The time has come for this little blog to grow up, and leave home!
This will be my last post here on the typepad platform, as I have now shifted my blog, all past posts, and all future posts over to a wordpress blog on my own domain...
How exciting! Well, it is for me, because it gave me the opportunity to design a new website from scratch! (one of my favouritest things!)
So, I know quite a few of you gorgeous peeps subscribe to this blog via both RSS and Email, so I thought I would do one last post to send you over in the right direction if you would like to keep reading my crazy ramblings.
At the new blog - Very Jane - there are several ways to subscribe. You can either follow me on Twitter, where I tweet my new posts automatically, however, if your twitter feed is anything like mine, a mere tweet will get lost in all the frantic noisy tweeting activity... so perhaps Facebook is your preferred method of keeping up with my crazy nonsense? One click on that infamous 'Like' button, and my posts will show up in your newsfeed. If all else fails, you can always get my posts delivered straight into your inbox, ensuring that none of my extremely unimportant words are missed! There is an email sign up box over in the sidebar. You'll spot it :)
On Friday morning I had an epiphany. After a year of major disruption & emotional turmoil last year, 2013 has started with somewhat of a hangover of uncertainty, a feeling that I haven't been able to shake. What is in store for me and my clan? Where shall we live? What will I do for a job? We've finished watching 'Fringe', our favourite TV series, what on earth will we watch now?! All the big issues, ya know? But then.. it hit me. I realised what I needed to do, to give me a fresh new outlook on life! It was so simple!
I NEEDED A HAIRCUT!
A FEW LAYERS EVEN!!
Too risky?
HELL NO!
So off I trotted to the professionals that manage this incredible transformation process. It all started when I said the words "Do whatever you like. Have fun". This is like Christmas for my hairdresser who assures me that she "won't take off too much length", but she'll add in lots of layers to really funk it up. I nod, knowing that "won't take off too much length" will almost certainly result in virtual baldness - I mean, come on now - we all know exactly what this means, don't we girls?
We adjourn to the basin where she washes my hair while I luxuriate on the cushiony leather li-lo. Somewhere in between the shampoo, and the conditioning head massage, I feel the transformation process beginning... As this process continues, I become more firmly convinced that my epiphany was spot on. This haircut really is going to put me on a whole new amazing trajectory!
After the basin interlude, the real transformation phase began. My hairdresser proceeded to whip those scissors into a frenzy! Hair pooled on the ground like some kind of blood bath. Goodbye long curly locks, I will enjoy not straightening you! We talked for a bit. We laughed. We whined about our troubles and knocked back a couple of latte's. And before I knew it, I HAVE A BRAND NEW LOOK!
So now, with new hair, I can now move confidently in the direction of my choosing! The fact that we don't have a new home, or a job is entirely irrelevant. I HAVE NEW HAIR! What can possibly go wrong for me now?!?!
If you can all just bear with me for a short post, and allow me to live in the land of food-bloggers, a land where all those that live there can prepare the most amazingest dishes, complete with breathtaking photography* such that you can almost taste the food you're looking at... then, I will share with you my signature salad. A salad that will have you gormandising from the very bowl it is in. No need for plates with THIS salad - all you need is a big spoon!**
BEHOLD: The Spicy Bean Salad
Ingredients
1 x four bean mix tin, drained 1 x corn kernels tin, drained 3 x tomatoes, diced 1 x spanish onion, diced 2 x red chillies, chopped 1 x coriander bunch, chopped
Dressing
1/3 cup olive oil 2T Lime juice 2t ground cumin
Method
Chuck all ingredients in a bowl (a most difficult step)
Pour mixed dressing on top (See what I did there - that was two steps in one - mix dressing, then pour! Trickyyyy)
Mix everything together by putting a spoon (or fork, or knife, or even a ruler if you can't find any cutlery. Be creative! Just mix that baby up!)
Last step: EAT & BE SEDUCED by the flavoury concoction to end all flavoury concoctions!
Enjoy peeps, and don't forget to let me know if you make it & what you think of it!
Jane xox
*My photography, sadly, does not meet the food-bloggers standard. You will however, be bombarded with it anyway :P
**Or that ruler that you used to mix it all up with.
It's hot today. Super-freaking hot. We have done nothing. And in this deep chasm of nothingness, we have turned into sloths. Hanging off our branches. Faces melting... melting... We wait for the miracle of food & water to be brought our way. No such miracle occurred. So I sloth around, tending to my sloth children, who flick between attempted murder of each other, and staring at the wall...
Enter Hubby, who is disgustingly chipper, having been away from sloth central all day.. "Did you have a good day?"
6y.o son "No. This day is sooo boring."
Hubby "Nawww, is Mum being boring today?"
6y.o son "No. Mum is never boring. THIS DAY is boring."
And suddenly, I transform from sloth, into a super exciting Mummy butterfly with spontaneous plans bursting forth like water balloons at a birthday party.
To say I love music is an understatement. It is literally part of the fabric of my reality. It is my constant companion. In my home. At my work. In the car. While I run, ride, or simply relax. The noise, the chaos, the beats and lyrics. No doubt about it, there is a soundtrack to my life and it is constantly evolving.
For me, music is the ultimate mood modulator. Sometimes to help me linger in a mood, and sometimes to flick the mood switch to something else. Sometimes for no purpose at all apart from an added layer of beautiful texture in my reality.
Don't get me wrong, sometimes silence is golden. But silence is a rare gem (I have three kids and a hubby with five guitars...). So in the absence of silence, I choose music. Music that makes me feel, think and sometimes remember.
Isn't it funny how music and memories are so closely related? I find that certain songs take me back to times in my life, even specific days. A few weeks ago I heard a song from 1993 (Sleeping Satellite, Tasmin Archer) and was immediately transported back to the memory of an unrequited love with a highschool crush, a time when I used to play it on constant repeat as if it was some kind of magical healing cure for my broken 16 y.o heart. And more recently, I went into a shop and heard another song (Blurry, Puddle of Mudd) which sent me back in time to 2002 when I miscarried our 2nd baby. A devastating time. I remember turning it up so loud, letting my emotions take over, and screaming the lyrics as tears streamed down... Actually, I think that one was quite therapeutic...
There are so many more that pinpoint emotionally critical moments in my journey. And then there are others that just provide a backdrop, a soundtrack, to a certain phase in my life. So here is a bit of a snapshot of my current soundtrack...
The Weeknd - Twenty Eight (explicit) My newest musical discovery thanks to the gorgeous Emma Magenta. Could drown in this guys voice & lyrics... oh boy.. Emma describes it much better than me here.
Sia - Sweet Potato Love this chick - she's an Adelaide chick did'ya know? Pity I never saw her while she was here... but I certainly will when she comes back :)
Zero 7 - Throw it all away Now this follows on nicely from Sia, as I discovered this band because she featured in their song 'Destiny', which is also one of my favourites. This one is a lot more upbeat with playful lyrics that make me smile :)
Storm Large - Ladylike (explicit - sensing a theme here?) This chick. Awesome. I saw her last year when she came to Adelaide for the Fringe festival. Powerhouse. Filling the venue with her raw energy.
Civil Twilight - Human This is a sad mood song for me. It's been a regular on my playlist over the last year or two since I discovered the band. Sits there quietly reminding me that it's ok to feel strong emotion. It's human. And we don't have to jump to fix it, we can sit with it. "It's only love, it's only pain, it's only fear, that runs through my veins. It's all the things you can't explain.... that make us human."
Sigur Ros - Svefn-G-Englar Song of pure beauty. Discovered in the movie Cafe de Flore - a stunning movie about soul mates. If you are a romantic tragic like me, and you haven't seen this movie, I absolutely INSIST that you hire it, download it, steal it, or do whatever you have to do to get your hands on it. You'll be sobbing by the end. I promise.
Lenny Kravitz - Fields of Joy And of course, no soundtrack of mine would be complete without my main man Lenny. Saw him in concert 20 years ago. Front row, squashed up against the crash barrier with my sister. It was hot, sweaty, smelly and absolutely thrilling...
There could be so many more on this list, but I'll leave it here for now. I absolutely love discovering new music, and love being influenced and inspired by others musical tastes. And would love it if you, yes you, could share some of your current soundtrack with me... :)
I posted this video on facebook a while back, and it still makes me laugh. I'm convinced they're talking about me (Don't be stupid Jane, of course they're not talking about you. Stop being such a narcissist. SLAP!)
You know the duck in the clip? Yep, I've instagrammed a duck. And a cocktail. And breakfast. And coffee. And my feet, in different locations. And a close up of my eye. And my plane's wing in the air. And city lights in black and white. And an old door. AND LO-FI IS MY FAVOURITE FILTER!!
Shuddering in disbelief at how hell-bent I am on documentin
*quickly hides from self*
Got me thinking though, on how much I enjoy both sharing images from my life, and how much I enjoy seeing others images. It's like seeing their life through their eyes. I love it. And it wouldn't be any different for me if there was no 'like' button to press. In fact - I wish there wasn't!!
Do you know how many times I have heard this today?
Not enough!
I could listen to this all day - AND I DID! And it was lovely. Hearing her voice resonate all through the house. Felt like I was on the set of Pitch Perfect. Or Glee. Or a Broadway Musical. (and I joined in of course...)
We quite often do mother-daughter duets. Favourite songs of ours to sing at the top of our lungs are 'No Air' - Glee, 'Defying Gravity' - from the musical Wicked and of course the all time favourite 'Tough Lover' - Christina Aguilera, Burlesque.
Love this chick. Love her voice. Love her gumption. Love her. She rocks :)
If you like the vid - it would be great if you could give her some YouTube love!!
What about you? Do you sing like a crazy at home in your comfort zone? What is your favourite?
Jane xo
PS Shoutout to my GORGEOUS cousin TORI LONG!! You are the bestest :) xo
Well, not my marriage really. A symbol of my marriage. Ok ok, I'll stop being all dramatic and vague...
I threw our wedding cake icing figurines in the bin.
For thirteen years we've held on. THIRTEEN YEARS!! We have kept them, wrapped preciously in tissue, and then in a layer of plastic, and then in a little perfectly-sized-and-especially-bought-for-the-everlasting-housing-of-the-figurines tupperware container. These babies were SAFE as HOUSES (not that houses are necessarily safe. Where did that saying come from anyway? Our old house burned down. THAT house wasn't safe. No! But that's another story).
ANYWAY.
Today, I was cleaning out the freezer (which is really the only sensible thing to do on a 44 degree day), and I came across our precious little container.
Straightaway I remember the cake. The day. The ring. My preciousssss. (Oh sorry, just watched the hobbit, getting bit carried away...)
"Tom! Look! It's our little figurines from the wedding cake! Let's unwrap them and have a look"
Cue Tom "Awwww, it's our little piggies!"
(Yes, we had pigs. Three to be precise. A mumma pig, a daddy pig, and a little bubba pig with a bonnet. We were hazarding a guess that there would be a baby in our near future.)
We unwrap them together, tenderly, reminiscing as we go. Little bits of tissue stick wantonly to the icing figurines. We try to pick them off. We fail. Then Tom breaks the arm of the daddy pig. And then I break the leg of the mummy pig. And then the baby pig's ear falls off. We laugh.
"Lets chuck em"
"Ok" Tom says
And in the bin they go. Goodbye widdle piggies. You have served us well in these thirteen years, wrapped in tissue, plastic, and then more plastic, and hiding at the very depths of our freezer. We won't actually miss you, because you really weren't a part of our daily lives. But despite this total lack of long term relationship, we will remember you. Always. Our precious little piggies that we kept for no reason whatsoever.
I'm not doing it. Not again. The fall is too hard when I inevitably have a moment of weakness, and fail at whatever resolution I'm choosing for that particular year.
So, I'm NOT going to say "This year, I'm going to lose weight, and have a better diet, and get fit and get happy, and make great choices, and finish my PhD, and pay off more debt, and save more money, and drink less, and procrastinate less, and and and and ANDDDD
Enough!
NOT DOIN IT!!
This year, I'm going to be kinder to myself. I'm going to be kinder to others. I shall give more. I shall share more. I will practice compassion and gratitude every day, most especially with myself. I will not look at myself with hatred. Instead I shall look at myself with understanding. If I don't quite make it to the gym that day, or if I don't get any good words written that day, or if I serve 2 minute noodles for dinner... THAT'S OK! It's ok to stumble. It's all part of the journey.
This year is NOT about grand sweeping resolutions. This year is about small baby steps in the right direction. MY direction. And you know what, I can't wait to see where that direction will take me :)
Thanks for reading & listening to my babble this year to all my visitors, new & old. I would love to hear what your resolutions are this year? Or maybe your non-resolutions?!
