Wants A Cracker.

Thomas Moore says...

2011-07-09T11:01:00.000+08:00

"Off I fly, careering far/ In chase of Pollys, prettier far/ Than any of their namesakes are, / —The Polymaths and Polyhistors, Polyglots and all their sisters."

This is where the party ends?

2011-03-20T14:45:00.003+08:00

Hello, old blog. You look .... older.

Evil Facebook has consumed my chit chat online allowance.

Clean slate.

2011-01-09T20:33:00.002+08:00

Hello old blog.

Let's see... since we last confessed there's been a canoe trip with Mark (excellent), Christmas with family (excellent), New Year in a paddock (excellent), and lovely long visit from Nolie including Christmas and New Year (excellent).

Also, we have made a CD and tidied our room.

Outstanding!

Happy New Year to you.

Various events.

2010-10-18T21:06:00.002+08:00

My lovely friend Lexifab has been putting me to shame with his excellent updates. I think being too busy to blog is probably quite helpful.

I am not too busy to blog, but I don't know which of the various events in life to blog about.

So here's one, anyway. It's no more significant than any other. But here it is.

We planted a black mulberry tree right down the back of the yard, a long way from power lines,
and with the full western sun to get it going. My Nana had one, huge and fun to climb with purple stained hands, and we hope this also becomes a mighty tree.

It is a lot of fun to plant trees.

Winsome Winston

2010-08-12T20:00:00.006+08:00

I saw Winston. Yes I did. And it was excellent and exciting. I also saw The Anti-Chris which was also excellent although considerably less exciting on account of it happens more often.

There were many old friends and family and hometown haunts. It was grand.

170 million years old.

2010-07-09T12:09:00.002+08:00

Birthday gift: One ammonite from Madagascar. It's 170 million years old.

Hometown Outpost

2010-05-18T07:38:00.003+08:00

In the heart of the nation, there's a triangle of houses that contain people, coffee mugs, t-shirts, games, books and stories I know, from my hometown. A little hometown outpost. I like to visit.

I really do.

2010-04-30T16:06:00.001+08:00

Any kind would do. Those ones in the cupboard; thin crispy and yummy looking. Mmmm.

Mum.

2010-04-19T21:49:00.001+08:00

She is so lovely.

Thank you, God. Or, whatever.

Blogging on the side.

2010-03-28T09:22:00.002+08:00

Quick update: Life is good. Life is fat. Life is juicy.

I hope you're all well. I miss you.

Polysemous

2010-03-12T20:32:00.001+08:00

... from Visual Thesaurus Word of the Day;

You can choose a pronunciation for this adjective with stress on the 2nd or 3rd syllable since most dictionaries give both. It's one of our favorites here at Word of the Day, since it's about meanings: lots of them in this case. Its complementary buddy is monosemous, denoting words that have only one meaning.

Writing.

2010-02-18T07:13:00.002+08:00

Some big news for us is that we're writing again. It began four weeks ago, with a weekly date, a three hour writing session with a friend, with Gray setting the topics, and it's going well.

Other than that, life has been sweet with ephemeral friendships with visiting milker musicians, and the weather warm enough to swim. Right across the big karri lake.

Christmas, New Year and Bogan Day.

2010-01-24T18:22:00.002+08:00

Happy 2010 to you all.

I hope you enjoyed Christmas however you like it.

If your idea of a good Christmas is Boxing Day & Thank God it's Over, I hope you enjoyed that.
If you enjoy singing Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, I hope you sang with unabashed gusto.
If you enjoy a pleasant sulk at home, with the odd passive aggressive remark to insensitive friends I hope that was all you could wish for...
And if you were up to a nostalgic round of Suicide Santa, I hope your arrangements were unprecedentedly macabre.

How was New Years? Wants A Cracker wore a new frock and Gray made Raspberry Dacquiris.

Our 10th wedding anniversary was splendid with a trip to Geographe Bay, to stay in a posh place with a spa and with Wednesday allowed and a view of the sunset over the ocean and a short work to a dog-friendly beach for a swim.

Oh, and Happy Birthday to the Anti-Christ!

Life continues excellently here, with just the prospect of another dreary Bogan Day approaching, with the flags and silly hats and general sadness of celebrating such an occasion... but other than that, life is inexplicably kind, still.

I hope it is so for you.

Out of touch....

2009-12-05T18:54:00.003+08:00

with a few (thousands) of people we love.

~~Livejournal is not working for us~~ and we can't get into one of our email addresses, so if you've sent us email or left messages for us and have been wondering... wonder no more, just leave a clue or a trail of crumbs for us to follow.

Here will be fine.

We're still checking facebook pretty much daily so if you have connection with us there, that's a good avenue.

Check list.

2009-11-08T20:57:00.000+08:00

It's been a while since we did a roll call, let alone a state of the union address.

We'll check in. List a bit.

Routine. Results of loss thereof. Polly attempts to put the kettle on.

2009-10-04T21:16:00.003+08:00

Hi. Finally made it here again!

Things have been eventful, in a good way, but the thing about events in our life is that they disrupt routine. This is good. Unfortunately this brain relies on routine and things that you might think very simple such as putting on the kettle, I mean really, I should be able to do THAT, become very difficult.

The situation is that some of us know how to take a copy of information such as how to light the new stove, where the new kettle lives, how the new gas stove lighting device works, where the tea is, where the fridge is etc. alas not me. I know how to use the information and return it to its spot, but I don't know how to take a copy for myself, for later.

SOME of us know how to take a copy of that information and use it, and leave the original there, and SOME of us, alas, know how to take that information and use it and then go back to their own strange land with it leaving the information once again blank.

I'm glad I know how to use information and return it to its spot, but I wish I knew how to copy it for myself, for later, for when some one else has just taken the information away because they don't know how to copy it either.... and ... I don't know... they think they might like to know for next time they visit? I guess.

I am always having to learn AGAIN on behalf of this weary overcrowded brain, so it's lucky I'm quick on the uptake. It bugs me that our nature is so obviously that of software sometimes.

Anyway, this is me, Trouble, grumbling.

Middle Moon Middle Feast

2009-07-03T20:34:00.003+08:00

Babaganoush for me at midnight, baby.

Old and new.

2009-06-18T21:53:00.002+08:00

Lately, I've been seeing my old friends anew, like meeting them afresh, it's been great, but a little strange. It's the impending venerability, I expect.

Middle Moon.

2009-06-16T19:40:00.004+08:00

My life has taken a Bilbo Bagginsesque turn, no calls save on Party Business.

And to think, just a few days ago I was ready to skip the whole thing, when I got a call...

Disgruntled Dance Teacher from Bigsplat: I hate winter. I've only got THREE students.
Me: Me too. Lazy dancers staying in... no dedication.
Disgruntled Dance Teacher: I know, how about I come up there and give a workshop?
Me: Good plan. That will get them off the couch.
Disgruntled Dance Teacher (suddenly sounding perkier): When?
Me: Weekend?
Perky Dance Teacher: Okee Dokeee
Me: I know, MY Birthday Party!!!
Perky Dance Teacher: it's a plan! And we'll perform.
Me: Great!

While this conversation bears only a faint resemblance to the actual conversation, it does serve to let you know, you, my lovely readers, that birthday business planning is going very well, and now includes a workshop and a performance. Excellent.

I do wish you could attend.

730 photographs

2009-06-04T15:33:00.001+08:00

However, a fair portion of these are of zebras.

An exhaltation of larks.

2009-05-11T18:53:00.003+08:00

And what a gorgeous lark this is, and what a clever lark I am.

ps. I saw a seal yesterday.

The prettiest city in the world is Edinburgh.

2009-05-02T16:16:00.002+08:00

And the islands are nice, too.

Everything looks like a Harry Potter film set, and often is.

So far, so wonderful.

"The Connoisseuse of Slugs" by Sharon Olds

2009-04-14T08:28:00.000+08:00

"The Connoisseuse of Slugs" by Sharon Olds (poetry reading by Some Guy)

Checklist for the Scottish Play

2009-04-13T09:53:00.002+08:00

1. Passport
2. Ticket
3. Credit Card
4. Cute little moleskin notebook currently home to itinerary, internet passwords & BFF's phonenumber (not that she ever answers her phone, or indeed READS this, NOLA)
5. The Perfect Black Cardigan
6. Travel Scrabble

Check, check, check, check, check and check

Events have been eventful.

2009-03-16T15:20:00.002+09:00

So you all know I'm going to meet See You Next Wednesday in Edinburgh, don't you?

In other news, we have a buyer for our swamp, and we made an offer on a little house conditional on that sale going through without a hitch, and this was accepted. It's a little house in town, walking distance to everything and it's quite nice. We hope to put a big shed out the back. It's good news. It will take three or so weeks before everything is done, and we're not moving in until 3 months time, at least.

Date up.

2009-03-06T22:16:00.004+09:00

What to report?

I had my passport photos taken on Tuesday, and I was sick and also, the wrong person, and the photographs were dreadful. Then today I was the right person (fleetingly) and had them taken again. Much better.

I felt ashamed of the vanity but a passport lasts 10 years and becomes your idea of your traveling self and I talked to Nola about it and she said it was perfectly reasonable and she would have done the same.

I expect things have changed in airports. How will I manage not to nervously talk about the forbidden topics such as B*mbs, Ter*o**ts, and Boog*ie Bo*rds????

Should I wear some kind of Mental Elf Alert button?
Perhaps I need to produce a leaflet entitled "Laughs at Funerals: Cannot Help It."

Does anybody else have this fear?

News from the new year.

2009-01-20T12:07:00.003+09:00

We're selling our dream block.
(Turns out, it was a block of dreams...)

And we're going to try to avoid Rental Hell by buying a house in town.

We had thought we'd avoided Rental Hell by leasing a house with no freehold title, leasing a leasehold in fact, and by being reasonably good tenants, but it seems leaseholds can be sold outright. We could buy the lease to our house, but the whole deal looks very dodgy to me. The lease MIGHT be renewed after twenty years, yes, but it might not be.
The annual maintenance fee MIGHT not go up, but it MIGHT.

It takes a long time to sell our dream block because all the other dreamers get 2 months notice to see if they might like to double their dream. So that's fine with me.

I don't like to rush things.

Speaking of rushing things, we bought a car.
It's 12 years old, shiny, astonishingly fuel efficient and is called "Boo".

Ethel is still going well, aside from the moss growing on the rust patches.
So we're temporarily a two car household.

Health is brilliant.
I like Peony lipstick.

That's it folks.

Love you.

So, that was Christmas, now for New Year.

2009-01-20T12:05:00.001+09:00

And New Year was sweet too.

Music, friends, strangers and starry skies above a camp fire.

5 days in 1 house.

2009-01-20T11:58:00.004+09:00

3 Dogs
1 Patriarch
1 Matriarch
1 Aunty
1 Cousin
1 Cousin-in-love
1 Husband
2 Brothers-in-love
2 Sisters

And it was AWESOME.

Travel clothes.

2008-12-28T09:22:00.004+09:00

The Four Agreements

2008-12-04T15:19:00.001+09:00

The Four Agreements

* Be Impeccable With Your Word. Speak with integrity. Say only what you mean. Avoid using the word to speak against yourself or to gossip about others. Use the power of your word in the direction of truth and love.

* Don’t Take Anything Personally. Nothing others do is because of you. What others say and do is a projection of their own reality, their own dream. When you are immune to the opinions and actions of others, you won’t be the victim of needless suffering.

* Don’t Make Assumptions. Find the courage to ask questions and to express what you really want. Communicate with others as clearly as you can to avoid misunderstandings, sadness and drama. With just this one agreement, you can completely transform your life.

* Always Do Your Best. Your best is going to change from moment to moment; it will be different when you are healthy as opposed to sick. Under any circumstance, simply do your best, and you will avoid self-judgment, self-abuse and regret.

Don Miguel Ruiz (1997)

Clarify your mind, purify your heart, sanctify your life.

2008-12-02T07:50:00.002+09:00

Life in Bugsplat has been busy lately with lots of reading, music, dancing and work.

Online we've finally found a place as good as Zaphod's Other Head Mailing List was in its heyday, and that's been keeping us busy with the whole clarify your mind, purify your heart and sanctify your life project.

Saw a great Alan Moore doco about his take on shamanism.

Love to discuss it with you.

Home made art.

2008-11-03T16:52:00.002+09:00

Bugsplat Arts Association have been busy, busy, busy and unfortunately for yours truly that means all hands on deck. Too many meetings, too many cheese on crackers get togethers. The food is good, I will admit, and the people are beautiful, it is true, but I want to be out on my swamp, with only my dog for company. Me, dog, wine, paper and pen. That's what I want.

What I GET is alcohol-free month pledges, catering fund raisers, laundry, vets, job, uniforms to iron, afternoon teas for worthy causes and ... on the plus side... a lot of belly dance and music.

I need a lyrics filter.

2008-10-21T17:22:00.001+08:00

Here's Rod Stewart, longing for god.

I am sailing, I am sailing,
home again 'cross the sea.
I am sailing, stormy waters,
to be near you, to be free.

I am flying, I am flying,
like a bird 'cross the sky.
I am flying, passing high clouds,
to be with you, to be free.

Can you hear me, can you hear me
thro' the dark night, far away,
I am dying, forever trying,
to be with you, who can say.

Can you hear me, can you hear me,
thro' the dark night far away.
I am dying, forever trying,
to be with you, who can say.

We are sailing, we are sailing,
home again 'cross the sea.
We are sailing stormy waters,
to be near you, to be free.

Oh Lord, to be near you, to be free.
Oh Lord, to be near you, to be free,
Oh Lord.

Mind over matter.

2008-10-20T11:57:00.000+08:00

What is mind? No matter.

What is matter? Never mind.

The house is a mess...

2008-09-30T08:02:00.004+08:00

The house is a mess, my current husband has wine stained lips and three days worth of stubble and has taken over the kitchen with his laptop and his very important deadline. So now he owns two of the three bedrooms, the lounge room AND the kitchen. I now own one of the bedrooms and this desk here out in the little room out the back with the dog kennel in one corner and the fridge humming away behind me. This is what happens when I go away. This is how I lost the second bedroom and the lounge room. If I go away again I may have to move into the bathroom.

Calypso had a wonderful time at the bellydance festival in the City of Lights. Her favourite instructor was there being wonderful as usual and she met lots of dancers. Also, pretty!!!

I had a mixed time, but that's okay, I quite like ambivalence. And I had a great conversation with Megan of the Sonnet about Jack Kerouac's "Dharma Bums".

Trouble had a productive time so that's good for the little tomboy.
S/he drove Luscious Lizard's car In The City Where There Are Traffic Lights And Multiple Lanes.

Hey - I wish there were multiple lanes. Lanes for multiples. Hah.

thea

Sweeney Todd.

2008-09-22T21:05:00.001+08:00

How utterly wonderful!!!

Thank you Stephen Sondheim and thank you Tim Burton and thank you Helena and Johnny.

You are all wonderful.

Change, feast.

2008-09-19T17:06:00.003+08:00

The holiday is going brilliantly. It is such a relief to be out of Bugsplat for a bit. Here there'a horizon or two. I miss those. I can see the ocean from this house, sun setting in the west, etcet. It's good. It's fresh. My sister and brother-in-love are wonderful hosts. Food. Wine. Conversation. All good. And our dogs get along.

I've really enjoyed being away from all the village drama. God it gets crazy sometimes. I've enjoyed feeling my strength, taking bus, train about. Feeling less desperate about my life. It's a good feeling.

I know it's just because it's a holiday. I know it's not anything really to do with place but my god a change is as good as a feast.

And there hasn't been a shortage of feasts...

Smooth seas don't make good sailors.

2008-09-12T08:47:00.002+08:00

Tumultuous weather here in my teacup, but there's nothing eventful to report.

I've been skipping classes to avoid a person I find difficult. And feeling ashamed to be so weak.

Dancing has been going well. Work has been going well. My darling puppy dog is still darling.

I need a holiday from Bugsplat, and luckily I'm getting one. A week in the City of Lights with my sister. With puppy and husband.

One bright shiny thing: I'm so happy for Winston and Mari.

Miss Landmine.

2008-08-26T15:57:00.005+08:00

I'm successfully resisting a strong sense of obligation to say something profound or poignant about this - I'll just let it be.

Puns don't kill people.

2008-08-25T13:22:00.001+08:00

There was the person who sent ten different puns to her friends, with the hope that at least one of the puns would make them laugh.
No pun in ten did.

Rainbow Road.

2008-08-16T19:00:00.002+08:00

Turtles all the way down.

2008-08-14T17:29:00.002+08:00

William James and Bertrand Russell take turns being the Intelligent (White) Man and "A Hindoo", "An Eastern Guru", "A Woman" and "An Old Woman" take turns saying "it's turtles all the way down"; in anecdotes told by others.

If I had a hundred lifetimes I'd spend at least three of them studying how these kinds of stories move through time. Maybe four.

I wish we had a hundred lifetimes. I wish we had a lifetime each.

(Be careful what you wish for!)

This post is done. Over and out.

Cheating.

2008-08-01T21:06:00.000+08:00

I've been cheating on you. And you. And you.

*cough*

Facebook.

Ask for details if you're interested.

I went fishing and caught a pretty fish.

2008-07-26T20:10:00.003+08:00

Sometimes I like to google weird phrases and see what is out there.

Tonight I googled something like "I'm totally done selling out to the patriarchy" (as you do) and lo and behold I found this.
This isn't a recommendation. Though I may recommend this site, later, if it's good.

In other news ...

I went to Stormy Point today for a swim. The morning was so warm and the sun so bright and by lunchtime I thought "mid winter or no, it's warm enough to swim" and by one o'clock in the afternoon I had fallen enough in love with the idea of swimming in the Great Southern Ocean in the middle of winter so as to nab a friend and actually go to the ocean.

I had half expected to arrive to a storm and stumble about kicking broken shells for a bit before grumpily going home.

Instead there was strong and bright sunshine and I was so, so, so, so, so, so glad to be there.
And I swam for an hour.
It was wonderful.

Harsh.

2008-07-21T12:58:00.002+08:00

My friend, the Anti-Chris, has been having a rather harsh time lately.
If you're also a friend of the Anti-Chris, you might like to know what's been going on.
He talks about his harsh time at his blog.

The consolation of philosophy.

2008-07-09T20:03:00.002+08:00

What a storm in my teacup was today.

Luckily I had my volume of "Consolations of Philosophy", that wonderful work of Boethius, to steady and console me. All is well.

Phenomena

2008-07-08T16:19:00.000+08:00

Bugsplat Fairy Swamp

2008-06-29T10:45:00.002+08:00

I'm 39 (soon) and I've got a green belt in curmudgeon.

2008-06-19T17:10:00.006+08:00

Seems like we're "out" here now.

"Out" as being multiple, as in ... you know... Multiple Personality Disorder as in ... Oh My God My Wife is a secret Soviet Assassin in her spare time as in Jekyll and Hyde as in Split Personality with extra exclamation marks!!

To start anywhere, as no one event is more significant than another really, in that all of these events were valuable lessons in the fact of our multiplicity... as in the day Winston came to visit unexpectedly to find Calypso sitting on the front steps with no real idea of who he was (there was a good association with ice-cream though...) or the day Just Jo drove us to See You Next Wednesday's dad's house because she knew that she needed to be somewhere safe, FAST, and that he was a curmudgeon for sure but he was safe.

As in the day when we were eight years old and started walking home and got startled by something and ended up switching ("changing personality") and leaving our life in the hands of someone who didn't know where we lived. She did a good job actually, taking us to a Merle's house which she recognised and asking Merle where we lived. It might not have looked like a success but it was. We got home. It was rather hard for our mother to explain but she was by then good at covering for us and for that I thank her.

(I am so grateful that she didn't turn us in. For psychiatric "help".)

As in the day we woke up in China with no recollection of the last six months of our life, and no knowledge at all of where we were, or why... or why everyone was calling us "Gloria".

*cough* all true except that last bit!

Like being a man in a woman's body (which some of us know about first hand) it's a fact (our multiplicity) of our reality that the rest of the world feels free and entitled to dispute. This is an intensive spiritual opportunity for us (to look at it in a positive light) because it means that we constantly have to resist an incredible social pressure to conform, deny our truth, accept the dominant paradigm etc.

So there you have it. We're officially 'out' here too.

And all because I wanted to link to Roz's page (she's the person in our system who plays guitar) because she's compiled a list of love songs to Wednesday. They are laughable.

Enjoy.

The Beggar's Opera.

If she ever needs a home...

2008-06-04T20:14:00.008+08:00

This dog, Wednesday, she is as big as a world to me.
Her eyes! Her nose and her pretty little paws and the way she nuzzles into my shoulder...

"You are the single most persuasive argument for cloning I have ever encountered", sayeth Nadia to Wednesday.

Nadia the checkout goddess scanning groceries at Coles in Littlesplat with her eyes like blue ice, skin like snow, and those elegant eyebrows that offer a syncopated commentary on whatever startling wit or arch remark she is offering you unworthy yet graciously indulged customer;

"Let me know if she ever needs a home."

Oh she has a home. She owns my heart.

Welcome Wednesday.

2008-05-28T22:09:00.003+08:00

This is the day she arrived for good.

Welcome, Wednesday.

Born on April 12th, she is 6 and a half weeks old.
Too young, but her mum has run out of milk.

Improbably free.

2008-05-26T13:19:00.001+08:00

If you like science and silliness, you might like this.

Slower than a wet Wednesday.

2008-05-17T15:17:00.003+08:00

We like routines. Every Wednesday we go to work and now that we know the best responses to all 200 different stupid things people can do at work it's okay for lots of us to be there. Customer A isn't there to compare their Polly to Customer B's Polly. It doesn't matter if we're different. As long as we are in the range of acceptable customer service of course.
(Pia, I'm looking at you.)

We get to make the same jokes too, sometimes several times a day. This is fun for us because we like repetition. And it's an ongoing experiment in comic timing. Also fun. The two main jokes we have I will share with you today. Right here. Right now.

Joke 1. If it is raining and someone says something along the lines of "Bet it's been quiet today" we say "It's slower than a wet Wednesday."

Joke 2. If they discover that their car (we charge by the car) is eligible for a concession rate because somebody in the car is a pensioner and are considerably cheered up by that fact and there's another person in the car who's ALSO eligible for a concession who jokes that they should get a discount too we say "Pretty Soon I'll Be Giving YOU Money."

Trouble.

Hey, Einstein, I thought you said space was curved?

2008-04-17T21:38:00.000+08:00

"Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former." - Albert Einstein (1879-1955)

There and back again.

2008-04-05T13:14:00.002+08:00

The city was bright and pretty and busy with old friends and shows and nine for breakfast at three in the afternoon and meetings and the greetings of the kitten-demon, pawsteps measured and steady.

The mountains were wreathed in white for our darling with sun the next day and all the rellies and two circles of friends awkward but goodwilled and smooth with food and drink and the perfectly cool afternoon air.

The sun sets over the west, you know, on expensive run down verandahs and the chatter like a dream and there's all that suffocating joy at the fact of my mother and sisters being so vibrant and alive and in my physical presence at last, with the promise of more at christmas.

I don't know why I find this so screamingly funny but I do... and maybe you will too.

2008-02-19T09:31:00.003+09:00

Dinosaur Rap

Tree dreams.

2008-02-17T20:50:00.003+09:00

The ravenous bugblatter beast of credit has been drooling loudly and thus we jumped at the chance for some double pay today. Trouble might write about it one day at his/her blog "Trouble at Work".
We'll see.
Other than deal with customers (ie. getting out of the way and letting Trouble do her/his job) we don't do much at the tree except drink tea and day dream. There's been altogether too much day dreaming lately, foolish sad little regret-ridden dreams of what might have been if only...
I think part of reason that we've taken so long (and are still resisting) to accept where we are in life right now, and to stop wishing we'd done things differently is that we're still resisting accepting that we are multiple and have mental health issues and that a lot of the chaos and mayhem and sadness in our life you know.. might at least be slightly connected to that stuff... rather than say a well thought out career plan of the sylvia plath variety.
(Madness, Death, Eternal Greatness)
Part of our reluctance to believe this (what? I've forgotten already) - is because we wish so very much that it was under our control and that we could just stop and get the hell over it and finally stop this nonsense and grow up and stop pretending and behave sensibly and etc. etc.
But we can't, can we, and we look like a kitten washed up on a beach licking itself, I'm sure;
"I meant to catch that wave, yuh huh, sure I did, I like it here."

Well, here at the beach I washed up on things are actually okay, thank you for asking.

We are still grieving for our friend. Our grief did change form somewhat after 40 days when we dismantled the shrine and candles. Since then we have been having vivid dreams.

First one: oh damn already gone
Second one:snobbish bellydancers at a party
Third: cow god

These dreams have been having consequences for us, affecting our decisions.
We don't ordinarily notice that.

Those of us who do still eat meat have been abstaining from beef since the cow god dream. That cow god was persuasive and had firm views about it being okay to eat cheese, but not okay to eat beef. A lot of us had always got stuck with that - not being able to see a difference morally but that's the nice thing about having heard it straight from the cow god. Now I know.

Until cow god speaks again... mmmooooooooo.

So much for keeping this journal the 'sane and sensible' one.

Me and my fellow telephone sanitisers are where the action is on Ark B.

2008-01-19T10:33:00.000+09:00

Detroit Dating

Angelata, Francesca, Lowena & me.

2008-01-07T20:39:00.000+09:00

Lowena's like the girl you never really know because she's so transparent. She's been with us forever and we barely remember her name. It's only times like this one, now, when she feels something and she won't share it, and we feel it like a stick caught in the hem of our dress.

104

2007-12-30T15:52:00.000+09:00

Happy Travels Nan.

Everything you need.

2007-12-16T20:58:00.000+09:00

You get it all in a small town. Food and drink and intrigue.

I wonder if there is a spirit of Christmas Work Parties?
Who wants to help me find it and kill it?

On a happier note, p'haps a cheery little D, my fabulous mum and one of my gorgeous sisters (I am lucky enough to have two) visited Bugsplat for a few days. This was my Mum's third visit and the first time for sis of fake name "Fiona". Handy Hint: The other sis has fake name of Megan and lives in Canbella.

It was wonderful to see them both and Bugsplat was on best behaviour.

Eleven long years.

2007-11-21T22:08:00.001+09:00

This needs a photo credit - I remember the journalist was Anna someone - I shall try to find her.
In the meantime, this photo is from the Melba column of The Australian, circa 1996, Election time.

Welcome, Dr Josephine.

2007-11-12T07:16:00.000+09:00

Obsessive stalkers may remember that when our old friend from Hometown came to visit us on the mountain, we gave her a fake name that shared with her real name the quality of gender ambiguity in its short form.

She visits us again!

So, would everybody please make welcome Dr Josephine who may or may not be appearing in this journal over the next day or two.

Yay!
We love Dr Josephine.

Drunk on Election Night.

2007-10-28T11:39:00.000+09:00

I'm pretty sure there'll be no need for a repeat of The Great Drowning of Sorrow of 1996, but as a precautionary measure I have taken a vow of teetotal. I shall be weeping (tears of sorrow or fear) into my tea, no doubt. Our friend is having a 50th birthday party and it is Monty Python themed and there's no television so I expect I'll be sneaking over to their neighbour's house (dressed as perhaps A Duck or A Witch or A Newt That Got Better) to check out the lay of the land.

So tell me, what will you be doing on Election Night?

Cheers, Doris.

2007-10-18T20:46:00.000+08:00

The news that one of my favourite writers, Doris Lessing, has won the Nobel Prize for Literature has been bracing and cheering. I am delighted. She is a system wide favourite of ours - popular with absolutely everyone here at Polly HQ - not all her books for all of us, but all of us love something of hers. Something for everyone.

We like to flirt with the idea that Doris Lessing is multiple, like us. The Jane Somer books are so different from The Good Terrorist which is so different from the amazing Shikasta series. And if you look for it, like we do, in the writing itself, evidence is everywhere.

Multiple or not, congratulations Doris.

Goethe did not say that.

2007-09-15T17:19:00.000+08:00

Not even anything like it. So just quit it, wouldja?
I know it's nice. But it's Not Goethe. So just quit it.
Please.

So, the relentless self improvement continues to be relentless around here.

Good things:

1. Reading your blogs (Hi AntiChris, nice to see you again, Hi Winston, I'm so glad we still agree about Mars Attacks)
2. Belly dance is good. So are almost all the other things we do to support it like Tai Chi, Circuit Training, Jazz Ballet (don't laugh) and earn money.
3. Music is good. One of us (she's shy) plays guitar. She's been writing songs. Still.

Bad things:

1. Earn money. This is still rather hard. Not as hard as it was.
2. The thing that isn't Something Awful still hurts like Something Awful.
(On the up side, it isn't Something Awful.)

Mr Fritz.

2007-08-24T21:31:00.000+08:00

We have a green fitball called Mr Fritz. He's fantastic.

Lost.

2007-08-23T11:20:00.000+08:00

Lost: One A3 size black and white photo of the Stanley St Church, taken from Melton Hill.

Once framed, this relic is believed to be hiding behind another of similar size.

Or, we may have given it to someone. It would only be someone we love.

Miso.

2007-07-30T17:53:00.000+08:00

Not surprisingly, it is chilly here. I've just come home from work (Sparks & Firecrackers) where I had an officious kind of day making decisions about whether or not to close a natural attraction on account of adverse weather conditions. The weather was rather indecisive and so was I as this particular subjective risk assessment is relatively new to me. I spent most of the day sprinting through really horrible weather to put up the "Closed" signs, sprinting through slightly less miserable weather to take them down again or huddling by the stove drinking miso.

I like my job! Weather is fun. Miso is good.

Trouble.

Landed.

2007-07-13T00:19:00.000+08:00

It's our third night at home, and we're starting to feel as if we have arrived. Sometimes we take a while to arrive in our life. One thing I do know already though, this was a really great trip away. So good. Thanks for reading.

No skylarking on the curlybells.

2007-06-27T16:40:00.000+08:00

"Coldest, Wettest, Darkest June on Record" says the Hearttown Daily Bulletin.

The sun finally came out today and the sky was blue and clear - I could see Hinchinbrook from the Sea Bar (on the Strand) - at last some traditional Hearttown winter weather. It's been a lovely day.

ps. special hello to those who also used to wear a bottle green uniform and play in the amazing fig tree caves.

pps. miss you Hearttown people

Everything is beautiful.

2007-06-14T19:42:00.000+08:00

Although we miss our darling, the trip has been wonderful.

After the wonderful time in Canberra, Stephen (you may know him by his other, less fake, name)and I (uil) saw my (uil) Dad in Sydney and then we (nicely ambiguous) went on a trip to the Blue Mountains with Leila; Sam and Sam's new boyfriend; Sam's Dad and Sam's Dad's wife; and the utterly delightful Tom and Stewart (fake names tba) and then more fun at the Three Sisters Social Club Ball, then some energetic bushwalking in the Blue Mountains then a drive home to Sydney via Norman Lindsay's house and then some more culture vulturing with Sam's new boyfriend. Leila and I went out and then there was a plane trip and now I am here, in Heart Town.
It was so wonderful to see old friends (including my sister), to meet new friends and it is also wonderful to be here with my (other) sister and family and the gorgeous dog Friday.

Everything is beautiful.
Love from polly people.

Stupidly busy = busy being stupid.

2007-05-19T14:40:00.001+08:00

Things are stupidly busy here with Calypso's belly dance business and Trouble (& others) at a new job but things are feeling less impossible now that we're halfway through.
(I like to do at least one impossible thing before breakfast, how about you?)
I miss you people so much! Some of you I will see soon.
Any chance, Ms Plum, of meeting me in Sidders???
Or Heart Town even?

Love you people.
(Yes, you.)

Reconstruction.

2007-04-28T23:20:00.000+08:00

We have the original earrings, and *checks* yes, the EAR is still here.
So, perhaps we can take another photo for this journal.
For some reason though (a fleeting moment of sanity perhaps?) I don't seem to have the will to do it. So, for now, this is as it is.

Life here in Bugsplat is busy in a good way, and busy in a bad way.

1. Busy in a good way
~ organising a trip east!
~ bellydancing three times a week plus a costume project
~ studying contemporary ballet/jazz fusion once a week with a wonderful teacher
~ art classes start again next week
~ four new songs and they are goooooooood ones

2. Busy in a bad way
~ organising belly dance stuff that is way too complicated and feels irritating and letting people get to me, when I should be remembering that these are Calypso's students not mine and that she likes being a belly dance teacher and it is okay for me not to like doing that but I'm only doing it because Calypso can't organise her way out of a wet paper bag and she know it (signed Trouble)
~ my HIDEOUS new job, oh it is much worse than I thought it would be, and my expectations were low. Maybe it will get better. The problems are all complicated and related to *cough* our little dissociative issues. We thought we were ready but we're not. See, it was quiet at the Bureau. Peaceful, even. We were in charge and that always helps. Now we are not in charge. Now there are horrible noises constantly. And we are having bad feelings to do with our job that we used to have a long time ago (I was locked in a dungeon at the time, so forgive me if I get the dates wrong) back in the early nineties. That is like a legendary time for them (Castle types mostly) especially for those who never quite let it go. LET IT GO, I say.

I'm not supposed to write here as myself. As Trouble. But you people deserve an update. Normal (Castle types) service will resume at some point.

National Sparks & Firestarters.

2007-04-02T12:05:00.000+08:00

After a very pleasant two months since leaving my job as Manager of the Bugsplat Tourist Bureau and swanning about (like the bohemian writer described somewhat longingly by my buddy Dave) from creative project to creative project, I have accidentally ended up with a job again. Dammit.

This one is at least paid quite well. It is part time. It is in Littlesplat with the National Sparks and Firestarters, as a casual clerical officer. Super Temp!

Cape & Tights optional.

Sneaking in without paying.

2007-03-16T14:20:00.000+09:00

Hah! I got in again without having to change over and thus (like the great artist I am not) lose my ear. Hah!

Well, now I'm here, I'd better say something.
Don't you think piracy is more like sneaking into the opera without paying because your boyfriend's sister's best friend is the door bitch? Rather than stealing. Which is clearly is not, coz otherwise there wouldn't need to be a huge advertising campaign to try to convince everyone that it is. Surely?

I am in love with the name Sheila and with the name Shirley. I keep saying them to myself and grinning foolishly. Hopefully it's not just that I have a Sheila or a Shirley peeking through the windows into the world. Please. For the love of god, no more!
Oh, what's a couple extra.

I did once believe there was a limit to our number. Believed that, with the help of Modern Therapy, we all were known, named; neuroses agreed upon. Eight. Hah. Eight. Eight's such a nice number. So managable. So tidy. So SMALL. What a simple life it would be to be eight. How pleasant, how carefree, how easy. As for you multiples who number two, it's all he said, she said. Don't talk to me.

(Actually, I don't mean that. Please talk to me! Especially you two, the mirror brothers, you are both very interesting.)

This belongs in one of my other journals. Not here. This is supposed to be Relatively Sane.

If I can't get back here again, and this journal starts to feel abandoned (penis-enlargement comments sprouting like weeds etc.) then please do email us for directions to other journals. It's possible that we'll move everything over to word press one day.

Leave a comment if you need an email address.

*hugs*

various polly, mostly shell *waves*

This might be the last time for a while.

2007-02-23T21:08:00.000+09:00

I've been avoiding this blog. Fearing the "You Can Only Do This Once" message, and not wanting to lose the picture of our beautiful earring, and pretty little ear. I like that picture where it is. It looks good there. When we moved our other blogspot journals over we all lost our individual profiles in the process.

And just now, coming here, the message came.

I knew it was only a matter of time. So, this might be the last time I post here until I figure out a whole new fake identity. Then I shall give her a birthdate, carve it somewhere and return, hopefully to keep this profile. You're all owed a decent update though, so, enjoy.

*shimmy*

We've been doing a LOT of that.

Calypso has been insane with the dancing. Three times a week, mixed level classes now, a special night for troupe AND she wants to run a special one "Over Fifties" at the Rec. Centre. She's doing great. She's also been organising a life drawing session - no teacher, just artists who meet one Sunday morning every month and contribute to pay the model. It was great last time and she did some really good work. She is getting better.

(thea: Apparently that's what happens when you stick at things. I must try it sometime.)

Trouble has been busy driving Calypso to her millions of classes. She was feeling sad about not being able to box any more but has started something called "Circuit Training" which she seems to be enjoying even if about a third of the exercises are impossible because of our(wonderful, marvellously recovering) knee. Things like skipping, jumping, and lunging.

(I think I'll live without them.)

She loved her farewell. It was rather good. A fantastic ego-stroking speech and TWO rounds of applause. Plus, a hamper. It was sorely needed. I'm glad we seem to be able to look back on the job as a positive experience now. That's the perspective we needed. It really was a great job, we loved it and we're very proud of Trouble. It's also given us a much better looking CV.

And I should know. I've been re-doing them all for the various hair-brained schemes we're currently working on. We've also been applying for grants for bellydancing related stuff: costumes, training and travel to training. That's been fine. We just made the deadline on one today, with 15 minutes spare.

Roz has been playing a lot of guitar. And has written a new song. Vote for the song title!
Quick Reader Poll: Which should it be?
A. "There's a Mermaid's Purse" (or, but this is still A.) "A Mermaid's Purse"
or
B. "The Drunken Cabin Boy."

It's a great song! Best song yet! But she always says that.

We're all doing really well and feeling good about our life.
I hope you are too. Happy Birthday. You.
Now you must excuse us, there is still some Battlestar Galactica left.

*shimmy*

Thank you.

2007-02-07T13:59:00.000+09:00

And, you, lovely, beautiful YOU, thank you, for everything.
We love you.

Peacocks!

2007-02-07T10:48:00.000+09:00

Thank you to Jenscovians & Saisons for their beautiful gift!
Rather than attempt to describe it I shall post a photo here soon.

All roads lead to Bugsplat.

2007-01-31T10:31:00.000+09:00

Around a huge change in circumstances, if there is time and space for it, there tends to be a kind of sprawling, crazy, crowded, noisy, political, socially frantic kind of (unpleasantly student-esque) convention at Polly HQ.
(Polly HQ? That's my poor overtilled little brain we're talking about.)

Different factions form and campaign for whatever cause is currently dearest to their hearts or useful to their agendas. I remember the "More Socks" coalition once managed to completely dominate one of these events some years ago. There are always the vegans who in previous years would align themselves with almost ANYTHING in pursuit of their single purpose but have grown more discerning lately. I've given up trying to have my way these days, since it really is too late for us to be the beautiful dark-haired young lesbian living in Brunswick fighting-for-justice lawyer I always wanted us to be. Pity. I think I would have liked that.

Oh you would not. You would have made a fool of yourself over some married woman, broken your heart when you realised the inherent moral bankruptcy of the adversarial system, developed a speed addiction and would have had to quit altogether and retire to the country to indulge in exquitely painful unrequited love for the girls who work in the shop.

Well, yes, perhaps all roads do lead to Bugsplat.

Goodbye to the Bugsplat Tourist Bureau

2007-01-27T17:47:00.000+09:00

It was our last day at work today.

Our reference is quirky but excellent, and it was a nice last day. Our favourite volunteer, Wes (that stands for Work Experience Student because that's how he started) came in 'specially and we had lunch with Gray.

It looks beautiful in there - bright and clean with flowers and a welcome book for the new Manager. I remembered riding to the top of Castle Hill on the last day of school - it felt a little like that morning, the same strange feeling of wild and light dread.

Bye Bugsplat Bureau!
Bye.

And you know you're Homesick for Hearttown when...

2007-01-25T20:40:00.000+09:00

... you post a daffy little piece-o-fluff like that and it makes you happy.

You know you're in Hearttown when...

2007-01-25T20:38:00.000+09:00

> a.. The best parking space is determined by shade instead of distance.
>
> b.. Hot water comes out of both taps.
>
> c.. You learn that a seat belt buckle makes a pretty good branding iron.
>
> d.. The temperature drops below 35c and you feel a little chilly.
>
> e.. You discover that in February it only takes two fingers to steer
> your car.
>
> f.. You discover that you can get sunburnt through your car window.
>
> g.. You develop a fear of metal car door handles.
>
> h.. You break a sweat the instant you step outside at 7:30am.
>
> i.. Your biggest bicycle wreck fear is, "What if I get knocked out and
> end up lying on the pavement and cook to death?"
>
> j.. You realise that asphalt has a liquid state.
>
> k.. Farmers are feeding their chickens crushed ice to prevent them from
> laying hard-boiled eggs.
>
> l.. The trees are whistling for the dogs.
>
> m. while walking back barefoot to your car from the beach, you do a
> tightrope act on the white lines in the carpark.
>
> n. you catch a cold from having the aircon full blast while you sleep
> during the night.
>
> o. You learn that Stockland isn't a shopping centre - it's a temple to
> worship air-conditioning.

3+4=7

2007-01-20T18:00:00.000+09:00

Today's Saturday. (Yay! Bill Night!)

Sunday, Monday and Tuesday - three days in a row - are covered, then we work Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday with the New Manager starting on Sunday.

Gosh.

Did I mention that Gray did not get the job?
It's rather upsetting.

Countdown.

2007-01-16T22:49:00.000+09:00

A week and a half.
Gray has a job interview tomorrow for my job.
Small towns are like that.
(All is well here, you?)

Politics.

2007-01-13T08:29:00.000+09:00

Snopes is a great place.

At Polly HQ we try to avoid talking politics these days. I'd tell you why but I'd have to talk politics. But I will say - that poem scares me. The world is a very scary place.

In our capacity as awards judges we recently saw Children of Men. It was utterly amazing. Alas, it did have the (somewhat expected) effect of leading to relapse in the whole thinking/talking about politics and the state of the world. Don't let that stop you though - that movie is wonderful.

Unexpected effect - after years of seething animosity I find myself suddenly very fond of Micheal Caine.

*whew!*
I seem to have slid sideways out of that little relapse. Hurrah.
We had a very nice time talking to Mia last night.
(You may know Mia by her other, less fake, name.)

Make the pie higher.

2007-01-13T08:24:00.000+09:00

Quote from snopes:
As a test example, we chose the "Make the Pie Higher!" piece reproduced above (generally credited to "Washington Post writer Richard Thompson," a satirist and illustrator who produces the "Richard's Poor Almanac" feature appearing in the Post's Sunday edition) and attempted to trace every statement listed therein to its source to determine how many of them were actually uttered by George W. Bush.

MAKE THE PIE HIGHER

I think we all agree, the past is over.
This is still a dangerous world.
It's a world of madmen and uncertainty
and potential mental losses.

Rarely is the question asked
Is our children learning?
Will the highways of the Internet become more few?
How many hands have I shaked?

They misunderestimate me.
I am a pitbull on the pantleg of opportunity.
I know that the human being and the fish can coexist.
Families is where our nation finds hope, where our wings take dream.

Put food on your family!
Knock down the tollbooth!
Vulcanize society!
Make the pie higher! Make the pie higher!

Family times.

2007-01-10T11:39:00.000+09:00

My cousin Josephine (she of the Amazing Teal Blue Eyes) invited us to visit her in Lighthouse Town where her husband's family have their traditional summer holiday together. It was great. They're a really inspiring family. Tolstoy was right. They're all alike, happy families. It was great to be with them. I like them very much.

We played a version of Poker that is more like storytelling. You are given a big handful of small novelty toys and trinkets that the family have collected for years and that's what you bet with. You have to tell a story about what they are. It's very silly and lots of fun.

Josephine & I talked a lot about our Nana. She was a wonderful Nana.

Tennyson (via Renee)

2007-01-05T20:36:00.000+09:00

Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky,
The flying cloud, the frosty light:
The year is dying in the night;
Ring out, wild bells, and let him die.

Ring out the old, ring in the new,
Ring, happy bells, across the snow:
The year is going, let him go;
Ring out the false, ring in the true.

Ring out the grief that saps the mind,
For those that here we see no more;
Ring out the feud of rich and poor,
Ring in redress to all mankind.

Ring out a slowly dying cause,
And ancient forms of party strife;
Ring in the nobler modes of life,
With sweeter manners, purer laws.

Ring out the want, the care, the sin,
The faithless coldness of the times;
Ring out, ring out my mournful rhymes,
But ring the fuller minstrel in.

Ring out false pride in place and blood,
The civic slander and the spite;
Ring in the love of truth and right,
Ring in the common love of good.

Ring out old shapes of foul disease;
Ring out the narrowing lust of gold;
Ring out the thousand wars of old,
Ring in the thousand years of peace.

Alfred, Lord Tennyson

Three days straight.

2007-01-04T22:57:00.000+09:00

Three days straight beginning tomorrow. How do you Monday-Friday people survive the onset of Sunday Afternoon (the long dark tea time of the soul)?

Gloomy Thursday is bad enough.

Soon, soon, and I shall be lamenting the lack of three days straight and the money they bring. I have a tiny bit of dentistry left (nothing really, just a check up & polish) and the car needs insurance, registration and tyres. I guess that will take care of my annual leave payout.

Looking back I think we did really well during our unexpected period of financial comfort. Dentistry. Piano. Land.

We signed a new (furniture free) lease today. It's a big reduction in rent. Returning their furniture and rearranging ours - we've been moving things about a lot. I really like the TV in the bedroom - it means it's not in the sitting room. And this computer now, here - it's in the little room between the kitchen and the bathroom. The fridge is is here too. It's quite a cheerful little annexe.

I have two wardrobes full of clothes that really only suit Trouble. Three suits - burgandy, honey and gray. Shirts/Blouses in various combinations of those colours. Gosh. We may have to give those wardrobes back. We have offered to buy them but so far no answer.

At the oppy today we bought a rather fragile but lovely writing desk for $15. We'll put it in the bathroom. For towels and toilet paper and shampoo etc. There was also a very beautiful blanket (yellows and golds) and two wine glasses.

Gray is watching "Kenny". We watched Casino Royale earlier. Fabulous.

G'night. Love you people.

Three Four, Knock at the Door.

2007-01-04T09:04:00.000+09:00

It's the fourth of January and, here at Polly HQ, things are good.

Our favourite christmas gifts.

1. Wooden hair clip with choice of two twiddly little sticks.
2. "Inventing the Victorians" by Matthew Sweet.
3. Gyan and Leunig CD. It's soooo beautiful.
Especially 'the path to your door'.
4. Season 1 of The IT crowd. Me likee.

Four reasons why we are feeling good.

1. We've just 'gone communist'...*cough* it's High Tide.
We have the lady problems! (see 4. above)
2. No work today.
3. We have a vague plan involving a trip to Littlesplat.
4. Just coz.

Four reasons why it was a Great Idea to Quit Work.

1. Mr Manky and Mrs Manky.

(Mr & Mrs Manky are actually four reasons all on their own given that they are composite characters derived from four rather unpleasant individuals.

Four other reasons why it was a Great Idea to Quit Work.

1. The pay is terrible.
2. The expectations are ludicrous.
3. The godawful board meetings.
4. The Door. (don't ask, I will dribble)

Moving stuff about.

2006-12-30T08:07:00.000+09:00

We're moving posts about a bit. Hey! Did you know we have many other journals where we put even weirder and more multiple stuff? You can ask for their addresses if you like.

Trying to keep to the 'relatively normal' mandate of Wants A Cracker then... our life is bumbling along. In the interests of rent reduction we have been buying many household goods. Mannie is likely to talk about her new 9 piece saucepan set at Put the Kettle On at some point soon. Gray bought a TV. It seems to work. We're almost ready.

In hindsight I don't think we should have agreed to such long notice at work. Trouble is finding it very strange to be at a place she loves and has worked so hard to make, and having to reply to enquiries about 'her' job. And there's the way that no matter how clear we are about exactly why we are resigning people (everyone has an opinion in Bugsplat) project their own stuff onto the situation and even when (as they usually are) they are trying hard to be sympathetic the consolations are confusing and remind us that there is no chance of actual understanding. Except from former managers of the Bugsplat Visitor Centre. They get it.

Other people who (like us) have had chronic health issues assume we are resigning because of that, people who (like us) dislike Mr and Mrs Manky will rant about them and even get angry with us for having let them get to us, people who (like us) are paid sub-standard wages will talk about that, people (like us) who work in customer service will bitch about the stupidity and arrogance of 80% of the human race.

We appreciate the sympathy but it's exhausting and none of it helps.

We love you, Kylie.

Order of the White Star - awarded to Ms Trouble.

2006-12-26T14:55:00.000+09:00

Merry Christmas.

Here's my gift to any users of Microsoft Office 2000 who have suffered, as we have, due to the relentless reversion to US English. If you have this program you may (like me) have spent many hours trying to solve this. So many dead ends. So many chirpy little assurances. So many disturbing rants to google.

Our suffering began 18 months ago when Trouble started work and first used the program. From mild irritation to deep, paranoid despair about evil tentacles of US cultural imperialism; there were times when we took it all a little too personally.

This is what finally worked for us.

1. Go to the Start Menu
2. Go to Settings
3. Go to Control Panel
4. Go to Regional Options
5. Go to Input Locales
6. Set as default Australian English.

Trouble : Just to be on the safe side, I (Trouble) deleted the US English option.
At that point there was a message about not being able to do that until the program restarted, but once it did restart all was very well indeed. Spell check is once again ON. I'm not sure if deleting the option of US English is a necessary step but I'm not taking any chances.

yawn

2006-12-19T09:25:00.000+09:00

It's 9.30am, but I don't have to be at work until lunchtime today.

We'll be working until the end of January; apparently that's how long it's going to take to advertise, interview, select and handover. So we're not out of work yet.

Quick Poll: Should Trouble at Work become Trouble out of Work?

Also, we have some (wacky, multiple) news at tricks.

Ask for links if you need them.

Love in a box.

2006-12-18T23:24:00.000+09:00

In the interests of rent reduction we've been replacing the landlord's furniture, crockery & cutlery etc. Washing machine... check! toaster....check! vacumn cleaner ....check! kettle...check.

Still to go - a fridge, some tables, some beds.

On Thursday we drove to SeasideCity and bought lots of stuff (see above) some of which we added to our load at the removalists, which arrived today.

From Hearttown came five tea chests, four book boxes, one bed and one picture.
From Seaside City came a dining room table and six chairs and a bookcase.

I found a cassette tape from the CJC enquiry. An interview with Mr Holt and Mr Holt (no relation) of the Criminal Justice Commission. Gosh. I still remember the sea breeze consoling my shoulders and the cold concrete table and the way I felt like I was in a Twin Peaks homage and knowing it was useless even as I answered their questions. Mr Holt and Mr Holt (no relation) and me. On tape. What a relic.

And then there's all that love from long ago. And the activist's handbook from Jabiluka. And the t-shirt (Mahogony Gliders don't take sugar) and there's my grandfather's war medals and my grandmother's pearls. Precious. Relics.

There's a mix tape (of course!) and a brooch, and a boxed set of Winnie the Pooh. There are paintings and posters and scraps of notepaper and the handwritten epic poem we wrote in the early nineties and my uniform that I was supposed to give back and ...

How I miss you tonight, you people who know me from years ago.
So much love, in a box.

Beginnings and endings.

2006-12-04T16:18:00.000+09:00

Things have been rather tumultuous here at Polly HQ. We've just handed in our resignation. Things got really horrible at work - too horrible. The kind of horrible that requires a fair bit more than $12.75 an hour. It was starting to affect our never too reliable mental health.

Trouble is at a bit of a loose end, so we bought her a bright green office chair. She likes to sit in it, and spin around. It seems to be keeping her busy. There's also been all the fun of draft and fantasy resignation letters. Most entertaining so far - a photocopy of our bottom with "Kiss It" written on it in "Cherry Blossom" lipstick.

There's been a bit of talk about going back to Sugar, the novel we abandoned when it failed to win the Vogel Prize. The bright green office chair will probably come in handy for that.

And speaking of creative projects - congratulations to the Beast & Ms Wonderland.

Light and Darkness.

2006-11-20T10:01:00.000+08:00

We've just read 'Light and Darnkess' by Natsume Soseki.
God, it's so fantastic. I must have all his other books.
Now!

O'Nobu caused a great deal of dissent here at polly HQ!

While we were all admiring of her clarity of purpose and strength of will, Trouble felt that she was treated harshly by Soseki. I've (just jo) had a similar response to Anna Karenina - the feeling that Tolstoy treated her harshly - but as I explained to Trouble - Anna comes through ~anyway~ despite/even if Tolstoy judged her harshly - it doesn't matter because Anna transcends her writer and becomes herself with or without his approval and the reader connects directly to her.

The character Kobayashi was so vivid to me, I feel I've met him a hundred times.

And Mrs Yoshikawa IS the Duchess de Guermantes (in Proust).

I'm not really here at all.

2006-11-10T09:10:00.000+08:00

Yesterday Nadia and I took off, out of Bugsplat, feeling like we were wagging school. Nadia had her hair done and I swam laps at the Bigplat Pool. Nadia took me out to lunch and we both tried hard not to talk about work. It was very pleasant, especially the big blue solitude of swimming laps. I love how whenever I swim laps in a pool, any pool, as long as it is that blue blue blue, I am closer to all the other times in my life when I've been swimming laps, it's like a hall pass out of my current chronology into the blue space, the blue room, where nobody can talk to me or ask me stupid questions and where my body knows exactly what to do. Off I go. And you can't find me. Coz I'm not really here at all.

Now it's almost time to go to work and I'm dreading it. It's not as bad as it was 12 years ago when I would drive to work, park my car by the she-oak grove and throw up into the undergrowth. Every morning for a few weeks until I quit. So, it's not quite that bad. But it is bad.

Meanwhile, a lot of people seem to be blaming Mercury Retrograde. Trouble certainly is. It seems to help her deal with the current ordeals. To believe there is some kind of logic to it and that there's an end in sight - a date, even. (November 18th!)

I have to come with her to work today. She's a little overwhelmed by it all. I am too, but I'm less likely to show it. So, off we go. (I'm Just Jo. Hi.) I do have a nice new apple green cardigan. That helps. $6.50 at the Bigsplat Op Shop.

Squeemish warning.

2006-10-19T17:58:00.000+08:00

Periodic humour ahead.