Guilty Pleasures

Come on – we all have them. Eating Nutella straight out of the jar whilst snuggled under a blanket and watching Bridget Jones for the 100^th time? Your vinyl collection of Bros? Your hidden CD collection of Kylie Minogues hits – all of them. Watching that foreign crime show on SBS, with the sound on mute and no intention of reading the prompts – checking out the eye candy?

My guilty pleasures surround the telly… evil contraption. Singularly responsible for melting the intelligences of all who watch it, the degradation of our society, melding the will and opinions of the weak minded populous… did I mention I hate the media, the manipulation of facts, opinions and images to suit power mongers… hang on I think I need a little air here….breathe in and out….

For many years, Adrian and I didn’t have a telly. I was very mistrustful of them and the mass media anyway – having gone through several Gary McLeallan courses at Uni in multi media ( anyone who knows who Gary is.. will understand) When we lived in the tin shed ( rejecting all forms of capitalism) the telly we did have blew up and we were too poor to buy another. Plus it was too cold to sit and watch it – the wind whistling up your legs just loses it charm when it hits 0 degrees. We moved to the UK and amongst the mad things they do over there – you must pay for a license to have a telly. That just got up our noses – I don’t even know how much it was – but I am sure even if it were 50 p we would not have paid it. SO we went through five years there with no telly. It was such an incredible treat if we ever went to a B & B or a hostel and go and watch the telly.

When we got back we didn’t bother buying a telly – we had gotten used to not having one and really – found other things to be doing. I remember I won a DVD player at work. It was a very big deal and it was a very expensive one. It sat in its box for over 3 years before I opened it. When we finally did get a telly – we banished it downstairs – so it was a big deal to have to go outside and down into the garage and into the flat to watch TV. So we still didn’t watch a great deal – DVDs mainly.

Kids came – and for peace sake, so did the wiggles and playschool. Still a lot of DVDs and not much regular telly – though I have to admit one guilty pleasure – 24… Jack Bower – hummm Keiffer Sutherland has always had a very special place in my heart…it was on at 11 pm – how ridiculous! But by then – Morgan never slept – so I was up 24 hours a day – so it was fine… There was a show on just before it – a doctor thing – I never got much into serials and especially the whole emotional strain of doctors and nurses… however – Grays Anatomy really struck home with me and I used to ensure I would be watching it first – before 24 came on…

So my guilty pleasures – currently surround a Wed and a Sunday night – the only two nights the telly goes on for any extended period. Spicks and Specs, The IT crowd ( or whatever comedy show is on at that time and there have been some crackers – bring back the Chaser!!!! ) and the Movie Show. On Sunday – Gladiator ( I know – shame…..) and then Grays Anatomy. I am particularly embarrassed about Gladiator and how much our whole family gets into it – yelling and shouting at the competitors and for our favourite gladiator. The embarrassment is sort of like your new boyfriend finding a pair of your dirty undies stashed in the kitchen when he went to make a cup of tea…what?

Another Guilty Pleasure I am sharing with a friend – and they are the BEST – is searching You tube for Adam Hills videos and watching them. Over and over.. even the ones you have seen every time we do it – we watch it again… especially the Rocky Horror one.. replaying him ripping his shirt off. Oh dear.. I think I need a little lie down and some air….

Celebrating Mothers

Necklaces made from painted pasta, beaded bracelets and creations with lots of tape and cardboard boxes., wrapped lovingly with meters of paper and string. The surety that gifts will also include chocolate and a pair of slippers for winter. Hot coffee and toast in bed and the serenity of 20 mins to enjoy it by my self. Ahhhh, I love Mothers Day.

Blogging a little late today. Had far too many nice things to enjoy this morning- which dragged into the afternoon and then evening. Morgan and Adrian cooked a roast leg of Pork accompanied by broadbeans in butter, sweet pumpkin mash and crackling – yum! We shared our Mothers Day lunch with Jodi, Dylan and Dave. Jodi forced us to endure her famous ( low calorie, low fat – not) mars bar chocolate caramel cheese cake.

With champagne in hand, we chatted and generally spent some quality adult time together. Even more delightful, the guys took the kids off to the park behind our house while Jodi and I pampered ourselves. Face mask on, feet soaking in deliciously hot water, scented candles.. and no kids screaming… ahh bliss.

Its such a simple treat – to paint ones toes nails, to buff and shape ones fingernails and to have a deep cleanse and then gorgeous moisturizing facial… hummmm

My family never did much in the way of Mothers Day – or Fathers Day. Mum hated to eat in bed and said it just attracted cockroaches. So breakfast in bed was out of the question for her. She was generally up at sparrow fart milking cows or mustering sheep anyway. We never went much on cards – handmade or otherwise; and I suspect any creations we may have brought home went into the bin – for they never made a showing past it being brought home from school.

On the other hand – last year I proudly wore my pasta jewelry to work the next day – and dared anyone to say anything about it. I have huge scrap books stuffed full of every scrap of paper or card that Morgan and Lilly touched. I keep telling myself that when they are famous artists that I will sell the masterpieces off piece by piece to secure my millions into my disraceful retirement.

I knew from my love of history that Mothering Sunday was one of the only days indentured young people in servitude or otherwise, were allowed to go to their parents hovel/ home for the day.Of course it was tied up with the dogmatic beliefs of the church – wherein the reason servants were allowed to visit home was to go to church with their mothers and to pray to the Virgin Mary. .In the UK its celebrated at a different time – March I think? I also have an inkling that Mothers Day in the US came about by women getting together and wanting peace for their war torn country ( during 1800s civil war) I guess that as with many things – very sadly – Australia took that idea ( like a little brother thinks big brothers stuff is so much cooler than Mum or Dads stuff) and worked it around the UKs idea.. to come up with something that is commercial, empty and fairly meaningless to most people.

Further back in history, I know that each god or goddess had their special day which was celebrated and depending on the culture – there would have been a particular goddess who over looked or was the patron of mothers. That celebration of the feminine, of giving thanks to those who nurtured and sacrificed for her family – that is the pure essence in which Mothers Day aught to be celebrated.

In a sense, that is what we did today. Our family units are now so disengaged through distance and emotions, that they do not function as they were meant to. We are fortunate enough to have a good links with friends who share similar beliefs in community spirit. That space we created to nurture our feminine side to pamper and beautify – that is the essence of our celebration today.

Space

“I don’t need this anymore Mum, can you put this on Ebay?” Morgan hands me an intricately drawn and written note and a unidentified plastic thing he had discovered in his room. Its his ad to sell the item. Very carefully he has copied the shape of the item and put a price with lots of ‘0s’ in it. That-a-Boy!

I smile. Entrepreneurial spirit is alive and well in this household and I openly encourage, support and try to develop it.

A few weeks ago I went to a one day seminar on internet marketing. The presenters offered a range of strategies and opportunities. Although there were bigger and more indepth courses that I could have chosen to enroll in, I got enough to sink my teeth into from this day and have been excited ever since. Some strategies outlined ways to assist me in collecting data and interest in upcoming books I am planning to write. Others details how to start of small with a niche idea and grow it from there. I was particularly attracted to Ebay. It just made so much sense – people who browse Ebay are already looking to buy. With a normal website – people who go and look at it may only be looking for information. Huge difference – and lightbulbs went off in my head.

So – I am starting of nice and small. The kids and I have gone through wardrobes to clear out all clothes that don’t fit and am sorting it into charity shop piles and piles to sell. Toys and other items are under the same scrutiny. I feel refreshed, excited and clean.. You know when you have had a hard day out wither in physical labour or exercise and you go and have a shower? How good do you feel when you step out of the shower? That’s how I am feeling.. tingly and fresh.

I read a few articles and a book on how to sell successfully on ebay and did the tutorials on line. I am attempting not to fall into the traps I have heard others do – overpricing and not enough info etc. I have strated off with small items and all beginning at 99c. I mean the stuff hasn’t cost me anything – I would give it away anyway – so might as well get some grounding work in it and keep polishing my approach.

I haven’t set up a shop on ebay. Its tempting – but I will wait a while yet. I rather like the idea of on selling small quirky Ikea stuff – a lady in the US does it and to be honest it’s a big market. Unless you physically go into an IKEA you can’t buy the items. I know from personal experience trying to get an end of line item in May a few years back – there were three of the thing I needed dotted around Australia. I called the stores and they don’t do inter store deliveries at all. You physically have to go to that store and buy it. So what was frustrating and down-right annoying, has perhaps swung in my favour.

I have also started to learn how to design a website. A long painful affair I am afraid but one I am a bit proud of. I am so non techy. However, HTML is my friends –well – cut and past from a cheat sheet is anyway. I can’t tell you how excited I was when I finally saw my three page website up on the web – and it all linked together! Sadly, I am still struggling with the photos and graphics side of it and there are big boxes on the live website with nothing in them. The files just didn’t get transferred or something… well back to a tutorial or something. I am sure there is info on it on the net. ( I love the internet!)

Well – must be off. Have some photos to take of my next batch of things to upload on Ebay… and will try not to get stressed that there are no bids on them yet….and will attempt not to keep an eye on them all day…pathetic really.