Kites and Dogs...

Ive had a bit of a sub-continent theme about my weekend.

Last night I watched a dodgy pirated copy of Slumdog Millionaire, yeah sure it was OK but I think I listed to way too much hype about that one! I thought the Bollywood dancing at the end was just cheezy.

On the other hand, the Red Couch Book Group met on Saturday to discuss the book and film of The Kite Runner.

Here is one of those rare occasions when the film and the book really do compliment each other, both have something to give that the other just cant. The film of course has had to leave out some detail and does lack some of the background and descriptiveness that the book can provide. But the film is enhanced buy the use of the dari persian language and the colour and amazing visuals.

One this I think tipped the story over the edge into melodrama was the revelation of the two boys, Amir and Hassan being actual half-brothers. I felt that brought in the whole blood is thicker... debate and I think I would have found it more poignant if he had've done everything he did without that extra push, it would have felt like Amir was righting his wrongs and not just doing it out of some family pride thing. I didn't really find Amir much of a sympathetic character, I guess that was the point, its all about second chances and righting your wrongs and all that. But I thought Hassan was gorgeous and his loyalty was his downfall.

On turning our little girls into sluts...

In the words of one two year old Dora-lover... "Whats this?"
Seems Nickelodeon and Mattel decided that Dora the Explorer needs sexing up.
This shits me, I mean she's about the only positive role model for little girls out there at the moment... whats wrong with being a little dumpy with a pot belly? I mean the girl is multi-lingual and has a monkey for a pet... what more does a girl need? certainly not an iphone when your backpack can talk to you!!!
Why do people feel the need to turn every little girl into a slut? have you had a look in the girls section of any store lately... no wonder I head straight for the boys section of my local op-shop!

Will this book change my life...

I sort of kind of believe in fate up to a point... so I am wondering if the book 365 days of sensational sex is destined to change my life? Amazon.com (well a secondhand bookshop but through Amazon) sent it to my by mistake and have now given me a full refund and told me to keep it as they don't have the book I was actually after anymore.... hmmm.... will let you know how it goes...

Best 'bride walking down the aisle' song ever = I knew the bride when she used to rock and roll by Status Quo.

And the bride wore Black.

And instead of one of those stupid yucky old fashioned horseshoe things someone gave her a bat to hang from her wrist.

I love it when a wedding is actually about the people and not about stupid traditions and stuff.

I have been violated...

Ladies and Gentlemen, The web has let me down...

Seems I may have unwittingly gotten caught up in and Internet/ebay scam whereby someone posing as me is trying to scam $4000 out of a guy who was interested in buying my car. Lucky I had my phone number in the listing and the guy contacted me directly...


By the way... the car is not for sale for $4000, rather $9500, hence the guy is not buying it now!


Anyone interested?

Miss Jayney's big one....

Me and my new hair are about to go squeeze into one of my old dresses for the wedding of the lovely Miss Jayne...

Miss Jayne is fab, one of several of my favourite ladies who I met during the bookshop-from-hell time of my life. (Which wans't actually all that bad, I just like being dramatic!) Miss Jayne is a riot grrrl from way back and a true inspiration. SHe also met the groom on the internet which I think is ace!

I have been looking forward to this one for ages, and am making sure I drink way to much coffee in order to stay wide awake! I am hoping Miss Jayne will not let me down and this will truly be a day to remember!!

Bridezilla, this is dedicated to you...*



*Actually the lovely E sent me this hilarious video ages ago and Ive been meaning to post it ever since!! Thanks E!

A couple of Shoutouts...

Miss Katie D! AKA. Queen of the webolution, now AKA Pink Lady... She looks fabulous!!

My Mother-in-Law for doing all my housework yesterday!

My friend Damo for surviving a 12 km walk up many steep hills... (and carrying Little Miss some of the way!)

And...

Josh Earl for being absolutely hilarious on Friday night!

To hot for the Webolution?

Whilst having some fishy fun yesterday... (you'll find out what it is tonight at the webolution party)
I found these two librarian pics... are they too hot for the webolution?

A lovely couple of days...

I have had a lovely couple of days that have involved some of my favourite people...

Friday I spent a lovely day with Miss J and her little man, we went to Werribee zoo and hung out with the meerkats and lots of other good stuff. Miss J is going through a bit of a tough time with her little man, just the usual new mother major adjustment stuff but Miss J is very hard on herself. I hope I am helping her with my regular pep talks and Safeway chickens, but she seems to have this idea that I just breezed through motherhood making it look easy which makes me feel bad (and was certainly not the case... I have a lot of stories I could tell there, but they would make me look REALLY bad and probably have me committed!) I think the one emotion that new mothers are just not prepared for is Guilt. No matter what you do, some book, midwife or random stranger on the street is going to have an opinion on the matter! Poor Miss J, I hope she gets through this bad patch. The thing is no matter how much you read or have friends or whatever, I don't think anything really prepares you for how overwhelming everything about being a new parent is.

Yesterday I saw G for the first time in 2 1/2 years. G has been a big part of my life and one of my bestest Ladies for about 8 years. We travelled together and have always been a big support to each other. G lives overseas now with her French hubby (Oh la la!) and hadn't even met Little Miss until yesterday! She hasn't changed (I don't know why you think people will have!) and made me realise how I really really miss her! I hope I have the chance to see her again while she's in town.

I am reading the cutest little book at the moment called Pop goes the weasel which chases the history of Nursery Rhymes. For example did you know that Humpty Dumpty was actually a cannon used by the royalist forces during the English Civil War of 1642-1651? He only got turned into an egg by John Tenniel the illustrator of Alice in Wonderland!

My morning with Little Miss and other stories

Hello Dear Readers,
Are there any of you out there other than my Mum?
Please say hello sometime and let me know your there!

Ive been having a lazy morning with Little Miss, ABC kids, hot cross buns and cheese on toast!

She's a clever one is my Little Miss... now I know we all get sick of hearing that from parents... but here's some proof...

Today she put on her own nappy... (OK so it was actually one of those pull up things) I was letting her have a bit of nudey time whilst running her bath then suddenly she shows up fully nappied out, it was even the right way round and everything which is better than I can often do!

She can pick out makes of car... (sort of) Toyota's are Oma's car, BMW's are Grammy's car, Holdens are Daddy's car and anything resembling a Hot Rod is Grumpy's car!

Reminds me of someone...

When I was in Kinder they did some random test where they put something in front of the child and they are supposed to say what it is, they put down a matchbox car in front of me and asked me what it was.

I said "It's a Chevy!"

They looked at my Mum all confused until she said "She's right".

It was a 55 Chev, same as we had at home at the time.

I am Cleva.

Little Miss is in Bed now... thank god for naps!

I have way too many things planned for that short space of time.

Bye!

Mimi...

Let me introduce to you the wonder that is... Mimi Smartypants! The Blogger who inadvertently had her musings humbly published. I love Mimi, she writes about all sorts of random things (like me!) Mimi reminds me of my friend Nettie (at points in the book I had to check that Mimi wasn't Nettie's pseudonym)

I do have some problems with this book that are nothing to do with Mimi... For a start... who the hell chose that cover art? It's a reprint of the book and the first cover was nice and simple and a lot more of a representation of the book. This one is crap. Whats with the hot pink high heels, Mimi even makes the comment in the book that she never wears high heels, and she's a sort of semi goth and I cant imagine her wearing too much hot pink either!!! As someone who always judges a book by its cover, I am glad I already knew about this book before I saw it because I'm not sure I would have picked it up otherwise. Also whoever wrote the blurb on the back... I mean, did you actually bother to read the book?

Next I will really demonstrate my major Librarian dorkyness...

These are the Library of Congress Subject Heading attached to this book:

1. Married women--Fiction.

2. Female friendship--Fiction.

3. Women cat owners--Fiction.

4. Chicago (Ill.)--Fiction.

I guess the whole blogging diary thing is still catching on in the world of publishing but I wouldn't call it fiction, Of course I couldn't tell you where it fits in... Yeah I know, quick to criticise but without offering any practical solutions... but hey... this is my rant!

Now lets see here... Yes she does mention her husband, friends and occasionally her Cat... but none of these are the major focus of her writing. #4 is about the only accurate one here... and its still not bloody fiction OK!!!!

Here are some other girly books I have enjoyed of late...

Breaking the rules: confessions of a bad girl by Catherine Townsend

The private lives of Pippa Lee by Rebbecca Miller

A piece of cake by Cupcake Brown

B is for...

Bush walking...

I am feeling slightly (understatement!) exhausted right now, and although I do believe it is partly to do with the massive pile of dishes waiting for me to do while the boy sits happily on the couch watching DVD's and cant understand why I am yelling at him to come help me... Well it might also have something to do with the 12 km's walk we did today to Currawong Falls near Airey's Inlet. It's our, not so new, hobby that we are now taking seriously. We were building ourselves up to a planned 3-4 day walk in Wilson's Promontory in May, but unsure of what we will do now after the fires. So most weekends this year Me, the Boy and a 12kg Little Miss in her backpack carrier (on my back while the boy trains with his pack full of all sorts of important hikey things) have been setting off for increasingly longer walks. Mind you, 12 km's is nothing when you consider that in year 12 I did a 9 day walk through the Tasmanian Wilderness, but then again that was 15 years ago!!! Of course I did do the walk today with a massive blow out in the bum of my pants (now the pants are only 17-18 years old... ) which was fine until we got to the spot we were planning to have our lunch at and about 15 middle-aged members of a bush walking club were there, and the rip got even bigger (and louder) when I sat down! We also saw a small Tiger Snake, that was pretty cool. The Boy refuses to acknowledge this is the second time I have saved him from a Snake!! So thats enough of todays adventures... I'm off to bed now!!!