Meeting Harper Aveline
Friday night went to mrsbrown and mr_bassman’s place for an impromptu bbq and good-bye for their dog Binka. montjoye, doushkasmum and sacred_chao were already there. Z and T turned up later.
A bit of an adventure getting there, as I was at Flinders St station when all the trains were cancelled due to a lack of power. So, walked up and got a 109 tram from Collins St. It was good to see folk, even in such sad circumstances. mordwen’s posts about giving birth were a topic of conversation.
Saturday, arrived about 2.30pm for fizit’s seafood feast. I contributed the makings of Greek salad (which I am delighted to say all got eaten). leadgend was already there, having contributed lots of good cheese, mixer drinks and a few harder drinks. Various folk turned up, who I either did not know, or knew only vaguely (some of whom I now know a bit or a bit better-waves particularly to madefromstars and findalexh). fizit put on crays, tiger prawns and oysters: all wonderful. (Conway’s™, a particularly fine seafood supply house is just nearby to the fizit residence.)
And lo, who should turn up but mordwen with a five-day old Harper Aveline, named after Harper Lee, author of To Kill a Mockingbird, the one book I met during my high school English that I still love. (The line Stand up children, your father is passing I still find very poignant.) And also named after Aveline, Harper Aveline having been born between the day of Aveline’s birthday and her funeral.
Had a fine time chatting and eating and drinking. fizit puts on a good seafood celebration birthday bash!
Eventually, with almost everyone gone, took myself home and passed bar_barra with results previously posted about.
Had a bit of a personal crisis early in January, as everything seemed to be piling up and getting nowhere. But I have since sent of drafts of my two-part review essay on The Last Superstition to various folk for comment, managed to progress along in sorting papers, dealt with most of the emails that were bothering me and completed a revision of my memoir-essay taking in miladyred’s very helpful comments. Indeed, posted a copy of it to PrettyMeBoy, with additional material to make it absolutely clear I could have added worse stuff than I did. Was not actually expecting any response, so was somewhat surprised to get an email from him that was not condescending, insulting, abusive or self-justificatory. Indeed, it politely asked me to hold off publishing until he had finished considering all the documents I had sent him and requested copies of some of my past emails to him.
I am sure it won’t last, but it was amusing to get the whiff of him perhaps being a little rattled. Of course, subsequent experience may have made some of the things I have to say a bit more resonant.
The amazing heatwave made things unpleasant for a while and, apart from queuing up stuff on my other blog, mostly laid around, dozed, watched DVDs, etc. Two Tuesday nights in a row, had very pleasant dinner’s at bar_barra and Kerry G’s place.
My brother stayed for a week early in January, which was good, after I recovered from the short notice. We mostly did the eating around thing, sometimes with friends. A bit of brother-bonding (his wife was in China on a business trip).
A bit of an adventure getting there, as I was at Flinders St station when all the trains were cancelled due to a lack of power. So, walked up and got a 109 tram from Collins St. It was good to see folk, even in such sad circumstances. mordwen’s posts about giving birth were a topic of conversation.
Saturday, arrived about 2.30pm for fizit’s seafood feast. I contributed the makings of Greek salad (which I am delighted to say all got eaten). leadgend was already there, having contributed lots of good cheese, mixer drinks and a few harder drinks. Various folk turned up, who I either did not know, or knew only vaguely (some of whom I now know a bit or a bit better-waves particularly to madefromstars and findalexh). fizit put on crays, tiger prawns and oysters: all wonderful. (Conway’s™, a particularly fine seafood supply house is just nearby to the fizit residence.)
And lo, who should turn up but mordwen with a five-day old Harper Aveline, named after Harper Lee, author of To Kill a Mockingbird, the one book I met during my high school English that I still love. (The line Stand up children, your father is passing I still find very poignant.) And also named after Aveline, Harper Aveline having been born between the day of Aveline’s birthday and her funeral.
Had a fine time chatting and eating and drinking. fizit puts on a good seafood celebration birthday bash!
Eventually, with almost everyone gone, took myself home and passed bar_barra with results previously posted about.
Had a bit of a personal crisis early in January, as everything seemed to be piling up and getting nowhere. But I have since sent of drafts of my two-part review essay on The Last Superstition to various folk for comment, managed to progress along in sorting papers, dealt with most of the emails that were bothering me and completed a revision of my memoir-essay taking in miladyred’s very helpful comments. Indeed, posted a copy of it to PrettyMeBoy, with additional material to make it absolutely clear I could have added worse stuff than I did. Was not actually expecting any response, so was somewhat surprised to get an email from him that was not condescending, insulting, abusive or self-justificatory. Indeed, it politely asked me to hold off publishing until he had finished considering all the documents I had sent him and requested copies of some of my past emails to him.
I am sure it won’t last, but it was amusing to get the whiff of him perhaps being a little rattled. Of course, subsequent experience may have made some of the things I have to say a bit more resonant.
The amazing heatwave made things unpleasant for a while and, apart from queuing up stuff on my other blog, mostly laid around, dozed, watched DVDs, etc. Two Tuesday nights in a row, had very pleasant dinner’s at bar_barra and Kerry G’s place.
My brother stayed for a week early in January, which was good, after I recovered from the short notice. We mostly did the eating around thing, sometimes with friends. A bit of brother-bonding (his wife was in China on a business trip).