Sunday inspiration...

If any movie makes you want to start a blog it will be Julie and Julia. I spotted it in the DVD store last night and, having missed it while on circuit, thought it made for perfect Saturday staying-in material. FJ and I are in a bit of a stay-in phase. Partly because we have a wedding to pay for and a nasty habit of going to the store for groceries and coming back with oversized plasma screen TVs. So we're like Emily Dickinson at the mo. We just roll a basket out the window and hope that kind strangers will pop in a pawpaw or two.

Fj was also a victim of crime after his brief visit to deep dark Africa. His wallet got nabbed and they conveniently tucked into our joint account before we could stop them. Such is life... and no need to feel down about it. Things could have been far worse in deep dark Africa (especially in a country that's started imprisoning gay people for life if they're discovered).

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaannnnyyyywaaaayyyyyyy...

Back to the movie about Julie and that darling Julia Child. If you haven't seen it - it's about two women, both based on real characters. Julia Child was an American woman who learnt how to cook French food, wrote a cookbook and became a celebrity in doing so. Julie is a charming young woman with hardly any money and in a job she hates so she decides to start a blog cataloguing the challenge she has set herself - to cook all the recipes from Julia Child's book Mastering the Art of French Cooking in one year. Over 500 recipes in 365 days.

As she starts the blog, she is just like any of us who have started a blog - that clumsy first post as you try to introduce yourself and hope like hell someone will read it.

You watch her get her first comment and the excitement that creates. It turns out to be her mom asking if anyone but her reads the blog. Rather deflating. But eventually she has an avid readership with readers sending her ingredients to use as she discovers her voice - not only through food, but on the keypad of thoughts spewed into cyberspace.

Needless to say, I felt inspired.

I started the blog to find my voice. I'm one of those people who comes across as incredibly confident, sometimes a bit larger than life, when deep inside I have no idea if I'm even vaguely on the right track on this thing called life. Blogging has taught me an invaluable lesson - there is no track; there is only reflection on the steps you've made. And that's why I blog.

I know I've been heavy in recent posts. I feel like I lost the light-hearted rambler who saw the fun in being vespa-ed around Joburg and the delight at being closer to 40 than 60 and who wanted to capture the journey of a pair of black shoes around the world.

I've felt the need to defend who I am. Because I'm a bit different to the norm.

Thanks to this blog and the people who have responded here, by mail and in person, I've realised that my journey is my journey. My voice is mine. My heart belongs to who I choose to give it to. And, thanks to a little movie called Julie and Julia, I feel inspired to find the fabulous all over again...

Okay, I have to go. I have a boeuf bourguignon in the oven and a hungry husband to feed...