1 may 2008

feel stressed. wake up late and tired and have lots of - argh! - work to do. this afternoon (”arvo”) gem asks me to make myself scarce as a nervous client is coming round. am glad  - it forces me to rest and chill out a bit. after being in holiday mode for three weeks, my to-do list is getting long again. turns out you can only hide out from the world for so long before it comes knocking at your door and dragging you out to play - or rather work - again.

calling my to-do list a “ta-da!” list isn’t making me feel as whimsical as i’d hoped, either.

2 may 2008

try to find somewhere that can make a  vegan meal at a local quay, hillary’s (where there are restaurants and shops etc) but we’re thwarted. end up at a restaurant called soda instead, where i have fish and chips and a nice hot choc. scribble a few postcards at home then get ready for bed. tomorrow will be my first foray into perth city centre, and i don’t know what to expect.

3 may 2008

my dad and i go into perth today. play “spot the multinova” - what they call speed cameras here, they have them somewhere different every weekend - and i WIN! woo. see a very impressive collection of year 12 (17/18-year olds) artwork at the art gallery of WA. some of it is so thought-provoking and humbling. the youth of today might actually be okay…

buy a catalogue to show my appreciation, plus a book called isms, which explains the different art movements and how they’re connected.

have lunch in perth library’s cafe and look in their secondhand shop. get yet another book, this one about the history of women in rock.

then we head across the bridge for a little look at the actual city. it’s another gorgeous sunny day, mid-to-high 20s, and people are wandering around or eating in outdoor cafes. it’s pretty, and not overcrowded. we go to a big borders bookshop, which i love, and i take photos of the books i most covet, some of which aren’t out in england.  i decide to come back and investigate the shopping options further on my own one day soon.

8 may 2008

go into perth on my own. i nearly miss the bus - go for an accidentally epic ramble and end up hell knows where. career round the corner to the bus stop about five seconds before the bus does, and manage to catch my connecting train.

i go back to borders and have a snack at their gloria jeans cafe. when the woman serving asks my name (so she knows who to call out - coffee shops don’t do this in the UK, by the way, they just yell “soy macchiato and a muffin!” or whatever, we’re too private to let strangers know our names) she thinks i say “claire”, and i can’t be bothered to correct her. i splurge on a couple of books, including candy girl. then i head to dymocks and buy another one. oops.

at a bag shop, i’m subjected to the customer service bordering on harassment that gem and my dad have warned me abut - i’m practically chased around the store and needless to say, i do not purchase a thing. i do eye up a kathy van zeeland i rarther like, though. i see sex and the city, the movie, is coming here on 5th june, and vow to come back then.

i’ve walked and walked and i completely knacker myself, but it’s a good day out, and nice to have struck out on my own (just like a proper traveller!) i sleep well.

i can’t believe my time here is coming to an end. i have less than a day left at my dad’s - somewhere i’m rather sad to leave - and just a month left until i’m back at work. (okay, that’s quite a while, i know!) i haven’t got as far ahead with my ‘travel log’ blogs as i’d hoped, but look out for two more to pop up (as if by magic) while i’m away.

you can also, if you’re that way inclined, read a couple of things i’ve written recently…

i’m a bit late with this but here’s a review i did for trashionista: i like you - hospitality under the influence.

also, my feature on the resurgence of crafts (yes, another one) is in this month’s prima, out now! or you can read it here, here and here… it’s a bit long.

my plan now is to spend as little time online as possible over the next four weeks, and to do NO.WORK.WHATSOEVER. for the rest of my time in oz. i can’t quite believe i just typed that…

lately i’ve been fascinated by diablo cody. i love her punk/goth/rock style, the fact that she’s my age and an oscar-winning screenwriter, and that she is witty and brash and cool; cool enough to blog about how dorky she sometimes feels, which just makes me like her more.

i found her fascinating before juno won its mucho awards, or before i read her book. i’m interested in her life, in how she got where she is today, and the fact that she changed her name to the spanish for “devil”.

but i was in no hurry at all to actually watch juno. partly because everyone kept talking about how witty and edgy and brilliant it is, and it always gets my back up when everyone tells me how much i’ll love something. and partly because i felt a sense of ownership, like: ”i knew about this movie months ago! i know so much about it i don’t even need to see it!”

but mostly it was ‘cos of the whole pregnancy-plot thing. as i once blogged for the guardian, hollywood has trouble handling unwanted pregnancies.

of course, i watched it in the end.

» more…

an article of mine is in the telegraph today, talking about online confessionals such as postsecret.com**: forgive me world, for i have sinned…

*she said, sacrilegiously.

** should have added that sooner, for the google traffic ;)

domestic violence seems to be a hot topic again lately. and for good reason: it needs to be. according to charity women’s aid:

“At least 1 in 4 women experience domestic violence in their lifetime and between 1 in 8 and 1 in 10 women experience it annually. Less than half of all incidents are reported to the police, but they still receive one domestic violence call every minute in the UK.” [emphasis mine].

there’s very little humour to be wrought from the situation, you would think… but the daily mail, or more accurately, author wendy holden, had a go: labelling marian keyes’s new novel this charming man, which tackles domestic abuse… (wait for it) “hit lit.” (’cos it sounds a bit like “chick lit”, see?) puke.

serendipitously, my feature on domestic abuse outreach services is in this month’s copy of mental health today magazine, and it was the hardest thing i’ve ever written: gruelling, upsetting and the most serious piece i’ve pulled off so far. i hope i did the topic justice, and that the title (not mine) isn’t too flighty, as i’m sure it wasn’t intended to be.

most of all, i deeply hope wendy holden somehow comes into contact with it…

read it here and here if you’d like.

update: the new york times gets it right.

for most features writers, the glossies - those monthly women’s mags printed on paper as shiny as their nickname implies - are a holy grail. we all want to write for them, for the cash and the employment but most of all for that lovely feeling you get from seeing your name in something with such a huge circulation that you actually read.

while i have been lucky enough in the past to snag an eighth of a page in essentials, and a half page in company, i hadn’t really “cracked” the glossies. i’d never got a page of my own.

until i left the country.

ironically, the month my first full-page feature appears in a monthly women’s mag… i’m on the other side of the world. if you are not, i encourage you to pick up a copy of this month’s easy living (the one with marriella frostrup on). anyone else who is interested, can read this lovely scan (thanks, mum!) instead: get to grips with your iPod. (click with your mouse to bring up a magnifying glass icon, which will let you enlarge it).

next month: i make my prima debut - and won’t be around to see that, either…

yes, indeed: my first piece for handbag.com went live while i was in transit, so i’m a bit late in shouting about it. but if you’re interested in my top ten wellbeing treats, you might like to take a look. 

coming soon to the blog: my holiday diary. woot! 

it’s been a technoriffic few days:

my piece for the telegraph about the internet’s role in the resurgence of traditional crafts is out today, in the paper and also online. yay!

i’ve also been writing about all manner of things at popgadget, from feline false teeth to twitter proposals (aww) to subverting the patriarchy (yeah, the product’s PR loooooooved that one).

and i’m in woman’s weekly talking wifi (until wednesday).  

* i like the way that sounds like “tick tock”, which is apt, as it’s clocks forward this weekend!

it’s always nice to be told you have no imagination first thing in the morning.*

in related news, i blogged for the guardian again, about mentoring schemes.

*it’s true my choice in clothes could be more imaginative: i’m all pyjama, pyjama, pyjama these days.