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Aussie Expats Update – Arkansas Adventures
Friday has come and as I promised, so do I deliver. People, our trip to Arkansas was AWESOME. Now, I know a lot of people say this about their trips and I guess they’re probably right in some way or another, but they’re mostly wrong, because our trip was the most awesome. Probably ever. [Disclaimer: the fact that I am easily pleased and was travelling with my favourite human has not influenced this completely objective assessment of our trip. At all.] Friday morning saw us leisurely pack the last few pieces for our journey, which featured a boot-full of bags, boxes and random bits and pieces (in what was little…
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The Pointy End
Happy mid-week madness* everyone! [*Disclaimer: as far as I know, there is no madness here. At least nothing clinically diagnosed.] There is no doubt in my mind that I’m reaching the pointy end of this university trimester, where everything starts to get a little bit tighter and, as a first-time full-time university student, I start to feel the pinch a bit. I have two 2500 word assignments both due on the 23rd of September, a psychology exam a few days later and a political ideologies exam about a week after that. Of course, my brain is whirring with everything that I should be doing (like heaps of exam revision!) while…
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Aussie Expats Update – Pavlova, Foolishness & Camping Prep!
I can’t believe it’s Friday again, everyone. AND IT’S SEPTEMBER! The month of many many birthdays because everyone’s parents felt so jolly and full of Christmas/New Years cheer/alcohol that they recklessly decided on having more children. Or didn’t decide. Regardless, September is the month of a million birthdays, and back in Aus, it’s also the start of Spring. I love baby animals, crisp weather, the verdant green lushness creeping back into the world and, to top it all off, I’m born in September… Needless to say, I love this month. So then, other than googling for pictures of really cute baby animals, what’s been happening with us? We had an…
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Of Human Bondage
Welcome to the middle of the week! First off, my apologies to anyone who read the title of this post and got excited about the topic: in all likelihood, you’re probably about to be subsequently disappointed. I really racked my brains over what to write for today’s post. For a while there, I strongly considered just letting it go and not doing a post: tempting. Verrrrry tempting. But then I thought about having recently (finally) finished Somerset Maugham’s ‘Of Human Bondage’, and wanted to report back on the experience. Mainly because, despite the fact that it was pretty long and sometimes a bit slow, there were a lot of…
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Writing and Learning
Sometimes, Mondays just seem to come around so quickly. Weekends tend to be consumed by chores and studying, and you manage home-made pizza and a movie on Sunday night, then it’s Monday again. What the hell, world. Anyway, on to the post! Today is all about learning. I have a confession to make: I’m a bit of a nerd [Dislciamer: obviously depending on how you define nerd]. I love to read, I love to learn new things, I love studying (some days), and I find that it constantly boggles my mind how much there is out there to learn about, and how much we can utilise the things we learn…
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Aussie Expats Update – America, 3 Months In
Welcome back to the end of the week everyone! Fridays are always a happy light at the end of the tunnel (how this can be the case when I don’t have a job, don’t ask!) and despite James’ avowal of a busy weekend of study, I’m looking forward to at least one sleep in and maybe a Saturday night movie. I know, I know: we make coke-snorting, LSD-taking ravers look tame. It’s just who we are. When I counted the weeks on the calendar earlier today, it hit me that we’re coming to the end of our third month of Aussie expat life. How crazy that seems! Life, of course,…
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Finding Your Artistic Arrogance
Hey peeps, welcome to the middle of the week! I mentioned on Monday I was going to post about this, so get excited. I’ve been thinking about artistic arrogance quite a bit recently (a recurring theme inside the restlessly churning cogs of my brain) and wanted to share it with you all. Where to start…? What do I even mean by that idea, artistic arrogance? For me, it’s about keeping your doubts hidden, even when you’re agonisingly unsure. Nothing is more painful or off-putting to other people than the classic awkward introduction of: “well, it’s not very good, but” or “everyone else’s is better than mine,” or “I’m not very…
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The Pressure Cooker of Advice Lists
Happy Monday world! Does anyone else ever feel pressured as a writer? You know what I mean: you have to do x, y and z to develop your voice. You have to use this story structure. You need a theme. You need a strong female character, but don’t push a feminist ideal; more speech tags but you should only ever use ‘said’; more diversity, more action, more intrigue, more adverbs, less adverbs… It can’t be just me. Everywhere we turn, someone is telling us how to write. Some might argue that’s just an extrapolation of all the other things that the world and its nosy people feel free to tell…
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Aussie Expats Update – Driving Reprimands, Manuscript Typing and Travel Planning
It’s Friday yet again (thank goodness!), and I’m worried that no tale will ever again live up to that of the free-spirited armadillo I introduced you all to last week. [We need to name it, I think, then freely and ignorantly apply this name to every and all armadillos seen in the future, dead (‘sleeping’) or alive.] However, I did get pulled over by an on-base cop yesterday! There you go, more drama and intrigue in the life of the Aussie expats. Having picked James up to take him to a promotion ceremony that was happening elsewhere on base (and on a tight schedule, I’d like to add), I turned…
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The Truth About Rehab
I wrote this late last week after a frustrating series of training days. I try to use this blog predominantly to talk about writing, with a side splash of updates about living as an Aussie expat in America. But today I’m going to break the mould a little. If you’ve read any of my work before, you’ve probably heard me offhandedly mention rehab. The story itself is a lengthy one, but hopefully I won’t get too lost in the retelling. In early 2012, I injured my lower back. Due to a number of factors associated with work, I rehabilitated myself for the remainder of that year and into 2013 through…
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