It’s hard to pick out the happiest of happy things but this is my list of 2025 highlights (excluding books – more on those later – and holidays, and I had some amazing ones this year, notably Hobart, Cambodia, New Zealand, and my sinkholes tour). Continue reading
01. I love looking at big infrastructure projects (it’s the planner in me that lingers). Today we got to walk part way into the West Gate Tunnel, before the cars takeover in December. Continue reading
01. The Mourning After is a project that invites people to explore grief in all its forms. It’s focused on grief as a social practice and aims to improve ‘grief literacy’. The project currently includes an exhibition – it’s really wonderful. Continue reading
01. Putting the whole going-to-space fiasco aside, Katy Perry sure knows how to put on a fabulous, fun concert. Hit after hit, brilliant costumes and so much energy. Although Teenage Dream will always be my absolute fave, her concert remix of I Kissed a Girl was the standout. Continue reading
I saw David Nicholls speak this week about his latest novel, You Are Here. He was as funny, engaging and generous as I had expected. Continue reading
01. It’s Melbourne Writers Festival! I went to four events over the weekend. Continue reading
01. Had the great pleasure of attending the launch of Andrea Goldsmith’s new novel, The Buried Life, at the Abbotsford Convent this week. The book contains lots of references to music so, as Andrea explained, the evening was more of a performance than an author convo. Continue reading
01. I had the great pleasure of seeing Elizabeth Gilbert speak this week (she deliberately pulled some silly poses at the beginning and said ‘Take your photo now, and then you can turn your phone off.’) Continue reading
Every so often, I’m prompted to do a literature-adjacent project that (happily) sends me down rabbit holes. The podcast Once Upon a Time… at Bennington College started one, and this summer, Anna Dorn’s Perfume & Pain has started another. It’s a television-related rabbit hole.
It’s no secret that I have no standards when it comes television. Reality TV? Dish me up. True crime doco? Sure. SBS subtitled drama, seemingly filmed without lighting? Yep, I’ll watch that. I’m unapologetic about the fact that I will enjoy an episode of Love Island as much as Deutschland 83, and Succession as much as Derry Girls. I mention this because halfway through Perfume & Pain, I realised that I had to watch all six seasons of the 2004 drama series, The L Word, to grasp Dorn’s pop-culture-lesbian references. Continue reading
01. Last couple of days of my reading-and-beach intensive. Reviews to come. Continue reading