penneylaneonline

Rove McManus is the host of his own television show here in Australia called Rove Live. He's something of a private person/public figure which must be a double-sided life to live. Like double-sided cellotape. It's sticky whichever way you cut it! Last year his beloved wife Belinda Emmett (Belle) passed away after a long battle against cancer. She was so loved by Rove and the general public alike. Yesterday Rove's name and face are splashed across the front page of the papers because he has... Sign in to see full entry.

At dusk in the 'sham (short for Petersham where I live) the skies can get to look like ruby grapefruit juice. They taste so good to your eyes. I never tire of looking at the sky when it's like that here. Sights like that can make you do things that ordinarily you wouldn't do! Like lick your plate! My mother was a woman of refined manners. Licking plates would have got me sent to Siberia but one day in a peak of adult separation from childhood reprimands in my head I licked the plate I'd been... Sign in to see full entry.

Many things impress me about today's youth but the thing that impresses me the most is when I meet one with manners. And why should that be impressive? It just is! It speaks of a respect toward a person that has somehow been diminished over the years. Diminished by generational misunderstanding and sometimes social and cultural misinterpretation. To meet a young person with manners is as refreshing as the Maroubra sea air. You want to breathe it in for a long long time. I had an occasion to met... Sign in to see full entry.

Death is so final. There is a finality about it that can't easily be erased like some mistake we've made on the paper of our lives. Il est fini. It is the end of our life on this earthly plane as we know it, it's the end of speech to those we love or have unloved throughout our lives. There is no beginning anymore. Il est fini. I like that there will be no more tears and no more sorrow. I like that thought a whole lot for Dean Shillingsworth. Nothing makes me feel as sad as the death of child. A... Sign in to see full entry.

A change is as good as a holiday (or so they say!) but I'm never quite convinced that this is so because more often than not we're not 'leaving' to go anywhere we are just changing the way our mind would like to interpret our present circumstances. It's a euphemistic phrase for "the budget's tight, can't get away right now but it's a nice idea!" The 'nice idea' is simply the cheaper option. How many times wouldn't you (if money were no object) have preferred to go away on holiday? I bet you your... Sign in to see full entry.

The personal hell that we think we know individually is often the only hell that matters at all. Why is that? Because it's personal. No-one else (though well-meaning souls might) can tell us what our personal hell feels like because to be perfectly honest, they can't (that despite their own stories) but here's the thing. My story is not their story no matter how much it might sound like it to them. I refrain from attributing my life experiences to anyone elses no matter how much I would like to.... Sign in to see full entry.

There's a ribbonette hanging inconspicuously in my galley kitchen that reads, "If wearer is found depressed ADMINISTER CHOCOLATE IMMEDIATELY" every chocoholic that I know has read it, knows it's there and I've had to carry out its instructions to the letter because my kitchen has a way of bringing on fits of depression like there's no tomorrow. Most of the alleged sickies look pretty healthy and happy to me so you can imagine my suspicion all of the time! They get this green in the gills look.... Sign in to see full entry.

The word DREAM is carved in graceful wood lettering and painted in stand-out white. It sits on top of my wardrobe (in full view) as a persistent reminder of how often we forget that the action is as important as the reminder. Can mere words spur us to action? In my experience they can. Words delivered in an empowering manner can sometimes give us the confidence to do what we had intended for ourselves to do all along. They open the door to let us through and stand patiently waiting (even in our... Sign in to see full entry.

Cow-tipping is the reprobate actions of (mostly) Aggies (short for Agricultural Science) students with too much spare time on their hands and an alcohol content that would start more than a few bush fires. I've seen it done. It's a dastardly pastime and I've always wondered why it never woke the cow in the first place. Stupored students are NEVER quiet yet it seems to me that cows are either deaf in sleep or completely caught up in conspiring dreams of how to escape from this or that paddock. In... Sign in to see full entry.

'Big' tasks are taken up by 'big' personalities with their hand to the plough. Note, I said personalities not heads. There is actually a difference. It's always a good idea I think to keep a finger on a persons character pulse when deciding whether they'll have the heart and stamina to see a project through to the end. Those three C's again: character, competence and commitment. From time to time I'm surprised by just who makes it through to the end. That's why a sure thing is never quite a sure... Sign in to see full entry.

We spend some of our lives looking over our shoulder and most of it trying to figure out exactly what's up ahead. We live between the lines of now and not yet. We think for the most part that there has to be something more. Is there? Should there be? What if there wasn't? Anything more I mean. Could we stop the nagging feeling on our insides that there was? Should we? It's not clear to me just yet. I think so but I can't be sure or perhaps what I really mean is, I don't like to presume on anyone... Sign in to see full entry.

Bad juggles are a fact of life. The reality for most of us is that life is full of situations where there are necessary tensions. I actually don't ascribe to a 'balanced life' because in reality life isn't quite that ordered! I've often thought that life is a series of balls in the air that we juggle badly (mostly) but juggle we do. Bad juggles aren't bad necessarily, they're just a juggle that we never know exactly how they'll end up and no matter how they finish up we never have to feel... Sign in to see full entry.

Speaking of thoughts, as per Respite Care, there's another kind of thought that's getting harder and harder to discern among people these days. An original thought. Now there's an idea. There are some people however that are fortunate enough to be a well-spring of them but for the most part the rest of the population are a miming hope that one day they just might strike oil with them. They and me sometimes live in this hope daily. The thing about living in this hope is that it's an active... Sign in to see full entry.

Do you ever blow the cobwebs off some aged thinking with the idea to bringing them back bigger and better than before? I get that intention from time to time. It's helpful that when I do feel this way I have all the very best intentions at my disposal. The thing that becomes frustrating though is when the cobwebs return overnight. It bugs me. I sometimes refer to this kind of off-beat thinking as 'wonky' thinking. You know, as in not thinking straight. Have you ever made the decision to put some... Sign in to see full entry.

When Buzz Lightyear uttered those immortal words, "to infinity and beyond" it begged the question of where exactly he thought he'd end up and if falling off the edge of the galaxy was such a bad thing! Mind-boggling isn't it! Where is infinity? At the very least one ought to explain where you enter it before you can safely surmise where it ends? Is that possible? The thing is that infinity actually began as a moment in time yet spends the rest of its life-time as a time with no end. Are you... Sign in to see full entry.

Ever tried to wake a sleeping child that didn't want to wake up and have a happy ending? You know it's only a fifty/fifty chance you'll both be friends by the time their small feet hit the floor but like any tried and true warrior you press on. We're fearless aren't we? The thing about this kind of battle is that winning it is crucial. Yet, how you win it is as crucial as any other hard-fought (and hard-won) battle on this day as on any other day. This kind of battle is won softly. No really,... Sign in to see full entry.

Dan had a distinct affinity for food that was unrivaled. He loved it. At three years old he took to raiding the refrigerator at night and it was a constant source of puzzlement to me where everything from the lower shelf to the second shelf from the top appeared to have disappeared as it were overnight. It looked for all the world like a raid by doppelgangers! It was a mystery for a long long time until the fridge-raider was too tired to return to his own bed one night. At 6am the next morning I... Sign in to see full entry.

Mario's on Edwin Street North in Croydon is my favourite Italian Pizzeria. Mario is third generation owner of his inherited family business. His grandfather and father both owned and worked its small premises on the cnr of Edwin Street North and Henessey St. They are located right beside the railway tracks next to Croydon Station. You would think that would matter but it doesn't. Not to Mario's bulging clientele. There are stock standard things that I order and eat when I go to Mario's. His... Sign in to see full entry.

Men (well at least six of them that I know) have this fascinating thing that they do. It still puzzles me! Why, for instance, do some of them insist on driving a quarter of a mile down the road to turn around when a decent three point u-turn would be sufficient? I mean really, I'd like to know? Is it a 'secret Men's business' thing? What? The issue itself is a strange phenomenon among men who pride themselves in a level of driving expertise that is superior to many women that I know, including... Sign in to see full entry.

I'm not sure when famous became the new black but it is what it is don't you think? Good spin! A person can 'get' famous for no other reason that getting their mug on the telly or being whisked from obscurity and waiting tables into a citrus-flavoured limelight because they were in the right place at the right time, reading the right script for the right Director or Producer. I've never wanted to be famous but I have been notorious! Mind you, I've got my seven minutes of fame in a small... Sign in to see full entry.