Lyn Rasmussen's Blog

Posted by Lyn Rasmussen

This year's been a busy one - I thought as I got older that life would become less busy but it seems to have accelerated instead. I'm lucky to have a great day job that gives me some flexibility so that I can wriggle around between the slices that make up my 'sandwich' generation. What do the slices consist of? Home and relationship, children and grandchildren, elderly parents, challenging work, study, friends and my interests of art and writing - and I'm nowhere near as busy as many other women I know!

Christmas should be a good time to lie still in the sandwich of our lives. Instead, most of us get caught up in additional layers of buying Christmas gifts, cooking and cleaning. Then suddenly it's time to hurtle headlong into another year. I'm going to rest up this Christmas - there's a lot I want to do in 2010 and I don't want to feel stale come New Year's Day.

Posted by Lyn Rasmussen

When I was much younger I lived in a caravan for about a year - nothing like the modern motorhomes which are luxurious by comparison. Ours was a real old-style vehicle made of some kind of wood, quite large and really very accommodating for a family of two adults and one toddler. We lived in isolated areas without electricty. The water supply was the closest stream. We went to bed when it got dark and woke up at first light.

It wasn't always comfortable but it was relatively carefree, especially in the warmer months. We needed very little money, had no neighbours and could just pack up on move on when the time seemed right.

Nowadays, when I see people out on the road travelling in campervans or motorhomes I often feel a pang of nostalgia. Of course, I'm a little older now and I know I'd prefer the creature comforts of one of those fantastic motorhomes with all the comforts of home. It's a tantalising thought - taking to the road and leaving suburban life behind.

Posted by Lyn Rasmussen

Yesterday a friend and I drove up to Hamilton to our monthly meeting of romance writers. What a fantastic day! We laughed and talked, wrote and performed impromptu skits, read out the Christmas short stories we'd written, shared gifts and ate quantities of delicious food.

We don't always have homework but this time we were given the task of writing a short (500 words or less) story that had to have a romantic element and also be about Christmas. It's always so interesting to see the individual results that come from the same basic theme or subject. Everyone has their own 'twist'. The stories were poignant, hilarious, funny and touching.

We divided into groups to re-enact famous love stories of the past, bringing them into the modern age. We laughed till we cried. An interesting thing is that we all seem to see 2009 very much as the age of sex, drugs and violence - though I guess these featured largely in Romeo and Juliet's story too.

Romance Writers of New Zealand is a very supportive national organisation. It's great to be part of such a progressive group and see so many successes as hard-working writers secure that sought after contract - inspiring for all of us.

We had a truly fabulous Christmas breakup. Thank you ladies for one of the best and funniest days I've had in years. I came home exhausted and my cheeks are still sore from laughing!

Posted by Lyn Rasmussen

I've been painting for a few years but have only recently discovered mixed media art. I had tremendous fun digging out old Christmas cards and cutting up magazines to make a Christmas collage which I then photocopied onto paper and card.

We have lots of old books around our home, some that will be picked up and read again and again, others that have languished without a page turned for years. After discovering a fabulous magazine, 'Cloth, Paper, Scissors' I dug out some of these old hard-cover books (ones from my cake decorating phase when the kids were small) and began transforming them into altered books. There's something very satisfying about converting old, unused items into something new and funky.

I' m more conscious these days of trying to minimise household waste. We don't receive junk mail so I had to scrounge some off family and friends to find some of the pictures for my collage. Recycled and revamped, I'll be able to return the papers on Christmas Day in the form of Christmas cards, wrapping and gift tags. There's something oddly satisfying about that.

Posted by Lyn Rasmussen

We went to see 'Julie and Julia' the other day - what a fabulous movie. Well, we loved it anyway. It was marvellous to see people living life to the full - enjoying food and alcohol, cheerfully chain-smoking and living to a ripe old age. Fatty foods were fried in copious amounts of butter, cream was added to 'thin' the mix, sloshings of wine slopped into the stew - what a way to live.

I often wonder whether we're completely misguided in our current quest for good health through trimming away natural fat, searching for emotional wellbeing by trolling backwards to pick at past injuries to our psyche, and fitness through fierce exercise regimes. I've known elderly people like Julia Child, people who beat their eggs and butter by hand, walked to the store or into town daily, worked in their gardens and enjoyed a gin or two every night. By today's standards their kitchens were abysmal but their meals were usually delicious. their welcomes always warm and it was fun to be in their company. If they had any angst, nobody except their closest companions knew about it.

I came out of 'Julie and Julia' feeling uplifted - happy people doing happy things, loving and being kind to each other, seeking fulfilment through working at their passion and having an ebullient appreciation of life. No gratuitous sex, no violence. Okay, I know Julie had her fair share of angst, but that's just what I'm talking about in relation to the modern psyche - is it really necessary?.Not negating the hardships all of us go through from time to time and acknowledging that some hardships must be almost unbearable, for the most part can't we just get on with life?