A big Hip hip to this New Year, 2013! May it be a good one for all and a happy and healthy one.
Just thought I’d say I haven’t forgotten about the blog, just busy cruising the streets in S.A. (South Australia) and lapping up as much quality time as possible, before the annually dreaded departure. Gotta make the most of it!
But somehow there’s those petite ‘mon Dieu’ surprises that always bring France back to mind…
Back soon…
I’m starting to get the jitters about the plane flight – but HEY, I’m heading home!
I can’t get there fast enough, with everything that’s been going on… Just can’t wait to hit the ground, feel and smell the dry air and see all those beautiful eucalyptus trees and give my family and friends a hug (sorry for that cringe, but I mean it).
It’s a long long way to get there – a huge, bon voyage – and I’ve been revving myself up with some tunes that remind me so much of home (and hey, don’t get stuck into me that they’re not new – my finger’s not on the pulse anymore out here).
These songs are giving me a great buzz right now… but I’ve gotta say that sometimes some Aussie songs reduce me to a sobbing mess! (as well as all the others: Natalie Merchant, Antony and the Johnsons, Adele et al…). I can be driving in my car, playing the music real loud and suddenly I find myself choking with huge, involuntary sobs – a blithering wreck trying to see the road with tear-filled cloudy eyes. And I love it. I think of home, think of my family and have a great, big, cry. It feels SO good. I’m almost joyous. I’m sort of between happy, ecstatic, thankful and sad, all at once. And would you believe it, I’ve cried to Kylie Minogue and Tina Arena. Eeeewww. Better stop there.
Do songs remind you of home?
I’ve been reminded today of how hard it is to lose someone you love. I lost my wonderful, funny, larger than life uncle.
I was out in my car and receieved a text from my brother in Australia – it said our uncle had died half an hour earlier.
There I was, sitting alone in my car, on a country road in the middle of nowhere, reading a simple, clear message that suddenly altered a part of my life forever .
I felt so far away from home. And I still do. I can’t be with my family and the people I love over there – and give my Mum and Dad and my brothers a hug and say how much I love them. I wasn’t able to tell my Uncle that either. I can’t cry and laugh about him with my cousins. I can’t go to his funeral and be there for my dad, his big brother.
It sucks being so far from home sometimes. You try to get on with your life, you accept the distance (even though it’s still hard), you enjoy where you are and try to make the most of each day and then wham, something like this happens.
Thank you Uncle Leigh for everything we shared: the loud LOUD music, your cooking, the laughs, your humour, letting me stay up late, fish and chips at the beach for our lunch breaks when I was your chauffeur; and of course Elvis – watching re-runs of nearly every live Elvis performance on video together, paying me to edit the commercials out for your recordings of Elvis tv midday movies, telling me the King was possibly still alive; you saying your tongue-in-cheek ‘bonjours’ to me over the phone from Australia, telling Dad to stop pissing with him when he didn’t understand my new married name really was ‘Dunno’ after I’d eloped; the widened eyes in mock horror at cheeky jokes, letting me house-sit for you and Marilyn all those times (my girlfriends and I thank you), showing me amazing jazz performances on the tele until all hours, re-enacting for me the first swimming scene from Jaws in our pool (you playing that woman) over and over again with me watching and squealing with excitement, when I was still ‘too young’ to watch the actual film; coming home late at night to see you lying on the couch at Mum and Dad’s watching a movie with them (you always got the best seat in the house); and not to ever forget, Uncle Leigh, your enthusiasm and positivity – your happiness at being alive. You were always so much fun to be around and we all, your many nieces and nephews (you were the youngest of 10), knew how much you loved us all – as we do you.
Thanks for everything Uncle Leigh. I am going to miss you so much.
It’s here!?!!
I must admit I often feel flat at this time of year, well for the first few weeks anyway – no more bare legs and t-shirts, no more swimming outdoors, cold dashes out of the shower… But finally I somehow get into the swing of it and embrace the warm fires inside, the hearty meals and walks in the brisk air. And after so many years of braving the cold INDOORS when I rented in Australia, I am loving and embracing the central heating everywhere.
Yes, Autumn has arrived but thankfully with all its magical colour. It’s making me think ORANGE!
I’m loving this colour right now and thought I’d put together a few of my favourite ‘orange’ pictures… And f you’ve wandered around this blog already, you might have picked up on the fact that I do have a little thing for collages. I’m pathetic, once I like something, I can’t stop! (my lovely girlfriends had diagnosed me at the age of 14 with O.C.D).
So hulahup, Barbatruc, here’s another one for you.
The Vigneron's Wife 