A hot bath

Esther Greenwood thought that she could slump down just so far before she said to herself; I’ll go take a hot bath. Although a hot bath couldn’t save the day for her, I do agree that baths have restorative qualities. While Esther’s approach was to run a very hot bath and then lower herself in [...]

Cat scratch fever

I have a cat scratch, red and jagged, running across my thigh. I don’t believe it was a malicious scratch. The kitten just wanted my breakfast and I don’t blame it, it was a delicious breakfast. But ricotta and plum jam on toast is people food, not kitten food. I tried to explain this to [...]

Piker

There comes a point in every trashy evening where you either have to commit fully to the concept, or bail. I chose the latter option tonight, wedged into Charlton’s with ten minutes to the last tram, friends studiously hunched over the song list (God love them) and a table of Young Liberals a few metres [...]

Google this

You guys, I know it’s like, totally old-skool to brag about your Google referrals, but mine have been giving me an extra dose of delight recently. To wit:
- “new job * frustrating”
- “sex and lust”
- “hip-hop themed cupcake recipes”
- “authentic teenagers”
- “rain boots”
- “gingerbreading porn”
- “book nerd”
- “I’m a smudge Bukowski”
- “damp wet school uniform”

Damp [...]

Moving

One of our housemates moved out a little while ago, and today she came and picked up the last of her stuff. I promptly took possession of her room, and I’m sitting there now, muscles aching from lugging bed and desk and books and so forth and why do I have so many material goods? [...]

Hamlet

When I got home the other day, there was a small tabby cat curled up on the couch, eying me off sleepily from the couch. I thought it was just visiting, but it’s been hanging around for a few days now, coming inside the house when the door is open, hanging around like – well, [...]

How do you meet people?

No, really? I was talking about this with Sarinah tonight, and her only suggestion was to get a job at The Book Grocer. Not only does she meet people, she meets interesting, bookish people. Nice, interesting, bookish people who ask her out for coffee. Actually, that doesn’t sound like an altogether-terrible scenario. And I am [...]

Bukowski says relax

Bukowski thought that poetry readings must be the  saddest goddamn things in the world, but I think that sparsely-attended writing and editing panel discussions must run a close second. I sat on one of these last night, at the City Library, with a couple of actual writers, and pretended that I myself had a writing [...]

Review: La graine et le mulet

I was feeling rather cranky on Sunday night, so I hauled myself down to the Nova for a choc-top and a two-and-a-half-hour, incredibly bleak, ultra-naturalistic film about a Maghreban dock worker who finds himself retrenched, caught in the squall of family bickering, and in some serious relationship trouble. It’s a surefire cure for the blues, [...]

Oh nostalgia

I’m feeling sepia-toned today – washed out and nostalgic. I spent the afternoon reading though old emails, pages and pages of fossilised emotions, jokes that tired quickly, and references I no longer get. It’s discomfiting, reading your own old writing, kind of like finding your school uniform at the back of the cupboard and trying [...]