Maybe there's something in the water!

G'day Erin and Taylor

I have a question.

What do they put in the water in London?

When you left Australia ten years ago you looked like this.


What the hell happened to you - now you apparently look like this.


I guess ten years can really change a person.

I suppose I better warn you.

When you left here ten years ago I looked really, really, really hot.

OK, you may not remember. You were only young.

Unfortunately, Australia has been in drought and short of water ever since.

So here goes, just so there's no surprises, stunned silences or awkward giggles, OK?


Can't wait to see you, your Mum and Dad, baby sister Caitlyn and eventually big brother Ethan when he decides to come back for a visit. I'm getting all my best Aussie slang dusted off ready to teach you girls some 'proper English'.

Enjoy New York and LA on the way home!!

Love

One very excited Aunty who happens to also be one very recalcitrant blogger (I've been sought of tied up with Interpol this month, truly. Even the BlogHer ad and my Blogroll disappeared given my sblogness, oops!)

Gone Fishing!

I am taking time out from blogging to catch up on life. See you all soon!

Stripped Bare

The economy has been hard on everyone.

Take the poor airlines. Has anyone else noticed how more and more planes seem to be 'dropping out of the sky?'

Even our beloved Qantas Airlines, which is the only airline in the world not to have had a fatal crash since it started flying Boeings, has had numerous 'incidents' in the last 12 months as the result of ‘mechanical failure’. In other words, my words, maintenance has been outsourced where labour is cheaper and standards are more questionable.

Corners are being cut left, right and centre. So all airlines are looking at ways to attract new customers.

My hat goes off to Air New Zealand who has come up with a unique way of trimming the fat and at the same time, giving customers a reason to fly with them.

They recently released an advertisement called Bare Essentials which features body painted staff. Yes, it seems they are giving each staff member a paint by number set to colour in their own uniforms. Imagine the savings!

All jokes aside, they aren't giving up uniforms just yet but the airline has decided to expand its use of body painted staff from advertisements to the in-flight safety video used on 737 domestic flights.

Starting this week, thousands of Air New Zealand passengers will now get their flight safety instructions from staff wearing nothing but body paint.

It hopes to catch the attention of those travellers who ignore the safety video.



As a makeup artist who has done body painting for creative projects, I think there is a time and place. I hope they stop there.

I give them ten points for creative effort but I am still only taking my hat off for them. Nothing else.

At this rate, I wonder how long it's going to take before they change their name to Air Nude Zealand?

To watch the making of the airline's TV advertisesment, click here. You have got to love that Kiwi accent!!

I wanna party like it's 19....

November, 1909....They were totally unaware until the visitors drove up. The fine large room recently erected for the men’s quarters during shearing time was invaded, bunks removed and soon everything was ready for the dance. The genial host and hostess and family joined heartily in the fun, as did also the shearers, and a warm welcome was received by all. At midnight, refreshments were handed around, which were provided by the visitors, after which the fun was resumed and kept going to daylight. Refreshments were again partaken of, after which a start was made for home, one all having thoroughly enjoyed the night’s fun.

This excerpt came from a newspaper article about a party held at my relatives farm in 1909. They were probably sitting around the fire with their seven children when they were surprised by lots of people who had driven for miles, just to have a surprise party. Imagine.

These days the past holds as much fascination for me as the future. I’ve noticed my eyes no longer glaze over when my mother talks about the family tree.

Yesterday, I immersed myself in her book which holds the lives of families past.

There was the Polish Countess who had to escape when Russia invaded and her relatives who had to do the same when Germany attacked. Then there was the English convict banished to Australia for stealing a handkerchief. And some interesting skeletons like the Norwegian ship Captain, a Polish mother and an 8 month voyage.

My father has a Polish and German background. He is blue eyed and fair. Names like Ferdinand, Frederick, Karl and Johann abound. My mother has a British and Australian background. She is olive skinned and dark. Both lineages entwined with Jewish, Catholic, and Church of England beliefs which wax and wane with each passing generation.

Mix all that together and you get me. A fair haired, pale skinned, green eyed Australian with my mother's Jewish nose and a feeling that I have strong roots in Italy for some peculiar reason. Go figure.

My world is indeed a melting pot. And the generation which follows will spice it up some more with Asian and Pacific influences.

While I was leafing through the past, something struck me.

Despite all the advances made in the last century, are we having as much fun as they appeared to in past generations? Are we in fact far more isolated in our hi tech industrialised cities than our ancestors who lived in isolated and sparsely populated parts of the country?

Maybe they had less of everything and life was harder but maybe they had more of what counts. Close friends, family, neighbours, a strong sense of community and some amazing all night parties.

They say you have to take the good from the past, learn the lessons and forget the rest. I think I found 'the good' today.

I want to party like they did in 1909.

Surely I am blessed with the party gene......and if I knock on your door after dark sometime, you better have some great music and your dancing shoes on....

When was the last time you partied till dawn?

1909 events
King Edward VII was on the throne. Construction began on the Titanic. Joan of Arc was declared a saint.
London's Victoria and Albert museum was opened. The world's first air race was held. The actor Errol Flynn was born.

Dear Mark Sanford,

I know it’s none of my business, and I know you are a politician in another country, but I spotted you today on a news site and I just had to find out why you were still looking so forlorn.


Oh, I see. Another revealing media interview.
Somewhat foolish. And no, you just can't put the genie back in the bottle Governor. That notion belongs in fairytales.

What did you think you were doing exactly? Revealing all that extra stuff on top of the stuff you had already revealed in a previous press conference.

I know love is blind but in case you weren’t aware of it, it doesn’t mean it also has to be deaf and dumb!

As Shakespeare said, the better part of valour is discretion. What he meant is, please shut your mouth before it’s too late!

There is nothing sadder than another middle-aged politician publicly confessing his sins. And then confessing more and more to the point you would easily get a walk on part on the Bold and Beautiful and not look out of place.

Telling everyone you are committed to reconciling with your wife, even though you love and have a strong emotional attachment to another woman and that you would die happy knowing you had met your 'soul mate', was a clear signal you need to be committed to somewhere quiet for a while.

Do you think it was necessary to also reveal that there were at least a handful of other women you overstepped the 'marital boundaries' with, on your frequent overseas trips?

Given you are a politician, we might have expected you to say that you got a little confused about what bi-lateral relations actually meant (although in your case multi-lateral relations may be the more appropriate term), so you took some creative license and made it your public duty to conduct a handful of foreign affairs. All in the line of duty.
You didn't. You told the truth.
However, you should have spared the entire world all the juicy details and just said, I, Governor Mark Sanford, misused public funds for personal use. I can no longer be trusted. I resign. Good bye.
No, I don’t think you can even call it a mistake or a lapse in judgement. Even though you found what you were looking for. A mistake is choosing the wrong tie to wear with your suit, or going to the wrong restaurant for dinner, or buying the wrong book, or hiking the Appalachian Trail and going in the wrong direction (oh thank you Governor for that euphemism). Using public money, no matter how small the amount, to fly off to see your lover is, is just plain wrong.
Perhaps you need to make a commitment to yourself first. Stay away from the press. Leave public office. Then allow your wife and children the opportunity to retain a shred of dignity. Finding your soul mate has got to be worth that sacrifice surely? For everyone’s sake.

Lilly

Readers I am curious about your views on this.

I am not judging this guy for his affairs, that's between him and his wife. I am judging him on the way he chooses to confess more and more each day to the media without a care in the world for the impact of what he is revealing. It's hard to conceive of Hillary Clinton, Nancy Pelosi, Julia Gillard or any other high ranking female public or private sector official holding a news conference to say they had been conducting an affair, disappeared to another country to call off an affair or visited a male prostitute.
Why are there so many middle-aged male political officials who feel the need to publicly confess their sins in this way? Is it because men who have been in power for so long feel they are above the rest of society and they are sorry they got caught? Or is it because they have acted so piously towards others when they themselves are doing far worse and feel guilty? Or does power distort one’s moral compass and self awareness? Or are these men just normal blokes who are trying to do the right thing (after they get caught).

All comments go into this month's giveaway drawn on Sunday night mid-night.