What happens when you combine a dog and an egg?

As per past posts I have been enjoying my new SLR camera and trying to be creative and inspired by the people, objects and nature around me.

When I heard about the Canon Weekend Today competition I jumped at the chance to unleash the creative within. The brief: the photo must feature an egg. How could I creatively photograph an egg? Hmmm.

The idea - to give a raw egg to our dog Max and see what happens next.

The result: a pic of our little dog Max enjoying the eggcitement of a new toy (pardon the pun).

The result is not based on a public vote. Instead it's up to the experts. With almost 200 entries to date, there are a lot of creative photographers finding inspiration from a humble egg. It's worth checking them out. 

This week I'm thankful for...every little moment

It's been one of those weeks when you gain a little perspective and realise the things that matter most. 

For me, it was the death of a close family friend. It makes you stop and consider what is truly valuable in life. It's not an expensive home, a fancy car or a designer handbag, but it's the people in our lives. The ones we love and care for. They are what make our lives special and worth living. 

I'm guilty of getting caught up in the grind of daily life. I also know I'm guilty of getting wound up and stressed out about the little things. For me, the loss of someone I know and care about has been a reminder of the importance of letting go. Of not sweating the small things and recognising the importance of those little moments that make up our lives and give us our precious memories. 

I have a simple mantra pinned up in our home, life is a balance of holding on and letting go. 

I need to remind myself of this and not sweat the small stuff. Instead take the time to appreciate and value the people and little moments that really matter. To recognise what is worth holding onto and what we should let go of.

The right to choose but at what cost?

I've had an issue floating around in my head for a few weeks now. It's a current issue but one that has become more personal in recent weeks. It's a topic most of us would have an opinion on and one that stirs up fierce debate - the highly emotional issue of euthanasia.

I lost my two beautiful grandmothers to the insidious disease that is cancer - that awful c word. I don't for a moment think I'm the only one to have lost a loved one to cancer and sadly I know I won't be the last. My grandmothers faced cancer for many years and both lost the fight aged in their 40s, far too young. They left behind children, husbands, siblings and changed the course of their family's lives forever. I have always felt a void or actually two voids in my life because I've never had the privilege of knowing my grandmothers.

A close family friend is currently in the final stages of cancer. He has resisted it for as long as possible but is now in hospital as the end nears. For my parents and my father especially, these last moments of life and hours and days spent in hospital rooms bring back many memories. Of watching loved ones battle this same insidious disease. There is no cure, no hope for a better future. The person you love is dying and you are forced to stand by and watch helplessly.

I visited and said my goodbyes a few months ago. We all knew it was a final goodbye. I dreaded the visit because I was frightened I would be overcome by the enormity and finality of it all and end up a tearful mess. To visit each and every day as my dad has been doing takes a lot of courage. I know my dad doesn't want to say goodbye but wants the pain and indignity of it all to end. In his view his mate deserves more than a hospital bed and endless pain killers.

I believe in a person’s right to dignity. I was brought up to treat people with respect and I would hopefully be treated with respect in return. Unfortunately many terminal diseases including cancer wear their sufferers down and leave them with little dignity and a fraction of the quality of life they once enjoyed. I also strongly believe in a person’s right to choose.

So what is the place of euthanasia in our society? I support euthanasia in principle and the right to dignity in your final moments. The right to choose you don't want to exist in this way and ultimately to choose your own ending. However I'm not sure how as a society we can make euthanasia a realistic option.

What about those with a terminal illness who are worth more to their family dead than alive? As much as we don’t want to think about it, those situations do exist. Or the medical system crying out for much needed beds? Euthanasia has to be about what the individual wants and requests, with no pressure or influence from family or medical staff. But how can we as a society know that every person who wants to take the euthanasia path is doing so completely for their own reasons. This is my stumbling block and the reason I'm not totally convinced euthanasia can realistically work in our society.

It may seem like I'm sitting on the fence on this issue. But I do believe in the right to choose euthanasia. I just need to satisfy both my head and my heart that it will always be about protecting the individual and respecting their dignity and their right to choose. Not for any other reason.

If you have a view I would love to hear it.

This week I'm thankful for...toeless stockings

Yep that's right. This week I'm thankful for toeless stockings. And here's why.

I popped into Myer earlier this week for a couple of pairs of stockings. I came across toeless stockings that promised to look like a tan. At $15 a pair I was a bit hesitant but thought they might be worth a try.

And they were. They were fabulous. After I managed to squeeze my toes into the little holes.

No streaks from tanning moisturizer. No stripping down to my underwear for a spray tan. Instant tan = thankful.

The perfect ingredients for an afternoon tea

Friends bring joy and laughter to our lives and what better way to spend an afternoon than with friends, laughter, good conversation and yummy food.

And that’s how I spent yesterday afternoon - a ladies afternoon tea. I invited a group of beautiful girls to share our newly renovated home over some delicious treats, tea and a good old chat.

I know I had a wonderful time and I sincerely hope my guests did too. I love the experience of high tea; the tradition, the style and the timeless elegance of another era. The Tea Room at the Queen Victoria Building in Sydney offers the experience and it’s definitely worth a visit. So with all that in mind, I set about planning and delivering an elegant afternoon tea.

The menu

Herb, garlic and parmesan pastry rolls

 

Cucumber and tzatiki sandwiches

Ham and tomato sandwiches

 

Cherry ripe chocolate cupcakes

 

Mini vanilla cupcakes with pink buttercream icing and sugar butterflies

Apple and cinnamon muffins

 

Cookies and cream truffles

The girls brought some delicious dishes of their own to share:

Chicken and vegetable rice paper rolls

Baklava

Lemon pie with hand made pastry

Rich chocolate cake (containing four blocks of chocolate and double cream)

All accompanied by a selection of tea.

With my new camera in hand, I snapped some images to share. A huge thank you to my gorgeous friends for a lovely afternoon, despite the mid afternoon downpour.

The model pooch

Instead of writing today, I'm going to let my photos tell a story.

Our little dog Max has spent most of the weekend with a new camera in his face. Here are some of the results. I hope you enjoy looking at them as much as I enjoyed taking them.

I think he'll be making another appearance on the family christmas card this year. His first appearance was a huge hit. Amazingly the Christmas cards are still pinned to the fridges and work cubicles of quite a few family and friends.

 

Distracted...but with good reason

I've been a little distracted this week. I usually aim to write a new post a couple of times of week. I would love to write every day but unfortunately I just don't get to it (after an 11 hour day of travel and work it just doesn't happen).

I usually get my self organised for a Wednesday post to write about what I'm thankful for each week. Unfortunately this week I missed it. Oops.

But I really did have a good excuse. Hubby and I bought a new digital SLR camera yesterday and of course after lugging it home, I had to try it out. So I spent the night delicately unpacking all the bits and pieces, briefly reading the instruction booklet, charging the battery (hate that part) and then taking photos of my poor husband (very camera shy) and our little dog Max.

And before I knew it and after a phone call to my mum and sister, it was bed time. So my poor little blog was neglected for the night.

But the great news - be sure to look out for some photos as I attempt to get back in touch with my creative side. For those who are wondering we got a Nikon D3100 aimed at the beginner level SLR photographer.

I did a bit of photography at school, college (that was in the days of film) and I do still have a good old film SLR (that I can't bear to part with). However we thought this was the best option for us. The camera is for both of us, it's been a while since I regularly used an SLR and any fancier and it was out of our budget. Plus it's a great size and it offers full HD video.

Anyway, after a few weeks of ownership and driving my friends and family crazy as I shout cheese, I will share my thoughts on the camera and what it offers. But for now, I'm just going to play.

Kitchen renovations are officially done!

Ok, we’re done! Kitchen renovation is complete and now we’re enjoying our new kitchen.

It’s been a hectic and expensive nine months. Our bathroom renovations started in January when we attempted to get a plumber, 19 enquiries to plumbers later and we had one. We met the deadline of Easter for a functioning bathroom when my family came to stay thanks to a stylish brown tarp as a shower screen.

We then worked on finishing the bathroom and en suite and ensuring they were as stylish as could be. Then as we were beginning to plan our kitchen renovation, our oven which we suspected was nearing the end, gave up the ghost and we were suddenly in the thick of organising a new kitchen.

We opted for a semi DIY. I've written about our renovations a few times, including our bathroom, a before shot of our kitchen and progress along the way. Hubby removed all the tiles and the cupboard doors and completed the painting, and the professionals came in and delivered new doors, benchtops, splashback and appliances. Hubby then finished off the floor tiles and the blind. I threw in a few design ideas and we now have a stunning, sparkling kitchen. Finally it’s time to enjoy!

Time for a little respect

My visit to the Berlin Wall 2005

Freedom is something that most of us take for granted. Here in Australia we are free to express our opinion, free to associate with who we want to, free to vote and free to travel. There are and have been parts of the world where these simple freedoms are simply not allowed.

I came across this story during the week and my first reaction was how insensitive and then how sad. According to the Daily Telegraph story, a new virtual game is set in 1976 in Germany and allows players to take on the role of an East German border guard or an East German refugee trying to escape.

Have we as a world really forgotten about the awful events experienced by ordinary people as little as 25 years ago? Did we not learn anything from the Cold War when basic freedoms were denied to people in countries a lot of us visit today? A little bit of background.

My mum has a friend in Germany, a friend she has had for 40 years. At the age of 15 my mum as a young girl living in country NSW started a friendship with a young German girl living in the eastern or communist half of Germany. The Berlin Wall was erected by the German Democratic Republic in 1961 and momentously torn down in 1989.

They wrote for a number of years before my mum at the age of 18 visited Europe and bravely crossed Checkpoint Charlie in Berlin in order to visit her friend. For me, I still find that incredible. A young country girl crossing into a communist country at the height of the Cold War to visit a friend she knew only through letters and had never met. That trip was a great success and both my sister and I have visited with my mum on two separate occasions. However, we were nowhere near as brave and our visits in recent years have been to a united Germany. My mum’s friend and her family have also visited us on their first visit out of Europe.

I find this period of history incredibly interesting, partly because of this personal connection. I asked a lot of questions of our friends in Germany; sometimes to the point where Mum at times felt she needed to ask me to ease up. I wanted to know what life was like in a communist country, did you want to leave, did you wonder about the rest of the world, what did you know about the rest of the world, do you miss it?

There are a few stories our friends have shared with us about life in eastern Germany during this time. Many of them are private and very personal. They do include tales of letters and parcels being opened and inspected before continuing onto Mum in Australia and vice versa. Innocent letters and parcels between teenage girls.

Around the time of my visit to Germany, I read a book by Anna Funder, Stasiland, which shared some of the experiences of Germans during this period. Files and investigations were conducted into citizens that had aroused the suspicions of the Stasi or Security Police. Did such a file exist on my Mum’s friend, or even my Mum? As a foreigner entering Eastern Germany she attracted attention. Was her friend ever in danger because of a friendship with someone in the West?

So getting back to the story I read this week, did the people who created this video game stop and think about the people in Eastern Germany for whom this experience was more than a video game, it was a reality. For those behind the Berlin Wall who made the decision to risk all for freedom? For some it was a success, but for others it was met with imprisonment or worse, death. Many of those who attempted to cross were young people struggling to cope with life under communism or socialism as our friends refer to it as.

What about the young guards, for many the time spent guarding the wall was part of national service. Imagine being faced with the prospect of being ordered to shoot someone attempting to cross the wall or being imprisoned yourself? Such a decision may still haunt people alive today. The game was due to be released today - October 3; the day Germany celebrates 20 years since reunification.

I guess this all comes back to respect. Respect for those who have suffered and how this is not the appropriate content for a video game. The stories behind the Berlin Wall are too real. They have an important place in the world’s modern history - to serve as a reminder of what war and fear can do to the lives of innocent people. These are the stories of real people and for that they deserve our utmost respect.

This week I'm thankful...that even celebrities make mistakes

It's been one of the most talked about issues in Australia today...yep what has now been dubbed Australia's Next Top Muddle.

For those who are puzzled as to exactly what I'm talking about - here is the clip. Last night's live announcement of Australia's Next Top Model winner on Foxtel went horribly pearshaped when the wrong girl was named winner. There's a whole lot of debate about whether the gorgeous Sarah Murdoch was told the incorrect name or misheard it and whether it was all a stunt.

It all appears to be quite genuine and it's not something I could imagine Sarah Murdoch being part of. She's far too classy for that. However, it just shows that absolutely everyone makes mistakes, whether it was Sarah Murdoch or the producer feeding the result through.

Making mistakes is not fun - we've all done it and we've all felt our stomachs drop or our heart start beating as the reality of our mistake sinks in. Oh to be able to turn back the clock a few moments and do it right. But we're human and the reality is humans make mistakes.

And for mere mortals like me, it's reassuring to know that everyone, no matter who they are can make mistakes and experience the odd oh no! moment too. Thanks Sarah for making us all feel a little better about that. But in closing, can I just add, well done on handling it so well!