September 24, 2010 in Current Blog, Family & Friends, Sculpture by mariejon

46. Learner Drivers

This Artwork is called “Shop till you drop” but it should probably be named according to how we felt at the time lol but that would have to include some not so lady like words – you see if you look closely in the orange car on the left you will see us.

There is a Japanese exchange student in the back, next to her is Hillivi they are both happy and giggly and chatting away like girls do at the age of 13.  Then there is Bryan less pleased and me sitting next to Kai who is learning to drive….. need I say more, you get the picture?

I really should have painted me pulling my hair out and can you see the steam coming out from my ears?

Both  Bryan and I taught our 2 kids to drive, and for the most part they were really good students and careful drivers.  However there were always one or two days here and there when our patience was tested to the limit.

One night as we were leaving the city driving at 80 km on a straight road with not a car insight we saw the traffic lights up ahead and they were clearly red, however darling son for some unknown reason decided that RED meant go and just sailed straight through them.  Claiming that he never saw the red light at all, it actually worried us so much that we sent him to the Doctors to get checked to see if he was colour-blind!

Another time when it was our daughters turn to learn to drive and we had been out to dinner in the city and I again was sitting in the front seat supervising when we were pulled over by the Police.  This was a Random Breath test and Hillivi passed with flying colours of course, not so much fun when it was her mother’s turn.

In Australia you are allowed to have one or two drinks as long as you register under .05 and as I had only had one drink of wine with dinner I thought this would be a synch, however the police man looked at me sternly and insinuated that it was touch and go.

Lucky for me I was still under the required limit, but it did give me a fright.  Off we went again with baby girl at the helm for the one and a half hour drive home, and we had not gone too far before we were diverted by road works, very badly sign posted and confusing road works  which threw the “new driver” into a tizz.  However she managed well with the diversion and we were on our way again.

By this time out of the city limits and laughing and talking about our adventures when I suddenly screamed at Hillivi to stop, luckily her reflexes were good because just as we go into a bend doing 80km there were 200 sheep standing there in the middle of the road.

So suddenly again we have to spring into action, two of us walking and herding the sheep in the pitch black night and Bryan in the car but to no avail so we get help from the nearest farm house (where as we found out the sheep belonged there anyway) We did have some extremely hairy moments when a couple of big trucks came ploughing through not seeing either us or the sheep as this bend is very dangerous in an otherwise straight road.  All is well that ends well and all the sheep lived to tell the tale.

Here is a saying I like by Jean Kerr (writer)

“If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs, it’s just possible you haven’t grasped the situation.”

Love Marie

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September 20, 2010 in Current Blog, Little Naughty by mariejon

45.Happy Hour

Happy Hour or should I say NOT- as I tried writing this yesterday from poolside Happy Hour in Candi Dasa Bali,  but you know how things are you have a sip or two of a nice cocktail and all your cares fly away and any thoughts of what you should be doing suddenly doesn’t seem as important, lol.

This painting was the scenery from my goggles yesterday; we went snorkelling in Amed which is on the East coast of Bali far from the hustle and bustle of Kuta and the merchants peddling their wares haggling and bartering, traffic and tourists.

We had rather an eventful  time there, what made me laugh firstly was that we were met on the beach by this very handsome and buff Indonesian man in a cowboy hat and wearing only budgie smugglers (small bathers,LOL) strutting up to us asking if we wanted to go out diving.

He was handsome so maybe snorkelling wasn’t the first thing on my mind!  Now for you people familiar with the movie starring Jennifer Aniston and Ben Stiller called “Along came Polly’, remember the scene on the beach where the very handsome French hunk asks Jennifer (Polly) ‘Anyone for Scuba’?

But you know the old saying “just because you are on a diet does not mean you can’t read the menu, right”, and that’s all I was doing, being a happily married woman and all!

Anyway we had a little relax on some sun beds before summoning up the courage for the snorkelling (I am just a little bit scary cat when it comes to snorkelling) and probably rightly so as it turned out although Bryan tells me it is totally safe and I should not worry!

The underwater life is an totally amazing experience, it is really like being part of a Disney movie, we swam and saw this astonishingly rich underwater scenery with corals and fish in every colour of the rainbow and when I go home again I can feel another painting coming on.

All of a sudden though, Bryan grabs hold of me and says he has just been stung on the face by some tentacles from a jellyfish  as he was unsure of the effects of this creature and thought we better head into shore, as it turned out it was not too bad apart from a little soreness and a red mark.

So off we went again and this time we also saw an eel  slithering along that was bright yellow and blue and orange then I followed this little fish with perfectly iridescent  blue lips around his travels looking for things to eat totally fascinated by the world he lives in.

Bryan decided he had had enough while I was busy watching a rather long black and white sea snake doing lop the lops only centimetres away from me and after a while I thought I would head for shore too.

It wasn’t until I told Bryan of my adventure that I found out this was a particularly deadly kind of snake and maybe I should not have hang around so long to see what he was up too!

So I think this quote by Charles Bukowski  (writer) fits perfectly here.

“The difference between a brave man and a coward is a coward thinks twice before jumping in the cage with a lion.  The brave man doesn’t know what a lion is.  He just thinks he does.”

Till next time,

Love Marie  xx

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September 14, 2010 in Current Blog, Little Naughty by mariejon

44. What a Disaster

So you know the drill, you have a special occasion coming up, something romantic like an anniversary maybe, lol and you want to celebrate in style and make it special.  Well that’s what we have done with nearly all of our wedding anniversaries, bar a few when the kids were little and we could not bear to leave them or money was short.

(In this painting  “Rub a dub dub, there is a woman in my tub!” I was having a somewhat better time that what evolved, oh and there seems to be some Romeo peeking in too, I’m sure that’s not Bryan.)

Otherwise a night or two in a fancy hotel is in order, room service, champagne, best bottle of red we can afford, romantic dinner by candlelight, room with a view and a spa of course.  Now as it happened this year we had just had 2 weeks with all of the above in Bali and then come home to a very very hectic move into the new house and we thought mmm… new house, kids away for the weekend, let’s just stay home- we now have the view, 2 spas to choose from, hubby had bought ingredients for a lovely dinner set the table with candle lights etc., everything was planned.

So it should have been perfect then right?  WRONG  – Silly us – instead of taking the day off, we decided that we would each work until 3pm when we would meet on the patio for drinks and nibbles.

You see with the new house and all and it’s renovation time, the laundry needed an overhaul, so hubby is busy doing that whilst I am in the studio.

Both of us tearing our hair out as it happens, as everything that could go wrong did go wrong!  At hubby’s end the newly bought cupboards are the too small, shelves are for a pantry and not a laundry, wrong hoses and fittings that doesn’t match and to top that off he drops the bench top on his leg and at first thinks it’s broken (lucky it is not but looks nasty). Oh and the new tiles are the wrong shade of white and will have to be returned.

In the studio I am fearing no better, I have just received a $400 dollar cheque for a painting which should have sold for $1500!  So I am trying to find out what went wrong there, is the mistake our end or gallery end?  Then the emails decide that they won’t send, not even one email, they just go into cyberspace somewhere.  Where do all this emails go anyway- is there some sort of catchment area for stray emails?  I cannot reach anyone by phone either as our new number is playing up, topped up with the iphone that now is refusing to send messages too!  Oh and did I forget to tell you the website was having issues too!

So there were two cranky people that met up not at 3pm but by now 5pm for a bottle of Champagne!   Ok so hubby has now got the spa going and has lined the entire bathroom with candle lights, very romantic.

He goes off and checks the water level and adds a bit more bubbles to the water and then rather sheepishly calls for me to join him.

Well you should have seen it – he had somehow upended the bottle of soapsuds and now we had a ‘white soapsud monster’ growing in the spa, it grew and grew and covered half way up the walls and put all the candles out, filled up the wineglasses and then proceeded to travel over the spa itself till the whole bathroom was covered.  Well as if that was not enough, why should that be enough I ask you- let’s bring it on! – and it did, because now the ‘white soapsud monster’ was starting to travel down the carpet covered hallway, as I am alternatively laughing and screaming at hubby to hop out of the spa and help me save the carpet and furniture!  You get the picture!

I know now why he did nothing to help as by the time I finally hopped into the spa I understood entirely- the temperature of the spa was that hot-you actually cooked upon getting in and any rational thoughts, never mind the romantic ones simply vanished!

So in the end when the water cooled down a bit I ended up having a lovely spa with our two dogs, whilst hubby called the local Indian take away delivery service, as by this stage it was really late and he was not in the mood to cook.  We did finally have a rather nice night, exchanged presents, laughed and said let’s just get DRUNK!

I think this saying fits rather nicely here by Martin Luther (Theologian)

“He who does not like wine, song, and wife, Remains a fool for the whole of his life.”

Till next time,

Love Marie  xx

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September 10, 2010 in Current Blog, Little Naughty by mariejon

43. Wedding Anniversary

It’s our wedding anniversary on Saturday, so don’t call us-we won’t be answering the phone, lol we will have other things on our minds!  Here is a painting which may give you some idea, this is our actual bed, but I don’t know what all the cats are doing there!  What was I thinking!

So we met when I was only 14 years old and just having emigrated from Sweden with my parents and brother.

As I have told you before I was a bit of a handful as a teenager and run away from home (for 8 months) but by the time I met Bryan I was living back with my parents briefly.  I looked older than my 14 years (glad that ‘looking older’ trend did not keep going LOL) and therefore was able to get into any clubs and pubs I wanted to.

We met at the Pooraka hotel, I can’t remember which band was playing, but all the best bands of that era played there, regulars were: AC/DC, The Angels, Sherbert, Hush, Kush, Skyhooks you get the picture –they were awesome nights.

I was the dancing queen (still am if I get the chance) and danced with Tom, Dick and Harry and the rest, Bryan was there in the line up too.  Tall with blond curly hair, surfer looking guy (always had a soft spot for a surfer).

So why Bryan you ask, well I tell you he had a weird pickup style which I bet not many of you have used before.  He brought his brother with him, well that may not be unusual you say, mmm…. perhaps a tad unusual when you factor in that his brother Trevor has cerebral palsy and is in a wheelchair.  So Bryan and his brother sort of stood out from the crowd you might say, how many  16 year old teenagers goes out looking for chicks in that fashion?

Well it worked for me clearly- it made him stand out from the crowd and I figured that he must have the loveliest of hearts, as he looked out for his brother all night and sorted him with beers, cigarettes (yes those were the days when everybody smoked) and toilet visits, in between trying to woo me!

Funny isn’t it I still love him just the same all these years later, and every Wedding Anniversary we celebrate our good fortune to still be together when most of our friends have long ago parted company.

There was only one glitch to our wedding celebration, the 9/11 terrorist attack, which put a big dampener on our day, we wish we did not have to share our anniversary with that.

On our special day, we will give thought to the people who lost their lives on this day and the people left behind that love them still.

Here is a thought by Marcus Tullius Cicero (statesman)

“It is foolish to tear one’s hair in grief, as though sorrow would be made less by baldness.”

Till next time,

Love Marie

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September 5, 2010 in Country Life, Current Blog by Marie

42. All That Packing ..mmm Better have a Holiday

Now who was the idiot that thought that would be a good idea!!!!  Fourteen days in Bali sounds nice, yea right!  Mmm…might have been moi ! (well Bali was fantastic, it was the aftermath that sucked! Lol)

You see the timing of this little holiday really sucks but it worked out this way as we had our house on the market for a while and decided to live our lives as we always do regardless.

We had no idea that the week after sunning ourselves in Bali (at the time of booking the holiday) we would also have to move the entire contents of the previous 17 years of our lives out of our huge farm house. We tried to change the settlement date but had to work in with the new owners,   so for the first part of the holiday we were feeling  decidedly STRESSED, so much to do and so little time!

Not only did we have to shift all our stuff but also all the animals we own, birds and cats as this painting shows and also the dogs too.

I suppose I only have myself to blame with the timing of this but I couldn’t help but laugh when a comedian friend of mine Rodney Gregory (check him out on Youtube here) said: “Good luck with shifting, great idea to go away in the middle of it??”  I might try that, we are shifting in about 3 weeks, can hardly sleep in anticipation”.

There is no way in words to describe, what a terrible and stressful time we had for that last week at the farm,  as we sorted, gave away, threw away, burned, packed, dusted, scrubbed and cleaned and I thought it would never end.

As the settlement deadline loomed closer and closer we were 5 people working our fingers to the bones, including our cleaning lady and the window cleaning guy and my baby boy.(here is the window cleaning guy, Craig as he has appeared in a previous artwork)

Of course we could have hired removalists, however as we were downgrading and only taking half of our belongings we actually had to go through everything ourselves anyway.  We had of course started packing before we went away but we are talking 17 years of accumulated stuff.

We also have many objects of value and sentiment, however I cannot understand why I agonize so much about throwing away stray bits of paper and ornaments with a chip in it and clothes that are out of fashion, never mind the perfectly good rubber bands and paperclips and the like.

Why do I think it will all come in handy one day lol! Someone SAVE me and just put it all in a big skip!

For the last 2 nights Bryan and I only got 3 hours sleep each night, the pace was that frantic that I’m surprised we didn’t have heart attacks so I can only deduct from that our hearts are probably quite healthy!  We still managed to go over the time limit by 2 and a half hours but the new owners were very gracious and did not complain.

So here are some wise words from Ernest Hemingway (writer) that I think fit well here.

“Never confuse movement with action.”

Till next time,

Love Marie xx

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September 1, 2010 in Country Life, Current Blog by Marie

41. Collecting Cackleberries and Thank you Balaklava

(continuing blog from Tree Change to Sea Change , see story below)

There are other things we will miss very much and appreciate about living in the country too.  In this painting called “Collecting Cackleberries” we are of course collecting the eggs, the four of us and every one of our chooks had names, boy they were hard to remember!

Can you imagine sometimes I wrote birthdays cards with everyone of the chooks mentioned by name and not to forget the ducks, parrots cats, dogs and horses, cows and sheep.

That soon wore thin and now only us and the dogs names gets on the cards!

We were so lucky to have been made so welcome in this little town that is so supportive of the arts as well.

They have the cutest art gallery which used to be the Courthouse, entirely staffed by volunteers where they have exhibitions all year round and also run an art competition called the Balco awards, with entries from artists far and wide, which I have been lucky enough to have won the major price one time and minor prizes quite often.

The whole town have come out in support for the different art projects and sculptures and they have a first class theatre group called the Balaklava Community Arts.

They put on at least one major show each year such as Oliver, Wizard of Oz and Jesus Christ Superstar, with amateur actors some whom could get a professional gig if they wanted to pursue it further.   It is also so endearing to see the local teachers, shopkeepers and people around town strutting their stuff on the stage!

Our children did most of their schooling here and I think they were very lucky to be able to go to a small country school that was still able to provide nearly all the facilities and support that you get in the city.

However what we valued so much was the personal attention and interest the kids got both from the school and sporting organizations but also from the local community.  Smiling faces and caring people who look out for one another that is something that we will really miss.

I am happy too, that we had a chance to experience the farming life (although we had a share farmer do all the heavy work) we understand now the changing of the seasons and the heartbreak when the rain does not fall and you watch your crop whittle and die on the paddock.   I get it now when the farmers complain when the drought sets in and the animals have little to eat, and the devastation when your animals contract a disease, when you have done everything in your power and there is nothing else that you can do.

Whenever I miss you Balaklava, I will try to think of the things I did not care for; such as the flies and dust and the scorching hot days when you can’t even take a breath without burning your oesophagus in 47 degree Celsius heat.

But I bet you my thoughts will centre on the laughter of the kids playing and running around our big farm house and yard, how they were chasing after chooks and dogs, and their surprised faces when the rooster turned around and chased them.

How can I forget riding our beautiful horses around the paddocks, rugging, feeding them together with the kids and then taking walks along the river on a moonlit night and seeing the starry sky, so chockablock full of bright stars like nothing would ever prepare you for?

So THANK YOU BALAKLAVA you will be forever in our hearts.

I will have to remember in the coming days this saying by Boethius (statesman and Philosopher)

“Nothing is miserable unless you think it is so”

Till next time,

Love Marie xx                                                                                 (c)

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