international women's day

Today is International Women's Day.  A day to focus on the respect, appreciation and love towards women and to celebrate women's economic, political and social achievements (according to Wiki).  

Over the weekend I went to the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, and at interval while sipping on Champagne and munching on a Pretzel we talked about how wonderful it was to be able to do this and how our lives were pretty great.  How lucky we were to be born into the right families, in the right countries, at the right time.  This seems even more pertinent today.  I was born into a family of strong women.  My grandmother's both travelled independently and worked.  They expected their daughters to be educated and their daughters (in-turn) expected their girls to also receive excellent educations, attend university and become independent and equal members of society.  I went to a school which regularly encouraged us (girls) to become "the first female prime-minister of Australia" (a feat not yet achieved).  I can vote.  I am financially independent.  When I was 21 I backpacked around Europe, mostly alone, without worrying about needing a chaperone.  If I have children I will probably deliver in a clean hospital ward with access to doctors, nurses and drugs.  

Most women in the world today don't, can't, won't have access to any of this.

• 1 in 16 women in Africa die of complications of childbirth.  (If you're interested in seeing one side of the "why", this blog tells some great first-hand anecdotes)
• Only 40% of women in India have basic literacy skills
• In Saudi Arabia women still do not have the right to vote
• 13% of white women (38% of Latinas) in the US do not have access to healthcare

So today I am thankful and hopeful.  I am thankful that I had the good fortune to be born in Australia in 1980, and not Africa or India in 2010.  I am thankful for the political, economic and social freedoms that I enjoy - thanks mostly to the hard work of my mother's and grandmother's generations.  And I am hopeful that our generation will chip away at the inequalities that still exist for millions of women living in developing countries today.

Barnett Family, 2009

rudolf stingel at the neue kunst museum

This is what we found when we went to the Neue Museum on Sunday.  A big room, with a carpet and a chandelier.  It's an instalation by Rudolf Stingel.  The Art is the carpet - and the process he went through to design it is actually quite interesting - he studied his Turkish Carpet, digitalised the image, enlarged it,  made it black and white and then had it made into an enormous rug that fitted the Neue Gallery space.

Probably more interesting was watching how people related to the art - most people chose to have a sit, relax and have a chat.  Downstairs, Rudolf Stingel also had a couple of paintings, so we did get to see some "proper" art after all.

the spring shoe

As I was taking pictures this morning of my wonderful spring shoes, Matthias said, "More on the shoe?"  He still has much to learn about my love affair with shoes... although he has heard and seen me show it to almost everyone I've skyped with in the last week, so perhaps it was a fair statement.  But here it is;

Clearly I'm no shoe photographer yet, but you get the idea.  It not what I envisaged, but I love it and once I've softened the leather it will be a wonderful, get around Berlin in Spring shoe.  

And in a rather blond moment, I got completely confused as I was paying when the shopkeeper asked me to give him my phone number, to which I repiled "My number? What for?" and then "But I'm not thirsty", until the penny dropped and I realised the the poor man was trying to ask me out for a drink.  And I was embarrassed and he was embarrassed and we both were awkward.  These things never happen to me (the asking of the number, not to complete failure to understand what was going on - that happens frequently) and I wondered how the rest of the world coped with these moments of teenage embarrassment. It was definitely a cringe worthy, fall-into-a-pit-that-has-just-opened-up-and-disappear kind of moment.  And funny.  And a nice compliment.  But none-the-less embarrassing.

dreaming of the weekend

Image from Flickr: Andy Brannan

This weekend I'm:

Watching: Same, same but different - a german film (yikes!)

Visiting: One of Berlin's state museums (got give the museum pass a work-out)

Cooking: Chicken pot pie (I'm craving home comforts and we have 1/2 a chicken left from Matthias' roast...mmmm)

Listening: Not sure - got a new music suggestions? I'm all out of newbies

Reading: In Alexanderplatz by Doblin (when in Rome...)

And hopefully taking lots of lovely pictures of all of the above!  Have a lovely weekend. 

a thing of beauty

 Image from Sara Paloma Pottery

 

 A Thing of Beauty

by John Keats

A thing of beauty is a joy for ever:
Its loveliness increases; it will never
Pass into nothingness; but still will keep
A bower quiet for us, and a sleep
Full of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet breathing.
Therefore, on every morrow, are we wreathing
A flowery band to bind us to the earth,
Spite of despondence, of the inhuman dearth
Of noble natures, of the gloomy days,
Of all the unhealthy and o'er-darkened ways
Made for our searching: yes, in spite of all,
Some shape of beauty moves away the pall
From our dark spirits. Such the sun, the moon,
Trees old, and young, sprouting a shady boon
For simple sheep; and such are daffodils
With the green world they live in; and clear rills
That for themselves a cooling covert make
'Gainst the hot season; the mid-forest brake,
Rich with a sprinkling of fair musk-rose blooms:
And such too is the grandeur of the dooms
We have imagined for the mighty dead;
All lovely tales that we have heard or read:
An endless fountain of immortal drink,
Pouring unto us from the heaven's brink.

It was always going to be Keats!  And isn't the pottery wonderful - another beautiful Etsy find.  All of Sara Paloma's work is so lovely, check her out on Etsy.

snail mail

Keeping with the 'Keats' love letters theme, I've been thinking a bit about snail mail and letters and how it's just so, so nice to receive a card, or somethin' in the mail.  Now that I've gone and got a desk job I spent literally hours in front of the computer writing emails and reports and sending them off into the universe.  Sometimes I feel like we've lost the art of letter writing and sending cards.  But there are so many beautiful cards out there - here are a few of my favourites from etsy.

Message in a bottle by Dear Colleen

Welcome Spring by Tracy Chong

Hot Air Balloon and Heart by Two Guitars 

Spring Bunnies by Paper Dragonfly

bright star

I watched Bright Star last night.  I was completely taken.  Beautiful, beautiful shots of English summer where you can almost feel the warm breeze and smell the flowers.  And the story - it's so wonderfully, romantically tragic.  And there's some really incredibly well shot images of hand embroidery and stitching.  Almost makes you yearn for the 'simpler' times of the 1800s.  

Fanny Brawne wore mourning dress for six years after Keats' death and didn't marry for another 12 years.  Keats' wrote his most admired poems while he was secretly engaged to Fanny.  So, so tragic and yet his poems and letters are so beautiful.  More Keats to come, me thinks - the movie was a great introduction!