The Happiest Place On Earth...

Well howdy peeps!!!!

It's been a bit a while between blogs but I'm not going to apologise

because we've been away somewhere quite special...

...stay tuned!!!

5 Sleeps To Go...Success Is

It's only 5 sleeps to go until my 39-ness comes to an end and I embark on the journey into my forties. Not that I particularly believe that one birthday (or day for that matter) should mean more than any other but somehow turning 40 has become a milestone with some significance...

There is no party planned...rather the celebrations are developing more out of quiet joy and thankfulness as opposed to any huge 'whooping it up' and while the big day is yet to arrive (and the presents are still to be opened!), I find myself feeling so very grateful...

...for my wonderful man and our extraordinarily special relationship...

...for being blessed to know and love his kids and be accepted by them...

...for my family who miss me hugely and support my life across the other side of the world anyway...

...for my friends who lean and are leaned on...you know who you are...

...for discovering life's simple pleasures - in nature, laughter, tears and home...

and

...for having the courage to find 'myself' and to believe I can make a difference, everyday.


There is a poem by Ralph Waldo Emerson called Success Is - Mum always had this stuck on the back of the toilet door and I am still struck by its poignancy.
So I'd like to pass this on to you for all your moments of quiet contemplation...

10 Sleeps To Go...A Date With A Doodlebug

Last Sunday it was off to the Imperial War Museum in Lambeth with 3 generations of Scarlett men - J, his dad, and his son...

...'aaaah' I can hear you thinking, 'what a bloke-y day...all those big boy-toys...and Kym is going?' and admittedly when we walked in to the main hall (not very big and filled with suspended planes and tanks and guns), I thought to myself, 'hmmm...interesting, but how am I going to oooh and aaah over this for 6 hours!?'

But how wrong I was...the Imperial War Museum is a veritable treasure trove of exhibits and displays all hidden away behind the main hall...we were indeed there 6 hours...and we didn't see anywhere near everything. We had to be satisfied with the Trenches interactive display and the Trenches experience (like walking through the trenches - smells and everything!!), a wander around the main hall (where I saw my first doodlebug - V1 bomb - see pic to the right), the World War I section and then the Holocaust exhibit - by our calculations this left World War II, the Children's War and the Secret War for another day.

While all of it was interesting, the most powerful for me was the Holocaust Exhibition. To start, this actually took you through from the German's loss in World War I and the subsequent Depression in 1929 and then to the 'hope' created by the National Socialist (Nazi) party, their election to power and the creation of Hitler as Dictator. There was also lots of footage talking about why the Jews were so hated (blamed for the German's losing WWI apparently - broad shoulders eh!) and interviews with survivors interspersed with photos, 'artefacts' (for want of a better word to describe hundreds of shoes lining the scale model display of Auschwitz and the striped 'pyjamas' and SS uniforms worn in the camps) and lots of boards creating the narrative around this horrific event in world history.

It was fascinating and sobering all at the same time and the thing that struck me most was, at the time and in those economic circumstances, how 'easy' it would have been to believe in the propaganda, to see a little 'hope' in it for a better life. Not that I'm excusing any of it (just completely horrible - no words really to describe it) but I wonder - are we are all so very far away from this brutality? Can you imagine what the choice - of having your family killed or being part of the 'solution' - must have been like and what raw animal instinct people must have held onto just to survive and protect those they loved - on both sides?

Anyway, on a slightly more upbeat note, the museum also has a piece of the Berlin Wall outside (see pic) and I was explaining to J's son (who is 13) what it was and what an important event the taking down of the Berlin Wall was in our lifetimes.

But then I stopped and looked at him and thought 'hmm actually not in his lifetime' - at 13, the wall actually came down 7 years before he was born! The same year I turned 20...

Just where did the time go?

15 Sleeps To Go...Science At Its Best

One of the perks of temping for me is reading the Metro newspaper every morning over a quiet, pre-work soya cappuccino. It's one of those free papers you get here in London if you are out and about early enough on a weekday and can manage to snaffle one before they all disappear (usually by about 7.30-7.45am). You really only need it for about 15 minutes and its combination of...well...interesting stuff provides a trashy and mindless read to get the brain just out of the trauma state induced by getting up so goddamn early and standing armpit to armpit with total strangers on the tube.

Anyway, I was quite startled to learn about the intricacies of camel courting this morning in the following snippet:


Hmmm...let me see...lip-curling dispalys of affection, a 'certain 'coolness' in the morning...starting to sound ominously like some of the dates I've had.

However, imagine how excited a fella would be to have an 'internal fridge'...be just another place to store the beers really...

Australian experts my a**e!!