A Capital time

It's been a long and busy week.  It seems like ages ago since our wonderful long weekend in Canberra.  Stos bought tickets for the Renaissance exhibition, which he knew I was longing to see, and the STLT New York correspondent gave us some travel vouchers for Christmas, so add some accommodation at the Park Hyatt in Canberra, an extra day off after the Australia and voila - a cultural mini holiday.  In addition to the National Gallery of Australia, we went to Handwritten, an exhibition of manuscripts, documents and letters on loan from the staatsbibliothek zu berlin, Old Parliament House, the National Film and Sound Archives and the Australian War Museum.  I was particularly impressed with the latter;  I'm not really into war memorabilia but this is a fascinating collection in a wonderful building that is a real tribute to all that have fought and continue to fight on behalf of Australia.  The walls of remembrance with all the poppies tucked into the crevices was very moving.  

I was also very taken with the National Film and Sound Archive which is a 30's Australiana building with bas reliefs of Australian animals in the rooms and a magnificent platypus skylight in the foyer.

Good thing: 27 & 28 & 29/366 - Seeing the national capital and its treasures

For:  Us

A Year of Good Things

In a week of Bad Things being trumpeted by the media (job losses, world financial market doom and gloom and so on), it has been helpful to think about the Good Things.  This project has helped me keep perspective about how lucky I really am.  Picking out a few for the week:

15/366 - Getting up early on a Sunday morning, driving to my parents' place with the dogs and going for a walk with Mum and Evil Eve.
Good for - all of the dogs, me and Mum.
15/366 - A second Good Thing on the same day!  Having lunch with some lovely friends who we have not seen for a long time.  A sunny afternoon spent out on the deck - bliss!
Good for - maintaining friendships.
16/366 - Going to see 'Re-inventing Radio - an evening with Ira Glass'.   Ira Glass is the host and creator of one of my favourite podcasts (actually a radio show) called 'This American Life".  The show based on an overall theme and is usually made up from a number of different stories relating to that theme.  The stories are always interesting and range from hilarious to heartbreaking.   The live show discussed the art of story telling and comparing the approach to stories on 'This American Life' to traditional news reporting.  It also covered the creation of the stories, the process for getting them on the air and a very funny example of what can kill a show just when the producers thought it was a sure thing.  A fascinating insight into ground breaking radio by a genial and informative host.
Good for - My broader interests.
20/366 - Another dinner, with friends D & S from Perth.  After a couple of memorable stays with them over the last couple of years, it was great to be able to extend hospitality to them.  And look at the beautiful housewarming gift they gave us:

Good for - returning the hospitality of lovely people.

And this coming week is full of more Good Things with S arriving from Sydney tomorrow for a week.  That'll keep the Bad Things at bay for a bit longer.

A Year of Good Things

Pip from Meet Me at Mikes is running a Year of Good Things Project.  I think this is a great thing to do and introduces a wonderful guiding principle into our lives.  I think we all do Good Things everyday, we just don't take note of them.  Initially, I thought being in a project like this would require a significant amount of effort but I don't think that is the case.  So I am going to join in but won't be blogging about this daily - now that sounds like far too much effort.  It also set me thinking about whether Good Things can be negated by Bad Things;  ie. Good Thing 6/366 was getting up at 5.30am on a day off to go to the gym.  The Bad Thing was on the way home buying a Wagon Wheel (chocolately, marshmallowy thing) to have for morning tea.  Then another Good Thing was not giving in to cravings for a hamburger with the lot for lunch.  So two Good Things wipe out the bad thing?  Interesting.

Anyway, thinking about the best Good Thing for the week, that would have to be:

4/366:  spotting dog reported missing by a neighbour, following it but when not able to catch it, letting locals know about it, then reporting whereabouts back to neighbour (who hopefully has got it back by now)
For:  Previously unknown resident of our street.

Stos's best Good Thing for the week was taking an elderly neighbour shopping this morning.  He is a very Good person.

And the relevance of the picture above?  That's my nephew E, who is a very Good Thing for our family.