September 30, 2011 in Current Blog by mariejon

102 Mother In law

There is always a joke or two about the mother-in-law, isn’t there?  Here is one to get us started;

“I haven’t spoken to my mother-in-law for eighteen months.  I don’t like to interrupt her”  or how about ;  “ Honolulu, well it’s got everything: sand for the children, sun for the wife and sharks for the wife’s mother.”  (Both by Ken Dodd)

Well I am very pleased to say that I actually like my mother-in-law, as a matter of fact LOVE her.  Her name is Avis (as in rent a car, lol) and she has been a constant influence and full of love and advice and always been ready to lend a hand no matter what.  She is one of these people that you can truly rely on.

So that said and made clear, she also drives us nuts, LOL.  Yes I know, I do always say that it is a wife’s job to drive her husband nuts and I do a good job of that myself, so I don’t need any help on that front.

Let’s just say that over the last 30 or so years my husband or I have called Nanna up in the week or 2 leading up to an important occasion, like a birthday, Easter, Christmas, Mother’s day, Father’s day or the like.  Asking very sweetly what the plans are for this occasion so we can put it in the diary.

You see we live very busy lives with the diary full of work commitments and social engagements of our own or the kids and also some time reserved for just chilling too.  So we like to know ahead of time so we are prepared.

Let’s take Mothers Day this year; I made the call to my mum and to Nanna.  Dinner with my side of the family at 7pm, however Nanna said “No I am not going to have anything this year, but if you want to pop in your welcome”.   That suited us, stop and see Nanna and Pa late afternoon on our way out for dinner.

So with that in mind we planned a lovely day, I got brekky in bed, leisurely got ready and went to the Botanical gardens where we planned on having lunch and seeing an art exhibition and looking at all the botanical exhibits too.    We had only just got there when we received a rather frantic call from our daughter asking where we were.  Nanna had lunch ready and were waiting for us!  What the!!!

So much for the lovely day right!!! Mmmm… then it’s Fathers day,  I make the phone call again, same deal,  Nanna says she ain’t having anything, as she is feeling a little tired.  So I said ok that’s fine, we will just pop in on our way to my mum and dad’s around 4PM for a coffee.

Father’s day comes around, hubby gets brekky in bed,  big treat for him, I am very fortunate to get that rather often (yes I know, I am spoiled!)  Anyway hubby was lapping it up and planning to do boys stuff that day, potter around and play with his new cordless drill and other exciting things like that (you have to be of the male sex persuasion to understand the joys of power tools I think, beats me!)

Well you guessed it come eleven o’clock in the morning  and I get a call from Nanna who says “I am feeling better today so got up at 9am and have been cooking up a storm since then, so you have to come for LUNCH now!

Lol you should have seen me trying to tell hubby that his lovely plans for his Father’s day had gone out the window yet again.  The added problem we have is the four heart attacks and one stroke that Nanna has had, so we don’t want to upset the apple cart so to speak either.

Anyway yesterday we were all invited for a BBQ at Hillivis boyfriend’s house.   Both sets of grandparents were coming up, hubby and I were picking up Nanna and Pa originally but they decided to instead take their own car.  We were expected to arrive  at 5.30 and had set off for the drive up to the country when Hillivi called in a panic from the shower “Mum what’s going on its 4.15 and Nanna and Pa are outside,  the house is a mess, dishes everywhere and I am washing my hair, why are Nanna and Pa here already?”

Well beats me, but I was glad it wasn’t us this time.

So with affection Nanna and with my tongue firmly planted in my cheek, here is another quote that amused me on the topic, by Henny Youngman;

“Just got back from a pleasure trip: I took my mother-in-law to the airport.”

Till next time,

Love Marie xxx   (C)

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September 23, 2011 in Current Blog by mariejon

101 From France with Love

This painting is a self portrait of me a couple of years ago when I had viral meningitis,(that itself is another story)  but what I want to focus on is the book that I am reading in this acrylic on board artwork, this painting which was bought by a psychiatrist  funnily enough.  Anyway the book is called “From France with Love” and is written by my dear friend Nadine Williams.

We  have been friends ever since she did a story about me in the South Australian daily newspaper The Advertiser where she had been a Senior Journalist for the last 20 years.

Over the years I have lost count of the number of times I have been interviewed, both as a model and an artist and I have meet lots of great reporters, but Nadine was really someone special and we immediately struck up a great friendship.

I think I liked her right away because she is such a warm hearted person, another generation up from myself but very young in her thinking, with an open mind and knowledgeably in just about every subject having dwelt into stories from around the globe at some stage or another.  Now Nadine has had some amazing things happening in her life lately.  Firstly she fell in love with a wonderful Frenchman Olivier Foubert.  He is quite the business man in his own right being the man behind the famous ‘Caleche by Colette Foubert ‘label, with a wicked sense of humour for a soft spoken very French kind of guy.   He totally cracks me up with his sly and dry remarks!

Nadine decided to write about their love story with ‘baggage’ as she calls it, love in mature years and all that entails, and including a road trip in France.  The book became a best seller and the rest of course is history, as the book has now been optioned for a movie by acclaimed film producer Peta Astbury.  Peta shopped the possible film around Cannes recently, with quite a bit of interest, ”as there seems to be a gaping hole in the market for films targeted at baby boomers”,  she says.

Nadine and I have been on this website journey together as our websites were being designed at the same time, both of us with no knowledge in the world of the web or even with technology as our long suffering husbands know.    However, never say never,  because here we both are making quite an inroad on the net and getting some very good traffic numbers too.

So perhaps you may like to check out Nadine’s site, she is writing hers in a magazine style, offering up a regular blog on the delights of the French Kitchen, as well as covering everything from women’s issues, spirituality and sexuality, yes you will find articles on all matters, love, loss, relationships, family dynamics and divorce, gossip and book and movie reviews.  The age group she is aiming for is the 50 – 100 but I know it would appeal to a younger audience too.

So check it out www.nadinewilliams.com.au

Nadine and Ollie

But hey, don’t forget to come back and visit me too lol.

Here is a quote I like from writer Katherine Mansfield:

“Make it a rule of life never to regret and never look back.  Regret is an appalling waste of energy; you can’t build on it; it’s only for wallowing in.”

Till next time,

Love Marie    (c)

(As you can see the book I painted and the one Nadine is holding in the photo below looks quite different, well that is because they changed the book cover for the second edition.)

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September 16, 2011 in Current Blog by mariejon

100 Some like it hot

So the show is over for another year and a good time was held by all.  The Royal Show in Adelaide has been held since 1840 which incredibly was only 4 years after the South Australia’s settlement which occurred in 1836.  Early on the show was mainly produce based and featured potatoes, onions, the different grains such as maize, wheat, oats and barley, and cheeses.  Then they combined it with the Livestock Show and added cows, horses, sheep, pigs and fowl.

The first show was held in the yard of the Fordham Hotel in Greenfell Street then moved to the Botanic Park and later on in 1925 to Wayville showground where it is still today.   This acrylic on canvas painting is called John Shearer Show Day and was commissioned by them and hangs in their board room and has also been used for greeting cards and other promotional materials.  John Shearer makes agricultural equipments as you can see from the painting and here is a link to the newspaper story Elders Stock journal if you fancy a read (left hand side 6^th story down).

My husband has been to the show every year as he grew up in Adelaide and remembers attending as a child.  At that time all the show bags (sample bags) were free and they would be laden down with all these bags full of all sorts of goodies; lollies, chocolates, biscuits and toys etc.  He says that his brother came in very handy being in a wheelchair and the rest of the siblings would hang their show bags off the side of the chair so his brother Trevor could hardly be seen under them all.  These days of course you have to pay for the show bags, a cheap one at $2 would be Bertie Beatle up to $30 for the fancier ones.  However at the Melbourne show there was a showbag costing $999, called the Grand Ridge Brewery’s Beer Party Showbag,  that one also included vouchers for 3 night’s accommodation with breakfast, dinner and other vouchers as well as a six-pack of beer.

We as a family have gone there together since the kids were babes in arms, so the show is full of happy memories.  The Yellow Brick Road was always a favourite, whereby you buy and empty bag and a map and then follow the directions all around the showground to collect your goodies at designated stands, some cookies here a bag of carrots there and yogurts and a loaf of bread etc.  It used to be really good value for money and lots of fun.  However this year it was mightily disappointing as some stands only gave us brochures, another 2 potatoes and one stand gave out one biscuit!  If they think people will be lining up for that next year they are kidding themselves, lol.

Of course there are plenty of rides and stalls, pig racing and dog and cat shows, wood chopping and the Grand Parade, precision driving, various horse events, singing and contortionists and lots of other things to do for free.

My personal favourite has always been the Tasting Tent.  I think that is a hangover from my modelling days in Tokyo where I used to love poking about in their big department store’s food halls and tasting all these weird Japanese concoctions.   I think it is a habit that the whole family now enjoys and the kids have introduced to their friends as well.

Hillivi’s boyfriend Brett is now quite good at wielding a toothpick and went hell for leather at the smallgoods stand, shovelling in the salami and the like.  They made me laugh with their tale at the Chilli stand where the hotness of the chillies was presented from 1-10 in degree of hotness as they ate their way through the numbers.

Luckily for them the next stand had different fruit juices and they threw the samples down their throats whilst in between asking the lady ever so politely “What type of juice is this? etc, feigning an interest but really they were only after something to cool down their burning mouths.  The juice lady turned out to be a sweetheart and kept up the supply of juice till they recovered.

So I will finish this blog Some like it hot, with a quote by a movie star Gina Lollobrigida, which I think gives us all hope, lol.

“A woman at 20 is like ice, at 30 she is warm and at 40 she is hot.”

Till next time,

Love Marie xxx  (c)

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September 9, 2011 in Current Blog, Things I've Learned by mariejon

99 Cash Strapped

These three kittens in their designer bag surely are not Cash Strapped as the title of this acrylic  painting says, however if you are anything like me you probably have been at some stage of your lives.

Even though at the time we certainly do not appreciate being poor, it does however in the long run become an advantage thankfully.

I have seen many acquaintances that were born with a silver spoon in their mouths sadly loose it all, often because unless you have to work for it, you do not realize how hard money really is to come by.  It is said that the third generation of any business often lose all the inherited money.  They do not understand the blood, sweat and tears it takes to become rich in the first place.  Often displaying the negative qualities of a false sense of entitlement, frustration and wanting everything NOW.

Just as well then that we do not suffer from Affluenza, sounds like a terrible dilemma, lol, but it would be nice to win lotto even so, wouldn’t it?

I recently found 30 bucks in an old jacket I haven’t worn for a couple of years and was mighty pleased and that took me back to my younger days when looking through all the jackets in the wardrobe could mean the difference between going out or not.

Which reminds me of a tale of my husband’s adventures when he was backpacking through Europe in the early 80’s with his mate Rob.   They were decidedly feeling the pinch and booked into the cheapest Pension only to immediately get scabies!  Lol well thats the story they told me anyway – may have had more to do with the bad bad women!

Another time they went out for dinner  and after a couple of drinks and a cheap meal realized that they wouldn’t have enough to cover the bill, so made a runner for it when the maitre d’s back was turned.   There was one problem which they only found out after sprinting at full speed a couple of blocks away from the restaurant, which was that Rob had left his expensive and only warm coat he owned on the back of the chair at the table, it even had his name written in it.  Well thats karma isn’t it, at least the coat would have covered the bill. LOL. (if you fancy reading more of their crazy tales here is another one 26.Looking for Lochy.)

Here is a poem by my friend Annamarie Causer which she wrote inspired by the above painting.  (More links to her work below)

CASH STRAPPED CATS’

My little puss eats Chappie,
Usually a doggies delight…..
….in days oft gone by.
Makes him feel serene and happy.
He’s grown muscles in places he’s no right.
And I’m positive he barked for the first time last night.

Once upon a time
We ran out of spare money,
Which in this hectic, modern life is not funny.
So opted for a cheap way to feed him.
Cats food proved
So expensive being fancy branded & refined.

Moved
By his mews,
We trailed to the market.
Yet never fear, what did we then find
At the back of the bottom shelves.
Lurking, dusty and unused….an eighties brand
We’d actually thought they’d banned.

So we gave it a try.
Candy floss coloured pink meat,
Resembling no animal we’d ever seen.
But we convinced ourselves ‘twould be a treat.
Now we regret the decision.
For the post box is manned
Each day.
As he dost lay
In wait.
His fave pastime
Come nine
Of the morning is nipping stray postie fingers
If they tend to linger
With neat precision which twould surely astound
The surest footed hound.
He does bound
Up high.
To aim and try
To catch
An unwary hand.
Copyright @ AMC 2011

I always remember the song from Spectrum,” I’ll be gone” or “Someday I’ll have money” released in 1971 and if you haven’t heard it I can certainly recommend it as an iconic Aussie anthem of its day.  John Williamson did a later cover of it but it was written by guitarist and vocalist of Spectrum, Mike Rudd.  Here is the first verse;

“Someday I’ll have money,

Money isn’t easy, to come by,

By the time it’s come by I’ll be gone,

I’ll sing my song and I’ll be gone.”

Till next time,

Love Marie xxx  (c)

More information on Annamarie Causer, poet extraordinarie;

She also writes for a website called CRAIGMILLAR (look under Memories for Diary of a Countryside Lady) or find her on Facebook FB CRAIGMILLAR (for news, opinion, history and events)

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September 2, 2011 in Current Blog by mariejon

98 Red Dog

Have you seen Red Dog yet?  If not I thoroughly recommend it, it is one of those movies that the Aussies do really well.  Quirky and surprising and very real, not the Hollywood look at all.  Not a nip or tuck in sight that’s for sure, I spotted two sets of even teeth in the whole movie and one of those belonged to the American star Josh Lucas, who was the leading man.  The other set to Australian actor John Batchelor who plays Peeto, who also stars in the Underbelly series Razor.  He is no oil painting by any stretch of the imagination but there is just something magical about him, he has that x-factor and just light up the screen.  I love that about the Australian and British movies that people look like they do in real life, tall, skinny, short, fat, wrinkled and crooked teeth, young and old.   The cast includes Noah and Rachel Taylor (no relation) as well as many other fine Aussie actors and even includes several people as extras from Mallala, Two Wells and Balaklava.

So go to the movies prepared to both laugh and cry, because it certainly makes you feel and that is the whole reason for art isn’t it?  Whether it’s looking at paintings or sculptures or seeing a movie or a play, you want to come away from the experience feeling something!  This movie is guaranteed to do that.

The story is about the famous” Red Dog” a Kelpie cattle dog cross, who roamed the countryside of the Western Australia’s Pilbara region, and rumour has it he even caught a ride on a ship to Japan.  He had a couple of “masters” during his life time but was for the most part an independent wanderer who would hitch a ride with motorists by sitting in the middle of the road.  It is said that Red was looking for his beloved “master” as he wandered from town to town looking into everyone’s faces as he searched far and wide.    Red was the best friend to nearly the entire population of the mining town Dampier in the 1970’s and it was here he eventually returned.   A bronze statue was erected in his honour after his death.

Dampier and the statue will no doubt get a lot more visitors now that the movie has alerted us to its existence.  Several books have been written about Red, however this movie is based on the book by British author Louis de Bernieres (author of Captain Corelli’s Mandolin which also was made into a film starring Nicolas Cage & Penelope Cruz).  It certainly is a heartfelt movie superbly directed by Kriv Stender, which provides us with those ‘laugh out loud’ moments and is suitable for the whole family.

Another ‘laugh out loud’ moment I would like to tell you about is from our darling dog Saba, or Ali Baba as I used to call her.  She is the red dog in the above painting a Red Heeler and shared our lives on the farm.

My husband used to work away during the week and Saba would sleep in the ute during the night (as hotels are not too keen on the four legged variety of guest.)  Anyway one day a packet of Kraft Cheese singles (cheese slices individually wrapped in plastic) was left on the dashboard of the car and when hubby let Saba out in the morning the cheese of course were long gone – packet and all.

However a day later the Kraft Cheese reappeared in the grass although now they were curled up in the shape of pencils but otherwise still intact and still wrapped in plastic.  You could theoretically uncurled it, taken off the plastic and eaten it again lol, not that we did mind you!

Here is a quote I like by Josh Billings (Henry Wheeler Shaw);

“A dog is the only thing on this earth that loves you more than he loves himself.”

Till next time,

Love Marie xxx     (c)

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