Once I Complained That...

"Everybody deserves to have something good in their life. At least once."

By Friday I can be very fractious with my children. Do we have to write Christmas cards when dinner is ready? Who made this mess? Get out of the bath NOW please! Stop teasing each other or we won’t have time to read books.

I sobered up quickly after I completed my latest junior novel , Once by Morris Gleitzman. I plucked it off the shelf because it had a Children’s Book Council of Australia Honour award. It reads in the blurb “Once I escaped from an orphanage to find Mum and Dad. Once I saved a girl called Zelda from a burning house. Once I made a Nazi with toothache laugh.” This book gives a voice to the children of the Holocaust.

Felix is the main character, a primary school-aged young boy who talks in first person about his experiences. He starts as a naïve, innocent little boy and by the end of the 150 pages he has been thrust into a world of hatred, death and sadness, with just a modicum of hope.

Gleitzman doesn’t gloss over the Holocaust and paint a story of miracles. He poignantly gives the reader an insight into how children lived, trusted and lost through this terrible period in history.

The story starts in an orphanage and Felix finds a whole carrot in his soup – a sure sign that his Mum and Dad are coming back to him after their “book selling.” And so unravels the tragic journey for Felix, who leaves the orphanage to find his mum and dad. Along the way he meets some kind souls and some malicious people who try to thwart his plans. He is convinced his parents are just trying to sign up authors in Poland for their book store.

We all know the inevitable end for over 1.5 million Jewish children but what makes this story so beautiful is the way that Felix walks towards this death, telling vivid stories to others to numb their loss. He is gradually enlightened by his horrific experiences along the way and has maturity beyond his years in his final moments.

Like Gleitzman's opening/ending quote about having something good in your life, there are glimpses of hope and acts of kindness. Felix's relationship with Zelda, a young Jewish girl, and Barney, the children's adult carer (who even looks after their teeth) are moments of normality.


The story is fiction but was inspired by real events. Gleitzman’s grandfather was Jewish but left Poland before the Holocaust. Ten years ago Gleitzman read a book about a Polish Jewish doctor who helped to run an orphanage and care for two hundred Jewish children. In 1942 when the Nazis killed these children, Janusz was offered his freedom, but chose to be with the children in his care until the bitter end.

There are also many other letters and notes that Gleitzman read which can be found at his website www.morrisgleitzman.com

Being a mother, I cried for Felix's innocence. A little like the character Barney, who cares for the children but knows their fate. Children depend on their parents. They trust them with their lives.

Once I was a little harsh when my daughter smashed the blackboard easel. Just a bit of wood and chalk. She was turning it into a truck. Bless her.

10 out 10 for this one!

"Everybody deserves to have something good in their life. At least once."

4 Ways to Bore Your Taste Buds

Dinner was all sorted tonight. Hamburgers at the school twilight sports, but down came the rain (for a change) and washed the menu out. Suddenly it’s 5pm and I have to think on my feet or the “I’m hungry” chorus will begin. Luckily I have plenty of veggies and ingredients to whip up something resembling dinner and keep the wolves at bay.

A few years ago, I remember hearing about this radical new recipe book that was the answer to your dinner motivation prayers. You only needed four ingredients to cook each recipe, minus the condiments of course. Suddenly it was all the rage and the radios and television were promoting this revelation in cookbooks. Sure enough I received it as a gift.

Aptly named 4 Ingredients and now available in four books – 4 Ingredients 2, 4 Ingredients - Gluten free, , 4 Ingredients – Fast, Fresh & Healthy and 4 Ingredients – Quick, Easy and Delicious, I thought it was going to be my saving grace, but I was bitterly disappointed flicking through the recipes. To me it was re-hashed recipes that lacked flavour and imagination. Apparently 2.5 million people thought otherwise.

I wasn’t expecting recipes with palm sugar and kecap manis but I needed to enjoy and feel healthy eating it. One vegetable in a curry doesn’t cut my mustard.

We are blessed with so many fine ingredients. Tastes and textures to keep our taste buds entertained and satiated. I would like to see a cookbook that incorporated different cultures and could be prepared and cooked in less than thirty minutes. My red curry pork burgers are a fine example and I am partial to a ginger and lime infused stir-fry. These are simple and fresh ingredients that don’t scream ‘boring’ to me.

I admire Rachael Bermingham and her co writer Kim McCosker who went from being broke to becoming multi-millionaires. They gathered friends’ easy recipes and modified them to four ingredients. Nobody wanted to publish their book so they went out on their own and they are the highest selling self-publishers in Australia.

They have made subsequent books, have a television program and a very elaborate website. They even sell their titles internationally. For that I admire their drive and commitment to their business.

I consider myself lucky to have been brought up experiencing and enjoying different foods. From a young age I loved oysters and we were more than a ‘meat and three veggie’ family. I still had the fish-fingers on a Friday night when the budget didn’t stretch for the seven of us, but later on I was tasting all sorts of seafood, different cooked meats, grains and anything dished up. I’ve even tasted Patagonian toothfish (Chilean Sea Bass). Delicious!

I’ve met a lot of food-focused people in my thirties and enjoy sharing recipes with as many ingredients as necessary to create a gastronomic delight.

If you want to know what I really thought of this book/gift, you’ll have to ask the person I re-gifted it to.

I give it 4 -  for those who lack inspiration to cook something delicious!

My Rock

There has been a lot written about ‘rocks’ of late with a rare pink diamond selling for a record 47.2 million to an English jeweller and Kate Middleton sporting a whopping gem after her engagement to Prince William. Then of course there’s the usual influx of catalogues with bling to buy for your Christmas sweetheart.

I like simple and elegant jewellery so it was quite out of character for me to choose a Ceylon sapphire as my engagement ring centrepiece eleven years ago. It’s such a beautiful ring and the memories of the day it was slipped on my finger still sparkle.

My hub proposed to me at Squeaky Beach, Wilson’s Promontory. It was the first beach I took him to as a backpacker and we liked the fact that you had to walk twenty minutes to reach it. Cuts out the beach bogans and whining kids (who we had little tolerance for pre-children.)

The sand at Squeaky Beach is pure white and contains silica. Ironically it’s almost the same quality as zirconium, which is the poor man’s diamond. The sand squeaks because the particles are all the same size. Recently, Squeaky Beach was named the most romantic beach in Victoria. Sounds like others had similar ideas to my hub.

It’s a mysterious ring and changes colour with the seasons and in this humid stormy weather we are experiencing, it has become an ice blue. I decided to write about it.

You sit majestically upon my finger. Your giant blue eye, encased in its golden arms. Diamond friends glisten with clarity and carat on your shoulders. They are the keepers of the secret of this eternal bond.

I could leap into your kaleidoscope. Brilliant blue, smoky. Sometimes a mysterious shadowy grey. You never look common to me. You never look dull, watching me from your rose gold filigree throne.

You garden, you clean, you wash, and weather all my storms. Beaming up at me, my beautiful Ceylon sapphire. Strong and constant.

Amazing what flicking through a few catalogues can inspire. Diamonds (sapphires) are a girl’s best friend after all!

Your Name Is?

One of the smartest things you can do in your personal and professional life is to remember a name. I do well on a personal level and know my postie Bob, my neighbours (and their pets) two doors each way, Denise and Marlene who scan my shopping items and people I attended primary school with. However, when it comes to remembering authors I can occasionally draw blanks.

Doing the banking this morning a blonde haired lady who didn’t look remotely familiar to me, chatted about the business and asked what we did as I was depositing the company cheques. As I bid her good day she said clearly, “Have a great day Sam.”

Now, that’s stumped me and I have no idea how she knows me. Did she just guess it was Sam from signing a ‘s’ in my signature? Did she overhear the kids telling me something on another occasion? Did I accidentally have a Sam name-tag stuck somewhere? Perhaps she knows my Mum? I never got to ask her, but walked out of that bank impressed that she knew my name. Now that’s the way to do business.

A name is so important so why do I often forget an author or singer’s name? I get so absorbed in the book and the words that I am oblivious to the two words emblazoned on the front cover. This is the one person who deserves the accolades. It is this person who has made me cram their collection of carefully chosen words into my busy day. It’s only another two names to recall.

Who wrote On Jellicoe Road? Tom Sawyer? Anne of Green Gambles? Memoirs of a Geisha? The Lovely Bones? The Colour Purple?

Good for you if you have the authors’ names entrenched in your memory, but if you are like me and struggle to remember names of people you’ve never met face to face, try and say their name aloud every time you open your book and you will remember it. This is especially if it’s a book worth recalling.

A name is something everyone identifies with, love or hate it it’s ours until we are dust. Remembering how important it is to remember is a step in the right direction.

P.S.

·      Mellina Marchetta

·      Mark Twain

·      Lucy Maud Montgomery

·      Arthur Golden

·      Alice Sebold

·      Alice Walker

Merely Peanuts

I remember a little Snoopy wind-up toy that my great aunt Elsie brought out as a special treat when we were young. We use to get excited as he mechanically marched across her kitchen bench. After his parade, Snoopy would be put back into his box until next time. I derived great pleasure from Charles  Schulz’s characters, wanted a Woodstock toy to snuggle with in bed, and watched Peanuts on T.V, but never really read and appreciated his writing.

The following is the philosophy of Charles Schulz, the late creator of the 'Peanuts' comic strip:

You don't have to actually answer the questions. Just ponder on them.

1. Name the five wealthiest people in the world.

2. Name the last five Heisman trophy winners.

3. Name the last five winners of the Miss America pageant.

4. Name ten people who have won the Nobel or Pulitzer Prize.

5. Name the last half dozen Academy Award winners for best actor and actress.

6. Name the last decade's worth of World Series winners.

 How did you do?

The point is - none of us remember the headliners of yesterday.

These are no second-rate achievers.

They are the best in their fields.

But the applause dies.

Awards tarnish.

Achievements are forgotten.

Accolades and certificates are buried with their owners.

Here's another quiz. See how you do on this one:

1. List a few teachers who aided your journey through school.

2. Name three friends who have helped you through a difficult time.

3. Name five people who have taught you something worthwhile.

4. Think of a few people who have made you feel appreciated and special.

 5. Think of five people you enjoy spending time with.

 Easier?

The lesson:

The people who make a difference in your life are not the ones with the most

credentials, the most money or the most awards. They simply are the ones who care the most.

Happy Birthday To Me

I don't know how I could possibly top this birthday. I know I say it every year but my family and friends are amazing!


Handpicked garden flowers and homemade cards, a call from my brother in New York, harmonious birthday choruses from Mum and Dad and my sister and bro in law. Delivered flowers from my sweet friend from mother's group and my dear husband. A morning cuppa with a kinder friend and lunch cooked by a special friend. Calls from old friends, new friends and neighbours. A pedicure to treat my gnarled old feet. Two home baked cakes and a tray of delicious chocolate muffins. Lots of special treats. A surprise visit from my brother from Phillip Island (and with that comes a New York Cheesecake) and a Japanese feast to devour tonight...and that's only today. Who am I to deserve such love and lavishing?


There are so many words to describe how I felt today: enriched, joyous, privileged, humbled, lavished and above all loved.


It doesn't usually rain on my birthday but it is pouring - just like my day, I am bucketed in goodwill. THANK YOU!

Christmas Cheer - One Month To Go

I’m not annoyed that Christmas decorations have been on sale since October. Business has to make the most of the build-up and give children time to view their material desires and write their wish lists before the man in the red suit arrives. What I am miffed about is that traditional red, green, gold and silver are being outshone by baby blue and pink (yes pink) baubles in the Christmas shop this year. I could have been walking past the toy section but it is apparently the best Christmas decorations on offer at this major department store.

If the shops are spreading Christmas cheer already, albeit a little colourfully, then it can’t hurt to look at a book that epitomises the spirit of Christmas – A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, with original illustrations by John Leech.

We are all familiar with this tale of Ebenezer Scrooge who is visited by the ghost of his former business partner Jacob Marley who died seven Christmas Eves ago. Marley warns Scrooge that his shrewdness has had consequences in his afterlife and that Scrooge will be visited by ghosts of Christmas past, present, and future to help him mend his ways. Scrooge is a spend-thrift who believes that Christmas is “a time for finding yourself a year older, and not an hour richer.”

As Scrooge journeys through the night with the ghosts he sees his clerk and his crippled son Tiny Tim and the poverty they live in due to his miserly salary. Christmas future shows the inevitable death of Tiny Tim if Ebenezer fails to act.

Like all heart-warming Christmas tales, Scrooge realises how selfish he has been and delivers a turkey, raises wages and visits an estranged nephew. He finally realises that Christmas is about giving and being in the company of those who care for you.

Charles Dickens started writing this classic at the end of August in 1843 and had it printed and bound and ready for the public by Christmas Eve. He set the price at five shillings so that everyone could afford a copy and subsequently only made a profit of £726 for the year.

Dickens story was inspired by the poverty of his childhood. He had four children with one on the way and a hefty mortgage on his home. He had to write a story. Sounds a bit like J.K Rawlings. As he walked along the Thames he was shocked by the prostitutes, filth and beggars. People were living well below the breadline out of his privileged area.

As Dickens wrote this masterpiece he had a transformation and was affected by the story and reluctant to lay it down. The spirit of his book was not only impacting Scrooge but the Dickens’ heart as well.

If you get the chance to read this tale or even watch it, it may just remind us of what Christmas is truly about. Not the pink and blue baubles or the electronic gadgets (even my daughter asked for a pink D.S and admitted she has no idea what it is.) We all know what Christmas truly means and have one month to spread that Christmas cheer...