Fire Sale

Hi All, Just a quick entry as it's a gorgeous day outside and I'm in the middle of stripping the paint of an old wooden clothes rack - aiming to recreate the provincial look! Anyway, I wanted to put the end to this book, which I've been very slow to finish. I have been so distracted by Murakami's books, and Audrey's story, that this detective story took the back seat over Christmas. Sarah Paretsky's Fire Sale is finished now. I'm not going to spend too much time reviewing it. It's about a female detective, a rich family, a poor community, and the rich controlling the local factory and supermarkets with little respect for those who need the work locally. I liked the plot, but the story took too long to unfold and there was too much detail in it for me.

Life is a little busy at present, so I promise to do my final Japanese Literature Challenge 2 review next week, plus I was recently awarded the PRIMO DARDOS award out of appreciation of the merits - culturally, literary and individually - of every blogger who expresses him/herself on his/her blog. I will devote an entry to this next week also. Thanks Dolce Bellezza!

Now my quote to ponder: from Lao Tzu

At the center of your being you have the answer,
you know who you are and you know what you want.

Starting 2 New Challenges

After much consideration, I've decided to join these 2 challenges in particular (for now), although I will probably follow others involved in The World Citizen Challenge (which I think will cross over with Lost in Translation).

Operation Actually Read Bible is being hosted by Becky and has fairly open ended 'rules'. You choose which books of bible you want to read, and you set the time frames (or don't). I like these rules... SO, my challenge to self is

• Read 4 books of the bible before end of July 2009 - Probably will be James, Mark, Ruth, and Hebrews
• Read 1 chapter of one of those from my french bible...
• Review the experience at the end.

Lost in Translation is being hosted by Frances of Nonsuchbook. The aim is to read six books in translation over the year (probably wont include the bible books, but they have been translated). What I like about this challenge is to opportunity to discover more of what I learnt during the Japanese Literature Challenge 2 - that there is so much to learn about different cultures. I haven't yet decided which books they'll be, but I will post about them when I've found them. I will try and choose 6 different languages of origin.

Now, on that note - it's time to sit in the garden, have a cup of tea and read. I will share with you a photo from last nights sunset from my back verandah, and another teacup.

My teacup from Jaipur, India

White Tiger

I love to travel, I love to explore and I enjoy the science of understanding people. I have had 2 trips to India, and currently planning my 3rd, and both times my senses have been bombarded, and my understanding of people has been challenged. India is complex, dangerous, beautiful and the Indian people are equally complex, beautiful and endearing. North India and South India are different also. Geographically, historically and spiritually. However, in my brief encounters with both, I was awakened to something we don't experience in the west, and that is a deep loyalty to community and 'the way it is', and the bondage that loyalty can enforce.

White Tiger was a difficult read for me - I found the story teller to be crass and blunt and some of his language evoke strong feelings in me of dislike for the man. However - the author (as opposed to the story teller) has very craftily depicted what he calls the 'rooster coop' - or as I had previously noticed, the loyalty and bondage experienced by the Indian people. I thought the story teller was a drunk and conceited rambler and was challenged to even finish this book - however as one friend said, 'just see it though to the end and you'll see what he's doing'.

2 quotes I liked:

Watch the roads in the evenings in Delhi:sooner or later you will see a man on a cycle-rickshaw, pedaling down the road, with a giant bed, or a table, tied to the card that is attached to his cycle. Every day furniture is delivered to people's homes by this man - the deliveryman. A bed costs five thousand rupees, maybe six thousand. Add chairs, and a coffee table, it's tend or fifteen thousand. A man comes on a cycle0cart, bringing you this bed, table and chairs, a poor man who may make five hundred rupees a month..... (page 174)

She brought me a cup of coffee in a cup set in a metal tumbler. they have exquisite manners, these South Indians. I poured the coffee into the tumbler, and sipped the correct way. (p311)

I'll leave you to think why I like these quotes. I look forward to my return to South India, to a community where the Rooster Coop is real, and women and children are less than Roosters.

Freedom

I have this prayer on the back of my toilet door. Recently a friend commented on how challenging it is to go to my toilet. I have a few other challenges and affirmations there also. It's a good spot for me to read them, however, until my friend commented, I fear I was just reading them, not believing them. It is challenging to think 'I am a child of God' and I can 'shine' and play my part. I've been thinking about this all weekend.

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness
that most frightens us.
We ask ourselves
"Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous?"
Actually, who are you not to be?
You are a child of God.
Your playing small doesn't serve the world.
There's nothing enlightened about
shrinking so that other people won't feel
insecure around you.
We were born to make manifest the glory
that is within us.
It's not just some of us; it's in every one of us.
And as we let out own light sine,
we unconsciously give others
permission to do the same.
As we are liberated from our own fear,
our presence automatically liberates others.

This quotation is commonly thought to come from Mr Mandela's 1994 inaugural speech as president of South Africa; however Mr Mandela did not use this quotation in any of the three public addresses at the time of his inauguration. Ms Marianne WIlliamson is the author and it can be found in her book 'A return to love: Reflections on the principles of a course in miracles'. (www.neslonmandela.org)

New Connections

Goats on a wall. India

Goats are terrific creatures, I had them when I was a kid (ha ha) and I've always been intrigued by them. I think they have real personalities and guts to push the boundaries. The goats in the picture above are testimony to that - they're out on a pillar over a fast flowing river. they make me wonder what sort of boundaries I will be able to push this year?

My Staycation (follow link for definition) is coming to an end and I'm a bit sad about that. However during this time I have made some new connections with other bloggers I hope will be able to foster. I have added a few new blogs to my list both in the Gardening and Book worlds.

Other highlights to my Staycation, have included going to the Monet Exhibition in Sydney with a friend, Dinner with my Partner and friends on NYE, Breakfast at a local cafe near our lake, beach time, reading time (soon to blog on the completion of White Tiger), a wedding celebration and of course gardening and Blogging time. I'm happy to remember Christmas holidays 2008 as my Staycation of relaxation! Hope you have had a fantastic Christmas/NY season also:)

New Years Resolutions

I'm not a serious blogger, and I don't want to set myself up for those inevitable feelings of guilt when I'm not able to commit to something regularly. So I'm not sure yet if I'm signing up for the Blog Improvement Project (BIP), but I have been captured by the first step in the project..... setting blogging goals. The first question to consider in the BIP is 'what's your blog for?'.

This is a questions I've been pondering for a while now, and I don't know if I have much more of an answer than I like to think about things and write about them. I enjoy writing. I recently sent the link to my mum to keep her in the loop. She asked 'who reads this?' and 'what's it all about?'. I have wondered these things myself, and I'm happy just to think that I read and reread it, and if other people join me in this journey that's great.

The BIP site suggests that improving your blog is a good thing, and in the course of the next year disccuions will occur on "possible topics includ[ing] goals setting, writing better content, building community with readers, getting more readers, and blog layout and design". I am attracted to the idea of building community with readers..

So in 2009, my blog is primarily a blank canvass for my wandering thoughts. I think I'll stick to things about gardening, tea and teapots, and books/movies. Some of my blogging goals include

• keep the posts breif
• improve the links - especially to differentiate my gardening posts from my book/movie posts
• promote ethical, environmental and socially just ways of living (and aim to do this myself)
  
• make links with others in the blogging community
• have fun :)

Tea Thyme

Teacup and cake saucer - gift from Grandma

Teacups are pretty things, they're feminine and they seem to share experiences with us. This one was a gift to me from my Grandma a few years ago, and it seems to me, it's shared many experiences with many women in it's lifetime. I treasure this one because it so welcomely offers cake with the tea experience - and sometimes we need cake.

Bookbath recently blogged about her beautiful Christmas gift of a teacup, and it surprised me, just how many bloggers do collect teacups. I recently had brunch with a friend and we talked about this phenomenom, wondering what it is about teacups that attracts us to them. I feel certain it's their timeless elegance, ability to take us into a fantasy world of princesses, and their unconditional acceptance of us regalrdless of what state we're in. I love those qualities in a friend. I think us bloggers, should give our teacups some airspace - post a blog about your favourite or share a story about one you've known once. If it's not teacups for you, what is it?

Thanks Grandma, for this, and other special memories.