April is my least favourite month – the month where there are more bad things to remember than good ones. I should have known undertaking a month-long blogging challenge would be tempting the gods. On the night of 20th April, New South Wales experienced rain and wind gusts as severe as any cyclone. We were… Read More
For a writer, aside from blogging, I haven’t been doing much writing lately. Now that my principle procrastination tool has been taken away from me (the internet), I’ve been forced to find something to do. Since the middle of last week, I’ve been writing a book. It isn’t fiction this time, but a non-fiction textbook… Read More
I’ve often wondered if all the hours I spent reading under the blankets with a torch when I was a kid contributed to my bad eyesight. I’m short sighted – I can’t see anything more than a few centimetres in front on my nose. Too vain to wear glasses, I have worn contact lenses since… Read More
Although I don’t believe in the concept of God as a supernatural being with an interest in the thoughts and action of human beings, I do believe in a collective consciousness. The simplest term to describe this, is to call it the Universe. I see it as the amalgamation of the spirit in all living… Read More
I read in a book once about the difference between a traumatic event and a terrible one. I’ve spent the last couple of hours trying to find the exact words, but to no avail. I thought it was in this book about a chaplain whose job it is to notify people of the death of… Read More
I was taught at church that having sexual desires and/or attracting sexual desire was a sin. They gave it a special name — the lust of the flesh. Human sexuality was seen as a rampaging carnal impulse which must be abolished at all costs. Impure thoughts, even without any action, had the potential to cast you… Read More
It’s been raining since Monday. A low pressure system off the coast has been beating down on us relentlessly, bringing with it winds gusting up to 125 km/hr. We live on a hill, right on the beach. Our dead-end street is lined with trees that have fallen over, taking down the power lines with them. We… Read More
I‘m not sure if it’s age, rampant hormones, or too much time on my own, but these days I find myself becoming more and more querulous. Querulous is a glorious word. It means cantankerous, cross, dissatisfied, grouchy, hard to please, irritable, whining and touchy. Although I swan around on the internet, dispensing love and happiness with my tiny, twinkly… Read More
My childhood pastime of choice was ballet. I started lessons with Miss McAlpine at a studio above a Chinese Restaurant in New Plymouth when I was four years old. I always dreamed of being a ballerina, but my genetics had other ideas. When puberty arrived with wide hips and swelling breasts, it was obvious to everyone… Read More
Unlike other days, it didn’t take me long to come up with a word starting with O. Orgasms are a subject near and dear to my heart. But when it comes to writing a post about orgasms, what does one say? Orgasms are good. The end. Anything else, doesn’t quite cut it. I could describe… Read More
It was my husband’s day off and he seemed in a pleasant mood. Mid-morning — late enough for him to be awake and early enough for him not to have started drinking — he was in the kitchen tidying up from the night before. Years of beer and takeaway had made him heavy and slow.… Read More
The 15th April, 2010 was a day not much different to today. The autumn sun had slipped lower in the sky, making the day cool enough for a jacket. As I was putting my mascara on in the bathroom, ahead of a normal day at work, the telephone rang. The man on the other end of… Read More
Before I was married, I spent most of my time sampling a smorgasbord of lovers, without feeling any need to restrict my appetites to only one person. During those heady days of sexual freedom, there was always the thought in the back of my mind that I would one day ‘settle down’. I never questioned the expectation that… Read More
