A moment that sort of changed my life but not really.

                                                                                  



I was called the other day to a first aid at our local tennis courts while I was on surf patrol to deal with a heart attack patient. This is not normal practice mind you, as ordinarily we just deal with the beach, not the town in general, although I think they were just desperate for a defibrillator and the ambulance had not responded, so they rang the surf club. While it is not the first life or death incident I have dealt with, it was by far the biggest learning curve. The role I played was relatively minor, as he had already had CPR for over 25 minutes, and let me tell you, the people performing that, were going extremely well. All I did was shock the guy, and monitor him really.

The thing is, when you are involved in something like that, you realize that yes life is precious and all that jazz, but also that it is fragile. A human body is not so much, it has the same amount of particles dead or alive, and it can take, well a lot. Life however, is so very breakable. A bullet smaller than my pinky finger is enough to take a life. 5 minutes without a heartbeat is enough to take a life. A blood clot the size of my fingernail or smaller is enough to take a life. Your body might still be in perfect condition, as was the gentlemen's I administered first aid to. Your life however may very well not be. In fact, you can still be alive, and not have life.

Christmas time!

And so Christmas day has come to an end once again. Santa has been and gone, Turkey and Ham litter fridges around the world, and the presents have all been opened. What a lovely, happy, peaceful day.

I often feel that while Christmas day is wonderful, the lead up is really the best bit. Christmas carols, christmas movies, decorating the house, decorated stores, little christmas displays everywhere... it's no wonder people get excited! I love Christmas eve. I usually go looking at christmas lights or eat goodies and I watch a christmas movie or the carols on tv. I always imagine Santa flying off in his sleigh and wondering when he will make it to my house. Sometimes, very early on Christmas morning, I will sneak down and play with the toy that santa always leaves on the top of my stocking. This year, I got home at 1 am on Christmas morning, and I just couldn't help but peek at my stocking, which was delightfully full. Oh what a joyful time of year.

Merry Christmas!

Don't sit under the apple tree with anyone else but me!

This is such a jazzy little piece! The version I heard is sung by the Andrews sisters. It makes me feel so summery and happy and leaves you with images of picnics and sunshine. I also heard another version whilst watching the 2009 schools spectacular, that had been amended and rewritten.  It was all very clever.  So yeah, don't sit under the apple tree, with anyone else but me!

I wrote my mother, I wrote my father
And now I'm writing you too-oo-oo

I'm sure of mother, I'm sure of father
And now I want to be sure, very-very sure of you-ou

Don't sit under the apple tree with anyone else but me
Anyone else but me, anyone else but me
No-no-no, don't sit under the apple tree with anyone else but me
Till I come marching home

Don't go walkin' down Lover's Lane with anyone else but me
Anyone else but me, anyone else but me
No-no-no, don't go walkin' down Lover's Lane with anyone else but me
Till I come marching home

I just got word from a girl who heard from the girl next door to me
The boy she met just loves to pet and it fits you to a tee
So, don't sit under the apple tree with anyone else but me
Till I come marching home

Don't sit under the apple tree with anyone else but me-ee
With anyone else but her, no-no-no, not a single sole but me
No-no-no, don't you sit under the apple tree with anyone else but me
Not till you see me, not until you see me marchin' home
Home-home, home sweet home

Don't go walkin' down Lover's Lane with anyone else but me-ee
With anyone else but her, no-no-no, not a single sole but me
No-no-no, don't you go walkin' down Lover's Lane with anyone else but me
Not till you see me, not until you see me marchin' home
Home-home, home sweet home
Just wait till I come marching home

So don't go walkin' down to lovers lane
No walkin' down to Lover's Lane
Till you see me, when you see me marchin' home
Then we'll go arm in arm
And sit down under the apple tree, baby just you and me
When I come mar-arching ho-ome...

(Images from http://thedizzydame.blogspot.com/2009/08/dont-sit-under-apple-tree.html)

have yourself a merry little christmas party joke

Tis the season to be jolly, and tell lots of jokes and laugh at them. So here is a little gem I heard at one of my christmas parties this year. 

A rabbi is sitting on an airplane next to a Korean guy.
 After they have been flying together in silence for a
 while, the rabbi leans over and says, "You know, I've
 never forgiven you Chinese for what you did at Pearl
 Harbor."
 The Korean looks shocked and replies, "What the hell
 are you talking about?!?!?  It was the Japanese that
 bombed Pearl Harbor, not the Chinese.  And besides,
 I'm not Chinese or Japanese, I'm Korean!"
 The rabbi says, " Korean, Japanese, Chinese, what's
 the  difference?"
 A little while later, The Korean man says, "You know,
 I've never forgiven you Jews for sinking the Titanic."
 The rabbi looks confused and mad and says, "What are
 you talking about?  The Jews didn't have anything to
 do with that!  An iceberg sank the Titanic.
 The Korean guy replies, "Iceberg, Goldberg, Greenberg,
 what's the difference?"

musical goodies

http://www.triplejunearthed.com/

So this week I have had some much needed and anticipated free time. Yesterday, I spent a good part of the day on triple J's unearthed website making some excellent musical discoveries. I suggest that you get yourself there immediately via the above link and do some discovering too!

One of my favorite discoveries (or rediscoveries- as I actually came across him some time ago and he has since been the inspiration for much of my own writing) was Karl Kristoph. (photo above!) I am quite fond of his lyrical  music, that he writes and records all on his own. It's really quite sensational.  He is a Sydney boy, 19 years old and now, according to myspace, has a pretty neat tattoo.

http://www.myspace.com/karlchristoph

Another favorite would have to be Deep Sea Arcade. They remind me of a punkier Beatles. "Don't be sorry" is the song that I think would be worthy of making them famous. They are proof once more, that Sydney is quite dominant in the music scene and they have reinforced for me, why indie is my favorite genre. You will find them on myspace at

www.myspace.com/deepseaarcade

And lastly (Well not really, because there are SO many amazing artists on this triple J unearthed site) but oh dear god, certainly not least, are The Moxie. While they are from Melbourne, you should definitely forgive them for this, because their sound is just spectacular. It's the kind of music I would listen to late at night, probably while I am blogging or having a cup of tea, curled up at my desk watching my fairy lights. Very cruisy, and perhaps just a little bit trippy. Just the way I like it. These kids can be found at http://www.myspace.com/themoxiemusic

Sex, fashion and theatrical lovelies...

Helmut Newton is my new favorite person. His photography is just oozing sexiness.  I came across his work when doing a little research into the fashion of the 50's. This genius was one of the minds behind the English Vogue at that time, as well as a number of other prominent fashion magazines. He combined sex and fashion and theatre to cater for only the most outward thinkers in the world of art. I love the playgirl bunny. It's quite the inspiration for breaking outside the box. Something that I feel is being restricted at the moment. There is not enough free thinking in the world of photography, not just in fashion but in all areas of the art. I think this is evidenced by the Bill Henson nonsense.  Censoring art is just not okay.

 Fuck morals. Let's just play dirty.

Dear Santa

Dear Santa


I feel on the naughtiness scale this year, I have been about a 7. This would be possibly one of my best years yet wouldn't you say?  So ... be a doll and get me a nice new set of ipod speakers?  I'll leave cookies.


Love Jess

Generation X, Y and Annoying

One of the things I have noticed about kids these days is that they really need to harden the fuck up. It's tears over absolutely everything, it's never going outside because video games are more exciting, it's, in the context of my life "the surf is to big" or "I feel sick".  I used to hate it when my parents forced me out of my comfort zone. Down the big scary waterslide or into the big waves at the beach. I used to hate being forced to go to school even if I had a terrible cold and I used to think I was so hard done by, but I look back now and I realize that my parents really were doing me a favor. Kids desperately need to toughen up.

I work with young children a lot of the time, and honestly, I am scared for our future. They are often so conservative and so single minded. So hideously obedient with no personality whatsoever. It seems as though many of the new generations are being raised as products of conservatism and religion and have no real thought patterns. Parents pander so hard to their children's needs, to the point, I think of ridiculousness. Or, worse, on the opposite end of the spectrum, parents just let their kid wander freely and don't care about the way they are raised. This isn't to say it's always like this, it just seems to be to much of the time  that I observe such extremes.

I know that children need nurturing and I know that children need patience. I know that they are just learning, and I respect that, but seriously, parents need to wake up and realize that their child is not going to learn to get over things without a little encouragement. Getting outside the comfort zone is a good thing. Living in a delusional little bubble of imaginary worlds on a television screen, is not.

Seraphic

 Days of juice. Days where words are barely adequate. The days where it's all about the love, the expression, the escapism, the dreaming and the imagination. The seraphic beings you surround yourself with, and the lost lover that remains forever on your mind. The pretty lights that spin and blur together in a meshing of color when you finally forget to be real and realize that you don't want a happy ending because you don't want it to end at all. What a pleasure it is to be alive today.

"Climate change is crap"- Tony Abbott in question time 2007.

Congratulations to the Liberal Party of Australia. You have elected a leader who thinks climate change is crap and pretending otherwise just because he is now your leader. You are about to block the Emissions Trading Scheme because you are unsure what the rest of the world is doing. (Pretty sure at the moment they are not doing anything. Pretty sure thats why ice is melting and wildlife is dying.) Instead of taking initiative, you again, just like in the Howard era, bow down to the rest of the world, kiss their arses and end up being completely useless when it comes to anything of worldly importance. You are skeptical about climate change, despite the clear cut scientific proof that while the world is naturally warming, it was supposed to take 20 million years, not 20.  This isn't priest school Tony. It's science.