It's raining, it's pouring...

This morning my week started with a downpour that was almost torrential. It rained so hard that a small stream was flowing across a dip in the footbridge I take to get to work, and I had to pull my pants up above my ankles and accept the fact that my shoes and feet would be drenched. They were, and I sat at my desk for the first hour of work with no shoes on, drying out my feet.

But the rain and my sopping wet socks, somewhat strangely, made me smile. I don't know whether it was bright yellow umbrella I bought recently, or the fact that the cement under my feet was so wet I could see my reflection in it. Or maybe it's just because water falling from the sky has been a rare thing of late in Australia. But I suspect it has something to do with the fact that I lived in Melbourne, the rainy city, for four years, and now waterlogged shoes and pants that are wet from the thighs down remind me of how much I love that place. Nostalgia is a powerful and endlessly interesting (at least to me) thing.

Here's a link to a short piece of fiction I wrote on a similar theme.

Only a week until the first deadline!

Thinking about Monday

Mondays are usually the day I set in motion something I've decided to do on the weekend. Sometimes it's something practical and boring getting up five minutes earlier so I don't have to run for the bus, but often it's some sort of resolution to be in a different - hopefully more creative - frame of mind.

Every morning I walk across Darling Harbour in Sydney and then through a park to get to work. I've realised recently that all things naturey get me feeling all gooey-inspirational. I love to be outside to write, and have recently enjoyed sitting cross-legged on my aunty and uncle's deck under the vines in their pseudo-Asian backyard with their large, floppy, lovey-dovey-eyed dogs. So I thought I'd share some pictures of my work-space.