Any sufficiently differentiated teenager defies the science and creates magic. When an emerging writer met Frank Herbert when she was 13 - that was a magic moment which took her into a literary stratosphere and made it more approachable. [let me think - the emerging writer was Catherine someone and she does speculative fiction]. And today's teenagers would have you LISTEN TO and FOLLOW the science. Isn't that right, Greta and Beata? #ourhouseisonfire
"As long as you wear your flippy-floppy hat and clean up after the dogs and don't have the dogs clean up after you; you can go to the beach".
Geology in the garden: shells and rocks of every sort as well as leaves and flowers. It is a great garden for science and for humanities and both of those sorts of learning. #thetwocultures #cpsnow
Skating on roller skates. Facing in the other direction, meanwhile ... There were some waves which made the young ladies feel like celebrities.
"Keep your friends close and your animals closer!"
When tiredness passes over into overtiredness it can be very unpleasant for one and one's friends. Especially as it was past midnight. Would they get the explorer into the blanket before the witching hour?
"It's not THAT he's frantic - it's what he is frantic ABOUT". In this case - it was about a puzzle and putting it back from the floor. "A place for everything and everything in its place". The little fellow was taught some version of this.
A very sportive pair those two. Lots of pennants; medals and ribbons. And jodhpurs and boots in the case of the young lady on the right. Some look forward to kicking their new footballs; others like to throw balls on or near a wall.
The Gingerbread Kid and the gingerbread cake - along with the gingerbread kid's biggest supporters. Sometimes people are just too good to eat. Sometimes all you want to do is eat them. You can do this in a dream.
Our youngest explorer in his grey nightgown and slippers. It had been a very rainy week and the ground was uneven. So someone put out the welcome mat. What was behind the door? Was it a minibar? a refrigerator?
Flowers and balloons and pull-along ducks. The kind that waddle. Sometimes you can't choose your nicknames - they choose you. For example - if people see you waddling like a duck - you get called "Waddle-duck". "Coursework first - then celebrations!" said the lady in the purple hat and the green dress.
Not many people know that to swoon is to faint. And f a i n t - one of these young ladies did that when she was at the most central of Central Stations in Warsaw to meet her friends. The other young lady is insouciant. As you would be if you travelled first class and expected Firsts in the coming five years.
Dreaming clouds and dreaming stones. Everyone is supposed to be three stones apart. And each one has their own cloud. I believe Dibs said: Every child should have a tree that is all its own. Every child should have a mountain that is all its own.
Across from the Bodhi Tree and the misty mountains. Sometimes the world can be so misty and so frosty. That is when your shadow self steps in.
Chipotle on the brain! And tomatoes; avocado and so on. Even malt from the malt shop.
Dreams are very strange things holding them in space and time. And I don't know how that red got in there.
Some of these animals went on the live export journey and from the United Arab Emirates to the Fremantle Port Authority they had to come.
Hands and feet and new friends. If you look very closely you will see the Central Station young man perhaps when he was very very young. I think it's the eyes.
Rice paddies are full of work and love, very often.
There are four children and two animals.
And we will end today's adventures with a spa bath or the kind that comes in jets and has towels.
7clouds videos are awesome - along with Rachel Reyes - they are my first choice for videos which emphasise lyricism.
and here come the words [thought NOT the style!] for my choice of #songlyricsunday for 5 January 2020:
[Intro] Na na, la la la la la na na na na na La la na na, la la la la la na na na na na La la na na, la la la la la na na na na na La la na na, la la la la la na na na na na (Tu meri mauja hain) [Verse 1] Hush, don't speak When you spit your venom, keep it shut I hate it When you hiss and preach About your new messiah cause your theories catch fire [Bridge] I can't find your silver lining I don't mean to judge But when you read your speech, it's tiring Enough is enough [Hook] I'm covering my ears like a kid When your words mean nothing, I go la la la I'm turning up the volume when you speak Cause if my heart can't stop it, I'll find a way to block it, I go Na na, la la la la la na na na na na La la na na, la la la la la na na na na na (I found a way to block it, I go) La la na na, la la la la la na na na na na La la na na, la la la la la na na na na na [Verse 2] If our love is running out of time I won't count the hours, rather be a coward When our words collide I'm gonna drown you out before I lose my mind [Bridge] I can't find your silver lining I don't mean to judge But when you read your speech, it's tiring Enough is enough [Hook] I'm covering my ears like a kid When your words mean nothing, I go la la la I'm turning up the volume when you speak Cause if my heart can't stop it I'll find a way to block it, I go Na na, la la la la la na na na na na La la na na, la la la la la na na na na na (I found a way to block it, I go) La la na na , la la la la la na na na na na La la na na, la la la la la na na na na na (I found a way to block it, oh) Na na, la la la la la na na na na na La la na na, la la la la la na na na na na (I found a way to block it, I go) La la na na, la la la la la na na na na na La la na na, la la la la la na na na na na (Tu meri mauja hain) I'm covering my ears like a kid When your words mean nothing, I go la la la I'm turning up the volume when you speak Cause if my heart can't stop it I find a way to block it, I go I'm covering my ears like a kid When your words mean nothing, I go la la la I'm turning up the volume when you speak (when you speak) Cause if my heart can't stop it I find a way to block it, I go Na na, la la la la la na na na na na La la na na, la la la la la na na na na na La la na na, la la la la la na na na na na La la na na, la la la la la na na na na na (Tu meri mauja hain)
And then I realise there's a reason that YouTube does that when it comes to lyrics - or the 7clouds people did what they did.
When I was a little girl I discovered author Dorothy Edwards and illustrator Shirley Hughes for the first time in a simple novel / anecdote format - the series My naughty little sister.
It was one of my first conscious trips to a beach house; subject to a friend from the civil service.
So in the best traditions, or perhaps defiant/oblivious of these same traditions, I wrecked the entertainment room with Trivial Pursuit cards all over the floor.
The outdoor landscape of that beach house though! It had a big tree at the back. I was trying to trust trees and treehouses again after I had a nasty splinter at home walking on the top of the house [my treehouse had two floors] and it was on my foot. I remember going on the porch to get the splinter out with a needle.
Some three weeks before [12 December 1990] the wonders of the video cassette recorder were revealed to me and one of my very first picks was Pippi Longstocking which was a highly musical version and vivid. I had read the Astrid Lindgren books first in the library especially Pippi in the South Sea Islands with my grandparents so I knew the Ville Villa Kuella.
And Scrubbing Day was incredible - so was Running Away and the whole The First Noël feeling when Pippi and friends came to the orphanage. I loved the Head Girl - the first I recognised as Head Girl. I had not even read Blyton school stories yet in January 1991 - that pleasure was to be some eight months away with Elizabeth Allen and The naughtiest girl in the school.
I too had been considered - one of - the naughtiest girls in my school. I think of Hermoine Granger and that scene in the film of The Philosopher's / Sorcerer's Stone.
That witch really needs to sort out her priorities! - Ron Weasley - Harry and Hermoine's friend
One of the naughty things I did was blow on another student's whistle with the residue of a frozen ice. I did not quite have the mens rea involved [guilty mind in Latin] because I wanted to know how Melisande's whistle worked and if it had nuts in it like the Physical Education teacher's whistle did. The Phys Ed teacher was yet another champion of mine - and a broker into the system. Some years later on she would have us learn and support Italian lessons. And because of this she was a really strong connector - especially when it came to a question on Copernicus/Kopernik when we were studying the stars and astronomy.
Love La la la because it has the idea of preach speech in it and it has been so popular in so many countries.
Here is a quote that shows what I [and Beverley Eley] mean by PREACH SPEECH - it is also a good introduction to a book which showed me so much about biographical craft and graft - The book of David - it is also good for anyone who wants to know It's all right to be different:
[... earlier there was something about Democritus and the atom in that paragraph]Not only is his memory phenomenal, his wit is dry and clever. One day he walked into a conversation about homilies, proverbs and adages. After patting and kissing those close at hand [my emphasis], he walked away with the comment, 'Preach speech ... it's preach speech'.
By what yardstick do we measure someone like the eccentric, yet greatly gifted, David Helfgott? [says Eley on page 7 of The book of David in its 5th printing from 1997]
Eley and Helfgott [David and Gillian] are very good friends and her biographical practice is exemplary. Hoping the Gleniffer house where she and her husband John [who The book of David is dedicated to - for being someone who BELIEVES IN LOYALTY FRIENDSHIP AND JUSTICE - if books were tablets and stones - they would be carved in like that] is okay and the land too. That land is called the Promised Land and again Eley and David Helfgott are neighbours.
Had a great time watching Marianne and Leonard - words of love - so many people came by including in groups. Of course So long Marianne is a very important song. And Marianne was such a very generous and kind person. I think of Axel who is over 60 now and was only 6 months old when Leonard Cohen came into his Hydra life - in all my years I had never heard it pronounced like that so I could imitate it and reference it. Shows you how few of my resources are Greek. And the archivist really made the film, I do believe. I would sell the farm on it. Along with Broomfield of course who had a connection - intimate connection - with Ihlen from Oslo [and Paris and London and Hydra and one more place]
What did I want to talk about with the Naughty Little Sister and my experience?
When she was in a school choir one day; she and her friend Bad Harry la la la la'ed to the Christmas carols particularly Away in a manger which was the very first Christmas carol I connected with in 1985-86. Another early one was The first Noël - ten years later I connected so hard I named a character Noelle. She belongs to the gaggle of Gilberts - the five who were born on a student exchange. [and, yes, that is five at the same time in the same caul so to speak!]
And then I remember the Blubber singing lessons in Judy Blume - especially Miss Rochelle - great name for a musical person. My 1999 self thought this too - one of the times she and my 1994 self were in agreement [the former self was the one who read the book for the first time - and she was up for it six months later when she was sick and the world didn't make sense - she also enjoyed Paul Jennings' Quirky Tales where Linda thought salt was sugar and sugar was salt and No was yes]. So there was a young girl called Rochelle who absolutely loved music and was a flower girl. And then there was breathing and melody and harmony which I confess I really did not get until Grizel Cochrane had lost her harmony book in The head girl of the Chalet School which came with me in a Lion King bag along with a manuscript - that one was about a student called Tadeusz Meliński who studied temporarily at the London Progressive College. I got quite far in the writing of Educating Tadeusz laying and paving the ground [like crazy paving in my last].
Yours truly has also discovered Music from Ceefax which is the British Broadcasting Corporation teletext service. Especially looking for ocean music and ship music and sea shanties. After I watched Little Women in the Greta Gerwig mode and went to a park and a public house, I found many of them. It was when I became sick of Scouting and Guiding songs around the campfire and the Jamboree setting that I wanted to find some sea songs.
Many of you who have read Blubber will remember that Jill Brenner was quite the stamp collector - and she knew how to bargain and broker and write good letters. What she was not so good at doing was keeping her nails tidy and unbitten. Now nerves will do that to any person - and she was carrying around the sort of nervery which would make an animal pace and scratch and do various other displacement behaviours.
People often feel misplaced and displaced too. Especially when they feel their love is running out of time and that their words mean nothing.
Hope your lives feel Funktastic this week and for the Epiphany tomorrow. Imagine that - the first Monday of 2020!
Finally deck the halls with boughs of holly fa la la la la.
La la la was released at the Jingle Bell Ball of 2013 and subsequently charted in many nations. And it had so many remixes - I chose the Sam Smith one because it had lots of resonance and was best-known perhaps ...
In Australia it peaked at number five; hit number one in the Commonwealth of Independent States chart as it did in the Czech Republic; number two in Denmark and Germany; number six in France; and it's probably time to point out the Hungarian charts and their genre diversity as well as media diversity [stream and radio]. A lot of central European nations [Poland too] have their dance charts and in this La la la came out 9th in Poland and 6th in Hungary. Seems the Romanians loved it and put it on number 1. Top 15 in Venezuela - 14th actually - awesome!
The US charts were much more mixed. Somehow the Brits bought more than a million copies. At least two charts showed top 20 and one was actually 10th. The Rhythmic seems open for debate.
And when hearts can't stop it they find a way to block it.
Trying to block this earworm [though I don't want to so it will stay] of La La Land which I think many of my #songlyricsunday companions and compeers have chosen.
Fifty-six seconds into Joe's version of Radiohead's No surprises - which is about Theresa May and the last three years of her political life [2016-present] - there is a great line which at first when I heard it the week before last I believed I had hallucinated it:
Negotiate my sacrifice
Then in context there was "Handshake with Jeremy Corbyn"
and the chorus Not so strong and not so stable now.
Joe is an incredible, indescribable team of political satirists who I had got onto when I was looking up Common People which was the satire of 2010 - there is a terrific Rees-Mogg version talking about that whole Etonian attitude.
And Clive James died towards the end of November 2019 - I thought I would pass on writing about that until I sounded and felt less like a self-centred three-year-old. Unmoored and abandoned, you know, was probably the core of that feeling. James, of course, was an Australian expatriate, who went to Pembroke College, and demystified oh so much with his unique take on life. He had spent the last nine years living with leukaemia. Yes - from roughly 71 to 80 years old.
I have two of James's critical anthologies: The crystal bucket and In the land of shadows.
And in November 2007 - the Big Kahuna - the Cultural Amnesia.
Then there was the whole Marie Frederiksson tribute. She has just died too. So good to know her Swedish songs from the 1990s as well as all the awesome things she did with Roxette.
The Grand Final of Child Genius happened on the Special Broadcasting Service.
Our four genii were Karin whose mother is a doctor; Mahesh and Aidan who both attained perfect scores in the anatomy round [15 points is what you need] and Callum who was doing it for a young lady in the competition - Cecilia - and also has a phenomenal knowledge of the human body.
Callum was the one who said the brain did everything. His brain does a lot - 145 and more in the Intelligence Quotient stakes.
Karin is very very confident and she had 14 all up; Callum had 10.
The genii spent time with a University mentor and showed off their skills.
As there was a tiebreaker and 10 questions were required the last 5-10 minutes were intense!
Turned out to be all the general knowledge.
I yelled out that there were twelve stars in the European Union flag - this is something that will always be; no matter how many countries enter or leave. That is a form of strength and stability I do appreciate very very much. [Aidan answered that question too very quickly - speed is Aidan's big thing - Mahesh has a good memory which is not necessarily photographic/eidetic - but fortunately that kind of memory is not the only one which will succeed in gifted land; whether under pressure or not].
Also the Swedish flag. Love the way they described it.
I will always remember about fibres as the thing that holds the body together when your body makes clots. Some people thought capillaries or celluite or another connector beginning with C.
The first three questions in everyone's set were relatively easy. This was usually because of missing letters like portmanteau...
And the spelling - I got none of them correct at all.
The mathematics - I kept my distance [would have to do the sums backwards and/or sideways].
Mahesh made a wonderful acceptance speech - thanking his Mum for helping him study and Aidan for being such a good competitor and keeping him all the way down to the wire - and his whole Sri Lankan Tamil family and friends and community.
Aidan shone when he received the silver medal.
Remembering how very big the trophy is for 12-year-old Mahesh - it must have taken up his whole middle.
Thinking of how Callum lost confidence after about question 10 and promptly had the next four go wrong.
Karin - well, Karin! She shone on the stage and her mother and father and brother were there.
So happy to see all the genii and their families in the audience as well as everyone who has been interested in this competition's 2019 iteration - people like Susan Carland and the people of Mensa and the universities.
And really, The last leg? HUGH GRANT is "the prime minister Britain needs right now?" ;*).
No, afternoon sleeps do not make elections go any faster - though they may well be needed and desired after a tussle at the ballot box.
