The Christ Church Gate

15 June 2008 @ 01:11 pm

Haec studia adulescentiam alunt, senectutem oblectant

A community like

hot_dead_guys is an enormous amount of fun. I remember photcopying pictures of Rupert Brooke out of library books and festooning my college room with them thirty years ago. He would have to be the ultimate hot dead guy.

I visited Canberra last year and was able to take in the first major retrospective of George W. Lambert's work at the National Gallery. It was an incredible exhibition, including some of his monumental sculpture - yes - they had shifted whole memorial pieces from St. Mary's Cathedral and Geelong Grammar School to the exhibit.

Ever the adolescent at heart, one of my favourites was this Lambert self portrait (a la Velazquez). George gives Rupert a run for his money I think.

(National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne)

Current Mood:

happy

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02 June 2008 @ 02:25 pm

What is the Latin for eeeoooooowww?

Long weekend - all set for walks, movies and chunking down a friend's PhD chapter into a briefing paper for the Executive and what do I get? Blocked sewerage!!!! Arggh! Toilet, sink, shower, basin, all glooping and swelling with unmentionable liquid gunge. And how hard is it to get a plumber on a long weekend? Armed with the hose, rubber gloves and a bottle of the nearest thing to carbolic I can find, I attempt to flush out the offending mass but no. Tree roots in ancient terracotta pipes. Thankfully a mate puts me onto an emergency crew called Rota Rooter. Mmm.

The young lad brings a snakey thing and manages to shake the pipe clear, breaking a trough pipe in the process. Do I care? Nah. Do I care about the $276 it cost? Nah. Am joyously flushing, flushing and flushing...

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30 May 2008 @ 06:49 pm

Hanc viam si asperam esse negem, mentiar

I am in the middle of writing a story and have become totally obsessed with a noise Bill Nighy makes. I want one of my characters to make the same noise but I am having extreme difficulty describing it. It would probably be classified in the tut tut or the tsk tsk group of sounds, but it is singular and is more like a cross between a tut and a very annoyed doh!

There is a scene in Underworld where Nighy (Viktor) is giving Kate Beckinsale (Celine) a good dressing down in the crypt (looking incredibly regal in his brocade) and he makes this noise. He uses it again in the Pirates of the Caribbean, At World's End, where he even manages it with a face full of tentacles.

Argh! Anyone know the noise I mean and have any suggestions on how to express it?

Tags: bill nighy

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25 May 2008 @ 05:36 pm

Happy Birthday Louby!!!!!!!

I hope you and Pip have a fabulous day, party hard and get spoilt rotten.

Love

Meg

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22 May 2008 @ 09:52 pm

Nimia fiducia calamitati solet esse

God! They are going to film Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray again. Leave off you sodding vandals! Ben Barnes will play Dorian Gray – at least he looks a little more - wonderfully handsome, with his finely-curved scarlet lips, his frank blue eyes, his crisp gold hair. There was something in his face that made one trust him at once. All the candour of youth was there, as well as all youth’s passionate purity – than bloody Hurd Hatfield did in 1945. He looked like a refugee from a Max Frisch play.

( Spleen et ideal )

Current Mood:

disappointed

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09 May 2008 @ 07:37 pm

Ubinam gentium sumus?

Sorrysorrysorry. Hills Hoists usually look like this. Minus Kev and Therese (named after our Prime Minister and his wife), of course. Usually with lots of washing or kids hanging off it.

( Two iconic Oz brands hereunder )

Current Mood: Alzheimery

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09 May 2008 @ 07:10 pm

Hoc te moneo

Put this in your 101 uses for a Hills Hoist file. For the birthday celebrations Young Ponder Stibbons lifted the top of the clothes line out (you can just see it on the left tucked under the jacarandah) and my sister, the florist and I created the palm tree with a bit of old black homespun and some judiciously placed leaves.

I am a total dag but I had to post it.

( Pic under cut )

Current Mood:

silly

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04 May 2008 @ 10:51 am

Dulce ridere

Of the scores of photographs I downloaded from the net for the Next My Heaven the Best displays on the birthday, this is one of my favourites. Delon had the most exquisite face and magnetic presence.

I also found a couple of Terence Stamp that did my head in.

A far cry from Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. For my slash pals with love. xxxx

Tags: delon, stamp

Current Mood:

impressed

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03 May 2008 @ 10:32 am

Ave Nauta!

A hangover cure for

mistress_pol who is currently suffering from Tupperware Party Poisoning. Our conversations about Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie activated the aging grey cells to the following effect.

I have had the most marvellous time these past two weeks. The 50th Birthday Party was a blast and everyone had great fun. The preparation of photo boards led to a number of serendipitous finds in cobwebby old boxes, not the least of which was this programme for the Cambridge University Footlights Revue, Botham the Musical, which toured Australia circa 1981.

We were totally unaware at the time who these lovely people would become. In fact, I am ashamed to admit that as I left the performance I remember remarking that they were only moderately funny. I hang my head in shame. When you read the scans of the programme below, you will see that I am in august company. There are hilarious excerpts from critics of CUFR's past shows who were as stupidly underwhelmed.

Herewith, dear friends - Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie and Emma Thompson as they were in 1981. Please let me know if you can't see the scans adequately. I am still learning the intricacies of the LJ system...

( Hullo Sailor )

Tags: cambridge university footlights

Current Mood:

happy

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12 April 2008 @ 08:16 am

Isne est quem quaero an non?

I am thinking that my favourite Orli picture would not go down too well on the cover of my fiftieth birthday invitation. Family and colleagues are taking a dim view of my recent predilection for the Numinous One and associated slashfic. However much I carelessly toss the words animus projected out, individuation, transformative or episode in the service of transcendence about, they deliberately choose to misunderstand, snicker and characterise me as a dirty old woman. Or worse, as I launch into another explanation for the select few, there is a polite, wary nodding and I can see they are repressing a desire to pat me on the head. :)

I am hampered by the fact that Australians of my generation identify the word slash as a slang (not terribly de rigeur) term for urinating e.g. Hang on, I just gotta have a slash. Secondly, it conjures up images of B grade horror films in which girls of dubious intelligence are filleted by grossly deformed individuals who were obviously traumatised by their parent(s) in early childhood. Thirdly, since my generation never had this wonderful recreational activity when we were younger and (God forbid) our mothers never read anything of the sort (that we know of), we have no terms of reference for the phenomenon, no way to make it fit into our construct of adaptive activity. People are off side from the word go.

( Continued )

Tags: birthday berkoff

Current Mood: Inspired

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31 March 2008 @ 07:22 am

Non sum ita hebes ut istud dicam

Water is coming out of the sky in Perth. This rare occurrence must be marked.

Current Mood:

enthralled

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18 March 2008 @ 08:47 pm

Non pudet vanitatis

I could hear my son laughing his head off the other day and went to investigate. He was watching an episode of Harvey Birdman in which this delightful parody of managementspeak appeared:

"Putting clients first by putting employees first,
immediately after prioritizing fiscal responsibility
and leveraging profitability toward exceeding
by empowering our employees to put clients
(and themselves) first, in a diverse and respectful
environment of only those that come first, first."

(Michael Ouweleen and Erik Richter, Employee orientation,
Harvey Birdman S3 episode 11.)

I told him to stop laughing. His mother actually writes this shit for a living :)

Another amusing but genuine example from the Australian Human Rights and Equal Opportunities Commission:

"This requires a commitment to the provision of adequate data so that informed evaluation can occur. There must be a commitment to the provision of statistical information that will facilitate effective monitoring and evaluation strategies and a commitment to the implementation of the changes that are identified as necessary following evaluation."

And you have absolutely no idea how fast I could type that out!! The only word that was missing was frigging "flexible". But even Governments draw the line at having a flexible committment - on paper at least.

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10 March 2008 @ 04:26 pm

...Omnipotens Deus...

My knees are wobbling. Have just seen the surgeon and the bad news is they can’t fix the shoulder straight away. It is Middle-Aged Lady Disease – shoulder impingement and frozen shoulder. He sees about six of us a week apparently. Aetiology unknown. You get to a Certain Age and your shoulders can seize up. Tighten into a locked ball. Tendons scrape and wear away with each movement. Bursa swells up and exerts more pressure on the joint. I was hoping at least that the bone spur would be the direct cause but no, it just happens and can take two years to remit on its own.

So the bugger comes at me with a 19 gauge needle filled with cortisone and injects it straight into the joint. I am in so much pain I don’t care. We are to wait four weeks and hope for the best. Eventually the bone spur has to come out, but not now, he says.

The waiting room was filled with trophy pictures from grateful sporting heroes – the Olympic Team, cricketers (Gauroth! They had one of One of Gilly’s shirts!), divers, gymnasts, hockey players, footballers - the works.

( Deo gratias )

Tags: cortisone, medical culture

Current Location: home

Current Mood:

drained

Current Music: Hildegard von Bingen

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20 February 2008 @ 02:13 pm

Non omnia quae dolemus queri possumus

Friend

fictionbylouby sent this meme – Ten Things I Hate beginning with a given letter. She has nominated the letter L for me. Hmm. This is quite tricky as I am no longer given to hating these days. It is a sure way to upset oneself and the people around you. So perhaps this list may better be called Things That Distress Me beginning with L.

( Read more... )

Tags: ten distressing things

Current Location: home

Current Mood: extreme pain in shoulder

Current Music: Natacha Atlas: Adam's Lullaby

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18 February 2008 @ 06:52 pm

Writer's Block: In Honor of President's Day

Describe what you think makes a great president.

View other answers

An ability to respect the sovereignty of other nations.

Tags: president's day, writer's block

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16 February 2008 @ 09:46 am

Animus meminit praeteritorum

(In which I get administratively and Indigenously dot pointy and it is moorditj)

The past two weeks have been a bit of a journey.

( Read more )

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02 February 2008 @ 03:45 pm

Cum rosam viderat, incipere ver arbitrabatur

An artist friend comes around for lunch today and shows me this link. Something soothing and incredibly beautiful for when you are feeling a little low. Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUDIoN-_Hxs

Current Mood:

peaceful

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30 January 2008 @ 08:04 pm

Omne tulit punctum qui miscuit utile dulci

(In which Our Kev decides that Australia will apologise to its Indigenous People)

At last! Our newly elected Prime Minister will make a formal apology to our indigenous people for the terrible devastation they suffered as a result of past Government policies. We have been calling for this for years but had to wait until Labor was elected. Our whole Department will be huddled around the radio on the day he makes that speech! This means an awful lot to us.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/01/30/2150494.htm

Current Mood:

ecstatic

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28 January 2008 @ 01:12 pm

Mea Culpa

Sorry to my friends for putting such a huge entry up. I have been trying to get it all behind a cut for hours. Please bear with me. If I can't do it I will remove the entry altogether if I can. Assistance is sought and welcomed!!!

Meg

Current Location: back room beating up computer

Current Mood:

distressed