What a day! I have cleaned the bathroom, washed the floors, done two loads of washing, paid my power bill, reported in to my business guru and made a banana cake and finally updated my ravelry projects ( Read more... )

So the election's been called at last & the 'phony war' of bald-faced promises and policy flip-flops is over & we fight finally get to learn what the two major parties are really offering. John Howard said yesterday that we didn't need "old leadership or new leadership", and that Australians knew what he stood for. That would be what, John - ( Read more... )

(warning: some political content)

1/ The Leader of the Free World, aka George Dubya, arrives in Sydney tonight, with a motorcade to beat all motorcades for the rest of the week -- & I'm not there.

2/ Sydney is locked down for APEC, and citizens expressing their civil right to protest are likely to be locked up, even if the High Court rules they ( Read more... )

Finally got round to uploading recent photos of the black swans breeding on 'my' lake in the park I walk to most mornings. You can see them here, just below the broken family home.

Wonder what Proust would make of this conjunction?

Bananas have finally stopped being a luxury item, & even though we are in a pretty chilly winter for eastern Australia, suddenly there is a glut of bananas in the fruit & vegie shops. Not perfect bananas but on the edge of over-ripe ones. They are so cheap I don't think they can be Australian, altho' of course I hope they are ( Read more... )

This afternoon I finished reworking two short stories to send off to the Shoalhaven Literary Award. I'm unlikely to win the big award, but one of the commendeds would be great. I've had to dig out two of my earlier stories because the word limit for this comp is only 3000, & the stories I've been writing over the past three years are in the 5000- ( Read more... )

Yesterday I stopped by one of the many 2ndhand bookshops in my neighbourhood to browse the $2 bin. I found a collection of short stories written by women crime writers, including Sara Paretsky, so I went into the very back of the shop to pay. As is my occasional wont, I asked the young guy casually, 'you don't have any Sandman comics, do you?' For ( Read more... )