Writing we love to watch

The Writer’s Guild of America recently released its 101 Best Written TV Shows, and it was an awesome list in my opinion. As many of you know, I’m obsessed with Seinfeld – it permeates my life with uncanny and frightening relevance on a daily basis – who would have thought that a show about nothing could represent my life and the people in it so aptly.  Seinfeld, highly expected to come out on top on the list came in at a respectable second place after The Sopranos. I’ve never seen an episode of The Sopranos but I do plan to hire the series on DVD to check out the writing for myself. As a side note, it was sad to see that James Gandolfini, the star of the show, passed away last week at the very young age of 51.

My other all-time favourite TV Show particularly for its clever writing, and perfect casting – Arrested Development – comes in at 16, which is a great result considering it was axed despite being acknowledged for being incredibly good. It is hard to understand why it wasn’t more popular – perhaps there aren’t enough lovers of ‘quirky’ out there and it failed for that reason to build on its almost-cult following.

M*A*S*H aired from 1972-1983 and even though I was too young at the time to ‘get’ a lot of its humour (and as a child in those days, we didn’t watch much TV), I do recollect having a sense that it was clever and entertaining without understanding why. Max Klinger, who cross-dresses to prove he is insane and should be discharged from service, is much like a character out of another favourite story of mine, Catch-22 by Joseph Heller. John Yossarian wants to be grounded from combat but in order to prove he is unfit he needs to request a mental fitness evaluation, which in itself proves he’s sane. I made reference to this character and storyline in my novel, RAIN as a tribute to the book but also because I love the concept of the ‘Catch-22’ — a term adopted in common language to define those situations.

Other shows on the list I’ve enjoyed over the years include Mad Men, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, Modern Family, 30 Rock, Homeland, The Office (UK), LA Law, Fawlty Towers, Absolutely Fabulous, The Wonder Years and Get Smart. What about you? What shows on the list are your favourites?

Regards
Leigh

Contact Leigh at:

Website: http://www.leighkcunningham.com

Email: leigh @ leighkcunningham.com

Twitter: @leighcunningham

Facebook: Leigh K Cunningham

The land of the rising sun

At the last minute in February, we decided to spend 10 days touring Japan in March. If we’d planned for it, we would have booked a tour in the cherry blossom season (April) but as good fortune would have it, the cherry trees bloomed early this year—the second earliest blooming in history. There’s probably a message in that to not try and control everything in life—just go with the flow and wonderful things can and will happen.

Japan is a delight in so many ways. Firstly, the people would have to be the most considerate, respectful, helpful, gracious people in the world, at least based on our travels so far. They’re an example for all of us. Secondly, it is spotlessly clean everywhere. After a few days, I was intent on finding some rubbish on a street somewhere or a dirty footpath that hadn’t been washed clean that morning. It was not until Tokyo did I find a single piece of rubbish on a footpath. That’s quite incredible for a small island country with 127.5 million people and there are no public rubbish bins, anywhere! There are a couple of reasons for this: (1) the Japanese don’t eat and walk at the same time so they do not produce the usual meal time garbage, (2) the Japanese are dedicated recyclers so they take their rubbish home to recycle it correctly, and their process is far more advanced than ours in the west. They have separate see-through bags for paper, plastic, polystyrene, glass, metal, cans and bottles. Each has its own collection system and collectors won’t take bags that aren’t correctly sorted so everyone knows when you get it wrong—much shame to your household.

Our visit to the Peace Memorial Park and museum in Hiroshima was a sobering day, and more so as there is a Peace Watch clock in the foyer which shows the number of days since the first dropping of A-bombs in 1945: 24,702 days, and a second timer for the number of days since the last nuclear test: 40 days (North Korea, January 2013). So basically, after seeing mortifying images and reading unforgettable stories about the first A-bomb, we’re left with a reminder that this can happen again any time. A monument in the Peace Memorial Park says it “expresses the spirit of Hiroshima—enduring grief, transcending hatred, pursuing harmony and prosperity for all, and a yearning for genuine, lasting world peace.”

Regards
Leigh

Contact Leigh at:

Website: http://www.leighkcunningham.com

Email: leigh @ leighkcunningham.com

Twitter: @leighcunningham

Facebook: Leigh K Cunningham

 

Achoo!

Those of you who know me, know that I’m a very happy person…90% of the time. I have every reason to be happy; my life for some strange reason has been blessed, particularly so because I’m able to go through it with my twin soul—the other half of me, much like how Jerry and George teamed up to be one complete person in my favourite Seinfeld episode, The Summer of George 🙂

However, I have three pet peeves: (1) pedestrian etiquette, (2) taxi drivers who think I’m a tourist and don’t know the quickest route from A to B, and (3) bad manners, in particular, coughing without placing a hand or tissue over your mouth. I’ve already blogged about the first two, so I figure it’s time to deal with (3).

As a child, we were taught to cover our mouths when coughing or sneezing so that germs, viruses, whatever you had, weren’t spread to those around you. And this seems like a pretty easy thing to do in order to show others that you’re thinking of them and their wellbeing first and foremost.  When someone with a cold, flu or other virus doesn’t cover their mouth when coughing or sneezing, they’re saying, ‘I’m sick and I couldn’t care less if you end up sick as well.’

The average human cough fills about 3/4 of a two litre bottle with air together with approximately 3,000 droplets of saliva which fly out of the mouth at speeds up to 80 kilometres per hour (50 miles per hour)! And it’s even worse with a sneeze. Do you like the idea of being doused in someone else’s saliva? If that person is sick with a virus, the virus is on those droplets and can survive in the air for hours afterwards. A single cough can catapult as many as two hundred million individual virus particles in your direction; there is nowhere to hide.

Viruses need a living being (human or animal) to survive so when they land on a surface, their life span is limited to a few minutes or at best, in humid conditions for example, a few hours. They last longer on hard surfaces than on soft surfaces like fabric. And since we wash our hands several times every day, the chance of infection this way is less than if we breathe in the virus—we can’t avoid breathing but we can avoid putting hands in our mouth.

The World Health Organization has predicted that the next pandemic that will kill millions, will be spread in this way, and it is not a case of ‘if’ this will happen but ‘when’. So practicing the hand-over-mouth drill now will reduce the risk of this killer virus spreading worldwide in record time. We’ve already had a glimpse/warning with SARS and H1N1, H7N9 and other birth flus but people still seem complacent…except for the Japanese. In Japan, if you have a cough or cold, virus or flu, you wear a mask. It’s another easy solution but I guess if you just don’t care about other people, it won’t matter how easy the solution might be, and that seems to be the way of the world today.

Regards
Leigh

Contact Leigh at:

Website: http://www.leighkcunningham.com

Email: leigh @ leighkcunningham.com

Twitter: @leighcunningham

Facebook: Leigh K Cunningham

I dream a dream…

I dream most nights and sometimes I have several dreams per night. I love dreaming; I look forward to it. I only wish someone would invent a machine that would record dreams so you could replay them the next day although I can usually remember most of my dreams.A lot of my dreams involve snakes but strangely there is never any fear associated with the snakes even in the one dream in which I was bitten. In that dream, I was in bed and a snake was biting my arm but my arm was protected by a thick sleeve, like a dog bite protective suit. I wasn’t afraid of the snake even though it was trying to bite me; I was focused on working out how to get rid of it without waking Steve, who as usual was asleep beside me completely unaware of the problem. In another dream, I was ‘gardening’ on a large mound of barren dirt then all of a sudden the dirt moved and a snake came out of the mound. That was it. And my most recent dream this week: I was in a hallway and at either end of the hallway there were snakes. At one end were King Cobras curled up ‘resting’ and at the other end, small slithering black snakes. In my analysis of which way to go, I was thinking that while the small black snakes appeared less formidable, they could be baby Taipans and more deadly so I decided to approach the Cobras which allowed me to pass without moving.  When I relayed this dream to Steve, he felt compelled to tell me about Snake Island. I don’t know why. Snake Island is more correctly known as Ilha de Queimada Grande, an island off Brazil near São Paulo. It is uninhabitable because for every square metre there is at least one Golden Lancehead, a unique species of pit viper with a fast-acting venom that melts the flesh. The island did once have a lighthouse operator who lived there with his family. One night, snakes entered through open windows and started attacking the man, his wife and their three children. They ran from the lighthouse but were bitten by snakes that dangled from tree branches. Their bodies were found spread across the island when a navy vessel stopped to make a routine supply drop. This is the source of nightmares and I’m waiting for it to manifest in my dreams. Thanks, Steve. Regards Leigh Contact Leigh at: Website: http://www.leighkcunningham.com Email: leigh @ leighkcunningham.com Twitter: @leighcunningham Facebook: Leigh K Cunningham

Who’s your master chef?

After 52 years of life, my husband (Steve) decided it was time he could cook something other than Vegemite on toast, and on special occasions, ham and cheese on toast. Once a week, he was going to cook dinner – words I’ve longed to hear for nigh on three decades. For completeness though, I must acknowledge that he did bring me breakfast in bed once – maybe it was my birthday – which comprised 1/2 grapefruit and a cup of coffee served on an old wooden chopping board. Clearly he was not yet ready to drop an egg into boiled water or anything else similarly complex but I digress.

That cooking declaration was made November last year and I’ve been served three meals since, although there have been a few ‘kitchen assists’. Alas, this means we’re nowhere near ready for the next season of My Kitchen Rules.

The most helpful aspect of the ‘kitchen assists’, or should I say, the most amusing is that Steve, preparer of three meals plus a 1/2 grapefruit, considers himself quite knowledgeable in the kitchen and now, while acting as Sous Chef, not only contributes ideas but also suggests that I am not doing things right. I do wonder how all those meals over the past thirty years made it on to plates – I’ve been lucky.

So why the sudden interest in being able to cook? Master Chef may have played a role. We both enjoy the US version of Master Chef. The judges, I believe, make a cooking show worth watching, or not (pass on Master Chef Australia I’m sorry). Graham, Gordon and Joe on Master Chef US make a great team; they’re interesting and entertaining, and this might be why we frequent Mozza’s Pizzeria in Singapore (one of Joe’s restaurants) or it might be because it has the best pizzas in the world, ever.

Steve also likes to watch Hell’s Kitchen (with Gordon Ramsay), usually while I am cooking dinner including on his designated night. Only problem with this show however, is that a lot of the dialogue is ‘beeped’ out by the Singaporean censors – no swearing allowed here (try keeping up with the story in Californication or Sons of Anarchy!)

I love My Kitchen Rules and again, the judges play a pivotal role in the show’s appeal in my opinion. Manu and Pete are a perfect duo (they don’t need to be flamboyant or over-the-top) and the guest judges are also perfect for the show.

I believe it might be a sign that Lee was a finalist in Season 2 and Leigh was the winner in Season 3. That can’t be a coincidence. No sign of a Steve though anywhere of note. Who likes to cook?

Regards
Leigh

Contact Leigh at:

Website: http://www.leighkcunningham.com

Email: leigh @ leighkcunningham.com

Twitter: @leighcunningham

Facebook: Leigh K Cunningham

New days, new ways

Once again, it is January and we have another chance to make the most of the year ahead, month by month, season by season.  This year, I’m trying something different – no resolutions. I have a standard set of resolutions that, sadly, simply require minor amendments in December to ready them for the New Year. Often, it just means changing the year at the top of the page. For those of you who have read my novel, Being Anti-Social, you’ll recognize this routine in Chapter 18. From the main protagonist, Mace Evans:

“I have a standard list of annual resolutions that receive the appropriate level of disregard, since good resolutions, as Oscar[Wilde] says, “are simply checks that men draw on a bank where they have no account.”

Needless to say this is autobiographical.

This is quite a challenge for me – not to have documented aspirations and goals broken down into sub-sets with monthly and weekly actions for each; I do love planning. But now that I’m 50, perhaps I have come to accept that this annual process can be abandoned in favour of a more laissez faire approach to getting things done ie without the personal accountability that comes from a written document. Although, anything I declare here in this blog will keep me accountable and I know some of you will take great delight in that.

As usual, my obsession with nutrition and exercise will continue. But again, in my wiser older years, I realize there is no need to resolve this – it’s a fundamental part of who I am and explains decades of exercise journals I started at the age of 22.

I have a book to write this year. It’s titled REWRITTEN and I’m really excited about the story and concept. Once again, it is completely different to my previous work.

I’m also planning a different approach to writing this story. Usually, my first draft process is highly disciplined, traumatic and obsessive; it hurts – a lot. I don’t do anything else but write from 8am to 6pm every weekday, and the weekends are used for catch-up if I failed to meet my weekly goal (words written). I have to fight the constant urge to do anything else; to leave my laptop and not return. I eat a lot of chocolate. I don’t exercise. I don’t go anywhere. I check emails once only first thing in the morning and that’s the limit of my connectivity. This time, however, for REWRITTEN, I’m going to try something called ‘balance’. It’s an unfamiliar concept requiring me to incorporate writing into normal life so it is not to the exclusion of all else. I’m afraid. I fear the book won’t get written this way, let alone finished. I fear I’ll lose momentum or I’ll waste precious time constantly re-acquainting myself with the flow and the story’s voice, where I’m at and where I was going.

However, since this is a new year and I’m now committed to doing ‘life’ differently, this is how it will be for the next two months, with no daily word count required – just a pledge to write something for an hour each day. If my blog post in March is about a secluded villa in Bali, a laptop, bikini and chocolate, you’ll know things didn’t work out as planned.

Regards
Leigh

Contact Leigh at:

Website: http://www.leighkcunningham.com

Email: leigh @ leighkcunningham.com

Twitter: @leighcunningham

Facebook: Leigh K Cunningham

And there goes another year

Every year we’re stunned by how quickly twelve months has passed and this year is no exception. 2012 passed so quickly, it’s as if those Christmas decorations on Orchard Road never came down.For the first few months of this year, I thought I was in control of time. I was working hard on my next novel, Being Anti-Social (which was published in May), and launching various initiatives for the Association of Independent Authors. And although I was extremely busy, time was not my enemy. Then something happened. We went to Australia late April to catch up with family and visit our favourite place, Noosa (we first went there in 1983 for our honeymoon).Just a few weeks after our return, visitors arrived. When they left, other visitors arrived then three days after their departure we were on our way to South Africa to catch up with our good friends and long-standing travel companions, Donna and Terry from Pittsburgh. We had an awesome time in Africa (South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe and Zambia) made even more awesome as we were able to meet up with our friends, David and David who we met on a tour of Central Europe in 2008 (they live in Cape Town). It’s so incredible to meet people on your travels, to stay in touch for years then finally see them again. It took the longest while to settle again after holidays and of course we were busy with the usual September birthday celebrations: Steve’s birthday, mine five days later and our anniversary three days after that. It’s a big and busy week, and of course this year I celebrated a milestone birthday (50). I don’t know what happened to October and November – they just disappeared, and so now here we are listening to Oh Come All Ye Faithful and assessing Christmas Day lunch options. It seems every year goes faster than the one before, and certainly so much faster than a year in the life of a ten-year-old. There are a few reasons for this phenomenon: 1. Our early years are full of first-time events:  first day of school, first car, first overseas holiday, first romance, first job etc. We tend to make more detailed and lasting memories of them. And when we repeat the event, year after year, it is less likely to make a unique or lasting impression. I don’t like this explanation because I think that the more first events in your life, the faster the year would go, not slower. 2. Then there is the ‘ratio’ explanation ie for a ten-year-old, a year is a tenth of his lifetime and seems to be never-ending, but to a sixty-year-old, a year is a sixtieth of his lifetime and therefore seems to be shorter than that of the five-year-old. This seems logical to me. 3. Finally, time goes faster when you’re older because you have more to do; more responsibility and obligation and perhaps less time for those ‘firsts’. Perhaps we’re also in more of a hurry to get started on that Bucket List or achieve life’s goals before it is too late – there’s an urgency, and when time is critical there seems less of it. Again, this seems logical. What do you think? Do you find time speeding up as you age, and if so, why do you think this happens? Is it real or imagined? Regards Leigh Contact Leigh at: Website: http://www.leighkcunningham.com Email: leigh @ leighkcunningham.com Twitter: @leighcunningham Facebook: Leigh K Cunningham

THE GLASS TABLE

THE GLASS TABLE.

Being Anti-Social

Being Anti-Social.

SHARDS

SHARDS.