I finally have a bit of time in which to breathe, and so I took myself off today to see 'Midnight in Paris', the new Woody Allen movie. Absolutely loved it. Anyone who loves Paris will adore it - it's basically a love letter to one of the world's most amazing cities. ( Read more... )

Attended a public interview/discussion with Chinese author Mian Mian tonight. Mian Mian is probably best known for her novel "Candy" which kickstarted the trend of gen-X women writers in China writing about sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll. ( More about Mian Mian )

I confess to being an election geek. Today being the day of the Australian Federal election, I'm ensconced in front of the telly watching the vote count. My electorate of Brisbane just popped up to show that the Liberals are ahead but it's early days yet. The Liberals are leading overall with so far 35 seats to 24 being held by the Labor Party ( Read more... )

( Dear students )

Had a wonderful, relaxing (in a manner of speaking since I was still working for 3/5 days!) time in Canberra. Found lots of resources for my research, ate inappropriate but delicious food, caught up with the ever delightful koalathebear and her partner and generally got away from normal life. I hope to do a full post shortly on what went on, this is just the ( Read more... )

Just had to rave about this book which I finished reading yesterday. It's definitely a book for book lovers, by a book lover. Sara Nelson is a New York-based publisher and writer who decides to read a book a week for one year and wrote this book about the results. I am a voracious reader, with 90 minutes spent on public transport on average ( Read more... )

Third entry for the day - something of a record for me! I thought after my last grumpy post about students that annoyed me, I should remind myself that *most* students are perfectly reasonable and not demanding. It's just the minority that are demanding which get me down. Having afternoon tea with friends which comprised *very* rich Italian hot ( Read more... )

...I am heartily sick of students either (a) saying "you haven't done XYZ" when I have, and if they'd bothered to check Blackboard/listen in class, they would *know* or (b) asking me for information which they could easily get themselves or (c) just generally being difficult. This is brought on by a phone call from a student who said (a) and when ( Read more... )

Instead of doing either the job application or the marking that I *should* be doing, I thought I'd write up a few thoughts on the ITV production of Wuthering Heights which has just finished screening on the ABC. I am a huge fan of the book and so any adaptation would have to work hard for me to enjoy it. I didn't think this production was perfect ( Read more... )

Read this in the Sunday paper and thought it was worth sharing: "All I really need is love, but a little chocolate now and then doesn't hurt!" - Lucy Van Pelt in Peanuts.