Categories
Life momentous events

10/52 On yodelling

I would imagine that yodelling is difficult. I’ve never seriously tried it, but to change pitch that quickly and accurately seems confounding to me. And yet people do it. And learn it. And now I can proudly say I know one of them!

Yesterday, I took my Mum to watch the Matthew Flinders Anglican College performance of Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. It was astoundingly good. And I’ve been directing musicals since 1996, and been in them since the mid-1980s, so I’ve had quite a lot of experience.

Honestly, I haven’t seen that level of well-nurtured talent since my time in the music department at John Paul College in the mid-1990s. And JPC used to book out the Queensland Performing Arts Centre for its production week, so that’s saying something!

Seriously though, the levels to which these students were guided was simply incredible. There are some definite future stars at that school. And one of them is only in Year 8, and not even yet a teenager!

Which brings me back to yodelling. You see, she was one of the principals (all the others were Years 10 – 12, from what I can gather) and was cast as Augustus Gloop. [If you remember the story: he was the sausage-loving 9 year old boy from either Germany or Bavaria – depending on the version – who was the first to find a Golden Ticket. He was also the first child to depart from the tour of the Chocolate factory when he fell into the chocolate river and was sucked up the tube, precipitating the first introduction of the Oompa-Loompas.]

And in the Hal Leonard Australia version which I saw yesterday, Augustus and his Mum yodel. Quickly! (I mean, of course quickly. Who’s ever heard of a slow yodel?) And they yodelled brilliantly!

I don’t think yodelling is something you can do half-hearthedly. It’s probably like abseiling or bungee-jumping – you have to commit. And commit they did. It was brilliant!

As was the whole production, honestly. The staff at Matthew Flinders should be proud of themselves, with the amazing standard of singing, acting, dancing, instrument-playing, lighting and follow-spotting, stage-crew movements – even the email prior to explain car-parking! The whole kit and kaboodle was extrememly impressive. And I’m hard to impress.

So well done, students and staff. An achievement you can all be justifiably proud of.

And I doubt I’ll try my hand (or voice) at yodelling anytime soon! I’ll leave that to those with more talent…

Have an inspirational week yourself, dear Reader!

  • KRidwyn
Categories
family anecdotes

8/52 On sadness…

Hubby and I have had dogs for many years now. Late last year, we lost our beautiful Aksel, our 14 year old German Shepherd. Like most shepherds, it was his back hips.

Last Sunday, we lost Rocky, our 14 year old Australian Cattle dog. He had cancer 🙁

Meaning we have one dog left, our kelpie puppy Kiya.

It’s been a hard week on all of us…

See you next week, dear Reader. I hope it’s a good one for you!

  • KRidwyn

 

 

Categories
momentous events Random thoughts

5/52 On clutter…

This Facebook meme made me laugh the other day, so I shared it so my friends and family could laugh too. “Wouldn’t it be funny / cool / amazing to cross things off my own To Do list!” I thought to myself. “Very cheeky… but how freeing!”

And then I scrolled on, and life continued.

My thoughts kept returning to that idea though. Of how cool it would be to have that freedom.

And then yesterday, making space on a bookshelf by working out what books I’d probably never read again and deciding to donate them, it hit me.

Why not? Why shouldn’t I do that?

Most items on my To Do list are just ones that I wrote there anyway! So will the world end if I remove them without doing them? Or am I, in fact, just decluttering my life of self-imposed obligations, expectations and deadlines?

I’m a fan of the TV series Space Invaders.

In it, de-cluttering guru Peter Walsh calls ‘cluttter’ anything which gets between what my life looks like now, and what I want my life to look like (a bad paraphrase, but that’s how full my mind is right now).

Now those books I’d collected, with the idea of reading them or re-reading them at some point – the hard, physical objects collecting dust on my shelf – were clutter.

But who’s to say that clutter is just physical? Can’t mental items – thoughts, expectations and obligations which sit there, collecting dust on the shelves of my brain – be just as much ‘clutter’ as physical clutter?

So: “Crossing things off my to do list. I didn’t do them. I just don’t want them on my list any more…” I’m giving myself permission to do this. Those self-imposed expectations of ‘I want to do THIS by THIS DATE’? I’m deciding that – for me at least – it’s okay to let these things go. Maybe if they’re not helping me, they’re hurting me? I’m certainly feeling more free, just even thinking about it!

May you have a ‘freeing’ week yourself, dear Reader 🙂

[And if you’d like someone else’s permission to free yourself of self-imposed obligations and expectations, here it is: have mine!]

See you Sunday 🙂

  • KRidwyn

 

Categories
family anecdotes teaching Work

3/52 Final day before the chaos

Yes, that’s right. The 2024 school year starts back tomorrow. It’s been a wonderful holiday… not the least of it due to family gaming time.

Decades ago now, Hubby was an addicted gamer, to the extent that I was a ‘computer widow’. Since I couldn’t beat him, I joined him, and once multiplayer games became a thing (yes, I did mention ‘decades’, didn’t I) we had some pretty amazing sessions, some of which bordered on the truly epic.

Fast forward to sometime in 2021, I introduced our son to Caesar II and the Age of Empires franchise. Fast forward again to the 2023 / 2024 summer holidays: we had our own Mum-Dad-two-teenagers slaughterfest on AoEIV (Anniversary Edition) where it was me getting slaughtered, Hubby barely hanging on, and our daughter (who’d only just started playing two days earlier) just narrowly being beaten by our reigning champion son. Hours and hours and hours of fun was had! And humbling experiences too, I must admit, for me, as well as Hubby…

Seeing my little computer villagers building castles got me inspired to also spend some time re-reading one of my favourite trilogies: The Heaven Tree series, written by Edith Pargeter (who also wrote as Ellis Peters, of the Bather Cadfael series). The protagonist is a master mason who dedicates his life (literally… he gets killed as soon as its done) to building of a castle on the English border with Wales. It’s a magnificent story, and the writing style is sublime 🙂

And then, to bring it all ‘into the real world’ as it were, this showed up in my Facebook feed:

What a simply stunning piece of architecture! Isn’t it inspiring that someone had the courage to design such magnificence – let alone the bravery of the people who built it (and maybe even, who lived there!)

Anyway, I just wanted to share these thoughts with you, some reflection time, just prior to heading into the chaos of this school year.

Happy first week back of school, dear Reader!

  • KRidwyn
Categories
Blogging challenges family anecdotes Writing

1/52 Memories, from Melbourne, with hope

And so it begins; my first blogpost of the New Year. And I’m in Melbourne, which apparently used to be called Batmania prior to being renamed back in 1837.

(And no, although it’s amusing to think of a black-winged crime fighter controlling the convicts in this area of Down Under, apparently it was named after John Batman, a leading member of the Port Philip Association and the person who negotiated a treaty with the Aboriginal elders to purchase 600,000 acres… so nothing to do with DC Comics, Inc.)

But discovering this fact the other day got me thinking about the past, and how so much of history gets forgotten, both intentionally and accidentally.

I met a lovely lady last night – my cousin’s mother-in-law. It was her 76th birthday party and our conversation had moved onto the topic of tattoos. I related the story of one of my family member’s, who’d faithfully kept a diary – until the day his girlfriend at the time found it, read it, and used it against him. Unsurprisingly, he’d decided to stop journaling, and ink his memorable events onto his skin instead. I’ve always wondered if this second method resulted in lost memories. And this saddens me.

2023 was one of those years which I’m glad has ended. And although I could blithely say “I could happily forget whole chunks of it” I know that, should I *actually* do so? Sure I’d be more free-from-pain than I am right now, but I’d also no longer be me. Our memories are what makes us who are we – and there’s lessons I learned through those painful 2023 experiences that I’m glad I won’t have to re-learn.

So here I am, starting 2024 more despondent than I can ever remember being, but intentionally trying to look for snatches of hope for a brighter year. (They *do* say when you’re down, the only way is up, right?) And hope, after all, is all we need, yes? Aren’t there a plethora of films out there whose entire premise is that hope is stronger than hate, or fear, loneliness or depression?

So that’s how I’m looking at 2024. One day at a time, one hour at a time. Trying to see the good, rather than focusing on the less-than-good of the recent past. Moving on, moving upwards. And recording it in words here on this blog, which I’m grateful to be able to do. Not everyone feels they have the luxury to record their thoughts in text, after all.

So. Here’s to a hope-full week ahead for us all, dear Reader, and I’ll see you next week 🙂
⁃ KRidwyn

PS Just cos I can: the doubledecker bus I rode from Tullarine aitport to Melbourne CBD. The last time I rode on a doubledecker was in 1980 in London!

Categories
#Springinyourstep family anecdotes

Puppy!

Mum has a new friend. Her first ever dog. ‘Trav’ – the travelling dog 🙂

Isn’t he just adorable!

Have a lovable month yourself, dear Reader!

  • KRidwyn
Categories
Life More about me Random thoughts teaching

On ‘schooling’

So my two school-aged kids are at the same school again, for the first time since June 2021. It’s Brisbane School of Distance Education, and they’ve completed the first week of Term 4.

And so far, it seems to be going well! Miss15 started last term, so it wasn’t ‘all new’ for her, but my taller-than-me-now Master14 has been at it for a week… and he seems to be tracking okay 🙂

Such a relief. This parenting gig is harder than it first looks… and wow but that pregnancy bit does NOT look comfortable!

I’m always second-guessing myself. Should I “let” Miss18 have a gap semester or a gap year – or just figure it out for herself? Will the benefits of Distance Education outweigh the issues for the other two, or have I just made yet another foolish decision? Will they be able to support Master14 with his autism, more effectively than at a regular school? After all – that’s why I’ve moved him…?

And when on earth does it all get easier?

Still. BSDE schooling *seems* to be going okay, at this moment in time, so here’s hoping that this will continue… Wish me all the best, dear Reader!

Til we meet again 🙂

  • KRidwyn
Categories
family anecdotes Life More about me

thoughtful.

As in, full of thoughts.

It seems as though the majority of children these days have ‘coped’ with the separation of their parents. And it appears as though I’m joining their ranks. At the age of 49.

I’m too full of thoughts, it’s difficult to write them all down.

Sorry, dear Reader. I’ll try again next month.

I hope yours is a good one.

  • KRidwyn
Categories
momentous events

and how!

Busy is an understatement!

On the flip side though, there’s this:

Isn’t she a beauty?!

See you next month, dear Reader!

  • KRidwyn
Categories
momentous events

Happy birthday, me!

Today I want to thank some people. I want to thank my brilliant Mum, Rehanah, for bringing me safely into this world 49 years ago, and to my parents for nurturing and guiding me since then.
To Ian, for saying some special words and then staying with me since then, 27 years ago, and also to my amazing three cherubs, as you all make each day a delight.
Thank you to my extended family, all my friends, and my colleagues, as without each and every one of you my life would be the poorer. Thank you all for the amazing human beings you are, and for making the journey I’m making through this life the wonder that it is. I truly appreciate you all!
And here’s to another trip around the Sun for us all 🙂 🙂 🙂