Kefalonia

This poem is about my trip to Kefalonia in June 2022. I travelled there with my family as it was cousin Charlotte’s wedding. I had a wonderful time at the wedding and seeing all my family from the UK.

It’s hard to know where to start –
back from the wedding, back
from holidays, kind of back
to the beginning –
it’s gone now, my travelling
trip away, so exhausted of those
days of so many things happening
and now, as well – now

I’m in Australia again
I have to rewind it back
a long time, rewind my memory
back to Kefalonia, back
to the one beautiful thing, the wedding
and the song –
“this is the moment; this is the time”

this is what my friend sang
in that moment, he was singing
with the band at the wedding:
this is the moment
this is the day
when I send all my doubts and demons
on their way

the ceremony sunny, and underneath
the bridal arch, the pale aqua blue ocean
of Kefalonia

so, I’m standing there in my summer dress, pretending
I’m one of them – a bride, the queen of the day –
only I can’t find any husbands, not in Greece, not in Italy –
hahahaha – and it’s not an evil laugh that I’m doing there,
but a kind laugh – it’s kind and funny
because I always like to make jokes at weddings, I do,
because it’s like I’m just being cheeky with the bride
in that moment, when the favourite colour
is white – when I just want to be
the fairest of them all.

like, I’m faking it to cut
the wedding cake, the white three layers
green leaves wedding cake,
and behind it the pale blue sea of Kefalonia
the romantic air [where] I like
to make sweet jokes, to gossip of romance –
and on the hillside the bride and groom smile
the village behind them looks like houses are falling rolling
into the pale blue aqua sea
of Kefalonia.

“this is the day
see it sparkle and shine
when all I have lived for
becomes mine”

this is the kiss of the bride and the groom
and in the middle of that kiss, I’m hoping
that inside is my own dream
of kisses, of hugs, of the future -
maybe I’ll ask them: will they have children?
some little descendants?
to spoil and cuddle for generations in time?
but in the meantime, I love the vows
my favourite thing of weddings and of songs

“This is the moment
Damn all the odds
This day, or never
I will sit forever
With the gods”

I’d love to show you the poetry
of mythology,
of Greece and the islands and castles
of Kefalonia
to look into the sea for more of histories coming –
I will research the gods, the heroes, the villains,
the Iliad and the Odyssey

“I won’t look down
I must not fall
This is the moment
The sweetest moment of them all”

the legends and myths, I will know them –
next time, later I will find them –
the next time I find Kefalonia, the island
of King Kefalos, of ancient Greece
in the pale blue sea.

This is the Moment

https://youtu.be/9KiX2Wgo7hg

(click the link)

This is a song that warms you heart. Its uplifting. Especially after covid it marks the end of an era. Its not just about the heartfelt song, I still like the melody. The song is sung in the key of E. I like Anthony Warlow’s version of the song the best. He played Oliver Warbucks, the billionaire in love with his sectary in Annie. The lock downs have been hard. And so when we come together it can be emotional, all the feelings can come up.

It’s like when I cry at weddings. I always feel that way. I don’t like changes. It so hard to start a new beginning. Like life is disappearing. They bring up all the questions about what life is. Some of these changes feel unfamiliar and new. Its part of human mythology. The myths tell us the story of these universal emotions we all experience when the world changes. Loss is part of that too.

These moments can bring us closer, even if I freeze up a bit. It’s at these moments we truly belong. Its like that song We Belong by Mariah Carey, its uplifting. The Wing Beneath My Wings is another one of those songs so is My Heart Will Go On from Titanic. I always play songs to express my feelings. This is the moment is one of those songs that will make you cry!

Explorers of History

I like the famous explorers of history. I have questions about who they were, where they went and why they travelled to these places. I want to find out about it. Why is it so important? It means something that people travelled to experience new cultures, and to document their search, leaving us stories from the Sixteenth and Eighteenth Centuries.  These explorers helped to pass on the mythology from different cultures to us today, as well as the adventures they had. One of the first historians was Herodotus who included myths and legends in his histories, telling stories about cultures he saw on his travels.

I have researched a list of the most famous explorers, including Sir Edmund Hillary who climbed Mt Everest. This is an interesting topic to talk about with our elections recently. Where there were explorers there were also politicians. Often the politicians wanted something from the journey, that may have been different to the explorers. It is same with explorers traveling into space from Russia and America, for example, or businesspeople travelling into space recently. There are myths from Indigenous Australians as well that tell about how the land and animals changed, from megafauna, for example, to the present.

Why are we so fascinated by the earth? It has existed before humans, and continues on after us as well. It has so many facets we have yet to explore and understand in its life forms and geology. These are some of the reasons we’re so fascinated by exploring the earth. It has provided benefits to our societies for centuries. It also helps us to protect the diversity of plants and animals. Exploring the caves and areas underground for example can be dangerous. But is also linked to human myths about what the “underworld” looks like, and what happens to humans after they die. It reminds me of Dr. Who mythology or science fiction where the time lords navigate outer space, and campaign for human rights throughout human history and in the future. The relics of these explorers remain in shipwrecks and castles that are relics of a world that has gone by. Maybe one day Hollywood and Vegas might be seen in a similar way.

Designing Women: it’s complicated to be a beauty queen!

It’s very hard to be a design woman. They look so glamorous and posh. Those female Americans with their designer clothes and hairdos and nails and couches and personalities. We’ve been talking about sitcoms recently. Wondering why it’s so easy to get hooked into watching them. It’s hard to tell with some of these series what is real and what’s not. It’s hard to tell if they’re women like us, or if they’re a different kind of woman completely. Probably it’s the second one.  It’s so easy to get hooked into these shows. Sometimes it feels like these women have something that we don’t have, so we want to find out more about what that is. That’s what keeps us hooked in, the emotions, it’s a lot to take in. That is how television has worked through the ages. In our era it’s like that with Netflix and Disney. It’s so easy to get mixed up.

The show has different female types. Its shows some of the complicated things about being a woman. The show is set in Atlanta, Georgia in America, and shows types of American women and their personalities from the eighties and nineties, as well as through the ages as well. They play roles that have recurred for women and actresses through the ages, being high class and sassy. The shows can help us let off steam, seeing the character’s catfights or frustrations. It can get a bit dark with some of the women on the show but that’s just my comment. It stars Dixie Carter as Julia Sugerbaker, a progressive smart woman with her own interior design firm. She works with her younger sister who is more the beauty queen stereotype. She was crowned beauty queen of Georgia, she is very popular, and plays out the stenotype that beauty queens were not as bright as some other women, that was part of American television at the time. Charlene the office manager is sweet but naïve. They’re all smart and funny and make a good team together on the show. Of course, the stereotypes don’t really exist in real life, it’s all just play. Like chick flicks, they’re not exactly the same as everyday life, they’re just a bit of fun, for girls. It can get a bit dark when people take it all too seriously and try to act like that, they can become bullies. It can happen in schools. It is a show about a lot of women from different generations, exploring the roles of women, in business and as wives and mothers.

There is a history of blues and jazz music that comes from this part of America, and we can see that in the show’s theme song. There are so many different T.V. sitcoms from America, where I was born, in this era. Its easy to feel connected with these female characters, of heroes and villains.

A Brand new Life Story

What is the meaning of a brand new life. Its a poet kind of thing. That poetry gives us hope about how life can be? This is important to that. Poetry helps us grow, gives us hope for a new way of being like a plant bursting through the soil. These are the modern days. It can be frighting, but the modern world can also be full of things that are exciting and new. Changes can be happy and sad, tragic and uplifting. There is a 2009 film called A Brand New Life by French Korean Film filmmaker Ounie Lecompt. We haven't seen this film, it is about adoption, but it helps us put in writing the idea that new life can also mean dealing with the challenges of the past. 

A Brand New life was also the theme song of one of the most popular American Sitcoms of the late 1980s and 90s, Who's The Boss. I love it, I can't let go of it. Its part of the past, of the memories of that time. It showed a lot of the changes taking place at that time. During those years there was a lot of change in technology and business. It captures the new life of the American family as well as American society, the way people saw the world and related to one another. I relate to the show as well. It is also about a widower who moves to the country home of an advertising executive Angela with his daughter, Samantha. I love Samantha. Mona the grandmother of Angela is played by the same actress who plays Deborah's mother on Everybody Loves Raymond. Its a heartwarming show. It helps us see family matters as brand new things, as people find their way through the changes in life. Its like real life, the fun and challenges of new experiences. It reflects one of the changes taking place in the Eighties when women were the breadwinners and men were also becoming home makers. It is a good show for relating to this professional part of women's rights. You can sense the passionate feelings between Tony and Angela through the show as single people with children, though they date other people and become close friends, who support one another emotionally, as well as supporting one another's children. We see the children becoming teens, and although they never marry Tony and Angela acknowledge they love one another, Samantha is the one who marries boyfriend Hank, a medical student turned puppeteer. 

I love the house in this series. It belongs to Angela, she's the boss. She's the professional woman and the lady of the house, which is the meaning of the show. All the women get it. Although the series was set in Connecticut, it was films in Universal Studios in California. I would love to visit all the states, especially the cities San Fransisco and Los Angeles. I love Full House as well, and would love to see the studio where it was filmed too. It means so much to me having seen these cities in all the sit coms. They bring a lot of harmony to our lives. They're part of my story as wellI was born in America, but of course I don't remember it, I was just a child!?

The Encyclopedia of Mythology 

I've been looking at The Encyclopedia of Mythology, which is about classical, celtic and norse mythology. As well as some of the artworks that tell the mythological stories. 

All paintings have mythology in them. Sometimes its the topic the topic of the painting and sometimes its inside the painting. I like looking at a painting called Choosing of Ellen Terry by George Fredrick Watts. I want to find out the perfume of it. We found an auction item of Ellen Terry's a perfume bottle she gifted to her house keeper. She was very glamorous and had a dress that was restored recently for over 110 000 pounds. She was well known and successful in her work life like Watts was also. Its so good to see these things. I'm interested in the art and the class of these things. There are a lot of paintings of royalty and shiny things. Paintings lost and found, in shipwreck and paintings of people clinging to the raft of life. Recently a painting by a Dutch master was found in a school in the Blue Mountains. 

In the film The Duke the painting gained a new mythology. I'm been interested in recently is George Fredrick Watts. He was described as England's Michelangelo. Thats part of his mythology as a painter, which relates him to this famous sculptor. Michelangelo was also working on mythologic themes, like David and Goliath. Watts was also very famous in his lifetime, as an architect, sculptor and painter, like Michelangelo. But his work became less popular after he died. Tragic. 

Sometimes it can be hard to hear about the fate of painters and artists. There have been many painters through the ages. Each capturing their own truth. There is a culture in each person's life. Each family has its own culture. That becomes part of our personal mythology. Mythology and philosophy helps connect us with the way things have always been, with the bigger stories of history and life. It helps us protect mother nature and allow what is good inside us to grow. The paintings also have spiritual themes. Its hard to ask people about them, but they're part of psychology as well. 

Theres a lot to take in about art history and mythology. 

The Duke

I'm interested in the history of paintings. I have written about a few famous paintings on my blog over time. Like Woman in Gold the film opens up questions about history through art history. The Duke of Wellington is referenced in Frozen with the character the Duke of Weselton (perhaps named after the Duke of Wellington whose real name was Arthur Wellesly, crossed with some kind of weasel) who tries to exploit Elsa and her kingdom for profit. Its not nice to call people weasels or ferrets. Perhaps they thought, like many others, that the Duke of Wellington's decisions were nutty and not good for ordinary people. In the film The Duke Kempton Bunton doesn't like the Duke of Wellington, because he sees he exploited ordinary people for his own gain. Those are the politics of the painting, and the film. Kemton Bunton believes the money used for the painting could be used to help ordinary people, especially pensioners who don't have enough to live on after fighting in WWI. He tells his wife Dorothea that Wellington wouldn't have believed in the vote for women or for the working classes. Dorothea is also Irish, another part or the politics of the story. She would have been looked down on at the time, but Kempton saw her as a valuable equal. Kempton Bunton believes in the equality of all people. It is a true story, I like true stories. It is a true story about the only theft of a painting that has ever taken place from the National Gallery in London. It was treasured by the state, who spent a fortune on the painting, a hundred and sixty thousand pounds. It is a high stakes robbery. It is an amazing story. 

Kempton's son Jackie overhead his dad talking about the painting as a waste of public money. When his father's efforts to raise money for war veteran's T.V. Liscences fails Jackie steals the paining. Kempton uses the theft to demand support for his campaign. The two hide it in the cupboard until it is discovered by Pammy. I love her character. She tried to force Kempton to give her money, to blackmail him into giving her half the ransom for the painting. Shes a good character. An attractive woman who moves the story forward, with her boyfriend, the cool good looking rebel Kenny. Kempton claimed that he took the painting and handed himself over to the police. Kempton was put on trial and his barrister claimed he borrowed the painting to help the public. And its an amazing story because Kempton Bunton won. The jury agrees he was helping war veterans. So his campaign for ordinary people won over the campaigns of the powerful government. 

It was one of three paintings by Goya of Wellington, and was begun in August 1812. Goya shows Wellington tired from his long campaign. Which is true for Kempton Bunton as well, another campaigner for freedom for his fellow people. Kempton's court case could be described as his battle of waterloo, allowing his freedom to be preserved against a mighty foe. 

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child

There is a whole collection of JK Rowling books and movies. I prefer the original books. In the fist movie John Cleese played one of the ghosts. They had ghosts in Hogwarts. They have moving portraits in the staircase. They were a little bit suspicious. Do you believe in ghosts? They're a little bit like spirits, crossing from one world to the next. Its about the supernatural. The first one was my favourite. The stage show was a little bit difficult. It was hard to understand. He – who – must – not – be – named, the Dark Lord's Daughter, I'm not sure what her problem was. I'll look up the plot for you... The story begins seventeen years after the story in JK Rowling's original book Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows after Harry Potter's parents passed away. Just like in the first movie, the show is about the past, and how it wants to be found in the present. The stage show tells the story of Albus, Harry Potter's son. I can't believe that Harry Potter has a son though. 

The story has a lot of time travelling back and forward. Harry' son Albus and Malfoy's son Scorpius accidentally kill Harry in the past, allowing Delores Umbrage to be be the head of Hogwarts. She surrounds it with dementors and death eaters. They have to journey through time to set things right. The dementors and the death eaters were a little bit scary. 

One of my favourite characters in the early movies was Delores Umbridge. She's not that bad, for one of the worst teachers at the school. She keeps a lot of pink tea pots and cups in her study. She's dressed in pink. She has a fluffy cat. And kitten plates, they're my favourite touch. In my research about Deloras it says she persecuted muggle born witches and wizards, she almost got Dudley's soul removed, she forced students to write lines with their own blood. But it wasn't that bad, it was pink blood! Her favourite colour is pink. She's a piece of work, she is. I still like her personality though. I like the female characters. I like Umbridge, McGonagall, Hermione, Lavender, Methyl. And the love potion! I really like Hermione's outfit dancing with Victor Crumb in the first film. Its not good Delores was working for Voldemort inside Hogwarts though. Oh Boy. The actress, Imelda Staunton, was good on Downtown Abby with Maggie Smith though where she played Maud Bagshaw.

The daughter of He – Who – Should – Not – Be – Named doesn't seem that bad. She is one of those villains we need to keep the show going, as she brings parts of the Dark Lord's character into the present day. There are villains we need throughout Harry Potter. Like the Dursleys. What is Petunia's problem with Lilly. I don't like Malfoy or Dudley from the original. I still likes the play though. Its like Fantastic Beasts, which I liked, but not as much as the original. The next Harry Potter film thats coming out is The Secrets of Dumbledore the sequel to Fantastic Beasts, in April. 

Melbourne

Its fun to travel. My sister, my brothers and my Dad were all born in Melbourne. I have been to Melbourne with my sister last weekend. The food there was so good. They've got wonderful restaurants around there. I had a soft shell crab Benedict for breakfast. And macaroons from Royal Colin St. Cafe and Tea Salon. I love that place, my heart will melt in that place. I felt like Audrey Hepburn, the Queen of France or Cinderella at the ball. Some people will be jealous! I'm the queen of mean lately. Its in my blood. The macaroons taste so delicious. We stayed in the city near the cafes and restaurants. The theatre's good and the NGV was close by where we saw the Coco Channel exhibition. That was amazing! 

Coco Chanel 

She's the queen of fashion. I do love her taste. There is also a movie Coco Chanel staring Audrey Tatou, I loved the romance of that film. Her life was so beautiful in that. Its about her rise to fame and her revolutionary uncompromising approach to style, inspired by mens clothing, to create the elegant new style for women of her era. It was amazing. They had everything that she made, so many clothes! They had so many Chanels. I love the colours of the furs and feathers she uses. I loved Coco Chanel's jewels and perfumes at the exhibition. There's a photo of me standing in front of the magic mirror of Chanel. I felt like Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman staying in the city, I would like to buy Chanel perfume one day. Her story is like the ugly duckling to the beautiful swan as well. I have said said enough! Exquisite. 

There are all my memories of my trip with my sister to the city where she was born. I'm celebrating fun things. Seising the moment. And enjoying this part of me. Soaking up these experiences, the enchantment and excitement of my life. It about being part of the world. And enjoying happy endings. The Queen of Mean in a nice way! 

Coming of age

I've been researching things 80s kids will remember. I love Nickelodeon. All through the years. And its made for people of all ages, including teenagers. Are you afraid of the past? Sometimes I am. Its all about the teens. What about teenagers with disabilities? Did they have those in the nineties or the eighties? I know its a hard one. Of course there are people with disabilities all through history, including as important people in the Dutch Court in 17th Century. 

My research mentions remembering Punky Brooster. Each era changes with its new inventions like records, the walkman or the disc man, and with their different agendas. Or with way people speak at different stages of life. Like the series Bosom Buddies from the 1980s, which has a lot of themes we wouldn't see on TV today. The two men disguise themselves as women to live in a women only hotel. Or the conflicts in history about whose land is whose. Its nice to think about the memorable moments from different eras. 

I have the Harper's Bazar history of iconic moments. It records all the changes between 1876 when the magazine started and today. It shows the memorable moments in fashion history, the things that stood out as the most beautiful. It traces the development of the magazine and its artworks. It looks at changes in technology, of style and era to the 21st century. It reminds us not only of fashion history, but of the strength of women in all the moments of the past. 

Emma: One thing I wonder, is how people with disabilities have coped at different points in history. 

Alice: Thats a good question I think people would be interested to hear how people with disabilities have survived all the different eras of history. What about how you survive history Emma? 

Emma: We all have our gifts. You know I am the greatest in here. I've done hundreds of blogs. I used to have a wix website for the blogs of Emma Brodie.We have great hearts! 

Alice: Maybe thats how people with disabilities have survived all these moments in history, with what you're saying, we each have our own gifts. 

Emma: I want that to be my moment, my memorable moment. 

9 to 5 the musical and Dolly Parton's Childhood 

Emma: What's that big clock doing there in the middle of the 9 to 5 logo advertising 9 to 5?

Alice: The clock is showing 9 20 advertising the musical

Emma: 9 25! 

Alice: Right! Because it means Dolly Parton is late for work! 

Emma: I love the songs in it. At the beginning of the performance they have Dolly Parton's 9 to 5. It would make your day to hear that song every morning. Happy Days. Coming form the juke box. 

Alice: It is a jukebox song, an instant classic, something we all recognise. 

Emma: I want to get the songs next time. Yes they do play all the songs we know and love. From my heart.

Alice: Dolly always says she sings from the heart and that she's from the country. 

Emma: Can we talk about her childhood? I wan't to find out... 

Alice and Emma: Dolly Parton should be included as one of the important people in music history. What makes her so special in 9 to 5. Why did she become a star? 

Dolly Parton grew up poor in the rural Appellation Mountains, one of twelve children. Her father couldn't read or write, but Dolly Parton says he was one of the smartest people she knew about making a profit. She helps children who can't afford books learn to read now through her Imagination Library. She talks about her hard childhood that keeps her humble. Even though she looks glamorous and is a such a big star she is down to earth and has a huge heart. 

Emma: Yep, that's Dolly! There are so many dolly Parton impersonators and drag queens dressing up as Dolly Parton. 

Alice and Emma: In 9 to 5 the movie's Dolly's character is working as a sectary in a sexist in a 1970s workplace. The movie has become part of the folklore of women in the workforce and our messed up origins. Its the origin story for many contemporary films about female bosses who have to play a man's game. The film shows the three women who are looking for a little respect in the workplace and their revenge fantasies of getting their boss. It becomes a screwball comedy when they think they've poisoned their boss and steal the wrong body from the hospital. They think they're a team of criminal femme fatals but it turns out their boss just hit his head. Their boss however tries to forces one of the women to sleep with him they're forced to kidnap him. When they discover he has been committing fraud they make a lot of progressive changes to the workplace. He has to learn to take a hint and beg on his knees!

Emma: I loved the songs in the musical and everything about how they put it onstage. I love Dolly and her face was on the clock that was part of the set. It was hard to pick a favourite character, they were all so good. They had wonderful stars playing the co – workers, Marina Prior, Casey Donavan and Erin Clare. they were such brilliant actors and all three were divas. I liked their outfits. High powered, attractive, professional women. They made beautiful harmonies with their singing. I went with my friends Ellen, Joni, Natalie and Nathan. It was a beautiful way to connect between generations of women. It brings the excitement of magic into our everyday lives and helps us celebrate women in the city. Its a musical that helps us flourish, singing our lives and helping us wish for a different future. 

Cry Baby by John Waters. 

Alice: Like Pink Flamingoes

Emma: Like Dirty Shame 

Alice: I've never heard of that... You're right, Emma! That is a John Waters film! 

Emma pulls out a list of John Water's movies she has researched: Female Trouble, A Dirty Shame, Avalon, Home for the Holidays, Kajillionaire, The American President, Pecker, Pink Flamingoes, But I'm a Cheerleader, Cry Baby, Liberty Heights, Jersey Girl .. 

Alice: Cry Baby is set in the 1950s

Emma: I love the nineteen fifties. Is it a sitcom?

Alice: Its a cult classic

Emma: whats that? 

Alice: an arty movie approaching the world from an unusual point of view. Its set in the days when rock and roll was changing the world, the way we dress, the way we fall in love...

Emma: It s a bit inappropriate, sexy

Alice: But its also a comedy so its having a laugh about all that.

Emma: so we can be more rock and roll! John Waters has a wife? 

Alice: He's a gay man... 

Emma: He is a gay man. So he has a husband? 

Alice: I don't think he's married, he makes arty films though. It was one of his most successful films after Hairspray

Emma: Ah huh

Alice: Oh I see you know about that already... 

Emma: I'll show you the clip when Alison and Cry Baby ride off together they're a cheeky couple. He has hair like Elvis and a baby face, even though he's a bit a of “bad boy”. 

Alice reads from wikipedia: The film is set in Baltimore 1954 - 

Emma: thats the same place I was born

Alice (reading): Cry Baby Walker is the leader of drapes -

Emma: they're like punks aren't they

Alice: yes, more like punks than the squares who are more conventional and straight laced, and is about the love affair between drape Cry Baby and “square” Alison. 

Emma: I like watching these movies, they're a little bit trashy. We're still young at heart. 

Alice: It says here John Waters films are transgressive which means we get to see things we don't usually see. We see the drapes and the squares getting together and that “bad” guys can sometimes be polite and talented, and “good guys” can be aggressive. It helps us think about things differently and have some fun. 

Emma: Girls want have fun. Thats a movie I want to get too. Why do people have crushes on guys like Cry Baby?

Alice: I guess they remind us of parts of ourselves, remind us we can be a little bit wild and have fun.  

Once upon a Valentine 

Emma: What does it meant to have Valentines day in nature, in the Enchanted forrest? 

Alice: Well there are fairytales about love... 

Emma: All kinds of love? This is going to be a legend of Valentines Day isn't it? Where will I begin. 

Alice: In the enchanted castle?

Emma: Kind of! With the enchanted rose from Beauty and the Beast. Especially Belles sisters and all the Bimbettes, they've got sex appeal. Sometimes there are bimbos on Valentines day don't they, they're all playing dumb. Is that how is goes? Is it? 

Alice: Well this is your legend, you can choose how the story goes. 

Emma: Oo la la. That's French. With the mother natures valentines day?

Alice: All cultures are connected with the Earth. When the animals are born they know all about their world, but humans don't know, thats why we need fairytales to explain to us how everything works. 

Emma: Like unicorns and fairies, kings and queens, the bad ones. Princesses, prince charmings, rescues from towers, locked away, hidden types of things. All the royals. And all kinds of history in it. Sometimes I do like making histories of love, can you tell me about it? I need the whole truth about Old Fashioned Love Songs. 

Alice: Emma, you just showed me Pearce Shelly's poem about how Aphrodite was born from the ocean, part of the the foam of the natural world. You're also showing me your research from the University of Sydney course about Love and Intimacy that you studies. I like the way you're writing about love, you say Plato didn't get everything right, its not all about passion. Its also about searching for something pure in the connection and growing with a partner. Shakespeare also wrote about many forms of love, forbidden love, true love, love that's led astray by the passions, self love. 

Emma: I like the good queens. The white queen. Anna Hathaway's amazing in white. Everybody has good things and bad things that will come, like on Descendants. Who cares about the glamour on Valentines day. All the people are getting jealous on those days, in life. What about Venus, she is of love, of nakedness. I want to know the old history of it, of Valentines day. Of love of Eros. 

Alice: So what is the story of the enchanted rose in the garden? The story of the rose is that Belle must give to same love to the beast that she has received. Its about our connection between the two parts our animal self and our human selves. That we have to have both to Feel the Love. The power of true love will get you there, to Happy Ending of Emma Brodie's story. 

Emma: And us together with those crazy V Day outfits? 

Collectable things form history

Alice: During the week you sent me a picture of different kinds of collectable dolls. 

Emma: They're so interesting to look at. My Mother has one. Of my Grandmothers things. Its so good talking about. Sometimes they can be a little bit creepy in real life. But lets look at the whole story, it goes way back... for girls through the ages are they? There can be collectable dolls for woman as well, mothers, grandmother, women of all ages. 

Alice: Like the Babushka dolls, with all the generations inside. 

Emma: The Japanese ones are pretty good as well. There is a lot of sadness there with traditional dolls. If the traditions get lost or the history is disrupted. 

Alice: Sometimes the dolls are with us even after the history has passed. Like the early paintings by humans in the caves at Lascaux they remind us of our magical relationships with our environment in the present and the past. 

Emma: There are a lot of creepy dolls. Like Slappy in Goosebumps. He was a ventriloquists doll that came to life. They have a lot those in books. 

Alice: There are a lot of stories about dolls that become human and other kinds of inanimate life forms that speak. Throughout history. 

Emma: They do have those in history don't they? I know they are a little bit magical in them. Except the gothic ones. Its not good for Halloween with the monsters, or Frankenstein. Dolls coming to life. We're all born human aren't we. Theres all the magic that happens. Some of these creatures can be released from books like in the goosebumps series. Toy story is another example of the dolls that come to life. I don't like Sid Phillips I don't. I always used to chop my dolls heads off when I was little. I remember that in the past. 

Alice: I think every curious child did!

Emma: I'm curious. 

Alice: Well that's thats a good quality to have. The curious person always discovers the magic in fairytales.

Emma: I don't like the circus toys. 

Alice: There were lots of stories written about dolls that came to life with circus toys in them. And films about dolls that come to life. Humans wondering if we can create life. Like Frankenstein. About the human condition, and also about modern technologies. Our dreams are also like moving dolls that come to life when we close our eyes. 

Emma: My grandfather is a wonderful magician. When I was little. My brother Oliver always does magic card tricks. Some guys like to play poker. Or board games. You have to be careful in games, just like in movies. 

Alice: Or they might come to life, like in Jumunji. We have to be careful of the way we roll the dice, or the cards we play. 

Emma: There are dark things around from witches in history. Or keys. Or they use their wands to make vegetables come to life, or trees with books around them. Like Narnia

Alice: The word of the imagination that comes to life

Emma: Like the legends, that came from the olden times. 

Alice: And help us find our way forward in life. 

Emma: Like animals the way they communicate. Though they can be dangerous as well. In museums we see the stuffed animals, or the dinosaurs. 

Alice: They're living creatures that have become like dolls. 

Emma: Clocks and owls as well. They're some of the ways we record time in our generation. And Hello Kitty!

Alice: In Japan they believe everything has a spirit so Hello Kitty is alive too. 

Emma: Just like the Earth, we have to protect it. 

Alice: Yes, it comes from the belief the Earth is alive. 

Emma: And Destiny? 

Alice: Well, maybe its the power of our thoughts to shape the world around us. 

Emma: I can't wait to travel again. 

Alice: And see all the ruins of history? 

Emma: I can't wait to do the next one!

Recently I went to Beauty and the Beast at The Grounds of Alexandria. It was an exhibition in the Grounds of Alexandria. The cafes and restaurants were transformed with the theme of Beauty and the Beast. It looked amazing. They had really good designs to celebrate the 30th Anniversary of Beauty and the Beast, a film a lot of people from our generation would have watched growing up. It is part of my heart, the rose form Beauty and the Beast. Its something for people like me who are in our prime! 

Fairytales are often about the transformation from childhood to powerful parts of our adult lives. They helps us keep our imaginations alive. All fairytales talk about the transformations that are part of our lives. I love Once Upon a Time which is an adaptation of the fairytales, that includes Emma Swan who transformed from an ugly ducking into a powerful woman. The exhibition was something a little bit different to help us celebrate this anniversary during covid, something you can't get at JB hi fi. There was a massive Chandelier there. I didn't take any photos of that. But people do get married there. There was a grand hall but we couldn't go inside there. They had some amazing cakes. I had a burger and some bread sticks. I bought a cake for my neighbours Melissa's birthday. The anniversary was like the birthday of the film, I'd like to see a few more anniversaries for series and films. The anniversary of these films might be celebrated at Disney Land. Except, I hope, without the villains. Actually I would like to see Gaston and the Bimbettes in there. 

I liked the beautiful gardens with all the enchanted roses. As well as the big rose in the jar. I want that rose in the jar. But we don't steel the flowers from the garden though. They're part of nature. I like both the live action movie and the cartoon. They didn't have any celebrities at the Grounds of Alexandria. I like the character of Belle ands The Beast's son from Descendants, Ben. But Descendants is a different version of that world, using characters from Beauty and the Beast. There are a lot of versions of Beauty and the beast as well as the other classic fairy tales. We have written about a lot of fairytales. Beauty and the Beast as well. Like all those versions this blog is a new story about my experience of Beauty and Beast in Alexandria! Sometimes they do have dark moments. They have wonderful themes at the gardens I can't wait to see Alice in Wonderland which is going to be at Grounds of Alexandria as well. 

My top picks of the Season 

Is it about fruit and veggies? Fruit and veggies are part of Christmas. I just want to talk about the seasons, the pumpkins and the veggies. The historical foods for Christmas were all the warm traditional veggies. Like the pilgrims who ate turkey and similar foods on Thanksgiving. Those foods belong to European history. And were eaten but the kings and queens on their feast days too. 

All these foods were given by the seasons and by Mother Earth. But its not a good time for the animals in the forrest at Christmas, with all the feasting. They might want to get aboard Noah's Ark! The environment is the seasons. And so we have to take care of the environment this Christmas, otherwise we'll have no stories to tell. The tales we tell, the magic myths of Christmas are times when the earth talks to us. We need the creatures, the real live creatures as well as the fairy tales. We need stories to tell, like Shakespeare. Protecting the earth is part of protecting our history. We don't know what's in store this season. It doesn't seem right to cut the trees down this year. We have to protect the habitat and the seasons as well. We don't want the species to be erased completely. 

I love Disney at Christmas time. And we want our ending to be happy like in those Disney films. That also tell us about the history of life and tell us good messages about how to protect the seasons. So lets turn our pumpkins into coaches. Or if we're here in Australia, our watermelons! 

The seasons created the dinosaurs and ended their lives, their one of the most powerful forces that created life on earth. They've changed human lives from the Stone Age until now. So why do we celebrate this Christmas fun? Its part of celebrating the power of the seasons. Like our other holidays, New Years Day and Christmas Day (as well as Easter). They created the first life in the oceans but now we're trying not to drown, with all the flooding. So its not just about the castles for Christmas day, but making sure we can still get to see these wonderful locations. Its a time for remembering the past, celebrating the present and dreaming about the future. Its like we travel through time to connect with our dreams and wishes, and the people who love us. Its part of the Christmas Enchantment. 

I know its a special day for all of us here. We're all still growing, at all ages. From one generation to the next, finding out own meanings for Christmas together. We're all discovering own own futures all the time, even if we don't know what it is right now. Thats my mystical pick of the seasons. 

And this is my pick of the other Holiday Seasons: 

Good Friday, Labour Day, Easter Monday, Easter Sunday, Boxing Day, Anzac Day, Boxing Day, Christmas Eve, Father's Day, Mother's Day and Christmas Eve. 

I have to ask my parents to get me the box set of Full House for Christmas, all the seasons. They have wonderful seasons. I like the theme song. It knows my head is spinning. Its good to watch sitcom families around Christmas. 

The show is about the father Danny Tanner, whose wife has passed away. That's Pamela (with a P) she reminds me of my Mum. They live in San Francisco. They live in an amazing spot to grow up in, California. Its not that different to Sydney actually. Its a show about a modern family, raising their children in the nineteen nineties. 

There are pretty cool characters in Full House. I love Joe. He's one of Danny's friends who help raise his daughters after his wife Pam passed away. He's so funny. He was supposed to be in the series for just six weeks, but he was so popular he stayed until the end. He Jesse is the other one. He looks like Elvis (go easy on the deep fried Mars Bars Jesse). He's all about the hair. He's played by John Stamos, who was also the dentist Carl Howell in Glee. He was dating a woman called Emma on Glee. He also has a daughter called Emma in the movie Big Shot, where he plays a basketball coach. I really like the actress for Becky, she has the Olsen twins. She got together with Danny in season four, and they had two more twins. All the characters have different issues. 

They've got wonderful stars in full house. Like Granny Taylor who was on Everybody Loves Raymond. I would like to be on that show. I would play myself. Being a free woman in San Fransisco. I'm wondering about DJ's boyfriend Steve. He has eating habits. I have eating habits like that. Why is he eating so much!? 

The show also deals with some serious issues. Like the children growing up without their mother. Even though they have a good life and a lot of fun on the show, they have grief about their mother too. Its sad, it helps us cherish those moments with our families. It reminds me of the meaning of Christmas.

Respect

Aretha Franklin is a Diva! I don't mean that in a bad way. I mean that she was super famous and glamorous. She was part a group with her two sisters. They were so beautiful. How did she become a Diva, what every female wants to be.

Respect is one of those films that explains how the famous people we know came to be famous, how they found success. It shows how Aretha became one of the most important singers in history. It shows her singing in church as a child. I'm not sure about her father, he's protective and judgemental. He wanted her to be a jazz singer. Her mother passed away when she was young. 

My opinion is that Aretha decided to be her own woman and to sing the songs she wanted to sing. She was following her own truth. Like the Blues Brothers, she as “on a mission from God.” She took more control of her career, and re arranged Otis Redding's song Respect, speaking back from the woman's perspective. She released her big hits on Atlantic Records, including (you make me like a) Natural Woman.

The movie is so deep, there are a lot of big emotions. I found it a bit overwhelming. A lot of people said that about this film, it was a bit long. Its one of those celebrity movies that shows how famous people struggle, how they really are. It shows the pressure of the spotlight. Like Elton John she is a success. She quits drugs and alcohol, makes up with her husband and becomes a spiritual singer again. 

The women she sang with remind me of the Supremes, another all female R and B group who were big stars in the sixties and seventies, when my parents were young. We read that The Supremes started making gospel music popular, but it was Aretha Franklin who made the genre so big. She was a voice of the Civil Rights Movement. She is someone who inspires us to speak up for ourselves as well. 

California Dreams

Alice: What is it you like about these teen dramas? Is it that they're nostalgic? 

Emma: Yes, what does that mean? 

Alice: Its thinking about the past. 
Emma: Yes, thinking of the 90s, the 80s and all the different ages. Any other ages in there

Alice: People like you and I often feel nostalgic about shows from the nineties, because that's when we were growing up. 

The show was about the Garrison family who moved to California. The two eldest children formed a band, the California Dreams. The show was about California and their songs, which are very good and up beat. They are magical for teenagers. They have great melody. They play all the instruments. They're pretty cool. Its like a California teenage fantasy! It would be so fun to go there you know, to see the beach and the sights! I just love the songs, I just love to hear it, thats all. 

Alice: Is it about the cool characters playing songs together in the band? 

Emma: Yes. And its the characters I like as well, they are very awesome. 

Alice: Is part of the interest you have in coming of age dramas at the moment, also a celebration. 

Emma: What do you mean? 

Alice: Maybe its a celebration of feeling powerful in the world. You know who you are and what interests you. 

Emma: Yes, thats what I'm talking about. 

Alice: Celebrating those feelings. 

California Dreams is a teen sitcom. The teen genres are often about coming of age, teenagers doing what they want, finding their own path, learning about relationships, and so on. California Dreams is set in the 1990s, so its familiar from the time we grew up. California is famous for being the area with Beverly Hills, where a lot of teens aspiring to be in the music and entertainment industry went. The story of California Dreams follows the band until their members go separate ways, one of them goes on to a record deal with a professional music label. 

Emma: I researched the top ten songs about California, they cover all the ages form the sixties onwards, including the rock and roll lifestyle. Thet talk about so many womans in these songs, in the 90s sit coms too, they're a bit sexist. They don't understand about respecting womans yet. 

Alice: That's some thing thats part of the teenage genre too, learning about attraction. 

Emma: I've researched more teen sit coms from the nineties, so much to watch: 

Parken Lewis Can't Loose, The Secret World of Alex Mack, Party of Five, Salute Your Shorts, Roswell, Sister Sister, Hey Dude, Swan's Crossing, Kenan Kal, So Weird, Fifteen Hailside, California Dreams, Welcome Freshmen, Moesha,Undressed, Camp Wilder, Breaker High, The Famous Jett Jackson, Popular, The Heights, Flash Forward, Ready or Not, Get, Hang time, Sweet Valley High, Odd Man Out, Malibu Shores, Weird Science, The City Guys, Brotherly Love, Blossom, USA High, Teen Angel, Full House.

Mindfulness

Its a gift. 

“A book that takes its time. The unhurried adventure of creative mindfulness”

My birthday present. Anna got this for me. She's my poetry teacher. She helps me a lot you know.

It is courageous to tell people your dreams. My dream is to be part of the world of poetry. The poetic world that touches us all. Sometimes I love hiding things. But being open helps bring people closer. Dreams are images and involuntary sensations we experience, according to wikipedia. 

Mindfulness reminds me of the spirits. Sometimes it helps me to talk about the sad things in life. Sometimes my mind is full of difficult things. Mindfulness helps us notice we're creating all these things. So many. I know its up to me. To find something I don't see. Its up to us isn't it to find something we don't see. Music is very important to our mindfulness too. It gives us energy. Crystals and oracle cards can help. I am spiritual myself. Everyone had their spirits do they. To keep. It helps to cry it out, share the emotions. 

We always love to hide things. They have festivals that help us celebrate the spirits of life. It helps me stay young in this world. I know the religions of world are very famous. But they 're talking about he same things. Hope for the future. Descendants gives us that too. I love those things in nature. I's love to see some more snow. See the northern lights. The rainbow's colours. Extraordinary caves. And ancient ships. To travel. To see a whole new world. My dream is to see my cousins and to go to America!

I would like to go to outer space. They have only recently started doing trips to outer space. I'd love to do that with you. To see the stars, And be part of it all. In the universe that loves us. Physics are the laws of outer space. The underworld and the heavens. To welcome everything into our minds. 

I'm still creative. I would like to find a poem about mindfulness. 

The poet Rumi wrote

This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.
A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.
Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they are a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.
The dark thought, the shame, the malice.
Meet them at the door laughing and invite them in.
Be grateful for whatever comes.
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.

Descendants in 2021

Aphelothia

Schwartzraid

Winters Keep

These are three words I found on the big map of the Descendants territory. We looked at the map and saw it has places from Disney stories marked there. I like new words. There is a list of words at the end of my Descendants book. I've used to make a poem at the end of this blog!

The Descendants is an important thing for my generation. Disney has been important to us. We watched it growing up and in our teenage years. Now is a time when people of my generation start to shape the world. We get to decide the basis for the new era. We're coming into our prime now, and we're able to make decisions as adults. 

I've been watching it during the lockdown. With the covid restrictions easing we don't have to hide any more but we can be visible and be part of the world. We can be who we are.

One of the main themes in descendants is what it means to be “good” and “evil”. One of the questions I ask about descendants is, is Mal good? She is my favourite character, but I still wonder if she is “good”. There are some characters that judge her as “evil” but not everything is as it seems. She is working for the good of All, in the end.

Inside Mal's Spell Book, or should we say, Emma's Spell Book, she has a list of magical objects. It includes a chaos diamond, chime of opening, cold resistant armour, crows feathers, crystal ball, dragon's blood (not too much of it, probably purple blood would be nice), elixir of truth. I'm not such a big fan of blood. Its for the veins isn't it (even the fairest have veins, maybe they're the most vain of all!). It important for the human body. It should stay inside the body. There are no spells for love are there? 

You were telling me Mal gets together with king Ben in Descendants. He's very nice. His father was the beast. They met when Mal arrived with the other villains at Auradon. She didn't want to be friends with Ben at first but later used a love potion to try and get close to him at his coronation. Although she gave Ben the potion they ended up falling in love as Ben and Mal realised they had real feelings for one another. 

The words are: 

villain: a person who does bad things

barrier: a boundary that prevents people from passing

sceptre: a rod that represents great power

spell: the words that create magic

ember: a small but powerful flame

enchanted: having a magical effect

recharge: to restore energy

Poem

Not everything is as it seems, 

Or the barriers people face. 

We can get through with magical light, 

The power of US,

Using magic to bring things into being.

There is a lot of power behind you, an explosion of energy. 

The production of wonderful effects through the agency of spirits, 

Recharge the batteries of the soul. 

Once upon a time... rotten to the core

Happy Birthday Emma! 

Emma: This time never ends. I don't want my birthday to be over. Its not the end. Its a beginning. Because I'm the fairest with lots of mirrors, a birthday Diva! 

Alice: Haha! Its true, your birthday its all about you!

Emma: I know its all about me! Is it vain to say that on your birthday? 

Alice: No! Its ok to have the attention and celebrate whats great about you!

Emma: I love laying down like Marie Antoinette, surrounded by cakes, like a royal on my birthday. There are so many queens out there in stories. Not like an Evil Queen. Only a good one, and the fairest one. 

Alice: On your birthday you make a story about what kind of queen you want to be.

Emma: Like on Once Upon a Time?

Alice: Yes, the way it combines fairytale characters and real people. 

Emma: There are big sacrifices of my wishes I've had to make make this year with my birthday with restrictions. Ideally for my birthday, I would like birthday travels. To go whale watching. Or go to outer space and see the Earth from the outside. To go on a cruise ship and have a banquet or see the royal family. Or maybe go to a high tea. I'd love to to everything! I know I'm spoilt to the core! That's my name! Say it a little louder. 

Emma: That songs from Descendants. I can't get it out of my head. 

Alice: Speaking of Descendants, what did you get for your Birthday? 

Emma: Well... I drank Three cocktails

And at two double cakes with Melissa and her Husband Adam, her two grown children and her beautiful golden fish. And more neighbours were there as well, who have two lovely dogs. I got Mal's Spell Book from My Mum and Dad. Its a spell book from Descendants. I got an amazing collection of Descendants books from Rose. Its a set of four books about the next generation of Disney characters making their own stories about good and evil that are not so black and white. I would love to be as powerful as Mal in these stories! My parents also gave me to DVD of Descendants. I'm still thinking of Hades' song in my head. I just love all the characters in its. They also gave me the board game of Jumanji. Its from the movie, but it doesn't come to life like in the movie! I also got headphones from David, a bag from Rhiannon another book and bag from Alice, flowers and roses. I'm feeling super popular. Next time I would like to get a pet lizard. Sometimes lizards turn into dragons, like Mal. She turns into a Dragon and defeats all the evil! 

Emma: There are lots of good Emmas out there. 

Alice: Not as good as the Emma we've got here! 

Emma: I'm feeling the love. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-JLCJG-6IQ

Conversations about Netflix

Emma: Why are there so many famous films on Netflix? 

Alice: You know how there used to be video shops, where you could get DVDs? There are companies online now where you can watch movies and Netflix is one of them. 

Emma: Why do they not have DVDs any more. Where are they on the internet? What's the biggest secret of it? 

Alice: Well, its a very interesting question really. Most of the information on the internet is in data storage places, owned by companies like Netflix, Apple and google. They are in places like Manhattan and Silicon Valley. 

Emma: what about Australia? 

Alice: I'm not sure if we store our own data here, probably. 

Emma: I’m looking forward to the premiere of descendants on Netflix. How do they come up with the characters from these shows? The famous ones, and the teenage ones. Where do they all come from, can you tell me why? Its a big question.

Alice: We were saying a lot of Disney films are based on stories that already exists...

Emma: From history, and books from different cultures, can you tell me why, more about it. What's the secret of it first. 

Alice: Like the Brothers Grimm, for example? 

Emma: What happened to them? 

Alice: They were writing in Germany, in the Nineteenth Century, they were collecting stories, that were already part of the local cultures, and recording them. The way Disney has also recorded a lot of these stories for their films. These old tales had a lot of messages to teach people about the world. 

Emma: Why are they so mean in some of those stories? I mean the villains seem to never have good hearts. 

Alice: Well, the Brothers Grimm made them less scary, but they're showing us some of the problems of the world, so we can be wise when we meet them too. 

Emma: They have pirates and mermaids in them too? 

Alice: Yes, so that we believe there is more to the world than what we think there is everyday. 

Emma: They have glamour in there, like fairies and wonderland. I want to know about the dark secrets of the villains too. Its hard to stay brave about your fears. 

Alice: I guess the stories also record history too. And allow the next generation to make their own choices, to learn from that history as well. 

Emma: You have to keep it safe, to keep your childhood safe. 

Alice: They are ways of reminding us of our hopes and dreams. 

Emma: Like guardians. 

Alice: Yes, all the characters in these myths become guardians of your childhood strengths and hopes. 

Emma: I want them to have a good ending, the villains too. 

Alice: We that makes you a guardian too Emma. You would have a heroes role in one of their stories. 

Emma: And legends? 

Alice: And folktales. 

Emma: Is it all nonsense and madness? 

Alice: Maybe, but what would happen if the world all made sense. 

Letters to a young poet

Rainer Maria Rilke is the author of the book Letters to a Young Poet. So, anyways, letters. The life of letters in history is something I want to find out about. I would like to read about famous letters. This includes the history of love letters. Like Rilke's letters, they express something pure from the heart. Rilke was himself in a relationship with Lou Salome. Salome was a Russian born German woman who was an author herself, she studied philosophy and theology. Rilke was also friends with Princess Marie of Thurn and Taxis and stayed with the Prince and Princess in Duino castle where he wrote Duino Elegies. During WWI he also had an affair with Lou Albert-Lassard an Expressionist painter. I'm inspired by these women and their tastes. 

The letters in Letters to a Young Poet were written to Rilke By Franz Kappus a young student asking for advice about his writing. The thing about letters is that they're usually private, between two people. That's why they're associated with the idea of secrecy, and of mystery. We took a look at a chapter from the book, one of Rilke's letters. When we read these letters they are signs about the mysterious world of poetry. Its very hard to describe him and the type of mysteries he was writing about then. He spoke about how writing poetry creates a strength inside of us, like the blood of our ancestors, that helps us be courageous even when we are alone. There have been many different ways of passing secret messages in history. There were whispering walls, for example where a message could be said at one end and heard loudly far away at the other end. In this way the letters to the young poet are a little bit like the message along the whispering well. Or like a ghost letter from the past. When we read Rilke's letters they're speaking from beyond his tomb, like something from the mysterious vault of an Ancient King or Queen. When we read his letters we get his sensations from life preserved for all the young poets. 

Chinese Mythology

Chinese mythology plays a role in science and history. Chinese mythology has been passed down in spoken or oral and written forms. Many myths describe the creation of the universe, the lives of its inhabitants and their gods. Many Chinese myths also have characters from history in them. One example is Mulan. I'm interested in Disney characters that were based on historical characters, and what the real life stories of the Disney characters were. I'm interested in the truth behind these stories. Mulan is often described as a warrior who fights barbarians. Barbarians, though, is not a word I would like to use. I would not say that. I would prefer that the stories help to stop wars, instead of making things more complicated by calling people barbarians. It is important to have have perspective on these conflicts when we create stories or watch films. Another example is a story I've heard about the crusades, which was a fight between invading Christians and Islamic groups in Jerusalem. I heard about a tour guide who described the Islamic people as barbarians and an Islamic man was offended. He explained the culture and civilisation of Islamic people at the time who brought maths and scientific knowledge to the west. When Charlotte tries to convert to Judaism in Sex in the City we find out just how complicated it is to be part of another culture. There are so many traditions, and even learning the whole language of yiddish, that she has to go through. It shows how complicated the relationships between different cultures can be, including the traditions of different Chinese groups and the countries that exist on the Chinese boarders. Its important to acknowledge the traditions of another country. 

Mulan herself was not a real person, but was a character in a Chinese mythological poem the The Ballad of Mulan, which was composed before the 11th Century. Chinese myths and legends are like temples and museums as well as stories. They are part reality and fantasy. They record the changes that took place in history. There is another Chinese story of the Moon Goddess, who drank her husbands immortality elixir to protect it from being stolen, and became a resident of the moon in the sky. This is a poetic story that relates to every day life. The potion was a present to her husband as he stopped the earth from overheating. It explains the movements of the sun and the moon that come together in the middle of the month.

Poets write about the moon festival

Hou Yi shot down the suns 

to stop the suns from burning 

the Earth down.

And reducing his wife

to the burning fires of her tears.

In Chinese, this story speaks 

of his undying fame 

to match the undying love and beauty

of his radiant wife Chang'e.

She is unique, 

it might sound like a cliché 

but their undying love was 

written on the sky

for all Chinese women to read,

in Mandarin. 

She is the hero of honour in this story

a daring sorcerous 

who burns forever

but we don't want to get

too hot and heavy about 

her private affairs of the heart. 

We respect the part she plays 

in Chinese Mythology explaining

the sun and moon in the sky. 

Everybody loves to celebrate 

her day with their loved ones

its her chemistry that is evoked

by the lanterns of the moon festival

a cup of wine and moon cakes. 

The extraordinary fabric of time

Recently the days feel long, but time is moving by so fast, in covid lockdown. Because time seems to to be moving more slowly recently, I'm becoming interested in how time moves. It seems like sometimes the way I experience time changes with the weather. Albert Einstein wrote about this in his special theory of relativity. He wrote about how space and time are connected, and how they relate to gravity. Gravity is how stars and planets are formed, it effect not only mass or objects, but also light. His theories might sound like poetry, but in fact they are science. Einstein was a major figure in the history of science, especially because of his theories about light. He said the rate at which time passes depends on your experience. Steven Hawking was another scientist who spoke about the universe, and black holes in particular expanding. There have been been a lot of interesting and famous scientists who are interested in time. Even Leonardo Da Vinci who was an artist, inventor and scientist. He is a character in the film Ever After where he plays an inventive role in the Cinderella fairy tale. 

Time is also an important theme in many stories and poems. There is a character of Father Time in Alice in Wonderland. Father time is often shown with an hourglass or a cythe. The ancient Greeks had two ideas about time. They had Chronos, sequential time, and Kairos which was the opportune moment, acting at the right time. This word also means weather in Greek today. In the Hindu epics Kala is the god of time and change. Shiva is the soul of the universe, which is what Einstein and Hawking were studying. Surya is the god of the Sun, in Hindu religions, he rides a chariot pulled by seven horses. The horses represent the seven colours of the light spectrum and the days of the week, connecting light and time, like Albert Einstein did. Philosophers and scientists and religions all see time from their own, though sometimes related points of view.

There are some scientific theories that covid came from the destruction of the natural environment which could be related to the Hindu form of time personified by Kali, who was a destroyer, protecting the innocent. The more we grow like nature the more we grow our wisdom. 

Hamilton

Hamilton is an historical musical by Lin – Manuel Miranda about Alexander Hamilton. Hamilton was an immigrant to the United States of America from the Caribbean on the eve of the American Revolution, he became George Washington's Treasurer, though died in a dual with the Vice President Aaron Burr. When he was researching the performance Miranda saw many parallels between Hamilton's life and the lives of many people in America today. I enjoyed watching the glamour and tragedy of Hamilton's life, especially finding out about the women's role in his history. Hamilton married Elizabeth Schuyler in 1780. He also had an affair with the fairest of them all, Maria Reynolds in 'America's first political sex scandal'. We don't understand everything about history, its hard to think about real things in our own lives, so the story helps us understand more about what is happening in the present day. 

In Hamilton, King George is portrayed as an old fashioned buffoon and tyrant. His song is not a rap or hip hop song like the other numbers. He sings about America after the revolution. He is contrasted to the other American characters who are making the world more fair. King George is also in an episode of Once Upon a time, which I wrote about in my last blog. He appears there as part of a story, the Prince and the Pauper, that was originally written by Mark Twain. His character King George, was based on Henry VIII from that story. The Prince and the Pauper is a story about how two young men change roles and see life from one another's perspectives, they understand the historic cultures that each of them face, changing the laws to make them more fair. 

I'm interested in historical artists, as well as in art that shows us historical events. I'm interested in the ruins of Pompeii for example that preserved life as it was on that day the volcano erupted, in the past. Its a way to see people's cultures, from places as far away as Russia. Its hard to imagine how life would have been for these people, until artworks or history books show us. I'm interested in people's struggles for human rights and the way cultures change, from royalty to the way individuals explore relationships and develop knowledge about life on earth. I don't like the violence in Hamilton, but it helps to remind us of the nightmares that have happened in history and how to stop that kind of violence happening today. 

Once upon a time series

There are loads of series of once upon a time. 

The series are deep, and very serious. They can be a little bit dark and cruel in a way that I don't like. They create darkness so we can appreciate the good magic of the world. Sometimes those parts of the stories make me feel anxious in my chest. Some dark aspects of the fairytales are a little frightening. They show us how hard it is be brave. Everybody needs a good villain though, even if I don't like it! Like the Descendants, there is also romance in the series, and magic. Both the worlds of the human characters and the fairytale world of make believe can have dark elements that come true. The series begins in a town called Storybrook, which in real life is filmed in a small town in British Columbia in Canada. It is the name of the town where the evil queen has banished all the fairytale characters. She wants to be the only one with a happy ending she doesn't understand happiness is something we share. All the characters face challenges in once upon a time. They struggle with the idea that its possible to be good in a world where there is no happy ending. The truth is they are good and they can create the ending they want to make. I want to write my own happy ending. Sometimes I have the same struggle as the characters in Storybrook between wanting to be the fairest, richest royal of them all and wanting to be truthful and share the happiness with all the other characters. These are mysterious struggles of being human that come from fairytales, myths, Ancient Greece, or Hans Christian Andersen, and that all humans share, even in Australia. Though my story doesn't involve pointy arrows, just the challenge of getting a needle for the Covid vaccine. 

One scary part is when the evil queen takes the hearts of the people, ripping their hearts out. She uses the hearts to control the people, so they can't do what they think is valuable, she tells them what to do. She is afraid of their happiness. I just want them to be free, they don't need to hide their values and feelings. When the queen has control of a person's enchanted heart she uses dark curses to make the fairytale characters loose their memories. They can't remember who they used to be. To make the dark curse she has to sacrifice something valuable to her, like the heart of somebody she love. The good news is there are antidotes to the dark curses. For example, True Love. True Love is the most powerful magic that there is. Emma Swan breaks the curse in Once Upon A Time : Snowfalls by telling Henry, her son that she loves him, kissing him on the forehead. The dark curse can also be used for good, for example when Regina uses the curse to bring everybody's hearts back together. 

The story could be compared with the situation here with covid at the moment in Sydney. Sometimes I think covid is like a dark curse, that effects people and changes their lives. Its hard to remember that there are still good things outside our masks. Like friendship, and the truth, and of course, true love. By linking our stories with theirs we become another Storybrook, another part of the stories and the myths from Hans Christian Anderson (whose stories and poems we will talk about on another blog) to the Ancient Greeks. 

Descendants 

Descendants is a Disney show about the next generation of Disney characters, the children of some of Disney's most famous villains of all time. I enjoy these live action versions of reimagined fairytales, much more than the original animations. They are part of the Disney mythology, which means the villains are already part of our imaginary world. The young characters have a chance to create something new in these worlds.

It can be hard for these characters, like for everyone, they're born in the shadow of their parents who are very powerful villains, but the children have the chance to make their own stories. Mel is the main character of descendants. She is best friends with Evie, they sing the space between that talks about their friendship and their struggles. They're always there to help one another. Mel and Evie are also friends with Carlos, Jay and the son of Gaston, Gil. Mel creates her own story when she falls in love with Ben, the son of Belle and The Beast, she pursuers her own dreams and saves the kingdom by choosing her own path. The truth is Mel only acts badly when people blame her and assume she is bad in advance. She struggles when the supposedly “good” characters project their problems and their fears onto her. In the song she sings with Evie she talks about how much she is struggling, she wants to run away to Hades, to be Daddy's girl, even though he left her when she was a baby and her walked away from her mother Maleficent. She has abandonment feelings, but its not her fault that he left, he was too obsessed with his own ego, about being a god to be there for her. She tells him she's over it, she has people who care about her now, she just wants his magical ember and tells him not to mess it up. She's not an easy person either but she is finding her own truth which is the most valuable thing in life. She takes what is powerful from her upbringing uses it in her own way. 

There are four Descendants films. I've just seen the fourth one that's set under water, in the world of the Little Mermaid. The movies are fantasy films set in a magical kingdom. The characters include Belle and the Beast, Mulan, the fairy god mother, her daughter Jane and other darker characters like Cruella De Ville, Maleficent, Ursula, and Jaffar attend the same school. The descendant's names are Mel the daughter of Maleficent and Hades, Jay the son of Jaffar, Evie, the daughter of the Evil Queen, Carlos Deville the son of Curella De Ville, Uma the daughter of Ursula the Sea Witch and Ben the son of Beauty and the Beast. I think the bad characters are sometimes really cool. 

They're not too vile! They represent the darker side of life. Which can be good for your spirit, and cool! They show the hidden world, its hidden soul, and they are actually a good part of the world. They express the repressed and hidden feelings of the world. I like all the characters in there I watch it all the time, I get a bit obsessed. These characters are actually the good ones in most of their worlds. 

The Zombie Musical is another Disney film with some dark characters. It is not that scary, its another movie, like the Adam's Family or Hotel Slovenia about how its is pretty cool to be freaky, awkward or weird! The Zombies' hair is emerald green, and they have pale skin. These films remind me of classic films like the 1931 version of Frankenstein or some of Charlie Chaplin's films that open up the gothic sides, the underworld, of our lives. The underworld, represented by Hades, is the hidden truth, the things we keep in the shadows that we are afraid or ashamed of in our everyday lives. The skull, death, fossils these are all parts of life that remind us of what passes. These fossils come from the underworld. They come from the graves of history where we find these skulls, the skulls of Shakespeare, diamond skulls, the skulls of people who died in covid, the skulls of people from Pompeii that were buried when the volcano erupted. The volcanic rock, molten from the heart of the earth erupted and covered the earth. These characters are the stuff of nightmares, they are things we don't want to think about in our everyday lives. History shows us these dark forces, like the spinning wheel of the witch can be used to tell the story . Sometimes those creatures are not friendly, its like halloween, they're parts of our history that usually we don't want to look at. They contain some of the magical knowledge that is stored in the earth that speaks about death as well as about life, but we do have faith. 

Maya Angelou 

Maya Angelou was an American poet and writer. She became very well known for her first (of seven) autobiographies, “I know why the Caged Bird Sings”. She was a poet, writer, activist, and lecturer who was active in the Civil Rights Movement in the US, Like Ruby Langford Ginibi and other Australian women writers in the Indigenous Civil Rights movement. Ruby Langford Ginibi's autobiography is called “Don't take your love to town” named after the Kenny Rogers song “Ruby, Don't Take Your Love to Town.” Like Maya Angelou she is fanning the flames of empowerment. 

Angelou spoke at the presidential inauguration of Bill Clinton. In 2021 another young American poet Amanda Gorman recited her poem “The Hill We Climb” for Joe Biden at his inauguration, she is another important icon of African American poetry. She said, to quote her, “there is always light, if we're brave enough to see it, if we're brave enough to be it.” There are also important iconic Australian female Indigenous poets from the Civil Rights movement here including Oodgeroo Nunaccal. I'm a big believer in women's rights and disability rights. History tells many stories about Indigenous people and African Americans. The story of Pocahontas (who is my favourite Disney Princess, singing the Colours of the Wind, with her mother's necklace and the grandmother tree, and the birds) was told by John Smith, an Englishman, who may have been telling a version of an older Scottish Ballad, with Indigenous American characters. 

Maya Angelou shows us we can write our own stories, even in the history of America and all its oppression, she will rise. 

Maya Angelou

She is a force of divine light, 

a magical candle, 

to light way for the sprits of your soul. 
She fills the space, 

From the keepers of the Earth. 

She says, “don't be afraid, to show your true colours, 

the colours of the rainbow. 

You are not alone, ancient ancestors stand beside you”.

We need her wisdom, the wisdom of the meadow, 

To grow the tree of life, to connect with nature,

When we don't have the strength to fight back. 

Your voice, its happening for you, not to you, 

Birthing a new age, ushering in a new era, 

Dreaming a new world into being. 

Maya Angelou, you are the oracle, 

Your voice has the faith of a deep, healing melody, 

A prayer to God, I cherish it.

She tells us we are one, all over the world

Everybody needs hugs, to make us warm together, 

Even in Australia, that is love, to speak all together, 

Angels watch over you, rest in peaceful meditation. 

Writing gives me a voice. It means I can tell my own version of history, not just be part of the stories people tell about me. I am unique as a writer and poet with a disability. I would like help people with disabilities feel like they have a voice, in America and Australia too. I feel lucky and I would like to help other people to express themselves, and to get along. 

A Witch's Resume 

My resume is my knowledge of magic, and of nature. I like the legends of the witches broom. Withes brooms have feelings, they're interested in the liberal arts and the emotions. Of the witch arts, the witches' broom's favourites are the myths and legends from so far back that nobody can understand them. This is because they're written in the special Witches' language. What is is the Witches' language? It as ancient as the language from China? Was it invented in Salaam? Or spoken by the wood nymphs? The Brother's Grimm also knew the stories of the wood nymphs and the Witches' Boom. This is not halloween, I just like myths and fairytales. Not the dark ones. Sometimes these stories are wild, like beasts. 

The stories give people the power of believing in the spirit life and in nature, with all the candles around. Some witches are storytellers, and they have ghostwriters. They are our inspiration. I want to understand about ghosts. Ghosts are part of the unknown. They speak like the raven in Edgar Allen Poe, in unusual, unexpected ways. Some fairytales have graveyards, that house powerful spirits that are both good and evil. Some some witches like special flowers and others hate children. There are wicked step mothers and good wizards or warlocks. Its just a thought. We all have daemons, maybe these creatures are ways of reflecting our goodness, as well as the forces that haunt us. 

Frogs just stay frogs for ever, they go into the potion with bats wings and eye of newt, in this wives tale, which is the old history, forbidden in books. All different animals have magical qualities. They should not be subjected to the evil sides of human nature, and the government has reasons to protect children's stories. We have to save nature, to keep the stories safe from harm. So that young witches, like on Harry Potter, can learn these stories as students in the next generation. So they don't have to wish things from genies, or rely on glass slippers, they can use their own magical objects to help them transform. Circus is another kind of magical show, without the animals in cages, which should be forbidden. This world has got to be better. The stories help us use our magic, not to destroy our home, or the homes of koalas, or to destroy the princesses heart. They are full of magical enchantments that teach us about the magic of the world and its gardens, full of fairies, mushrooms, rainbows, unicorns, mermaids and creatures of all kinds. Don't cut the flowers, let the little girls' hair grow long. Have courage and be kind. Don't forget the magic beans, the golden harp, the golden beans, the magic mirrors, objects that come to life, like on Beauty and the Beast. There are also kooks of nature, like The Adams Family or Bewitched, which are comedies, and not to scary. There are also stories about the ocean too, that help us save the fish. There are also stories about weddings as well, dragons, snakes and brave nights. Its also good not to lock young girls in the tower, we don't need to be afraid of their freedom. The good witch has the power to transform herself, like a white witch, with her potions into all different things with her cat, The Deathly Hallows. 

Whispers of the romantic dark shadows of Transylvania 

The heart string is sewn with a needle. Its chemistry. A breaking heart feels like sharp nails inside. 

Making a hole, very deep. That is a dark love. Just black and white. Its the same for the mouse. This story, probably a creepy one, and historic, is about a monster mouse who fell in love with a bat from Transylvania, a vampire bat. Its a love story between the two monster creatures. Just like in the films.

They met by following their intuition, one Halloween, in the Bellingin region of Northern New South Whales, on Bat Island. Where fruit bats live. The fruit bats are very friendly, they come out at night and trust their senses to find food, using their intuition. Sometimes they're scared of humans. Humans are pretty frightening, for bats! 

The Dracula bat had flown all the way from Transylvania, the Medieval city in the Carpathian mountains, famous for the Dracula story. The Bram Stoker story was based on the Medieval Prince Vlad the Impaler, who impaled his victims on a stick. The bat followed the whispers of love through the shadows of the mountains. She came from Transylvania too. She was kind of chic, and he was very chic. The little monster mouse was so shy, she felt guilty every time she squeaked. 

Just like the legends in the books tell they felt a 'Zing!', the whisper of the dark shadow of romance, inside their hearts when they met. It was like electricity, and thunder and chains rattling, a heavy clanking mechanic sound passing through their heart strings. That's the zing of love, for a monster, the way its told to Dracula's vampire children. The bats gobbled her up. He didn't save her, he was already gone. That is how love goes. There is a dagger through the heart, that when it is withdrawn leaves a hole. 

Claris the Chicest Mouse in Paris 

Once upon a time... its a classic Christmas tale (and whiskers) about Claris' Journey. Emma, she was a Mouse. She was friends with Claris the mouse. She was a friendly mouse and sweet. She lived in a glamorous chic mansion with the smallest, little mouse sized Chandelier. At Christmas she tied a little pink ribbon above her ceiling, under the mistletoe. 

She was an unknown mouse from New York, in Paris. Oh, la la. She was very shy. But she lived with a married human lady, Coco Chanel. The family also had a daughter, a spoilt one. The whole family was spoiled actually. The mouse lived in their house, and so she was spoiled too. The daughter was so stubborn, she was always spreading roamers and gossiping on the phone, “why can't we go on holidays to the North Pole, and live in a palace?!” At Christmas the mouse was able to eat as many macaroons as she wanted. 

She was healthy but she dreamed of being rich. She had a few treasures, including an heirloom passed through the family from her grandmother, to her mother. It was a very beautiful stone. Her heart of the ocean. She decided to take the stone to the jewellers to have it polished, to make it more valuable. At the jewellers she met a very hansom, posh, English mouse with white fur and sparkly blue eyes. When they met he gave he a kiss on the hand. 

She felt just like Cinderella at the ball, as though she was transformed, in a beautiful dress with the stars swirling above her head, part of nature, the forrest and the universe. She felt like a natural mouse. She was every mouse. She felt as though she was meeting a beautiful peacock bird. She was so tired of spending time by herself during Corona Virus that she was so happy to meet this mouse man, through her blue diamond gem. 

“This is happiness!”, she thought.

After work they went to the Eiffel Tower together. Because they were so small they could climb up the whole building, she wasn't afraid of heights. He wrote her a poem and they kissed. Later they traveled to the States and climbed the Statue of Liberty, and from there the Opera House in Sydney. Thats all we know of the story... Au revoir !

Talking About a Very Environmental Christmas: the spirit of St. Nick

Christmas was a ritual of the spirits connected with the Earth. 

Emma chose a card from her pack called the Living Light Card. On the card there is a tree of light and energy growing out from between the graves. Are the ancestors related to the story of the manger and the animals surrounding baby Jesus? 

There are so many wrecks and ruins of history. It makes me sad to think about the graves but sometimes people are closer to us when they have died, we hold their memories so dear, to keep the memories alive. Sometimes people with dementia remember those who have died as if they were still alive with us. 

Praying to Mary or the angels can help.

I went to visit my Grandfather John Antony Thomas Elston's grave. It is written there on his grave, “Those whom we love and loose are no longer there where they were before they are now wherever we are.” St John Chrysostom.

The living light tree of Christmas reflects that we don't need presents. Across the world people are in a dark place at the moment. Its like the ice burg from the Arctic that sunk the skip of the Titanic, or the world of Shakespeare, worlds that have passed away. I like sad things at Christmas time, things that reawaken belief in the world. 

I love thinking of my memories of the past. Thinking of all my family, here and in the UK as well. My cousins. I do want to travel the world too you know. They mean so much to me. Remembering them at Christmas brings peace. Everybody needs peace. 

I want the boarders to be open. We remember the generosity of the people who came before. Its a time of giving and forgiveness. Its a time to remember the truth, how we're in this together, that struggles are there to help us live in a better way. 

The Earth is pitch black, like the world beyond, outer space.Where the stars shine more brightly from the darkness. Thats why we have candles at Christmas, in the depths of winter, it brings lightness to the dark soul. There are nuns and monks who understand that darkness. The dark soil the Christmas tree grows from. 

The portrait of Artists I have seen recently

Van Gough

I would like to describe his paintings, and their relationship with his life. Its complicated to write about his life, a mixture of history, the truth of his life, and the creativity of his artworks. His paintings celebrate the poetry of the world around him, it comes to life. His paintings have a lot of humanity, showing the way we perceive the world. Van Gough's mother was a religious woman who emphasised family. She encouraged him to draw when he was a child. It is tragic that, considering how valuable his paintings are now, that he did not have enough money during his lifetime. He only sold one painting in his life. He became more famous after he died. He is buried with a simple headstone. 

There was also a Dr. Who episode about Van Gough, in which the the Dr. and Amy travelled back to help Van Gogh defeat a creature only he could see. Maybe that was why Van Gough cut off his ear? Although we don't know why he chopped it off, its safe to say we're sorry for his loss. The Dr. and Amy tried to bring Van Gough forwards into the future to realise how famous his work had become and its reception after his death. But even the Dr.'s powers were not able to alter Van Gough's life to that degree. 

The Archibald

What is the history of the Archibald? The Archibald is an Australian painting exhibition, usually portraits of famous Australasians. It is a prize show, with different awards, for the packing room prize, people's choice award, and the overall winner. It is interesting to see. My friend Digby Webster he was an artist in the Archibald, he is a famous artist, having his work in the show. I also liked Wendy Sharpe of Magda Szubanski. I would like to have my own work in the Archibald Prize as well. I also part of art exhibition, and won the best paining for botanical ARTES Prize, for the painting of flowers I did. I have also painted a portrait based on Klimt's work the woman in gold. 

Nursery rhymes, halloween, fairy tales, and the Brothers Grimm 

(a wacky, topsy turvy story)

Halloween is fun, but I don't want too much violence. I would just like a fantasy, a love story and a big castle, with a carriage ride. A beautiful Cinderella, with her price. What is the spirt of halloween, its history? I don't know why it exists. How did it evolve? Was it from stories like the Brothers Grimm? Some halloween creatures are from scary circuses. Or films, they also sometimes use violence and creatures from other realms, using poison and magic mirrors. Sometimes when we obsess about violence that we don't like, we have to see the violence we're obsessed with, to get it all out. I want to save Halloween from violence. 

I like it to be Magical and enchanted. To have a kissing booth for halloween. To sing with all the animals form the circus. Enchantment and glamor feel royal for halloween day, legends and destinies are born on that day. There are so many different holidays out there with different mythologies. Witches are part of the mythology of halloween. They have feelings too. Shakespeare's witches, in Macbeth knew the future, they were like fortune tellers, or gypsies. Its the hidden story of ambition in the royal family. 

I want to save history. Thats why we learn about it, about the executions and the treatment of animals. Its not ethical, its tragic. We learn about it to find a better way. So we can let people in, face our fears, and know there are angels, not only devils. Its the truth of who we are. I was born this way, interested in stories, in creativity, and a book worm. 

Questions about honey.

I would like to be on the biggest looser. A show about people who eat a lot and stuff their faces. Its true in a way. But mainly I just want to talk about celebrities and talk about how they are. Did you watch Supersize me. Its about our culture obsessed with food. (Emma shows me the movie trailer on the internet.) Its about how we produce fast food. Its not part of the circle of life.

This is about the topic of body image. Sometimes celebrities have pressure to look a certain way. I think its to do with social values. We value fitness and health in our society. Some people smoke. Celebrities. In old films maybe before we knew the dangers of smoking. People got addicted to smoking, they can also get addicted to food.

Emma: Its so hard to get the abs.

Alice: I think its about body image. It can make you sick. It can become people want to look a certain way rather than being happy with the body they have.

Emma: I like checking out people's abs. I just like looking at it. Alice: Some people have abs and some people don't.

Emma: What about belly button rings and tattoos?

Alice: Some people are rebellious and want to change their body with tattoos and belly button rings. Its another social social value, we value people who are beautiful or hansom.

Supersize me is about junk. Garbage, trashy stuff. People in diners. Maybe people eat those foods to feel better. But if you eat too much you start to feel ashamed. There are actors like Magda Szubanski, Christy Ally, Rebel Wilson or Mikey Robins who have bigger bodies. Some big girls are beautiful. Big question mark about health and beauty and all these things. Everything in moderation.

Wild Australia

I want to show you a puzzle with butterflies and beetles. Sometimes I don't like insects. They buzz your ears off. To get the honey. The puzzle is from Australian insects.

Its very relaxing to do the puzzles. Sometimes I like doing puzzles. Playing games, card games and cards against humanity. Puzzles are like an artwork, they can be like a masterpiece. I don't want anyone to wreck my puzzle. Its something that I'm working on. It looks real. Creating a picture of the wildlife. They are so beautiful in the rainforest. I have to think of nature in my mind. Its like a meditation.

Easter is over now. I like the rabbits. Things are different at the moment. People have to get together on the internet rather than meeting in person. I still love going out. Going on picnics. But maybe we can watch the bird having a birdbath where they're swimming. I see them right there outside in the water fountain at my parent's house. We feed the magpies outside the kitchen with mince meat. I had a silly story about a bird. I got a bird on my head one time and I squealed. Some birds can attack people on their heads.

You can find a puzzle up here in the brain. It is a little bit like when we're writing, putting things together one piece at a time. A puzzle up here in the science – not the brain. Science helps us put the picture together. Its helping us put together the picture with the disease.

Some people love dinosaur puzzles. Some people like space puzzles. They're pretty cool to look at. There are puzzles people put together in movies. Like in Jumunji where they play the game and have to solve the puzzles. There are also treasure puzzles, island puzzles, or jungle puzzles. Pirate puzzles. Or farms. Puzzles from the zoo.

Although there might not be puzzles on the topic of Easter there are chick and duck puzzles, there are fairytale puzzles, castle puzzles, for the children, puzzles of food, puzzles of cakes. This is good I think I am good at this. Ocean puzzles, ship puzzles, the cruise puzzle.I love the puzzles of the coral reef. Its like the feeling of doing a puzzle. Its relaxing to put the pieces together. A Valentines day puzzle or desert puzzles. Or history puzzle. I would like to find some puzzles on the internet. Magician puzzles. A magic puzzle. A mermaid puzzle or fairies. I like games at the moment. A Barbie puzzle.

There are wonderful different types of puzzles.

Some are nature puzzles, some are science puzzles, some are adventure puzzles. Do they have wonderful games in the museums, puzzles of different types. Like an Egypt puzzle. There are butterflies in museums too. Puzzle here puzzle there. Puzzle puzzle puzzle everywhere. Everywhere is a puzzle.

The puzzle is like a maze. It not that magical. Its not Harry Potter. Its like riddle. Its something you can figure out, but it seems magical. Its just like the Scarlet Pimpernel. Set during the French revolution – his name was taken from the small red flower, the scarlet pimpernel, that he signed his letters with.

We're thinking about referencing at the moment. Which means describing where the information came from. For example we researched The Scarlet Pimpernel on Wikipedia today to find out these elements of the plot. There are different systems of referencing they help us create boundaries and respect for our work, putting the picture together from the puzzle of information and ideas.

Sex in The City

I watched the movie of it on Netfilx. I watched Sex in the City One and Two. I found it by searching on my i pad. Carrie is the main character because she is the writer. She is another female writer. She's very sweet – she's got some other friends as well. Samantha is another very powerful character. I know Charlotte, she has children. Miranda – whats her character?

Sometimes they hate each other though. All the women tell gossiping secrets about their love lives. That is why its called Sex in the City. I did enjoy the movies. Is that how people grow up to be. Human relationships are still complicated. Carrie was pretty powerful in the films. She loves books, as a writer. I want to know why she is a writer. Its so hard to say. She gets to say what she wants. She can record the gossip she has with her friends. She records what life was like in New York in the nineteen nineties. I still like her wedding dress.

The show was based on the columns Candice Bushnell wrote when she was working for the New York Observer. Bushnell used a fake name, to write her columns, Carrie Bradshaw. The character from the show developed from this name. If I had an alter ego to write about my love interests it would be called The Diva or The Queen Bee. She would be able to say irrelevant things, and to steel her friends' lovers for Valentines day. I would be the writer of this character. Like other woman writers I'm interested in, and their characters, she is able to keep details of her intimate and private life, as part of history of her time.

The show is set on an island in New York, Manhattan. It was quite a glamorous place to live. It was one of the business centres of the world in the nineteen nineties. Many powerful people were living there. The characters in Sex in the City had high standards for fashion. I wrote about all the different outfits. Mr Big – did you like the big man Mr. Big. He was the main love interest of Carrie and he was a douche bag. Mr. Big was the worst. He got engaged to Natasha when he was drunk. Mr Big was late to his own wedding, which is his weakness. Carrie decided that they could not get married. When they saw each other passing in the traffic, Carrie stopped the car and began to beat his over the head with her with her bouquet leaving the flowers strewn all over him.

Jumanji

Emma: I like the old Jumunji. Did you see the old Jumunji with Robyn Williams? 

Alice: Yes, I used to watch it when I was a kid. 

Emma: Really, I I haven’t seen it yet, I’d love to get that one on dvd. Can you tell me more about it first before we keep writing? 

Alice: I thought you had seen if Emma! 

Emma: I’ve just seen the new one. My favourite scene is where the characters are transformed into different bodies and Dwayne Johnson goes behind the tree for a pee, and he surprised by his character’s penis. Jack Black is trying to stop Karen Gillan from looking, and trying to introduce himself to her. But I’m interested in the old one, on another level. In the new one Jack Black is eaten by an enormous snake, Black Mamba, in the trailer. But I still like Robyn Williams in there. When he was a boy, in the old film. Why are there so many animals, why are they on Safari in the film? 

Alice: In the original the safari game was locked inside a box. It was an old chest that looked like Pirate’s Treasure, it was making a drumming sound, like drums in Africa. I think it was a board game in there and there were hunters in the game chasing. I can’t remember if Robyn Williams came out of the box or not, it was a long time ago. 

We decided to check the plot online. 

Plot: Robyn Williams played Alan Parish, a young boy who disappeared into the board game in the nineteen fifties. When two children moved into his house they re – opened the game, and this time they had to finish It. Alan was originally sucked into the board game and had to wait there until someone rolled a five or an eight. When he was trapped a swarm of bats came shooting out of the game and chased his friend Sarah out of the house. When the new children in the house started playing the game animals started pouring our again with, big mosquitos and a swarm of monkeys. 

 Emma: It is a board game, or a movie game? 

 Alice: It is a game people play and it comes to life around them like they were inside the film. You make an an interesting point, though, because what they’re doing in the current film is playing a video game. They still get sucked into it, but it does come to life around them. 

 Emma: I prefer the board game. 

 Alice: Me too. Do you think there would be a “movie game” one day that you don’t have to get sucked into, but that happens around you? Like Virtual Reality. 

 Emma: Yes. I like enchantment I would like to be in a movie game like with mermaids and fantasy animals. But I don’t know what the story would be. Its not a novel is it.

Alice: it sometimes feels like a novel is happening all around you while you’re reading. 

Emma: Can you keep reading the plot again? 

Alice: Yes, back to the plot: 

Alan’s next role brought Van Pelt to life

Emma: Ooo, who is he, he is an historical kind of character, I wonder what happened to him. I love the part where the monsoon floods the place, the whole ground floor of the house. 

Alan’s next roll turns the floor of the attic into quicksand. 

Emma: I’d like to find out more about quicksand, maybe there is a book about the science of it. I’m an adventurous person I think I would like all these adventures. I would like them to be more magical, and fantasy adventures, more romance. I do like a mystery. 

Emma takes out a list of words recorded in her note book: cartography, archaeology, palaeontology. 

Alice: When I was a kid I was a bit afraid of the film. 

Emma: I don’t like the large spiders in the film, they look like the giant spiders on Harry Potter, its way too spooky, Slytherin!

 I don’t like the character of Van Pelt in the new version of the film either, or his men. He wants the crystal – the Jaguar’s Eye – for himself. He says to his men “bring me to Jewel, and slaughter anyone who gets in your way”. He is a typical baddie. He is a hunter. Like Gaston from Beauty and the Beast (he could have been the one that killed Bambie’s Mum). He uses the jewel to control the wildlife and put a curse on the land. The protagonists return the crystal to the Jaguar’s Eye. They shout Jumunji and end the game, returning the world to normal.   

Happy New Year, happy two thousand and twenty, 2020!

I just love to celebrate the new year, like all of the holidays. Especially new years with the fireworks. I wonder if anybody celebrated their wedding on that day, to make it an extra special day. There was a cruise ship in Sydney Harbour, a spectacular place to celebrate. Personally, I just had an early night. It was smoky and hot. But I am interested in the history of each of these celebrations. 

 I wish I could find a calendar of all the holidays celebrated throughout the year. I can find a list of the public holidays in Australia. But they vary from place to place. 

I would like to start Koala Day. It would be a peaceful public holiday to celebrate koalas. My own celebration, to collect donations, making the Koala a celebrity animal. It’s a way of fighting back. It’s a day for rescuing the plants and their home. I do love nature, and plants. I love the fishes, and the oceans. I want to save the horses as well. Farm animals were also threatened by the fire. Its about the weather as well, because I like mother earth. Its about protecting those landscapes the landscapes we see in our fictions and novels about nature, the waterfalls that we see in our dreams. All the fairy tales teach us about the magical world, about how we can connect with nature. 

Ancient Egypt is another example of a world that dried out. And Atlantis sunk under the ocean. It’s happened before, the end of empires. There are myths and legends about these things. The shipwrecks under the sea. With their skeletons. The skull in Shakespeare is the image of death. 

I would like visit the natural history museum to find out about the history of these changes. As well as visiting the jungles. We have to vote. To save the forest and the jungles. Not to put animals in jail. Don’t forget the ocean as well. I love the ocean, and the beaches. We need something like Noah’s Arc. 

Frozen was originally based on the legend of The Snow Queen. The Snow Queen was a story originally written by the Danish author Hans Christian Andersen. It is a good fairy tale, and something that is magical, probably related to Christmas. It is a story that is told about winter, close to the North Pole, where the myths and legends about the winter probably contain the truth of Christmas. It is told in seven stories. One of the story titles that appeals to me is “The Flower Garden of the Woman Who Knew Magic”, and “The Prince and the Princess”, also “What Happened at the Snow Queen’s Palace and What Happened Afterwards.”

The story began with the magic mirror, that exaggerated the ugly qualities of people who had shards of the mirror in their eyes and heart. It introduced Kai and Gerda whose grandmother told them a story about The Snow Queen who was the ruler over snow flake that looked like bees. It’s a story with magical creatures, like other fables, for example Swan Lake, that is also set in one of those freezing Northern Countries and tells a story about magical animals and human romance. Gerda has learned a song that has flowers blooming in the valley and the baby Jesus in it. It reminds us of the Christmas story about motherhood in the valley in winter. Gerda, the little girl in the story is always kind, even if others are cold. She has to rescue her friend Kai when he is taken by the evil Snow Queen. On the way to find Kai she met the magical woman who lived in her poetic garden where it is always summer. Gerda remembered Kai however one day when she saw a rose, and began to cry. She meets a pet dover who tells her where Kai is, a symbol of peace. The secret to Gerda’s power is in her open heart, which means she sees the best in people. She says the lord’s prayer to help her into the Queen’s palace. Her breath takes the form of angels who resist the snowflakes and allow her into the palace. Gerda kisses her friend. He is saved by the power of her love.  

 Frozen 2 has exactly the same characters as the first one. I love Else the ice queen. I

also liked Let It Go. I liked the songs in number 2 as well, I loved all of them. I’m trying to get the sound track. In Let It Go though, we have a private moment alone with the character while she’s experiencing her feelings. 

Rachel Berry also sings it on Glee. She is a star like her Mum was a star. 

Do you find the song encouraging? 

Yes, I do find it encouraging. 

I just like good films. I like Maleficent as well. 

They had a sequel to that recently. 

Yes. A lot of little girls like Else. 

Yes I think she has become a symbol of a powerful woman for a lot of people.

We’re going to write about the second film, so there’s a spoiler alert for anyone who hasn’t seen it. Its all about the elements, the earth, air, fire and water, that were enraged by an ancient battle. It has the same characters as number one, including Olaf, the snowman and Sven the reindeer, I love them both that much. In this film Else also found a cute little dragon who becomes her friend. Else accidentally awoke the ancient spirits, causing everybody to have to flee the town. They had to discover the truth about the kingdom’s past to appease the spirits. Else encounters the air spirit, a tornado, she trapped it with her ice sculptures that tell the story of her family’s past, the memories of her mother and father, even though they died at sea when she was young. From her powers she created a magical ice horse for her travels. Her powers allowed her to find out the truth of the past, they reveal something to her about nature. Else learned of a fifth spirit that would unite people and nature. Else discovered that she was the fifth spirit bought about the selfless act that saved the son of their enemy’s king. She discovered the origins of her kingdom came from banishing the magic of the original tribe living in this area. Together with Anna she is able to restore the balance and save the town. Kristoff proposed to Anna and she accepted. At the end, Anna became the Queen of Arendel and Else became the protector of the Enchanted Forrest. 

Little Women was originally written in 1868 by Louisa May Alcott. It is an enduring and popular novel. Which means even though the times have changed the novel is still popular. The story is based on the lives of the author and her three sisters. Two of her sisters married and two didn’t. “I’m interested in the ones who were not.” She was educated by the leading New England Trancedentalist philosophers, Henry David Theroux and Ralph Waldo Emerson. I’m interested in Transcendentalism. Her family started living a high minded, simple life. Sometimes this made her feel as though she had to be perfect though. Sometimes I feel like I have to be perfect too. I’m also serious about my work. 

Can you tell me about the novel first? I’m interested because it is a woman writer. 

Well, we can talk about how the actual novel was written as well. We found out that Louisa May Alcott’s publisher wanted her to write a book about girls that would be popular. It was like asking for a chick flick, a story about women growing up. She wrote it for money, and was surprised it was actually popular. In each of the “little women’s” lives they discovered that childhood was past and that they were facing the challenges of being women in the world. 

In the trailer for the new film Jo is talking about the role of women in the world. They’re not just good for marriage or beauty but for their ideas, for who they want to be, for their minds, their souls and their talents. Jo says she wants to make her own way in the world. I would like to share this with the other women in Friday night writers, because they are my sisters. Not literally my sisters but my fellow women writers in the world. All of the girls’ poems are good. They are very strongly. I know there is a lot of effort here. I think everybody needs to see this movie. Sometimes yearning for love doesn’t really fulfil the need that is yearning.                   

Jo works assisting her wealthy widowed aunt in a mansion, Plumfield, (which appeals to me a lot!). Her Aunt is one of those wealthy Americans mentioned in Downton Abby. Her younger sister Amy is also an artist. I’m interested in these artist characters because I’m an artist. But in my own way. I think we’re all artists in our own way, that’s what makes us artists. Like Jo I also sometimes have trouble controlling my anger. Jo is able to earn money through her writing. There is a love triangle between Beth, Jo and Lauire. Jo doesn’t love Laurie, she is interested in her writing. When he proposes marriage to her she says no. Jo gets married to a professor she met in New York, a German. Though I’m questioning if she might have been too young to get married to that teacher. She inherits Pulmfield from her Aunt. 

Money can’t buy love. The heart speaks its own language. The brain doesn’t doesn’t understand love, that’s why we have to be guided by the heart instead of the mind. We have to let ourselves be shown what is right rather than decide what we think it should be. It is a kind, calm feeling, rather than that intense insane feeling that your heart is about to burst. 

I have been doing research of my own on Downton Abby – my poetry teacher Anna and I are writing about the film together for my poems that will be published in my book. I hope the book will include the picture of me from my facebook page with the mask, fan and pretty flowers. When we were chatting with Vanessa, she let us know we went to the Cinema to see Downton Abby together there was a table where you could wear the costumes from Downton Abbey. Which is what I tried on. 

 The film was really stimulating; it means it wakes up my brain. I was interested in the King and Queen. There was a plot to assassinate the King in the film, which is not what I wanted to hear about. Maggie Smith is one of my favourite actresses in the film, I also enjoyed the character Lady Cybil Crawly played by Elizabeth McGovern. In my research I have found out about the appearance of the Royals who are memorable new characters in Downton Abby the film, who where not part of the T.V. series. 

 I want to write castle as well. Its massive. I could never afford to live there. Its luxurious. They have a lot of history with the castle. Its is the site of an historical visit by the Royal Family to the estate to show the royal family was still relevant in the Modern era. The house is part of the historical evolution of castles in England. 

 The celebrities that have played the historical kings and queens are also part of this evolution portraying how Royals are perceived today. They show how the royal lifestyles of the past say about the lives we live today. They show us about how people become powerful and loose their power. I have been doing research of my own on Downton Abby – my poetry teacher Anna and I are writing about the film together for my poems that will be published in my book. I hope the book will include the picture of me from my facebook page with the mask, fan and pretty flowers. When we were chatting with Vanessa, she let us know we went to the Cinema to see Downton Abby together there was a table where you could wear the costumes from Downton Abbey. Which is what I tried on. 

The film was really stimulating; it means it wakes up my brain. I was interested in the King and Queen. There was a plot to assassinate the King in the film, which is not what I wanted to hear about. Maggie Smith is one of my favourite actresses in the film, I also enjoyed the character Lady Cybil Crawly played by Elizabeth McGovern. In my research I have found out about the appearance of the Royals who are memorable new characters in Downton Abby the film, who where not part of the T.V. series. 

I want to write castle as well. Its massive. I could never afford to live there. Its luxurious. They have a lot of history with the castle. Its is the site of an historical visit by the Royal Family to the estate to show the royal family was still relevant in the Modern era. The house is part of the historical evolution of castles in England. 

 The celebrities that have played the historical kings and queens are also part of this evolution portraying how Royals are perceived today. They show how the royal lifestyles of the past say about the lives we live today. They show us about how people become powerful and loose their power. 

Chicago

Chicago is a city. It has amazing buildings. In the theatre there are statues, candles and very big crystal chandeliers high on the ceiling. 1920’s Chicago was full of cabaret, jazz and brunette burlesque showgirls.

 The musical stage show and the movie are about the dark side of the city’s life. It is like Pulp Fiction with its femme fatales and their disgusting crimes. I like the female characters but I don’t like the disgusting crimes. The women are glamorous. They get anything they want. It is based on true crime in 1920’s Chicago. I liked the movie version with Rene Zellwinger as Roxie.

 Roxie Heart is the main protagonist villain of Chicago. A prison inmate she killed her husband to become famous. She is an egomaniac and a gold digger. I have looked up a long list of female gold diggers online and listed them down though my favorite is Debby Jellinski. These women are fascinating. They know what they want and they get it. Roxie Heart gets fame and notoriety at the same time.

 I like the bad girl Roxie Heart. As well as the storyteller vaudeville character Velma Kelly. She is the antagonist. They are both female villains. I liked the song He Had it Coming. The women tell the stories of what landed them in prison in the song. They whisper, pop, six, squish. Uh – uh, Cicero, Lipshitz. The song means he deserved to go the grave and is about the lives of the women in prison. It’s a gothic form of romance.

 The dancers were good, they’re working with their legs, with their hips and abs. And the nineteen twenties lingerie. It was the style of Jazz. The singing was hot. Speaking about their relationships. The live music and the style.

Elton John

I know about Elton John from the Lion King songs The Circle of Life and Can You Feel the Love Tonight. I really liked the Circle of Life with the sun rising over the African Savannah.

I loved the movie about Elton John, Rocket Man.  

There were some things about the film that made me uncomfortable.

I don’t want to offend Elton John about his personal life or the director of the film Dexter Fletcher. I saw Elton John in the Royal wedding. He is a Knight of the British Empire. Sir Elton John, one of the highest status roles in England. I’m not going to send it to him.  

But I didn’t like his first boyfriend John Reid. He was mean and controlling and cruel.  I don’t like cruel people. Richard Madden played Elton John’s first lover. He was also Elton John’s manager. He was making money from Elton’s records when his violence was making Elton John depressed. Elton’s father was also very protective of his music and wouldn’t let Elton touch his records when he was a little boy. He was in the war. His heart was shot full of holes.

Or was the pills I didn’t like. Was it medication? I don’t know how many he had. Some famous people have died, from taking too many pills. It was too much. It looked a bit overwhelming.

Bernie Taupin was Elton John’s friend who wrote the lyrics to most of his songs. They loved each other throughout the film as friends. I loved the songs, I want to get the soundtrack of the film. I would give it a lot of stars. I don’t know how many. But I do want to give it hundreds.

Emma Waldorf XOXO

Today Emma showed me a book that featured a short article about herself at University.

Everybody loved it she was telling me. Yes.

This is an embarrassing photo of me.

Why do you find it embarrassing?

I’m not that famous just yet.

Do you think you’re not successful enough?

Yes, what does that mean?

Its just some kind of lies your brain tells you.

Put that in there, I do have lots of juicy gossip about myself.

It speaks about how Emma studied in the Department of Art History and Film at University of Sydney, which is the same department I studied in, a place of inspiration and freedom for both of us.

Emma asked me to change her name to Emma Waldorf after Blaire Waldorf, saying, I want to meet a famous actress. Her character is being part of the world! So is yours.

Did you meet other people at University?

Yes.

Was it fun?

Yes.

Connection?

Maybe one day I want to work in fashion. To feel like not an outsider.

The article talks about how university helped Emma develop her own Ideas. Because I do what to be my own character. Like a star in Hollywood.

Well you are on the cover of the book.

This is about popularity. I’d love to be a famous author. Or part of a sorority, like Blair Waldorf. Love to meet Hugh jack Man and his wife and his children I’m a huge fan off him with Zach Effron.

Noticing Beauty

 The five senses are different ways of noticing beauty through taste, smell, touch hearing and sight. So are films from different cultures. Movies about food, like Chocolate and the Hundred Foot Journey are also about touch, the touch of love between people of different cultures, and their tastes in all senses of the word. The Hundred Foot Journey is about a French woman who has a high class restaurant and comes to love Indian food through the cooking of her neighbours. The beauty of food, of travel, of nature is something that you can see, the colour of festivals that all different people can to join, to come together without being ashamed. Monsieur Chocolate is about the first actor with African heritage on the French stage.

Sometimes I have to let the sweets go. Don’t mention candy, its for little children, in fairy tales and ginger bread houses. Like Hansel and Grettle. I like that kind of folk tale. Sometime the fantasy leads to a dark place. All the stories about eating food too often.

 Another kind of beauty is grace. Like the graceful beauty of swan lake. Like the grace and beauty of nature or the sweetness of doing what brings you love. The film The Grand Marigold Hotel shows the colour of life and its sounds. In the film the young man stands up to his mother about wanting to marry the girl he loves. This helps his mother remember the past as well, that she married against her family’s wishes too. Another film about India that opens up my mind and my senses is The Viceroy’s House. It is about the end of the British rule in India, the different powerful Muslim, Christian, and Hindu religious groups in Indian Independence and the meaning of these changes in different people’s lives. I love these stories about history and about how the world changes.

 Poetry can also be a guide for the senses, the guide the older and wiser can use to lead the young and beautiful towards their truth. Have you seen the movie the Book Club? It’s about a group of women who come together to read and talk about literature and books. They talk about Briget Jones’s Diary in there. I love diaries  I’d love to be one of those kinds of women. You are one of those kinds of women. You get together with other women on a Friday night to talk about poetry to read your work to one another.

The film Perfume is a good explanation of my image of beauty. I don't like the film because it is tense and does not do justice to the female. But it is relevant to the senses. This film is the memory of a man whose life experiences flash before his eyes. It is about the struggle between beauty and darkness, like the film American Beauty where the beauty of rose petals contrasts with the darkness of fantasy. He was a boy who experienced hardship, but had a superhuman sense of smell – like a dog or another animal. He moved to Paris and was intoxicated by the smell of a red headed girl selling plumbs. To stop her crying out he put his hand over her mouth and she died. He couldn't stop looking to replace her smell, so became a perfumer, who put the smell of women into his perfumes. That’s why I don't like the film, because of its violence against women. He made a powerful perfume that enabled him to take over the world, but it could not allow him be loved. Its about a man who wanted to possess beauty too much, and ended himself and other people. That’s not the truth of beauty. Its the heart that determines true beauty. Its about women being able to feel our desires. Like the poem by Stevie Smith (its a little bit sexy, but I think its ok to share, because it is about sharing the pleasure of her senses with the world):

Conviction

I like to get off with people,

I like to lie in their arms,

I like to be held and tightly kissed,

Safe from all alarms.

I like to laugh and be happy

With a beautiful beautiful kiss,

I tell you, in all the world

There is no bliss like this.

1.     Synergy is a question. It’s a hard word to explain. Its really hard to put it into words. I’m struggling. It’s the connections between different people or things that produces something greater.

 2.     Kindness is a good way of creating synergy between people because it creates connection. People can also connect with the earth to create something greater than ourselves, or when the planets line up. Sometimes we have to switch off and slow down to get more connection.

 An example would be with Tarot cards or oracle cards that you use to follow your spirits or your ancestors. When you have one by itself, its doesn’t tell you as much as if you have three, that produce a vision of your character. The cards also line up with your experience and thoughts through their symbols. For example ace of swords, which is about imagination. Another example is the difference between dreams and fantasies. When we connect with true dreams they can come to life in reality, if they’re not blocked by fantasy. Like connecting with religion or spirituality. When we listen to ourselves, it’s another kind of synergy between the mind and the body, a connection with your soul. It could be like self-esteem too, a good connection with my self. Connections between the good parts can help overcome the struggles, creating wisdom. Like the connection between an angel and her halo, one would not be the same without the other.

Live Action movie of Aladdin: a Whole New World

 The film was fantastic it was Amazing. The real one was much better than the cartoon. I love them both equally. The songs are funny, they’re not the same as the original but I like them both. I want to give them a golden treasure trove full of stars, millions of golden stars glittering in the night of the Arabian sky.

 The story comes from Scheherazade who had to keep telling stories to save her own life, she told stories all through the night to save herself, distracting the emperor with these tales of wonder so that he couldn’t execute her, because he wanted to hear the end of the story.

 The second live action film is much more focused on the role of women in the film. We get to hear mores about the story of the Queen, Jasmine’s mother. This is the female role which is my main interest in theatre, film and history so I’m pleased to see they have listened to the importance of the female role making the film. We also find out that Jasmine is going to be a Sultan which is another important change from the original because she becomes the powerful leader and is no longer second to the father figure.

 I don’t like the way Jaffar behaves with the princess. He is trying to be powerful but he doesn’t understand that true power comes from honesty and self respect. These are weaknesses the actor is showing how we’re all capable of acting badly.

I just like the good bits with the princess. I like her heart. The way she becomes a Sultan like her mother. My friend Alan at work hasn’t seen the real movie yet. He will love it. But he gave me a journal, hat, bag, and candle holder and mouse pad from the new live action film of Aladdin. I hope he will enjoy the film one day. I hope he can convince his wife to see it.

I went to see Saturday night Fever on the weekend at the State Theatre. It was an incredible performance. It was awesome.

 It’s about the Seventies. It is when your parents were growing up. All the men were looking smart in their suits, wearing cologne, it smells nice it was a little bit heady. The women were wearing glamorous clothing. They are fabulous in their designer outfits. There was a lot of glitter and sparkle in the costume design. They looked lovely. There is a film of Saturday Night Fever. It’s about the disco night life of that era, with a disco ball. They were wild about it. That’s what the fever was.

The story is about people who work during the week but on the weekend dance at the disco having the time of their lives, like Dirty Dancing, another dance film about young people coming of age, finding their ways in the world, about the female role and being visible. It’s about the relationships, style, music and dance of the disco world and the relief it gave the characters from their jobs during the week, the tensions of everyday life. They included the song more than a woman in the show. This is a song where they feel more than attraction, it becomes something more meaningful.  

It’s a similar story to Strictly Ballroom, except that was set in the nineteen nineties. It’s a story of two people who find a meaningful relationship through dance, with one another but also with themselves and who they want to be in the world. Like Fran in Strictly Ballroom they find a way of showing who they truly are through dance, like Scott they learn a new rhythm, learning to face their fears through passion, glamour and beauty, and living more deeply more seriously. I would like to be an actress one day, to be in the spotlight and answer my question at the end of the book’s chapter.

Loving and being loved

We all love in our own way.

Before I met Emma she studied love at University of Sydney. The subject was Intimacy, love and friendship GCST2610. They used different topics on love.

It included included: Classical Love from Ancient Greece, including Platonic Love, Erotic love, Spiritual Love, Love as the oldest of the gods, how love has changed over time, and what it means to the modern day.

I miss Uni, Emma says. I'd love to go back.

Love is a conversation we have with ourselves, say Emma's notes from A lover's Discourse, studying how we show this love in writing and books. Its an emotional topic, I'm not sure what kind of emotions it makes me feel.

We began to list different types of love we had written about in the past:

Erotic love like in Botticelli’s Venus, “I'm going to Italy again in August. To my Mum's place in Capistrano. She has a copy of the Venus de Milo on the wall there.” Or in the ancient books on love. “Its embarrassing but they are part of love?” Passionate love: Juliette

So much “love is in the air” Emma is saying, playing John Paul Young's song from from Baz Lurman's Strictly Ballroom. I like forbidden love. Like in Romeo and Juliette. I've visited Juliette's Wall in Verona – which I wrote about in the blogs Juliette's Balcony and letters to Juliette - where people leave letters to their lovers in Juliette's wall. There are lots of different opinions about love letters for example Ovid, the Roman Poet says women should make their bodies into love letters, while some women writers say they would prefer not to hear anything that would compromise their dignity. Verona is the home of the Juliette behind Shakespeare's story. Shakespearean ideas of love show the heat and the depth of love. Its my favourite for showing the kinds of love. I'm also interested in love throughout the ages, the kind of love your parents experienced in the eighties or in the seventies.

Another way to show love is through food. Like the film the Hundred Foot Journey or Chocolate (both featuring Charlotte Le Bon). Chocolate is a romantic gift, but people have been drinking it for centuries. Its something that brings people together.

I like sharing other people's love at weddings. I just love weddings thats all. I love to hear the vows. But there is a funny side too. I like it when there are bridezillas in films like the Bride Wars, I like the fighting scenes, the brides that swear. Its because they're trying to be perfect and turn into monsters, Bridezilla's in the process, like Godzilla the creature that threatened to swallow the city. In the movie bridesmaids they're making fun of people's crazy emotions. I like it like that. Not in real life, just in the films. You can play around with the dark side and the fun side and the serious side. My favourite wedding film is My Best Friend's Wedding. I like the cat fight in the bathroom. Its an interesting film, about the love triangle, even though Julia Roberts learns to be happy for her friend. There are a lot of movies about people who go crazy about weddings. They will hunt you down to catch the bouquet.

When Rose, Emma's literacy teacher was married Emma spoke about love at the wedding. This is part of what she said: Love is daring. Love blooms. The love seed is planted when people first get to know one another. And from there things will grow. I’m a big believer in true love.

Rose helps me a lot, she gives me a lot of support. With Rhiannon as well. “Having you in my life, Rose, makes me feel warm. And divine.” She is an angel. And Mike too. She may not be my flat mate any more but she is like part of the family. “I never asked how you and Rose met, Mike,” I didn’t see how he proposed either. I’m getting into the romantic stuff now.

The light that helps love grow is the light of the kind words, loving thoughts and kind things people do for one another. You need to take responsibility for the love that will grow. Nurturing and growing it like a little plant. To bring good energy to the wedding and beyond.

I’m hoping to meet someone myself. Sometimes I don’t understand the language of love but my heart is nearly ready, like a seed ready for the loving care that will help it to grow. My love is personal. My true feelings will come out in time, living with disabilities or not.

We all love in our own way. You need to become the light, the light that belongs to all people.

Writing again on the topic of love Emma reflected, these words fit in for me with the topics of loving and being loved.

Peaceful. Spirit. Religion. Wisdom.

Past blogs I've written about love include:

Emmacelli's Venus (including poem about Venus but myself and Pearce Shelly)

Titanic

Miss Saigon

Witches, Weaving and the Lady of Shallot

Beauty and the Beast

Roman Holiday

Valentines day

Letters to Juliette

Verona

The spirit (about love from the family)

The Bachelloraette

The Lion King Live action film

I’m looking forward to watching this new live action film with my sister who has promised to take me. I want to see all the new live action films, the Little Mermaid, Aladin, Moulin, Peter Pan, and 101 Dalmations with Meryl Streep as Cruella Devil! I just love the songs from the original. I like watching Simbah and Nala. I did feel the love in the clip.

I think it will look better than the cartoons with the more realistic animals. The real animals are more fierce, frightening to see on the big screen. Sometimes the animals don’t train well. We read that the film is a photorealistic computer animation, so it uses realistic looking animals, rather than real animals to make the film.

I’m interested in the female roles in the film. Beyonce Knowles plays Simba’s love interest Nala, they chose Beyonce because she already has kids and is powerful point of her life and career. The beauty of her voice was another main reason for casting her. Sarabi, Simba’s mother is played by Alfre Woodard in the new live action film. She is the queen she keeps her cool when she has to face Mustafa, she is a proud woman, a kind mother and a disciplined fighter.

Inside Out is a film set inside the mind of young girl Riley Andersen. The film personifies her main five basic emotions, Joy, Sadness, Fear, Disgust and Anger. 

Joy was my favourite character, she is playful, makes you feel happiness. She is carefree, not worried about a thing in the world. She likes to have fun. Some personalities have a lot of sweetness in them. Some personalities value love. Her colour is yellow, like bright things of the rainbow. The colour of the inner child within the grown up, not afraid to play not afraid to dream. Joy bring everything to life. Its a part of Christmas that celebrates all these things. The definition of Joy describes this feeling as great pleasure and happiness. Synonyms include glee, jubilation and enjoyment, I like to learn new learn new words. I would make these words the colour yellow, because she is yellow and she has blue hair. She is the cutest character in this show, and a softie and so bright. I like brightness and kindness. She is the lead character so she plays the biggest role in guiding the other emotions to see their truth. She has Riley's best interests at heart, but she also has darker elements, that can lead her to be inconsiderate and bossy, though throughout the film she transforms from selfish to selfless. 

Sadness

What is sadness' character, how would we describe the character of sadness? She's blue with glasses on. There are a lot of different words that mean sadness as well. Sorrow pity, regret, dejection, broken hearted. Blue.  I love to cry. its really good isn't it to cry, to cry that out. There's not that much to say. In the film Riley moved to a new school, where her things were missing and her father was stressed. Sadness started to touch the personality islands and memories inside her. To turn her memories sad. Joy tried to protect her memories by isolating her. When she cried at school she created a sad core memory. Joy tried to protect her by taking the memory to the long term memory bank. Memory is how the mind stores information. On Riley's first day of school Joy asked sadness to stand inside a circle. Its a way of containing the sadness its a way of shutting down what she was feeling. There are many ways people shut down shat they're feeling, but changing the topic, surfing the internet, trying to pretend to be happy.  The teacher asked Riely about her home in Minnesota. Reily began to share one of core memories of happiness, playing with her family on the ice rink. During the memory it stated to turn blue as Reily realised she doesn't live in Minnesota any more. Joy tried to stop sadness from touching the memory, but the memory was tainted, while they were fighting over the memory they were both rocketed to the long term memory chute, leaving disgust, anger and fear in control of Riley's new life. In this film sadness is sensitive gentle she helpful and empathetic as well as insecure and winey. Sadness can from when Riley was only 33 seconds old when she needed something that she didn't have yet. 

Disgust

Is the green character. She looks like a trendy character with long eyelashes, with a checked dress, she is stylish and tries to help Riley make new friends. Disgust can seem like a negative emotion but when everything is in its place it can play a positive role in how all parts of the person work together. When we look at the personality of the character there are positive and negative traits, including care, honesty, intelligence, vain and negative. She is a bit of a perfectionist with very high expectations and standards but she does save reply's life, stopping her from being poisoned socially and physically thought she also won't let her eat too much broccoli.  

Fear

Fear is a long skinny character with a big nose like Cyrano De Bergerac played by Steve Martin who is so afraid of himself, insecure and shy because of his big nose, the characters are similar in their timid behaviour. Fear the purple character was created just after sadness in Reily's mind, to stop her from tripping over, it keeps her safe. He's always running around and is a funny character. He is a little bit of a weirdo and a comic character that lets us laugh about our own fears. He is played buy the actor Bill Hader who says fear isn't just about screaming so hard you pass out - he doesn't want to give you a heart attack he just wants to protect you from violence and that life would be dull without surprises that make you jump with excitement or fear. 

Anger

What's that big red thing? The Red of anger. Mr. Grumpy Pants. Although he means well and he feels very deeply that the world should be fair and he's outraged when its not fair. He thinks the other emotions are too sensitive, which is ironic because he is so sensitive himself. He's a bit critical though and thinks the only way he can get attention is by shouting. He is big headed, his head is about as big as his body. He is played by Lewis Black who says anger is trying to stay on top of things. Some people think that its ok to be angry and explosive but its when the other emotions loose control of anger that this becomes a problem. He's a little bit controlling but he's just trying to get the job done. He's explosive, but its just because he really cares. 

Signs of the Zodiac

Christmas is over now. People have already gone crazy over the post Christmas bargains, we’ve been through the New Year’s wines where people say goodbye to the old year and look forward to the new one. All round the world the New Year is celebrated with fireworks, in London, New York and Sydney. The thing I love the most is when the fireworks go off the harbor bridge its like an Opera!  

Celebrating the New Year with fireworks started in China when the loud bang and lights were used to scare away evil spirits that would come at the end of the year (my Dad might be interested in this – he has lived in China). I don’t like evil spirits. I prefer the good spirits, and the lanterns help me feel good spirits too. Chinese people invented fireworks. They also play the game Mahjong that is part of the hit film Crazy Rich Asians, based on the book, which I will write about in the next blog! Chinese New Year is coming up it’s the first full moon in February, which is when the animal symbols of the Chinese zodiac change, the same month we like to celebrate Valentine’s Day.  

 People often make new years resolutions to make a fresh start for the New Year. We’re writing a blog about new things I got for Christmas that I would like to use in the New Year, and also about my aims for the blog during this year. The blog is a place for me to have fun. It’s also about my emotions. It is about explosive feelings of happiness and joy. I’m a joyful feeling. It’s also about sadness as well. I have a big heart like a bear and wisdom like Winnie the Pooh that I would like to share with people through my own writing this year too.

My Tale of the The Nutcracker and Christmas

 There are a lot of wonderful new movies coming out at the moment that I’d like to go and see.

 For example the live action Disney films coming out. I’m curious to see how they re – in invent the Disney imagination. There is the new Mary Poppins with Emily Blunt, the live action Lion King, the Little Mermaid, Dumbo, Aladdin, and the Grinch, which is in cinemas for Christmas.

I’m looking forwards to the holiday season watching movies with friends and family this Christmas. I can’t wait to see which film would be my favorite (just quietly, they’re all my favorites). I’ve already seen the live action version of Beauty and the Beat.

 I was given a ticket to see the live action Disney version of the Nutcracker for Christmas by a friend at work. The trailer says the Nutcracker has a dark side in this version. I don’t know what the twist will be in the film, but I’m researching the plot so I can write a review.

 The film takes place on Christmas Eve, in London, England. In the story the youngest daughter Clara receives a gift from her father that was left to her by her mother before she died, a little egg shaped hand made wooden box that is impossible to open with a note saying the box contains everything she will ever need. At the Christmas party Clara finds a string with her name on it that she follows through the woods into another world.

 Like Clara I would like to step into another world, into the world of the Nutcracker. The world of the inner child. Inside the fantasy world Clara finds the key to her little egg shaped box. Inside the box is a mirror reflecting all she really needed to help her through the world was herself.

 I like the way she has to go into the other world, the world of play to be able to find her truth, her heart. When Clara returns to the present she has matured, she is kind to her father dancing with him to the song playing from her music box, the song he danced to when he first met her mother. Disney is like this fantasy world for me, where things are magical and transform, helping me grow in everyday life.

 I always do that with my Dad too, dance to the classic hits of the seventies and eighties at Christmas. My Mum likes Italian music where they celebrate Christmas too. I like Christmas jokes. And I like playing cards against humanity with my family at Christmas time. I think Santa has a good sense of humour. I bet he’s a little bit cheeky too. It is also a time of year when we get to see the beauty. We give and receive with family and friends and reflect on our lives throughout the year. One of my Christmas wishes is to have kindness and good listening in my family, also with myself.

 I’m also interested in different cultures and religions, the festivals they celebrate instead of Christmas. Diwali is the Hindu festival of lights, Diwali and Christmas are both about the same time in the year. Some Buddhist cultures also celebrate Diwali. Judaism celebrates Hanukkah at this time of the year also a festival of light.  It helps bring tolerance if we’re able to accept and enjoy other cultures’ ways of celebrating as well.

 On Happy Days Fonzey says Grace on Christmas Night in his own way, he says, “hey God! Thanks”. He doesn’t know how to say grace because he doesn’t usually say it. My family doesn’t say grace like Pilgrims either, but I love my family and think of my Mother giving birth to me at Christmas, even though I’m Thirty and a grown up. I’m thankful for all the things my parents have given to my whole family and we still remember the spirits of people who are no longer with us when we celebrate at Christmas.

Kindness

Kindness is a nice thing. Merideth Gasotn’s recent book about kindness talks about three views on kindness, kindness as self – care, connective kindness and kindness towards the Earth. She is an inspirational author spreading ideas and good energy.

Meridith Gaston is an Australian illustrator who has published her books around the world. She has also written 101 moments of Joy and Inspiration as well as Your Bed Loves You, a book about dreams and the healing powers of sleep. Her artwork is all the way through her books. I’m interested in inspirational authors like Meredith Gason, Lena Antonyia Matheas who wrote the Heat Song Oracle card series, and Miranda Kerr’s book about female empowerment. These authors give me something to share with other people, helping me connect with them over my interest in spirituality. They also help me calm down and relax. I would like to build my own Oracle Cards series, about love. I have a creative writing journal called Devine Mysteries with inspirational quotes on each page. For example, inside is a child who just wants more love like and compassion in the world.”

Kindness is a mystery too, it is a topic that connects everything. It includes kindness to us that produces a glow. In the first section she says, quoting from another author that self – love is the source of all our other loves that we share with other people. Like Karma, our actions today plant a seed of kindness for the future of my life. Being a playful, cheeky and the inner child sharing her love that’s my kind of kindness. Because I have that in myself I can share it with other people. 

She draws inspiration from nature. I want to get more new ideas. Nature is a topic that inspires me too. This is the third topic she speaks about in her book, kindness and our relationship with the earth. In this section she speaks about the actions of people that came before us, their struggles for freedom, expression and for their lives which has given us our futures.  We read a meditation from this book and felt the moment with the book. It helped us feel calm.

Winnie the Poo bear loves his honey

As part of my review I’d like to describe the movie. To write the impression the film had on me. There is a lot of laughter and fun in the films of Winnie the Poo it’s loveable and vulnerable too. It’s a much loved film topic that speaks to everybody’s hearts. I like the cartoons with the character of Christopher so I loved this film. I’m a huge fan.

 In this film Christopher Robin has a daughter, he is a grown man with a wife. The film is about the memories of his childhood that he finds in a wooden box that help him remember Winnie the Poo. His daughter Madeline finds the box of memories under his bed. She has a good imagination and likes to read. The little girl, Madeline, I love her in this film, has to go to boarding school – a school where children have to live, where she would miss her family. Her parents think they’re doing the right thing by sending her away for her education. She is next to the train having tea with all her teddies, Christopher Robin is there with his wife and his boss Giles Winslow Jr.. Madeline doesn’t get to spend enough time with her Father, he’s always busy working. Its sad for young girls to feel like that, it’s a sad part of the film.

 We read online that there was a film in 2017 called Goodbye Christopher Robin about the true story of Christopher Robin’s life. A.A. Milne had a son named Christopher Robin, who helped invent Winnie the Poo when they were playing together in the woods. When the books became famous A.A. Milne sent him away to boarding school. In the film we saw Christopher Robin about the do the same thing to Madeline, sending her to boarding school. His childhood memories and friends, like Winnie the Poo come together with Madeline to remind him that he should let her stay and play in the woods.

 Christopher Robin tells his memories to his daughter so she knows he loves her, the same way that my Dad tells me stories from his childhood too. That’s my kind of character, I understand how she feels. His boss is a Heffalump, a Weasel kind of thing. He looks like a weasel villain with a tail and fur! There were more characters in the film, Winnie the Poo, Rabbit, Tigger, Piglet, The Owl, Beaver who lives in the woods, Kanga and Roo. I love that character of Eeyore, he is a softy, and a sweetie but not that cheery. He is a little bit lazy, a bit of a slow poke and his tail is always falling off. The Heffalump is a part of your imagination. Its fantasy. They had a big sign in the acre wood to warn them about the fog. I would love to go there one day. I would give the film four and a half stars out of five. But at the same time the film was as good as all the starts that shine in the acre woods.

Rome and the Vatican

I’ve just been to Rome.

Where the Pope is. Can you help me describe him? He is not the Emperor of Rome. He’s not? No.

The Roman Emperors were part of the pagan religions before Christianity.

What is pagan?

They had gods for all the different parts of life and nature, like the Goddess of Women, and the Goddess of Rome, Juno, or the Goddess of wisdom, Minerva (who was the Roman version of Athena from Ancient Greece). 

But there was conflict and war between Christians and Pagans, which means these Gods and Goddesses were worshiped secretly, but their myths are still part of Shakespeare and other stories we read today.

The Goddesses at the Trevi fountain represent abundance and health with lots of symbols from nature, flowers, grapes and wheat. In the photo of me at the Trevi fountain you can see how happy I am to be there with the Gods and Goddesses!

In Rome the Pagan and Christian history is side by side.

There were many statues of Mary inside the Vatican. I was wondering why the Pope loves Mary so much. She is the goddess of the Christian religion. For me I would like to see more women valued in the Vatican as well. There were protests on T.V. about the Pope as well. I have a copy of a funny old prayer by a nun asking that she will be helpful but not bossy because she still wants friends before she dies. I would like to show that to the Pope too.

They had beautiful mosaics there on the floor that showed the heavens and the earth.

When I visited the Sistine Chapel inside the Vatican I received a special blessing from the priest there. The priest said the Pope would be there on Sunday, but we had to leave before that. I’ve picked the Sacred Heart card for the Pope. The sacred heart usually represents Mary in the Catholic Church. It represents spiritual communion and being guided by an intention of love. I’m a very spiritely (spiritual) person myself. 

 We also saw part of the Italian country side, the life of nature on a farm with the ducks and pigs, rabbits on the farm. We swam at the pebbly beach as well. Now I’m back in my own home, which is represented by the Roman Goddess Vesta, Goddess of Home and Family.

Mamma Mia! New beginnings...

Number two is an Amazing film! You can have the story of the film if you want! Its all about ABBA. They weave the ABBA songs into the story through characters, like Fernando the hotel manager who gets together with Ruby, the grandmother character played by Cher who sings the ABBA song Fernando when she discovers he is her lover from the past. Cher is brilliant in the role of Ruby Sheridan. Though in first film we find out that Ruby disowned her daughter Donna for having her baby Sophie in 1979. I love the songs in the film, not as much as Muriel does in Muriel's weeding, but would love to get the sound track! I want to meet these big stars in the film.

I’m a big fan of all the characters in the film. Especially Sophie. She’s the daughter character. That’s gotta be me! My Mum Frances is Donna and I’m the daughter Sophie. I don’t have three Dads though; I’ve got my one Dad, Neil! I like her outfits. She looks so happy and free. I want to wear those too. The first movie tells the story of the daughter moving away from her family when she fell in love and got married. Her Mum didn’t approve of the relationship. The first film is more character driven and dramatic, but the second film is a light hearted comedy.

The second film begins when Sophie’s mother has passed away, but we don’t know why. The story travels back in time to 1979 the era of the original ABBA when Sophie’s mother was first travelling with her girl group The Dynamos. I would love to be one of the Dynamos, like Donna. While she was travelling Donna fell pregnant with Sophie but there were three lovers who might have been the father and she wasn’t exactly sure which one it would have been.

It’s a story about travelling. I’m just about to be travelling in the world myself now. I’m going on an adventure of my own with my family to Italy. I’ve been there before. But it’s still an adventure to be free in the world. The film follows the story of the young Donna on her trip where she conceived her daughter and is brave enough o have the baby. In the present Sophie is trying to organize the re – opening of her mother’s hotel, and lives intersect in the same way that they did when Donna was first travelling in her youth.

In the present Sophie discovers she is pregnant and although her mother has passed on she says she has never felt so close to her, now that she knows what her mother went through. The spirit of Sophie’s mother gives her inspiration to take new steps in life. Just like my Mum does for me. At the end of the film Donna, played by Meryl Streep comes as a spirit to watch over the party for the re – opening of the hotel. After the party we see Donnie’s Christening where the family stories begin again. 

There are so many films with Drag Queens in them. Ru Pauls’ Drag Race has been on T.V. recently. It’s hilarious. Its not just like Priscilla. Priscilla is about three drag queen performers travelling from Sydney to Alice Springs. In Ru Paul’s Drag race thirteen performers compete for 100,000 dollars and glamorous guest judges join the panel. There are lots of films and performances with this theme, Kinky Boots and Rocky Horror. There are also films and performances where men dress as women, for example Some Like It Hot where the men are in disguise as women, and the same in Mrs. Doubtfire, when Robin Williams dresses as woman so he can look after his kids. He was found out as a man when his son saw him standing up to pee. Drag queens have crazy over the top costumes, dramatic, sexy or funny outfits, make up, accessories like sunglasses on Dame Edna. Kurt Kummel one of the gay characters on Glee also loves drag queens. They’re attention grabbing and a little bit uncanny, which means familiar and strange at the same time.

The costumes in Priscilla are full of sparkles. The costumes were designed by Tim Chappel and Lizzy Gardiner, costume designers from the original film. They’re based on showgirl styles but they make their own over the top version. They characters were all favorites. It’s a show that’s become famous. Its iconic images are the high heel shoes and the dress that’s as long as a bus. The romance of the film is more of an enchantment. Like Absolutely Fabulous it’s a grotesque form of entertainment that’s pretty and ugly at the same time, and like Ab Fab its absolutely fabulous.

Alice and I went to visit the Thai Temple Wat Buddharangsee in Annendale on the Queen’s Birthday Long Weekend 11th June. It’s on quite an ordinary Sydney suburban street, Trafalgar Street. The monks live there in the monastery, the building in front of the temple. The monks are very holy, they live a spiritual life so they’re not allowed to shake hands with women, or to handle money, but they have respect for all beings.

When we got the temple we were surprised to see so many people there on a Public Holiday long weekend. There was a whole community of people who were working in and getting together at the temple. The women there were very welcoming towards us. After we had taken off our shoes and socks a kind woman whose name we weren’t able to find out showed us the temple, where we could pray and chant, and the library where we could look at books on Thai Buddhism.

At the temple we also met Stephanie Pugliese. She showed us how to be part of the community activities in the temple on that day. For example offering food to the monks. A lot of different people had brought food for the monks on that day. We didn’t know that this was the way it worked, so we didn’t bring anything. Stephanie showed us there was communal food we could offer the monks, and that we have to offer them the food thinking the most happy and joyful thoughts that we can. We bowed with our hands together when we offer food to the monks. I decided I wanted to make them something special for next time I go. I wonder what they like. There was a big pot full of rice that was on offer for the monks and the community. I would like to be a volunteer at the temple to help with the cooking.

The inside of the temple was just amazing. We listened to the chanting, it was so peaceful. It was hard to follow along with the song when they were chanting, I just wanted to listen to the songs, they were very peaceful. We bowed three times inside the temple, once for the Buddha, once for the Sanga and once for the teaching. Stephanie told us that’s how we are supposed to do it. Stephanie was very kind to show us around, she is also of the Lokanatha Buddhist Association in Sydney.

One of the most interesting things about the temple was seeing the Queen of Thailand on the wall. Stephanie let us know the King of Thailand had died in 2016 but the Queen was still alive. I’m curious about the Queen of Thailand and what she does. We found out online that she is a quiet diplomat. They also celebrate a public holiday on the birthday of the Queen of Thailand, the 12th of August. Mothers’ Day in Thailand is also celebrated on her birthday because she is the most powerful woman in Thailand.

It’s a big question for me about how people with disabilities are treated in various religions. In my experience of visiting the Thai Temple on this day I was treated with openness and acceptance. One of the monks even gave me one of his sandwiches that he had blessed. It was a tuna and salad sandwich. I felt the worshipping and love is the core of every religion.

Marilyn Monroe and the female role

It can be confusing for women when we play roles in everyday life or are cast into roles that we don't want to play. "Dumb Blond" is a stereotype played by Marilyn Monroe in the film Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. A more recent example of this stereotype is also the "bimbo" blonde played by Reece Witherspoon in Legally Blonde. Both women act as though they don't listen to a word anyone says but they are intelligent in their own way. In Gentlemen Prefer Blondes Marilyn is talking to a wealthy older woman, Lady Beckman, whose husband is wealthy older man with a soft spot for young beautiful women. The husband owns a diamond mine in South Africa. When Marilyn sees his head she him as one big diamond. 

Lady Beckman shows off her diamond earrings telling Marilyn they were a family heirloom. Marilyn says: "You can't tell, it looks its they're brand new". She shows Marilyn the diamond tiara she is afraid to leave in the State Room, the suite the Beckmans are staying in on the ship. Marilyn plays dumb when she is trying on the Tiara saying, "you must think I was born yesterday" when she is pretending to think that the tiara goes around her neck. She acts as though she doesn't listen to a word anyone says but she is a master at her craft. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rIE-qvColCI

She is framed however for stealing the tiara, which she didn't take. She cleverly proves her innocence in the courtroom with a showgirl performance showing that women can be attractive and intelligent all at the same time. In the court room, she is showing off, singing Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend. Working with her sexuality its one way of working with her role as a woman to her own advantage. As a female icon Marilyn Monroe is also a popular subject for drag queens and female impersonators possibly because she does such a funny witty impersonations of how women are seen already, she is the perfect model for other people impersonating women. Marilyn is so over the top in the way she plays her female role that she has kind of beaten them to it. She plays with people's expectations to get what she wants or to get her point across. 

Emma Marie Anne Lynnette Brodie. 

Its all about the sweets with Marie Antoinette. They've got a movie about her. She was the queen of France. 

Emma: What's France all about? 

Alice: Have you ever been to France? 

Emma: No. Want to go there some time with me? 

Alice: Yes, I'd love to. 

Its another romantic country. I don't like the head off bit though, we don't want to describe that do we, like King Henry the Eighth did to his wives. Thats a bad thing to do. When you think of female respect. Thats torture. 

Sophia Coppola is a powerful film director, her work is influential as an historical fiction about the Queen of France, another powerful female role. The mother also powerful in this film. 

I've been studying documentary in my film making classes. Marie Antoinette is about an historical figure, but it takes a lot of poetic licence, to show the feeling of her life, rather than just showing the facts. 

The History

It is directed by Sophia Coppola, staring Kirsten Dunst, with Marianne Faithful as her mother. 

Marie Antoinette was the last queen of France before the French revolution. 

Emma: Whats the French revolution? 

Alice: They overthrew the King and Queen to create a republic. 

Emma: Can I vote for the King and Queen? 

Alice: Not really. You had to be born into the family. They called it Devine Rule. 

Emma: It sounds like a fairy tale. 

Alice: Yes, it was like that, but in real life. 

Emma: They do have royal weddings there do they? 

Alice: Yes Marie Antoinette was originally from Austria and became the Queen of France. She grew up in Vienna in a very relaxed, privileged environment. She was just Fourteen when she was married, and was supposed to produce an heir to the throne. 

Emma: Do they show that in the movie there? 

Alice: Yes, they show her arriving in France as a young woman. 

Emma: With her dog. I like the pug dog in there. 

Alice: She had to leave him at home in Austria when she moved to France. 

Queen of Fashion

Emma: Do you remember on Gossip Girl Blair Waldorf likes Marie Antoinette. She eats delicious macaroons in the bath tub. This is going to be a big hit. 

Alice: This blog post? 

Emma: Yes, what does that mean? 

Alice: Because it has a hit film in it? 

Emma: Just don't put in the head off part. Its a bit dark. I just like the old wives' tale. The fantasy. The fairy story of Marie Antoinette. The cloths, the food. The caterers. 

A documentary about Marie Antoinette, also released in 2006 described the myths about her being so scandalously frivolous were not actually always true. It said that she was very popular to begin with, and was also very sensible later, once she was a mother, but when she first became Queen she was just a young woman and didn't understand the economy very well. People at the time believed she plastered gold and diamonds on the walls of her private estate. This wasn't true, but she did also live in the Palace of Versailles. 

Emma: I'd love to be Marie Antionette one day (except the head) for my Thirtieth birthday, with the huge feathers, and the big wig. And the big dress. I just want to be sweet and young exploring life and nature through my senses. I'd love to travel the world and to see it better, to get boys out of my head. And I do explore the world with my family. We make beautiful memories with our hearts on them. We have fun. 

Emma: This is just like Titanic isn't it, with the ship sinking down under the water. 

Alice: Yes, it is like that. They thought too much about luxury and not enough about being practical.

Emma: The film has some beautiful sad moments. Its like the jewel in the Titanic. 

A new Chapter : a type writer in Paris

I picked this card from the Cosmic Reading Cards about my book. Its a new chapter, or beginning. Something fresh. 

(Emma is working on a new book with Anna that will contain her collected and published poems.) 

What is publishing, can we look that up? What is a book party, what is a launch? Is that where you sign the autographs? 

There's a fictional character on Gossip Girl Dan Humphries who publishes a novel called Inside. He's one of my favourite characters, because he is a writer. He says he's going to 'kill it' with his book. I would also like to kill it with my book! Blair Waldorf is a star of Dan's book. Although the book is a raging success and they option the book for a film, all his friends are angry with the way he has 'fictionalised' their lives through his persona Dylan Hunter. 

I wonder how his chapters become a whole book? Thats what I would like to do one day. 

(Emma shows the picture of her book's working title page, "Mondays with Emma" about Emma and Anna's work together as writers.) Theres a picture of a typewriter, on the first page. We're working on a computer now, which is like a modern day type writer, but less romantic. Its an evolution isn't it. Its the way things grow and change over time. I would like to type on a type writer, like in Moulin Rouge. To be the star on the cover of my book, with lots of love hearts there too.  

Melenie is a French woman with Down Syndrome who presents the weather in France. She achieved her dream of being able to do that for a job. For me publishing a book is part of my dream of becoming a poet. I also want to see the world, to find out the histories of different countries, meet new people eat delicious cuisines… that's for another chapter. 

Valentines Day

In the past few years we have written about many different topics for Valentines' Day: Valentine's Day the film, a very kooky Valentine's Day with the Adam's Family, the history of Valentine's Day with the Saint celebrated in secret Christian rituals, and forbidden love in Romeo and Juliette. They're all posted on my old blog. This year we're going to write a short blog about the topics of passion and romance. 

The commercial side of Valentine's Day only emphasises passionate romantic relationships, but today I got some nice roses from work. And I felt an eternal love, even though its not too much about passion, I'm not feeling love sick like everyone else on Valentine's Day!

Now that I've said that, though, I've just started thinking about the past, and the sadness of lost love! Everyone gets a bit crazy on Valentine's Day. But its time for an intervention into that, to start thinking about the present and future telling, like witches do, like Samantha on Bewitched with her love potions! 

I'm thinking about Valentine's Day macaroons, about spending time with good girlfriends and about the future of Romance with my Oracle Cards! 

The first Romance Oracle Card I've picked says stay optimistic about your love life. I do still believe in True Love. I have a deep rare heart.  

The second card is  Unconditional Love. The truth of relationships beyond romance  is always unconditional love, loving and accepting people just the way they are. 

The third one I've picked out is the Shine card. It reminds me of the film Trolls, where the trolls help everyone else shine with all their colours. Like lady glitter sparkles aka Bridgit. I am a shiny radiant light with the stars and angels. 

I have a book of art about Valentine's Day collected in a diary. I'd like to be a romantic author in the future. I can't wait to publish my writing about romance. I want to be a bestseller. Its not about the money, its about the heart! I'm getting carried away with Valentine's Day wondering if there are any frogs out there I can kiss? Do you think it would be a bit slimy in real life? They even have Valentine's Day pokemon! Valentine's Day appeals to my tastes. I am a match maker. Collecting picture's of Valentine's Day that match my taste and style. I even put my own face on Emma Watson's body from Beauty and the Beast, I want to dance with the Beast and also with the real Prince, not with some sleazy guy like Gaston on Valentine's Day. 

I also have a friend who recently got engaged, I want to wish a happy Valentine's Day to her. 

My parents gave me the invitation to the show For the Love of Mrs. Brown for Christmas. I got the tickets to its 2018 tour as a surprise. We saw it on Australia Day 2018. I’m pleased for her gay son we have gay marriage in Australia now, so he could marry his partner Dino on his visit if he wanted to. I’ve got the box set of Mrs Brown DVDs. I’m a fan of the show and so is my family. I’ve watched the whole set.

Preparing to see the show I had some cards with different film genres I wanted to ask questions about. I chose the different categories that related to Mrs Brown. The first one was slapstick. Slapstick is an exaggerated kind of physical comedy that usually revolves around things going wrong and people getting into painful situations. In one episode of Mrs. Brown, when the doctor tells Granddad he has to have a ‘rectal reading’ with the thermometer, his daughter comes downstairs and makes him sit down, its an over the top version of something that would happen in normal life. In another episode her daughter Cathy’s (played by Jennifer Gibney) teaser is charging at Mrs. Brown’s house. Kathy leaves the house, and when the phone rings Mrs. Brown accidently picks up the teaser and shocks herself in the head. This is also an example of ‘technology being central to the plot’, which is one of the other categories I picked out. That means the joke happens or the plot moves forward because of the technology, which in this example was the teaser. The next one I have is ‘over the top funny characters’. It means the character is exaggerated more than normal, larger than life. Mrs. Brown is over the top like that, in the same way that Barry Humphrey’s Dame Edna is too. There are the over the top comedy costumes too, like the episode where there are humans dressed as hot dogs in the kitchen, or the one where one of Mrs. Brown’s boys, Buster, was dressed up as a Barbie doll.

One review in the Guardian was asking if we should treat Mrs. Brown as a respected comedian. She has a sense of humor like millions of people, and appeals to them, which is why she is hugely popular. So I think she should be treated with respect! I think she looks like my grandmother too, so we have to respect our elders!

On the program it describes Mrs. Brown. It says, “Her hobbies are drinking tea, bingo and meddling in everyone’s lives. Agnes speaks her mind no matter what. She has an acid tongue and takes no crap from anyone, despite all this she has a heart of gold and always means well, she just has a bad habit of making a mess of things.”

I want to describe the performance we just went to. This show was about the family on Valentines Day. My favorite parts of the performance were Cathy’s lingerie and her computer. She had some nickers for a night out, and tried to find Mrs. Brown a date for Valentine’s Day. Mrs. Brown accidentally found herself a Jigolo online. She pretended to her family she would never date him, but had him hiding in the cupboard as her valentine! She also snuck Cathy’s underpants and put them on, with the g – string around the wrong way! She’s got to get her mind out of the gutter. It’s a funny ending to the show!

After the show we met the cast and got their autographs. They gave me kisses on the cheek. I got the autographs of all the actors and was very excited. But if I had to choose one I would choose Mrs. Brown. She signed her autograph right over her heart in her photo. I want to get the next box set of Mrs. Brown, they’ve got five new DVD’s they’ve just released. I could make a Mrs. Brown cake for my 30th with her underwear on it!

Happy New Year

Luxury is having the finest of everything,

Of colourful symbols of a new year,

Found in the Chakra cards.

They help us to be calm,

Professional, to grow, to continue on giving.

Some things not everyone can afford.

But you don’t need all the things money can buy,

Its not about presents,

But presence and being yourself.

About light. Seeing the beauty of life.

I want that too, you know.

For the world, for everybody as well.

To be guided, like Mary was at Christmas time,

By a peace offering.

The intelligence of the heart and the spirit.

The finest luxury is love.

There is a lottery of the heart.

But loyalty means standing by your love.

The richness of what you want.

This new year I have the luxury of insight from the Chakra Oracle cards. It might sound a bit intense but it can help you with anxiety, creating love where there are worries, ‘making the beast beautiful’. I picked three cards that would guide me through the new year.

The solar plexus chakra, Manipur Chakra, is about shining confidence into the world. My sprit, my shine. Its about the inner child as well. Sometimes my inner child plays dumb.

I also got the card of possessions. I have a bit of a hard time with that. I find it hard to let go of things. I’ll have to let go of the glamour I think. I wonder if the Royals have to let go of glamour to find peace!

I also found self esteem – its about learning to love myself as unique, and truly loving myself. I am like that. I am a softy and can feel that towards myself. Glowing like a little candle light. The inner child, responsibility, inspiration – I want that, that’s my goal in 2018, to publish my own book with my poetry teacher one day – divine consciousness, and many other cards to explore in 2018.

A Muppet Christmas Carol

There are many Christmas Muppet films. One of my favorites is A Muppet Christmas Carol. It’s Jim Henson, who created the Muppets’, version of Dickens’ story A Christmas Carol.  Mr. Scrooge is on the Muppets The Christmas Carol. He is there with Kermit the Frog. And Miss Piggy, who is of course, is the star of the show. She loves the glamour. She has wonderful tastes like me.

A Muppet Christmas Carol about the Christmas message of giving. About having ‘A Grateful Heart’. A Grateful Heart is one of the songs Scrooge sings when he discovers the true spirit of Christmas. Mr. Scrooge and Santa look a little bit like one another. They are both old men with white hair, but one is greedy and one is giving. I wonder if Santa likes Mr. Scrooge. Or miss Piggy.

I’m not a Scrooge, or a pig, I’m not a Christmas feast! I’m warm-hearted generous person. Scrooge has a lot of negativity. I don’t like his habits or his behaviors very much. The Virgin Mary (who I don’t think has ever been played by Miss Piggy, but that could be a Muppet Christmas film to come) is also the opposite of him, giving everything that she has. Mothers are the most generous of all. I wonder what Mr. Scrooge’s Mum was thinking! He is such a Grinch.

Scrooge was a character first created by the British author Charles Dickens. His novel was written when he needed a best seller. Dickens describes him like this:

"The cold within him froze his old features, nipped his pointed nose, shriveled his cheek, stiffened his gait; made his eyes red, his thin lips blue; and spoke out shrewdly in his grating voice." It’s like the cold stunted the growth of Mr. Scrooge’s heart.

The ghost of Scrooges’ late business partner Joseph Marley visits him and tells Scrooge he will be visited by three ghosts from the past that will melt his cruel hart and teach him the errors of his judgment. He gains wisdom from these visits. And learns to love. He needs more love to be able to appreciate the wisdom of the world. The way Miss Piggy appreciates the love of Kermit the Frog. (She shouldn’t be so hard on him, even if they fight some times.)

I’m interested in the female members of Charles Dickens’ family too. Charles was the Head of the Family, in the same way that my Dad is of the Brodies. In that time women weren’t supposed to read books, except for poems like The Angel in the House. The women in Dickens’ life though were incredible women, like my Mum in my family. His Grandmother was a storyteller. His Mother taught the family mathematics and Latin, and educated their oldest daughter Fanny as much if not more than her sons. Dickens also had many female friends, like Elizabeth Gaskell who wrote anonymously, but Dickens tracked her down and encouraged her to keep writing. He opened a home for fallen women, helping women learn to make a living, including by expressing themselves, in the same way my poetry teacher Anna helps young women express themselves. His wife Charlotte Dickens was a sparky intelligent woman, an actress too. She suffered postnatal depression when their children were born. Dickens left her for a younger actress Ellen Ternan. So maybe he needed a little bit of help too, like Mr. Scrooge.

The ghost of Christmas Past shows Scrooge his first love Belle. Scrooge met first Belle at the Christmas party of his boss Mr. Fezzwig, played by Fozzie Bear, Mr. Fozzwig. Scrooge and Belle were engaged and in love for three or four years. Belle left him though when they were standing in the snow on Christmas Eve. Scrooge really does love her in the relationship. But because he is focused on business and always puts it before his relationship she leaves him. He is not kind and does not know how to show his love. They have a conversation about loving one another. She had a golden heart but he put the money first. Belle is a beauty like Belle from beauty and the beast, like every woman with a loving heart. A Muppet Christmas Carol is also a ‘tale as old as time’.

The little ghost takes Scrooge to the past to teach him the true love of living, putting loved ones and family first, to learn love and respect. The little ghost of Christmas past is very sweet and giving she is a kind ghost. She's very special. She helps him. It’s a good message for my memory, remembering loss from the past helps us find love in the present.

This is a new blog. I'm writing an introduction. It describes some of the different topics I will write about on the blog. The topics are similar to the previous blog that I love

http://emmabrodie101.wixsite.com/passionsofemmabrodie

but I'm trying a new format. Its another chapter. Religion and spirituality is something I'm interested in writing about. I'm interested in love in different religions, Hinduism, Islam, Christianity, Buddhism and Judaism. I'm interested in angels. I just like the holidays that much. Like Christmas, that one's coming up. I like having Oracle Cards of the different holiday celebrations. They help me understand the spirit of it, and the meaning of "miracles" in the myths around the holiday seasons. They help me with all the myths. Myths and legends are old stories with real wisdom inside them. I'm interested in mythical animals, like unicorns and mermaids. And mythical countries like the North pole that come from real places in Northern Europe. Writers and artists like myths they tell us how the world used to be and even the truth of how it still is. Myths, and the stories I tell on my blog connect with my inner truth and with the truth of the world.