A Town and a Half

Merry Xmas

2009-12-16T12:10:00.000+10:00

It's nearly time for us to go and get on the plane back to Brisbane, for Christmas with my family and a bonus - surprise! - family wedding.

I hope you have a wonderful, lively, happy, funny and entertaining Christmas and New Year. I'll be back here in Bunbury in the New Year, and I'll be back to blogging ... I don't know when.

Blogging is a funny thing. Sometimes it fits right into your life and provides an outlet and a means of communicating thoughts that would otherwise not get an airing. Back in Townsville I seemed to have a fair number of such thoughts. Here in WA, for whatever reason, I don't seem to have so many.

Either way, it's probably time to end this blog called A Town and a Half. But if I start up something new, I'll definitely let you know.

Naomi

Redback Spider

2009-12-04T20:20:00.005+10:00

Redback 1, originally uploaded by &Naomi.

I had never seen one of these in the flesh before, so I was very surprised when this one appeared out of the old cardboard box I was carrying out of the garage. Promptly dropped the box, squealed and ran inside.

A little bit later, I got up the courage to go outside again, to take a photo and to see if he was alive or dead. Turns out he was alive!

But not for long.

Strawberries

2009-12-03T15:40:00.001+10:00

Strawberries, originally uploaded by &Naomi.

Apricot Harvest

2009-12-02T11:26:00.002+10:00

Apricot Harvest 3, originally uploaded by &Naomi.

More Space

2009-11-27T12:53:00.001+10:00

The Lil, originally uploaded by &Naomi.

Western Australia is an enormous place. Perth often describes itself as the most remote city in the world; for all I know that might even be true. As I rode along the river path yesterday, I wondered to myself why that didn't make our life here feel more like an adventure. Back in '06, when I was temporarily working at that minesite, I just loved the wide open space and I was exhilarated at the thought that there was nearly nothing between me and the big brown central part of Australia. Why does a similar thought now make me feel so sad and lonely?

I know that we are lucky to be here. Hayden is lucky (along with being talented and clever and extremely hardworking) to have found a job so soon after getting made redundant. We are lucky to be fit and healthy. I am lucky enough to be studying something I really enjoy. We're living in an enormous house (well, enormous for us. It's considered averagely poky in WA). That's lucky, isn't it? But knowing you're lucky is not the same as feeling it.

We have more space here than we know what to do with, but what I recently realised was that the space we make use of in this house every day is roughly the size of our flat in Townsville. What I want to try to do over the summer is to spread our life out a bit. I want us to relax and take in the big space that's all around us. To try to love it and live it, rather than being intimidated by it. I'm going to re-arrange our house a bit, to make better use of all these extra rooms we've got. I'm expanding the garden. And I'm going for bigger space around my blog photos and words.

Do you think it'll do the trick?

The Estuary

2009-11-13T12:46:00.005+10:00

The Estuary, originally uploaded by &Naomi.

On Monday, Marny and I went kayaking on the Estuary. It was not as calm as it looks in this picture - it was quite windy, with swirling clouds in the sky. But it wasn't cold at all so we decided not to be daunted.

Each in a long red kayak, we paddled out across the water in the direction of the setting sun. Even though the wind was coming quite strong from the side, we made it nearly to the cutting that leads out to the open sea. Marny was all for going through the cutting, but I was really battling the wind, and I got scared that instead of paddling into the channel, I would just smack right up against the rocks at its mouth. I really didn't want to smack up Marny's beautiful second kayak. We agreed to turn around.

On the way back, we took it easier, and let the wind and tide drift us gently around to leeward. It was a long, circuitous route home around the edge of the big estuary. The sun was really going down now, turning the clouds a beautiful swirly grey. As we'd let ourselves drift quite a bit, the home stretch was long and dead into the wind, all the way back to Marny's house in the dark. By the end, I was tired - but good tired. Pretty good exercise for a Monday night, I thought.

My arms were stiff and sore for the next couple of days. And my tennis lesson on Wednesday night was horrible. I was in no position to start learning to serve. But I'm feeling much better now. Hopefully we'll go out paddling again on the weekend.

101109

2009-11-11T13:12:00.006+10:00

101109, originally uploaded by &Naomi.

What a lovely birthday! I got completely spoilt with presents, lots of lovely messages from friends and family all over the world, a fancy dinner on the town, and as you can see, cake (pity I didn't manage to take the photo before there were a couple of bites taken out).

I also squeezed in time for a bit of reflection on what has been a big and eventful year. I'm not sure of the exact dates, but I think that it was around this time last year that we heard that things were not going to go the way we thought with Hayden and his old job in Townsville. We started wondering then what the future would hold, but I don't think I would ever have predicted Hayden spending time not working, a couple of fun freezing months in New Zealand, then washing up on the other side of Australia and taking up studying again.

Though I'm still feeling a bit mixed about our move to Bunbury (has that been coming through at all?) there are some wonderful things about it. We've been hanging out heaps with Hayden's cousin Marny; we're trying out living in a big old house in the suburbs; and the study I'm doing (Master of Arts (Writing) at Swinburne) is really very enjoyable. If only studying could stop being an expensive hobby and start being a paying job ... well, if I was going to turn this into an opportunity for making some kind of resolution or goal, I think it would have to be something like that.

What, more flowers?

2009-11-01T21:08:00.006+10:00

I made a little promise to myself (and to you) that in between every post about flowers, I would talk about something else. But that was before I logged in and saw the post below, from when I was watching the flowers instead of the fun run. That's just what I do around here - I look at flowers instead of any other thing I'm meant to be doing.

Sorry.

These flowers are different as they are out in the country. Today, Hayden and I travelled out for a delightful lunch at Taste of Balingup (it's a foodie place ... much as I hate the term, I'm slowly coming to admit that it applies to us. Turns out we will travel 70km each way for a fresh fruit juice and salad). Then afterwards had a good stroll around the lavender gardens nearby.

We hadn't been back out that way since August, when all the apple trees were bare. Now they too are covered in ... flowers. It's inescapable, I tell you. The flowers are taking over.

Beach flowers

2009-10-26T20:37:00.007+10:00

We're so busy hanging out near the river and the estuary that we often forget to go to the beach. There's a lot of water around here, OK? We can't get to all of it, all of the time.

I was forced to hang out there one morning recently, though, while Hayden completed at 10k "fun" run along the esplanade and I got completely carried away by the colours of the beachside flowers. I'd never seen anything like it. WA is nuts for flowers in springtime. There are more pics on my flickr page ... click on the photo and it will take you there.

Coffee love notes

2009-10-15T17:01:00.018+10:00

Hayden makes me coffee every morning. You probably already knew that - it's one of our Things. We nearly wrote it into our wedding vows ... but stopped short and instead Hayden promised, in writing which he gave me on our wedding night, that he will always make me coffee in the morning.

And he has kept his promise extremely faithfully (he only forgot one time), but when we first arrived in Bunbury we found that we had a problem. I would get up early with Hayden and he would make me coffee, and then he'd leave for work at 6:30am which in July was in complete darkness. So then I would be wide awake full of coffee beans, with a long day stretching before me filled with nothing. After all the fun we had in New Zealand, life in Bunbury was depressing.

Hayden's lovely solution was to let me sleep in a bit longer each day while he crept about in silence and darkness getting ready for work. He would then prepare the coffee and leave it sitting on the stove all ready to cook. I would wake up later to a lovely coffee, topped off with a note from Hayden, carefully written and tucked into the top of the coffee maker. Not quite as nice as spending the morning together, but better on the whole for me during that difficult time.

These days things are much better. It's lighter in the mornings for one thing and my days are much happier, so I often make it up in the morning to have breakfast with Hayden (plus we live much closer to his work now, so he leaves later). We have solved our little problems one by one and we are now quite contentedly taking each Spring day at a time. I have decided to stop trying to tell myself (and you) that we have 'settled in' here in Bunbury because truthfully we don't feel that we want to stay here long. But you never know, that might later change.

This morning I was cleaning up near the stove and I noticed that the pile of morning coffee notes has grown quite tall! I feel a bit silly keeping them, but they remind me how each day has lead to the next, and the next, and how we've walked our way out of the darkness.

Lavender

2009-10-12T19:24:00.004+10:00

I keep harvesting this stuff from the garden. I have no idea what to do with it.

Any suggestions?

Walk along the estuary

2009-10-09T12:05:00.003+10:00

Earlier this the week, Hayden and I took an afternoon stroll along Leschenault Inlet, the long tidal stretch of water known locally as 'the estuary'. It's a great place for watching pelicans and other waterbirds, and spotting kangaroos and the occasional dolphin. The dolphins come in to the estuary when the ocean outside gets too rough.

Though we won't get daylight saving here (WA decided against it last year) the days are getting longer and warmer, and the afternoons are saturated in sunset colours. I'm finally feeling like we're starting to settle in.

At the End of the Day

2009-10-06T16:53:00.015+10:00

At the end of a day of gardening I still have a sharp hill to climb back up to the house.

Welcome to the funny back half of our place. Below this big rock wall, our backyard slopes quickly downhill to two ugly sheds - one of them enormous as well as ugly - plus our veggie garden and fruit trees. It's a funny old place, but the more sunny days I spend in the veggie garden the more I like it. It's been a good while since I've lived in a place with a back yard. Back in Townsville, our backyard was the communal pool and carpark. Before that in Melbourne our back yard was ...Toorak Road?

Even the big rock wall is growing on me, now that there are more things growing on it. It has daisies busting out of every cranny. Actually, we have a lot to thank this wall for: the house was available for rent for months before we moved into it, a lot of families rejecting it because of the dangerous drop in the backyard. Then the price decreased by $100 a week and it fell nicely down into our price-range. Thank you dangerous drop!

River duck

2009-10-02T13:57:00.002+10:00

Warm Spring Weekend

2009-09-29T09:35:00.007+10:00

This weekend was a big one. On Saturday morning we bid our final goodbyes to Hayden's Grandma Ellie. Though we wished we could have been at the funeral in Palmerston North with the rest of the family, we saw that she had a good send-off via webcam. Who said that technology was impersonal? We felt like we were really there. We sobbed along, and laughed along, with everyone else. It was a really nice goodbye.

The rest of the weekend we spent in gentle celebration of spring, and of life. I worked in the veggie garden, planted spring onions, potatoes, lettuce and basil. Hayden took me for a ride on our tandem bike, all up and down the other side of the river. We walked along the beach together. We spread the weekend papers out in the sun and read a bit ... dozed a bit. It was good to feel so warm.

Good Beans

2009-09-21T19:17:00.034+10:00

Coffee drinking just got even more serious at our place.

Hayden got hold of some green beans (ordered off the internet, where else) so he could try his hand at roasting them himself.

Because he wanted to make it a proper trial, he compared his beans to all the other kinds that we currently have in the house (from L to R): Javan, Nuiginian, East Timorese and Indian. Have you had coffee from India recently? It's one of my new all-time favourites.

Hayden's green beans were from Ipanema (you know, like the girl in the song).

Marny and I watched on while Hayden swirled the beans around on the stove in one of our old frying pans. He gave them a nice dark roast and the smell that came out was absolutely nose-tingling. The beans cracked and glistened, just like the proper ones from the shops!

And the taste?

Delicious!

Just add Juleps

2009-09-16T11:41:00.004+10:00

Mint supply 2, originally uploaded by &Naomi.

So most of our veggie garden is languishing in the 'ideas' stage, but the herb section is going nuts. Look at our mint! Perhaps it's not surprising that the mint has spread out a bit over the last couple of weeks - good rain, spring coming, mint being mint and all that - but I can't help willing it to come on even further. I'm fantasizing mostly of ripping out big handfuls of the stuff to mix into our summer drinks.

Spring

2009-09-14T20:08:00.003+10:00

Spring 3, originally uploaded by Town and a Half.

It's here!

Living Room

2009-09-07T18:29:00.003+10:00

Living Room, originally uploaded by Town and a Half.

Oolong Tea

2009-09-07T11:17:00.001+10:00

PICT0035, originally uploaded by Town and a Half.

This time around, I'm trying to be a calmer student. Instead of coffee around the clock, I'm going for Oolong tea.

Studying

2009-09-06T15:52:00.004+10:00

I've started a course! I'm studying writing - long distance of course, from my laptop out on our sunny verandah.

I'm really enjoying it. The format for contributing my responses to tutorial questions online is a lot like blogging, so no great stretch so far.

But can you imagine blogging - and then getting a mark at the end of semester? Hmm maybe it's time to knuckle down?

The Munda Biddi Trail

2009-09-01T10:42:00.010+10:00

Opportunities for outdoor exercise are everywhere around here. Hayden is, of course, planning to be part of the Ironman (big triathlon) down the road in Bussleton in December, so recently he has been ramping up his training and we've been out to explore some of the local trails - together.

The Munda Biddi Trail is an enormous mountainbike trail which starts just north of Perth, passes us by in Bunbury and carries on down to Albany on the south coast of Australia. The whole trail is off-road, running mainly through tall eucalypt forest. The Bibbulmun Track is a similarly huge hiking track, on which hikers spend days walking and nights camped in tin sheds. Both of these enormous tracks conveniently criss-cross just a short distance from the door of Hayden's office. I picked him up from work this afternoon with my bike in the back and we gave the Munda Biddi Trail a bit of a go.

The trail is commodious - built for groups of mountainbikers to ride together - so it's perfect for my favourite kind of exercise with Hayden: the Run-Ride. On a Run-Ride, Hayden runs on foot while I pedal effortlessly alongside him on the bike. It does look a bit sadistic when we're going along, and I get lots of comments from people we pass by (including the old 'whip-crack' sound), but really it's a brilliant piece of solutioneering. I could never keep up with Hayden if I was on foot and he would never get enough training in if he slowed down to walk with me. On a run-ride, however, I get a nice long easy ride though the forest while Hayden sweats, working hard beside me for a couple of hours. Also, I get to do most of the talking. If Hayden is really training hard he'll be too puffed to interrupt.

Land of Apples

2009-08-24T09:49:00.041+10:00

Yesterday, we took the road to Manjimup via Dardenup and Marrylup and arrived in Balingup. I now know that what I thought was one town called "blah-blah-something-up" is at least three or four different towns. This is the region to the south-east of us, where apples are grown.

The trees are all bare now, and silverly eerily beautiful.

And the empty crates stack up to make an interesting temporary wall for the packing shed.

When we first visited Bunbury in May, it was the end of summer and we bought a couple of apples from a farmer's market. They were so crunchy fresh and sweet that they made it into the 'pro' column when we were making up our minds about moving here. It's nice to know that the apples were super-local. And I'm definitely coming back for more, straight from the source.

Study

2009-08-19T10:08:00.015+10:00

This is my study. The light was coming into it so nicely this morning (it's our first proper sunny day in ages), that I wanted to take a snap. I thought my desk looked a bit like a still-life - complete with a piece of fruit, my morning mandarine. You might need to click on the image to see what I'm talking about.

Those white shelves in the sunlight are part of the set that I got on our Ikea trip. I know they look a bit bare, but my idea is that I'll fill them up with little objects that inspire me. Standing behind the desk are two more Ikea bookcases, waiting to become my reference library.

Curtains

2009-08-17T17:06:00.019+10:00

Sometimes I wonder, as I think other educated creative and crafty bloggers do, whether our foremothers really fought for liberation in the 1960s just so I could stay home day after day and worry about curtains?

When we rented this house, we were promised curtains for the front living room. Today, after days and days of nagging phonecalls, they were finally delivered and I was so relieved that I nearly skipped out the door to my yoga class. During the class - I know you're only meant to think about yoga during yoga class, but anyway - I thought about how sometimes when a tiny issue gets stuck or snagged, I really let it get to me out of all proportion.

Does that ever happen to you?

Not Nearly Enough

2009-08-14T12:55:00.010+10:00

Outside today it's wet and windy and the water in the river is being whipped into little whitecaps.

I wish it were warmer. I'm stiff and tired today after a long day yesterday shopping in Perth (I know, tough for some). I'm wishing for some easy work, like washing all the sheets and towels and putting them out to dry in the sun. Such an easy, simple, satisfying job.

But I don't have nearly enough sunlight. All I've got is this tiny square: the lemons I picked from the backyard tree a couple of days ago.

Time, do you think?

2009-08-11T18:24:00.045+10:00

Something about this blog seems wrong. Is it the name up there in the header? And maybe the image too? Think maybe it's time for an update?

Drue asked me a while ago if I would change the name A Town and a Half now that I've left Townsville. I agree it makes sense ... but what to change it to? Nothing's jumping out at me. To be blunt, nothing in the whole of Bunbury is jumping out at me. Compared to Townsville it seems safe and quiet. We've left the North's outlandish edge. It's nice here. It's nearly sedate.

And the colours are different - have you noticed in the photos? Where Townsville is a clashing kaleidoscope: blue sky, aqua sea, red rock, and a jungle of overgrowing plantlife, the landscape around Bunbury is muted. It's flat browns and dull greens. It's beautiful too - in a slow, more restful way. In Townsville I was overwhelmed with excess colour. Here I love our wide brown river, with no crocs, and the endless view of eucalypts out into the distance. It's quieter, gentler.

I think I will make up a new name. It will mean the end of A Town and a Half - I'll close it off, and start again somewhere else. I'll leave it all still sitting here though, so I can look back through the highs and lows of our time in North Queensland. It was quite a rollercoaster in the end.

Big Weekend

2009-08-10T16:35:00.014+10:00

Have you ever wanted to get to Ikea so badly that you got up early - in the dark - on a Saturday morning; drove two hours to the nearest big city; got lost on an unfamiliar freeway; drove around in circles for a bit; found yourself again, found Ikea, found a parking space and still arrived in time for it to open?

No?

I don't think Hayden has ever wanted to do all that either. But he's so good to me that he did it anyway.

Afterwards we got him a beer at the Little Creatures Brewery in Fremantle. So it wasn't a completely wasted trip.

. . . to this

2009-08-05T13:42:00.028+10:00

Forgive me.

It's so wonderful to have a big wide house with different rooms for everything. A guest room that's just a guest room and not also a storeroom, sewing room and study. A place for our four bicycles that isn't in the lounge room.

I can't help showing off our new place.

But the best best part is the bit across the road.

The River.

(I'm pretty sure I secretly think of it as Our River.)

From this . . .

2009-07-31T13:10:00.016+10:00

As I may have hinted in that last post, I'm pretty chuffed with the new house we've found to live in.

When we first arrived in Bunbury, the company Hayden works for very kindly put us up in this little house in the suburbs while we looked for somewhere permanent to live:

And at first glance you might think it looks quite nice - it was very clean and quite new. But after a few weeks there, I was struggling. I found it claustrophobic, uninspiring, and that aluminium fencing gave off a glare that caused me migraines. Not nice.

In comparison, our new house - our River House - is beautiful, old, spacious and loaded with character. The owners have partially renovated it in a very grand style, and the rest of it .. well, it's loaded with character. I'm bursting with pride - and amazement - that it's ours. For only a small increase in rent, it really is quite an upgrade on our Townsville apartment.

I'm itching to show you more photos, but first I have to get everything looking right. In the meantime, I'm off to a meeting that might bring me some freelance writing work. Wish me luck?

A Little Housewarming

2009-07-29T18:47:00.021+10:00

One good thing: we have a little bit of family here. With Marny here in Bunbury as well, we are a small WA outpost (or pod?) of the Matthew-Reakes.

On Saturday, Marny brought round a civilised feast of local produce and local bubbles to help us celebrate moving in to our new house.

We made a toast, then watched the sun go down from our verandah.

Nice, eh?

Ten Weeks Ago Today

2009-07-21T16:27:00.041+10:00

Hayden's phone rang and we both jumped. He jumped because he always jumps and scrabbles for his phone if it rings while he's driving, and I jumped because it scares the bejesus out of me when he does that.

We were on a dry sandy road surrounded by grassy scrub, on our way south from Townsville to Brisbane. We'd just decided that we weren't going to stop in Gladstone; we didn't want to see another small refinery town. Hayden fished the ringing phone out of his pocket and handed it to me to answer. It was Jane, the HR lady from the Bunbury Refinery where we'd flown for his interview the weekend before. I asked Jane to wait while Hayden found a place to stop and talk.

She was calling for Hayden's referees. At the end of the call Hayden asked "Just out of curiosity ..." which is how he starts a lot of questions, "how many people is it down to?" And Jane replied, "Well, usually I wouldn't tell you this, but it's just down to you at this stage." Hayden stuttered "thank you" and hung up the phone.

We passed the rest of the day in a daze. We couldn't be sure exactly what the phonecall meant but it seemed likely, though not certain, that Hayden would be offered the job. Hayden needed to stop driving to process that information, so we decided to go in to Gladstone after all - for some lunch and to talk. We drove all the way in there and drove around the town and up to Radar Hill to see the view. We couldn't settle on a place to stop, but we did want some lunch and I wanted to sit together and talk it out ... but he'd suddenly gone super-antsy. In retrospect it seems clear that all he really wanted was to contact his referees and tell them the good news. I couldn't pick up on it at the time; I suppose I was overcome with relief. And hunger.

Hayden called his old boss Josh while we were waiting at a sandwich bar, and then we walked over the road to the Gladstone Library for him to email his other referee Elaine - he didn't know where in the world she was at that moment. I remember he marched right past the Information Desk to where the computers were. He just needed to get onto a computer. I called him back and he signed in correctly with the librarian, and he was very apologetic and charming, but I could tell he'd been blind to her completely. He just needed to get to that computer.

I'd forgotten that day until yesterday when I walked in the door of the Bunbury library and it seemed immediately similar. And neither of them is much different to the one back in Townsville. They're all big new buildings housing little collections, with internet computers in use all day long. In the foyer of the Gladstone library, where I waited for Hayden that day, I noticed they were having a charity sale of old jigsaw puzzles. I like puzzles, and I like to do something charitable when it suits me, so I spent quite a long time trying to choose just one or two; they were a bargain at 50c each. Then I suddenly put them all down when I realised that it was going to be a long time until I could go home and spread out a puzzle - wherever and whenever that home was going to be.

I suppose what I'm trying to say is that for all the big change and upheaval of the past three months, we've very nearly settled back down again - in another small refinery town on the coast. Ok, so we're on a different coast now - Bunbury's on the west coast of Australia, south of Perth - but there is a lot here that feels the same. There's good and bad in that.

Hopefully over the coming weeks I'll start to unravel more of the good. With more photos, I promise.

The Best

2009-07-07T14:54:00.012+10:00

We had a wonderful time in New Zealand

Such a beautiful, restful, damp and arty place.

Sadly we have to say goodbye ...

goodbye for now.

Killer Fluffy

2009-06-05T11:58:00.005+10:00

Our Lily is afraid of sheep. She HATES them.

Yes, our cat has come with us to New Zealand. We probably wouldn't have put her through the trauma of travelling if we'd known that we were only going to stay for a month, but she's been a real trooper with all the changes. She's OK with the cold and rain here - only she does sometimes wake us up ridiculously early needing to be let outside, only to come skulking back in a very short time later. She then burrows back into the bed with us - fur and paws all damp and cold. She's become an exemplary snuggler and a champion heater-hogger.

The only time I've seen her really up in arms was today when our neighbourhood sheep moved into a paddock really close to our house. Lil glimpsed them through the fence and got scared; she let out a low moan like wind through an old farmhouse and scampered quickly up onto the microwave. Obviously we shouldn't let her do that, but (a) none of her training seems to have come with her from Townsville and (b) she's got to have at least one high safe place from where she can keep an eye on those woolly bastards next door. I don't know what she thinks they might do to her.

Life in the Shadow of a Mountain

2009-05-26T10:39:00.003+10:00

This morning we had to crack open the car - it was frozen shut and the windscreen was completely frosted up with beautiful feathery swirls of ice. Sitting inside the frosted up car was strangely cosy, and then as the ice melted and we were able to drive away, we came into some beautiful views of the mountain all covered in delicious-looking icecreamy snow. We've come to Taranaki - on the western side of New Zealand's North Island - for Hayden to start work with an organic cheese factory that's being built by a stream. Sounds idyllic, doesn't it? And it is. It's just beautiful. Freezing, literally. But beautiful. It's everything you would imagine life in New Zealand to be.

We're staying in a little wooden cottage with no mobile coverage and no internet (I'm typing this at the local library 15km down the road). It has rained ferociously. Geese and sheep are our closest neighbours. I'm wearing more layers of clothing than ever before: thermal socks and jumpers, woolly hats and scarves and gloves. It's quite a contrast to Townsville where I thought winter might be coming when I put an extra sheet on the bed to 'rug up' in the morning.

It is beautiful here ... but this is not the end of the story. We might not be staying long, and it is looking likely that Bunbury in Western Australia will win out in the end. In a couple of weeks we will be back across the Tasman, back all the way across Australia and as far as we know, that will be our final stop. But in the meantime we're enjoying the beautiful green grass - it's flourescent, really - the fresh clear water that comes straight out of the tap and the family and friends who are all around us here. Bunbury seems a long, long way away.

Goodbyeeeeee

2009-05-11T22:37:00.005+10:00

Finally, something's changed. We've packed up our house and our car, and we're heading off on a new road.

We weren't sure that this was ever going to happen. Right down to the last minute, the plan kept changing: there were phonecalls about jobs that Hayden had given up on, last minute interview trips to Melbourne and Western Australia (sorry Melbourne friends, we were there so briefly we didn't have time to see everybody - so we decided to be fair and see nobody while we were there.)

In fact, the plan is not even settled yet: we are not yet sure of our final destination. Tomorrow we set off from Townsville for the last time; by the time we arrive in Brisbane (we're going to take four days to drive there) we'll know whether we're headed for New Plymouth in New Zealand or Bunbury in Western Australia.

Keep you posted.

On the Job Front

2009-04-09T10:25:00.015+10:00

Recently I have been thinking that it is a bit of a shame, really, not to be documenting this phase of our lives more closely. I mean, it might be helpful, or useful, or even interesting for other people to hear a little bit about what it's been like for us to be participating in this global thing that's going on right now. This Global Recession.

Hayden can show his side, what it's like to be a clever, talented and career-driven person who at any normal time would have to beat job offers away with a stick. He's an extremely employable person - an engineer with an MBA for goodness sake - who in recent times has gotten to know that ashy taste of disappointment when the HR people don't call back: it means rejection on the job front.

Seems like everyone in the job market is ready to accept the kind of work they were doing five years ago and we can count the number of times Hayden has held the big crumb of a job opportunity in his hands only to have some wily old eagle, who was doing that job five years ago, swoop down and snatch it from his grasp. Hayden is waiting to get the chance to become that swooping eagle himself. It may come yet. And then he'd have that crumb of a job he was doing five years ago, with its reduced pay and stripped out benefits, all its comforts gone. But, you know, it would still be a job.

It is tricky being on the sidelines of this one. I'm doing everything I can think of to stay supportive and patient, including trying to earn enough for our weekly expenses on my reduced hours at the coffee shop. (Why did they reduce my hours? I don't know. Feels like spite). We're both staying positive, we're kind to each other and we support some of the crazy efforts of friends who find themselves in a similar position. (Check out this old mate of mine Demis, who built a website to showcase his special wares. He's offering some real bargains on there: http://www.ijustwantyourmoney.com/).

And, of course, we don't want to be whingers. We don't want to be putting a negative vibe out there, and it's our instinct to close ranks and protect ourselves when we're going through a tough time. So I don't expect I'll be talking much in the future about what's going on around here ~ not until we have some good news to tell. But I thought that I would give you a little glimpse of what it's been like. For us, anyway.

Um, hello

2009-03-12T10:36:00.010+10:00

There's just not a lot I can talk about in public at the moment. But we're plugging away - Hayden's applying for jobs with all his might, and I'm making coffees each day like you wouldn't believe.

I have found a bit of time to get back in the garden, though. After months away from it during our monster Wet Season, I've recently discovered that not all our plants are completely dead. Some have gone. A couple have thrived on all that water, but most are just looking a bit straggly and stressed. But the thing about caring for plants is that if you get their situation right - just enough water, just enough sun - they do grow beautifully, all on their own. Sometimes it takes a while to find that right position, but once you do you can rely on them - they usually come good.

What happened THIS week

2009-02-22T15:45:00.023+10:00

We have had to do a fair bit of adjusting recently, and this week I got to do just a little bit more. This week I changed employers. I didn't change jobs, rather my job changed around me. Of course the first rule of blogging is: don't talk about work. But work is all I've been doing recently, so talk about it I will.

For the last couple of weeks I've been working full time at the coffee shop, not out of a conscious choice so much as out of my panicked reaction to our current circumstances combined with the shop owner's need to cover all the shifts. He's come to be part friend/part boss over the past two years, and he said it would really help him out if I could bump up my shifts from two days a week to five. Just for a while. Me, I'm not usually able to refuse a request for help. And I was happy to do it because I loved his coffee shop; it was the first place we went in Townsville where we really felt at home and happy to just hang out. I really wanted the place to survive, and to do well. The boss said that a new staff member would join us soon. He said maybe next week. Then he said maybe the week after that.

Well. On Thursday my co-worker and I got the news that our boss was no longer our boss, and that another bigger and much more professional outfit had taken over our tiny coffee operation. They told us that they were keen to 'minimise any disruption' and that it would really help them out if we would stay on in our jobs. In that moment it sounded like an OK idea, so I agreed.

But after two days under this new arrangement, my head is still spinning. It's the same job - the same coffee, the same regulars with the same orders, the same mini-conversation over and over again throughout the day. But the background noise is completely different. I'm no longer working to help a friend out, doing everything I can to build our base of happy customers and to keep the whole thing afloat. For him I worked super-hard, because if his business went under we would lose one of the mainstays of our life in Townsville. If you are not a coffee drinker, you might wonder how a single coffee shop could have that much bearing on a life. But just imagine we're in Casablanca. This coffee shop was our Rick's. So now we're still in Rick's Cafe, but it's been taken over by his greasy competitor from the Blue Parrot. Ugh.

It's just a job to me now.

Valentine's Day Lunch

2009-02-14T14:04:00.007+10:00

Obviously ~ to have love, life, food and shelter is to be lucky. Especially now; especially in Australia.

But I know that I am really lucky.

Today, for Valentines Day, Hayden recreated our legendary first picnic together: Summer 2004, Moonlight Cinema, Melbourne botanical gardens. As he spread the picnic blanket with wine and food he'd spent the day preparing, Hayden asked me: "You're not vegetarian are you?" And I could see all the trouble he'd gone to and answered: (gulp) "... no, of course not." And it wasn't a lie; from that point on I really was an omnivore. Today's menu is one of my favourites: roast chicken stuffed with semi-dried tomatoes, rocket leaves and cous cous salad. This time, though, it was an indoor picnic as the ground outside is still completely wet and muddy.

Obviously ~ there are ups and downs. Things happen to us, and other things fail to happen, and the circumstances test us. We might just now, Hayden and I, be getting a sense of all the things that can happen during a marriage, and how it will last and bounce back and carry on, always growing stronger.

I'm wishing you a happy Valentine, too.

40 Days and Nights

2009-02-08T10:41:00.003+10:00

The newspaper tells us that this has been going on for forty days and nights, but I don't know if that's true.

I can't remember how long it has been raining or what it was like before - all I know is that some time ago things changed: the sun disappeared. the air cooled. Hayden stopped going to work every day and I started. He's been writing letters and emailing, applying, working full time at finding a job. Meanwhile I am making coffees all day long, and in my dreams at night I'm still making coffees. Two nights ago Lily jumped up by my side of the bed and asked me for a medium mocha. That was plain ridiculous; she knows she can't have chocolate.

Wherever you are in Australia - the cool part drowning in puddles or the hot part dry and fireswept - I hope you're going OK. We are. We're plodding along through our new muddy puddles. We are going OK.

We'll be fine.

2009-01-26T15:48:00.004+10:00

So how are you? I mean really?

We, I mean Hayden and I, we're fine. We really are. But I won't lie to you: we're not completely fine.

Until recently, the world's financial troubles were merely theory to us. Due to, well, due mainly to apathy and procrastination, we didn't have much invested and we didn't lose much when the stock market went down. We always said we'd invest ... later. I actually felt pretty smug and safe cos we'd just chucked all our money in the bank. And it was fine.

But we watched the news. We had a feeling that things were going to change, and there were rumours going around at Hayden's work. We thought they might announce some big changes on January 21 - the day of Obama's inauguration. The company could prepare itself, knowing there would be a lot of attention on the goings on in Washington. They could be pretty sure they would be the second story on the news that night.

So, last Wednesday, January 21, Hayden was called to a meeting. The company announced their changes, and Hayden lost his job along with 102 of his colleagues. In the same cut, our friends in Perth lost their jobs too when a whole mine was closed.

But we'll be fine. We'll be fine. I keep saying it like a mantra, to myself mostly. We'll have four or five months (longer if we're thrifty) in which to re-settle ourselves ... But we can't imagine where that might be. In the meantime, Hayden's settling into a new routine and he's taken over my sewing table for his temporary home office. And it is nice having him home with me during the day.

Rainy Days

2009-01-15T08:50:00.009+10:00

Once again, the rain has come to Townsville. This is a good and a bad thing.

The downside is that we've had so much rain that it's started coming inside. It wells up through little cracks between the walls and the floor, just at the most inconvenient spots. One spot, under my desk, was just where I kept the old cardboard box filled with little scraps of paper on which were written ideas for blogs and stories, lists of goals and dreams and half-formed characters. I was going to use all of those one day. The other spot was just where I stored the backup machine for my computer. Thank you, rainwater. Spot on as always.

But I love the cosiness of rainy days at home. Sitting, staring at the water coming down. Daydreaming of times past in distant rainy cities. Hanging out with my Christmas presents. I got an amazing haul of presents this year - didn't you? My sister gave us the jigsaw puzzle in the photo, which Lily and I have been working on for a couple of days. I got a beautiful grey handmade shoulder bag from Kirsten. A special writing pen from Hayden, and a new coffee cup with a lid for keeping the coffee warmer for longer as it sits at my bedside. And so many other beautiful things.

My parents gave me a voucher for their favourite independent bookshop in Brisbane. A book voucher is highly prized in my family; we're agreed that choosing the book is at least half the fun. Last Friday Hayden and I stopped in and found that it's a factual, learned sort of bookshop with beautiful books on design, gardening, foreign languages and all sorts of academical stuff. And it's also got the best little section on writing. I chose this book, Bird by Bird, and I highly recommend it to anyone who's looking for some gentle, funny and helpful advice on writing. Whether or not you take it is, of course, up to you.

The wedding of Paul and Millicent

2009-01-14T11:18:00.010+10:00

Paul and Millicent were married atop a hill in northern New South Wales.

(Hayden took all these photos.)

In a nice twist on the usual ceremony, the whole crowd got to pronounce them husband and wife, and we all yelled together "You may now kiss the bride!"

Later there was feasting and dancing, and quite a lot of drinking.

(I mention the drinking only because my biggest contribution to the day was to assist my parents bottling twelve dozen long-neck beers, which many of the guys carried around and drank from as if they were stubbies).

It was grand.

Hanging Patchwork

2009-01-07T09:17:00.021+10:00

I showed you this 'dappled shade' patchwork before, when I first made it as a picnic blanket. I originally thought of it as a present for my brother Paul and his fiancee Millicent, who are getting married this Saturday down in the cool ranges of northern New South Wales. Like ours was, their wedding will be a full-weekend affair - the best for family weddings I reckon - but unlike ours it sounds like theirs will double as a mini music festival. I can't wait!

My inspiration for the patchwork was a backyard picnic we had at their place when we visited last July. We got the family together with a bottle of champagne to toast Paul's brand new self-designed-self-built chook house. Paul was pretty chuffed with his new structure and he hoped to enter it into an architectural competition as a small free-standing building. He is not shy of big ideas, my brother.

After that, I wanted to contribute something to their future backyard entertaining and I thought a new picnic blanket would do the trick. I wanted to recreate the setting - their cosy, wooden, plant-filled house in Dutton Park. Sort of old and dark and pleasantly connected with the leafy close surrounding trees, with back stairs down to a classic inner-city Brisbane backyard - long and grassy and stretching away downhill. I wanted to include a little of the muck of the chook house and the view we had from the backyard up into the earthy, undeveloped space under their house (Brisbane folk know what I'm talking about). There are brighter greens there too, mainly for Millicent who I think is going to add a dash of dramatic style to our family.

But do you know where you DON'T need a patch of dappled shade? Sitting in your shady back yard under a beautiful tree. That first bunch of photos I took told me that. Where you most want to be reminded of dappled shade is in your bright white lounge room in the middle of a Townsville summer. Our window faces east, and on the hottest mornings through the hottest months it lets in the most disgustingly harsh bright light, and heat that sets our place to bake for the rest of the day. A while ago I covered it with the 'dappled shade' blanket, and it does the trick completely. (Yes, perhaps wooden shutters outside would also work well, but so far our landlord is saying No to that.) Now the blanket's a fixture and I can't imagine taking it down before the weather turns nice again in April. Sorry guys.

But don't worry, we did get you another wedding present.

Happy New Year!

2009-01-02T08:43:00.005+10:00

I am starting off this fresh new year in a cleaning and organising frenzy. I have already worked out my new year's resolution - I just make one and keep it each year, I don't piss around with lists of impossible tasks - and I might share it here later.

In the meantime, I hope you had a fun new year's eve, and I wish you all the best for 2009. Thanks for clicking on my blog this year!

Naomi

Looking Nothing At All Like Christmas

2008-12-18T09:24:00.017+10:00

You know, hot Christmas is beginning to be a problem. And I think it's getting worse.

Each year I add more crafty blogs to my link list, and each year I get new ideas from them for Christmas preparation - the cooking, gifts you make rather than buy, and of course the decorations for your home. I love all that stuff and I come away feeling full of inspiration, but I find that I have nowhere to direct it. These Christmas-crafty people seem mostly to live in the northern hemisphere, where they make hearty meals and big fruit cakes, cosy soft decorations and generally create warmth and bright to banish the cold and dark outside.

We in Townsville get more than enough warmth and bright from the sun each day, and what we need most of all is to not manufacture any more of it. This causes a problem with the Christmas decorations. Our shops, of course, go nuts with the tinsel and the songs about sleigh bells, and there's enough of an ick factor there - hot and flustered car parking, shops overrun with bogans and really too many bodgy tattoos on display - to put me off entirely. (The other day I had to get Hayden to drive us home from the pool a different way, avoiding the Christmas Carols in the park, because I couldn't look at another insufficiently-dressed inked-up person - man or woman - climbing down from the family 4WD.) When I get home, I need to be cool and calm. Instantly.

I did manage a bit of Christmas crafting in the end. I really liked this idea from Posy Gets Cosy for a quilted table runner ~ quilted, of course, to hold groaning platters of hot roasted meats and big casserole dishes of vegetables. But instead of using warm Christmassy red and green, I stuck to coolish blues and pistachio. And I quilted it only very lightly - more to stop condensation rings than scorch marks on the table.

So, OK, it doesn't look very Christmassy. Don't think of hot roast turkey. Think of the cool and delicious glass of golden sauvignon blanc I'm enjoying right now because my Christmas decorating is done.

Hair Disaster

2008-12-11T14:53:00.010+10:00

I'm so irritated right now.

I was at the hairdresser's, right, which is in the middle of one of those disgustingly large shopping malls. I'd just sat down in front of the mirror and was leafing through an old copy of Australian Hair, they hadn't put the black cape around me or anything, when an alarm starts going off and we're instructed to evacuate the building. Hmph. The hairdressers promptly close their front door and usher all us customers out through the back into the carpark. The comical part was how they kept cutting hair all the while, and finished off a couple of cuts while we were standing around waiting in the sun. The less funny part was how everyone - the hairdressers naturally, all the other customers and Christmas shoppers and staff of other shops, everyone except me - all lit up a cigarette at exactly the same time. I'm sure even the children were smoking while we were all standing there squinting and sweating. It was disgusting.

I really wanted my hair cut, and I really didn't want to hike back to my car which was of course parked on the other side of the mall. But how long could I put up with that second hand smoke? No-one was offering to do my hair out there, but I waited and waited until finally the chief hairdresser told all the other hairdressers that they could go home. As we were standing in their staff carpark, they all just hopped into their tiny cars and sped off out of there. Ugh. I was left to begin my circumnavigation of the enormous building, and I got crankier and crankier with each hot step. I could feel my skin burning in the sun. I tried to take a short-cut through the covered part of the carpark but I was told by an official that that was forbidden. It was a bomb threat, and it had to be taken seriously.

I'm home now, but I'm still cranky. If I ever find out who phoned in that bomb threat, well, I'm going to ...well, I don't know. But I'll think of something.

Flying Home

2008-12-05T10:12:00.009+10:00

Don't you love the little guys on these placemats? I found them in our 'special things' cupboard, and I believe they once belonged to Hayden's Grandma. They're different birds of New Zealand including, of course, the kiwi (that's the New Zealand Little Spotted Kiwi in the middle there). This year it's Hayden's turn to have Christmas at home, and we'll be flying to New Zealand - just for a week - on December 23. I wonder if there will be space on the Christmas table for them?

I am a bit sad to be missing Christmas in Brisbane with my half of the family, but I have to say that Christmas in New Zealand is pretty good too. For one thing, it's often cool enough to enjoy a big warm lunch on Christmas day. And for another thing, well, our last Christmas trip there did turn out to be really, really good.

Ipod Pocket

2008-12-05T07:45:00.004+10:00

Recently I made this little felt pocket to keep my ipod safe while it's languishing in the bottom of my handbag. It gets pretty knocked about in there when I'm rummaging around for my keys/phone/money/lipgloss/a pen. Now I know that my ipod is the soft and furry thing in there, it's also much quicker to grab when I need it.

I highly recommend such a thing for anyone who's still wrestling with three devices in their bag instead of one.

Hayden/Santa, you know what I'm talking about.

Rise and Shine

2008-12-04T10:21:00.004+10:00

Ahh today I'm feeling fresher and better. Yesterday, Wednesday, was hard and hot and slow. The day started badly because I wanted to sleep in but I knew I had to get up. Wednesday is the day the yard guy comes to cut the grass, and though he seems a nice friendly fellow, and though he does an excellent job with our yard, he doesn't have the common courtesy to pretend he can't see us through the window while he's out there working and we're standing in the kitchen in our skimpy summer jammies. So Wednesdays, whatever else happens, I'm up and dressed by 6:30am or embarrassment ensues. (The worst is when I think I've got time to skip out to the washing line to collect some clothes to wear ... but I meet him coming in through our front gate on my way back inside. He always wants to stop and chat. Either he can't sense my embarrassment or he maliciously enjoys prolonging it.)

Last week at aquarobics I heard about a Townsville court case from a couple of years ago, in which a man was arrested for indecent exposure while inside his own home. His nakedness was espied through the window by a passing pedestrian. If I was that pedestrian, I would be careful about what kind of feud I started. It might come back and bite me on the arse.

Big Workload

2008-12-03T09:01:00.022+10:00

My in-tray is completely overflowing. Remember how small and manageable my workload used to be?

I'm not getting very much of anything done today. I've been sleeping poorly recently and that makes me super-cranky during the day and leaves me with a very low frustration-threshold. It's enough to make me want to toddle down to the video shop and get a movie that Hayden wouldn't ever want to see, watch it at home with the aircon on full bore, my feet up on the coffee table and a bowl of ice-cream on my lap.

Come to think of it, it would be a complete waste of the day NOT to do that.

Seeya later.

Love Friday: The Rain

2008-11-28T08:01:00.006+10:00

The humidity has broken. I do not know if that is the correct term for it, but last night the rain thundered down for hours and this morning the world is wet and dripping.

The fat glossy drops hang on the end of the bottle-brush's leaves, just outside our kitchen window. I'm standing at the sink, looking out into the grey and green and feeling quite cosy inside. My Ella Jenkins CD is on.

But what to do next? I noticed the other day that Lindcraft has opened up a shop in Townsville. Maybe today's the day I go and check it out?

Welcome Baby Isabelle!

2008-11-27T10:09:00.010+10:00

Congratulations Ben and Tanzi on the arrival of

beautiful baby Isabelle.

We'll be over to New Zealand soon to meet you!

Bright and Breezy

2008-11-25T12:27:00.012+10:00

Ah! Can you feel that cool breeze coming off the water? It was lovely to feel it this morning after a weekend so hot and humid I thought I would be pickled.

On Saturday night we went to Hayden's work Christmas party. The theme was 'Tropical Paradise', and they definitely got the tropical part right. It was an extremely sultry night, and you'd sweat just standing still holding a drink. But very fun indeed - definitely the best one we've been to so far. At past work functions we've been sat in tables of ten through a groaning three-course meal before being dragged onto the dancefloor. (I hate being asked to dance by Hayden's work colleagues. Especially on a full stomach. So awkward.)

But this time it was a real grown-ups party with waiters and drinks trays, a wild range of hors d'oeuvres and a serve-yourself oyster bar. There were live bands, fire-twirlers and a mini casino where I won quite a bit of money playing poker. It was fake money of course. But still.

Love the Couch

2008-11-21T07:46:00.005+10:00

It's sweltering. And we're feeling it. Especially those of us with fluffy tummies. Couch season has begun.

I'm looking forward to the weekend, but I can only see two reasons to get up off the couch: Saturday night it's Hayden's work Christmas party (I know, already), and Sunday morning I'm going to be out on the river in a kayak, counting triathletes as they go round the swim course. That should be refreshing.

I'm wishing you a cool breeze this weekend,

whatever you're doing.

Spending

2008-11-12T17:41:00.017+10:00

I don't know much about money, but I reckon Kevin Rudd's onto something: when you're feeling broke, one of the best things you can do is spend a little. It eases the pressure beautifully, you feel heaps better, and then you're able to tackle your money problems in good spirits.

Flipping through a magazine yesterday, I saw an idea for spreading around a little extra cash: through these people, Kiva.org, you can invest a small amount of money directly to someone in need of a bit of capital to help their small business - be it sewing clothes, milking cows or growing bananas. What is only a small amount of money in Australia, as little as $25, can mean a lot to someone in one of the poorer countries of the world.

I just wanted to let you know about it. I'm not trying to be preachy. One of my least favourite sensations is the mix of 10% guilt / 90% irritability I feel when I encounter advertising which tries to guilt-trip me into donating money. It's not that I don't think those poor little kids with the big swollen bellies deserve help - I just don't want to be made to feel bad about it. I hate those depressing voice-overs and the mournful music they play while they describe the worst cases of poverty. I don't want to be rung up during my dinner - how do they even know what time we're going to eat? - and I always look away from those sad round eyes peering out from my Saturday paper. I used to think I must be naturally misanthropic, but what I have found is that when left to my own devices I do feel compelled to help other people. I want to be inspired, not guilt-tripped, into helping. I find it's much easier to do it in my own time.

Around this end of the year I usually like to make a small donation on behalf of Hayden and myself, especially when I feel like we've been lucky, or when I'm grateful that someone has taken a chance on one of us - and that has happened quite a bit this year. It feels like the right thing to do, to pass that chance on to someone else.

Thanks!

2008-11-12T16:20:00.003+10:00

Thank you so much everyone, for all the birthday wishes.

Happy, Happy Day

2008-11-11T07:46:00.013+10:00

Ahh what a wonderful day yesterday. And what a wonderful night. I felt so spoilt the entire time - like I was floating around on a cloud of luckiness and happiness. That was one of the best birthdays yet.

After an afternoon having my fingernails and toenails painted (at my favourite beauty spot) I was instructed by Hayden to be ready for dinner at 5:30 sharp. This did seem a bit strange, not because it was so early (things close early in Townsville, we're used to it now) but because it was sharp. What? Hayden is no respecter of restaurant bookings, so this was very out of character. It did make me wonder where we were going.

He picked me up right on time and drove us down past the waterfront .. no surprises yet .. past the Watermark, past the marina, past the turn-off back into town, and out towards the casino. Hmm. He stopped the car, and we began to walk ... to the ferry terminal. Ah! We were going to Magnetic Island, just for dinner. We'd never done that before.

It was such a romantic idea, and it was nearly a perfect night. We didn't stop at the Peppers Resort near the ferry terminal; we hopped on the bus over to Horseshoe Bay to Barefoot gallery and restaurant. We sat on their balcony - barefoot of course - and for a good while we were their only guests. We gazed out to the sea as the sun went down, and listened to the lazy little waves sloshing rhythmically on the beach. When the sky was really dark, all we could see were the lights at the top of each mast of the boats moored in the bay. It was very, very romantic.

Happy Birthday to Me!

2008-11-10T08:09:00.019+10:00

Today's my birthday and I'm having a wonderful day. All week Hayden has been spoiling me with gifts - a lucky ticket hidden in my weekend paper; a new CD I found in amongst our collection; a beautiful bunch of roses brought home one morning when he went out to get milk.

Lily has got in on the act too, and she got me a couple of really thoughtful gifts: a little stuffed toy that smells like catnip, and bubble blowing liquid... that also smells like catnip. Thanks Lily. She really knows what I like.

To all my far-away family and friends: I wish you were here! Then we'd share my beautiful pink-coated chocolate-berry-muffin-cake.

Hope you have a great day too, wherever you are.

Naomi

Love Friday: The Big Weekend

2008-11-07T10:53:00.021+10:00

We've got a wonderful weekend coming up, one with something for everyone. Well, something for each of us anyway.

For Hayden there's a big bike race on Saturday, featuring Australian stars of the Tour de France who even I have heard of: Robby McEwen and the guy who's nearly won the Tour de France twice now, Cadel Evans. To be honest I am quite looking forward to the bike race too, because it's one of those psych-out style races where the competitors go all wary and slow at the start until someone makes a move - and then it's on. We've been spotting the visiting cyclists around town for the last couple of days. It's not hard to do; they're the lanky ones with the shaven legs.

Then later, after all the heat and sweat of the bike race, we get to see the foreign and arty films of the Sydney Travelling Film Festival. I can't remember the last subtitled movie I saw at the cinema (though we did watch the brilliant and beautiful Diving Bell and the Butterfly at home). So far I've circled The Grocer's Son and Happy-Go-Lucky on the Festival program. What?? I've circled things on the program?? I used to be way cooler than that. Now I'm just looking forward to a real big-city arty treat. (I got a pang when I saw this picture of pale-faced Melbournians outside a gallery opening. Ah..)

Thanks again Big Cat for Love Fridays. It's the perfect way to build up to a weekend of fun.

River Swim

2008-11-02T13:12:00.022+10:00

We got to the river after a confusing and slightly nauseating drive through same-same-same-same 80s-brick suburbia. Some teenagers were already there, splashing around in the water until a cellphone rang from where it was wedged in the fork of a tree and they soon wandered off in a dripping bunch. They were nice - not sullen, not self-consciously brash like I was at that age. I always cringe hard when I see teenagers acting out. The last guy waited for us to get down to the water's edge, then threw the rope up to me before he climbed out up the exposed tree roots.

Then it was my turn to swing out on the rope and splash. Hayden swung in after me and we headed out across to the other side. And then back. Hayden did another lap - this time much more seriously - while I got out and waited for him on the bank. I watched him come back across the water towards me. I felt like I'll always be doing that. There's nothing so wholesome as a freshwater swim.

Love Friday: Early Knock-off

2008-10-30T16:16:00.009+10:00

At Hayden's work, the official Friday afternoon knock-off time is 2pm. It's always been 2pm. That sounds pretty good, doesn't it? But I don't know why, maybe he's just inefficient, but in all the time he's worked there Hayden has only managed to come home early on three Friday afternoons. That would be the last three Friday afternoons.

Just recently his workload has become more manageable, so we have instigated the most delightful Friday afternoon practice: no, not beers on the balcony (wait, why not beers on the balcony??) but an extremely delicious and civilised coffee together to kick off the weekend.

I can't wait.

Three Cheers

2008-10-30T15:39:00.008+10:00

Three cheers for Hayden, who fixed our washing machine single-handedly last night. I was not looking forward to any of the alternatives:

paying someone $80 to come and take a look at it, then paying $25 for each fifteen minutes they subsequently ummed and ahhhed.
trying to lift the thing into the back of our car to take it to be repaired, or

attending Thursday Night Shopping tonight to look for a replacement

Living without a washing machine was not one of our options. After only three days it was becoming uncomfortable, and a little bit smelly. I would not like to continue that way.

Thank you once again, wonderful husband.

2008-10-28T13:32:00.000+10:00

Love Friday: Clean and Fresh

2008-10-24T10:07:00.024+10:00

Today I am preparing for the oncoming summer: I have cleaned out our fridge, removing all these mystery bottles and jars of things out of date. Sadly included are some delicious beers, including our favourite, Little Creatures Bright Ale. So sad to see it go. However, I've made stacks of space in there for summer fruits, summer salads and of course bread. In summer in Townsville, it just doesn't last if you leave it on the kitchen bench.

I've also been to my first aqua-aerobics class. It's my third summer returning. I don't know if I'll be quite so dedicated this year - last year I went every chance I got after I bought that wedding dress off the rack that fitted me so perfectly. Make a note: aqua-aerobics is the exercise to do when you want to stay exactly the same size and shape. After class I always feel wonderful; my skin warm and refreshed from the sun and the water, my muscles aching pleasantly like they do when they've been used.

Thanks so much BigCat for hosting Love Fridays.

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PS: After I cleaned out the fridge, I cleaned out the pantry. I found a couple of items in it that were out of date in October 2005. That was before we came to Townsville! We transported things all the way from Melbourne that were already out of date. And then we stored them in our kitchen for three years. Hm.

The Warm Up

2008-10-22T14:51:00.009+10:00

It's really warming up here. Every October it's like someone turns on a massive oven with its door open facing Townsville. During October and November you can feel this oven heating up daily, and by January-February we're really being roasted.

I have been staying cool indoors during the day, sewing. Not more patchwork, and not clothes (don't get excited Katherine), but I've been making cushion covers and a few little crafty things that are likely to turn up in some peoples' Christmas stockings. Family, you have been warned.

Lily is my constant companion when sewing. She likes to rest on any fabric I've laid out for cutting and she loves to investigate the sewing machine - especially when it's going. But best of all she loves to pull out pins. She gets as many pin-heads as she can in each mouthful, pulls them out with a jerk of her pretty head, and scatters them all over the floor. I don't mind so much when they come out of the pin-cushion, but when she pulls them out of the fabric I've carefully pinned up for sewing ... well it does try my patience.

Power Cut

2008-10-06T11:24:00.007+10:00

We had a lovely Sunday. It was just perfect, really. We woke up early and got out of the house; we drove to the markets out at Willows. I've never had such a nice time there - usually it is late in the day by the time we finally make it, but it was so worth going early before the day warmed up. We were there for some fresh fruit and vegetables (specifically bananas and potatoes) but we also looked at some of the local handicrafts. We even picked up a fridge magnet made out of a beer bottle top with a tiny picture of an Australian landscape painted on the inside. Strange impulse purchase perhaps ... but it was only $5 and the guy was chuffed to make a sale.

When we got home, we made smoothies from the bananas and played a long game of scrabble. We don't impose a time limit, we just have music or telly playing softly in the background so that when it's not your turn there's always something to do. After about an hour and a half our scores were tied at 316. Hayden got all his letters down first, but I had cornered most of the triple word scores, so that's how we came out even. We went down to our local coffee place to celebrate the game, and stayed there sipping drinks and reading the papers until the owner kicked us out. He wanted to get home to watch the football.

Back at home, Hayden tinkered with his bicycles while I prepared the potatoes and put them in the oven. When they were ready, we spent about two hours covering the kitchen with flour and gluggy mess while we made a huge batch of gnocci - some for our dinner, and some to freeze for later.

After dinner, the power went out. We don't know why, but it was black all over our neighbourhood.

It was such a relaxing end to a perfectly relaxing day. There was sudden silence - no hum from next door's aircon or the pool filter just outside our bedroom window. No overheard TV or other peoples' music. Just us, sitting in candlelight with a pack of playing cards, relaxing and talking in the gloom. Showering and teethbrushing by candlelight reminded me of camping, and I was just lying in bed, feeling so peaceful and for once I loved not reading myself into sleepiness - it came all by itself.

I just wanted to remember it.

100 to do list

2008-10-06T09:36:00.016+10:00

Something Marny said recently got me thinking about those Myers Briggs personality types again. You know, the ones where they classify your personality by giving you four letters: I or E; S or N; F or T; P or J.

Do you know what type you are? If you're an N you probably know exactly what I'm talking about, but if you're an S you probably can't see the point in this nonsense. I'm one of those types with a J at the end, which means that I'm into making lists.

I have been working on this 100 things to do before I die list for ages now (eh ... years in fact. That's why some items have already been crossed off) but I'm still only up to number 33.

But I do find that every crossed-off list item generates ideas for more new things to do. And though I know you're meant to introduce false panic into this exercise by imagining that you've been given only months to live, I prefer to assume that I've got a bit of time ahead of me. I suppose mine's more like 100 things to do if I live.

1. Travel outside of Australia

2. Contribute to a published book. It doesn't matter in what capacity - writer, editor, helper, contributor

3. Work on a remote site

4. Work as a writer

5. Raise at least one child

6. Design a large garden and watch it grow

7. Write a childrens' book - either a story or non-fiction

8. Get back into music one way or another

9. Help out in the community in a creative capacity

10. Live in a country in which English is not the first language

11. Grow a large crop of something - fruit in an orchard? a commercial quantity of herbs? - to harvest and sell

12. Own a house and 'customise' it a bit

13. Study garden design or landscape design

14. Design a garden for someone else - one that I think is beautiful and they're really happy with too

15. Learn another language to the point where I can have a conversation

16. Sew some curtains specifically for the place where we're living - especially if it is another rented property

17. Set foot on Africa

18. Do something about my fascination with middle-eastern tiles

19. Get more of my creative thoughts out of my head and into the world

20. Set foot in the US

21. Write a novel

22. Publish a novel

23. Get our photos off the computer and onto our walls, into books and albums, onto archive storage.

24. Work somewhere where English isn't the first language

25. Visit India

26. Visit Morocco

27. Make a picture book out of fabric - make one for children, and then think about making one for grown-ups?

28. Make a set of cut-out felt animals, and a felt storyboard for them to cling to

29. Make a home movie

30. Drive from Townsville to Brisbane with Hayden

31. Make myself a mousepad that works

32. Go on safari in Africa

33. Poetry. Write some poetry.

I have already started on number 28. I made a cut-out giraffe from brown felt, and it lead me to add numbers 17, 32 and 27 to the list. You see how this works?

Let me know if you do up a list of your own; I'd love to hear what you imagine for your future.

Love Friday

2008-10-03T14:13:00.001+10:00

Got migraine today. Not loving it.

Patchwork Number Two

2008-09-30T10:42:00.020+10:00

I've made another one. You're right, Claire, it is addictive.

It served me really well on the weekend when we went to watch the North Queensland Athletics Championships: while Hayden was off snapping action shots of the runners and jumpers, I rested on my blanket in the dappled shade.

I only looked up from my book once, when some gangly teenagers rolled up and started practicing with a shot put right there on the grass beside me. My peace was ruined.

They needed a lot of practice.

Love Cat Friday

2008-09-26T09:02:00.020+10:00

So did you ever wonder what happened to Lily's litter-sister? We we wondering. We hadn't seen her since February, not all that long after she came out of the womb second and literally walked over baby Lily to beat her to the milk.

She's been bigger and stronger than Lily since then. Initially we thought she was a boy.

We knew that she'd gone to live with some neighbours of ours and that they'd called her Kuta. But we hadn't seen her at all until recently, when we spotted her scrapping with another (much bigger) neighbourhood cat.

She's grown into a strong independent woman-cat, tough but beautiful.

First Patchwork

2008-09-24T08:52:00.032+10:00

Here it is. My first patchwork quilt. If you don't like it don't tell me, cos I'm ridiculously pleased with it. And with myself.

I have seen a lot of different patchwork quilts on all those crafty-mummy blogs I browse, but I never felt the urge to make such a thing myself because if there's one thing we don't need in Townsville it's extra warmth.

Then I saw a tutorial on House on Hill Road for a patchy picnic blanket and I thought that's something we could use... or at least give away. I had the best time picking out the fabrics and co-ordinating how much and where for each one; instead of trying to keep track of some complicated geometric pattern (that would be nearly impossible for me and not at all fun) I made an unstructured pattern that just 'seemed right'. And I love it. The part of sewing I always like best is choosing the thread to match the fabric, and when you're making a quilt there is so much matching and co-ordinating to be done.

Up until now I've tried really hard to furnish our house in a way that's warm and welcoming without crossing the line into 'cottagey', and that's not easy in a town with no Ikea. With this new patchwork thing I might just be tipping the balance.

Ah well.

Bougainvillaea

2008-09-22T09:42:00.008+10:00

Lots of good things have been happening recently. We've had beautiful weather in the ramp-up to summer (no spring as such here); I've finally grown out of the woeful haircut I got a couple of weeks ago; Friends is back on telly instead of that awful dating gameshow and, best of all, our worst closest noisiest neighbours have left. Gone. Moved out.

We have a lot of close neighbours, as next door to us is a row of six tiny hovels, each with a tiny backyard courtyard that abuts our fence. The first of these hovels, the one closest to our kitchen and living room, was where the worst neighbours lived. We called them the Trash Family. We could hear every word they said when they congregated in their little courtyard to drink and smoke and scold their children. "No. No. Noooo. No. NO. NOOO! Just sit down and drink your f--ken milk!"

And then, just last Wednesday, we noticed that they were cleaning. By Thursday they were gone. My bougainvillea, which had done nothing all winter but look wan and bedraggled, has finally started to flower. I feel much the same way myself.

***************************************************

Update:

We have new next-door neighbours. They are Victorians, and they are already holed up inside with the aircon on all day and all night. Er ... summer has not even got going yet. They are in for a rough time.

The road back to normality

2008-09-17T09:28:00.008+10:00

Lily is recovering slowly but surely. As you can see, she's still got the cone on but she's now allowed outside to play.

She's sitting in her favourite spot in the garden. Right on top of my coriander plant.

We gave up eating coriander long ago.

Sad Washing

2008-09-12T08:46:00.016+10:00

Lily is not herself these days. She went in for her little operation last Friday, and she's been wearing that disfiguring cone on her head for a week now. She's well and truly sick of us mistaking her for a lamp. She's made it quite clear that she doesn't find it at all funny.

The cone is to protect her stitches from her gnawing; we've also taken away her climbing post and we no longer let her outside to play, so she can't burst her stitches jumping up and down. She's been so quiet and sad since we took all the good stuff out of her life.

To cheer her up I put her up on the kitchen bench to watch me do the washing up. She loves water, and bubbles, and she is keenly interested in everything we humans do. Under the circumstances, it was the perfect treat.

Luxury Weekend

2008-09-05T13:11:00.015+10:00

Our long weekend away was lovely, and not just because we spent it with some of Hayden's oldest friends from undergrad days. It was so good to finally meet some of the characters from those told and endlessly retold stories.

In addition, we were upgraded from our modest holiday apartment to a massive modern mansion of a house. It was really nice. I have never been on one of those holidays where you book into a resort hotel and then never leave. This was the closest I've ever got, and I have to say it was not too bad at all!

It was an excellent opportunity for the guys to reconnect via beers and barbies and the girls to sit by the pool and compare notes on how we converted our scruffy engineer husbands into respectable nicely-dressed citizens of the world. (I'm sorry. It is absolutely true that we did that. Also, compared to the other two wives I have not done very well at all. I still let Hayden buy his own clothing, sunglasses and shoes. Even worse, I sometimes let him go out to the supermarket wearing his post-exercise lycra circulation pants. If the other wives had given me a report card, it would have said "more work needed".)

We ate a lot of good food and drank a lot of tasty beer and wine. There were so many couches, daybeds and other relaxing spots around the house for an impromptu nap or a good read. I wasn't feeling like I needed a holiday, but I certainly took one anyway.

Love Friday - Holidays!

2008-08-29T08:42:00.007+10:00

We're off to Port Douglas for a long weekend, to help some of our New Zealand friends warm up and dry out after their long wet winter.

Why am I packing coffee beans in tupperware? Well, we're the ground support for this little trip. We'll be arriving with our tiny car packed to the gills with supplies and equipment the others couldn't afford in their baggage allowance - beach towels, board games, DVDs and beverages. Yes, all kinds of beverages.

We'll be back in the middle of next week - hopefully to a new internet connection which, you never know, might encourage me to post here more than once a week.

See ya!

Love Friday

2008-08-22T14:41:00.007+10:00

This might just be the end of Love Fridays for me. I'm not saying for definite - but I'm not sure it looks that good either.

From now on, Friday is going to be my housework day. Ever since I quit my last job, our house has been particularly spotless as I filled in my time with over-cleaning. But when I caught myself talking like a housewife to my sister - I was telling her about the morning I woke up wanting to buy Hayden a load of business shirts and mix-and-match ties so he could never go wrong - I decided that enough was enough.

So Love Friday is now Cleaning Friday. Look out for it next week!

My Work History

2008-08-20T10:24:00.025+10:00

Roughly in chronological order:

Violin teacher and one quarter of a string quartet
Fundraiser and campaigner for forests at tws
Undergraduate arts critic and radio announcer
Library assistant at a Brisbane university
Event organiser at Monash University; at an organisation for social justice for people with disabilities; then finally for a massive trade show of mobile phones in London
Writer of Replies to Letters on behalf of the Lord Mayor of Brisbane
Personal Assistant to the Chief Executive of the Royal Albert Hall; the Premier of Victoria; and to one of Australia's most distinguished academic economists
Hand on an olive farm in Tuscany; then one in Sicily
Receptionist at a very lonely desk outside a state government department in Victoria (where I started blogging)
Clerk on a building site, then a mine site in north Queensland
Barista at Squires coffee shop in Townsville
Freelance writer, at home in my pyjamas

Most recently I have been working at home as a full-time carer for our cat. It may be time to spread my wings a bit.

Quite frankly I'm surprised I haven't worked in a bookshop yet. It seems an obvious choice - but maybe it's not just browsing all day long?

What do you think I should do next?

Love Friday

2008-08-15T08:56:00.006+10:00

I have been feeling rotten. I don't know if it's allergies or a head cold or what, but this week I've been full to the brim with snotty disgusting gunk. I don't know about you, but for me when this happens I usually go a little bit deaf. It's all connected back there behind our noses.

This morning when I took a sip of my freshly-brewed coffee, one of the hundreds of morning coffees made with love for me by my wonderful husband, I let the warm and delicious liquid slip silkily down my throat. I swallowed. Then suddenly my ears cleared and out of nowhere I could hear the music playing for the start of the morning news. I turned to Hayden and asked, "Have I been talking really loudly this past week?"

He let his eyes close slowly then nodded, yes.

This weekend is going to be a good one.

Love Friday

2008-08-08T13:27:00.005+10:00

The message here is pretty clear. What more could you want than the smell of sweat and sunscreen, the glare, and the sweet relief of the afternoon's breeze?

Don't spend your weekend indoors watching sport on the telly. Get outside and enjoy! Come on.. I'll buy you an ice-cream..?

The Honeymoon

2008-08-04T08:23:00.005+10:00

Our honeymoon on Hinchinbrook Island was short but extremely sweet.

Eating, sleeping, resting and dreaming - laced with bushwalking and snorkeling. Blissful.

These photos are all by Hayden. I was way too relaxed for photography.

Love Fridays

2008-08-01T10:05:00.005+10:00

I know it's been a little while since I've worked hard for money. And it might seem like I have the most ridiculously luxurious life of leisure. Well I do have a wonderful life. I appreciate every minute of the comfort and freedom of our life in Townsville. But also, I work. Though you don't see it, and though there's not often a pay packet to show for it, I do work quite hard during the week. I'm trying to teach myself writing, story-telling, crafting and creativity, in amongst the odd part-time job or two, running our little household and keeping everything organised and tidy at home.

All this to say that ... I still love Fridays. On Fridays I often think to myself that it would be nice to do a little winding down before the weekend. I often wish I could do a Friday morning yoga class to relax and stretch out. Change up my focus. Look back on a week that might otherwise just drift away unnoticed.

I really like this idea for a Love Friday meme. I'm going to try it for a bit. Seems like a nice thing to do.

(On Monday I'm going to get back to the story at hand. After all, we're just getting to the fun bit - the honeymoon.)

Our Wedding (part iii)

2008-07-31T14:29:00.002+10:00

This story starts here, and continues here.

The wedding ceremony itself was pretty simple. Pretty short.

We felt that we'd given everyone ample time to contemplate love, our marriage and what it meant to our extended family and friends. We didn't feel we needed to cover it again by reading out poems or speeches. We asked my parents to accept Hayden into their family as a new son and a new brother, and we asked Hayden's parents to accept me into their family as a new daughter and sister. Hayden and I made a simple promise to each other to love and respect, be honest and faithful to each other, come what may.

Then we sealed it with a kiss.

Before I met Hayden, I didn't think I would ever get married. It just hadn't seemed likely to me - I had always assumed I'd grow old by myself in a dingy flat crammed with books. So I came at it my own way, hopefully in a grown-up way. When I made my vow to Hayden, it was important to me to make a promise that I could keep forever. I didn't want to promise to stay in love, and if it didn't work out just cancel the vows and regret the whole thing. Though I didn't spell it out at the ceremony, my promise to Hayden was that, come what may, even if our marriage didn't last, then my promise would still hold. Even if our relationship changed and I had to find a new way to do it, I would always love and respect him, be honest with him and be faithful to the wonderful time we've had together. Does that sound pessimistic? It doesn't matter if it does. It was important to me. I knew what I meant, and so did he.

Then we signed the forms and the marriage certificate, thanked our celebrant and stood still for more photos.

And it was all done. While we waited for the champagne to come out, someone asked me "So what's your name now?" and I answered in a whisper: "The same thing it always was."

Our Wedding (part ii)

2008-07-30T13:26:00.001+10:00

This story starts here.

First thing on the morning of our wedding, I looked out the window to see what kind of day we'd got. It was beautiful! The blue sky was shining through the trees and I started getting excited, wondering if everything might just go according to plan.

Hayden and I were in a little cottage, secluded by about ten km of winding country road from our guests. We wrapped ourselves in bathrobes and wandered down to the creek below our balcony, hoping to see a platypus. There were rumours they lived there, and I was sure we'd be in for a treat, you know, a special good omen for our wedding day ... but no such luck.

Then Hayden disappeared with his groomsmen and my sister came down to help me get ready, though we quickly agreed there was not much to do in that department. I had no hair or make-up appointments, no fluster or bustle, so Louisa and I and her boyfriend Nick, our driver for the day, went for a walk in the rainforest instead.

I found out later that some of our guests had also spent the morning walking and visiting the waterfalls nearby, and it was exactly what we'd hoped they'd do. We'd left the schedule open on purpose, to give everyone time to do whatever they felt like, and I was so glad they went out to enjoy the surroundings like we do on a weekend visit.

When we got back to the cottage, the photography team were there waiting for me. It was time for me to get on with the business of the day. Nick and Louisa melted into the background; Louisa disappeared to get herself ready, and Nick went off to smoke nearly a whole pack of cigarettes and tie the ribbon on the car. I went in alone to face my dread: the 'bride gets ready' photography sequence.

I know it's just a standard bridal thing and I knew it would be nice for Hayden to see later what I'd been up to beforehand, but... it's just not my thing. For a start I didn't even have a dressing table and mirror surrounded by lightbulbs, and I had to do with the rickety picnic table out on the balcony.

Hint of lipstick, bit of mascara, then all of a sudden it was time to go. I put on my shoes and my veil and it was exactly how I'd imagined: the veil tilted my head wonky and the heels of my shoes sunk into the grass. I had become a bride. I wished I'd spent more time practicing that.

To be continued ...

Our Wedding (a recap)

2008-07-29T10:10:00.002+10:00

After the first week or so after your wedding, people tend to stop asking you "So, how's married life?" And when you have had your dress cleaned and put away in a box, and found possies around the house for all the beautiful gifts you received, life gradually drifts back to normal. Then, suddenly, you realise that three months have slipped by and if you want to take the opportunity of showing your wedding photos one more time, you're going to have to do it now.

We still haven't received the big expensive album from our professional photographer (not sure if that is her fault or ours), so I've been sifting through the photos that the rest of us took that weekend and singling out the ones that seem to have great swathes of memory attached. Rather than the pre-arranged photo ops - cutting the cake, making the toasts etc; I'm far too self-conscious to enjoy all that attention - these were really the mini highlights of that time. Kicking my way through a sea of balloons made me feel more like this was my party than any fairytale long white gown, and I'm very glad I've got this photo to remember the moment by.

Before we got married there, our wedding venue - a former convent converted into a guest house - was already one of our favourite places for a weekend away. When Hayden and I arrived there on the Friday afternoon it was eerily quiet, and it was hard to believe that this was the start of our big event and not just another 'reconnaissance' trip. It all felt a bit unreal when we heard cars arriving out the front, and went out to greet my family who all happened to arrive around the same time.

And it was slightly strange to see all these familiar people in a place so far away. I suppose it shows that we do feel isolated up here in Queensland, and it doesn't help that it could be a lot worse. I mean, it's not like we're in different hemispheres or time zones, it's just a two-hour flight. But we never get to just invite them round to our place for a homey dinner or an afternoon chat.

While we were greeting our guests, I was also attempting to achieve the one urgent thing I had to do that afternoon: arrange the flowers. They were the only part of the wedding preparation that I had left somewhat to chance, and if you have ever been to Townsville you might understand why. It is not generally a flower-friendly place. Most of the year it's too hot and humid for delicate flowers and they just wilt while you're looking at them, and consequently our local florists tend to be ... well let's just say that there's not much around that's to my taste.

It was my mum who suggested we might find flowers closer to our wedding venue. So about three weeks before the wedding we ordered a couple of bunches from a local rose farm: I told the lady what colours I wanted: ivory, champagney beige, and pale green. And with typical North Queensland candor she told me she couldn't promise anything. Strangely, that didn't worry me at all. I just had a feeling that it would all work out.

And it did! we got the colours we wanted (for just $10 a bunch!) and my sister Louisa effortlessly transformed them into beautiful bouquets.

When I saw them completed, they took my breath away. They were one of my favourite things from the wedding, and in fact I kept them. They're all dried up and hanging up beside me as I type. They are not looking anywhere near as good as on that day.

Yes, but I'm getting a bit ahead of the story with that photo.

To be continued ...

Another Brilliant Weekend

2008-07-27T18:06:00.000+10:00

This weekend was ace. I spent ages lying in our glorious winter sun reading the most frivolous novel imaginable: Cheri by Colette. I mean, I haven't read it all the way through yet - does it get more serious towards the end? All I've read about so far is love affairs, luncheons and Paris apartments. Perfect fodder for a dreamless sleep. Not like that crazy-scary Wuthering Heights I was reading before.

Things have been a bit stressful recently. I'm still unemployed and heading for broke (well ... perhaps I shouldn't have spent our groceries money on a kick arse dictionary) and I've been lacking energy for no good reason. If the doctor says I should 'continue resting,' who am I to argue?

The Thing Is -

2008-07-20T15:28:00.000+10:00

Last week, I quit my job at the coffee shop. Things were changing there, and I thought it best to make an amicable parting while things were still amicable.

However, I now feel awkward about going back there as a customer. Even though the parting was amicable, and even though it was my favourite place for coffee in Townsville.

So.

Yesterday, Sunday, we did what before was unthinkable. We went to another cafe.

We sat in a delightful courtyard at a beautiful weatherbeaten table.

We worked on our crossword ...

discovered the breakfast menu...

And found it was delicious.

I really hope I don't ask for a job at this new favourite cafe. It's much too nice to lose.

Unpredictable Winner!

2008-07-14T09:35:00.001+10:00

With the names of the six competition entrants spread out on the floor, I attached to each name a small but highly valued kitty treat.

When I let Lily back into the room, she went straight to the one that looked best to her. (She's always extremely particular about which of the identical biscuits she'll go for.)

With little fuss, Lily selected a clear winner. Congratulations Mags! You'll receive a signed copy of Eileen Cook's debut novel Unpredictable.

Well played everyone else.

And a special thank you to you Eileen - this was really fun!

Unpredictable - and a prize givaway!

2008-07-10T08:58:00.000+10:00

When I first mentioned Eileen Cook's novel Unpredictable, I was in pain. I was nearly delirious with medication, and I described the book as a cheer-up piece of citrussy almond cake. Although I'm quite a bit less delirious now, I'm sticking to my first description of the book.

Unpredictable is a romance with comedy, so the prize I mentioned is not for guessing whether the herione gets her guy in the end. Of course she does! But it's really entertaining finding out how she goes about it.

The heroine of the story is Sophie. She's hilarious. I wish she was real so I could hang out with her. It's Sophie's idea to pretend she's a psychic - first at a psychic fair and then in the media - in order to stop her boyfriend from moving on from their six-year relationship. Sophie does tend to find herself in all sorts of awkward situations - she's often climbing into and under things, and crawling away on all fours so as not to be seen. She's kind of a mess, but a very clever funny quick-thinking mess. If she ever got her shit together, she'd be an extremely formidable person. As it is ... she's just hilariously funny and cute.

Thanks to Sophie, there's a lot of physical humour and slapstick in this book. You can picture the action as it's happening just like it's a movie - and I really did laugh out loud while I was reading it. Most of the time I didn't realise - it was just when Hayden said "What? What??" from his side of the bed that I realised I was giggling out loud again. Even though he doesn't really read novels (pretty much just triathlon magazines and biographies of sports heros) he's in line to read Unpredictable next. Who'd have thought?

So, because she's lovely, Eileen is sending me a signed copy of Unpredictable. And because I already have a copy, it seems like we've now got one to give away. Would you like a free signed copy of Unpredictable? If you would, please leave me a comment by the end of this weekend (Townsville E.S.T). If more than one person leaves a comment, I'll get Lily to randomly select the winner. Oh, and if you've never left a comment here before, you might even find a little something extra in the prize pack.

Good luck!

Winter Dinner

2008-07-04T08:54:00.000+10:00

Cooking dinner is not really my thing - it's Hayden's, and he has even been known to get a little bit tetchy with me when I stray into his domestic territory. It's his creative time of day, and I try to leave him to it - I'm usually delegated the task of keeping Lily distracted and out of the way (or is it that she's delegated the task of distracting me?)

Last night, however, I took control of the kitchen and was inspired to stir up a wintery pea pumpkin and parmesan risotto.

I was glad I did. It turned out quite well!

Are you in Melbourne?

2008-07-02T15:28:00.000+10:00

If you are, I'm jealous. You get to see Magda's exhibition of photographs at Off the Kerb in Collingwood.

Her photos are wondrous in their detail; it's like looking at what's spilled out through a crack in the surface of things.

The show opens this Friday night and runs until 1 August. If you can't get to the gallery, you can see more at www.magdalenabors.com.

www.offthekerb.com.au

www.magdalenabors.com

Only Cat

2008-07-01T10:08:00.001+10:00

OK. From now on, this is just a cat blog. Any mention of books, writing, movies or events outside our tiny home is strictly supplementary to the full-on coverage of our CAT.

But really, there's not much else happening at the moment. After the months of over-booked weekends leading up to our wedding, we are still luxuriating in the stillness of the aftermath. This weekend was a long one due to the Townsville Show (pity we didn't go to the show actually, we would have seen a baby being born on the grass outside the information booth) but the most remarkable thing we did was purchase Lily's first collar.

Oh, but do you not think it a little bit stylish? Is it not a little bit Hotel Chevalier? A little bit Memphis Belle? Is this how a mother feels when she dresses her kids in little matching sailor suits?

Probably best not to answer that.

In the Dry

2008-06-26T10:42:00.000+10:00

I'm feeling less fuggy today cos I've cut down on the pain medication for my sore back. (Having a sore back was really awful, by the way. Another one of those things that I never understood how awful until I felt it for myself.) To celebrate the renewed spring in my step, I went for a little walk outdoors.

My goodness are we having a dry dry

season this year! Dry grass and bald rocks everywhere! This is actually my favourite kind of Australian scenery. I just love it - I can't tell why.

Unpredictable

2008-06-23T15:33:00.000+10:00

I'm really sick. Or something. I'm constantly exhausted and forgetful all the time (eg, where's my cup of coffee gone? Oh, there it is, stone cold after sitting on the bathroom floor for hours. I wonder how it got there?) and I'm having real trouble stringing these sentences together.

But lucky for me, I'm pretty much unemployed (there's always a chance I'm totally unemployed - it's hard to tell sometimes) and I've got a good book to read. Amazon has finally sent me Eileen Cook's first novel, Unpredictable, and so far it's ridiculously funny and nice to read, like a lovely piece of cheer-up cake. Not chocolate cake ... more like a delicious almond and citrus sponge. I'm trying hard not to finish it too quickly.

But when I have, I'll be back here with a proper review. Probably.

Meanwhile, under my desk

2008-06-10T13:26:00.001+10:00

my new winter slipper was being shredded!

I'm reading this book about how to raise a happy cat, and it's always describing the terrible scenarios and dangerous situations in which cats can risk their lives; e.g. who knew that Christmas could be such a traumatic time? apparently kittens are always getting thrown out with old wrapping paper, strangled by tinsel and trodden to death by visiting relatives. The book advises me to keep a current photo on file so I'm always ready to put together a 'lost kitty' poster should the need arise.

Do you think this one would do?

The Hungry Girls

2008-06-10T09:45:00.000+10:00

In a recent rash of ordering books over the internet (what? my winter interests have been kick-started. As mentioned in the post below it’s time I turned to creative things, like cooking, gardening and cosying up our little home) I ordered this: The Hungry Girls’ Cookbook Volume 2.

At the time, I was mainly wanting to have a look at how they’d hand made the book - I think I was vaguely hoping it would inspire me to make my own. It didn’t inspire me that way - it’s too nicely done for me to get that ‘hey, I could do that too’ feeling. But it did inspire me to cook, so in some ways it has achieved what it set out to do. It’s got just twelve recipes in it, and I’ve made two of them so far - Carrot Fritters and a Quick Spanish Dinner of mixed up potato, capsicum and chorizo. And they both turned out delicious. I’m seriously looking forward to making the Nepali Dahl with Eggplant Pickle. It’s ages since I’ve eaten a lovely comforting blandish dahl. It’s a craving I get every so often, and our local indian takeaway makes it just too damn thick and tasty. Sometimes I’m after something with a whole lot less impact.

Anyway, I highly recommend The Hungry Girls’ Cookbook. It has a simple cardboard cover and it’s bound with string and staples, and the book itself has a beautiful soft smell. Its something like green tea, and it makes me think of hanging out at Jan’s place.

Telling the Truth

2008-05-30T13:28:00.000+10:00

Is it just me, or does this bread look delicious? Like I’m really living in my rustic farmhouse fantasyland where I make everything beautifully and effortlessly by hand? As I was cutting and spreading it, I was wondering just how GOOD and SATISFIED I'd be feeling if I’d made the jam myself too, like, a year ago and then kept it in the cupboard with a little label on saying the kind of fruit and the date.

I made the bread using the same sourdough recipe that worked so well for me last year. The weather here has turned delightfully Autumny (the Townsvillians are talking about “winter”; it was a story on the news when three French backpackers got lost in our local rainforest and spent the night on a rock ledge "while temperatures plunged to 12℃”). I started up my sourdough starter a while ago, and last week I made a terrible loaf (not concentrating; put in twice as much water as I should have) so I was really pleased with how this one looked coming out of the oven. I rapped it on the bottom, and it sounded hollow. Good sign.

But. However. It tastes ...only fair to moderate. I cut the first slice right off the cooling rack, spread it with butter and then something out the window caught my eye. Maybe a bird, or a colourful butterfly. I had made it all the way out into our front yard and was looking up in a tree when I realised that I had been munching on the bread all the while. The taste of it had not even intruded into my consciousness. When have you ever eaten bread fresh out of the oven and not even realised you were doing it? I should have been thinking "MMMMMMMMmmmmmmmMMM ... delicious!" but instead all I was thinking was, "yes. It is bread that I'm eating. Chew #1. Chew #2. Swallow? OK, yeah, swallow."

What a shame. Maybe if I was a better blog-liar I would have had you believe that it tasted just as good as it looks. Time to work on that perhaps?

Tulips

2008-05-27T16:10:00.000+10:00

I bought these tulips for Hayden and for me, because we've both been working hard lately. I've been working like a whirlwind on my biggest writing assignment yet. And I know I'm hard work for Hayden when I'm all tired out and stressed.

This morning I handed in my draft, so it's rest time for me until I receive the next round of comments on my work.

What am I going to do with myself, now that there's no wedding to plan in the meantime? What would you do, if you were me?