penneylaneonline

There's something immediately likeable about touching base with family and friends like this, over the internet. It has all the feel to me of saying hi over the back fence (except sort of more global). Contrary to what most (older) people think, the internet is and can be a very connective tool within social networks that people have or develop (and like most things, can be de-constructive when used inappropriately). The first time I saw BroTown was last year. Okay, so I'm a late bloomer. I... Sign in to see full entry.

I was thinking some more about my Dad overnight and more particularly about how everyday things like having a cuppa and eating shortbread is one of our favourite things to do. And it struck me that simple pleasures like that meant and mean so much to me. My Dad loves crossword puzzles, I do too. There's something totally satisfying about finishing one or almost finishing a Cryptic Puzzle. I call that half finished Cryptic "saving the challenge" (when in actual fact I just mean that my brain is... Sign in to see full entry.

It's Father's Day. I chatted with my Dad this morning, he lives in Waipukurau in Central Hawkes Bay on New Zealand's North Island. And I live in Sydney, Australia. We talked about the drought here in outback Australia, the equine flu, the New Zealand economy and the effect of global outsourcing on its local economy, and what music he's listening to these days. It's what you do on Father's Day when one of you is there and the other of you is here. You talk about stuff you'd always talk about as... Sign in to see full entry.

Absence is a funny thing, they say that it makes the heart grow fonder and I suppose that's true to some extent. But absence is absence, it means you or they (whoever 'they' are to you) are not in the same place and therein lies the complexity of the human condition. When that happens, absence can disconnect us emotionally too. Now, before you all read the riot act to me, understand, while we all like the warm and fuzzy idea of secure familly ties and or friendships, the reality is that life... Sign in to see full entry.

Today my friend Elizabeth buried her husband. He was young, had cancer left her and two young sons. We had his Wake at our little Bowlo; it’s just across the road from where they lived. It’s been a long time since I’ve been to a Wake, particularly one that wasn’t a Maori one. Maori people call a Wake a tangi. They can be very emotional times tangi’s and they can also be one of the most connective times of a person’s life. It’s a time when you meet new people; many of them you realise later are... Sign in to see full entry.

Sometimes the smallest steps take us further than we ever imagine it possible to go in a few well made strides. And the big deal about that you ask? Well, there’s none really except that understanding how purposeful we can make our lives through simply watching where we place our feet is something I never really thought about until I had the occasion to be looking at my feet for an extended period of time. Then I remembered how I used to employ the same purposeful steps when walking across... Sign in to see full entry.

It’s overcast outside, it rains when I’m not looking and stops when it thinks I am. There is something entirely reticent in the day’s manner that catches me unaware. I suppose I can live with that. Truth is, no one much else cares really. Molly is catnapping, off chasing flying saucers of tuna a la mode in the happy hunting grounds in her mind. Can’t blame her really, there are worse things a cat could do on a day like this. I’m not sure what exactly, but I’m sure there are. We’re pretty... Sign in to see full entry.

It’s muggy like a claustrophobic granny-hug. Gets you every time! The humidity has that cloying quality, in much the same vein as a granny that hasn’t seen you for a while and holds you with the wrestling grip of a Chris Benoit cross-face. It feels like you’re being smothered (which of course is precisely how it is). But the day marches on. There’s a gentle hum of busyness round the ‘Bowlo’ this morning. It’s Fleas (as in Flea Market) on the Green this morning. The update on our little ‘Bowlo’... Sign in to see full entry.

It’s strange but have you ever noticed how just one day out from a birthday you expect that waking up the next morning will make you feel different? As if! I pinched myself today just in case I’ve involuntarily let myself fall into a forsaken stupor and not realised it. God forbid! The trouble with a horrifying thought like that is that sometimes it’s true of our condition and we don’t actually realise it until someone points it out to us, then, I’d say we’re really in trouble. For my part, I... Sign in to see full entry.

Today’s my birthday, I don’t feel different and I wonder why I don’t. I think it’s because the expectation to feel something different is rather underwhelming to be honest. Do I feel older? Yes and no. My life feels more lived in I suppose but then it should. The truth is I feel abit flat. I don’t know whether it’s the fact that being sleepless in the ‘Sham (Petersham) is taking its toll or I’ve singularly become unimpressed with adding years to my age and after so many years of doing so it all... Sign in to see full entry.

My soul feels sluggish lately, like it’s carrying extra weight around that has slowed it’s progress. It’s frustrating and peeving at the same time! It’s like being in charge of something that has both a life and mind of its own but you’re still expected to keep charge of it! If you’re anything like me, you tend to throw you hands in the air and throw a hissy fit designed to give you the sense of an immediate ‘feel better’ hit while still using an octopus-like manoeuvre to bring all the... Sign in to see full entry.

Like most people, I love a feel good story and I love it because there are some stories that should be told because they help us back to the place where we can believe in the capacity for human kindness again. It surprises me then that the media tell them so infrequently and they are (for the most part) the exceptions to the rule rather than the rule. Why is that? Is it because ‘good’ is a bad seller? That bad is a better seller in fact? Quite possibly! I’m heartened though that the ‘feel good’... Sign in to see full entry.

From time to time I get to thinking how lovely it would be to simply drop everything that currently exists in my life and just pull up roots and relocate some place else. The feeling is most unsettling really, like a nagging yellowing bruise that still aches when you press it. And invariably you do (press it) because you just can’t help yourself! There’s something approaching stupidity that makes us do that, whether consciously or not. It’s a strange sensation, sort of like sweet and sour,... Sign in to see full entry.

I love dancing. I love the way it makes my feet sing and my spirit soar. Do you ever feel that way? It’s a beautiful thing, yes? Yes. And the right kind of music has a way of showing us the state of our spirit which has (in the long term) more salubrious connotations for us than we might have originally thought. Dancing unknots in me the tangled emotions that one simply pushes beneath the surface and mistakenly believe will iron themselves out over time because out of sight is out of mind! Sound... Sign in to see full entry.

It’s fun to speculate sometimes just how successful a thing could be even when it isn’t just yet? Don’t you think so? I mean, it’s sort of like a structured dream when you think of it like that. Opportunity plus effort and action equals success. Isn’t that a fairly simple enough formula for it, success I mean? Okay, so I was being simple-minded but it’s a fair enough no frills formula right? No? Then what? Oh okay, so there’s the business nuances. Business is light and shade, yes I can concede... Sign in to see full entry.

When time gets away on me, I often wonder what I’ve done to allow that to happen in the first place. Usually it’s quite an involuntary response to a more voluntary concern. It happens when the allocation of time becomes irrelevant to the focus of my attention. Sometimes a good thing and sometimes not. For the most part I believe there’s a place for allowing such run away moments. Cementing the passion is one of those times, definitely in the beginning, sometimes mid way or even when we are... Sign in to see full entry.

Sumner Redstone said, “The best deal is one where it’s fair to you and it’s fair to them”, this from a man who has engendered loyalty from his staff because he has shown it to them. And this too, from a man who has an estimated personal fortune of $US9bn. He says, “He looks for three things in a person, competence, character and commitment”. What do you look for in a person you want to be in your team? I ask myself that sometimes in quieter moments. What makes a real dream team? Great individual... Sign in to see full entry.

I had dinner with my friends Graes, Jen and Ian (Tamsin was away) tonight. I always love my time with them. Their friendship is like an oasis. Not that life has been desert-like lately, no, it’s just that it’s so refreshing. Their friendship is life-giving. There was an introduction to Peter and Louise and one of their sons Angus. If you are guaranteed one thing at Graes and Jen’s it is that you will always enjoy fascinating and lively conversation and a great baked dinner. And so it was. I’ve... Sign in to see full entry.

Saying ‘I love you’ can seem such an over-used statement of our love for someone we are devoted to widely as we are deeply. I sometimes feel one ought to save the phrase up like a carefully wrapped childhood treasure. You know the ones. The kind we imbue with all the magical believing of a child and transform its ordinariness into something so much more than that. Much much more. I’m not saying one ought to make the phrase obsolete from one’s lack of use. Rather, I feel like we might use it like... Sign in to see full entry.

I read somewhere once that “you don’t have to own the playground to play on the swings”. I found that a particularly odd-about kind of adage really. Odd but somehow quietly truthful in its matter-of-fact manner. Disarming as well. I love home grown truths. They have just enough of a ring about the truth they are trying to convey that one somehow feels (and this despite never having met before) a warming familiarity that by-passes anything one might consider a real stranger danger and therefore... Sign in to see full entry.