01. Saw the MTC production of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time a fortnight ago. The set (I took a sneaky pic before the show started) and the way that it was used to ‘reshape’ the stage was extraordinary, with the grid points on the box stage lighting up to show emotions, places, and movement.

02. The Trauma Cleaner might not have made the Stella longlist (Why not? Why not?) but it did win the lucrative Victorian Prize for Literature. Other winners were: Australia Day by Melanie Cheng (Fiction); Rice by Michele Lee (Drama); Argosy by Bella Li (Poetry); Living on Hope Street by Demet Divaroren (Young Adult); Ida by Alison Evans (People’s Choice).

03. I went to a friend’s birthday party last week and the theme was The Great Gatsby – perfect theme, obviously. As it happened, I had another event on that night which I also had to go to and the first event was not compatible with a flapper dress… And have I mentioned that my husband loathes wearing costumes? So I had to get creative. My husband wore a sandwich board arrangement cut in the shape of an egg. I printed the word ‘West’ on it. I put green cellophane over a bike light and wore it around my neck.

My husband was at the party before me, alone in his ‘West’ egg. I arrived, shining my green light onto West Egg… but alas, too cryptic for the majority *really, people? Can we still be friends?*

Maybe too many champagne cocktails had been consumed but I kind of think that West Egg and the green light are major symbols in Gatsby. People have written PhDs about them, right? Am I being a literature snob?

04. Saw All the Money in the World last week (the movie is based on the book, Painfully Rich, by John Pearson) – it was interesting but slightly too long and some of the tension was lost.

05. I love stories like this.

06. Last week I went to see Priscilla the Musical. So much fun from start to finish. The costumes were spectacular and music is all the stuff I love.

Bookish Thoughts is hosted by Christine at Bookishly Boisterous. Stop by, say g’day.