Monet : I perhaps owe my painting to flowers

We have just come back from the trip of a lifetime, going to Singapore, England, Scotland, Ireland, France and Thailand.

Most definitely the highlight for me was going to Versailles and Giverny.  You could not get two more contrasting destinations, and in between we had a wonderful lunch at a little mill nearby.
Versaillles is all about excess, from the enormous gardens clipped within an inch of their lives, to the extravagant bedrooms and gold front gates.  Giverny is  a garden so painstakingly put together it looks as if Monet painted it onto the landscape. 

That's real gold on the gates and on the building inside! 

Its difficult to see, but there are several flowers here, first the dark, almost purple/black leaves make the backdrop, then the bright orange with yellow centre on the left, and the light orange/yellow on the right, in between you can just see the fine lines of the pink/red flower spiralling up to pull it all together.  Monet was a genius.

Everyone discusses my art and pretends to understand,

 as if it were necessary to understand,

when it is simply necessary to love.
.............. Claude Monet


~

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My top tips for travelling

The bags are packed, the boarding passes are printed, we are off to Singapore tomorrow!  Then heading to London, and the Scotland and Ireland, a brief sojourn to Paris, back to London and 5 days in Phuket, Thailand.  Along the way I will try to put some blogs up to document where and what we go to.

In the meantime, here are my tips when travelling:

1. Sards Wonder Soap is great for rinsing out those undies etc. and easy to pop into a bag.
2. I always take a couple of blow up coathangers, you can wash a t shirt and dry it overnight with one of those!
3. As we will be travelling around, I pack all the undies, sox, scarves, cold weather gear and swimmers into large zip lock bags, easy to get out of bags and into draws.
4. On overseas travel I take carry on luggage with almost nothing in it, so that I can take some weight out of bags for internal flights.
5. This time we are taking a couple of bike locks, to use on the Eurostar and while our bags are in the car - should make trying to steal them much harder.
6. I take a fairly large handbag, again so that I can fit some things in it to lighten other bags if necessary.
7. Carry on luggage needs a lock on it - you neve know when it will need to go into the hold of a plane.
8. I always take some spare panties and a days worth of medication in my handbag - you never know when bags can be lost.

Come at once!

This is my favourite piece of Waterhouse's writing. Its from Miracles Happen - I hope it makes readers laugh as much as I did.

To set the scene; this is an exchange of telegrams between Bertie and his Aunt Agatha:

Aunt : Come at once. Travers.

Wooster: Perplexed. Explain. Bertie.


Aunt : What on Earth is there to be perplexed about, ass? Come at once. Travers.

Wooster : How do you mean come at once? Regards. Bertie.


Aunt : I mean come at once, you maddening half wit. What did you think I meant? Come at once or expect an aunt's curse first post tomorrow. Love. Travers.


Wooster : When you say 'Come' do you mean 'Come to Brinkley Court'? And when you say 'At once' do you mean 'at once'? Fogged. At a loss. All the best. Bertie.
 
 Aunt : Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. It doesn't matter whether you understand or not. You just come at once, as I tell you, and for heaven's sake stop this back-chat. Stop being a fathead and come immediately. Love. Travers.

Wooster calls his butler Jeeves.
Wooster : Jeeves, What do you make of these telegrams.
Jeeves : I think your aunt wants you to go at once, sir.
Wooster : Do you get that feeling too?
 

 

Madeline Bassett: [about Bertie] I think he's having a brainstorm! Aunt Agatha: What with?

When I was younger I used to roam the corridors of the local library fiction section, looking for inspiration.  I came across a few books written by the same author, PG Woodhouse, they were rather plain looking books, a bit like the one below, and fairly slim in comparison to other books.  But I took a chance on one.

It changed my life, I have never laughed so much when reading a book.  I don't know what it is about Woodhouse, wether it is the complicated plots, the amazingly rich characters or just his style with words, but I really loved those books.  I read them all!

Since then they pop up every now and again, with a series starring Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry ( Jeeves and Wooster), and now in mp3 form so that I can listen to them on the way to sleep.

Here are some excerpts for your enjoyment, and if you have not read the books - get one out of the library and enjoy yourself.

Brinkley Manor:

Bertie Wooster: So! It appears that you've gone and got engaged to the Gussie.

Angela Travers: Quite right. We're in love.

Bertie Wooster: Oh, come now, Angela. Gussie's... Gussie's a splendid chap in many ways. If you've got a sick newt on your hands, Gussie's just the fellow to tell you what to do until the doctor comes. But honestly, old thing, you could fling bricks by the half-hour in England's most densely populated districts without hitting one girl willing to become Mrs. Fink-Nottle without a general anesthetic.

Angela Travers: Well, I thought it would be fun!

Bertie Wooster: Well, I'm surprised at you, young Angela. No wonder they say, "Oh, woman, woman!"

Angela Travers: Who do?

Bertie Wooster: ...Well, chaps, supposedly. But you know you're potty about Tuppy!

Angela Travers: For goodness's sake, Bertie, go away and boil your head!

Bertie Wooster: Well, now, Angela, if you'll permit me to observe...!

Angela Travers: No!

Bertie Wooster: Very well, then. I shall say no more. [gets up to leave, then pauses in the doorway] Just... tinkerty-tonk!

The Delayed Arrival:    
  
 Stilton Cheesewright: [referring to Bertie's cocktail] Now what do you suppose those things       are   doing to your eye?

Bertie Wooster: For your information, Cheesewright, one does not administer alcohol by the eye, or even by the ear. The mouth is the correct orifice.

Stilton Cheesewright: Not if one's meant to be in trainng for the Drones darts tournament, it isn't.

Bertie Wooster: Ah, yes, of course, you've drawn me in the sweepstake, haven't you? Well, your money is safe, Cheesewright. The Wooster form is as devastating as ever.

Stilton Cheesewright: We want a win this year, Wooster, not another dratted tie. I happened to look in on the Drones Club this evening. Freddie Widgeon was at the darts board, stunning everyone with a performance that took one's breath away.

Bertie Wooster: Tcha!

Stilton Cheesewright: Eh?

Bertie Wooster: I said "tcha!" scornfully, with ref. to F. Widgeon. I know his form backwards.

Stilton Cheesewright: He's knocked off smoking, you know!

Bertie Wooster: No!

Stilton Cheesewright: He takes a cold bath every morning!

Bertie Wooster: [shrugs] He's forgotten where the hot tap is.

Return to New York

Bertie Wooster: This is a bit steep, Jeeves.

Jeeves: Approaching the perpendicular, sir!

~

 



The fastest little chicken soup in town

When I was laid up for 4 months and my husband had to do the cooking, I had to work out a recipe for very quick and easy chicken soup.  Its a soup day today, as the wind and weather outside is just terrible, so here are the recipe instructions I gave to my husband, he did well.

Take a large pot, put a glug of olive oil in it and turn the stove on.
Cut up some chicken you have in the freezer into very small pieces.
Slice up a leek, put this into the pot and stir so it does not stick, when it is looking a bit wilted, stir in the chicken until it turns slightly white.
Turn off stove.
Cut up into small (1cm) size chunks, 1 stick celery, 1 potatoe, 2 carrots, 1 turnip and 1 parsnip (or 1 soup pack from the supermarket).
Turn the stove back on, and add the vegetables to the pot.  Stir for about 5 minutes until it all starts to wilt and cook.  DO NOT BURN.
Add 1 large packet of chicken stock, and about the same amount of water (or 1 kettle worth).
Add 2 large glugs of tomatoe sauce and 1 large glug of soy sauce, a couple of turns of the black pepper and some salt.
Turn down to the minimum on stove and simmer for about 1 hour.
Slice up 1/4 of a cabbage very finely.  Turn off the stove.  Add the cabbage and put the lid back on for at least 10 minutes.
Check for enough salt and pepper, add more if needed.

Serve with the nicest bread you have.

This is what it looks like:

This saying sort of sums up my husbands cooking:

And I don't cook, either.

 Not as long as they still deliver pizza.
............Tiger Woods

The race should be held in Sydney

The Formula 1 Grand Prix was held in Melbourne last weekend.  We had wanted to go to it for ages, and booked tickets last year in great anticipation, unfortunately the weather turned rather bad on the day we arrived.
We set down at Melbourne airport to rain and cold weather, the temperature had dropped from 40C  to less than 20C in the space of a few hours.  Well, we reasoned it had to improve.  We watched practice in our hotel room, and the rain got worse and worse.  In fact qualifying was put off until the next day.
When we went to the track, the weather was cool but not cold, with the occasional shower.  As the day wore on it got windier and colder.  Here is what we looked like just before the main race:

3 tragics at the track

 

That jacket cost me a few dollars about 10 years ago at a Nike sale - Never pay retail! - and it has saved my life on a few key occassions.  This is one of them. Likewise, my husband has his handy fold up jacket on, and son has the emergency plastic poncho.  This brings me to one of life's lessons.  You must own a wind and waterproof jacket - with a hood - that can be scrunched up into nothing, and take it on every trip you go on.

 

Americans call them windcheaters, and the only quote I could find came from a Blackadder episode:

"In a desperate last throw of the dice, Baldrick is sent to the House of Lords and Blackadder is left with nothing but a catskin windcheater and a broken turnip"

Well the F1 experience was just that, an experience, seeing cars worth lost of money, not too many fashionable people due the weather, and expensive promotional clothing we did not feel tempted to buy, along with a great race.  A once in a lifetime thing, and it made me realise THE RACE SHOULD BE HELD IN SYDNEY!

 

The transport would be better, the weather would be wonderful and people would not take their children along as they are more sensible.  So I am thinking of starting a petition...........

 

Learning how to be cool

My husband is a photographer from way back in the 70's.  He used to take wonderful black and white shots and develop them himself.  Back then it was quite expensive to have anything developed professionally, as film was time consuming, and fully manual.  Now we have a digital camera and photo setup and have the photo available online within seconds.

The photos he has taken for our website are just as good as any photo I have seen on long-standing company websites.  Take a look at this:

Len does all the technical taking of the shot, while I do the photoshopping to size and re-colour the background.  Getting a white background is actually very difficult, even with a light tent etc. the shots come out with a greyish background.  Thank god for google and Youtube!  As well as the generosity of many people who post online.  I found out about the quick select tool, and how to use the bucket tool in photoshop, and be the end of the day this:

Turned into this:

Not bad hey?

I was not really into nor did I understand the power of Youtube until my lovely nephew started doing movies (ie acting in them) and I found out he has his own Youtube channel.  Check it out at https://www.youtube.com/user/OfficialKarlBeattie/videos?view=0

He will be famous one day.

I leave with this quote, its kind of how I feel right now.

“Kids on the Youtube, learning how to be cool.”
― Toby Keith

Hospitalpacks.com.au is getting closer

Hospital Packs progresses well, the website only needs photos now.  Sounds so easy doesn't it?

Not so easy in real life. It took me a day to put together the photos for just one page of categories, even though the photos did not have to be taken, just downloaded.  A note here about a good website with millions of photos - istock.com.   These are photos taken by professional photographers who put them up on the site for use by anyone who buys them.  I have seen them used in lots of websites, and now mine.  This is how the first cut  (well, actually the third cut!) looked:

 

 

I think the bobby pins need some work, but am happy with the other shots.  My website is quite colourful, which suits the 50+ demographic that I am aiming for - I hope!  But I do think visuals are important.

 

 

An update on the light tent - check out the boys setting it up below

 

My husband will start taking the product shots for real today.  Can't wait to see how they turn out.  Meanwhile, I am tidying up the site and the descritptions of products.

I still have "happy packs" in the back of my mind, but of course, you have to learn first before launching site number 2!



A little weirdness goes a long way.

So happy for a friend of mine, who is going online, she has just set up a website for her celebrant business at : http://gailmcguckin.com.au/

Here is a sneak preview of her website:

Go Gail!

My favourite quote about marriage is

"We are all a little weird and life's a little weird, and when we find someone whose weirdness is compatible with ours, we join up with them and fall in mutual weirdness and call it love." -Robert Fulghum