Tiah Beautement's Blog, page 110
October 15, 2012
On Isabel Allende
Allende's speech that day surprised us all. We were prepared for a glorious reading and for a certain amount of sexuality, given the nature of Eva Luna. But we were not prepared for her joyous, bawdy humor, nor for the way she courted the audience, wooed and conquered them as if they were lovers. She was serious, heartbreaking one minute, then arch, as she talked about the disappointing truth behind the Latin myth of male machismo. Her delivery deadpan, she told us that her mother edits all her manuscripts, described the agony of waiting for maternal reaction to the sex...
October 14, 2012
A weekend read
Margie Orford, Gallows Hill - It's Valentine's Day next week,' he said. 'Think of it as a present. From me to you. / 'Most people would give red roses. ' / Riedwaan touched her cheek. / 'You're not like most people.' - - Politics.' Riedwaan shook his head. 'I'd make a better ballet dancer than a fucking politician.' - - The terminal intimacy of murder. A bond closer than any marriage, holding victim and killer tighter than any lover's embrace. - - 'And wearing farm-worker blue is going to help me?' asked Riedwaan. / 'Listen, around here, no one's ever...
October 13, 2012
Officially 12 years
A journey is like marriage. The certain way to be wrong is to think you control it. - John Steinbeck -
October 12, 2012
On Firsts
Jen Thorpe, My First Time -I knew instantly, thrillingly, that what I was seeing - a naked man and woman entangled in couplings of various descriptions - was forbidden. I savoured that chapter like ice cream and chocolate sauce. - - I learnt that the lecturer regularly had affairs with female students, yet many people condemned the students' actions and said nothing about the lecturer. - - The first time my heart was broken[:] The same night I told someone that I was in love with him. - - I brought a bottle of champagne, we melted down our rings...
October 11, 2012
Joke of the day
I received an email from the immigration lawyer looking into my case. Home Affairs swears they are going to have all the backlog applications for permanent residency dealt with by the end of the year. My thoughts: 'Yeah, right. That's about as likely to happen as Limpopo getting textbooks.'
October 10, 2012
Pick a word that describes your current state
jalopy Definition - old, dilapidated automobile Synomens - bucket of bolts, clnker, heap, junker, ratteltrap, tin lizzle, wreck - Thesaurus.com -
October 9, 2012
On knowing
[My mother] asked me, 'If I die, what you remember?' ... 'You know, all kinds of things. Like, you know, you're my mother.' And then my mother said, in a both sad and angry voice: 'I think you know little percent of me.' - Amy Tan, The Opposite of Fate -
October 8, 2012
This is why I am anti-perky movement
I have a working theory that this new trend of always 'choosing to be happy' and focusing on constant gratitude is impacting people's ability to empathise and hindering individuals' ability to cope with a full range of emotions - such as grief when it is appropriate. I am fortunate that in my everyday life I am not surrounded by people trying to force me to see the 'good' in my body's current jalopy state. I have good things in my life, but my children, my husband, my friends, my siblings, my parents have also been giving me the space to...
October 5, 2012
On parenting
Sometimes all you accomplish in a day is your children become a day older. -Mary E. Carleton-
October 2, 2012
On reading
We have our responsibilities as readers and even our importance. The standards we raise and judgments we pass steal in the air and become part of the atmosphere which writers breathe as they work. An influence is created which tells upon them even if it never finds its way into print. - Virginia Woolf -
