Georgiezine

Sarah Watt died yesterday. She made Look Both Ways and My Year Without Sex, two films that I love. Reading a transcript of Australian Story here and a final interview in The Age, I was even sadder. Her gift was her ability to observe and turn the day to day into a story with depths and meaning, an essayist who told stories with visuals, a great writer. It was sad to hear that there had already been tragedy in her life-that she and her husband experienced a still birth. And I laughed at her stories of her husband as a young struggling artist, her brief yearnings to go out with someone who could "add a video recorder to my tv"... Great woman, lot of integrity and a sad loss.   I also went and saw Autoluminescent last night, which was the documentary on Rowland S Howard. I was have blogged here a while back, about last summer's obsession with reading biographies and piecing together the late 70s/80s Australian scene, which seems to have been dependent on inner city Melbour...

The family went out on Friday night. This would be the first time all 3 of us have been out at night time since Louis was a few weeks old (then we took him in his car capsule to British India with Geoff; it was spring, he slept all the time, it was easy). The evening worked, thanks to a variety of factors. Firstly, the destination was 5 minutes from home. Secondly, I had the help of friends and acquaintances-Rach carried him around the bowerbird markets; NC let me sit in his studio whilst I fed him and chatted to me, then we left the pram there whilst we visited Casablabla; his friend C carried The Kid's pram above the heads of 20+ people at the long dining table at Melt. The restaurant upstairs room is renovated with dark almost black walls, a long tiled white bar, long tables for large groups, an odd underutilised unisex bathroom (not many men opted to use the urinal adjacent to the unisex stall and basin). There were nearly 100 people seated upstairs, in this space lit by mo...

Have certainly cranked up this journal writing business. Realised that I would like someone (ie someone like me, but with more time and chutzpah) to go around and profile/interview all the cool baristas in town-the tattoed, vegetarian cycle loving musos, the baristas with degrees and fair trade friendly businesses. Realised I would like someone (ie someone like me, etc) to go back and map the social connections that existed in a pre-Facebook era amongst my friends/acquaintances of the mid 90s. To see what sorts of dinner parties/camping trips/house sharing anecdotes good enough to make a film script better than Reality Bites existed (apologies for the grammar of that sentence!). Last night I was befriended, on social media, by my husband's friends partner, who is a year older than me and who I kind of look up to. Or as Nora, in Monkey Grip, writes: "something about Claire always made me want to work hard in conversation".  When I say admire, I don't mean that I hav...

Lu is doing well. Cooing and chatting, sleeping more during the day and still at night. We have afternoon naps together (which I am REALLY going to miss). He looks cute in recycled clothes. He is learning to roll, and is more interactive when I read to him. Today I had another random chat with a strolling mother along Halifax street; starting to learn where I will bump into likeminded friendly/interesting mothers. Also browsed festival options. Like the look of Life in Movement, Here I am and the New Pollutants live soundtrack for Metropolis, at the Adelaide Film Festival. Visibility (photographic exhibition of Aboriginal and refugee residents) and Spirit Festival at the fringe. There are also art exhibitions at the Port in the Diamond Gallery and Better World Arts, walking tours to enquire of and the eco market. Busy times. Garden of unearthly delights has free concerts in early evening and Rymill Park is in walking distance. Nice. Across the road the park is finalising preparations f...

Sometimes I suspect I write posts that later I will cringe about: bang on too much about someone or something, etc. Before I had my son, I used to avoid people banging on about their kids-partly because of envy, whilst we were trying to start for a family, and partly because some people are banal, no matter the topic. And if you're not banal, if you're interesting, then you could write about making a sandwich and I'd enjoy reading it. But when I wrote about my child, well it's not with an intended audience. I just write, write because he will be young for such a short time and already he is growing so fast. Want to capture it. Right now he's awoken from a nap under his toy mobile, peed all over himself (a happy event for him) and started swinging at his favourite toys. His mobile has suspended butterflies and each time he sees them he smiles. He was great on the returning trip from Robe today, slept for ages then played with his teddy bear and rattle, concentra...

I am an awesome Mum. I am not going to hide this anymore. It is great to be good at mothering, in addition to other skills I have in life. And what I like about mothering is the wisdom you gain. You learn to avoid things that are too costly-financially, emotionally, physically. You pick your battles. You concentrate on simple things. You live in the moment. You look after someone who needs your help and who interacts back with you. You get to hang out with other kids and see how they are developing too. And there are a whole range of parental types out there: suburbanites, yummy mummies, attachment parents, helicopters, stage mothers and so forth but amongst all that are the same people as me, who have turned their curiosity in life to include children as well. My friend accompanied me to the pool last week. She teaches children swimming and saw some of her students from Term Four last year. They saw Lu in her arms and wanted to know if she'd had a baby since they'd last seen h...

Was trying to think today about how I would describe motherhood to the people I know who are not yet mothers but would like to be. Some people I know would say it's the best thing ever (changes your life etc) and to enjoy your little one because they grow up too fast and time goes by so quickly. For me, whilst I love my son, love children and love having a child of my own to raise, a permanent entree, for the next 12 years or so, into childhood shenanigans and thoughts, I don't yet feel that enthusiastic about motherhood. I found my most recent job enjoyable and rewarding, and only occasionally had bad days (when I felt as though I'd misjudged or mismanaged a situation). This doesn't mean that I'm finding motherhood like a bad job, or lacking in reward, just that I've already had the satisfaction of spending my day immersed in an activity I find rewarding and that reflects the effort I put in. I know that I was always feel proud of the ways I care for my son, ju...

Today A and I attended a combined first birthday party for 3 children. Seb is the son of A's friends and I also know Estelle, the daughter of other friends. She shares Lu's birthday, so that is cool and is a robust cherubic blonde, who leaned over and wanted to touch Lu. (Right now he's a bit unsettled and it will be all we can do to get him through to his next feeding timeslot, because he doesn't want to sleep, or be put down). The party was quite good-it was held in park in Brompton, which is a neighbourhood I like. The different cottages, townhouses, council homes and courtyard homes give it an eclectic flavour, reminding me of inner west neighbourhoods like Rozelle. It's not too homogenous and thanks to people like Jacqui and Paul, there are lots of neighbourhood decorations: mosaics, bike paths, painted stobie poles, that show the character of the residents. I fed Lu inside a party attendee's house, which bordered the park. It was a narrow modern 2 story ...