Sydney Writer's Festival

I spent four days last week at the Sydney Writer's Festival, attending 10 talks. Friends came and went, we ate and chatted and immersed ourselves in books.

I have a huge stack of books added to the to be read list.

I learnt a bit about writing too, which I will put to use if I ever sit down and write another story...ahhh. Not sure why I'm so rusty on this.

I just let friends pick the talks we went to so there were lots of new authors (to me), which was a great way to broaden reading.

There were two highlights that really brought me great joy:

The first, there was a street library there. I took 9 books out of my street library that had been sitting there for awhile and all but one went by the time I left for the weekend.

Secondly, I'd discovered Josh Silver was doing a free talk at our library but it clashed with one of the paid talks I was booked into. Low and behold he turned up at a YA talk we were attending (none of us knew why we'd picked that talk - I thought it was about spies so I was way off! HA!). I was so pleased that it worked out and he did not disappoint. As an aside, I LOVE authors that continue to do the free talks at libraries - especially as a YA author, as a lot of teens have limited access to funds. Review of HappyHead is here. (Liane Moriaty still does free talks at local libraries, which with all that Hollywood money is a real generosity. She's doing it for her readers and to support libraries, rather than for booksales). 

They handed out free copies of the Neal Shusterman series, which I gave to my friend's daughter. My eldest was a huge fan of the Unwind trilogy, so it was nice to share the author with another young person.

Did you go to the Writers Festival? Which talk was your favourite?

Or any auther talk you've been to that hit home for you in a special way?

 

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More May Reading

 A short list of monthly reads....

For Dua Lipa's Service 95 book club, I read this book - except I was actually meant to read So Late in the Day, so after being really confused about the plot for awhile (worring about my brain and how little I seemed to have taken in -ha!) I worked it out and am now in the queue for the correct one. I listened to the interview about Drive your Plow over the Bones of the Dead as well as I'd just seen the play. It's worth checking if she's covered any books you read as there's a lot of great interviews there.

Back to the story, it's really interesting, and I liked the male protagonist having the attitude he does. I think it makes it really intereresting (but perhaps it's more common in Ireland, or I'm being sexist in my thinking about who has harsher or more conservative opinions. Anyway, it's really just a great short story so worht checking out.

I reread Daddy LongLegs for the podcast book group - I really loved this book as a kid and I've been quite scared to go back as I just felt it aged really badly. And in many ways it has but it was interesting to see that it is an adults book, not a children's book as I thought it was (reading it from about 8 to 14). It was interesting to see that it would have been quite a feminist novel at the time of publication in 1912. Hilariously I learnt Jerusha is a name - I thought it was just made up in SuperStore. Certain aspects however, just made me uncomfortable. Overall, I was glad to revisit and see it with a different lens. So much I missed as a child, and growing up in a very different time. The bookclub podcast is always worth a listen here.

While clearing out some books, I came across my copy of this. I've decided I'm going to start reading plays again - I used to do a lot of that in my teens and 20s. This one I really 'enjoyed' (though that is not the word for it) and I'm going to track down the televion series (film?) that stars Judy Dench. I think it's on a few streaming platforms and SBS. Having read They are All My Family, I was well aware of a lot of the moments covered in the play. The lesson is watching how decisions are made and why. Or why not. War is a mess. The people in leadership are just people, with foibles. The dialogue is sparse but the impact if heavy. I look at the current state of the world and see it happening all over again in the reporting of the news. Saying one thing when we know it's another. Everyone knows.

I was looking on the library site for Cannon, the Stella Award winning graphic novel and this popped up so I thought, why not? It was written in the early 70's and it shows. As a cold war secret agent thing, the plot line is a little like RED and I'm fine with that. However, the women. I am really struggling and don't know if I can get to the end. They are always naked. Sometime naked with boots and guns. But pretty much naked and either being assaulted or having sex as a means of entrapement*. Twice so far a character has said to a naked women "There's no time to put your clothes on" to explain why they are now running through the jungle naked. It is of it's time, and while I'm no prude, the overt sexism stinks. I am still deciding if I get to the end. I'm about 60 pages in. There is often a lot of graphic nudity in comics but this is kind of stupid to the point of offensive. I can't really recommend it but I know there's a cult/historical aspect I'm ignorant of in the comic world.

I LOVED this book. I laughed out loud; I giggled at so many kooky bits. It's part gumshoe style adventure - that person unwittingly stumbles into a mystery, and at times beautifully written, almost poetic, but mainly it's a nutty absurdist romp. It was quite different to what I was expecting. He really was such a talented writer. I did spend a bit of time wondering if you could even get it published today. It's so irreverently absurd.

That is all until next month! What's been your fave book of the month?

*Can I say, I have less of a problem with the women being naked for sex. It's all the other stuff that it just seems creepy or like a 14 year old boy wrote it. It's ridiculous However, I understand the 70s had a lot of comics and even novels that were like this...just not for me these days.

Linking with #TuesdayTwirl #Bookdate #AnythingGoes and I think older teens might like the Bradbury, though not written for teens so linking with #IMWAYR 

From my window

When staying at the Little National Newcastle, I was quite mesmerised by the view from my window.

It had been years since I'd been in Newcastle and this area had been transformed. It's a lovely part of town, and I enjoyed being near the water. I took morning and evening walks along the foreshore.

The shift from day to night did not disappoint.

"Look out of the window and you have a finer sight than any painter has ever placed on a piece of canvas.”

― Iain Pears, The Portrait

Linking with #ThruMyLens #WeekendCoffeeShare (public Art) #ILikeTHursdays #WaterThursday

“Life is a mirror and will reflect back to the thinker what he thinks into it.” – Ernest Holmes

We are growing pretty ugly politically, and I'd say nonsensical half the time. I'm not going to get into it but whenever a party says they are cutting immigration, you need to demand to see the costings. With our ageing population, that can only mean higher taxes, medicare cuts or both. 

The submarines are already taking rumoured 25% of our taxes (not this is not factual nor verified, just hearsay). So something has to give. Something gets cut or we have to pay more.

Remember how the education section was our third biggest export after coal? Then a few bad comments, budget slashes and COVID and now it's our fourth. We don't want to be killing our economy through racism and stupidtiy.

When parties mention they are doing something - stopping something, reducing something, adding something - demand to see the costings of how they will do this. Where will the money come from? No government service or policy works in isolation.

We need to think and see clearly. And the parties, ALL parties, owe us that.

Linking just for the pic with #WeekendReflection #GardenAffair and #NaturesNotes

Chasing Rainbows

 Long time readers will know how delighted I am with the rainbows that pop up around the house. They still delight me!

I was beside myself when I saw this one so dark and strong on the wall - the first in a long time. I couldn't help myself. In my defence, I work alone at home. It gets very dull.

As a kid I absolutely adored Alice Cooper, and weirdly the sad songs, like You & Me and this one. I've no idea why I loved this song so much, but it's wired into my head when I see the rainbows on the wall.

Lastly, this one was on the road, caused by my car somehow. I don't think I've ever seen that before?

Linking with #SundayBest #WordlessWednesday and #ThankfulThursday because I'm thankful for this small joy!

Microdosing

I have a group of friends I see fairly regularly, mainly because they are the 'yes' crew. Whenever I organise something, they say yes.

There is one in particular who is very easy going but very enthusiastic. We have a trip booked together for a very crazy 5 days in Europe, travelling about for festivals and a stint in Ibiza. We have gone to Ultra in Melborne a few times, each trip being slight longer than the last but not being more than 30 hours...so I am a little nervous about the extended time and pressure of travel on the friendship. I can be a LOT. 

This week, quite by accident, we discovered we were seeing each other 5 nights out of the 7! It was our second evening together and I asked her what else whe had on, as we made our way home from the Opera House. She rattled off some Writer's Festival events and I realised I had bought the tickets for those - but so long ago I'd forgotten who I was going with (that's today's job to get the tickets to the right people!).

I laughed and then said 'OMG. And then we have Hot dub together! You'll be sick of me by the weekend!'

She laughed and then I added "It's microdosing on me so you're prepared for our trip".

At the same time, while I was in the Fran Liebovitz event at the Opera House, my husband had sent me an article about friends who you stop seeing once you get sick of doing 100% of the effort. It talks of how without the structure of school or work to keep the friendship moving forward, you drifted apart when the person making all of the effort decided to leave it up to the other person to provide some balance, and that person never bothered to reach out. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying it has to be tit for tat, but if you organised the last 5 or decade worth of get togethers and they don't organise anything when you finally wait for them to do so, you weren't really friends at all. That's been a tough lesson for me to learn. That said, a school friend who moved interstate & I fell out of touch with literally ran after me in the street last night and we've exchanged numbers. We used to visit them when the kids were little when we went up to Coolum but life just got in the way and we stopped holidaying in their town. I know that happens, and it's nice to get back in touch again. I guess the bottom line is to understand that's part of life and not take it personally, like the article sort of implies.

So while I'm seeing a lot of this friend this week, it wasn't organised that way. Just a string of events that were organised months ago all happened to fall in the same week. The structure to grow together was accidental but enjoyable all the same.

I guess this is the thing about friendships, they ebb and flow, but also circumstance can alter the dynamic. If there is no incident or bitterness, then the door is always open.

Some people notice the shift and reach out, and others don't even notice the change or maybe they're glad for it? Or maybe just life did it's thing and circumstances changed for awhile....but like my long lost freind, there's always the opportunity for freindships to grow again.

Have you had a big shift in friendships since you stopped work or the kids left school? (Or divorced?)

Linking with #TravelTuesday for the VIVID(ish) #SeniorSalonPitstop pics #WeeklyWonder #TrafficJamReboot #WordlessWednesday #TalkaboutitTuesday

The pics are a sneak peek of VIVID - lights on officiall this Friday!

Flower Market

I, like roughly 35000 other people, lined up for hours to go to C J Hendry's Flower Market. I discovered her when she put the pool in the desert and have been following on Instagram ever since.

I love her drawings best - they are amazingly life like but when I read this was coming to Sydney, I knew I had to put aside the day.

I did take my book for the line, assuming it would be at least 2 hours, but it was closer to 3! I didn't read houwever, as I got chatting in a small group and we had a fun time.

I had not realised people would go to buy the flowers to resell! I assumed everyone was there for the experience, and as life is now lived these days, to take photos for Instagram and clips for TikTok. However, a bunch of the already sold out natives, by the time I arrived were on ebay for $600 when I was instructed to look! Given they would have cost the person $25, that's an incredible mark up and I felt very naive. Individual stems were listed for $30 instead of the $5 they cost.

We discussed how there were 2 sorts of people in the line, those that wanted to profit, and those that just wanted to expereince it. I debated getting a second bunch to sell but in the end decided against it.

While I hoped to just buy one of each of the natives, I ended up with a bigger bunch of the other flowers.

They make me smile every time I walk past, so they are doing their thing.

The biggest treat (other than the free fairybread while I stood in line over lunch - thank you Pandora) was the 4 drawings she'd hung on the back wall. They looked so much like photos. It was a real highlight for me to actually see some of her works in person!

I do believe the real value of art is enjoyment but the commerical world proves me wrong again and again!

I believe Singapore is next, and you also get a Juju exhibition. Lucky ducks! Will be watching for those photos from afar!

Linking with #HappyTuesday as it made me so happy, even ith the massively long wait in line! 

 #Allseasons linky runs from Thursday to Wednesday each week. 

Link one post that shows something seasonal. Traditional weather wise, a seasonal nature marker or a seasonal celebration or event.  Please link relevant posts only.

Make sure you link back to this #AllSeasons post. 

Please comment on the post before yours and the host. Don't dump and run.  

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