2001 – 2002 I used to hop on the 6.35am #96 tram at its terminus on Nicholson Street to travel in to work. I loved being up at that hour to watch the delivery trucks zoom around the empty streets, making their bread and fruit deliveries to all the cafes. I would slouch into the corner of the…
I have lost all vocabulary. I arrive upon a cartoon bugler’s herald to a scene where with jesters hat jingling my words seem mocking; they serve no purpose. Emotional gravitas is thrown on a paperpile marked “for later.” Then it is hidden, and later unbidden, in my mind’s library where other books are flipped open erased…
The other manuscripts never materialised. Of course, they will now, those prodigal jesters. It’s Murphy’s Law. The matchbox car of Riley’s is there to give some sort of perspective to the thickness of the documents, but I’m not sure if it worked or not. Think of it this way: the stack would’ve been twice as…
I’m not going to talk about how Friday was a bad day; a day of self-recriminations, of idling, of not-crying-and-should-be-crying, of opening cupboards and shutting them again, moving toys from one area to another, for no reason and certainly with no results on the room-cleanliness scale. I’m not going to talk about my father this…
Lately, when I’m reading a really good book, I have either of these compulsions: 1) To take said book and throw it across the room out of sheer jealousy. 2) To put it down after a particularly well crafted paragraph, or phrase, or chapter and sit with it, contemplating its construction and meaning. I must admit,…
“What would you say defines your blog, or sets it apart from other parenting blogs in Australia?” asked the PR woman from Sydney over the phone. “I – er – well, I’m not sure,” I stuttered and like a bad, bad blogger I committed the sin like a bad, bad author does when they’re asked…
From Radio Poetry: If mothers nuture and protect they also hate and get beaten up and they run away and scenery is as indifferent to our perception of it as God is This is a stanza from a poem by Doris Leadbetter, my old writing teacher and one of the greatest mentors of my life….
Read / February 21st, 2009
I’m guest posting over at MamaPop today with an article I wrote at the beginning of the week, before…well, you know what. Come on over and say hi. I’m talking about Madonna and Like a Prayer. Thanks again for each and every message of support. I’ve been informed that some people are making donations to…
Read / February 12th, 2009
My head has been full this week with the tragedy of the bushfires. I know, I think we’ve all reached saturation point now; how many more horror stories can we bear? Will this happen again? On Tuesday I went up to one of the major relief centres that is just up the road to see what…
