Lover of Life, Singer of Songs

A tribute to the great Freddie Mercury who would have turned 65 today.

"When all the salt is taken from the sea
I stand dethroned
I'm naked and I bleed
But when your finger points so savagely,
Is anybody there to believe in me
To hear my plea and take care of me?"

Even though the space allowed on this blog is unlimited, there is not enough room to write why I love Freddie and why the world is a darker place without him. Fearless. Flamboyant. Brave. Daring. Vulnerable. Freddie was a contradiction and an enigma. One day I might write about my fantasy dinner party. Freddie would be on the list.

Thank you Freddie, for writing and for singing some beautiful, life changing songs. And an anthem.

"Is this the real life?
Is this just fantasy?
Caught in a landslide
No escape from reality
Open your eyes, look up to the skies and see."

Monopoly

Our Boxing Day tradition is board games. For some people this means bored games but I love them! And the one I love most is Monopoly. I enjoy the original game and I am always the canon to blow people out of the water. While it's great to have the prestige row of greens (Oxford, Bond, Regent) and navy blues (Mayfair, Park Lane), there's something to be said about owning the less popular streets and pumping them up to hotel status fairly quickly. I have won by owning only Old Kent Road and Whitechapel Road with hotels.

I have also been called a pirhana when playing the game!

Now, the original Monopoly is a great classic but my favourite Monopoly is the Wizard of Oz version. Where else can you try to buy a brain, heart, courage and the way home (instead of stations)? And "streets" include Munchkinland, Emerald City and The Rainbow. Awesome.

My Left Foot

I love shoes. That was said in my last post but this post is about shoes (and feet) too. I am so excited that I won the Style Tread competition and I will be getting a pair of shoes every month for the next year!!! (Providing I don't go over the $3000 limit before that)

Since I had my foot surgery my shoe addiction has become an obsession. I think that it's because I spent so long unable to wear nice shoes - first that giant lump restricted what I could wear and then it took ages to get my feet back into shape after the surgery to take out the giant lump.

Just remember that this is how my left foot looked right after the bandages were removed:

(With apologies to the squeamish).

Anyway I will enjoy "buying" shoes. Trust me on that. I may even get a pair of higher heels in the hope that one day my big toe will feel things again and I will be able to balance on something higher than a couple of inches.

The mango ....

Soon it will be summer. And that most perfect of all fruits - the mango - will be cheap, ripe and readily available. 

Right now that other almost perfect fruit, interestingly enough called the mangosteen, is available. Yes, it may have the texture of the snot of 1000 camels but get past that and the taste is divine. 

And here's the big secret ... the camel snot thing is really only to stop BMan from eating the mangosteens. 

The God of Small Things

The God of Small Things by Arundati Roy is one of my favourite books. It takes some time to "get into" but is worth persevering with. The writing is beautiful and you spend the whole book wondering where it's going to take you. Then when it gets there you really didn't expect it, or expect to feel so moved by it. 

"As Estha stirred the thick jam he thought Two Thoughts and the Two Thoughts he thought were these: 
a) Anything can happen to anyone. 
and 
b) It is best to be prepared."