Montage!

My favourite parts of movies are most definitely the montage scenes.

Montage scenes have so many valuable functions:

- Helping two people get to know each other in less than three minutes.
- Helping somebody get over heartbreak in less than three minutes.
- Turning a geek (or a pretty girl with glasses on) into a prom queen (usually by taking her glasses off) in less than three minutes.
- Turning Baby from a bad dancer into a good dancer, in less than three minutes. 

So.  Very.  Good.

Of course, in real life the characters aren't actually experiencing a montage scene.
They have to live through all the boring bits too.
(Oh, I know what you're thinking.  In real life the characters don't exist.  Well let me tell you, Baby and Johnny are alive in my heart.  ALIVE.)

But today, I suddenly had the sense that I was living in a montage scene.
I was running on a treadmill watching Bobby Brown dancing in shoulder pads when it dawned on me. 

Winter was turning into SPRING.  I was doing EXERCISE.  I was making LISTS of things to do, and then DOING THEM.  I was reading books to EXPAND MY MIND.  I was overtaking queues of cars on my scooter and NOT FEELING BAD ABOUT IT.  I was SINGING to myself as I walked along the street.   
And (the clincher) the electric guitar riff from THE FINAL COUNTDOWN had been in my head for over a week!  It had all the makings of a montage scene!  It was definitely a montage scene!       

Just slower, and without the dishwashing scenes edited out.  

[to experience my montage scene, click here and then look at the following pictures, over and over, for less than 3 minutes]    

Living in the present

Life can be so great, when you learn how to be present to each and every moment.

 

 

 

Birthdays

Everybody has something that defines them.

Some people are known for their ability to run very fast, or invent things, or fit 26 oddfellows into their mouth at once (good one Dad).

But my thing is birthdays.
I celebrate them.
Lots.  

From a young age, I have combined my love of fractions with my love of birthdays.
Thus, I not only celebrate whole birthdays, but also 1/2 birthdays, 1/3 birthdays, 1/4 birthdays, and every other 1/12 fraction that occurs in between.
(It hasn't always been easy.  So many birthdays have passed by unnoticed and uncelebrated by the world.) 

But just three days ago, I had a WHOLE birthday.  It was terribly exciting.
I told everybody I encountered that it was my birthday.  The man at the bank was congratulatory.  The maintenance man at work was less enthused.  The courier was downright rude.  But the owner of the cafe gave me FREE CAKE with my birthday lunch!  (Another thing that defines me is cake).

Thus, I would postulate that 1/4 of people will offer spontaneous presents when informed that x number of years ago, on this day, you were born!
Birthdays are a numbers game: the key is telling as many people as possible...

And they want to know.  They really want to know.  There's nothing worse than forgetting a secretive person's birthday and then realising you had lunch with them that day and talked mostly about yourself. 
There are almost 7 billion people in the world.  If each one of them is, like me, celebrating twelve birthdays per year, then that means there are 63 billion birthdays every year.
I CANNOT BE EXPECTED TO REMEMBER 63 BILLION BIRTHDAYS.
YOU HAVE TO TELL ME.
And in return, I will tell you...

(don't worry if you missed it, I have another one in only 28 more days)

Snow!

(You have to understand, it NEVER snows in Wellington.  Ever.)

Chai time

 

Masterchef