Postcards from the Edge
Posted on December 22, 2006
Signing off for a week to chill out sans laptop - Christmas present to myself.
Looking past all the glitz and glitter of the festive season it’s a time that you really appreciate having a family with the energy anticipation that kids have for it all.
I know from experience that Xmas day can be the longest, loneliest day of the year when you’re away from family, and often when you’re tacked on at some other family’s Xmas it doesn’t feel any better.
One of the only blog sites I really keep up with is PostSecret which is an amazing insight into the heart of humanity where that kernel of dreadful truth resides - it’s the only blog that’s ever brought me to tears. Absolutely compelling and heart-breaking at the same time. A reminder of the saddest side of Christmas.
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Going International
Posted on December 21, 2006
How exciting is this! Stumbled upon my book soon to be launched in Germany by Random. Cover is kind of interesting, just takes a little time to get used to the shock of a new cover. I like it.
The title is hard to judge, it translates to ‘Land of a Thousand Trees’ which is not too exciting in English but hopefully more significant in German, a language I don’t speak a word of (apart from everything I learned from Sergent Shultz in Hogan’s Heroes). Not perhaps as personal as ‘The Olive Sisters’.
Anyway, very thrilled to feel my words are worthy enough to warrant travel to the other side of the earth!
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Shopped Out
Posted on December 20, 2006
I had a weird experience when I was on the fabled shopping excursion yesterday. I was buying my son some clothes when they announced there was a special on popcorn makers down from $270 to $199 (who on earth would spend that on a popcorn maker?) then thanked us for shopping at K-Mart.
Up until that moment I had thought I was in Target.
Which brings me to a pet topic - the rise and rise of the franchise, the scourge of the modern retailing.
On the positive side it probably has improved, to a point, training and conditions for staff and certainly the shop-fitting industry has benefited. It also gives people, who would otherwise be quite hopeless in business, the chance to run their own business. But beyond that I fail to see the benefits to the customer.
It is so depressing to find the same trail of boring, homogenised, predictable retailers in every suburb and every city in the world. Everything in them is the same everywhere and everything is aimed at maximum profitability with minimum cost and effort. At our expense!
How is it, for instance, that Gloria Jean’s, a retailer whose sole claim to fame is coffee, has done so well making such crap coffee? And it’s no cheaper than a great cup of coffee - just five times as hot.
I continue to champion my local shops and cafes. The owners work in the shop, they’re are over 16 years old and their eyes aren’t glazed over with boredom. They at least pretend to take an interest in their customers. They greet you, sometimes even by name. They say please and thank you and they even stock things their customers want.
Use ‘em or lose ‘em, I reckon.
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The Grumps
Posted on December 19, 2006
Well, I’ve been to the shops and am pleased to announce that Christmas rage is rife. The truth is that children love Xmas but adults actually hate it with a vengeance.
There’s a sort of lunacy about it. People pouring into the shopping centres to buy ‘stuff’ that the recipients probably won’t like. When I passed the Post Office the queue had not only reached the door but looped around in a circle.
And everyone is soooo grumpy!
This year I’ve given Xmas a big hose down and got it down to bare basics, the kids don’t believe in Santa, so the stockings have gone. Most of our friends kids are now grown-up, so we’ve agreed to let the present exchange go this time.
After sending 50 plus Xmas cards every year I’ve let that go because I realise that I don’t need to get in touch with everyone I know at Xmas - I keep in touch all year and acknowledge at least that many birthdays.
So, having got Xmas down to a managable level, I’m in a better frame of mind to be kind and understanding with the grumpies.
We’re not Christians so we don’t really have any connection with the spiritual side of Xmas. So what’s the fuss about and why buy into it? Bottom line, it’s probably just about the close of the year and the shops being shut for a few days - thank God for that!
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Boys & Fast Cars
Posted on December 18, 2006
It’s interesting how boys seem to very quickly move from being cuddly little bundles to, well, real boys with attitude and an argument at the ready.
Recently I asked my 10 year-old what he did with himself during lunchtimes at school these days and he said that they ran through the corridors (off-limits) hit each other with their hats and threw things at each other. I murmured something about oh naughty things huh? But he put me straight by saying ‘No, boyish things. That’s what boys enjoy doing.” And he’s absolutely right.
I’ve just read a book I recommend to all mothers of sons called ‘He’ll be OK. Growing Gorgeous Boys into Good Men’. The author, Celia Lashlie, worked in the prison system and then got involved with a school project where she interviewed 180 classes of boys in boys schools. It’s a real education for mothers!
She really throws a new light on teenage drinking, ‘boyish behaviour’ and adolescence generally and the role mothers have to play in that transition. The message is all the more powerful for coming straight from the boys themselves.
Even at ten years old I start to worry about the drink, drugs and fast cars. Especially when I was explaining recently that when he learns to drive we will take him to advanced driver training to learn defensive driving. He thought about this for a moment and then said, ‘Do they teach you attack as well?’ O brother!
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