Educating Rita, and me

Theatre reflecting life

Cutting Ties to the Past

Way back in the mists of time, when dinosaurs stalked the earth and the gods still supped with the mortals (so, somewhere around 1978) I used to be an apprentice hairdresser. Yes, no shit. I spent four years shampooing, cutting, tinting and asking people where they were going for their holidays. I loved the job.

I Close My Eyes and Jump

Goodness gracious what a week! I had always imagined that when days arrive that will change my life, they would be huge and dramatic. Maybe fireworks and heavenly choirs, marching bands and trumpets, a boom or two of thunder and lightning splitting the sky. But what really happened was an unprecedented overwhelming wave of peace,

The Leonies in Your Life

  In the rush of the week the lesson became clear. As the days clicked by towards the weekend the drama stepped up a notch and I had a choice; observe it and sail above it, or be caught up within it and feel it deplete my inner resources. Hey, I’m not perfect so of

Mothering Your Dreams

The theme of Mothers’ Day and the contemplation of what it is to be a mother, to provide nurture, led me to think about the act of giving birth when it comes to bringing our dreams to life. There is the moment of fertilisation – that time when an idea takes hold and declares it’s

Stuffed Mums Strike Again!

  How do I describe the afternoon I’ve just experienced? Along with my Three Stuffed Mums colleagues Kate and Kehau I spent the afternoon at Goolwa, a small town south of Adelaide at the mouth of the mighty river Murray, and had the biggest amount of fun. We were there to perform a Three Stuffed

There Must Be Better Songs to Sing than This

Yesterday I watched the movie Educating Rita. It’s written by Willy Russell who also wrote Shirley Valentine and Blood Brothers. I love his work – it’s rare to see a man who can write so well for women. I last saw the movie around 1984 or ‘85. I remember it because I watched it with

A flask of tea and some sweeties

  Easter Monday. The words have been in the back of my mind all day like a reminder that wasn’t quite working. What did they mean? Or to be more exact what did they used to mean? I pushed it to the back of my mind and got on with a pretty busy and productive

The Martian Parenting Style

An interesting train of thought was sparked by Rebecca Dettman’s blog (http://rebeccadettman.com) on how we teach our kids about spirituality. It’s a good question, because outside of organised religion we don’t have that formal framework as parents, so we’re thrown back on our own experiences, thoughts and the things we’ve come to know that are

Sending Love Across the Ages

Can love be sent across the ages? Can strength and healing be sent back in time?Something has happened this week that’s made me desperately want this to be possible. Having just dipped my toes into the whole genealogy thing, looking at my family mainly from their time in the late 1800s in Donegal, their move