movies?

another picture from "the album". There are lots of nice ones of children and Victorian ladies, but how about this for a serious family?? check out the guy at the back! looking at the sideburns on him he makes me think of 'Wolverine'!!

Here is a picture of the woman who owned the album - Rose.

Rose married a guy older than her - and wealthy too. she was D's grandmothers' aunt. I'll have to write the story down some time. when her husband died she married the gardener (I think that's how it goes...) here is a picture I love - she is in the front on the left (not very good lighting) and standing at the back is D's maternal grandmother - also named Rose. her mother is sitting on the right, Sarah.

I am in the process of printing old family photographs as we are going to have a "family history" wall in the house. we're still working on which wall though - and on which style of photo frames, so the project has stagnated a little.

changing topics altogether, here are 10 of my favourite movies - favourite being those I will watch more than once. or twice...

1. A Room With A View (always tops my list)

2. Amelie

3. Elizabeth

4. Pride & Prejudice (any will do, but particularly Colin Firth's Mr Darcy)

5. Love Actually

6. The African Queen

7. Before Sunset

8. The Girl in the Cafe

9. Funny Face

10. When Harry Met Sally

11. Possession

12. The Joy Luck Club

ok... I'd better stop now since that is more than 10.

on the movie Amelie though, here is a pic of D and I in Montmartre, Paris at the cafe shown in the film.

Happy Birthday Mel!

one of the kindest people I know!

on this morning

as an aside to this mornings post is this youtube clip that I love. it did the rounds a couple of months ago. how cool is that?

let freedom ring

Thomas Jefferson wrote 'we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal'. today is the anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jnr. like many people, I find him inspiring. I have a book of a number of his speeches and sermons. it would have been thrilling to be at the Lincoln Memorial when he gave his "I Have A Dream" speech. it is filled with biblical references: "we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream" (Amos 5:24). the full text can be found here . my favourite of his speeches though is the one he gave the night before his assassination. there had already been many threats on his life, and the speech he gave was almost prophetic: "well I don't know what will happen now, because I've been to the mountaintop. And I don't mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And he's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over. And I've seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land! And so I am happy tonight. I'm not worried about anything! I'm not fearing any man! Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord!" if you ever get to see the footage of this speech, he falls into his seat at the end of the speech, mentally exhausted from pressures during the days before. the speech can be heard here
it's no secret that I have always believed Christians especially should speak out against injustice in the world. I worked (voluntarily) for a number of years with Amnesty International and was privileged to be sent to Amsterdam to speak about the Australian branches work in Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States. I have a t-shirt from those days that quotes MLK, saying: "our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter."

magical moments

my sister lent me a book she has just read: Mosaic by Amy Grant. Amy Grant was the queen of christian music when I was younger, and so her songs were very impressionable on me at that time in my life. on the sleeve jacket of her book she wrote what I have quoted here in the sidebar. this sounded like the perfect reason for a blog.
my two "magical moments" are my babies. while never the maternal type I always assumed kids would be in my life's plan. I never realised how they would change the way I think, feel and move.
I am enjoying my time home with them. now A is almost three months I find something of a routine developing. she wakes at 7 o'clock in the morning for a feed. I giver her morning feed to her in my bed and then she sleeps there until around 10 or even 11 o'clock. D has already left for work by this time so I have an hour to myself before waking N. we then have our breakfast together and watch a little 'ABC kids'. the rest of the day is either filled with appointments, outings or the daily challenge of tidying up while N follows behind with a new whirlwind of toys, crayons and books. as D is working full time and at university part time, his week days are pretty busy. to make up for time at uni he works late at least two nights each week. with a 40-50 minute drive from work, this makes for some very late nights. I eat dinner with N at the table and we chat. he is my constant company, with the question "why mama?" ever present in all of our conversations! when D is home I then sit with him while he has dinner and we can have our chats. I don't mind the ordinariness of my day, and wonder how this will change when I return to work in July.

because I know pictures of my magical moments have been largely absent from here, I've included a few.

a tiger with a gentle nature

trying to tame my angel's hair!

on this and that

so People of the Book had mixed reviews, but was still nominated as a good read. maybe I'll have to have an interlude from Atonement and read it soon. I liked the Radio National interview.
I have always loathed lists of favourite things - favourite books, favourite movies and favourite cd's. mainly because no sooner do I write down ten I come up with another ten.
so, for want of another term, here are ten of what I consider to be good reads (in no particular order).
1. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
2. Anil's Ghost by Michael Ondaatje
3. The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje
4. A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry
5. The Riders by Tim Winton
6. Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier
7. After You'd Gone by Maggie O'Farrell
8. The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
9. The Opposite of Fate by Amy Tan
10. Almost French by Sarah Turnbull
I'll stop glancing at my bookcase to my right or my list of ten will quickly become twelve, fourteen or eighteen! a bigger challenge will be good movies, so I'll tackle that another day, although dozens are already racing through my mind.

I think I got my love for books and movies from my mum. I like to have a book with me wherever I go, as you never know when you will want to take 10 minutes out of the day to read. a good thing I catch the bus to work. I take one when we travel and read aloud while D drives. [this was pre-kids. these days we're more likely listening to the Wiggles]. I even had a book with me while on holiday in Italy (above). when I travel with work I love buying a new book at the airport especially for the trip.
"I would be most content if my children grew up to be the kind of people who think decorating consists mostly of building enough bookshelves." Anna Quindlen, 'Enough Bookshelves' New York Times 7 August 1991.
Not entirely true of me, but a really nice thought!
The One Year Bible that I am reading through is written in the New Living Translation. I chose to read another translation as rather than being a comprehensive study, I wanted to read it as my morning devotion. again and again. my plan is to keep this going for the rest of my life! I didn't want to get hung up on language, particularly when it came to Numbers, or Dueteronomy or Job and Jeremiah... sometimes I refer to my KJV to compare wording as I still like the words it uses such as "cleave" or "magi".

catching up on reading

tonight on the First Tuesday Bookclub they are discussing one of the books in the pile beside my bed - People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks. Radio National's book show also has an interview with her on the book.
the real Sarajevo Haggadah (which the novel is about) is an interesting story. it is an illuminated manuscript originating in Barcelona around 1350. (yes, another "old" thing!) the fascinating thing about the Haggadah is not only how it was written, but how it survived a number of wars, and how a librarian rescued it after it was stolen by Nazi officers in WW2.
The only other book I have read of Geraldine Brooks is Nine Parts of Desire: the Hidden World of Islamic Women, which she wrote while working as a foreign correspondent.
I would have liked to have read People of the Book before the show tonight, but never mind.