Friday door.... and a little bit of politics...

Something a little different in the villa door world to end another busy week. Not so hip and cool this one but a beautiful shade of blue to match that stained glass.

I'm distracting myself from the 'open warfare' and 'blood letting' of the week... overused cliches but they actually do best describe Australian federal politics this week.

In my real job I do not gaze at lovely interiors and critique front doors, I dabble in the political world in as a journalist. Part of me usually loves the thrill of a political story like the Gillard and Rudd #respill.  (That's the twitter hashtag that's caught on - I like #kevenge).

As a political yarn it's a belter but I'm sick of it.  I was sick of it before it became more than just a rumour in a few weekend newspapers.

I want Labor to sort themselves out. I want the Opposition to stop sniping. I want to feel inspired, even just a little, and led by our leaders.

Anyway this is not work and I am not at work today so back to that door.

I don't want to be critical but (don't you dread sentences that begin with 'I don't want to be cruel/rude/racist?).... it needs a bigger doormat. I guess if they'd known I planned to take a picture they'd have rushed out and bought one.
If some local blogger is planning a walk-by to snap my door, please wait.

You can barely see my doormat for the  leaves, acorns and stones collected on the way home from school and discarded and webs from the army of arachnids settling in on the verandah.

I've been waiting weeks for the broom fairy to visit but I may just have to don the tutu myself. Or bribe the husband.

Now that's a nicer picture to leave you with than Kaptain Kruddy, Juliar and the Mad Monk.**

Happy weekend. x


*My apologies to those overseas who didn't even know people would bother fighting to be in charge of a far off land like Australia. We do have more money than Greece and a mining magnate richer than the Queen of England.

**Not my terms I'd hasten to add. Mr Rudd, Ms Gillard and Mr Abott is what I would call them - if they'd agree to come on my program.

Reading? I recommend....

Just before I left Auckland a fellow book clubber recommended I read some William Boyd. 'William who?' was my reply. Now I know. Thank you very much Ange.

William Boyd is my new favourite author and I don't quite know how I missed him. I remember seeing many copies of his best seller Armadillo being read on the tube back at the turn of the century (1999).

Better than any best seller list was seeing what the London commuters were reading - when I first moved there it was The Beach, a few years later Harry Potter, now they're probably reading their iThings. Boo.

Anyway back to Boyd. He writes brilliantly, his characters are intriguing and (unusually for good writers) likeable.  Each of his books is also quite different so I easily read five back to back.

My favourite? Any Human Heart. Followed closely by Restless...

The best of the rest... Ordinary Thunderstorms, Brazzaville Beach, A Good Man in Africa. Oddly enough it was Armadillo I liked the least. But it was pretty good too.

Go forth and read.
Run, don't walk - as the hip young things say.

Snap, snap...

I got a new camera for Christmas and am loving it.

I thought it would make me blog more, inspire me to write but of course life is getting in the way. Life is a little like that don't you find?

It's a Lumix DMC-FZ40 -  the new version of our old camera. The zoom broke on the last one - probably through overuse as I'm always sneakily taking pictures of my children so that they don't give me ridiculous camera ready grins.

I spent the whole of last summer 'manually zooming' - walking towards the subject. Most tedious.

The new camera has a million new features I haven't quite deciphered and probably never will but I'm  delighting in its 'zoomability' and the weight of it in my hand. Like Goldilocks and those pesky chairs some cameras just feel right. *

I should add (before he does) that the husband took this photo with my new camera.
What's his is mine, right?


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 *Any professional photographer who had stumbled across this blog has just spilt their short black in disgust.

**I'm time poor. This picture was ready and he owes me a lifetime of home cooked dinners.

Friday door, named... and my pinterest push...

Now this Friday door is a little different, a difficult door to deal with but done well.
It's awkwardly placed in a corner on the side of a house with no defined front path.

The plants and the address etched on the glass (or the sticky stuff that looks like etched glass) leave no doubt that it's the main entrance.

I very professionally blurred out the address  (is there no end to my talents?) in case you start spamming the owners with 'like' mail. One can't be too careful.

If you like it 'pin it'.

Yes I have finally joined pinterest.   I refused to listen when people told me how great it was. I thought it might just be another thing I don't want to make time for.

It's not. It is GREAT... a clever, simple, useful spot to save those pictures, products, tutorials and reviews you've read online and can never find again. I'm using it to save fabrics I might like for cushions, cushion sellers on etsy, recipes, doors, you name it.  Clearly I love it. Do it. Please.

Weirdly you need to be invited to join. Let me know and I'll invite you. Even if you don't I'll invite you. I'm a born -again pinner.  A pushy one.

Australian classics...

 

I am the sort of person who waits until a day or two after daylight saving shifts to change all the clocks. I need a day or two to adjust to the idea, even though it happens twice a year.

Same with a new year.

Now that it is well and truly 2012 I have updated my reading list. 2011 is still there with a few comments on the books I did get around to reading. Some good, some great, some so so. Some I couldn't finish.

Here's something to look forward to in your reading year. Text Publishing is producing 32 Australian classics in paperback form, cheap at $12.95 (cheap for an Australian book - don't get me started on book prices here).

In this thought-provoking opinion piece Michael Heyward, the head of Text Publishing, bemoans the fact that many of Australia's best literary works are now out of print - and even the entire works of some of our best authors.

He has an excellent point. I studied English Lit at school - not at university unfortunately -  and would consider myself pretty well read but many of the books and authors he mentions I haven't read or (cough) recognise.  2012 should change that.

The full list has not been released but will include Careful, He Might Hear You,  David Ireland's The Glass Canoe,  and Henry Handel Richardson's The Fortunes of Richard Mahoney.  

The scheduled release date is May. You can read more about it here on the publisher's website in the coming months.

Friday door, white on white on white...

A Friday door that's fresh, crisp and spells summer.  Apparently they're not having such a crisp sunny summer in Auckland where I spotted this door before we left last year.

We have summer in spades in Melbourne this month. It's been so hot that on occasion my older son wants to leave Australia. It's only 35 degrees I tell him. Toughen up, next week it could be 42.  Of course when it hits that we'll both be melting into the same greasy puddle.

It's also been a week of few words on the blog. Life is busy isn't it? I don't mean to join the competitive 'I'm busier than you are' conversations that people delight in. And I'm not importantly busy at all... not solving any Big Issues or raising seven children while working full time. Or even cleaning my house. Hell no.

I did go back to work yesterday on a public holiday - Australia Day -  and fought to get a car park among all the people gathered to celebrate their Australian-ness.

That's the trouble with journalism. We journos may be bottom feeders but we have to work on all the best days and because we're not saving lives nobody cares. That's why every summer you see those  'There Are Too Many Public Holidays' stories in your newspaper.

We whinge on hoping against hope that someone somewhere will care. Anyone?

Mouse in my house...

The little guy on the right is coming to live at my place... to hang around, sniff cheese, read a little.

You can buy him here along with a lot of other pretty little critters.
Thank you Miss Jones.