The Grateful Grabber

Some months back I Discovered Gratitude.

It's not that I didn't thank people before, although I was always bad at sending thank you notes as a child, something I still feel a little guilty about, & I'm wondering if that's the reason that my Godmother  dropped me after I turned 21. 

But I never much thought about actually Being Grateful. I just grabbed as much as I could.

Nowadays, I'm still a grabber, but a Grateful One.

It all started when a colleague at school told me that her mother writes down five things that she's grateful for every day in a special book. I immediately loved the idea & began doing it myself. And, when a few months later this woman had some kind of Brain Aneurysm & nearly died I was undaunted. Admittedly, I stopped doing it for a little while, but since I found out that Oprah does it too, I'm Back on Track.

So I'm posting these snaps taken freshly today by my Default Schoolgirl Photographer Happy, to show off my Magnificant Houndstooth 'Simona' coat which was given to me by The Duchess' Mother- in-Love, Joy.  Thank You Ladies. Such a wonderful thing !

The Hierarchy of Men

Yesterday, someone (Darla) noticed that I'd written on the whiteboard 'Hierarchy of Men'. She wondered what I meant.

Yes, it does sound intriguing, doesn't it? What could Unlucky In Love Middleagedteacher be telling a pack of Back-achingly Bored seventeen year old girls about Men?

'Girls.....if there's one thing I want you to remember in all the myriad things that I've taught you is that there's such a thing as a Hierarchy of Men. The Man at the Top, for example, Jeremy Northam shown in this photo in his role as Mr. Knightley in 'Emma' is  Such a Man. Perhaps Richard Armitage as Mr. Whatsisname in 'North & South' is another. But  Colin Firth as Mr Darcy is the Exemplar.

These are the Men you must aim for Girls. Don't accept anything less.'

Of course I didn't say anything of the sort. I was just ranting on about Men in 'Emma'. 

But as I was writing that little imagined piece of advice, it occurred to me that that was exactly the sort of Ridiculous Mumbo Jumbo that passed as Received Wisdom when I was young. Stuff like,

' You can tell the character of a Man by the quality of the shine on his shoes'.

But now I've started to think more about The Hierarchy. I can see hundreds of men, all standing on top of  each other's shoulders, perhaps with a slight lean to them, looking like A Human Leaning Tower of Pisa. 

Who would be placed in the middle? Maybe Reliable Chartered Accountants and Suburban Dentists. 

And what about the Bottom? I shudder to think.

Over at my flickr photostream I've revealed my New Obsession. 

Michele Obama. And it's about time too. Jackie's Dead & I've Got To, repeat Got To Move On.

So every day I trawl through NY Mag's online Michele Obama Look Book  to devour more images of her so I can pretend to Shamelessly Copy.

You can see in the photo above that I'm Shamelessly Copying Mobama Arms. I like to call them Mobarms.

And look closely at my newly shaped & tinted eyebrows or should I say, Mobrows. Aren't they adorable?

Sadly, I think that I'd look like Hilary Clinton if I stood next to Mrs Obama, although I'd never be seen dead in a 'Slack Suit', or are they called 'Pantsuits' now? What I mean is, I'd look little next to her, although probably not quite as little as the Incredibly Shrinking Queen of England looked next to her. 

The Sartorialst Hits Sydney & Doesn't Take My Photo

The Sartorialist is in town. Do I have to go through who or what he is or what?

Let me summarise in as few words as possible: Scot Schumann is Possibly a short man (not that I think tiny men have power issues or anything) who rules over the world's most popular street fashion blog. He takes photos of lots of Middleaged & even Slightly Elderly Men who wear dapper  bespoke clothes that can look, a little, dare I say, Silly. Then he takes photos of Fashion Insiders of both genders generally smoking outside some Exclusive Fashion Event, like 'the tents' during NY Fashion Week or Paris or Milan or even Sao Paulo. Honestly, You can bet your bottom dollar that at any given week it's  'Fashion Week' somewhere in the world. I was hoping that because of the 'Economical Downturn' (a phrase used by one of my twelve year old students) that 'Fashion Week' might be shelved in favour of 'Thrift Week', but no such luck.

Here in Sydney & of course Melbourne, which is really the Home of Australian Style it's Fashion Week, so He's Here.

That's a Long Summary. But let me assure you, Every Word was Needed.

So, Scot & his camera positioned himself in probably the daggiest parts of Sydney - near the Opera House & the Harbour Bridge. Here's a photo showcasing one of his most popular looks - Towering Inferno Shoes & Big Black Statement Bag. 

Meanwhile, in another part of Sydney Harbour, I was slaving over a Hot Whiteboard even though only yesterday I was at home sick with a Mild Case of Pig Flu.

In the photo, I'm struggling to find some poor student's work that I can't find because I'm really thinking about the wonderful Toy Chanel Quilted Handbag on the desk that my friend & colleague, Princess Pip just bought back from a Place that Makes Them . 

What is it about Me & Toy Chanel Bags? What do they mean, I wonder?

Don't ponder too hard because I'd like you to click on the image of me standing next to the board. Next, enlarge it so you can see the wonderful Faux Sixties Op Art pattern on my newly-thrifted coat dress. 

Sadly, I know that even if I was walking past The Sartorialist, he wouldn't stop me & ask for my photo. So, I'll just have to keep getting my students or me to do it instead. 

There's always a way around everything.

Oh God.

I had it all planned that I'd Burst Back into the Blogosphere with a Magnificent Post, full of verve & panache. Funny, breezy, ascerbic, with just a little touch of The Brave Martyr, like Joan Crawford, perhaps in 'Mildred Pearce', (one of my favourite films by the way)  lightly carrying the emotional weight of the world on my ample shoulder pads.

Instead I got sick.

I'm not kidding, I thought that I'd got Pig Flu. Last night as I lay in bed tossing & turning, boiling hot & then unexpectedly icy cold, I racked my brain as to where I could have contracted it. I certainly hadn't been to Mexico. 

When I woke up this morning, I seemed to have worsened. It was the first day back at school after our holiday. How could I stand in front of the whiteboard with Pig Flu? It would be Too Irresponsible. 

So I rang in sick. 

I went back to bed & wondered what to do next. For a while I listened to 'Mindfulness', an audiobook by some fabulous spiritual teacher called Jon Kabat-Zinn. The earphones made my earache worse, so I stopped listening. 

Then I got up & had two aspirin & three thousand milligrams of Vitamin C. And I've been doing that every four hours for the whole day.

 My answer to everything is Vitamin C. Never mind that I could be killing my kidneys. A small price to pay for not having Pig Flu.

And now it's Night & I'm feeling Slightly Better. 

So, I'm going back to bed to listen to more audiobooks. I've ditched Jon Kabat-Zinn for Lynne Mc Taggart who I discovered on Oprah's 'Soul Series' radio programme. Lynne is going to talk to me about how we live in this silly Newtonian Universe when really we should be living in a Quantum One. I'm quite interested & find her no nonsense confident American voice quite soothing. Just what my Pig Flu needs.

I've got sooo many pictures of my amazing thrifted finds from 'Bednobs & Broomsticks' to show you.  Sooo... stick around

A Small Savoury Platter

As this is my last post for two weeks, I decided that it would be a Corker.

Well, perhaps more of a Smorgasbord or at least a Small Savoury Platter.  I've collected some seemingly random images from my recent Wide & Varied life which I'll walk you through.

Yesterday was the last day of Term 1. And not a moment too soon. I have this theory that the school just Has to Go on Holidays frequently because if it didn't, it would burst. The emotional temperature gets too high. 

I, of course act like I'm Above it All, as you can see in the photo below. 

But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Look at the first photo, above. I took it yesterday after my Year 9 class had a lesson reproducing their favourite image of the term. We spent most of it studying 'Romeo & Juliet', so that's why a student has written, 'Everybody Dies' which doesn't really sum up the play for me. In my view, Not Enough People Die in it.

While my students were beavering away on sheets of paper, I drew my favourite image of the term on the whiteboard, which was the v. nasty scene where Hateful Lord Capulet calls his daughter, Juliet a 'Green Sickness' & a 'Green Baggage'. And I  thought that my father was a pain.

Please note my newly-thrifted 'Bally' metallic blue shoes that I've been banging on about all week. I spent the whole of yesterday trotting around in them, which let me tell you, was Quite a Feet. (ha). They have a reasonably high heel for a woman who mainly wears faux ballet flats, but of course they are nothing like the Towering Inferno Heels of Victoria Beckham. My great challenge was not to walk like a Drag Queen in them. You know, that kind of gangly splayed walk that Drag Naifs can have.

Anyway I'm thinking that the shoes are contributing to a Slightly Slutty look that I'm going for.

Next is a container of Pouring Custard & a dish of Peach Cobbler, which Magnificent Moniker made for last Sunday's 'True Blood' dinner. 

Last week she made Plum Pie. I'm hoping for Bombe Alaska next. 

I put this photo in because these rather homey & old fashioned but beautifully made desserts are the Absolute Highlight of my Culinary Week. 

 Most of the time I am fairly abstinent. In fact I enjoy looking down my nose & saying a Snooty 'No thanks' when someone at school offers me  even a tiny chocolate easter egg. 

But certainly not on Sunday night. I just shovel in it as fast as I can.

This aged sign intrigued me when I looked closely at it in the Art Deco foyer of the Enmore Theatre this week when I saw Lucinda 'Muffin Top' Williams. It's probably been sitting there misspelling 'Snacks' as 'Smaks' for the past seventy or so years. 

Was it deliberate, I wonder? Was the pre WW2 signwriter just having a little joke & hoped that no one would notice? 

One of Life's Little Conundrums, I guess. 

I'm almost finished. Look closely at my young colleague, Princess Pip. I just had to post this because she bought the rather Authentic Faux Hermes Scarf at lousy old 'Cotton On' for ten bucks. I was both Happy & Infuriated when she told me.

Happy, because I could rush out & buy one  first thing tomorrow when the shops finally open as they have been shut all day because of Good Friday which is ridiculous because Australia is the most heathenistic country on Earth for God's Sake. How's that for an Anarchic Sentence? I told you I was on holidays.

Infuriated, because I actually own a Real, not Faux Hermes Scarf that I bought when I was working at 'Harrods' in London in 1974. And Princess Pip's looks a little too much like mine.

Well, that's My Savoury Platter. I hope you found something in it to your taste. I'm off for the next two weeks. But I'm going to still be posting on my flickr site.

Please Please Please be here when I return.