Vinyl.
Apparently U2’s free album is on vinyl. And it’s in the Top 5.
Even though we already all have it. For free.
What??

I don’t really like U2 that much.

I mean they’re okay, I have a couple of their albums from another life ago, but I haven’t really thought of them much since the 80s. I like the 2Cellos version of ‘With or Without You’ and that song Bono wrote for his Missus on their anniversary ‘The Sweetest Thing’ is easy on the ear, but that’s about the extent of the notice I’ve taken of them since screaming out the words to ‘Sunday Bloody Sunday’ with my friends on the way home from softball carnivals, drunk on dust and sweat and victory.

I noticed them when Apple dropped some of their songs from the clouds and into my devices at little while ago. That was weird, wasn’t it? I got strangely grumpy for a minute or two, but mainly because I have no idea how technology works, and I didn’t like the idea of some brainy kid in Cupertino messing with my stuff. Then I realised if they wanted to, they could mess with my stuff any time they like, and hey, it’s free music. I tried to listen to the music from someplace else, but it felt just like that, songs that were meant for someone else’s soundtrack, someone who was having a different life to me.

So that was that. I’m sure those U2 fellas are okay with my ambivalence. Other people seem to like them just fine.

This week U2 were on the Graeme Norton Show. They played a song, and they were good I suppose, but most of my attention was directed towards Stephen Fry and Ironman and the stories that Robert Duvall had to tell about Brando, from the Godfather days. After a while U2 came and sat on the couch with the people from the movies, and everyone dutifully shuffled over, because the dude from the iTunes logo was in the house, and he’s pretty famous, right? Everyone deferred to the U2 boys and they seemed genuinely nice, and perhaps Robert Duvall looked a little confused, but hey, he can’t even remember the names of all the movies he’s been in, so that wasn’t much of an issue.

Eventually they mentioned that the junk-mail album is quite a pared-back sound, not full of digitised mixing, but something that sounds just as good acoustically. Cheeky Graeme jumped right onto that, and asked Bono if they could play songs from it with just acoustic guitars. He said they could, and, as if from the clouds, acoustic instruments appeared.

OH.

MY.

I think I said that I didn’t really care much for U2. Well that was a statement from before.

They played ‘Song for Someone’, and I don’t think I’ve ever heard anything so exquisite in my life. I’m not sure if it was watching those four men becoming boys in front of my eyes to work it all together like some piece of precise machinery, whether it was the emotion thrumming and coming off Bono’s whole being, or whether it was the unexpected the sounds that he can make with his voice, and nothing more.

The show finished, Graeme waved goodbye, and the credits rolled, and I just sat on the couch, staring at the blank screen, wondering what had just happened.

How did U2 know to make a song just for me?

I think I like to believe that each one of us has a purpose in this life. Not necessarily something God-given or anything like that, but that we each have something meaningful to contribute to our own lives, and if we are lucky, to the lives of the people we love. I like to think that we all have some special thing that is just us. Just for us, and something that is uniquely ours. I suspect that is why in our quietest moments we can feel a yearning, a feeling that we have something, some spark, some distinctive thing, that separates us from the person next to us, even though we share almost the exact same genetic make-up. I think it’s the reason we strive. We want someone to notice our thing. Maybe even love us for our thing.

Sitting there on my couch, late on a Sunday evening, I felt privileged to share in Bono’s thing.

It was a bloody good thing. The sweetest thing.

Do you know what your thing is?

…From The Ashers

I AM READING THE BEST BOOK IN THE WORLD.

I know. Big statement.

And it might not actually be the best book in the world, but man oh man, it has gotten me fired up. I usually like to read fiction, with the occasional biography smattered in there for balance, yet over the years I have read my fair share of titles from the Personal Development and Financial sections of the bookshop. I won’t say I ever actually like these books, but I dutifully read them, because, well, you’re supposed to aren’t you? I think that’s what grown-ups do.

I went to a Problogger Seminar a few months ago, and one of the keynote speakers was a cool guy called Matthew Something-Foreign-Sounding.  I liked his presentation, in that it wasn’t so much about blogging itself, but about why we do the things we do. He talked a bit about motivation. He gave an example of asking some woman to do something she didn’t want to do, for money. And no, it wasn’t some shonky ‘Indecent Proposal’ moment, it was about seeing how much he would have to offer her to do something she was afraid of (I think the example was to jump off a tall building…or maybe eat spiders…my memory is hazy, but bear with me).  The important point was that she wouldn’t do it for ANY money. So then he said, “What if the lives of all of your family depended on it?”  And of course that was the kicker. She said she would do the scary/crazy thing.

So it seems we all have a price. We all have that something that will define what we will do, even be compelled to do, once all of the cards are laid bare.

I’ve been thinking a bit about that lately.

I have a whole bunch of things on my goal lists, to-do lists and inspiration lists. The trouble is, a lot of the things on my lists are a bit shite. I have them there because I think they should be there, not because I really care about them, at least not in the day to day running of my life. “Pay off the house” is on the list, but really, I don’t give it much thought. It will be paid off, one day, but I don’t really do much to try and speed up that process. Especially if making an extra repayment interferes with me buying a case of that Veuve that Uncle Dan’s has on sale right now for 53 bucks a bottle*. I also have other such uninspiring things as “Do BAS” and “Paint the skirting boards” on the lists.

See? Bleurgh.

So boring you probably stopped really reading back at my mention of Indecent Proposal, and started imagining either Demi or Paul (or both) nude.

Enter Matthew Michalewicz. At the seminar he gave us a FREE book. I nearly didn’t take one because 1. I don’t like books that look like they might include work and 2. Free book = Shit book, according to Alison’s Book Rule #476.

But I did take one, mainly because he seemed nice and mostly because I thought I might hand it on to someone. Someone who likes shitty, hard-work and probably-harder-to-read-and-most-likely-self-published-books. That someone is not me.

The book has resided on the top, then after a while in the middle, and most recently, at the bottom of my bedside-table book stack tower. Until last Sunday night when I decided enough was enough and the pile had to go. I was about to relegate THE BEST BOOK IN THE WORLD to the book graveyard: the drawers under my bed, where all books go to die. Or be eaten by cockroaches.

It was saved by the title, and maybe a little bit by the fact that the cover art reminded me of Days Of Our Lives, and it made me wonder what Marlana, Bo and Hope are up to after all these years. But it was mostly the title. I wondered what he was on about with all this “half a second” palaver, I mean, I’ve got forever. Haven’t I?

I was intending to save this post until I’m finished the book, and I was going to give you the good oil, the Cliff’s note of personal development books, to save you from reading the whole thing, but I’ve changed my mind. The thing is, you NEED to go and get yourself this book. And you need to read it. And you need do all of the things Matthew says to do. I’m about half-way through, and I promise you, these words have gotten me more excited about goal-setting and having a life by design than I have ever been. I’ve been to many seminars about this kind of thing, and at the crux I guess there isn’t much that is blindingly new, but the way he has put it all together…man. Just get it, and read it. You’ll see.

So here’s the book:

Best Book in the World

And here’s the website and the facebook.

As Molly would say, “Do yourself a favour.”

*FACT. This is not a sponsored post (worse luck) but this is the actual price at the time of writing. Get there right now, I say. Or pay off your home-loan. Both work.

**Oh, and Matthew didn’t sponsor me either, but you never know, maybe he’ll offer me some of that money-to-do-a-scary-thing. As long as it doesn’t involve being near birds. Alive birds I mean. Dead are fine.

Here are the hits of the week:

1.  A short school week, so I got to have a grouse day of bike-riding and chocolate-cafe-ing with these two dudes. The little one surprised me with her ability to ride and ride, and the big one surprised me with how supportive he was of his little sis, with cries of “Come on Coco, you can do it”, and “Just one more hill.”  Sometimes they can be quite nice.

2.  Did I mention CHOCOLATE SHOP? How long has this been going on, and why haven’t I been informed? There is a chocolate shop in Noosa Junction, in plain view, and 1. It is not sold out of chocolate and 2. None of you have told me about it. (So now 1. will soon be a fallacy.)  Frankly, I’m shocked and dismayed at you all. I thought we were friends…

Anyway, I’ll give you all the benefit of the doubt, and assume that you, also, did not know about the CHOCOLATERIA. It is opposite Coles and it is delicious. They have some other pretend foods there as well, but don’t worry about that silly facade- it’s the chocolate you are here for. So here it is:

Enter quickly

You can eat ALL of these

They will serve your kids this kind of stuff..

..And then their faces will look like this. (And you will be the best parent in the world..Badluck Nath.)

Go there now.

3.  Grandparents Day at school today. I feel so lucky that we have a grandparent both living and living close enough to go and be with the kids. It is days like these that I miss my Dad acutely. I wish he was here to see these little champs grow and grow. I think he would be proud of the people they are. But HOW LUCKY are we that Mum is still as awesome as ever. The little lady is a dynamo.

4.  Hello boiling hot weather! It’s going to be in the 30s this weekend… YAY! Summer is here (at least in temperature). Bring it.

5.  Coco has just came in and gleefully delivered me some bad news: that little lady I was talking about ^^^ up there was playing a brain-teaser game we have on the iPad with the kids last night. I have been the long-reining family champion at 55.

Until last night.

She got 88. So much for being old, with slow reflexes and a cloudy mind. How annoying- now I have to waste the rest of my day playing it until I beat her score. Damn.   **This is NOT a hit.**

6.  So the REAL last hit is all the generosity people have shown for Liam’s Golden Garage Sale cause. I mentioned how he got a lovely letter and donation from Tiff, and since then he also got a donation from Sue and another from Michelle. Thank you so much you lovely ladies.

I was also blown away by some of the donations on the day, many from unlikely sources. We had a various lone young blokes pop in, lured by our excellent sign-waving on the street I suspect, and I will admit I groaned internally as they arrived in their hotted up cars and muscly-tattooed arms (yes, it seems I have become that kind of old lady). Every single one of them opened their wallets and made donations, even though we didn’t have anything they wanted to buy. Restored my faith in ‘the yoof of today’.

The money is going towards establishing a safe boarding house for Year 9 girls in Ethiopia who have to travel to school, and who usually just drop out because the travel is so dangerous. Apparently the girls are often harmed, and many end up pregnant, and so the cycle of low-education continues. We see this as a wonderful initiative that will make long term changes, breaking the old patterns. And as Liam said, “If they are getting pregnant at 14 then the need to stay at school and learn a little bit about human reproduction.”

Here endeth the Hits.

I showed you mine, what are yours?

…From The Ashers

If you are a RR you would know one of the Geniuses wasn’t quite so evil this weekend just gone, and he planned and presided over a Golden Garage Sale, to raise money for charity. He did well.

Then today, as a result of that, something wonderful happened.

Liam received something in the mail from a beautiful lady who knew about the garage sale via my Facebook Super-Spamming on Sunday. She took the time out of her day to write Liam a lovely letter, and to make a donation to his cause. When he read it, he did a little fist pump. When I read it, I got all teary.

I tend to get a bit emotional about lots of things these days. I blame The Menopause, rather than admitting that I could be going a bit soft. But this action really touched my heart.

And it got me to thinking about how it is relatively easy to perform and act of kindness, and to change someone’s day. Liam is taking what he calls “the full-on letter” to school tomorrow to show his teacher, and then he wants it put in his memory box. I can tell by the way he proudly read it out to me that he has started to see himself in the way she described him. He is considering himself to be the type of guy who does good, who makes the world better. Psychologists have a term for it: The Pygmalian Effect. I have a term for it: A Bloody Grouse Way To Build A Kid’s Self Esteem.

So this letter? It changed Liam’s day today. But who knows what it has done to change his perceptions of himself in all of the tomorrows.

BJ Palmer once said, “We never know how far reaching something we may think, say, or do today will affect the lives of millions tomorrow.” Who knows what these little charges we have inherited will become; pilots, plumbers, painters, publicans, politicians? Regardless of what, experiences like these will define who. And most likely how.

I appreciate you, lovely lady.

What can you do to change a kid’s life for the better?

Or an adult, for that matter?

…From The Ashers

Gough wouldn’t sit for his traditional portrait following the dismissal. This is the Archibald portrait by Pugh that he insisted be used

I was one year old, when, to the catchy tune of, “It’s time” Gough Whitlam came to rule over Australia. And rule he did. In a flurry of chaotic activity he did so many things to change the landscape and the philosophy of the suburbs I would grow up in.

By the time I was three years old, University education was free, divorce was ‘no fault’ and women were finally being heard.

Heady things for a girl-child growing up in the Western suburbs of Melbourne.

Macabre as I am, I like to reflect on my life from time to time, and consider what my eulogy will be like. Who will speak for me? What will they say? What will be my legacy?

Yesterday, on hearing the news of Gough’s passing, I sat still for a time, wondering at the legacy of that silver-haired silver-tail. In his short time in power he achieved so many things that have enriched my life, in ways I never even really stop to consider. As I sat in my minutes of silence yesterday, I shed a tear for a man I never met, who quite frankly, has allowed me to have the life I am so lucky and grateful to have.

Most importantly, I grew up with family harmony and cohesion due to his divorce reforms and the provision of legal aid. Then, by extension I was able to see my Mum find her soul mate and true love, instead of being bound by archaic laws that would have trapped her in a stale, repressive relationship with my biological father. Such important imprinting for a pre-school girl.

I also grew up not wondering if I would go to university, but what would I do when I got there. I am at the first of my family to go to uni, grabbing those florid, precious pieces of paper that allow me to work and play in a career that makes my heart sing, and (hopefully) enhances the lives, and expands the potential of the beautiful people in my community. I would never be a chiropractor without Gough’s impact.

The year I started Uni HECs was being introduced and we campaigned and rallied against it, sitting in, and shouting out. For many of my uni mates from private schools and prosperous families, the demonstrations were a bit of a lark I suppose, a chance to shout a little and have a grown up tantrum, but I was shouting from my core.

Growing up in the West, university education was still seen as privilege and a gift, and I was terrified that Bob Hawke was more concerned with The Australia Card and Expo and crying on telly over being caught womanising, than taking care of tertiary education. For the first time in my life I realised that studying within the sandstone walls of Melbourne University was not a right, like I had grown up thinking.

Rather, it was a present to the future, from a politician who swept in like a tornado and shifted the soil and planted the seeds of a new Australia. The suburban Australia of my happy, healthy, golden childhood.

He really did change my world, and define us as The Lucky Country.

Vale Gough.

Thank you for the life I have been able to live.

…From The Ashers

There’s a reason why I don’t watch the news, or any stuff on television other than the footy or fluff. It’s just too hard. It makes me have too many feelings, and I might not be in control of what those feelings are. The show might go in some direction that I’m not prepared for, and I might end up with things in my head that I can’t shake.

The only things I like in my head are stories of happiness and pictures of rainbows.

Or something.

Tonight I watched Four Corners, knowing that it would be flint-hard. Because sometimes I guess you have to look at the burning and blinding harshness of life. Sometimes you have to knowingly step out of the bubble. And sometimes it just gets burst for you.

That happened to my friend Penny. She has always been tough and edgy and quirky. She has an attitude that lets you know she is sharp and witty, but also that she feels all of the things. I guess it’s because she is an artist. And you know how artists are, they often seem to feel too much, but when we watch them, it’s what we adore. We love them for showing us their hearts.

Tonight I didn’t want to see Penny’s heart on the outside.

I wanted her heart to stay inside, calm and warm and peaceful, ticking along like a fluid clock, not missing any beats, not being smashed into pieces because her son had fallen prey to demons, becoming like so many young men in rural Victoria, addicted to ice. Penny and her son’s story is one of success, and it shows us that thing that we all intuitively know; unconditional love is what we need to embrace these boys, bring them back into our community, and help them to heal.

Ethan has been one of the lucky ones. he has somehow, with the love of a strong family and consistent support, come through the horror of the demon possession, and stepped into the light. His eyes are bright, and they shine with potential and sparkling, cheeky intelligence.

Unfortunately at this stage in our understanding of this drug, he is one of the few.

Just thinking of it all makes my throat tighten. I don’t know the answers. I don’t know what ‘should’ be done. I don’t even know where to begin, but I know that somehow Penny’s fierce lioness heart has helped her boy to find a path.

I hope there is enough love for the others.

Did you watch Four Corners? 

What do you think we, as a community need to do?

…From The Ashers