Lipstick in the Dust

Every woman wants to look beautiful, doesn't she? That's the idea fixed in the minds of a photographic team as they fly into Tibet to take stunning photos for a big cosmetic company's ad campaign. 

Imagine four well-travelled people, each highly successful in their field of fashion advertising, who think they've got it made, used to the luxuries of life, arriving in a Tibetan hotel. At least there's hot water in the taps. Soon their hunt for great shots turns into a tougher sort of quest.

Within a few days they suddenly find themselves adrift in an arid land, are stranded in a remote village, suffering from altitude sickness and dysentery, without telephone communication to the rest of the world. As the Westerners stumble about barren and poor Tibet, leaving a trail of bodies and destruction behind them, they have only the makeup girl’s Rescue Remedy for comfort.

The story is shot through with Buddhist philosophy. At first, it seems as if Dawson is dishing out the worst to the most beautiful: the model Tommi gets diarrhoea, soils a flash frock and runs naked from a snow leopard. However, this is all part of the eight great fears that must be overcome before enlightenment, as explained by their guide, Tenzin.

Potent legend and sacred symbolism conspire to ensnare them. As a series of disasters gradually robs these successful and beautiful people of all the familiar supports of Western society, they become further and further removed from all that is familiar and comfortable, and also become increasingly entwined in the politics and spirituality of this remote and hauntingly beautiful land. They are confronted with their deepest fears and a growing self-knowledge. This new awareness frees them to enter into the lives of total strangers and act with unexpected integrity and honour.

Differing conceptions of beauty form the central motif of Lipstick in the Dust. As she learns to recognise the beauty in this cold, dry, arid and empty landscape, Tommi the supermodel begins to question her assumptions about her own beauty. It’s a very strange sort of beauty though, as one of the characters notes. "It's so hard and rocky, but fragile somehow, like crystal. It's like if you could knock on it, it might shatter. In tropical places, the beauty's more ... bendable." And they must decide just what sort of people they are. 

But the story also uses a particular feature of the Tibetan language to convey this theme. In Tibetan, the concepts of beauty and happiness are conveyed by the same word, kyipo. Not surprisingly, the supermodel in her turn struggles to conceive how anyone could consider a shabbily dressed, prematurely aged peasant woman more beautiful than herself, regardless of how much serenity, warmth and strength are revealed in her eyes. By the end of the novel, however, she begins to understand.

Fast and vivid, funny and tender, LIPSTICK IN THE DUST puts an original spin on what we mean by that small but powerful word: beauty.

Dawson builds a dramatic tension that keeps the reader deeply engrossed and the somewhat erratic progress of the main characters in changing their attitudes is entirely believable, even if the constant barrage of natural disasters and untimely deaths seems a little unlikely, even for Tibet. The ultimate outcome of the novel is perhaps predictable. However, the route from beginning to end is full of twists and surprises, both delightful and distressing. Simultaneously amusing and deeply moving, easy to read and thought provoking, the story rollicks along and no one seems in any real danger.

I really enjoyed reading this book and it was one of those w=ones that end each chapter with a bit of a cliff hanger that makes you want to start the next chapter so you always have to put it down in the middle of a chapter when things have sort of settled down a bit.

Lindsey Dawson (nee Buddle) born in Auckland; lives in Rodney, north of Auckland.

She has had a long career in journalism beginning her career as a reporter for the Auckland Star and went on to work for the Western Leader before moving to radio. Dawson was a founding staff member of Radio Pacific where she worked as both a researcher and talkback host. In 1980 Dawson returned to journalism, where she created and edited three high profile national magazines in NZ (More, Next and Grace) as well as being a long-running contributor and she wrote features for Metro.

For two years from 2006, she edited the quarterly magazine Plenty, owned by Hanover Finance, and her freelance work has appeared in a wide range of publications, including Life & Leisure, Citymix, Sunday, The Business Herald, Experience, NZ Listener and Alive.

She left the corporate life to become a writer of fiction and non-fiction books. This is her second novel. An interior design guide and her first novel, Angel Baby, were published in 1995, followed by a personal growth book in 2001 -- Pearls: Words of Wisdom from the Ocean of Life. She has been a member of the judging panels of the New Zealand Magazine Publishers Association (2001 and 2009) and the Montana New Zealand Book Awards (2002). She writes columns for two magazines, voices a weekly commentary spot on National Radio, does much public speaking and runs seminars on 'how to live a life more luscious' to encourage self-expression, in New Zealand and Fiji. She writes a columnn for Grown Ups 50+ Communtiy and maintains a cartoon blog, Lindsey Out Loud

A Thousand Days in Venice

One day I would love to travel to places I have read about. I have read books by Mary Moody and her time in the South of France, Amish books set in Pennsylvania, and this has been another one. The idea of a city build on water intrigues.

A Thousand Days in Venice: An Unexpected Romance

by Marlena De Blasi

He, “the stranger” saw her across the Piazza San Marco and fell in love from afar. When he sees her again in a Venice café a year later, he knows immediately that she is the One; it is fate. He knows little English; and she, a divorced American chef, speaks only food-based Italian. Marlena, a middle-aged Midwestern American woman who had traveled to Italy and is now traveling through Venice, thought she was satisfied with her life. She is now caught off guard and thinks she is incapable of intimacy, that her heart has lost its capacity for romantic love. This was the first meeting, then he goes to visit her in St. Louis for two weeks. But within months of their first meeting, she gives up her entire life, quits her job as a chef and partner in a cafe, kisses her two grown kids good-bye, has sold and packed up her house in St. Louis to move to Venice to marry Fernando—“the stranger,” as she calls him—and live in that achingly lovely city in which they met.

Once there, she finds herself sitting in sugar-scented pasticcerie, strolling through sixteenth-century palazzi, renovating an apartment “a bunkerlike postwar condominium” on the Lido, as he calls it, overlooking the seductive Adriatic Sea, and preparing to wed a virtual stranger in an ancient stone church. Vibrant but vaguely baffled by this bold move, Marlena is overwhelmed by the sheer foreignness of her new home, its rituals and customs. He has displeasure at her insistence on remaining a serious cook (in modern Italy "No one bakes bread or dolci or makes pasta at home," he tells her) But there are delicious moments when Venice opens up its arms to Marlena. She cooks an American feast of Mississippi caviar, cornbread, and fried onions for the locals . . . and takes the tango she learned in the Poughkeepsie middle school gym to a candlelit trattoría near the Rialto Bridge. All the while, she and Fernando, two disparate souls, build an extraordinary life of passion and possibility.

As this transplanted American learns the hard way about the peculiarities of Venetian culture, we are treated to an honest, often comic view of how two middle-aged people, both set in their ways but also set on being together, build a life – the relationship works. Featuring Marlena’s own incredible recipes, A Thousand Days in Venice is the enchanting true story of a woman who opens her heart—and falls in love with both a man and a city. It is filled with the foods and flavors of Italy and peppered with recipes and culinary observations. But the main course here is about a woman who falls in love with both a man and a city, and finally finds the home she didn't know she was missing. It's a deliciously satisfying meal.

I enjoyed this book far more than the other I had just read, perhaps because it had more of a story than just memoirs. 

A "Mail Box"

This afternoon turned out to be pleasant and sunny so I decided to go for a long overdue walk.
Each week I deliver our church's weekly notices to those in town who weren't at church the Sunday before.

Its been raining most afternoons or I have had other appointments so it was great to be able to go out. After reading a blog I follow, twebster books and her post on Letterboxes, I thought I would go out armed with my camera and see what I could find. 
I was a little concerned that people may be watching me and wonder what strange things I was doing snapping the camera around the streets so I didn't linger for long each box.






Of course there were all the usual letterboxes that you can buy from a hardware store or our The Warehouse outlets so I was curious to see what other designs I could discover.




I remember Kelly, a lady from the local pensioner flats, once ringing me when I was the local Avon lady. She used to talk very loud as if we were talking down a long tube and she wasn't sure if I could hear her. Of course I would think it the other way around.

Kelly had asked if I sold 'mailboxes'.

Now Kelly would often ring me to do extra things as she couldn't get out much. I would have to bring $20 notes and smaller in change as she would only have $100 notes and I was her 'bank'. 



At first I wasn't sure what she meant as Avon does sell a lot of things other than makeup and skincare but I was wondering what in the world a 'male box' was.



When she finally explained what it was she was looking for I was able to tell her no, they never had sold letterboxes and I didn't think they ever would.


How ever I see in the latest catalog they have gone into children's clothing so I may well be proved wrong. It wouldn't be the first and probably not the last either.







I digress...











We live in a small country town and a lot of the boxes were old, some with lichen and faded timber or worn off paint. Some were quiet novel or just plain unusual.




















































And on returning home I suddenly realised even ours was a little different to the standard box.

Harry had made ours a few years ago now out of a sort of thick nylon type board. It has a place for letters, a "shelf" for papers and then a box type area where the milk used to be put when we had milk delivered to our gate each day, hence the handle on the front.
Its now used more for parcels and large items.


This box sits 'in' the fence and the mail, parcels and papers can be collected from the home side of the fence, something the grandchildren love to do.

I did find it interesting to note that a lot of people now choose not to have junk mail delivered to their boxes, with an assortment of sticker, plaques or just plainly written "NO JUNK MAIL"

Under the Tuscan Sun – at home in Italy

This may be a best seller but for some reason I just didn’t enjoy it. I couldn’t seem to get into it. It was written in a lot of sort of thrown in sentences so to speak rather than a smooth flow. I have enjoyed other books on people settling into a new country and converting a house but this one just didn’t seem to have the same attraction to me.

I finished it because I am part of a casual book group with a few friends and we are reading books and sharing with each other. As yet I hadn’t finished any because as I said I didn’t really enjoy this one but also I read a few others in between! Maybe that is why I didn’t click with it, I read it literally in chapters!

Under the Tuscan Sun – at home in Italy

Written by American author  Frances Mayes in 1996, it is a story of her home in Italy. It was adapted by director Audrey Wells for the 2003 film Under the Tuscan Sun starring Diane Lane.

The book, published by Random House, was a New York Times bestseller for more than two and a half years, and was a New York Times Notable Book of 1997. 

Mayes also creates dozens of delicious seasonal recipes from her traditional kitchen and simple garden, all of which she includes in the book and describes how she bought and restored an abandoned villa in the Tuscan countryside.

Frances entered a wondrous new world when she began restoring an abandoned villa in the spectacular Tuscan countryside. There were unexpected treasures at every turn: faded frescos beneath the whitewash in her dining room, a vineyard under wildly overgrown brambles in the garden, and, in the nearby hill towns, vibrant markets and delightful people. She writes about the tastes and pleasures of a foreign country with gusto and passion.In Under the Tuscan Sun, in evocative language, she brings the reader along as she discovers the beauty and simplicity of life in Italy. Being a widely published poet, gourmet cook, and travel writer  she brings the lyrical voice of a poet, the eye of a seasoned traveler, and the discerning palate of a cook and food writer to invite readers to explore the pleasures of Italian life and to feast at her table.

FRANCES MAYES is the author of other books about Tuscan, Bella Tuscany and two illustrated books, In Tuscany and Bringing Tuscany Home. She is also the author of the novel, Swan, six books of poetry, and The Discovery of Poetry. Her books have been translated into more than twenty languages.

Beef Slow Cooked Casserole

Our church have been running an 8 week cooking on a budget croup. One of the ladies in our church has been showing us some of her recipes and tricks of the trade when it comes to cooking for a family.

I wasn't there the night she cooked this so I wanted to try it. Reading the recipe and after having tasted some of her other recipes I wanted to reduce the amounts of some of the ingredients and change some of them. Harry and Katrina are not the fussed on highly spiced food so this is my version of her slow cooked Casserole.

I had some yucas needed using up so I add them as an extra vegetable.

500-600g casserole meat, diced
2 onions, chopped
2 tsp crushed garlic (2 cloves)
1 tsp each; curry powder and paprika
1 (400gr) can chopped tomatoes
1-2 carrots sliced or diced
2 cups beef stock
2 tbsp tomato sauce
2 tbsp Worcester sauce
1 dsp oil
3 tbsp cornflour
other vegetables cut small if desired

Method:
Preheat the oven to 150°C (or 180 - see below)
Heat on high heat a fry pan or large pot and add the oil.
Once that is hot, fry meat in batches to ‘seal’ or lightly brown.
Add this to a casserole dish as you finish the rest.
Add onion and crushed garlic to the pan and cook until translucent.
Add curry and paprika and fry for another 30 secs – add to meat and stir around.
Reduce heat to medium and add chopped tomatoes to pan to lift off residue from meat frying and pour into casserole.
I now add the chopped carrots and any other vegetables I may be using to the pan and heat.
Add to casserole.
Mix the tomato and Worcester sauce into the beef stock, stir well, pour into pan to ‘collect’ all the last bits of the last ingredients.
Set aside and save about half a cup of this stock and add the rest to the casserole.
Stir well and cook uncovered for 3 – 5 hours or till tender at 150°C. If you want this to cook quicker, cover and cook at 180°C for at least 2 hours.
Stir a few times during cooking so it doesn’t stick to the bottom of the dish.
In the last 30 mins of cooking, mix the cornflour in the last amount of stock mixture to a smooth paste and stir through meat mixture then continue cooking.
Serve with rice or mashed spuds.

We also had some lightly steamed broccoli to add a bit of colour. 

What Kind of Example am I?

Yesterday the TV was blaring. Harry had skipped from watching the Olympics to watching motor racing (as you do if you’re male) – Aussie Super Cars qualifying races. He had the sound coming through the stereo speakers and it was all very loud – isn’t that the way you do it?!.

I had just finished making a beef casserole for tea and it was in the oven for a few hours. I was in the kitchen which is just around the corner from the lounge.

I was craving for some quiet. I could have gone for walk but it was cold outside and I was tired and still fighting a cold, so I curled up on our bed with my bible and a cosy throw.

I looked at the booklet I receive from Radio Rhema ‘The Word for Today’ and there seemed to be a whole week of devotionals focused on the one verse in 1 Timothy chapter 4. I normally like to read the whole chapter in the bible where the verse for the daily reading is from. But yesterday (the first day of this series) when I checked it, I just read it from the daily email I receive as well as the booklet, and it only had a portion of one verse.

 

Reading the whole chapter in 1 Timothy I found so much of it an encouragement in what I do here.

1 Timothy 4

 

Instructions to Timothy

4 The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. ² Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron. ³ They forbid people to marry and order them to abstain from certain foods, which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and who know the truth. ⁴ For everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, ⁵ because it is consecrated by the word of God and prayer.

⁶ If you point these things out to the brothers, you will be a good minister of Christ Jesus, brought up in the truths of the faith and of the good teaching that you have followed. ⁷ Have nothing to do with godless myths and old wives’ tales; rather, train yourself to be godly. ⁸ For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.

⁹ This is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance ¹⁰ (and for this we labor and strive), that we have put our hope in the living God, who is the Savior of all men, and especially of those who believe.

¹¹ Command and teach these things. ¹² Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity. ¹³ Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to preaching and to teaching. ¹⁴ Do not neglect your gift, which was given you through a prophetic message when the body of elders laid their hands on you.

¹⁵ Be diligent in these matters; give yourself wholly to them, so that everyone may see your progress. ¹⁶ Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers.

Sunday the 5th August was Media Prayer Day in New Zealand.

Today, throughout the country, Christians of all denominations are praying for the spread of the Gospel through New Zealand’s media, and for Christians working within all forms of mass media.We too will take a few minutes of today’s service to pray – and we encourage you to take time today to pray on your own.

Our church had focused on it, not just how God can be revealed through media but we also prayed for those Christians who work in the area. 

I realised this blog is part of the media out there and the fact that you are reading it means I am speaking to you and into your life. 

The daily devotionals are titled “What Kind of Example are You?” 

Some of the things said were: 

Andrew Murray wrote, 'God has no more precious gift...than a man who lives as an embodiment of His will, and inspires those around him with the faith of what grace can do.'

1 Timothy 4:12 “…set an example...” meaning 'be a role model.'

What Paul was saying to young Timothy was, 'When you talk about Jesus, people should see so much of Him in your life that they desire to know Him. When you talk about faith, the evidence of it should be so compelling that they want to live by it.'

So today let your words be faith-building, for people battle with doubt and fear.

Let your words be comforting, for people have wounds you cannot see.

Let your words be uplifting, for people get torn down by criticism and discouragement.

Let your words be calming, for God has promised to bless you if you are a peacemaker.

And let your words be character-building; that way you'll leave people better off than you found them.

So I pray as you read the posts I create through this blog, that you will see something of God in them and desire to know more.

All scripture is from the New International Version

Mumseys’ Potato Pork Pie

Ingredients

1 tbsp oil

1 small onion, chopped

2 cloves of garlic, chopped or crushed

500gr pork mince

1 pk Maggi Chicken Noodle soup mix(26gr)

1 tbsp honey

1 tbsp tomato paste

1 cup (or more) chopped cabbage (approx.)

1 tbsp bar-b-que sauce

1 tbsp flour

¾ cup water

½ tsp mixed herbs (dried)

2 large potatoes

Heat a large fry pan or pot on a medium heat. (A large pot will help stop splashes and overflowing)

Add the oil and fry onion until soft but not brown.

Add the garlic and fry a little.

Push the onion and garlic to the edges of the pan and add the pork in small portions at a time; frying until no longer pink, mixing with the onion mix and then pushing to the edges of the pan before you add the next portion of mince.

When all the pork of cooked off add the soup mix.

Fill the empty packet with water and swish it into the pork so as all the soup is washed out of the packet.

Make a small gap in the middle and add the honey and tomato paste allowing it to ‘melt’ and mix in.

Turn the heat down a little.

Mix the sauce and flour with a little of the water and then gradually add the rest of the water.

Pour into the mince and stir to mix.

Once this is boiling again, sprinkle in the mixed herbs and a grind of pepper.

Allow to simmer stirring often so as not to have it stick to the bottom of the pan.

Preheat the oven to 180°C.

You want most of the liquid to have evaporated and a small amount of thick sauce/gravy to be produced. This takes about 20 - 30 minutes.

Peel the potatoes and slice finely. (About 3 mm thick).

Place in a bowl and pour over boiling water to prevent colouring.

When the mince mixture is cooked, ladle into a large shallow ovenproof dish.

Drain the potatoes and place over the meat slightly over lapping the slices so no mixture shows.

Bake in the oven for 30 minutes or until the potato ‘chips’ have crisped up.

I serve this with roasted vegetables as the oven is on.

If you cut the vegetables up small and pop them in the oven when the meat is beginning to thicken they will be cooked at the same time as the meat dish.