Tag: musings

Posted in Life, Mid-life blogger, Writing

Friday’s 3 questions and an F word

Posted on by Sharon

It’s Friday again. Not sure how that happened, but here we are.

Last week I wrote my first ever 3 questions and an F word post and because no one read it (apart from my sister) I thought I’d send another post into the void.

The premise is, that you respond to three questions and then choose a word beginning with F and write about that. The three questions are:

  1. What made you happy this week?
  2. What made you sad this week?
  3. What are your plans for the weekend? (I think. I can’t actually remember, so I made that up.)

What made me happy

Work. Yeah, I know, strange answer, but there you go.

I’ve been working on a project about perinatal mental health screening, specifically in Indigenous communities in Victoria. The Department of Health are updating the screening guidelines and basically wanted to know what would make the screening process more culturally safe. So they asked me to ask some midwives, maternal and child health nurses and others of that ilk, as well as Aboriginal parents how the screening process could be improved.

On Friday last week, I went to a playgroup to talk with some parents. One little fella, 14 months old, toddled up to me and put his head on my knee as I introduced the project to the mums. He then reached his arms up and so I picked him up for a lovely cuddle. He came back later for another one.

Now, I’m not a hugger but cuddling babies is a very different kettle of fish. I highly recommend it.

And then this week, I finished the report the Department said I had to write, because apparently, just talking to people wasn’t enough. I finished it – wait for it – one whole week early! Some big days of writing and editing, but the draft is in and now I’m waiting for the feedback.

So work was good this week.

What made me (really) sad

I was scrolling through Instagram last night and one of the posts I stopped to read made me really sad. Disturbed. Concerned for where we’re headed as a society.

Tarang Chawla is a Melbourne man whose sister Nikita was murdered by her boyfriend in 2015. Tarang speaks out strongly about men’s violence towards women – you might have seen him on TV or follow him on Instagram like I do.

Last night as I was scrolling, I saw this post.

Source: Tarang Chawla’s post on Instagram

I swiped to read the other slides and was horrified by what I read. You might have seen this story on the nightly news or online. Apart from giving voice to the horrendous violence of this act, Tarang’s wider point is about media reporting.

Source: Tarang Chawla’s Intagram post

I won’t include the next slide in Tarang’s post, but the Australian media reporting of Kristina Joksimovic’s murder is deeply disturbing.

Tarang makes the point that women’s lives have become clicks. More clicks = more revenue.

Source: Tarang Chawla’s Intagram post

What views are being shaped by the grotesque reporting of Kristina Joksimovic’s murder?

Whose views are being shaped?

There were other reports I read on women’s murders this week, and on the dehumanising treatment of women – see the MFW Facebook page if you want to read more – and they all made me sad. Not only because of the treatment of women, but also because of how this treatment is being reported in our ‘news’ media, and how our views are being shaped by this reporting.

I was going to apologise for bringing the mood down, but I won’t. This is happening, we consume this reporting. What’s it doing to us?

Plans for the weekend

Mum arrives tonight for a weekend visit, and I had thought we might go to the Kyneton Daffodil and Arts Festival.

I just checked the forecast though and tommorrow’s high of just 8C and up to 8mm of rain isn’t inspiring me to get outside.

So we’ll see.

What I’m really trying to say is that we have no plans.

Sometimes those weekends are the best.

[Breaking: I just this minute received a text message reminding me of a dental appointment tomorrow morning. I’ve already put it off once, so I’m thinking I should get my big girls pants on and just go.]

F-word

Fancy.

Yep, that’s my f-word for the week.

We’ve had some more painting done inside and the place feels fancy.

And looks fabulous.

Love this colour: Bean Counter (Dulux)

So that’s it. My 3 questions and an F-word.

Thanks for reading Deb!

Posted in Life, Mid-life blogger, Photography, Portraits, Writing

3 questions and an F word

Posted on by Sharon

As regular readers know, I have an older sister. Not much older, just over a year, but older is older, right? Deb, my slightly older sister, is a blogger over at Deb’s World and the other day she wrote a post, which led me to writing one in the same format. It felt strange and strangely uncomfortable because it isn’t the kind of writing I generally do, but I did it anyway, because … well, because boundary pushing is sometimes a good thing to do.

So here I am, about to start writing another post copying another format she sometimes uses – the 3 questions and an F word of the title of this post.

The three questions are:

  1. What’s made you happy (I’m not sure if that’s ever, or this week, but I’ll work that out as I write).
  2. What’s made you sad (ditto)
  3. What’s made a difference (again, I could go back to her post and check out what this is supposed to mean, or I could do what I’m going to do and that is make up my own mind about it. It’s my blog after all!)
  4. The fourth thing is to find an F word that has some meaning to me (possibly mis-remembering this bit of the prompt … but, my blog and all that).

Deb has all the details on her most recent post: Friday Feels: 3 questions and an F word. Not sure what the Friday Feels bit is about, but it’s Friday, so I’ll go with that.

So, what’s made me happy?

Family. My eldest son came to stay and we drove a few hours to spend a few days with my mother and sister and it was fabulous to be together. We laughed, and we cried, and we watched my granddaughter’s footy grandfinal on the telly and heard her mother yelling from Tasmania. One of the best bits was getting my photography studio properly sorted and getting to try out the new lighting set up on my son (who did all the sorting).

In this shot we used the beauty dish as the lighting source.

And what’s made me sad?

Goodbyes. Not, I hasten to add, that I’ve had to say any permanent goodbyes of late, but there’s always a twinge of sadness when we have to say ‘see ya’.

What’s made a difference?

Wallpaper and paint. We bought a house just over a year ago and have been taking our time in working out how we want it to look. We had the loungeroom painted earlier in the year. Clouded Sky. That’s the name of the paint colour. A few months ago, we added some wallpaper to the family room, and yesterday we had the little sitting room painted. Bean Counter. That’s the name of the paint colour. It’s made such a difference!

An F-word

Face-mask. I had never used a face-mask before the weekend, but Deb said we needed a ‘glow up’ and so bought us both one to apply. It was slimy and cold and felt disgusting for the fifteen minutes it was on my face. I was distinctly uncomfortable and I think Deb was slightly disappointed that it wasn’t the relaxing experience she had imagined it would be.

After peeling the slimy wet thing from my face and gingerly rubbing the leftover gloop in with my fingertips, I have to admit that my face was glowing. It has continued to glow in the days since. So much so, that I’m considering doing it again sometime in the next 60 years.

So there you have it: 3 questions and an f-word. And no mention of my newly published book Enacting a pedagogy of kindness, available now from the Routledge site (as well as loads of other sites that sell good books). I did well not to mention that, didn’t I?

Posted in Life, Mid-life blogger, Writing

An A-Z of goings on

Posted on by Sharon

My sister posted on her blog today a post titled Taking Stock Checkup #3. In it, she used one word prompts to get her thinking about what’s been on her radar for the past few weeks/months. It’s the same words each time she posts (this is her third post using this format this year) although I’m not sure if they’re her words or someone else’s.

No matter.

As I’m having a day off today, I thought I might use the same prompts, just to see how it feels.

Appreciating: My latest book, Enacting a Pedagogy of Kindness: A guide for practitioners in Higher Education has just been published. I’m appreciating a few things:

  • my friend, Airdre Grant, who invited me to co-edit the book
  • the work of each contributor in telling stories of how they enact kindness in their practice
  • how good it feels to have it out in the world (although I reckon it’ll feel even better when I get my hands on a physical copy)
  • how hard it is to promote an academic text (I keep asking myself who wants to read it … I think every academic/teacher should because it’s a great book!)

Bingeing: I am currently bingeing the Happy Wall website. I am obsessed with wallpaper at the moment and spend way too long looking for one that’s ‘just right’. Loads of great designs, too few walls.

Cooking: Porridge for breakfast.

Doing: (Barely) promoting my book, searching through wallpaper designs, eating porridge.

Excited: Next month, on October 3, I will be attending a book launch at the Royal Historical Society of Victoria. They will be launching The story of Melbourne’s lanes: Essential but unplanned. The reason I’m particularly excited by the launch of this book is because they have chosen one of my images to be on the cover!

Feeling: Appreciative.

Going: To see Jesus Christ Superstar with my sister as a birthday treat next year.

Hoping: That Jesus Christ Superstar will be just as good as it was the first time we saw it in the early/mid 1970s (with Marcia Hines, Jon English, and Trevor White).

Important: Appreciating the good things is important. Particularly when the good things are simple things like cooking porridge.

Joining: I will be joining others from U3A Hawthorn at the Laneways book launch on October 3.

Kudos: To the paralympians.

Loving: Using my newly set-up photography studio. It’s fabulous to have light modifiers on the wall; somewhere to hang backdrops; and to have the lights set up so that I can get creative quickly and easily.

Managing: To get work done with all the distractions of book publication, the other book’s upcoming launch, my photo studio set up, wallpaper sites to trawl through …

Need: To choose paint colours.

Observing: The delivery man out the front at the moment. His truck won’t start and it’s interesting to watch him try to identify the problem.

Preparing: For yet another severe weather event. I don’t know what this one will be, but I guess I’ll find out when it hits.

Quirky: A word I used to search for homewares last week. Didn’t find anything I liked.

Reading: Tea leaves.

Smiling: Because, you know, my book … porridge … photo studio

Thriving: My garden is thriving because Spring is here. I can see buds on the weeping something tree outside my window, and blossoms on the trees that line the street.

Uncomfortable: At the idea of promoting my book.

Visiting: Soon I will be visiting my youngest son and his family. For the first time in 10 years I’ll have a child and grandchildren living in the same state as me and that means frequent visiting.

Wearing: Too many visits to my youngest son and his family might get wearing – for them at least. Not for me!

Xploring: Ideas … photographically.

Yes: Please.

Zero: No more words.