Tell Me I'm Here

Tell me I'm Here is one of those heartbreaking true stories of the lengths a mother will go to in order to help her son who has schizophrenia as well as developing a drug habit.

Anne Deveson is an Australian producer and writer who has 3 children and her eldest Jonathan begins to develop strange behaviour and is eventually diagnosed with schizophrenia.
Her search for something to help Jonathan even takes her to a progressive institute in India and in the meantime her children are quietly suffering. Granted she is aware of this and feels guilty for putting so much energy into only 1 of her children and you really feel for her trying to balance so many roles in her life. A lot of this book is set in the 70s/early 80s so it is also interesting to see issues that are still going on today back in that time period.


We had to read this book as one of the English texts in upper high school. I have re-read it several times and what really stands out is the amazing lengths Anne goes to in order to help her son. She is willing to try anything to bring her son back to what she remembers before his mental illness takes hold and while she goes on living her own life everything else to an extent is thrust into the background. You also emphasise with her other two children. Recently even Anne's daughter wrote her own book about that time in her life.

I really appreciated Anne's honesty and compassion for her son. This isn't a new book but I think (although I'm no expert on mental illness) its themes are still relevent for those suffering or living with those who have a mental illness. It's such a hard thing for other people to understand since it is not a physical illness but as this book shows it can have such an effect on ordinary families and the way they live their lives.

Perils of exercise

Unfortunately for my motivation levels I am trying a new healthy thing where I'm trying to make sure I exercise daily for at least half a hour. I play basketball one night a week and mixed netball another night but other than the occasional dog walk I was behaving rather like a sloth lately. I went to a ladies lunch last Tuesday where we had a guest speaker Dr Dingle, a west Australian doctor who has an extremely healthy attitude to eating, exercise, lifestyle factors etc. Anyway he sort of sparked this health kick.

His lecture was pretty motivating if not a bit overlong but he really was very enthusiastic. Anyway yesterday I set off for my 3rd walk of the week, ipod in ears with some very catchy 80s tunes helping me along at my local park/sports oval. Let me point out I was not even on the road or on a pathway, I was walking the perimeter of the oval when I was whistled at by a young guy in a red ute. I don't think it was the 'hey you're good looking' kind of whistle but more a 'hey I'm going to whistle really loudly and annoy and scare you' kind of whistle.

And even if it was a 'complimentary whistle' I wouldn't have liked that either. There were 3 guys at the park all doing some light jogging around: do they have to put up with any kind of verbal abuse?

It's just ridiculous that in this day and age I still feel self conscious while doing something as innocent as walking around a park trying to get some exercise. Usually I wait until a bit later to go for a walk/jog but then that also raises issues about safety especially when I have my headphones in and are not as aware as I should be.

When I got home I went and told my Dad, wondering what his opinion would be. He basically said not unkindly that I should be flattered. Thanks Dad. My mum, who'd had a few wines by this time was not too helpful either. My dad also piped in with the fact that he gets honked etc when he rides to work (my Dad is a really annoyingly healthy person who rides 15 kilometres to work and back frequently in the warmer months). I explained that this is because he rides on the road (as he is meant to as the paths are meant to be for pedestrians) and a lot of car drivers like to think they own the road and see him as an inconvenience.

I told him it's is not the same thing as I think I was just being singled out for being a youngish girl on my own walking.

If I had been with my boyfriend as I was the day before I really doubt it would have happened. I'm not sure if I'm overreacting or not but it did have me a bit upset yesterday and it did cut short my walk as I then felt more self conscious than ever. Do I now have to restrict my walking to just doing laps of the inner oval which doesn't have any cars near it? Am I an oversensitive crazy person? Time will tell.

The Lovely Bones

I guarantee most people have heard of this book by now but that doesn't diminish any of the love I have for the author, Alice Sebold, and her beautifully told story which came out in 2002.

Susie Salmon is your typical 14 year old girl and the story is told through her eyes. One day while walking home from school she is lured into an underground hidey hole by her neighbour George Harvey where he procedes to brutally rape and murder her. Throughout the story you do learn a bit baout George's character and his mindset and the things he continues to do after the murder but it's not the focus of the story.

Her view is then from that of her own personal heaven and how she comes to terms with her death and the reactions of her family.

Each family member reacts differently to the news of her death. Her mother eventually succumbs to an affair with the police investigator who is looking into the murder. Susie's father becomes consumed with trying to locate her killer. Her brother, Buckley becomes withdrawn and feels like he is living in the shadow of his dead sister.

I found this story to be so original whether that is because I have led such a sheltered literary life or whether it truly is, I don't mind or care. There are so many interesting elements: she has a 'counsellor' of sorts in Heaven, she regularly has a rush of dogs around her place in Heaven, and the moment when her dog from her time on earth is among those dogs is such a lovely scene.

The relationship that develops between Ruth and Susie once Susie has died is also intriguing. Ruth herself is a rather complex character with a strange supernatural power to be able to see events that happened in the past.

This book would have to be one of my favourites for its touching take on death and the afterlife and it's also a good look into grief and what can happen to a family when their world is turned upside down.

I looked on wikipedia (don't judge) and they have said that Ryan Gosling has pulled out of the film production citing 'creative differences', and now Mark Wahlburg is his replacement. Say it isn't so! Internet movie database is also confirming this, but I just can't picture Wahlburg as Susie's dad. But Susie is being played by Saoirse Ronan who played Briony in Atonement so I think that should be a good fit.

Good in Bed

Cannie Shapiro is a journalist who thinks she has a pretty good life, job, dog etc. She is on a break with her boyfriend of a few years, but isn't feeling particularly bad about it (she was the one who initiated the break) and is plodding along with life. Oh and she has a little weight problem, this does get mentioned many times and is the crux of the book in many ways.

Her life is turned upside down when her (soon to be ex) boyfriend, Bruce lands a regular column in a magazine titled Good In Bed and his first article is about the pain of loving a larger woman. Uh oh. Cannie confronts him and after going through a shame spiral, eventually decides she wants him back although as far as I, and a lot of other characters he has no great personality traits/personality.

Cannie also starts on a weight loss program and meets a kind doctor who she of course thinks is too old for her (and will prove to be major plot device later). She also interviews and then brfriends an unlikely celebrity through her work as a journalist and goes on a journey of self discovery about herself when she is confronted with various ups and downs. All is going along pretty well again for Cannie and then she is confronted with a challenge she didn't think would come along.

I quite enjoyed this book, although it was predictable in many ways and so many plot devices are used purely as ways for Cannie to 'get ahead'. I did find her anger towards the end of the book a little bit unrealistic. I understood why she was angry, but I'm not sure myself why I just didn't find it authentic for whatever reason.

But I also did enjoy not having to read about a 'trim neat blonde' (just an example) as seems to be the usual with a lot of chick lit. These 'trim' (man I hate that word, it conjures up images of society women who just grab a bite to eat here and there because they're so busy with their charity work) girls still do have their own flaws otherwise the stories would be too boring but they seem to have the perfect body to make up for their (usually pretty small) flaws. Overall about a 6.5 out of 10, nice homely kind of book I could easily read while eating my lunch at work.

P.S. I Love You

Okay, I don’t normally go for these sappy predictable romance stories, but after seeing the movie version, I do what I normally don’t and went out and bought the book. Usually I read the book first and then make fun of how they’ve slaughtered the book at the movies. There are rare exceptions of course – Renee Zellweger was the perfect Bridget Jones, lets just not talk about the sequel.

Basic storyline goes as such: Holly and Gerry were perfect for each other but unfortunately Gerry gets a brain tumor and dies. This is not a spoiler, it all happens very quickly. The rest of the story is how Holly copes with the loss and Gerry sends her letters monthly (organised before he died) to help her ‘deal’ with his passing – Gerry’s rules for getting on with her life.

Now this is a rare occurrence where I actually preferred the movie to the book. I was really surprised when I liked the movie. I never cry in movies, usually only when an animal dies – don’t even get me onto when I saw I Am Legend. Heartless and cruel of me yes, but I just get more choked up over animals that croak it, rather than humans with all their annoying faults.

Regardless, I liked this movie and even found myself tearing up a bit. Embarrassing. So I was all prepared to really like this book, and I was disappointed when I found it rather different for a start (not the authors fault) and a bit of a poor imitation of some much better Irish writers such as Marian Keys who excels in this stuff.

I realise the subject matter was a bit of a downer, but I just felt I had no compassion for Holly who came off as kind of annoying and very self centred, and I had no love for the supporting characters either. It was all a bit one dimensional. If you look at Keys book, 'Is There Anyone Out There', which also deals with loss, the characters were a lot more well rounded and for ‘chick lit’ it was more enjoyable to read in general.

Running with Scissors

I stumbled across the author, Augusten Burrows while watching a Melbourne writers festival thingie on ABC before Christmas and although I hadn't read any of his books the interview propelled me to look him up.

He seemed to have had such an interesting (to put it mildly) childhood. During the interview he was actually more talking about the book A Wolf at the Table but I thought I should start with the most famous of his books.

Augusten is not your usual child, his parents are always fighting, his mother is a wannabe poet and his dad is distant. He knows from a young age that he is a gay and his parents soon divorce and he spends all his time with his mother.

Pretty soon she is seeing a psychologist, Dr Finch, who says she has a lot of issues and Augusten is spending more and more time at the Dr Finch's house with his menagerie of children, adopted and not, and bizarre patients some who have been living in his disgusting cockroach ridden house for years. Obviously this is where most of the weird happenings occur in the book.

The psychologist has strange methods and while Augusten paints a funny tinge over the whole situation, some of the incidents are really quite shocking. Without the humour injection the book really would just read as a tragic childhood story but Augusten makes it readable. The book basically runs through the time his parents divorce until he leaves home at around 18.

During the interview I viewed Augusten is really open about his upbringing and speaks with real honesty and I admired him for that, but I can't in all honesty say I really loved this book.

I appreciated its strangeness and the way he seems to step back from it all in some sense but some of the situations described in the book are quite confronting and it really made me appreciate my 'normal' upbringing.

I was surprised to see the cover of my book was set out like the movie poster, when I wasn't even aware it had been made into a film. After further investigating I discovered it came out in 2006 - I cannot for the life of my recall it getting any press in Australia at the time. I'm not sure if it had a limited season or if I just have a terrible memory but I'd be pretty interested to see how they handle some of the more sensitive issues in a M Rated film.

Facebook

I'll admit it, I'm addicted to the dreaded facebook. Not only does it help make my sometimes boring work days go faster but it is a good (although somewhat superficial) way of keeping in touch with my friends.
And of course also finding people you went to high school/primary school/kindy and seeing how much they've changed is always interesting/frightening.


But there are all the downsides: facebook skanks though probably not as bad as myspace skanks yet - but how many cleavage inducing self taken pictures do we need in this world. The inevitable self promotion photos (that's a complete different topic on how digital cameras have taken away any form of pictures that aren't entirely approved by everyone in them therefore taking away the more natural pics but I digress), the lame status updates where some people give way too much information, and the fact that some person you knew for 2 minutes in year 4 wants to be your 'friend'.


Do I sound a bit cynical? I was just going on about how it gets me through the workday..... anyway the point I was getting around to eventually was also the use of 'events' in facebook. You can get events for anything.

Tonight I'm attending a BBQ which was posted as an event on facebook complete with all the details you need to know and also everyone invited to the BBQ could post messages on the events 'wall' so everyone can see what's going on, what to bring etc. It's good in a way, I mean it must save on phone texts which is how we would have done it prior but it's also bad in that no one gets actual invites to places anymore with the exception of weddings.

Case in point, my birthday is coming up and I was thinking of doing cool invites with a toddler picture of myself and details on the photo (I did it for a friends hens night and it was awesome). But then I got thinking wouldn't it just be easier to do it as an event? It'd be quicker and I need to get it out soon since everybody seems to be booked up pretty early these days and its harder for us to all get together.

But there's just something old fashioned in me that wants to send out invites. I think its the formality or the tradition of it but putting it on facebook does not give me the same feeling of finality about the party. Like I could change my mind and just put something up on the wall: 'Sorry guys I'm not feeling well *cough cough* the party's off' (which is a distinct possibility for me - I'm a nervous host).

I'm not sure which I'm going to go for, time may beat me out and my invites will go the way of letters: nonexistent.
P.S. Not the picture I was going with but check out the cake!

Rosemary's Baby

I totally stayed up reading this book way past when I should have been asleep (sorry BF!). Once I got into it I just couldn't put it down.

First of all there were a few reasons I wanted to read it.

One as everyone knows it's a bit of a classic and the fact that it's out of print in Australia made it just that more intriguing.

Two, whenever I look up famous people born on my birthday for a long time all I ever got was Mia Farrow. Since up to this point all I knew of her was the fact that she was married to Woody Allen and we know that didn't end well I was curious to see the movie she is so famous for. But I promised myself to read the book before I saw the movie.

Three I love weird and wonderful books just as much as those based in reality, and this seemed the perfect book to read, having heard so much about it and never actually going out and reading it.

We are introduced to Rosemary and her actor husband Guy. They've just moved into a Gothic style apartment in New York which is notorious for some creepy behaviour in the last hundred years but it's a great place with 2 bedrooms so what the heck?

Everything is pretty good for a while, they meet some neighbours, Guy lands a great part on TV but Rosemary begins to feel distant from her husband and she has some odd hallucinations. Guy decides he'd also like to have a baby and very soon after some forced copulation (she was passed out! There are no words to describe the wrongness) they've got a bun in the oven.

To tell much more would ruin the enjoyment of reading the novel and I really recommend it. The way Levin builds the suspense is tingling and I honestly couldn't put it down. The writing is simple but that's the way the book works. You're learning every little twist along the way with Rosemary and you sometimes wonder if she is losing her mind or what the hell is going on.

It was written in 1967 and the book does not date that much. There were a few sexist issues (most notably the rape) but it is still a good read.

There is a sequel book which was written in 1997 by Levin, which I read an excerpt of but I'm not too sure about it. May be interesting just for curiosity's sake.

Trip down south

I went to Bunbury for a couple of days over the Christmas break. For those not in Western Australia, Bunbury is a city a couple of hours south of Perth where a lot of people go during the summer, due to its close proximity to the ocean (not that Perth isn’t close to the ocean, most populated places in Australia are all within a hour of the sea) and the slightly cooler temperature. We do get a bit sick of the 35C plus days here.

Anywho we didn’t do a lot it was more of a relaxing getaway with the bf having a rare 3 days off in a row. We did go down to this awesome dolphin discovery centre on the beach and get pretty close to some wild dolphins! Being a huge animal lover it was one of things I actually wanted to do when we got there and we got lucky and were actually there when a mother and calf decided to show up. Being the amateur photographer that I am I didn’t get to take many great pics but got some. BF has some expensive camera thing which takes one a thousand shots a second or something (slight exaggeration) but he had left it at the motel. Boo.

The set up is pretty good, it cost us 8 bucks to get in, practically the whole place is run by volunteers, there was some informative stuff in the front section and then we got to go down to the beach and after walking up one side of the beach (about 5 minutes one way past some kids tormenting a crab) and then while we were halfway up the other side, we see all the people gathering thigh deep in the water.

I’ve always wanted also to swim/snorkel with dolphins but the tours they can do around here seem a bit contrived, in that you’re following a tour leader pulling one of those motorised thingies and it just doesn’t seem natural or unique. I don’t know...I realise I probably won’t be able to frolic with dolphins like Flipper or whatever but still that’d be cool.

Anyway we had an awesome time and also spent the obligatory quality time together, blah blah.

Train book spotted: Monday, guy in glasses reading The Tommyknockers by Stephen King. It made me realise it's one of the few vintage Kings I haven't read and must get on to it.

The merge

I've decided to merge my 2 blogs and since this was the older one I kept it. I just found it too hard keeping two and actually writing about things I'm interested in.
So I will continue to review my bookcase but also my general ramblings.

Some unrelated good news, my lovely bf has ordered in Rosemary's Baby for me from the US as it's out of print here in Oz. It was meant to be a surprise Christmas present but took a bit longer to get here but I'm not complaining! I want to see the movie too, but have forced myself to wait and read the book first. It has finally arrived today so I have plenty of books to keep me occupied!

Boys Wanted!

I won about 15 of the pen pals series books on ebay quite a while ago and I've been slowly reading them and reliving my childhood. I thought I'd start with number one and just do them sporadically as Cher says.

I loved this series as a kid, it was so cool imagining what it would be like to go to an all girls boarding school where your main interaction with boys was through letters. Seeing as I was of absolutely no interest to boys in school anyway, you'd think it wouldn't be that different but there was also the aspect of living away from parents at such a young age - I just couldn't imagine it.
This book introduces the main series concept and introduces 4 very different main characters. Lisa, the outgoing (in my opinion bossy) one, Amy the asian american who dresses pretty funky and loves music, Palmer the rich blonde one, snobby pretty often and Shanon the quiet youngest writer type roommate. They all live together in Fox Hall and it's their first year at Alma Stephens school for girls. It was written in 1989 and those late 80s/early 90s outfits feature really heavily on the covers and its awesome. My favourite character was always Shanon, i suppose I could relate to the more shy girl although I really hated the relationship she had with Lisa who seemed to boss her around and Shanon worshipping her got a bit old.
The cover has Palmer rocking some kind of cape which you know if you're rich you can get away with that. Amy (who dresses a lot in black) stays true to form with the spiky hair. Shanon looks a bit bitchy in her various blue demin ensemble and Lisa is too engrossed in her letter to even acknowledge the reader.
Anyway Lisa comes up with the idea that they should advertise for boy pen pals from the nearby boys Ardsley academy, they eventually decide to write to 4 roommates who call themselves the unknown. Through various hi jinks we get to the climax (not before finding out Amy's favourite artist is Cyndi Lauper :P)- the first meeting. Shanon is nervous when they are taking pics to send that she sends one of her older sister who is apparently gorgeous. Did she think they would never meet? They invite the boys to a halloween mixer and she tries to get around it by wearing a spaceman suit which covers her entire face...hot. Anyway Mars (her pen pal) gets angry but they make up with some wholesome honest letter writing. Amy dressed as Joan Jett, that's actually pretty cool. Lisa goes as a peasant which is sort of my fancy dress staple (more hippyish though). Palmer went as She-Ra which is also actually great and well modern for the time if you can pull it off. "a sleeveless white leotard and a short silky skirt made out of a scarf. She also had on a gold crown and a borrowed sword from the theatre prop shop. The short shimmering cape..set off the costume as did the stunning gold dyed boots." Well if I need an idea for next year I know where to look..

This series is not as good as I remember..they rarely are but its still good old fashioned fun re reading it and having different opinions of some characters (I think Amy's probably the coolest now).

Twilight

I know I know I know there are already that many blogs etc devoted to twilight and probably just as many expressing their contempt of Stephanie Myers's books but I wanted to add my own opinion, without perhaps the amount of hype it received in America.
I got on to Twilight through a friend who kept having facebook status changes expressing her thoughts on the latest book. I will read most things to give them a go and see what I think and this was one of those cases (apart from Harry Potter just could never get into that).

I bought my own copy for some reason and began reading straight away. I'm not going to go much into the story as I'm sure most are very aware of the plot line if not through the book then the movie which has now also come out here in Australia too.

To begin with I was quite annoyed with Bella as so many are. I found her character to be annoying, I had no idea why so many people wanted to be her friend and why every guy in the school wanted to date her. She seemed to get herself into the stupidest situations without knowledge or any air of awareness at all, and it just didn't ring true in any sense (I know I am talking about a book with vampires but come on).
Edward's (said vampire) dreaminess was mentioned annoying so on every second page but he never really did anything for me. Maybe because I'm too old to be reading this stuff.
The book didn't get too interesting for me until about 2/3s in when it seemed like an actual plot line started to develop. And then I admit I got hooked in and wanted to read more. My co worker (a converted Twilight nut) then placed the second book on my desk (her copy) before I got to work one day and I will also admit I am reading it now, and really prefer Jacob to Edward.

Bella is still annoying but unfortunately I've probaly suckered myself into reading the whole series now. If I were to give advice I'd say don't bother and save yourselves the pain I'm surely in for, but if you want some mindless fluff to read go right ahead.

Holidays

Yay so I'm on holidays..from one job anyway - I get two weeks off from the office life.

I'm beginning to agree with my dad that maybe primary and high school are the best years of your life. I remember thinking at the time, is he crazy? I was miserable for the first couple of years of high school. High school is the worse unless you're in the 'popular' crowd. Luckily I had some good friends, got over my awkwardness (mostly) and got through it and mostly had fun.

But to think of all the summer holidays we had, man I miss that. I wish I had endless time to enjoy the heat stifling summer we have and not have to commute on a train at peak hour and try and sneak a peak at what other people are reading (this morning The White Tiger, Aravind Adig, lady in red top next to me who dropped her aspirin).

Anyway I'll have to be content to take my 2 weeks. At least the bf and I are going down south for a couple of days although we will need to find a babysitter for the dog (thanks Mum in advance!).

Also on a side note, I watched Teen Witch the other day for the first time in preparation for the 80s fun in February (my 25th) and that was possibly the strangest 80s movie I've seen yet. I know a few of them can be out there (Better Off Dead with John Cusack comes to mind) but this was just random. Pretty bad acting by a few, the brother character was plain weird, dodgy situations, a rapping boyband esque trio. But check out the costume change towards the middle for a dance. Awesome tragic 80s: fluro taffetta skirt, side fluffy hair, orange eye shadow!Apparently the main character though is Blake Lively's sister Robyn who is some big deal on Gossip Girl? I don't watch it but it also had the little lady from Poltergeist in it (can I say little lady?). Strange but somewhat interesting.

The Road

Wow, this one is a doozy. I was researching at work one day (nothing to do with my job) for interesting books and came across some random list of top books in the past few years.

Cormac McCarthy's The Road was found a few times. I have a rather sick fascination with end of the world stories (loved Stephen King's The Stand). They usually have so many depressing moments but still I read with macabre fascination, and there's always the what if situation - how would we as a society cope?

We never learn the names of the protagonists, a son and father, nor do we know what year it is, but through flashbacks can piece together that some sort of disaster perhaps relating to global warming or maybe war has lead the earth to become what it is.

My immediate reaction after (and during) the book was one of depression. This is not sugarcoated in anyway. We hear about roasting babies, slaves and all the other hopeless things the son and father endure to survive. You can't help wondering why they bother, but I guess this is the human spirit, to simply keep enduring. The style of writing is very casual with no proper punctuation used, for example during conversations. Once I started reading, I didn't really stop for breaks. You really just want to find out where it's all leading. You get the impression it's hopeless but it's still so intriguing you can't stop. The scary thing is the book reaches you as it is not unbelievable, we've seen what humans will do to save themselves and it rings true. Also with the world climate as of late, the events do not seem so unfounded. Overall an interesting read that stays with you.

This Charming Man

I finished reading This Charming Man by Marian Keys yesterday. I like to mix up my chick lit with other more ‘serious’ or ‘respected’ authors and books and while this book does fall under the chick lit banner it dealt with more serious issues such as domestic abuse and alcoholism.

While I could relate somewhat to the alcoholic storyline somewhat I have had no experience whatsoever with domestic abuse. I felt that the issues were dealt with in a respectable manner while Marian also kept her trademark wit about the storylines.

She interweaves the lives of 4 women who all have a connection to Paddy de Courcy. He is a politican who has charmed all of them in some way, but there are many secrets that are revealed throughout the book about all of the characters.

It is quite a thick book which I didn’t have a problem with (except on the days when I take a train to work and I gained a bit of weight in my bag) and perhaps certain bits could have been cut but it did show each characters journey and gave them more depth.

I would recommend this book if you like this type of Irish chick lit, Keys is better than most in this category and as she is a self confessed alcoholic you feel she knows what she’s talking about.

Pump Up the Volume

Okay so I am in the midst of planning an 80's themed 25th birthday party (born in 84 love the music, and movies not so much the fashion but that's part of the fun) and it is interesting. I love the idea of planning a party but I'm such a scared freak when it comes to actually holding it.

I don't want to be that annoying party host whose asking everyone if they're having a good time or not; or spending way too long wondering if guests are going to get along alright or not; or if I invite my brother will he be embarrassing and actually wear the superman outfit?

I have been watching some 80s movies I haven't seen before (sacrilige) to also help me get in the mood, started watching Pump up the volume last night with a good looking young Christian Slater in it. While it isn't what I expected I'm enjoying it, next up is Teen Witch which sounds very similar to Sabrina the teenage witch and then the Outsiders.

I do have some ideas: twister, my boyfriend recently bought me an old sega master system which apparently came out in 1985 (I love Wonderboy, tried to get Paperboy but the games store had the cover but not the cartridge - had to stop myself from writing disc then!) and also singstar with 80's hits, technically obviously not 80s but points for karoke!

Of course there is also the issue of fancy dress: will people make enough of an effort? I think it is a lot easier for girls. You've got the big hair option, side ponytail, scrunchies, big headbands and of course shoulder pads, off the shoulder tops, bright colours or failing that there's always dressing as Madonna or Cyndi Lauper.


But I just wonder if the guys will get into it. I asked my Dad for insight into 80s parties (he was 22 in 84) and the best I got was no pre-mixed spirits in cans. I guess there always is the mullet as a staple from the time and skinny ties.
The 80s was supposed to be about power dressing but that was more for the women who were trying to prove they were as good and deserved to earn as much as the men. The 80s for fancy dress is not as easy to define as say the 60's/70's (go as a hippy, serve fondue and you're set) or the 50's where I'd suppose men could go as Elvis and girls could wear flouncy skirts a la Grease.

I really really want to have a party though...I never do much for my birthday and it's always fun to dress up (and get presents)..so I'm just going to suck it up and get over my fears somehow. Plying everyone with liquor usually helps.

Play

Ok so I was reading a blog called the Chick Manifesto and had this interesting idea about answering questions based on your ipod songs..



Rules:

1. Put Your iTunes, Windows Media Player, Winamp, etc on shuffle.

2. For each question, press the next button to get your answer.

3. YOU MUST WRITE THAT SONG NAME DOWN NO MATTER HOW SILLY IT SOUNDS.

4. Put the artist after a dash following the song name.

5. Put any comments in brackets.

6. Tag some lucky people to spread the disease.




How would you describe yourself?

If you leave me now - chicago



How do you feel today?

Lovefool - the cardigans



What is your life’s purpose?

Trick me twice-kellis



What is your motto?

You keep me hanging on - Kim Wilde (I'm seeing a pattern :P)



What do you think about very often?

Umbrella - Rhianna



What is your life story?

I like you so much better when you're naked - Ida Maria



What do you want to be when you grow up?

In the shadows - the rasmus



What will you dance to at your wedding?

Everybody's fool - Evanescence



What is your hobby/interest?

Run It - Chris Brown



If you could do anything right now, what would it be?

From me to you - beatles



What do you want most of all?


My love - paul mccartney



What is your greatest fear?

Don't you want me baby - human league



What is your darkest secret?

We've only just begun - carpenters



What is your favorite thing in the world?

knock on wood - amii stewart



If you could have one wish, what would you wish for?

I second that emotion - smokey robinson



What is your theme song?

harpoon - jebediah



The next time you hear this song (aside from now, that is), you must dance.

you got it (anything you want) - roy orbinson



What will you post this as? Play - Jennfier Lopez



Overall I realised a lot of my song titles kinda sound depressing!

Reliving past memories

There has been such an influx of snark online about all my old favourite books when I was in what they would now call the tween market. While I love reading the snark sites devoted to various series (the Baby-Sitters Club) or authors (Christopher Pike etc) I still feel that nostalgic twinge when I see the covers. As lame as it sounds, seeing the covers again, instantly reminds me of how I felt about the book, I immediately know whether it was one of my favourites and also what I was doing at that time. Books just don't hold that power over me anymore..maybe they will in time but for the moment they're a diversion; something to read while at my desk at work or on the train if I feel like avoiding people. I still love to read and do try to challenge myself instead of just grabbing the latest chick lit, but I can't imagine myself getting that nostalgic over the covers.

One of my favourite series which I bought from ebay at the beginning of the year was Pen Pals. This has outdated so much for so many reasons, not only the most obvious ones being no one receives letters anymore (but is this a good thing?).

Brownlow medal

I believe I started this blog while at uni when we all had to try it for a technology and enterprise unit, and I've pretty much forgot about it..anyway trying to be a more regular poster and the first thing I thought to write about was the brownlow medal count here in Australia.

For those who don't know it is for australian rules football (AFL) and is held the week before the grand final and basically celebrates the great players of the season and the winner gets the aforementioned brownlow medal based on votes during the seasons games as determined by the umpires.

Now in recent years the night has really become all about the WAGS (wives and girlfriends) of the players. It's their turn to dress up and have a night out after supporting their partners through the long season.

Now as you can imagine the fashions are sometimes interesting. It could be compared to any awards night in Hollywood with the A grade celebrities (your Rebecca Twigly with Carlton player Chris Judd) who are photographed from every angle and interviewed for 5 minutes. And then you have your B grade celebrities who are maybe trying to break into the market (acting in Hollywood, generally modelling or fashion at the Brownlows) who will wear low cut revealing outfits to make a memorable appearance.

Now I have a couple of problems with this ceremony. First it's become all about the girls - the guys basically show up in a bow tie and stand to the side while their girlfriend is interviewed the most, and the night is actually meant to be about the football.

Secondly, I heard a segment on the radio yesterday describing some of the fashions this year. Now apparently if you wear an outfit which is down to your bellybutton it is fine if you are slim. If you are not twig like, then the outfit is suddenly 'inappropriate' for your figure. Surely if an outfit is inappropriate on one person, a similar outfit is inappropriate again, your weight should not matter. But double standards prevail for women on a myraid of issues so I should not be surprised, but for some reason it really annoyed me yesterday.

RIP Heath

Going against what I set out to do, but I couldn't not say something about Heath. It's so tragic and sad, particularly as I am from and live in Perth where Heath lived until he was 16 and still has family here. One memory I have about Heath's film career was seeing 10 Things I hate about you, when I was about 16 at the cinemas in Midland and then driving past Guildford Grammar high school and thinking "That's where he grew up and now he's a hollywood star." At the time it seemed awe-inspiring, and this was back in 1999 when Perth didn't really produce many entertainers. And also I was a 16 year old with a bit of a crush.
Anyway, I digress. It's so sad, when I think of all the talented roles he would have taken on. At that time, he hadn't done a lot on the US but had done a terrific job in Two Hands. And since A Knights Tale, the rest is history. What can I say, I'm a bit in shock.