Tuesday, August 02, 2005
reading and viewing
ok I've been very neglectful of my blog. I've been doing and thinking and playing scrabble on the computer and somehow didn't really feel like writing.
A week ago it was my birthday -too many years to want to share- and I went camping. It was glorious. For a full description you could turn back to July last year when I went to the same place. I love it. Douglas Hot springs and the Douglas Daly Park. It's not on the most favoured tourist map of the Territory but if you ever come here, put it on yours. It's the most beautiful place. Peaceful, lots of wildlife, hot springs, rapids, campfires and this year I enjoyed it all for 4 whole days. I'll post a picture or two after I finish this post.
We've had two long weekends in a row... how lucky are we. This weekend I did all sorts of nice little things like having a big bacon and egg breakfast in a nice, low-key, alternative style cafe with the best coffee, wandering around the shops and buying an outrageously colourful skirt for the ridiculous price of $14, chatted to a beauty therapist about how to spend my birthday voucher before swinging by the markets for a big fresh fruit cocktail and some laksa and green paw-paw salad to take home for dinner. Got 5 good old movies out of the video store and went for a couple of walks across the sand flats while the tide was out. Sunday I gave 'out of town friends' the grand tour of Darwin and had lunch under the palm trees at the Trailer Boat Club and saw Kris Kristoffersen in concert under the stars. Monday was recovery, housework and catching up with the shopping and email day.
Movies watched so far: The Virgin Suicides - I'd seen it before but had another look in view of the fact it's a favourite of one of my sons. I can't say I see it as outstanding but I'm a long way past my school years and maybe I've just forgotten the drama of teenage experience. Monster's Ball- I enjoyed quite a lot but if it's a fair representation, I'm real glad I don't live in a red neck town in USA. Iris - enjoyable, well-acted but sad to the point of depressing.
Books read and phrases that appealed: Finished "Tricks of the Light" by Alison Fell.
"So she could bear to be hated. Hate was a grown-up sort of verb. Active. But there was no verb that conveyed what the abandoned felt towars the abandoner, only a few nouns nudging impotently around in the void. Despair. Panic. Betrayal. Words that were as afraid of finding their object as of losing it."
"Queenmaker" - India Edghill
"All David's women had loved him, and he had tossed their love aside. Just as once, long ago, he had tossed aside mine, as if love were no more than a pretty toy that he might scoop up to play with again whenever he wished. But women's hearts are not trivial playthings, and it is never wise to throw love away- if only because its warmth may be needed in the cold future."
"An Imperfect Marriage" - Tim Waterstone quoted a poem by R.S. Thomas:
"I have seen the sun break through
to illuminate a small field
for a while, and gone my way
and forgotten it. But that was the pearl
of great price, the one field that had
the treasure in it. I realize now
that I must give all that I have
to possess it. Life is not hurrying
on to a receding future, nor hankering after
an imagined past. It is the turning
aside like Moses to the miracle
of the lit bush, to a brightness
that seemed as transitory as your youth
once, but is the eternity that awaits you."
...and so goodnight!
A week ago it was my birthday -too many years to want to share- and I went camping. It was glorious. For a full description you could turn back to July last year when I went to the same place. I love it. Douglas Hot springs and the Douglas Daly Park. It's not on the most favoured tourist map of the Territory but if you ever come here, put it on yours. It's the most beautiful place. Peaceful, lots of wildlife, hot springs, rapids, campfires and this year I enjoyed it all for 4 whole days. I'll post a picture or two after I finish this post.
We've had two long weekends in a row... how lucky are we. This weekend I did all sorts of nice little things like having a big bacon and egg breakfast in a nice, low-key, alternative style cafe with the best coffee, wandering around the shops and buying an outrageously colourful skirt for the ridiculous price of $14, chatted to a beauty therapist about how to spend my birthday voucher before swinging by the markets for a big fresh fruit cocktail and some laksa and green paw-paw salad to take home for dinner. Got 5 good old movies out of the video store and went for a couple of walks across the sand flats while the tide was out. Sunday I gave 'out of town friends' the grand tour of Darwin and had lunch under the palm trees at the Trailer Boat Club and saw Kris Kristoffersen in concert under the stars. Monday was recovery, housework and catching up with the shopping and email day.
Movies watched so far: The Virgin Suicides - I'd seen it before but had another look in view of the fact it's a favourite of one of my sons. I can't say I see it as outstanding but I'm a long way past my school years and maybe I've just forgotten the drama of teenage experience. Monster's Ball- I enjoyed quite a lot but if it's a fair representation, I'm real glad I don't live in a red neck town in USA. Iris - enjoyable, well-acted but sad to the point of depressing.
Books read and phrases that appealed: Finished "Tricks of the Light" by Alison Fell.
"So she could bear to be hated. Hate was a grown-up sort of verb. Active. But there was no verb that conveyed what the abandoned felt towars the abandoner, only a few nouns nudging impotently around in the void. Despair. Panic. Betrayal. Words that were as afraid of finding their object as of losing it."
"Queenmaker" - India Edghill
"All David's women had loved him, and he had tossed their love aside. Just as once, long ago, he had tossed aside mine, as if love were no more than a pretty toy that he might scoop up to play with again whenever he wished. But women's hearts are not trivial playthings, and it is never wise to throw love away- if only because its warmth may be needed in the cold future."
"An Imperfect Marriage" - Tim Waterstone quoted a poem by R.S. Thomas:
"I have seen the sun break through
to illuminate a small field
for a while, and gone my way
and forgotten it. But that was the pearl
of great price, the one field that had
the treasure in it. I realize now
that I must give all that I have
to possess it. Life is not hurrying
on to a receding future, nor hankering after
an imagined past. It is the turning
aside like Moses to the miracle
of the lit bush, to a brightness
that seemed as transitory as your youth
once, but is the eternity that awaits you."
...and so goodnight!
Comments:
Post a Comment
