There’s a new thing to be scared of (if you’re a dog by the name of Maise Cullen-Heazlewood). It’s Holden’s advertising blimp which is frequenting the skies of the inner west during show time. Apparently this afternoon it was subject to a severe and elongated telling-off when it drifted its way a little too close to our back yard. This evening it got the evil eye during the afternoon/early evening dog walk – that flashing light display is very irritating. And tonight it caused a small dog to cower in the foot well after we’d dropped Justine at the airport. The thing was descending in all its night time glory just across the way from us on our way home. If it haunts us so for the next two weeks, we’re both gonna be nervous wrecks!

My housemate and I have been walking our dog up, down and across the area we affectionately know as ‘Footscray Hill’ for years now. It’s the piece of land behind Footscray City College between Farnsworth Avenue and the Edgewater Estate. It’s great for dogs – lots of things to investigate with the bonus occasional rabbit to chase. Good for the humans, too, as it forces us to walk up and down a hill at least once a day. I’ve long been aware that it’s the site of the old Footscray tip (long since buried). There’s no doubt masses of stuff moldering away deep under the earth – and it’s never worried me. But recently a local asked me if I knew that a piece of the Westgate Bridge which collapsed in late 1970 killing 35 men was buried there too. I don’t know if it’s true, but it makes sense as Footscray must have been the closest place where something so large and broken could be moved. Consequently my walks there since have been a lot more thoughtful. I remember the mum of a friend of mine telling me once that she knew a number of good men who died on the day the bridge collapsed. I guess the ground beneath our feet holds many stories of times past. I’m kind of glad I know about this one now.

It’s been a bad day at work.
Stuff is just not doing what it’s meant to.
My beeping phone makes me jump.
What now??
It’s a message.
It’s unprompted.
It says “Dorry worry about it, it has all been sorted out”.
Yay!!!

As I stepped into the train carriage this morning I was assailed (via the loudspeaker system) by a cheery lady congratulating me for making the smart choice by travelling with Connex.
The response from the carriage full of people who also made the smart choice?
Laughter.
(Glad I didn’t try to hold the doors or anything reprehensible like that … I bet the lady wouldn’t have been so cheery then!!)

I’m almost half way through my MA.
Mostly I’ve enjoyed it, but this semester has been really hard.
It’s not that the coursework isn’t interesting. It’s just that I can’t seem to make myself interested in it.
Not to mentioned the late-night, last minute, panic-stricken essays.
And the cold and lonely waits at unfamiliar train stations when you’ve accidently boarded the wrong train home after class due to overwhelming tiredness induced by (you guessed it!) a late-night, last-minute, panic-stricken essay writing event of recent times.
At least the essay’s handed in now and I’m safe home in the warm.

Me: Hi, is that Glenn?

Him: Yep. I’m up on a chimney. I’ll ring you back.

PS. He still hasn’t rung back. I wonder if he’s still up there?

1. One book that changed your life

I can’t think of any that have had such a profound effect. Several, upon completion, have made me resolve to be a better person, however: ‘To Kill a Mocking Bird’ by Harper Lee was one, another was about Helen Keller, the name of which escapes me now.

2. One book you have read more than once.

‘Jane Eyre’ by Charlotte Bronte. (Many, many times.)

3. One book you’d want on a desert island.

‘Which Palm Tree is That?’/’101 Tasty Date Recipes’ – author unknown.

4. One book that made you giddy?

I recall feeling something like giddy – although it may have been more freaked out – after finishing ‘The Magus’ by John Fowles.

5. One book that you wish had been written

I so wish that the third book in Isobel Carmody’s ‘LegendSong’ series would appear sometime soon. Please? It’s been so long since ‘Darkfall’ and ‘Darksong’ ….

6. One book that wracked you with sobs?

Embarassingly, the book in Anne Mcaffrey’s ‘Pern’ series (I can’t remember which one) where the character of the Master Harper, Robinton, dies had me sobbing out loud on the Woden-Civic intercity bus once. And I always cry at the end of ‘Charlotte’s Web’.

7. One book you wish had never been written

Sometimes sequels are bad ideas: I think Alexander McCall Smith’s Precious Ramotswe books following on from ‘the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency’ have gone down hill – although many would disagree.

8. One book you’re currently reading

‘The Big Over Easy’ by Jasper Fforde. (Bad puns galore!)

9. One book you’ve been meaning to read.

Number 12 in Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum series.

10. Now tag five bloggers

Go on. You know you want to.

Michael Mori.
Is it the military buzzcut? Or the military shoe-shine?
Or, in a climate of fear and loathing, that he can stand up and call an unfair and unjust system exactly what it is?

An update on my last post.
‘Hot chocolating’ with Daniel during the week (actually, he was hot chocolating, I was partaking of a juice) the ‘happy stamper’ duly delivered Daniel’s hot chocolate (with marshmallows) and, noticing that I had no hot chocolate and consequently, no marshmallows, he hot-footed it back to the shop and shortly returned with a tiny plate and three marshmallows of my very own.

Whenever I feel like a hot chocolate hit during the working day or I have lunch with Daniel and he insists on a hot chocoloate to complete the meal (what did happen to that self-imposed withdrawal from chocolate he so recently espoused? I believe that even in its liquid form IT’S STILL CHOCOLATE. However…) I have a preferred provider to whom I turn. He’s always cheerful and, importantly, both understanding of my requirement for marshmallows and generous in their application. Like many outlets dispensing beverages these days, there’s an option to take a loyalty card and thus encouragement to keep coming back. I think it’s a good scheme. Each liquid chocolate purchased is stamped off on the card until the point is reached when loyalty pays off and is reflected in a free beverage. My provider started off by carefully stamping each hot chocolate as purchased. But, over time, trust has grown and he’s a lot freer with the stamper – two purchases might see three, or even four, stamps recorded on the card. He’s quite reckless! But he and I both know I’ll keep returning. It’s a mutually satisfying arrangement.