MANNERS AND OTHER MATTERS

A Baby Shower Brunch in my Courtyard Yesterday I hosted a Baby Shower for my daughter who is due to have her  son, and my first grandchild, soon.  It was a fabulous day, filled with love and laughter and joyful thoughts for the future. Her friends included girls with whom she had been in school, both primary and high school, at university and from her work environments;  they were drawn from her lives both here in Perth and Sydney.  My friends included those who have know me since before her birth, 31 years ago, and who have been in her life for all those years, in one way or another.   Organising the Baby Bingo .. . Baby Showers are relatively new here in Australia.  When I was pregnant with my daughter they hadn't entered the realm of the  "celebrations" of Valentine's Day and Halloween;  we had a   kitchen tea for the bride before the wedding to help her stock her kitchen utensils...but baby showers?  No. The c...

The Birthday Invitation It has been a frantic family week with a birthday party, an engagement and a funeral. Last weekend I hosted my daughter's 30th birthday celebrations.  She and her partner flew in from Sydney to Perth for the long weekend, to catch up with our family and her friends, and to party on Saturday night.  The theme of the party was  taken from the invitation which she sent...Art Deco'ish in style. I researched about the music, cocktails, food and floral arrangements of the period...it was great fun, and quite enlightening. The color theme of the period was typically black, white, silver and red so those colours featured in the table linen, the vases, and the flowers. A decorated table The cocktails were made by my son from lists of typical cocktails...and he chose The Brooklyn and The Sidecar.  They were delicious but lethally alcoholic and so I restricted myself to one cocktail and then enjoyed the French champagne provided by...

The Chicks visiting the Nest It’s almost holiday time and families are accommodating children returning home to the “family nest” for Easter. But for many families, the older children are not actually leaving the nest, but remaining well into their twenties.  And the family manners code of behaviour has had to be reworked. I read an interesting article in The New York Times the other day which commented on a book by Katherine S. Newman, a sociologist and dean at John Hopkins University “The Accordion Family”(Beacon Press) which examines how the tough economic climate globally has limited the job prospects of many young adults and forced them to move back in with their parents.  The author found that a higher proportion of adult children now live with their parents than at any other time since the 1950s. And in my personal experience, the young adults in their 20s are remaining at university for longer, taking extra graduate degrees and so remaining at home...

Cairns Crocodile Park  I have just returned from a two week vacation catching up with friends in Queensland and my daughter in Sydney.  It was a time of healing and also an opportunity to spread my wings with wonderful people, way too many wines and a lot of laughter and some adventures...with crocodiles, sea turtles, sting rays, and parrot fish. Snorkling with friends on Michaelmas Cay, Great Barrier Reef  (photo courtesy Ocean Spirit Cruises) The holiday was also enhanced by fabulous meals and observations about the diversity of the fresh  food available and the cooking styles used to complement it…from the sophistication of Sydney to the fusion, east/west cuisine of Tropical North Queensland. I will post again with more about the cuisine of Australia. The Gold Coast (photographer unknown) It was wonderful to travel up the East Coast of Australia, from Sydney, to the Gold Coast;  and from the Gold Coast up to Cairns in FNQ – Far North ...

                  A beautiful woman in Sarlat, smoking in 2006(photo Louise Percy) Today is an auspicious day. It’s the 10th of the 10th of 2010…lots of tens. And when I was growing up, the total of 10 was the number to which we all aspired. Today I have had two major “10’s” I had a wonderful chat with my daughter who lives in Sydney and has chosen to be like me in the “hostess ”stakes…except she is also a very hard working lawyer and I don’t know how she finds the time. But she does, and she and her partner have wonderful dinner parties, even on Friday evenings, and when I ask her how she manages she replies “Mumma you taught me”.  So that’s a "10" I think. The other “10” is that I have stopped smoking. I stopped 23 years ago when I was pregnant with my son. And 4 years ago, in a time of renewal and love, I started again, and little by little the smoking became more bad influenc...

I have recently had some interesting experiences relating to generational differences with regard to manners;  the way the young see the elderly and their more “traditional” manners, and the way the elderly see the youth of today with their “lack of manners and respect”. It all began a few weeks ago, while I was on vacation and taking a quiet walk along a nearby street with my dogs.  An older gentleman  (I think he would have been late 70s)went past me on a bike, and then stopped suddenly to look at a new “McMansion” being built on the other side of the road.  I acknowledged him with a smile and a “good morning”, and he said: “I grew up in the house that used to be there”.  I remembered the previous house as being quite elegant,  on a large block, filled with beautiful trees. He said: “I lived there for the whole of my childhood”...and then commenced to tell me about the suburb in those days and what he remembered of the area at that time...