Yes, it's World Youth Day in Sydney - actually, it's the week leading up to World Youth Day, which will culminate in a huge Mass conducetd by the Pope next weekend. I've written a couple of posts about the experience, cross-posted at LP.
On the way to work this morning (by bike), I had a verbal run-in with a motor vehicle driver.
I was reading to Olle this morning (from The Saturdays, a charming 1940s American story) and came to the line where the housekeeper affectionately tells one of the children to "beat it".
"What does that mean?" Olle asked. "That's not a very nice thing to say".
I was really surprised that he hadn't heard that expression before - it's an Americanism that I was very familiar with as a child (from tv programs) and I would have imagined it was still in use in American movies - but maybe not. Maybe it's already an anachronism.
A few weeks ago I lost my reading glasses.
I'm still not entirely convinced that they are irretrievably lost. I wore them last thing on a Sunday night when I was on the computer. I then walked the dog down the street to the nearest tree for his bedtime toilet (about 20 seconds walk), walked back and went to bed. I think I had the glasses on my head for that walk. In the morning, they were gone. I usually have them on my bedside table but they weren't there. It was a public holiday so no one was around when, at 9.30am, I retraced my steps to the tree to see if they were lying on the ground. They weren't. I think the chances of them having been taken by a passer-by are very remote, as it was a very quiet public holiday morning (and besides, who would take such a pair of glasses? If I came across an obviously lost pair, I'd leave them, thinking the owner would come looking for them.)
Last Sunday's newspaper ran an article called 'Better Late' about women who've had their first children over the age of 40. When I went to look for it online, I discovered that it had first been published in the UK Telegraph last February, The print version we saw was the same article but with Australian add-ons - side stories about Australian woman who'd become mothers at 'elderly primigravada' ages.
A few weeks ago I was interviewed by Elissa for an article about blogging and 'mental health' - now her article's been published in The Age and it's a good one - clearly written by someone who understands and doesn't see blogging or the Web as some kind of weird netherworld (as too many journalists still approach it).
Guess who? For half a second when I took it out of the envelope, I thought it was Princess Margaret (it was the cigarette!)
How do you talk to children about 'stranger danger' without frightening them?
I continue to watch my menopause process with interest.
Every woman will know that cycles are affected by both conscious and unconscious events/incidents/processes. But as my cycles wind down, I've been losing that sense of connection.
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