(no subject)

eneit says that these words make her think of me:

magna carta
pudding recipe
Canberra
Banquet
kith

It's a curious selection of words.

The Magna Carta isn't nearly as important to me as its predecessors. I see a slow development of law leading up to where we are now, with a host of interesting byways and the Magna Carta is just one of the those byways. It's one of the very few that still apply in the ACT legal system, which is why I blogged it. I love Henry II's equivalent document more, for the record, and I find it notable that Henry VII ceased the issue of such documents. At least I think he did. My memory on such things is occasionally unreliable. He definitely went to great pains to suppress his predecessor's version.

Pudding recipe. Hmm. I think this is a hint. I can't think what sort of hint it is, though. Except that I have a new resolution (as of today) only to make pudding when there are other people who will eat it. The cortisone, it appears, has left me with some significant legacies and they can only be dealt with the hard way. Pudding for me is really something other people eat, anyway. There are only a few sweet dishes I really enjoy. It's a traditional Australian 'what we eat after dinner.' It's all kinds of fascinating things. Like mince pies. If I make a real mince pie recipe from, say the eighteenth century, I can guarantee most moderns won't eat it.

Canberra. I don't daren't say anything nice about Canberra, since most of Australia seems to hate it. It's like the eminent university literature bod I spoke to the other day, who went all kinds of 'why am I talking to her' when I mentioned speculative fiction. Most people don't know enough about it to know that they will love it.

Banquet. No need to hint eneit. I have booking forms for the Conflux banquet. Send me an email address and I'll send you a booking form. No need to come to the rest of Conflux (though you'll regret it if you skip it - the masquerade in paricular is going to be rather special, plus the Romance Writers vs specfic writers showdown) - the banquet is open to anyone. I told you we had a cost? $52 for the meal, plus whatever you choose to spend on alcohol. And all the testing is done and the only job that remains to me is to make the menu look pretty.

kith are all the people in my life who have adopted me and I have adopted them. They make up for some of my kin, who love me in their way but choose not to be part of my life. I have several adopted sisters, and I love them all. This is despite the fact that they stir me incessantly.

Reply to this meme by yelling (or any other form of writing) "Words!" and I will give you five words that remind me of you. Then post them in your LJ and explain what they mean to you.

(no subject)

murasaki_1966 gave me more words to play with:

Books
Teaching
Computers
Friends
Chocolate

Books - how could I live without books? They're the best gift anyone can give (even better than chocolate) because they're friends to me. I did try to live without books for a time (a very short time) and I demonstrated to my whole family that it was not a good idea. My sisters and I behaved all so much better with books that our parents took out membership of the local library in Tootgarook, where we spent our Spring holidays every year. I met Pilgrim's Progress there, and I'll always associate the Slough of Despond with the beach on a rainy day and my parents trying to explain why Judaism doesn't need such a concept.

Teaching - I've always taught, but I haven't always understood that this is what I was doing. In primary school when I zipped ahead and finished the textbook, I was asked to teach Aliki and in high school there was always someone who had questions to ask me. I made friends that way, sometimes, and enemies other times. I did paid tutoring from first year university and was very proud when the student who was supposed to be failing everything started getting Cs then Bs. Then my mother listened in on a lesson and shook her head at me. "I've never heard of anyone teaching English that way," she said. I had convinced my student that there was his dialect of English and the school's dialect of English and that he could write essays in both, just as long as he handed in the one using the school's preferred grammar system and vocabulary. I wish I had kept his thoughts on rollerblading, expressed in his dialect. Anyhow, I was convinced I didn't want to teach, because teaching is what other people did, but I kept on teaching anyhow, because people kept asking me and it assuaged my cravings for social justice by addicting other people to the notion of social change. Now I get paid for it again, which is entirely wrong, but a lot of fun.

Computers - I was a technofiend in 1978. Technofiends in 1978 typed on IBM Selectrics. I was even more technofiendly not long after, when I taught myself the Sinclair version of basic and wrote little programs for a ZX80. I inherited my technofiendishness from my first father, who learned to compute using punchcards. We made Christmas door decorations with the punchcards and gave them to our Christian friends and neighbours. Computers aren't as much fun these days and I'm not a technofiend anymore. I have two, though, the one I'm using now and my G'eeek.

Friends - how can I talk about friends in anything less than a 35 volume work? I live alone and mostly work alone and my friends keep me in line and keep me sane. They've also given me some major gifts in my life - big gifts like the capacity to make the choices I needed to make and to stand firm for what I must. Every time I lose a friend there is a vast gap in my life. Every time I find a new friend, I'm radiant with happiness.

Chocolate - dark (mostly) and high quality. Everyone needs a special treat and mine is not-very-large amounts of rather good chocolate. When I had more money or more theatre access I used to go to a play one Saturday and a concert the next. That was a long time ago. Now I have the mouthfeel of exquisite chocolate. All is well with the world.