Cherish Your Cherubs – In the Now

When I came across Naomi’s six-week Cherish Your Cherubs project, I got excited and wanted to be a part of it! I have sooo many photos of mine that all I needed to do was write some reflections down. For this first week, Naomi has asked us to Record whatever comes to mind about our loved ones.

WONDERFUL HUSBAND

Romantic. Intelligent. Funny.

Fantastic Father. Amazing Husband.

Self-confessed Coffee-Geek.

Gifted Communicator (except for those Dad jokes ;))

Enjoys cycling and country driving.

Loves listening to music, playing bass guitar and dark chocolate.

LEGO BOY (9)

Inquisitive. On or off.  Early riser.

Fan of Lego and Star Wars Clone Wars.

Loves sport, piano, chess.

Enjoys reading non-fiction, adventure and bad joke books 😉

Has the knack of turning most things into Maths problems.

PRINCESS (6)

Girly-girl. Loves reading. Petite.

Thoughtful. Caring. Knows when Mama needs a big hug. Softly spoken, except when, like… EXCITED!

Persistent.

Has some wobbly teeth.

Misses the family in Perth.

Enjoys helping in the kitchen.

Loves to sing, dance and make things.

MISS CHATTY (3)

Comedic timing. Handful of curls after her Papa.

Very sociable. Loves giving huggles.

Determined. Ready for Kindy.

Can squeal with the best of them.

Chubby cheeks. Loves Bear-Bear.

Loves to dance and make up her own songs.

Loves eating “Roly-Poly” (Nashi) Pears.

So what comes to mind about your loved ones right now? Care to share the love with all the other beautiful families joining in here? I sure hope so!

Sunday Session – Hubby’s Birthday Edition

Last week was a significant birthday for WH (Wonderful Husband) so it got me thinking about some of his fave music. As it turns out Thea handed the reins over to her Hubba this time round…not quite snap, but almost! It was hard to keep to two tracks, so I chose five, and still it was hard. Here we go…

Thought it would be good to get two-for-the-price-of-one here…nice to have Neil Finn joining in with Paul Kelly. WH is also a big cricket fan, so this song is very appropriate. I guess it’s actually like getting four runs, isn’t it?

WH played in a blues band before I met him. This tune features three of his all-time faves BB King, Eric Clapton and Stevie Ray Vaughan…in the same room.

WH met this guy through a bass players forum while we were living in Europe, and we had the pleasure of meeting him in Frankfurt. Norm is a great guy, with a beautiful family, and as you’ll find in this video, an extremely talented bass player. The title of his cd is pretty cool too…”Pondering the Sushi”.Take it away Norm!

We’ve been fortunate to have caught Niels Henning Orsted-Pedersen live on both sides of the world. With his own group (including guitarist Ulf Wakenius, who is also featured here) at the Festival of Perth many years ago , and with pianist Mulgrew Miller at the North Sea Jazz Festival when it was in Den Haag, not as many years ago. Such sweet sounds that they get out of their instruments in this tune. Shame that Niels no longer with us.

This track reminds me of cruising around The Netherlands on weekends. WH must have listened to it a lot when he had to drive to work, because he learnt the words to all the tracks on the cd fairly quickly. This guy from Steely Dan sure has a way with chords and words!

This is someone that WH has been listening to lately. Thanks for introducing me to her Bub!

What’s been exciting your ears lately? Want to share it? Check out what others have been listening to over at Thea’s Sunday Session.

Sunday session – Inspired

YAY! It’s time for another (belated) Sunday Session with Thea 🙂

I’ve just been away on an inspiring weekend…with other mums like me from all over Queensland. The organisation that we’re all a part of is called MOPS, and it is an organisation that encourages me to be the best “me” that I can be, with all the different hats that a mother has to wear! If you want to find out more, head on over to the website…http://mops.org.au/

I was very fortunate to be part of the music team that played for the weekend, so the music from the weekend is still playing in my head. Despite having practically no voice, the lovely Cath (http://squigglemum.com/) did a great job leading out team (among other things) as best as she could, and I met some new friends. When I first heard this song a few years back I was in tears, and playing it over the weekend has been a great encouragement for me. I love Brooke Fraser‘s music and lyrics.

While away I found out that Alison, our amazing keyboard player, will also be playing in a concert with me in a few weeks. We’ll be playing with the Queensland Philanthropic Orchestra. It’s a great way to combine our professional experiences with music, and supporting a good cause. One of the pieces on the programme is Leonard Bernstein’s “Symphonic Dances from Westside Story”, which I have fond memories playing at my very first National Music Camp. Enjoy the choreography in this snippet from the Westside Story movie…

So what have you been listening to this week? Feel free to link up with Thea if you’d like to share it with us 🙂

Wordless Wednesday – Boondall Wetlands

This gallery contains 10 photos.

Playing along with My Little Drummer Boys. Happy Wordless Wednesday! We had fun exploring on the weekend. What did you get up to?

Sunday Session – Karaoke

So, this week’s Tuesday…I mean Sunday Session hosted by (my new URL friend) Thea, is based around singing along to your favourite ditties. Must admit that I’ve only been karaoke singing once and I can’t remember what we actually sang it was THAT LONG AGO!  So, I’m going to go with the last two concerts that I’ve been to, with hubby, which were both interactive. Thankfully we don’t have to stick to the rules. Thanks Thea!

In February we had a fantastic time seeing Sting with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra at the Riverstage here in Brisbane Thanks to our next door neighbour for looking after the kids. He got us to sing the chorus to this well known song of his…

Then, just last weekend I treated my husband to an early birthday present. (Thanks to our neighbours up the road for looking after our kids this time round!) We’ve loved The Idea of North for a while, and this is the first time that we’ve caught them live. And, the Powerhouse… what a great venue!  But I guess all the Brisbanites would know that already. Anyways,  TION got us singing their harmonies towards the end of their version of the Stevie Wonder classic “Isn’t She Lovely”. Someone had tweeted that they would gladly put “backing singer for The Idea of North” on their resume after the experience 🙂

They’re a talented bunch don’t you think? Check out their shiny new website http://www.idea.com.au/ if you want to find out more about them, including details of the current tour to launch their new cd “Extraordinary Tale”.

So, which tunes have you been singing along to recently?

Sunday Session – Dance

Well, as I shared in Getting my groove back, I’m wanting to rediscover some old sounds and discover some new ones. Thanks to the inspiring Michelle Dennis Evans, I found that her sister Thea (who asks Do I really wanna blog?) has pretty much the same plans, so I thought I’d play along with her and meet some new online friends 🙂

After checking out (Tropical Mum) Shelly’s synthesizer sounds and the “dance” tag sticking in my head I thought I’d go with these two tunes.

First up is  a new old favourite. I’ve been fascinated by Medieval Music since I first heard it in one of my first music classes in high school (many years ago!) I’m about to start playing with a group based here in Brisbane, so I’ve been given some tracks to listen to.  This one is called Les Buffons. Ok so it’s not exactly everyone’s cup of tea, but it would have been on the dance charts in France in the 1500’s 🙂

Finally I thought I’d throw this one in. I LOVE LOVE LOVE India Arie’s voice and lyrics. I’m also a big fan of Sergio Mendes…I cannot keep still when I hear samba. For the first half of 2010 I had heaps of fun playing with a fantastic samba group in Perth, called Beleza.  Back to the song… it’s from 2006 so I can just sneak it in as a “new song.”

So which tunes have gotten your feet moving recently?

Wordless Wednesday – Not a peep

Playing along with Trish from My Little Drummer Boys.

Happy (Belated) Wordless Wednesday!

Ssssssshhhhh…

 

Getting my groove back

Well, it’s been an interesting ride moving to the this side of the country. In many ways it might as well have been the other side of the world, though actually that would have been great because it would have meant being close to my sister in London! Anyways, I’ve written a bit about it here on the MOPS Australia blog .

We’ve been here in Brisvegas for ten months, seven of which I’ve been attempting to blog.  I had the privilege to hang out with some bloggers in real life over the weekend. Check out these posts about it by the lovely (blogger event organiser extraordinaire) Danielle  and the bubbly Melissa  🙂

Feeling like I’ve experienced some of the lowest lows that I’ve ever felt recently, I’ve come to the realisation that I need to get more music (that I ENJOY, not just kids stuff) back into my life. As well as getting back into playing in the coming months I thought it would be good to go through our ridiculously large extensive cd collection. I think I’ll call it reDISCovering (pun intended :)). Yeah I know, some of you are thinking  “why don’t you just use I-tunes?” Well, part of the music listening experience for me is admiring the accompanying artwork, even if it is just a photo of the artist.

So while I’m wanting to reDISCover some old favourites, I’m hoping to find DISCover some new ones as well. (Ok, so perhaps I will have to make some use of the I-tunes Genius suggestions.) Want to join me on some auditory adventures?

Oh, and any ideas as to what might create some ecstasy for the ears are most welcome.

The Tyranny of Distance

I thought I’d join in with Write on Wednesday again this week. Yes I know it’s Friday, but as I’ve mentioned before Gill over at inkpaperpen has been very generous with the deadline 🙂 Anyway, here’s this week’s task…

Log onto your Facebook/Twitter page and write down the first status update you see.  Set a timer for 5 minutes. Write the first words that come into your head after your prompt.

6 Days in Oz. There and back to see how far away it is.

The joy of seeing friends and family. The pain of travelling so far for so little time. Memories come flooding back of time with those I love. If only Australia wasn’t so far away. This island that is full of beauty and wonder, but seems to treasure it’s sports icons more than it’s artists. Until a shift happens, arty creatures like me will be staying permanently in other parts of the world in their droves. The tyranny of distance. What to do when serious issues crop up with the ones I really love that I’ve left behind? For now I’m happy to jet-set around, playing where I am asked to play. Music from long so ago doesn’t really appeal to that many people here on this island. Too much sun and waves to enjoy things inside. Great for those with little ones. I wonder when I’ll be back again. Hope that I’ll be able to stay for longer next time. The pace of life is slower, at least in my home city, but the closeness of so many different cultures also beckons me.

100 things with Princess

Well it was back to school last week, and the first day back was Day 100. On most days the Year 1 teacher gets the kids to write in a journal and she thought it would be a good opportunity to celebrate. So, we parents were asked to help the kids think of ways to commemorate the day during the holidays. I must admit initially I was a bit stressed about it, but we eventually decided to record 100 things we did on the holidays. Princess and I decided that they didn’t have to be fun things necessarily, in order to reach our target, but we could have easily surpassed it.

We had fun remembering what we did, and it gave me some time with Princess at the end of each day, when Miss Chatty was already asleep, and Lego Boy was playing chess with Wonderful Husband.

We also had a fantastic time taking photos for it, and it was a fun way to keep her literacy skills active over the school holidays. While I did most of the typing, I tried not to influence how she wanted to express herself (too much). She’s really enjoying reading, and it looks like she’ll be turning into a bookworm too 🙂

The way that we decided to go about it was to put ten things on a page, and include a photo accompanying each page. Princess also decided to stick in some tickets and other bits and pieces. A scrapbooker-in-the-making perhaps?

So, here are some highlights…

On the holidays I…

1…slept in!

13…saw some goats, including a baby goat that tried to eat me, because he has four teeth.

30…ate a picnic lunch with Papa at Anzac Square.

44…went to Disney on Ice.

81…walked around Sandgate with mummy, Lego Boy and Miss Chatty.

100…made up a list of 100 things that I did on the holidays for school.

What are some things that you like to do on the school holidays?

By the way, I can thoroughly recommend 100 School Holiday Activity Ideas by Kelly over at Be A Fun Mum if you ever need some inspiration.