I love her use of language, and her thoughts on poetry rang true to me.

( Poetry joins up the separated space between heart and head )

but this can give you a bonus paper cut.

( A piggie flu of your very own... )

( A theory bred by daytime TV )
Alternative conclusion: DoOL is rotting my brain.

stuck in the middle without an Autumn. Doesn't quite work I know.

Here in Brisbane we've had a pretty good summer. Not ridiculously hot, or wet, just a standard Brisbane Summer.

However, we've now hit the time of year that does my head in every time. We hit March 1st, my poor wee southern brain thinks "Yay! Autumn! Skooshing through leaves in a couple of weeks! Cold weather!"

Now, I know that right now Victoria is facing a day nearly as nuts as Black Saturday. No right to complain at all - but this is a blog, a medium built for whinging. 

Soon the southern temperature (I hope for their sakes) will start to drop precipitously. Where as up here, we seem to have hit the hottest, most humid part of the Summer. Every year this bugs me, every year T points out that here in the sub-tropics, we only get 2.5 seasons at most. Wet, Dry, and a little bit of in-between.

The past couple of nights we've got down to 23, with very high humidity. The ceiling fans look like cake mixers as they stir the sluggish, thick air. Elf sweats, her head and nose covered in small shiny beads of moisture. Thirsty, but too hot to drink. I freeze washers and use them like fans. Eventually it cools enough for her to bear drinking, and then we try to sleep.

3 more years and we're moving somewhere with 4 seasons - maybe even in one day - dammit.

There are a few authors whose writing in any form is something I must read, and own.

Sara Douglass, though she breaks my heart part way through each series (even more so with the current one - she has stopped writing indefinately to battle ovarian cancer. Why must this disease strike amazing women? Having lost 2 close family friends, I don't expect her to finish this series anytime soon... or at all *sigh*)

William Gibson: a fantastic read every time, that always makes me view our world a little differently afterwards

Philip K Dick: so many different flavours of mindf*ck. Some pulpy, some amazing. My favourite so far would have to be A Scanner Darkly (no I haven't seen the nananu film. and on that subject, Cowboy Bebop? Spike? I think NOT!). Though The Pennultimate Truth runs close.

And... Neil Gaiman. Love his books, both adult and kids, and his blog is one of my "must checks" every day. I love listening to him read his work - and have used that to get me through many a long night. Just got hold of The Graveyard Book, but am listening/watching his readings on the net as it's hard to juggle baby and book. Need to track down Blueberry Girl for Elspeth, as Charles Vess's illustrations are always beautiful, and a book for a daughter, by that pair? Must Have. What's triggered this post today though, is this quote from an interview:


So true.

I'm failing at html at the moment, so here's a link rather than embedded image. Go there, lots of photos of a sleeping baby. She really does sleep that much - pretty much just wakes to feed. Though we're getting more awake time with lots of lovely eye contact.

Starting life in air-conditioned comfort is less than ideal when your home environment is a humid Brisbane summer. We've had some struggles with feeding (who wants to be cuddled up to another hot body when it's 30 degrees and humid?) but we're on track now. Got clobbered by the milk fairy, so no fear of starvation!

For photos, head here http://www.flickr.com/photos/24060542@N02/sets/72157610186482751/

The past week's radio silence has had a good reason for once - Elspeth Joan was born on Saturday the 22nd of Nov at 9:23pm AEST. Things didn't quite go the way we'd hoped, so we only just came home today. She's been fine the whole time, just me that needed the longer stay.

Vital stats:

3.75 kg (no, I don't know what that is in lbs and oz)
54 cm.
and beautiful (yes, that's an official statistic).

Just catching up on lots of emails etc, so there will be a Flicker photodump in the next couple of days for those that want more photos. For now, here's a couple...

<img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3052/3062468369_a711a5f401.jpg?v=0" alt="Yes we're a little tired..." />

I've been slack... just seems like I don't really have any news worth writing about. Life of a nester under the cut.

( The end of study, nesting, life etc )

Well there you go. Based on 30 highly scientific ticky-boxes, I have an androgenous personality. Not a girly girl, not manly. *shrug*

Your result for The Bem Sex Role Inventory Test...

Androgynous

You scored 57% masculinity and 57% femininity!

Take The Bem Sex Role Inventory Test at HelloQuizzy

T flew to Darwin yesterday, so i'm home alone for a couple of weeks. It's going to be a long 2 weeks if this morning is anything to go by... collected the chook eggs and let them out for the day, carefully put the eggs down in the basket to pick some broccoli and spinach leaves for the chooks... fed the chooks... and then went back inside without the eggs :/

Looks like the crows enjoyed the eggs from the wreckage I found this afternoon.

So it's been a while, and a long post is due soon... once the large pile of uni work is gone. Promise. Maybe even a photo of the belly for the strange people who seem to want to see it.

The plan for this weekend is the usual house jobs plus slaying of assignments, and then the reward... going to see a game based on a movie that I watched many, many years ago at the urging of a housemate. Stu loved (and for all I know still does) Salute to the Jugger and found it on DVD at some point. We watched it, was a good way to spend a Sunday afternoon but i'd pretty much forgotten it... Until I discovered that some crazy people in Brisbane played a game based on the movie ever other Sunday in Newfarm Park. To learn more about Jugger, have a look at this educational video

It's going to be a fun Sunday afternoon of basking in the sun and watching people bash each other with foam covered weapons in pursuit of a PVC pipe replica of a cow Dog skull.

Last year I helped out a friend by testing recipes - a very onerous duty :^P

They were wonderful dessert recipes, and all vegan friendly. I'm quite content being an omnivore, but these surprised me by how "normal" they tasted - to the point of being demolished in 10 minutes flat when brought into work for people to try.

As any SOz people on my flist know, Leigh's book is now about to be published, out on the 7th of August. So if you know any vegans out there who have a sweet tooth, or if you like the looks of the tasteys on the cover yourself (they are easily tweaked to sneak in non-vegan ingredients here and there), pre-order Vegan Indulgences! You won't regret it.

Snuck down to Melbourne last weekend for a good friends 30th.

( Why I have Koko Black chocs to sooth my cold... )
By the time I flew home on Tuesday morning, I had caught another cold, but it was well worth it - my final trip south without having to worry about a nappy bag! Plus, I can now treat the remains of the cold with Koko Black chocolates that I brought back XD

As named by T and my sister.

This year's a big year - T will finish his PhD in a couple of months, I have 2 subjects left of my Masters of Science Communication. By the end of the year we'll have finished study and actually have spare time. Well. Would have had spare time... I like things that come in threes, so throwing impending motherhood into the mix seemed like a good idea XD

I shall spare those who aren't interested and put all further talk of babies under El Jay cuts.

( 12 weeks and counting )


Anyhoo, that's it for now.

When a favourite of mine geeks out over another favourite. For example, Neil Gaiman geeking out over Doctor Who:

I know that David Tennant's Hamlet isn't till July. And lots of people are going to be doing Dr Who in Hamlet jokes, so this is just me getting it out of the way early, to avoid the rush...

"To be, or not to be, that is the question. Weeelll.... More of A question really. Not THE question. Because, well, I mean, there are billions and billions of questions out there, and well, when I say billions, I mean, when you add in the answers, not just the questions, weeelll, you're looking at numbers that are positively astronomical and... for that matter the other question is what you lot are doing on this planet in the first place, and er, did anyone try just pushing this little red button?"