Not one to do things in order……. here is my EDM drawing challenge # 90. Yes, I went from 1 to 90 in one week LOL!

I have an unusual interpretation of the challenges, but that can only be explained by my inheriting the rebel gene from my mother!

This challenge says to ‘draw something with wings’.

I enjoy dabbling in acrylics so I got a bit carried away …. but deep down, it’s still a drawing.

On her dress it says:

-There’s no flying without wings

-The heart that loves is always young (ahhhhh!)

-A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step

-He that hath a merry heart has a continual feast

-A book is like a garden carried in the pocket

……….. more challenges coming up (193 of them to be precise!!)

Well here it is, the first of my drawing challenges. I am very rusty and was too impatient to wait for the shops to open so started before I had materials! It is a start anyhow and I found it quite relaxing to do this while munching on my breakfast instead of reading about the ghastly things that go on in the world, according the newspaper. These ‘gym boots’ as I remember them, are such a blast from the past. I can’t believe they are in fashion. We had to do our sport in them once upon a time! No gel heels for us. We used to dream of gel heels……….

I think this poem, which I partially pinched from my friends blog, sums up an emerging rebel in me. Scary? The really scary thing is that I already love wearing purple and have a purple bedroom (yes walls and all!!)

WARNING

When I am an old woman I shall wear purple
With a red hat which doesn’t go and doesn’t suit me.
And I shall spend my pension on brandy and summer gloves
And satin underwear (that bit is my friends adaption), and say we’ve no money for butter.
I shall sit down on the pavement when I’m tired
And gobble up samples in shops and press alarm bells
And run my stick along the public railings
And make up for the sobriety of my youth (not that I was LOL).
I shall go out in my slippers in the rain (I do that often already)
And pick the flowers in other people’s gardens . . . (been known to swipe cuttings in my time)

But maybe I ought to practice a little now?
So people who know me are not too shocked and surprised
When suddenly I am old, and start to wear purple.

poem by Jenny Joseph

OK….. I know it is the weirdest bra you ever saw.  Just be glad I am not wearing it!

If you are passing by Croydon ‘Curves’ and ‘busting’ to vote for my creation…..  you can pay $2 to vote for it. The $2 goes towards the Mc Grath foundation for Breast cancer awareness. It is a Curves initiative and I am NOT THE ONLY ONE who decorated a bra. I may be the only one who created such an odd piece though lol.

You can probably tell that it was a totally random creation with no apparant planning…. it just happened over a period of an hour. I couldn’t help it…. true!

The moment has arrived!

We have booked our flights for our trip next year. Starting at Rome (2 weeks), then onto France (2 weeks) and then 2 weeks in the UK. I am most excited about finding the original of a painting which has my Great Grandmother in it!

It appears to be quite a famous painting in the area and is currently being held at the Plymouth Art Gallery.

You can see her (standing) in the pic. There is a strong resemblance to some of our family members.

The story goes….. that my Great Grandfather was an alcoholic who left my Great Grandmother with the 4 girls to rear (one of them being my much loved ‘Nan’). They were living in Newlyn, Cornwall and she had no money so she posed for these paintings, over several months for Stanhope Forbes. She can also be seen in other paintings by the same artist. Maybe they will give me a painting for being related. Or maybe not.

Apart from seeing the house my Nan was born in …….. I can’t wait to go there!

My only questions is….. how did they keep the same dead fish posing for the pic??

Sorry….. I just can’t resist sometimes;)

Last Saturday, we went to watch Shan compete in a ‘comp’. That was as much information as he gave us so we were surprised to see that it was the Asia Pacific Brazillian Jiu Jitsu (BJJ) championships at the Melbourne Sports and Aquatic centre. He and another guy were nominated from their school. The other guy was in heavy weight and Shan was in the medium (or something!) division.

I took a book to read and Hannah, Trevor and Ben had various things to entertain themselves with in case it was a long and boring day. Trevor took his Chemistry book to study for his exam. He might fail the exam now because we were so enthralled that we didn’t get to read our books!

Typical of Shannon, we didn’t know he was talented at BJJ!!! He has only been doing it for 18 months. We knew so little about the sport that we thought he was losing as he was underneath his opponent for the entire first round. He won all 5 of his rounds (from underneath his opponent!!!) and then ended up in the final.

According to Hannah, he has a special ‘move’ (the ‘triangle maneuver’ ….. or something) which he does with his legs and that is what gave him the winning edge. In the last round Hannah and I were up the front at the mats screaming and cheering away with the others. Originally, I had threatened to go and hit anyone with my handbag who hurt him lol.

He ended up second place in his weight division and was awarded a huge trophy and other goodies. We have a newly found awe of him …… and a little bit of fear as well. Colin has realised that he can’t bluff him anymore.

More pics here

The  last 2 Sundays I have had the great pleasure of taking Dad out to lunch. Firstly for his birthday and today for Fathers day. He is such an awesome person to spend time with and Col and I really enjoy his company.

He hasn’t always been my Dad (long story!) but it has been so long it is all I remember. I have never felt anything other than loved and supported by him. At times, especially in my teens, I am not sure how he did it lol!

His life over the past 13+ years have been tough with Mum gone and he has endured great loss and loneliness.

I just want to say……. thanks heaps for being such a great Dad!

Anyway….. enough mush for now.

I am working tomorrow (Saturday) and then off to Adelaide to present at the Asia Pacific Blackboard conference for the week so I took today off. Yay!!

After 12 months of no riding at all we finally got to ride the Eastlink bike trail today. We rode from Ringwood to Wellington Rd and back and I have to say….. it was awesome. The trail is fantastic and we ‘flew’ along in the sunshine. We were sitting on 35kph for lot of the way. I was pretty pleased with myself for the pace I kept on my orange rocket.

BUT….. I was like a ‘slug’ on the way back. That was when I realised it was all downhill to Wellington Rd (that explained why I ‘flew’ on the way!) and OF COURSE it was uphill on the way back. Aaaagh. Everything is hurting now(

We had the traditional lunch and a bottle of wine out in the sunshine which was not hard to take. You can see how white my legs are in the pic. I think I have some riding to do to take the glare off them. I don’t know how they got in the photo since I took the photo with my mobile myself!

Many thanks to ‘Spiderflex‘……. the bike seat we bought from Canada for Colin. He is so excited to be back in lycra (!). Chicken legs rides again:)

A weird thing happened last night……

Last night, Sophie and I were driving into the city to see Edward Scissorhands (the musical!). It was dark and raining and the traffic was awful. Suddenly, Sophie shrieked “There is a cyclist under our car”. Since I was stationary (at the lights) and the traffic was wizzing past me, I couldn’t get out the door. Sophie was dressed up to the 9’s to go to a party afterwards and got out to see if he was ok. I think he thought he had died and gone to heaven when he looked up and saw Sophie in her party gear! He brushed himself down and went on his way un hurt.

THEN….. 200 meteres down the road….. a pedestrian was running around in the traffic (in dark clothes on a dark night in the rain on Alexandra Pde!!) and a car beeped him so he bashed the cars bonnet with his fists. The car then pulled over so the pedestrian ran full pelt, across 4 lanes of traffic without looking once and almost got hit by a car (within a hairs breath). THEN the driver ran after him. Last we saw….. there was a chase happening across the park.

AS IF SEEING EDWARD SCISSORHANDS ISN’T STRANGE ENOUGH WITHOUT ALL THAT HAPPENING ON THE WAY!!!

Shannon was only interested in whether our car was damaged by the cyclist and Colin doesn’t know yet. Would you believe I still haven’t checked the car?? There is probably a squashed bike wheel still under there or something.