Cecilia Macaulay

27/05/2025

07/05/2025

May 4th. I woke up, noticed the date, and put my hair up Princess Leia style, hoping someone would invite me to an intergalactic bar.
I ended up at Holy Family’s church festival with my mum.
‘This will work’.
The gorgeous guy leading the rap dancing was Father Francis. Parisoners were levitated (almost) in his magic show.
I ate Vietnamese and Philippine party food with Linathr lady in the wheelchair. . She has been married for 68 years, has lots of opinions, and will soon turn 100. She wanted dessert, but resisted. There is a lesson.

Children sang like stars on a stage that doubled as a dining table, strewn with paper plates and people enjoying lunch and each other.
I didn’t need the Intergalactic bar invite at all.
May the Force be with you!

16/04/2025

Between industialized South Korea and who-knows-what in North Korea, there is a 4k strip of land belonging to nobody. It’s called the Demilitarized Zone, and was created for the 1953 armistice, after a 3-year unwinnable war. Today, to my amazement, I got to visit.

12/04/2025

Between industialized South Korea and who-knows-what in North Korea, there is a 4k strip of land belonging to nobody. It’s called the Demilitarized Zone, and was created for the 1953 armistice, after a 3-year unwinnable war. Today, to my amazement, I got to visit.
The North Korean army dug a series of secret tunnels heading for Seoul, one large enough to carry 30,000 troups per hour. The first one was discovered in 1974, and today I got to put on a helmet and wander down to Visit .
These soldiers waiting patiently with me are wax.
The old ladies digging aren’t scared of the land mine warming signs. They are harvesting wild vegetation. Maybe something delicious for dinner, maybe something rare to propegate. The DMZ is now an accidental wildlife sanctuary, free of industry, commerce and chemicals for over 70 years. If you are an elk, crane, or even ocelot, it’s a pretty good place to raise a family.
This ambushed South Korean train was found in the forest in the 70’s, and was somehow allowed to be brought here. It had a mulberry tree growing in it, which was carefully taken out and planted right beside this big guy, in DMZ soil. ‘They are family’ said our guide, of this machine and this mulberry tree.
The picture of the wooden bridge is very special. One day, thousands of prisoners of war walked over this bridge and one step later were free.

12/04/2025

My first day in Korea, since 1995. Today was peak cherry blossom day for sure, with the office workers still in their dark winter clothes, and almost every petal still on its tree: in a few days the avenues will be in snowglobe-mode, swishing with petals.

The Korean language is lilting, with lovely fades of sound sprinkled through, and this gave a kind of soft-focus hush to the whole city. That was my first surprise.

A gorgonzola cheesecake with a little pond of truffle oil on top: another surprise.
I walked the city all day, the surprises kept on happening, and here are some pictures.

26/01/2025

Jubilee years come once every 25 years, and it turns out 2025 is one of them. Traditionally it’s a year for breaking burdensome cycles: time to forgive debts, complete projects, and a whole lot more. So all the things young Cecilia said she’d like to do ‘one day’, well, this year is the year, to either do it, or give up on it. The dreams, delusions, the lot, big and small.

For some reason, I’ve always wanted to wear a floaty Gina dress, from the Japanese Gibili animation, Porco Rosso.
Well, I got close enough today to put that dream to rest: white dress, seaplane, and a remote cliff side hotel, beautiful and calm.

Of course, the Gina dream isn’t just about a dress. In the movie, Madam Gina has a realm she cares for and makes beautiful, the Hotel Adriatica. She is self-directed and in her element. That’s a dream that became real for me once, with my Annandale Permaculture guesthouse. It’s a dream that’s not going away.

Let’s see if I give up on this realm, or make it real again, this jubilee year.

17/10/2024

The ferry to Chiba took me to a land of saints and devils and very, very big Buddhas.
There was a skyrope, which means dizzy flying with the falcons, on the way down.

06/10/2024

How can I have a valuable life without leaving a legacy such as raising children, composing an album or other creative works?

My sister and guru Katie surprised me a few months ago saying 'When I die, I don't want any evidence of my life hanging around. I'm happy to be gone'. Or something like that.

She happens to be living an exemplary life of love.

These days I'm doing home harmonizing projects for creative people who are in the sunset of their lives, some in their 80s They dream of spending time in clear, heavenly rooms, with yoga, dinner parties, mindfulness and love. But what are they surrounded with? Selves groaning with dusty books, unopened for 20 years. Artworks they've looked at a thousand times, but wouldn't notice if it was missing.

How can I make my life valuable, separate from what I leave behind?

05/10/2024

I’m back in Japan, and these adoreable people are the 15 year olds who are being trained to protect the country. I just met them while waiting for the train. ‘What’s you dream?’ I asked, as you do.
‘Pilot!’ said the girl.
I’ll never know the boys dreams, because then my train came.

15/09/2024

‘Plant sweet peas! That’s what I was reminded to do, when I ordered this lychee cocktail at Reign, in Sydney’s Queen Victoria center.
I’m on a mission to find out what blue takes like. It’s not lychee, I can now confirm.
The drink turned out purple, not blue anyway.
So when I get back from Melboune, blue sweet pea seeds go in the ground, and I wait for them to flower, to see if they taste as I always imagined the sky to taste.
In the meanwhile, Ilif you want to be a lady who lunches, I recommend this very central, very pretty place.