Archives for December 2005

	This is yet another deco from the Rescuers. Crisp made this for me in a fit of Christmas Spirit. I need a way to hang him properly, as it is he leans on suitable surfaces. At the moment he’s next to the goldfish… I think he’d look better on a wall.
	This little guy is from a set of 4 old fashioned looking Santas. I have no idea where they came from. I’m pretty sure I bought them… but as for when and where? Your guess is as good as mine…
	This is a much better photo than the previous one I took on the phone. I wanted to show him off in all his glory and to rave once again about Kiwi Fi. She rocks… you can read all about her here…

The first incarnation for these decorations [there are 2] was as earrings at a vocal music performance but actually they have reverted to type appearing on the Christmas tree for the 8 years since.

I’ve mentioned before that I sing, did I also mention that for one crazy year I was a tenor in an all girl barbershop chorus? Not just any kind of barbershop chorus, the big hair, painted nail and spangles kind of barbershop chorus. A Sweet Adeline.

The harmonies were the funnest part…

The big hair and spangles, the choreography and the whole scene was the less than fun part…

That and it attracted a very particular kind of girl.

And I’m not that kind…

I can feel time running out, Mother arrives from NZ on Thursday and I suspect time to blog may be limited by the list of things we have to see in Sydney while she is here… So, today you get five decos for the price of one …

This angel is one I picked up, if I remember correctly at a gift shop at the Royal Oak Mall in Auckland, NZ.

I used to live right on that Royal Oak roundabout from around 1994-1995. It’s a dangerous place that roundabout ask any [normal] Auckland driver…

The most notable thing that happened there was the acquisition of Casey the next cat in the line of Deeleea’s pets. A gorgeous female with long hair strawberry blonde hair. And she was a total airhead to match it too. You know how it goes, a lovely cat but not exactly bright…

She disappeared once, and I was ever so slightly distraught, walking round the neighbourhood calling for her, I rang all the local vets to see if she’d been brought in, no one had seen her. Everyday I’d come home wondering if she’d be there when I got back from work… but nothing… so I got on my knees one night and poured out my breaking heart to God… please find the cat… and sure enough the next day when I got home there she was!

My flatmate had taken a call from the vet who had taken a call from a neighbour who was feeding the little miss who wouldn’t go home!!!

Sheesh…

Made me very happy that God hears even those kind of apparently unimportant prayers though…

This angel is another from the Victorian set I mentioned earlier and is hanging off the top of the tree. I think she’s a bit girly for the kind of angel that went ahead and freaked Mary out don’t you?

I’m not sure if this one’s an angel…. she could be I guess… Still she’s another gift from Nobill and the Chairman. She’s significant because of her origins actually… you’ll notice the blue and yellow thread that’s hanging her from the tree. It’s a nod to the colors of Sweden I think you’ll find. Sweden a country that owes much to a certain annual prize given to people who have done work of note over the years in various scientific, economic and humanitarian efforts. I had moved from Auckland to Whangarei to take up a temporary post while a new order was established in our organisation. Of course it turned out to be a longer term post than anyone planned… Anyway that’s another story. As it happened I was working for a Pay TV company and as was customary we had the tv on constantly in the office [bonus!]. For some reason one afternoon we had it set to CNN… very unusual behaviour for a bunch of sport and movie freaks… but still, it happened occasionally just to give the office some variety. I was cashing up at the counter that afternoon and an article about the Nobel Prize winners for the year was on, for some peculiar reason it piqued my interest so I turned to watch it. Well, I’m not going to draw this story out any longer than necessary… it just so happened that the winner in one of the scientific disciplines that year was none other than Nobill and a colleage of his who had been working on similar stuff across the Atlantic. I had to look twice, he’d grown a beard I’d never seen and it had been a good 10 years since I’d seen him in the flesh! It was such a short article I wasn’t even sure if it was him so I jumped on line at the library on the way home to find out more and to make sure it was indeed the Nobill I knew! (It was) And funnily enough, again one night, I came home very late from some event, turned on the tv for company and there again was a tv special on the laureates for the year… This time I actually got to hear him speak and had it confirmed once again that it was indeed the Nobill I knew, I couldn’t mistake the voice!!! Well, knock me over with a feather…. I was the ‘adopted’ daughter of a Nobel laureate. This has been a very cool thing, because the prize means he gets to travel a lot and that travel has meant he and the Chairman have been to see me in Sydney twice in recent years! Yay!!! So, we still keep in touch, they still send the odd Christmas decoration for the tree/house. Actually, the next two are from them too… I’ve put them in because they don’t have their own stories… Funny how life goes huh? You just never know who you’re going to meet… and who they’re going to be!! So be careful to entertain strangers – they may be angels in disguise!!

This is the Capitol Building in DC – all decked out!

This needs very little explanation… except that it’s one of my favourites…

This is a handmade decoration, completed partly from a need to get creative with a small project and partly from a dearth of decorations with Christian significance. Even the angel on the top of my tree owes much more to pop culture [of its Victorian time] than it does to Scripture, it’s a girl for a start!

Anyway, in the years before I was expending all my creative energy in cyberspace I was a [not so] closet cross stitcher. Partly because its creativity is a paint by numbers kind and at the time that suited me a lot better than having to come up with the goods and partly because, well I liked the stuff.

So in the bottom drawer of my dresser there sits a number of beautiful cross stitch pictures in need of frames and in the cupboard above my wardrobe there sits a big box of threads and fabric awaiting the desire to strike again (I’m not optimistic of that happening…).

Hearking back to those days, I guess I had a lot of time on my hands. I was a nanny by trade at the time and had young children in my care. They’d sleep, I’d stitch. I also was living as a lodger in peoples homes and didn’t have a tv of my own and needed to entertain myself without it!!

The stitching projects were varied. At Christmas time they’d usually be small gifts like the decoration above 3 of which (over a 3 year period) I gave to my nanny agent at the time, she who shall be called Dingle.

Dingle was a great chick and was a bit fond of me which was a good thing, it meant I got a good bit of work out of her. I think it was her that set me up (after 6 months on the dole) with my first full time nanny job in NZ. However until that time I’d do the odd ad hoc job here and there as a casual.

The most memorable was for an actor whose name you will recognize, however, rather than confess straight up I’ll just say that he was in NZ(where he has home) to film a certain movie that would go on to win Oscars for a young NZ girl, its director and leading actress (3 out of 8 nominations).

I got the call early in the am.

“Dee quick, are you busy today?”

“mumble… mmmf, Dingle?”

“yes” Get up, I need you to go to the [insert hotel name] at once; [insert celeb’s name] needs a baby sitter for today and tomorrow.”

“I’ll try, I haven’t got a car”

“Figure it out and call me back”

“Scoozi?”

“ok, but don’t break it”

And off I went. To the then nicest hotel in Auckland for breakfast with him and his girls.

Me, and Sam, and the 2 girls.

Having breakfast.

2 days running…

Of course, he spent most of his time with his nose in a book/script…. But still… I was this far away from him!!

The job was a breeze but for the boredom that comes from trying to entertain children in a hotel. The novelty of pay tv and room service soon wears off. However, the mileage I have got out of the story (and still get) every time you see his face on tv has been worth it.

Even worth the embarassment of rocking up to [insert hotel name] in the oldest dodgiest red Ford hatchback and asking the valet to park it.