Pat Tudor

Pat died. She was friends with my mum and dad and she knew me from the day I was born. She was born in Australia but lived in London for most of her life. Every summer from as early as I can remember Pat stayed with us in Sydney. Escaping the London winter she would arrive and fill our house with her beautiful spirit.

When I was in fourth class she helped me to colour in some pictures I had drawn for a social studies project. I watched as she carefully sharpened the pencil and then licked it before she started colouring. She explained that licking the pencil made the colour more vivid, I thought that she was the best colour-in-er-ra I had ever seen.

We would swim in the pool and drive to the beach, afterwards we would shower and we would stand in front of the bathroom mirror and apply moisturiser to our skin and she would comb my hair. She showed me all the exciting bottles and jars that dwelled within her toiletries bag, she sprayed me with perfume and put my hair in french plaits.

She was beautiful, glamorous and exotic and almost six feet tall with long blonde hair and a fantastic smile. I was a lonely child. When she was around, Pat was my friend, she listened to me and talked with me. She would reach out as I walked by and pull me in for a squeeze.

Last month Pat was in Australia and we had dinner together and talked about her friend, my mother, who had recently died. She comforted me and we laughed and shared stories and memories.

Pat died. She fell down the stairs of her home in London. She hit her head and there was nothing they could do to save her. I will miss her. Even though she lived so very far away, I will miss her. Pat brought happiness into my life, into every summer of my childhood.





xox eve xox


Copyright © E Jennings 2010.

Here are a few pictures that I did. I was planning on thrilling you all by cutting and pasting large chunks of the 'Training Needs Analysis' section of my HUGE assessment task involving introducing a new document management system including designing and creating,from scratch, all the new business document templates...ALL OF THEM and they all have to include some sort of Macro and then I have to produce a user manual for all these templates and create a new style guide too and train the staff and create a visual time line of the whole damn thing using Microsoft Projects and implement the whole thing and document every tiny little detail and develop a contingency plan...Oh...look, it appears that you have all either gone to look at something else (far far away) or you have fallen asleep on your keyboard.

Soothed by its warm exhaust and gentle hummmmmmm you dribble onto the keyboard just between the 'G' and the 'H' keys...it's a beautiful thing.

Loving you all and missing you too (really, I am)

xox eve xox

Copyright © E Jennings 2010.

Photos - it makes me smile

chris, bonnie and kinta (daddy and mummy)

james and bonnie

my legs in a kebab shop on oxford street

bonnie and the cake

ben and bonnie

ben and bonnie

Just a couple of photos from Bonnie's first birthday.

CAKE!

xox eve xox

Copyright © E Jennings 2010.

This is What Becomes of Us...

this ones for weasel

I took this photo whilst on holiday in Terrigal NSW...I actually went on a holiday!
I swam every morning in the sea and love love loved it.
I would dive down under that first wave and the feeling of that cold water on my 'just out of bed' skin would have me squealing with absolute ecstasy as I broke the waters surface on the other side. Fan - flipping - tastic.

Blogger is pooping itself with all the BIG images I have just tried to upload so I will add them later.

I must go now as I have to:

• Reformat a specification document and insert a table of contents (easy)
• do spreadsheet templates
• create a visual organisational structure thingy
• investigate vaccinations required and find the cheapest flight to London for 29 November
• create a skills audit for people that I feel really just need counselling
• think of ways that a truck manufacturing company could reduce their carbon footprint

So as you see it is all just so exciting....pffft....This is my life at the moment.

I love you all so so much and I am sending you all a big squishy hug...can you feel it? I hope that you can.

xox eve xox

Copyright © E Jennings 2009.

With Birds I Share This Lonely View.

I have been very quiet haven't I? I have been busy with three days at college and all that goes along with that. Today I am studying for my bookkeeping assessment...I'm trying to make bookkeeping fun...TRYING! 'Leave loading' and 'tax withholding' are such fun things and lets not even start on the hilarity of tax tables or I may just pee myself a little.

Let's see what has been going on...my grand daughter is now almost 5 months old and she thinks that I am hilarious, she is just super dooper what more can I say.






I have been trying to avoid the 'ines' ie: nicotine, caffeine, morphine etc....just thought I'd share that with you all.

It has been raining for days and days and as I type this it is bucketing down outside....If this keeps up our fashions by the end of the week will be just FAB...I'm already running out of socks and jocks...that's me sharing again.



I have a nice big desk set up in my room and a groovy pin board that I am, I fear, a little toooo excited about.

One of my teachers said that she thought that I was a perfectionist, It was like she was informing me of some terminal illness, she even did the 'tisk' sound...I think that I can rise above these sorts of comments but this one has me wondering and reviewing my life and my shortfalls...It has made me think toooo much and this is not always a good thing for me.

It has stopped me from drawing as now I feel that the reason I could not draw for so long was because I was a perfectionist and why draw if it is not going to be perfect...ahhhhh

This is where my head has been for a while now.

Pfffffft Oh well thats about all for now except that I did want to say that one day I will have a groovy warehouse conversion and you can all come and stay with me when you are in Sydney on holidays or when fleeing from justice which ever comes first.


You are all just such beautiful people and I'm sending each and everyone of you a big squeezy hug....can you feel it?



byeeeee
xox eve xox




Copyright © E Jennings 2008.

What Have I Been Up To?

Look what my Daughter did! Isn't she clever?

Well we were all waiting for this little girl to arrive.

My phone was ALWAYS in my hand or under my pillow waiting for the call to say she was on her way, so if I have not developed so sort of tumor I will be surprised.

I have discovered what has been going on with my neck an shoulder (another reason I have not been blogging much) I have Degenerative changes caused by an injury 10 years ago...

Another name for this, besides painful, is ARTHRITIS.

It will NEVER go away...Never!

I am having trouble accepting the "never" part.

I have started swimming again which is nice and will help with the neck.

I stopped smoking on Tuesday night...yes,yes. I know,I know..This time it's for real.

Just gotta get over that 3 day hump and I'll be right...I WILL be.

I have not been drawing much lately....the neck again.

I will be re-enrolling and continuing my business course.

My Dad will be 88 (two fat ladies!) soon...

I am fighting with a router...it will NOT work! I have to climb up to the attic room and plug into my brothers connection if I want to do ANYTHING that needs the internet

I have been playing too much computer solitaire

Well.... that is really all I can think of to say...I could say more but it would involve lots of computer sitting and that hurts.

Ouch!

love to you all

xox eve xox

Copyright © E Jennings 2008.

The Bridge Climb - The view is awesome dude!

What can I say...I can say that it was O.K... I would have preferred a little bit more of that 'oh shit oh shit I'm gunna die' feeling but they have gone so totally over the top with safety that I found myself looking for danger, and that is not a healthy thought process to have, especially for me.
Would I do it again? Yes, but at night next time..It would be more thrilling at night.


Before you even get to the bridge proper you have to do a few things.

• Sit in a little waiting area until your group is called.
• When called you are moved into another even smaller room to fill out forms, confess to any major operations in the last 6 months and...be breathalysed (where's the fun in that?)
• You are then told to walk through another door and to stand on little circles painted onto the floor, I assumed this was to prevent us from getting tangled up with each other.
• The nice woman then looks us all up and down in order to size us for our sexy one piece jump suit (not the right name me thinks)
• You are told to remove watches, large earrings, bracelets and any hair accessories..elastic bands are o.k but scrunchies are out. At this point my mind wanders thinking of what sort of weapon a scrunchy could be fashioned into!!!
• You are told to remove everything from your pockets and to only wear a light layer of clothing under the suit.
• Then, with jump suit in hand, it is into another smaller room with lockers.
• Choose a locker, walk behind one of the little curtain change areas and strip.
• Spend 1 min putting on your jump suit and 10 minutes helping others put theirs on the right way
• Place all your contraband into the locker and the locker key around your neck.
• Is this starting to sound like prison yet???
• You are then made to walk through a metal detector once through the detector you are double checked by someone with a hand held wand thingy
• Oh and you are told that when walking through the detector just to clasp your hand around your locker key (that is around your neck) so as not to set it off- At this point my companion turns to say that this is a tip that we can now use at international airports
• My mind wanders, thinking of what you could conceal in your closed hand that could possibly cause chaos- a tiny explosive device, a tiny gun, a really nasty tiny dog.
• Blahh blahh you get kitted up
• You climb/walk the bridge.
• You do all the above points in reverse (ouch)
• You collect your free group photo and refuse to pay $24 plus for any of the other photos they took whilst you were up there.
• You go to the pub with the nice Scottish couple you met whilst climbing and have a stiff drink.

THE END
Copyright © E Jennings 2008.

But seriously it was fun and easy enough for anyone to do

(please see terms and conditions available on the bridge climb web site)

THIS is also very cool

Life Is Good

I am happy.


Life is amazing really.
Just when you think you have things worked out you realize something new, something else, another way of looking at things. It is a constant journey, a never ending learning experience. I would not want it any other way.

I have had a lovely morning filled with little things that make me happy

Before he goes to work, Ben tells me how loved I am. I stretch and smile and tell him the same.
I dress and think of coffee. When I open the door I am greeted by Billy and Lola the little girls’ next door they have drawn me a picture in coloured chalk on the footpath to say thank you for the one I drew for them last night while they slept.

I walk to the bakery and George, on the coffee machine, smiles and says my name. We chat and laugh as he makes my, and ten other peoples coffees.

On the way home I stop in at the local corner store to pick up a few things. The shop keeper and I have a silly conversation ending every statement with the word – Please.

How are you please?


Have a nice day please

I walk towards home. Turning into our little street I see the chalk shadows that Ben and I drew last night in the middle of the road.

I smile a big smile


I put the key in the door and Lilly greets me with her ‘Pigeon Cat’ purr, she rubs her soft fur against my bare legs.

We sit together, the cat and I, in the sunny spots in the little back yard.

As the sun comes and goes, she cleans. I write.


It is good to be here, it is good to be alive.

It is good to be in this moment.

I am happy

xox eve xox


Copyright © E Jennings 2008.

Just for Bulldog.

Found on the streets of Sydney and photographed just for you.

xox eve xox

Copyright © E Jennings 2008.

The Great Photo Conspiracy. EXPOSED.(and a drawing of a monkey)

Never in my life have I liked having my photo taken, NEVER...well perhaps there was a time when I was six or seven and once a few years ago but come to think of it both of these occasions involved professional photographers so I guess these occasions do not count.
But I digress.
For the last ten years I have activity avoided having my photo taken (sometimes to the extreme) BUT this morning I worked out just what has been going on. It was in the early hours, just after your alarm goes off for the 4th time and you are half awake but still half asleep, that it came to me, the answer to the question of-
“Why do some people ALWAYS look terrible in photos?”
AND HERE IS THE ANSWER....WAIT FOR IT....This will BLOW your mind
Scenario-
You are out with friends or family and a camera is brought out (wiped out more likely) you are actively trying to avoid the group photo but there is no escape so you surrender.
The instant that person depresses the button to take the photo TIME STOPS it is then that this group of people (sick sick people) from another dimension rush in and give you a middle part, puff powder all over your face just so you look extra pale and smudge black stuff under your eyes. Cousin Jack (or whoever) gets the “closed eyes and all teeth” look and other people are just plain out SWITCHED.
Then, the photo taken, all people are returned to their normal appearance as if these other dimensional pranksters had never been there.
Perhaps that’s where all the deleted photos go. Perhaps this is why they do it. All the photos ever deleted travel to another dimension and these PRANKSTERS they sit around and have a good laugh.
Perhaps this is the same dimension that all the odd socks go to... Who knows? Thats a story for another day.
Another one of lifes mysteries
SOLVE-ED
Thank you. Thank you very much

xox eve xox
P.s. If anyone wishes to add some actual science type stuff to explain this I would be interested in what you have to say.

A Beautiful Walk.

I went up to Dad's for a quick visit on the weekend. He seems to be getting along well on his own although I do think that he is a bit lonely sometimes without Mum.
Ben drove me up there and we met up with Rhonda and the dogs Bluey (pictured) and Bella and went for a beautiful walk along the creek near Dad's old place.
We saw lots of frolicking young steers (cattle) some fabulous wombat holes and just marveled at nature, it was great.
I did not want to leave.
In this picture, that Rhonda took, you can see Mt. Tinnagroo in the background.
This is all for now I have been a bit busy with my college course and also a bit down about the lack of comments (I know it is silly of me)
I know that lots of people visit but only a loyal few leave me a message...I almost deleted this blog last night but was talked out of it...It is only human to want feed back... Perhaps I need it more than most due to some kind of childhood trauma... WHO KNOWS?
thanks everyone,
xox eve xox

Missing Family and Friends or Having Limited Access To The Internet or Where is Amanda?

Ben and Lilly

Chris and Kinta

I am still in the country and I miss all these SpEciAL people....sigh.

I also miss Dorothy who, by the way, introduced me to Rhonda...I miss you too Dorothy (who introduced me to Rhonda)

xox eve xox

P.s. Dorothy introduced me to Rhonda..he he he ha ha ha

Welcome To Horse Country.

Well here I am back at Dad's place.I arrived by train on friday and was met at the station by my new friend The Talented Rhonda,her Super Speller son Ali and Bella the Beautiful Boarder Collie. It was so nice to have friendly faces to greet me even if they were all suffering from the flu that I'm sure they caught from me last week (Don't say that I never give you anything Rhonda!) The first port of call was to the cafe as i had NOT had a coffee ALL day and was, I think, suffering from caffeine withdrawal. We then went on to Dad's so that I could dump my bags and go to the loo (you really needed to know that! Didn't you?) As Dad was having his afternoon nap I knew he would be fine till at least 6 pm so off we went to the Youth Club to Paint pictures with all the kids.I love watching the kids paint they are just so amazing and last week one of them painted the best guinea pig EVER- I have made an offer of $5 for said "Guinea Pig" and I am prepared to go as high as $10 but that is my limit.The prices in the art world are crazy enough as it is without me contributing. I have Max Watters acting as my agent in these high stakes negotiations so I feel confident that the 'Guinea Pig' will be mine.Lets all just hope that the 9 year old is willing to sell. I am quietly confident.

I mentioned my hair (on my head) in the last post. Well... I decided that I would treat myself to a proper haircut-by proper I mean one that has not been done by me with the kitchen scissors in the front yard. I have not had a "proper" hair cut for 15 years so you can imagine,quite easily, that I know nothing about the 'ways' of the salon...NOTHING.

So I decided that I would simply have my eyebrow waxed (Yes, that does say EYEBROW) and then have my hair (on my head) shampooed and then trimmed...easy. Everything was going smoothly, I had braved the hot wax on the eyebrow torture (I had never had this done either) and it was not as bad as one would imagine. If anyone is going to fall in a heap wailing because of self inflicted and unnecessary pain it is me. I then had the best shampoo and conditioning head massage in the universe followed by a trim that went from about an inch to about 4 inches as my confidence grew (I was starting to get into this secret women's stuff ) It was at this exact moment, with my confidence growing and my guard down that the salon girl,somehow sensing my vulnerability, pounced...

"Would you like to put a semi permanent colour through your hair today?"

I,not wanting to appear ignorant of such things,requested more information and if possible the use of props. The nice girl explained that it would not be a permanent colour and would wash out after 30 washes. She showed me a big board with samples of coloured hair, she pointed to my blondie colour and then to another deeper colour that she thought would suit me. I remember saying that i thought that the intended colour sample looked a bit dark and she assured me that it would not be as dark as that. I asked why they would make the sample darker than it actually turned out and wouldn't they be better off making the samples match the end result... Obviously no one had ever questioned her like this before and it was right then that I should of high tailed it out of there...But I didn't. Instead I said- "O.K"

Well after this procedure was completed I was left with dark brown hair...DARK BROWN...not that there is anything wrong with that but it is just not me.

Before I had even left the salon I was enquiring as to weather me going home and washing my hair 30 times would remove this colour from my hair... Now This was the first time I had done anything like this to my hair and it will be the last.

When I was at the college signing up for my business admin course the other day I got talking to a young girl that was studying hairdressing (where was she last week?) she told me that I should know that my hair,after this stuff has washed out in 5 weeks, will not go back to its original colour completely..EVER..NOOOoooooooooooo.

Kinta's boyfriend Chris says that I now have artificial intelligence as I went from blonde to brunette.

I feel silly and just not like me anymore.

I avoid mirrors as I just end up sighing heavily and wishing it all would just GO AWAY.

Alan did not say anything for quite some time and then all he said was-

"Your eyebrows look good"

I think that about sums it up.

Boooooooooooo.
xox eve xox

Don't look at me

Come And Experience The Horse Capital...

I have been staying with Dad in the country side for the last 2 weeks.He escaped from the hospital in Sydney and my sister drove us back up to his place.

I was there to catch him if he fell and generally do things that he can not.

I have become quite skilled at preparing scotch and will be adding this skill to my resume forth with.

(Dad says I am to mean with the scotch Booooo)

Today I am in Sydney to enroll in an office admin course and then I will be returning to Scone tomorrow...Phew

I have also had the flu and feel exhausted but it is nice to be home (Alan's place) amongst familiar things.

Oh I also had half my hair cut off (from my head) and the hairdresser talked me into putting a semi permanent rinse through it...BIG MISTAKE, but that's another story..

xox eve xox

p.s- hey Amanda do you want to come and have a luxury weekend in the countryside????

Just give me a call...I'm serious

Almost My Whole Family Minus Three.

Ahhhhh the 70's. Were they not FAB ?
xox eve xox