Six word memoirs

Sunset over Halong Bay, Vietnam 2006

The guys at http://www.smithmag.net/ got me thinking about 6-word memoirs and I had a go at writing some about me, some about friends and some about family. Not telling who's is who...

• Large families mean chaos with love
• Food has meant too much pain
• I found love on the internet
• Sisters mean everything to me
• Busy looking at others, missed me
• Didn’t understand until you were gone
• Sunday papers keep me reading
• Determined never to be hurt again
• Never realised she had any choices
• Refused to accept illness, stayed sick
• Not enough love left her broken
• Responsibility left no room for fun
• His happiness was always put last
• Never learnt happiness was her responsibility

What I want to inherit...

My aunty found this early photo of me (when I was in my 30s) - the earliest we've found. I'm the baby being held in the back row. These are all my siblings and some cousins - one of my favourite photos.

I participated in a comptetition at http://domestica.typepad.com/ today where the question was

"If you could inherit anything from a relative be it close, distant or made up (some of us need to make up our relatives), what would it be?"

The answer sprang quickly to mind for me - I'd love to inherit an old photo album. We have very few photos beyond this generation (and there isn't even a baby photo of me - my mum was an exhausted mother of 8 when I was born, me being the 4th under 5!).

My mum & Dad are from a different time when cameras were for rich people. Photos were taken by visitors, or street photographers, or were taken at formal occassions.

There are a few snaps of my grandmothers - both of whom I never met. There are none of my grandfathers. I want to see who I came from. I want to see the family physical characteristics that I and my siblings have inherited down the line.

Are my legs my maternal grandmothers fault or my paternal grandfathers? For now I have to take my Mum's word for it all. What was their fashion-sense like?

I love taking photos of my family, and watching us all grow and change. Hopefully somebody out there has a whole treasure-chest of memories of my ancestores waiting to be discovered.

City Panorama

City View

'I' ve got a surprise' my valentine promised, a few of my faviourite words.

My valentines' surprise was a drive to a great view he knew. I was touched with how thoughtful a gesture it was - he knew I was loving the snow, so unlike my Aussie home, and he was agreeing to allow me to take photos.

Normally he hates standing around as I fiddle with my camera, getting frustrated that I don't have the right equipment on me, or that we aren't quiet in the right spot.

He took me to a hill overlooking Halifax, and even though a lot of the recent snowfall had melted I was able to capture a few shots of a whitewashed town.

The little specs in this shot are sledders taking advantage of a hill in a park.

25 Random Things

Someone asked me today to do a little exercise in facebook where you list 25 facts, thoughts or goals about yourself - random things that come into your head. I liked the idea and decided to replicate here:

1. I love photos from photobooths & how everyone seems to take them as permission to look silly. I think we all need some more silliness in the day. I've included some fake ones (we did them with a self timer at home and then joined together in photoshop).

2. I'm developing an obsession with miniature people, like those in expensive train sets, and I don't understand it myself.

3. My favourite place to have a coffee at the moment is the Tiled Room in the Leeds Art Gallery - and the coffee is only ok. The room is just so lovely, I sit there and wonder why we don’t build buildings like this any more.

4. Living in a rental property again has inspired me to make changes to my apartment at home.

5. I still have no clue about what I want to be when I go grow up.

6. Julia Cameron, writer of the Artist’s Way, is one of the biggest inspirations of my life.

7. Jordan and Peter Andre's reality show makes me laugh and laugh, and it makes me feel good about my relationship.

8. I only discovered yesterday that I'd always wanted to ice-skate in the snow.

9. I cut my niece Renee’s umbilical cord, and made her belly button.

10. Living in another country teaches you so much about your own country as people are constantly asking you questions you don't know the answer to - so you have to look them up.

11. I can’t believe I am 41 soon, I feel 21. I can’t believe all my nieces and nephews have grown so. There is only three left at school!

12. I can’t understand words if you spell them out loud to me.

13. I think miracles are the little small coincidences in our day, the chance meetings & the opportunities before us, that ultimately change our life.

14. I just don’t get Mariah Carey. Just lost on me.

15. I love getting mail, even if it is just bills and I love checking it each day.

16. Cats make me nervous.

17. My life goals are getting simpler and simpler, and not just because I don't think I can make them. I just seem to want less and less each year.

18. I first cried looking at art looking at a photo of Tracey Moffat's. I don't want to tell you which photo - I think it tells you too much about me.

25 is such a big number.

19. I am trying to capture the perfect photo of Leeds, but after hundreds of photos I feel a little defeated.

20. I really struggle to understand Yorkshire English some days. And apparently my Australian English can be hard to understand too.

21. I’m worried that I haven’t driven for so long that I’ll have lost my nerve when I get back to Australia.

22. It’s the little things I can miss the most here – the fish markets, Australian-style coffee especially flat whites, blue sky, people who don’t notice I’m Australian, the beach, ABC radio.

23. I can’t sing and I can’t whistle. I just don’t have the music in me.

24. I love magnolia’s, and one day I’d like to try to do a bonsai magnolia tree.

25. I’ve never watched Star Wars.

Snow Day

Today is a special snow day - it is beautiful, white snow that is covering most of the ground. I got to spend a lot of today in the snow, including ice-skating at an open-air rink. Skating around on wobbling legs, with the wind and snow in my hair, I felt like a 10 year old. It was a special, lovely day.

Sadly my camera broke down so I don't have any new pictures. So I've posted some old snow day shots.