less couch, more dance

it was a bit of an effort but i made it to class. i do like a good swing dance. wonder if i'll get an opportunity to swing out when on the west coast in a couple of weeks? already looking forward to the next holiday. i haven't been back to perth in over a year so it'll be grand to catch up with the loved ones.

festival of beer

i know what you're thinking and i'm not making it up, i did indeed go to a beer-ish type festival. a friend of a friend is a brewer and it seems this is an annual event, he had i think 10 on tap at various times. i stuck to the cider (delicious) and had the occasional sip of the strange looking brews as they were poured. i behaved, i was driving.

write, type and edit

read through the script and started on draft two this morning. what i found exciting was reading it and laughing. at bits i had actually written. laughed, and not because it sucked. how good is that? well, for me it's just fantastic. so draft two. i've already realised i've got to slot in a few extra scenes at the beginning to build my characters a little more. and oh, my big print (the part that let's you know what's going on in the scene visually) SUCKS - i'm so a prose writer when it comes to that, but i'm sorting that out as well. better that i know it's crap now huh? it's only draft one after all. so i'm excited about that. and then...

and then on the tram ride home i'm passing parliament house and an idea that has been floating around in my head for a couple of years now lands solidly in my lap. i swear it's not-so-flabby butt sat itself down and said it's time. so the 12 minute ride home had me sketching out notes for a doctor who book. i won't go so far to say an episode but still i think a stand alone book is a goer. concept is in hand and now i've just got to flesh out the sub-stories. damn i love inspiration. and let me tell you my muse looks nothing like the ones in xanadu. but i kinda like that too.

may 26

last night and all of yesterday was larissa's birthday. my niece turned 13. wow! i remember seeing her for the first time in the hospital - maybe an hour after she was born. all cute and velvety and smooshed up. and now it's 13 years later, i have no idea where the time went for me but i can see it all in her. how cool is that? happy birthday riss, or lari or ugly monkey child. you are loved whatever your name.


i wandered through this exhibition at the state library after work. it closes on sunday so i'm glad i got to see it. straight after that i attended as session called "my favourite children's book" - there were five speakers Rebecca Stead, Russel Howcroft, Roland Harvey, Miso and Lawrence Leung.

words to read by

four days of words and ideas and conversation and queues. yes, the sydney writer's festival contained all sorts of wonders, inspiration even struck and left a bit of a welt.

day one sessions included a question of characters, making a book (hoped for a bit more from sonya hartnett), wikileaks and the challenge for journalism.





the five of us then moved onto a german beer hall for drinks and dinner.








day two sessions were girls just wanna? before heading into conversations with richard fidler: curt stager's deep future (remember richard from doug anthony allstars?) bought stager's book and had it signed - ooh err. dashed over to the mint for radical sydney (bought the book too), listened to french kissing from the sunny wharf before moving onto the australian pub. missed getting into a couple of evening sessions because of the lllllloooonnngggg queues. so dinner in china town before heading back to the wharf for ghost stories, funny and impressive.



day three sessions were singapore sling where i fell in love with shamini flint. the woman is AWESOME and i want to be like her when i grow up. she writes crime fiction which is not my thing but she's just great, so i bought her book (and got it signed because i'm like a fan now). ha! then onto digilit, before who's your daddy? this session was held in the bangarra mezzanine, not a good choice for a warm afternoon, sun reflecting off the bay. i can't remember what was said. cities of the dead was next and i got to introduce others to the glory that is shamini. they were equally in awe. spoken four was FANTASTIC - performance poets. mike simms, kelly-lee hickey, candy royalle and rives (who gave me his writer's pass when i was sitting at the front of the line to get in, he called me easy too - so not true). three highschool students presented as well - how very cool.

a bit of a sleep in on day four, it was sunday so to be expected. only three sessions today since there were planes to catch. america or china: you decide, then from the sunny wharf again was the israel question before the curious world of dr karl kruszelnicki. that was a fabulously entertaining session full of wonder. i like intelligent people who make their passion accessible to everyone.


and then there was arriving back to cold raining melbourne. the holiday was over.
some of the pics are courtesy of jamie

number 3

melbourne

a breath was taken.

four days west of the victorian border

this is how the deal went down: one JC(f) was invited to house-sit the treetops b&b in the barossa valley for 5 weeks and since we're such good friends JC(m) and myself decided it only fair we pay her a visit. obviously to stop her getting lonely. so after a night in adelaide, partaking of fine pizza and wine at est we wandered the next few days through hahndorf, various wineries through the barossa and clare valleys, shared a fabulous lunch at skillogalee (i just love saying the name out loud, it's a song), evenings found us in front of a roaring fire with power ballads on the stereo or xanadu on the tv. yes, good times.







































a relaxing time was had by all except for the drive home when i got picked up (and not in that nice way). yes, i ended the roadtrip to south australia on a bit of a sour note. yes, i know i was speeding, but really, come on.