my life in film

My mind is like a sieve I tell you... How could I have forgotten...I got an award..You know I love them! The awesome Vicki who loves frogs over at glitterfrog thinks my blog doesn't suck ...that's so cool Vicki, thanks heaps. Vicki's blog is great,always a fun read,and funnily enough not about frogs! Go take a look, tell her Bee sent you....she won't give you anything, either will I.......... but tell her anyway ....now back to the blog post....

Movies have been in the background fabric of my life and probably say as much about my upbringing and who I am today as much as anything else.

The first time I remember seeing a movie was in 1967, I was 4 and my sister was new .I was with another child my age but cant remember who now, the two mums went shopping for the duration of the movie and were there again before the end of the movie.I remember them coming in and thinking NO NO NO NO ...NOT GOING TILL ITS OVER!!! It was Snow White,the german dubbed english version from 1965 .It was magical, the dark room was scary but when the movie started OOOOOHHHH.

Mary Poppins about 1967ish. I remember a scene with Dick Van Dyke drawing on the footpath with chalk and then the magic to get to the place he drew.

The Love Bug 1968 at the drive in for my birthday. It was very exciting both the movie and the drive in !!! Blankets, pillows, eating food in the car.

Bedknobs and Broomsticks 1971 for my 8th Birthday, I got my one and only birthday party that year too...I must have been a model child in my 7th year!

Herbie rides Again ..Drive In,1974 ..........I hope this was for my sisters birthday but knowing Dad "when you're on a good thing stick to it"..... It was probably for me.

Freaky Friday 1976........This was for my sisters birthday, I still liked the movie.

Muppet Movie 1979. I was 16 and babysitting for my neighbours kids,they were so cute and I used to drag them everywhere,It was a good excuse to see the movie. Kermit on a bicycle !

Meteor 1979...saw this one night with my friend Vicki, we caught the train in and I was convinced we had to leave before the end of the movie to catch the last train back.So I dragged Vicki out, got to the station to find there was an hour and 20 minute wait for the train. I had read the timetable wrong. I never did see the end of the movie until recently.

The Rose vs Amytyville Horror debacle of 1979

My 16th birthday with girlfirends at the time D and L, we decided to go see The Rose for my birthday. L's mum had booked the tickets over the phone for us as it was the first day it opened.We had to get there by, say, 4pm to pay and pick them up but didn't get there till 5. We lost our tickets. There was then "what to see?" For the time we had before getting the train back there were 2 choices, Amytiville Horror or Black Stallion. It was my birthday so I chose Amytyville Horror,which was the wrong choice apparantly as L' spat the dummy and high tailed it home vowing never to speak to me again.(she did for a couple more years). My other friend and I watched the horror movie, but it was hard to enjoy thinking I should have agreed to the horsey movie.

Vic and I again this time 79/.80 and not a birthday ....I think we'd read the book and decided to see the movie The Champ at the drive In. By this time I had a car , a 68 Morris mini 1100 that didn't like rain. It rained. We got 5 minutes into the half hour drive home when the heavens opened and Ethel...that was the said minis's name......stopped.Late.At. Night. No mobile phones in those days. We had to wait for it to stop raining, dry the distributer and spray it with WD40.We weren't worried about being attacked we were worried about getting home by our agreed time. Our parents were fearsome.

This is the movie I didn't see. Dressed to kill. My aunt had hired the movie .The movie starts with a shower sex scene,my Dad say's we're not watching this rubbish, get's up and turns the TV OFF!! We are all just sitting there.......... This 1980.. I was 17! My aunt waited for him to go to bed and watched it later!

1981 Dating my now husband, we headed to the drive in .. double feature ,Cheech and Chong Still Smokin' and Life of Brian ...do de do de do de do de do All..ways look on the brigh..et siiide of life de do de do de do de do........

'83 now a new bride..an all night dusk till dawn marathon at the drive in....Friday 13th 1 2 3 and a couple of other movies...I lasted 3 movies, think I slept through the third......and it got cold and we ran out of food.......and we went home.

Not long after that we got beta video machine and hired movies to watch at home. shhh some we taped off the TV,back then there was a huge hue and cry of it being illegal to do. We bought a big rear projection tv in 1986 and I remember the first movie we saw on it was Neverending Story.I think movies didn't go to video until at least a year later back then. We rarely went to the movies unless it was to take the kids....I really like Aladdin....hmm Little Mermaid wasn't bad either...

Kids getting more manageable so in '97 took them to the Drive In, George of the Jungle was showing on one of the twin screens,the other movie was My Best Friends Wedding, Gem and I tried watching both movies, Gem kept asking for food and drink so we could see more while getting food .We took them to the Drive In a few times ,wanted them to experience it before they all disappeared. I think to this day there is one....only one...drive in left in Australia.

Harry Potter series.. I think 2005 is the last time we "took" the kids to the movies, taking them to an old ,and I mean old theatre in Cowra NSW. The seats were the hard old brass sides and flip up cushion ones where you need the muscle of Conan to push it down ,hold it down somehow with your knee while you flip and sit, if you miss the seat flips back up. The kids take themselves now and have taken me(how did that happen??) once or twice!!

My hubby thought it was a great idea to buy a set of these seats to use for the projector screen, so we have a row of 3. He recovered them in black ,stained the wood and they look gorgeous....but why would you want to sit in them for 2 hours? So we made him put the lounge back and the movie seats look pretty under the window.Useless but pretty.

So.. I haven't been to the movies for ages,last one was The Women, with Gemma..bloody hell I just googled, that was 2008.....

I need grandkids so I can drag them to the movies with me so I won't look like a loser watching kids movies.

I accidentally forgot

Well my nanopomo commitment went by the wayside.

Excuse #1 My daughter borrowed her own laptop back

Excuse #2 When I got said computer back....I.....I.................I........dammit I got nuthin.

I am about 3 days behind.I'll do them as a meme to catch up.

Thursday, March 3

How far away do you currently live from where you were born? How did you get there?

I live south west of Sydney about 4 hours from where I was born.It gets cold enough to snow here in winter...but it never does. Getting hit in the face by icy rain is as close to snow as we get. I got here the long way round. After we married and had the eldest we lived down the south coast of NSW for about 4 yrs ,had 2 more kiddies then headed up to Queensland and spend 10years up there in various places before heading down here.Somewhere in all the moving we also lived In Wallerawang near Lithgow. The kids saw snow just up the road from there in a place called Sunny Corner.

This is where we live now...guaranteed a parking spot.

The scenery makes up for the lack of a shopping mall.It's a quiet place, pretty and easy to live in.

Friday, March 4, 2011

What's your favorite thing you love to waste time with right now? A guilty pleasure.

Blogging, It's guilty because I spend so much time here, not always writing, but reading and thinking up witty repartee for commenting,though it's rarely witty.There's always someone pesky wanting a cuppa or food, or a lift or....something..so when I get " what are you doing? are you on that blog again?" its....."noooooooo.........maybe.........whats your point?"

photo source

Monday, March 6, 2011

What's one thing that scares you right now, and why should you make a real effort to face that fear and do it anyway?

Getting up on the dance floor to dance at a party. I just recently made the effort.I spent so long walking with a stick and only able to wear flat shoes that now I'm mobile again and actually own a pair of heels again, I should get up and do things.Including dancing.I'm just used to not doing things that involve moving and effort.And I'm of the larger variety of woman,so it feels a little confronting and scary. Last saturday we went to a birthday function...I got up and joined in for Nutbush City Limits....hubby spent the song at the table with his eyes covered. ............

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Do you have a good memory for some things and not others?

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Do you have a good memory for some things and not others?

I remember things from years ago but I can't remember what I just opened the google search page for 2 seconds ago.

here's a post on what I cant remember I can't find my and these two posts are what I do remember memories more memories

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

What's your favorite word?

Now we're up to date. My favourite word is accidental. So many things in life are accidental. I accidentally met my husband. He was chatting up my friend.

I googled accidental.....omy, heres some of the results

accidentaly unnasisted homebirth......ouch

accidentally shot......ouch

accidental pirate..........???

accidental pregnancy......ooops.....ouch

accidental inventions...

accidental billionaires.........how does that happen?

accidental spy.....those two words are contradictory,I'm sure?

accidental sexiness ....

I was looking through old newspapers for my family tree when I came across an article dated 18 June 1915 with the heading SUICIDE and ACCIDENTAL DEATH.It was from a Coroner's hearing about the deaths of Mr George Wiscombe, florist 45yrs and Edith De Vere Hunt widow,39. Mr Winscombe had told the witness that he was incurably ill and headed to bed. Edith checked on him some time later and found him dead. She swooned into a faint.On coming to ,she telephoned a friend of Mr Wiscombes who brought a constable.They found Edith in a swoon over the body and carried her out. When she came to she asked the witness to get her some Bromo-selzer.He went into the room where there were 2 bottles on the mantle and he grabbed one.He gave her a teaspoon in a glass of water ,She said there was too much water and added another teaspoon.Edith drank it down and immediately collapsed and was dead 3 or 4 minutes later.The Coronor found that Winscombe had committed suicide by poison in the Bromo-selster bottle and that Edith accidentaly consumed the same poison and died.

There you go, you wouldn't read about it, as they say...only you have.

I'm not sure how or if this will work and i'm not used to begging.I like to think of it more as fundraising for a good cause.

Chloe needs gender affirmation surgery, but cannot afford it. Normally she would just wait and save, but she has a medical problem that will be addressed once it is done, and I'd like it to happen for her sooner rather than later as she is getting depressed and overwhelmed.

I've made a new blog as a donation page, and this post is a reapeat of that new page.

THE COST OF REASSIGNMENT SURGERY IN AUSTRALIA EVEN WITH PRIVATE COVER IS IN THE VICINITY OF $30,000

EVEN TO MAKE AN APPOINTMENT WITH THE ONLY DR IN AUSTRALIA TO DO THE SURGERY COSTS $300 AND THEN THERE IS THE PSYCH COSTS.

CHLOE NEEDS HER SURGERY NOW DUE TO A LONG STANDING MEDICAL PROBLEM WHICH WILL BE SOLVED BY GENDER AFFIRMATION SURGERY.

SHE IS IN A LOT OF PAIN WITH THIS CONDITION AND ANY HELP NO MATTER HOW SMALL WILL BE GREATLY APPRECIATED.

IF I HAD THE DOLLARS I WOULD GLADLY PAY FOR IT MYSELF BUT I DON'T AND NONE OF THE FAMILY HAVE THE CAPACITY TO BORROW THE FUNDS FROM A BANK.

IF YOU CAN HELP WITH A DONATION PLEASE SEND TO PAYPAL

lbcallinan@bigpond.com.au

Whats a girl to do?

Being born with parts of anatomy that don't match the chemistry in your brain is not a personal choice, not only is there a public stigma but it seems a beaurocratic one as well.

As you know my daughter is a transgender girl. More than a year in now and it's a pleasure to see her so happy. What would make her happier though is to have the surgery to give her the rest of her female body, this doesn't even take into account that she has long had a medical problem that this surgery will end once and for all.

Herein lies the problem. Money. It costs at least $10,000 dollars to have the surgery presuming that some item numbers are covered by medicare.

It seems there is only one doctor in Australia at present ,Proffessor Bennet,who is capable of this surgery and has retired from the Public Hospital System.

He recently offered to do suregery on a young biological woman born without a vagina, but NSW health will not allow it.Apparantly she can go through Sydney Childrens hospital as a public patient but the doctors really don't have the expertise for this surgery.He has treated 130 girls in the past 5 years, the birthrate is 1 in 5000.

If this is the case for bilogical girls with genital problems, where does this leave the transgender community male or female?

There is a 2nd doctor,Ass. Proffessor Grover who is away o/s training and will not be back until 2011. Even if he operates in a pbulic hodpital there is still the high cost of surgery because of medicare and what is covered and what is not.

I cannot find statistics for transgender numbers , the statistics I did find are grim ,suicide 1 in 5. The turmoil this group of people go through is incredible.They are fighting what their society tells them they should be and look like, discrimination, ridicule, families who feel personally affronted.

Why is it so hard in our society for people to get their head around the fact that some peoples brain and body don't match. Especially men, I don't understand how they are threatened by this.There is not some secret enclave of transgender girls out to trick and shame them somehow and funnily enough the type of male that is so offended is the guy these girls never wanted to be let alone hook up with.

Discrimination for being transgender is illegal in Australia, but in day to day living and getting on, it doesn't seem to matter, try finding a job, accomodation , giving your female name out with a male sounding voice , the 2nd and 3rd looks etc.

There have been some wins in our story though, very early in transition, just after Chloe had changed her name,she had to go to Canberra hospital for surgery.I have to give Kudo's to them,they were so professional and understanding,no raised eyebrows ,funny looks,they addressed Chloe as Miss and used all the right pronouns,that put me to shame at the time...I was just learning, and it's soemthig I will always rembember.It was extrememly encouraging for both Chloe and I, esp considering the nature of her problem and how early in transition she was. Her employers have been excellent,one would wish all employers so enlightened.

But back to surgery. It is about time that in this country SRS surgery is covered in its entirety by Medicare. Just recently Young Bridget Clinch appeared on SN and Sunrise and highlighted this issue. Bridget is in the Aust Army and had to fight to have her surgery covered my medical , she fought them and won as she will be a good Captain male or female. Thats a very simplified sentence describing her journey as it is her story to tell, but Bridget does highlight that this surgery is free in the Defence Force and in the Prison system in Australia. And borrowing from Bridgets reasearch several other countries fund SRS the UK, Canada, Iran and Cuba.

Its about time Australia follow suit.

So this is my bandwagon, feel free to jump aboard, I've started letter writing to the Health Minster ,the PM etc If enough of us write and mention the Australian Human Rights Commission report 2009 's reccomendations for transgender ,then we might be able to force changes.

I must be getting shorter, it's taking me longer to jump down from my soapbox lol