The part in my hair has sprouted a wispy little mohawk of regrowth. It's hard to measure, but on average it seems to be 6-8cm long. Assuming that my hair grows about 15cm per year (which is Dr Google's most common estimate), this would suggest that my well-being has stabilised enough over the last 5-6 months to redirect some energy into my ( Read more... )

My, but we're having an unseasonably warm May. Bit disturbing, really. I've read the projections for global warming and even at their most conservative they're horrifying reading. Still, given how little I can do about it at this point, I figure I might as well enjoy the side-effects. I've started swimming in the sea again (have decided that my ( Read more... )

Cor! My literary agent emailed me about an hour ago to tell me that someone at Momentum (digital arm of Pan Macmillan) loved my Rapunzel novel, and will publish it if I'm happy to go with "digital-first" publishing ( Read more... )

Feh. I wasn't planning to join in this Clovember in May business half my flist seems to be doing, but when it comes to clo, I'm all too easily swayed. Besides, I was pleased with today's outfit, and I figured I might as well share my pleasure. As it were.

( Clo )

Salad for breakfast. I've officially spilled over the edge into Health Freak Territory. Still, given the ongoing and dire levels of stress in my life, I figure I might as well be scrupulous about my physical health. And seeing I can't do much about the limited and/or interrupted sleep on 50% of the nights when small children are in the house (which ( Read more... )

Visibility has been less than 5km all week. It's like someone covered the city with a giant white bowl. Or pasted cut-out pictures of trees and buildings on a greying sheet of paper. Everything's tinged with smoke. Eucalyptus trees burn like pine trees, and the forests around Melbourne are covered in them. My grandparents came within inches of ( Read more... )

My new place has a private beach! Well, OK, it's not private as such, but it *is* a mere ten minutes' walk from my house (closer than many a seaside holiday house I've visited) and obscure enough that only locals tend to know about and/or visit it, and then only when it's hot. Before last week's heatwave, I'd practically never seen another person ( Read more... )

H is for HOT, which Melbourne has been in spades (not to mention diamonds, hearts and clubs) for the last three days. Tomorrow the Bureau of Meteorology is predicting FORTY-FOUR DEGREES CELSIUS (111F), God help us. With forty-two degrees on Friday before the heatwave breaks. Fortunately, I'm now within reach of sea breezes, and the house is ( Read more... )

I like light green. It's the colour of all things fresh and new and growing. I went out of my way (literally: I drove 45min to the Coburg warehouse and its wider range of upholstery swatches) to have light spring green couches made, and defaulted to light green for my laundry basket, Tupperware and diaries (one personal, one business). The ( Read more... )

Would you ever live somewhere that wasn't Australia?

Hmmm. Tricky. I'd like to think of myself as an adventurous, international type who'd respond with an enthusiastic YES! to this question, but under my current personal circumstances, a time when it will be possible to consider living in another country is so remote that I think the only ( Read more... )