Saving The World, One River At A Time

Fleur is my childhood friend. I first met her when we were both twelve, and we've been bosom buddies ever since, despite the fact that she went to the school ball with Bulldog when we were sixteen and whom she knew I was hopelessly in love with (let it go, Katie lol). Even though she has lived in Cambodia for the past eight years and we're So Far Away in NZ, our friendship is still alive and kicking. I've always admired Fleur's energy and compassion for others. Fleur doesn't just trawl cafés in search of the perfect coffee: she inspires people and gets involved in their lives (whilst trawling cafés in search of the perfect coffee).

Over the last two years, Fleur and a leading Khmer artist, Leang Seckon, have been realising their hearts' desires to creatively raise awareness of local environmental issues.
They've called it The Rubbish Project and the last month has seen them gathering local talent and 150 kilograms of plastic and lengths of rattan and nylon and finding their muse...
which is culminating in the appearance of a 200 metre long recycled plastic NAGA on the Siem Reap River and a Trash to Fashion Show (clothes made from recycled materials) and Performance on 22 March if you're passing through FCC Angkor.
Which I wish I was.

Fleur, I'm so excited to vicariously live the life you're living, so amazed at your accomplishments, so inspired by your passion.
Love your beautiful life X

flashbacks

i've known fleur for nearly thirty years. we met in skool, and shared our teenage years together. now our kids are teens. this summer, famille fleur ventured to NZ and our two families spent new year's week sleeping marae-styles at our place. even though we see each other only once a year or two, our kiddos have an instant connection, which is pretty amazing, and makes me so happy. these few escapades were captured on fleur's daughter's vintage camera.

these are our kids! and lookit, they're so grown up. their freshness and zest for living make me go all gooey. it's an amazing and wonderful thing to have such beautiful people in our lives, sharing the same sorta antics we used to share. i have that circle of life song from the lion king playing cheesily in my head, but really, i am so blessed.

"Oddly" and Co.

just enjoyed another Four Day Blast in The Sunny Bay with our dear, dear friends:
Todd and Fleur, Josh and Abby...

fleur, lol about "How many ENFPs does it take to clean out a pantry?"
you know i'm still so in awe of your Kitchen Rationalisation Moves.

love that all of our gorgeous kids

have such an instant, wonderful connection.

love all our nonsense and White Boy Dancin' and fabulous chats and blackcurranty merlots and cafe moments and charging around the shops like teenagers and sleep-ins and unencrypting crossword after cryptic crossword and That Word Game...

loved our oasis in the middle of the madness.

the spy who loved me

The last time I went to a school ball was twenty years ago, and my friend FLEUR went with *my* man (!) I don't know why, but I got referred to as "Moneypenny" *three times* on Saturday night. I am so *not* Moneypenny.. she *never* gets her man... and I've definitely got mine... (and Fleur's got her own now too) !!!


This time: black dress and velvet heels, suit and bow tie, pink purse with beaded strap, sparkling jewels, shined shoes, disco ball, plastic hand gun, techno music, girls in satin dresses, bond-silhouettes, "sir" having his photo taken with the maths-geek-gals, floating silver balloons, lots of laughs, dancing until midnight...

trash to fashion

a friend invited me
to "teach some art"
with his class this week,
the last week of
the school term.
the kids have been
studying the 1950s,
and had recently done
a unit on recycling.
perfect.
we spent three days
refashioning
recyclable materials
into wearable art,
chatting with fleur in cambodia,
and generally having a ball.
it was totally fabulous.

winteritis

I have two things to say. One: I’m leaving tomorrow. Two: That could change.

We watched D18’s namesake in Eagle vs Shark on Saturday night. Nope, the littles didn’t watch it. Yep, it’s worth seeing at least once. That’s one of my favourite lines, and I think that the film will become one of our family's "cult movies" for sure.

Over the last fortnight, while I’ve been journaling pink and sparkly and delish and sunshiney and sparkly and speshal days, my head has been whirling on an off-centre roundabout. Ever since I was six, I’ve naively fought every Change Of Season tooth and nail. I have a love-hate relationship with Growing Up. I am deeply in love with my current season of “Mummy who goes beaching with her babies, relishing in beautiful things and making sparkly days”. But babies grow up. I can sense another Change Of Season about to happen and I am doing my usual fighting-it-off.

I’ve been in my timewarp for sixteen years now and I am Just Wondering if the grass is greener on the other side of the fence? See, Bulldog has applied for a scholarship next year to knock off his Master’s Degree. The last few years have seen him juggling a full time job, five kiddos, a Rather Blonde wife, keeping fit, mowing the lawns, and getting an A grade in four university papers, not to mention sleeping. I’m over it too. We need an oasis. So I am thinking, if he’s having a year off teaching and is gonna be in Study Mode, perhaps I could take a year off and do it too? Ya know, upgrade my teaching degree and go back to *duh duh dunnnn (drum roll)* The Classroom?

Part of me feels a desire to prove myself to myself, getting back to uni and Being Intelligent could be a fabulous confidence-booster (or it could be hell lol). Money is getting so tight and a beautiful sunny artsy classroom part-time could be just the ticket (the ticket to the snow - which my kids have never seen, the ticket to Sydney to see Sue and Cambodia to see Fleur and London to see my Brother and Sister, and a ticket to the cinema for the kids, and all those things I THINK we’re missing and kiss off because I've spent my life pouring into my own kids’ lives instead of the bank account). I love kiddos and if mine are ready, then I’d be the ninja at creating a gentle growing-up environment for other peeps’ kids. But could my Unschooling Buzz translate to the classroom? And could I find a Happy Place for my fellers? Could I bear to be separated from them? Would they be okay without my kisses showering them every minute?

Maybe my timing is a little rushed - originally I thought that S10 and M6 would have 2009 and 2010 at home, then go to school when S10 is year nine (the entry point for all the other brothers and sister) and M6 is year five. But I’m also seeing that I’m running such a Boring Ship here at home: I am running outta enthusiasm. I need an injection. That could be the effects of Winter...

I’ve also noticed that I’ve been holding my kids' hands a little tighter since I started thinking of The Big Wide World for them next year. We do have a family-ish school up the road with small classroom sizes, but it’s a highly structured environment and rather prescriptive in its expectations, which doesn't really fit with my idea that kids thrive in The Big Wide Open Spaces.

Still, I wonder if there’s change in the wind...

magic tricksy

M5: (grins and covers cup with hand) Mum, don't look but i can make three apples appear in my cup.
moi: (closes both eyes) oooh, go on then! (sneaksy peeks through one semi-closed eyelid)
M5: (turns around) abracabra, acka pear, make three apples... appear... (turns around to face me again and reveals... three rather oxidised slices of apple) ta daaaaahhhhh!!!!!


it's one of my daily joys to share little moments like this.
life through the eyes of a five year old. everything felt so keenly, moments viewed so wondrously and simply. this kid, this youngest lad, with all his rambunctiousness (gosh, we could get a few words from that one, fleur) is such a pleasure. it completely bowls me over how each of the five has arrived in our life wired for sound. wired for love. completely filled with joie de vivre.

i had a *wow* moment the other day (it's a bit skitey, but hey, dis my blog, these are my remembrances)
moi: ok, (doing the mental arithmetic out loud so hubby can add as i go) i'm adding 11 and 8
hubby: 19
moi: and 6 (waits a second)
M5's little voice from across the room: 25
yeah, before hubby answered me, M5 did the sum in his own head. pretty flash, huh.
maybe he can help with that code for blackjack that you and D18 are writing, Dad???

i know, every momma thinks her child/ren are the cleverest and most talented ever born. i think that's a fabulous strategy, cos everyone needs someone who believes in him, even fairies.
so for all my french speakers and origami folders and piano players and trampoline flippers and magic tricksters... this is the sound of one hand clapping. i'd be happy for this season to last forever.

trash to (vintage retro) fash

i'm all excited about fleur's fab fash show... and my auntie gave me a pile of her throw-outs, so i thought i'd have a go at my own trash-to-fash lol.
(close your eyes boys: cleavage-shot-ahead)
here's my new top (thinking of you leighleigh: i got *two* little tops for cheep cheep at jeans west today.. soz rach, yes they're probably sweat shopped... i know, *serious cringe moment*) it's actually a sweet, adorable mini dress which looks fantastic worn over my flared jeans. and the trash-to-fash moment is the re-threaded retro vintage necklace, full of wooden beads, amber, sparkles, polygonic-copper (is that a word??) which just tops off the outfit...


looks like i dragged it outta my mum's seventies wardrobe: totally groovy baby.

Wide Awake Weekend !!!!!!!!!!!!

look at us, fleur: we're still the same as when we were twelve!!!
i love the essence of both of our journeys.
i love our twenty-five-year-friendship.
i loved all the coffees and late night sharing of hearts, and floating balloons with you this weekend.
i love our ENFP-ness and all the history we share. we're still the same. and different.
i'm really excited for you, writing your thesis!! you go girl.
(i'm less than poetic today, i need a few early nights, lol...)

facebookaholics anonymous

it's my newest addiction. it totally beats myspace and bebo, cos i'm an adult now, don't ya know.

since fleur talked me into it on sunday, i now have 15 friends (that i know/used to know/virtually know), an aquarium, saki IM (very japanese, goes with my middle name, now that's cryptic, but it's a clue for embejo), a garden with a sunflower, a blue butterfly, 6 pink daisies, 2 sheep, and a pink flamingo, a hatching mystery egg, a Question you can answer, and even a magnetic letters board (that's the educational part rofl)

so, if you know my name IRL (nope, it's not really kate5kiwis) and you're on Facebook too, you can add me as your Virtual Friend lol.

Chère Fleur,

roses are red

violets are blue
Todd's finally here
and we're all missing you

(how's that for the naff-est poem???)

yep, T. did a wine tasting at the local vineyard and bought/brought us a gorgeous pinot noir, which we polished off in the late afternoon sunshine with wedges of cumin gouda, parmesan and grapes. after a hasty roast chook and huge convos, he's popped off to see the locals. looking forward to rendezvous-ing later..... but just to say:
i love my flowers.

one fish, two fish, where are you fish?

oh dear, we had a moment of distress this morning when we decided to feed the fish (they've been on a slight diet for a wee while cos we couldn't find the Fish Food. but fleur and i discovered it in the depths of the pantry on saturday night during The Big Clean. there were an amazing amount of *discoveries* in the pantry actually lol. and i know, how sad is that? the girls spent saturday night Cleaning The Pantry. well, you know we don't get out much pp-f-f-f-ftt-t-t-tttt!!!!)
anyway, S9 and M5 suddenly realised that one of their three goldfish is MISSING... not buried. or floating. V-A-N-I-S-H-E-D. (how many words can you make from the word "vanished"???)
so... maybe Lucy-the-Outside-Cat ate it?? and who let her inside???
M5, through his tears, suggested that now he'll get himself a *lizard* instead...

trash to fashion in cambodia

Fleur... wishing you a wonderful fash show tonight...
can't wait to see the pix

the fabulous fleur

babe. i love this photo of you. looks like you had a wonderful time last week. i miss you!!! and i'm so thankful our paths crossed 24 1/2 years ago. do you still have all those notes we passed to each other during fourth form maths class??
love and fond memories of coffee at all hours of the day and night at the hardware cafe.