So, after a meh sort of day, where nowhere near enough got done, a couple of messages from a friend helped things out.
And what was this revelation?
A documentary series on Shakespeare. It's called Shakespeare: The Rise of a Genius and it provides a look at Shakespeare's life from the time he went to London, the lowly son of a disgraced glover, to the playwright we all know and many love.
This documentary is brilliantly produced, lovingly rendered and fascinating. There are elements of Maggie O'Farrell's Hamnet, another brilliantly researched and lovingly worked piece of art.
And this evening, instead of writing this, I've been sipping on some magnificent cherry gin watching my Shakespeare documentary and I've calmed the hell down.
And all is well with the world again. Who knew a little bit of Shakespeare would sort things out.
By the way, does anybody want to come and see A Midsummer Night's Dream, being done by Bell Shakespeare, in the next few weeks. They're playing at the Fairfax from 24 April to 11 May. Let me know.
I'm going to savour the last episode of the series tomorrow. It is so good.
A Sunday afternoon and I am not travelling anywhere. Yay. The perfect day to get the weekly questions done - and do the ironing, of which there is a massive pile.
Questions, as always, have been provided by Bev at Sunday Stealing.
1. What was the best toy you ever owned?
I was a Lego kid. Loved lego. Used to play with it for days. And there was none of this you get a pack which makes one thing. We had a box of lego and your imagination. I still like helping my friend's kids with their inventions.
2. When in your life have you felt the loneliest?
I think that would be called my childhood. Things got better when I went to university, thank goodness.
3. What is your strongest emotion?
I'm fairly mild mannered, but when I get angry, watch out. Thankfully it doesn't happen too often.
4. When were you the most disappointed in yourself?
I disappoint myself most days when I don't work on my novel. I should put and end to this and get motivated.
5. Which law would you most like to change?
There are many laws that need changing, and most of them are the annoying ones which are just inconvenient. I'd love stronger protections for the environment around here. Oh, and while we're at it, national reproduction laws which give women the rights to abortion in America - that should change. Men should not be able to make laws that limit women's bodies.
6. Who is the person you have hated the most in your lifetime?
Tony Abbott - ex Prime Minister of Australia - but Scott Morrison, and most of the Liberal National Party cabinet over the last twenty years come a close second.
7. What has disappointed you the most?
Malcolm Turnbull as Prime Minister of Australia. He could have been so good, alas, although he was better than Tony Abbott and Scott Morrison, he did nothing for the country.
8. What's the best possible attitude toward death?
It's going to happen to us all. If it's going to happen, may it happen as quickly and painlessly as possible.
9. What's been the longest day in your life?
Last Friday was pretty long. Any day which involves a red-eye flight back from Darwin is a long, long day.
10. What is the biggest coincidence in your life?
I find coincidences all over the place, but I have more coincidences on holiday. I've been sitting on Greek Islands when old workmates have bumped into me. Or turning up at the supermarket and seeing people I've not run into for years. They're the coincidences I like to have.
11. What's the oldest you'd like to live?
I'm happy to live as long as I'm healthy, productive and solvent.
12. Who is the most amazing woman you know personally?
I can't name one. I know many, many amazing women. I'm lucky like that.
13. What was your best experience in school?
Does getting out alive count? I think learning to speak French was a good thing. I didn't love school, but I loved learning.
14. What's the most meaningful compliment you've ever received?
I remember once that somebody said I was like a steam train. I took this badly at first, but he then said that it was because I was powerful, rare and strangely beautiful.
15. What is the most you've spent on something really stupid?
I try to be fairly sane with my money. I did spend $50 on a framed poem, which I strangely still love. The frame is plastic.
The Exhibition: Paris - Impressions of Life 1880-1995
The Gallery: Bendigo Art Gallery, Bendigo
Until: 14 July - of course.
"Let's go see the French Exhibition," said Lindy, one of my retreat mates.
"Yes, why not."
This almost throwaway line was made in January. We set a date, put them in our calendars, booked tickets and waited. We decided to go together, have a "we" day, deciding to say nothing to our extended friendship group. We could have asked the women we went to France with along - and we may organise something in the coming months - but today was for us.
Today, our day trip came to fruition.
It was bloody marvellous.
Following a very lovely lunch at Masons of Bendigo, and a glass of rose, in memory of L'Hotel de l'Orange in Sommieres, we ambled over to the gallery for a little bit of culture.
As exhibitions go, this was lovely. So much has been written, drawn and photographed about Paris, this small part only looked at the city at a critical part of history.
According to the gallery blurb:
"The busy banks of the Seine, bustling marketplaces, grand boulevards, idyllic public gardens, and the heady atmosphere of bohemian Montmartre are brought to life in more than 170 works of art and artisan objects. From the renowned collection of the Musée Carnavalet - History of Paris, the iconic museum of the history of Paris, this exhibition reflects on an effervescent period of great social change, urban development and artistic innovation which shaped modern Paris and continues to capture the global imagination.
Tour seven themed pathways and discover artisan street signs, historic couture, decorative arts, and everyday ephemera alongside paintings by artists including Jean Béraud, the pre-eminent painter of Parisian life in the Belle Époque, Maurice Utrillo and Paul Signac, pioneer of the artistic technique of pointillism, as well as vibrant graphic prints by Toulouse-Lautrec and his contemporaries.
The oldest municipal museum in Paris, the Musée Carnavalet was founded in 1866 to document the history, built environments, and unique character of Paris during a period of rapid modernisation. Located in the historic Marais district, the museum is home to over 620,000 works of art and artefacts from the Mesolithic period to the present day."
What struck me most was that the exhibition took me straight back to Paris. We spent time going over maps, taking in the amazing clothing on display, viewing the posters and loving very item in this compact, but expansive show. This isn't a show of the famous artists of the time. There are no Manets, Monets, Chagalls or Lautrecs. You're not going to see a Degas, Claudel or Rodin.
But what you are going to see is a view of Paris and its famous arrondissements at a time of huge change. The exhibition packs a punch. And unlike the other show's I've seen at the Bendigo Art Gallery, this was not packed out. You could roam around in relative quiet.
It probably wasn't the best idea to go see a movie after getting off a long red-eye flight that morning, but I wanted to be in a horizontal space for a bit and to bliss out for a while. Maybe, this was the wrong film to relax with. Ah, well.
But I've found an English film I didn't love. By all rights, this should be just up my alley - interesting topic, great cast, depicts England in the 1930s. But no. I left the cinema thinking this should have remained the stage play of which the movie has been derived.
What made me want to see this was the cast. Anthony Hopkins as a dying Sigmund Freud had a lot of potential. Then there was Matthew Goode, another favourite English actor, playing CS Lewis, a celebrated academic and author. In this fictitious meeting, Freud and Lewis meet to hash out who is right - Freud the atheist, or Lewis, the confirmed Christian who puts his place in God. The advertising says that this is an exploration of two men of differing opinions coming together to discuss God and Faith. Again, something that should be up my alley.
However, the film ambles. It doesn't have any impetus as we go from scene to scene, where some of Freud and Lewis's back story is covered, to the two men discussing all sorts of things without any form. We learn a bit about Anna (Liv Lisa Fries) who is torn between her own work, a new relationship and looking after her ailing father.
Although pretty to watch, the lack of any sort of cohesive action makes this a bit of a snooze fest. Which is a pity.
Freud's Last Session suffers from that rare affliction - the film that should have remained a play.
I'll leave it there. I was disappointed. If you want to see a brilliant film about C.S. Lewis, hunt out the 1993 film Shadowlands, in which Anthony Hopkins plays a wonderfully repressed Jack Lewis. It was nominated for many awards.
The dragonflies have returned. To some it means that the dry season is nearly here to me. They are just dragonflies or in French, Les libellules. Such a gorgeous word for such a beautiful insect. The word takes me back to France. Sommieres. Another place where the dragonflies dance.
Tonight, I had dinner with a colleague in the park looking over the sea. We got Subway for dinner. Cheap and reasonably healthy. Nothing fried, nothing drowned in mayonnaise or tomato sauce. Nothing with chips.
We missed the actual sunset, but we did get to see the wonderful colours, listening to some very loud people in the bushes, saying hello to the dogs which get their evening walk, the late flight that we are about to catch.
And the dragonflies danced as the light receded with a bang. After the light show last night, with two hours of
We went into Johnn Johnns on the way home - the ice cream parlour, which has to be visited at least once on any trip up here. The snickers ice cream was delightful (I had a biscoff crunch one on Monday night).
And we walked home, slowly, as it was too warm to go any faster.
1. This is the only job where I have seen all of my workmates in their bathers.
2. This is the only job I’ve ever had where I end up singing Hoodoo Gurus songs in the swimming pool with one of the senior managers.
3. This is the only job I have ever had where I have spoken to First Nations people on a heart level.
4. For two dollars, Coles does a little pack of two tiny cupcakes with hundreds and thousands on top. They are brilliant when you want a piece of cake that don’t want to buy the whole thing.
5. Going to book group on your phone is not the same as having decent Internet and being able to sit on Zoom on a laptop.
6. I miss my cat.
7. There is something very right about having a gin and tonic in the swimming pool, whole singing Hoodoo Gurus songs.
8. I like the books of Elif Shafak. But some are better than others.
9. I am still tired, but not exhausted like yesterday.
10. Dictating your blog into the phone is sometimes the easiest way to do things. The dodgy Internet at the hotel means that typing it on my laptop is very slow.
