"Wicked"? Wicked!



Last night we went to see Wicked.

I bought the tickets so long ago,

I forgot that we were front row and centre.

(dancelife.com.au)

I didn't know a lot about it and hadn't been that interested in it.

But given how few musicals reach Adelaide and given the hype,

I wanted to go.

(theage.com.au)

I had a good working knowledge of "The Wizard of Oz"

and I knew a few of the songs

but otherwise decided to "go blind".

A wise decision.

It is clever and surprising if you don't know what is coming.

The show was such fun.

The costumes exquisite.

(Mr Boozle wondered how many vintage curtains died in the making of the costumes)

The music fabulous.

(smh.com.au)

One of the best.

"You can live to be 100 if you give up all the things that make you want to live to be 100."

 (Woody Allen)

(seniorsunrise.com)

Have you ever googled "How to live a long life?"

Well, to save you the effort of reading through the 44 million results,

I have summarised them here.

Well, most of them.

OK, a few of them. (44 million is a lot, you know)

Genetics contributes about 30% to our longetivity.

The rest it seems is up to us...

Be persistant. Avoid carcinogens (no shit, Sherlock). Keep your mind active.

Use sunblock. Be optimistic...but not too optimistic.

Continue to work or volunteer. Be well organised.

Meditate and relax. Marry well (applies to men. Sorry, guys. I am taken) Avoid heavy lifting. Eat garlic.

Squat when you poo (who knew?).  Get regular exercise. Avoid constant fear or worry.

Freeze your head. (Just seeing if you are still with me)

Have consistent sleep patterns. Avoid simple carbs and processed foods and yeah, of course, avoiding junk food is on the list. Have annual medical checkups.

Avoid working in the service industry (and enforced jolliness) Be grateful.

Floss your teeth daily. Gets those fruit and veges into you. Get rich. Don't get rich.

Find a role model and aim to achieve more than they have.
Don't drink super-hot tea.

Own a pet (disclaimer- my cats do not relax me. They are pushing my blood pressure through the roof)

Consume anti-oxidants (this is a good one- dark chocolate, tea; drink some red wine, people!)

Increase water consumption...but not too much. Fear the Lord.

 Don't fixate on material things- you can't take them with you.

Don't smoke (duh!)Think before you act. Be flexible and move on. Maintain a healthy weight.

Indulge in hyperbaric oxygen therapy. Increase your leg strength.

Don't oversleep. Have self confidence. Be prudent. Have proper hygiene.

Be well educated. Develop and maintain a strong and healthy social network and relationships.

Have a reason to live. Think before you act and avoid dangerous situations.

Plan ahead.
Smile. Laugh. Hug. Kiss. Bonk.

Eat more fish, soy, rice, seaweed. Eat less red meat. Eat more apples. Eat Acai berries.
Eat and drink purple things.
Increase your omega 3 fat intake and decrease your omega 6 fats.

Don't try to be happy. Don't overindulge. Be conscientious. Have an infra-red sauna.

There is one that seems to advocate eating semen...but if that interests you,

google it yourself. Be a bit obsessive. Stop drinking Coke and cola.

If you get nominated for an Oscar, win it. (You will live longer than if you lose)

...and so on.

So, there you go, people.

Let's meet up for a glass of red and some dark chocolate when we turn 100.

We'll square up details a bit closer to the time...

I choose.....



I don't like summer,

especially in Adelaide.

I grew up in Tasmania where 28 degrees was a scorcher

and, after 18 years here, I still can't get used to

5 days in a row over 35 degrees

or waking to mornings that are already too hot to go outside.

I don't mind winter but I am not sure I love it.

I love the snuggle-down, comfort-food, movies-and-hot-drinks-on-rainy-days,
no-need-for-sunhats-and-sunscreen-every-day,
electric-blanket-warm-bed-if-someone-remembers-to turn-it-on side of it

but I don't love the get-out-of-bed-to-nippy-air mornings

or the-days-end-early-too-early afternoons

or the get-into-a-cold-bed-and-argue-over-who-forgot-to-turn-the electric-blanket-on

side of things.

I love Spring.

I love Autumn.

Not too hot. Not too cold.

Just right.

But how do I choose my favourite?

One is beautiful as Mother Nature awakens again,

ready to face the next cycle.

The other is stunning as she prepares to sleep

until the sun warms up again.

In Autumn, I know that I can snuggle into all those thick, warm knits

that I have been busy making

whereas in Spring, I know that they are headed for hibernation.

So for now I chose Autumn.

But come Spring...ask me again.

I am nothing if not fickle.

(Pattern: Splash vest by Wendy Bernard.

Yarn: araucania-copihue) 

Quote of the Week

"Mummy, my legs are so tired"

Little voice from the 3 year old diva in the bike toddler seat behind me after I have just huffed

and puffed the two of us up a forest track to the top of a hill.

(tenerife-training.net)

(OK, maybe it wasn't a 30 degree slope

but try telling that to my legs)

I signed up for childbirth. Not this torture.

Nature Series: Natural predators- part 4



The natural predator of the Easter Bunny's stash is the Felis catus.

Bloody cats.

(The absolutely only tiny, teensy point of redemption that I can come up with

is that, in the massacre of two little, innocent eggs,

they have left a number intact and unscathed that be evenly distributed between three children.

Unless they strike again...)

Parenting for dummies: lesson #62

Think really, really long and hard about what is suitable for show and tell.



It may seem a great idea to let your 7 year old

take your work's dog skeleton to "show and tell" in class when they are studying bones,

especially after you have had "the talk" about how it is not a toy

and that it cost a lot of money.

However, you should sense that there will be problems

if he gets named (and actually labelled) "Doggy bones".

(Come on, you know kids will adopt and name anything...

a rock, a piece of toilet paper, an old, mouldy, forgotten piece of fruit

that they find under their bed...)

It will end in tears...
...if not a broken back.

Disclaimer: No living dog's skeleton was harmed in this "Show and tell"
(It is made of resin)

"When were you a princess, mummy?"

...asked the 3 year old child.

Mummy was puzzled.

Her memory was abysmal these days at the best of times

but surely she'd remember having been royalty.

Turns out that the little one had been looking at the wedding snaps down the corridor.

All a bit reverse-Cinderella-ish really.
Except that the prince hung around to help with the chores and the nappy changes.

Beige, daaah-ling. It's the new black, didn't you know?



As little as two years ago,

I didn't "do" natural colours.

I was a "wear black or grey as your neutral colour" girl, all the way.

Browns didn't rate a mention,

whether we were talking about wall colour, car colour, clothing colour, shoe colour or accessorising.

But something, slowly and insidiously, has been happening.

First we painted the walls of our new extension a beige tone.

It actually looked great

and let us use any colour scheme that we wanted in furnishings.

Then I bought some tortoiseshell hair clips rather than black clips.
Then some brown shoes instead of black shoes.
Then I started on clothing.
After browns, I started wearing natural blues and greens
that I have never dreamed of wearing before.



After more than forty years on this planet,
I find myself still evolving significantly in my tastes.

Given my penchant for all things pastel in my early teens,
this is a good thing.
The thought of swanning around in pale pink and lilac now
induces the "fight or flight response"
and I break out in a cold, cold sweat.



It keeps life interesting, don't you think?

Pattern: Adult ruched yoke tee- AnneLena Mattison
Yarn: Cleckheaton Country Naturals (colourway 1828)

I made this longer and slightly larger than I would for a summer tee
as I wanted a neutral (beige, come on down!), easy fitting tunic for cooler weather layering.
It has a beautiful shape.
The bodice is very loose and I would look at a snugger fit
if I were making this as a summer tee.
I changed the finish to the front opening.
I crocheted around the margins and made a loop and button closure
instead of an icord.

Book ends.



This is the pile of "to read" books on my bedside table.

Of course, it would be teetering even higher

but for a family rated blog,

I removed all my *cough* naughty books ;)
(yeah, 76 bodice rippers stacked up on the floor, people)

I have always been a book worm.

I have always loved books and loved reading them in abundance

(real books, that is)

But since starting a family,

I have struggled to prioritise reading.

I got a lot of books read while middle-of-the-night breast feeding

but beyond that, I have had limited access to quality reading time.

I am the first to admit that this is partially self-inflicted.

If I didn't spend time blogging, sewing and knitting,

I'd have heaps of reading time.
You know, going to bed early,
snuggling down into the doona
and being surprised at how quickly 2 hours can disappear
when you are in the middle of a great book.
That guilty pleasure of being able to stay up reading till 2am
because this book is so good, I have to finish it now!

But the fact is that there are only two times I can rely on having the time and inclination for a good solid read.

Firstly, on those rare occasions when I am bed-ridden with illness

(poorly enough that I don't want to knit

but not so ailing that I can't hold a book up)

Secondly, if I am "in the bathroom"

(if I lock the door from children-

who seem to need your undivided attention as soon as you pull your undies down)

Now, I know that I have just alienated half my blog readers with that statement.

You are either a "read on the loo" type of person or you aren't.

But I can multi-task so why waste the opportunity to use this skill?

At the moment, I am accumulating books faster than I am reading them.
I can't afford to cut back on the 5-6 hours sleep per night that I currently get
in order to knock off Oprah's latest recommendation.
And I need to wash and cook.

So maybe I should just cut back on my fibre
and increase my "bathroom" time...

A little known fact.



The domestic cat is capable of taking a bite out of a bread roll
without putting a hole in the plastic bag.

I am not sure what possible survival function this ability gives the cat
but I was impressed.

Pissed off but impressed.