The House Hunt is over! We will be able to move in from the 13th of April, but will need too co-ordinate the Air Shipment from Thailand (which should already be here, but isn’t), the shipment from Storage in Sydney (should take 1 week or so), and the Sea Shipment from Thailand (6-8 weeks). Luckily,(…)
We’re home in Melbourne! The last few days in Bangkok were some of my best, despite being incredibly stressful. Between tidying and organizing all the little things one has to in preparation for the locusts’ (the packers’) arrival at 9am on Monday, there were lots of goodbyes – more than I would have thought, for feeling so lonely,(…)
I’ve always been one of those people who cannot work well in silence. As a child, when my mother told me to turn off my radio while I did my homework, I used to say that “silence distracts me”, but she wouldn’t accept that – and fair enough, it sounds like the excuse of a(…)
If 68% of women going to the movies dressed as men to avoid sexual harassment at the movie theatre – would you demand change? Would you tell those women that they shouldn’t be going to the movies in the first place? The Gaming industry makes more money, and sells more units than music and movies(…)
A conversation about our leaving date with our cleaner ended the following way, yesterday: Orn: That is your birthday? How old you? Me: 40 Orn: 40! (big grin) No baby? Me: No. No baby. Orn: I have two baby. Me: That’s lovely. Orn: Boy AND girl. Me: One of each. Very lucky. Orn: Yes. Me(…)
Last weekend, we finally managed to get to Ayutthaya. It wasn’t quite what I expected; the whole city is a UNESCO heritage site, so I expected a large area of ruins, but the city itself has grown up around it (in fact, it’s hard to tell where Bangkok ends and Ayutthaya begins) so the ruins(…)
Me to driver: “What are they?” Driver: “Karma Fish. Set free. Good Karma” Me: “Where do the fish come from?” Driver: “Catch from river” Me: Confused look. Driver: Shrug and Grin
Offended? If so, like the staff and some passengers on a Qantas flight, recently, you don’t watch the right movies. I had to share this report that I received via The Princess Bride Facebook page, because it made me laugh so very, very hard! Apparently a New Zealander was on a Qantas flight to Australia(…)
I’ve been receiving emails, several via this blog email, asking if I would be willing to swap endorsements, for no other reason than quid pro quo, and I wanted to put on record my view on endorsements: I will happily endorse anyone, if two conditions are met: 1. I have experience with that person having(…)
Posts and photos from our trip to Japan for another New Year at the Atsuta Shrine, will come, but today, big news: We’ve got about 10 weeks left in Thailand, slight possibility we might be home for my birthday! After feeling so much better after just a couple of days in Japan, barely needing any(…)
The Mon Over Two Millennia: Monuments, Manuscripts, Movements by McCormick Patrick My rating: 3 of 5 stars As my first introduction to the Mon culture, this was hard going, as it is a collection of academic papers presented at a conference on the topic (the first such conference ever held.) I think if I had(…)
Earth (The Audiobook): A Visitor’s Guide to the Human Race by Jon Stewart My rating: 1 of 5 stars **Audio Book Review** While the rest of the cast did a superb job, if he’s going to keep doing these, someone needs to teach Jon how to sparkle on audio as much as he does when(…)
America (The Book): A Citizen’s Guide to Democracy Inaction by Jon Stewart My rating: 2 of 5 stars **Review for Audio Book** What a disappointment! That this book is credited with audio awards is proof that those awards are decided on the text and the celebrity of the reader, not the audio elements. I don’t(…)
For the third year running, I’m going for that 50,000 brand spanking new words in November – no editing or second guessing allowed! At last, I’ll be working on a first draft of The War of Wind and Moon. See you in December with a review of how the Kinesis keyboard stood up to(…)
In May 2011 I put up a post on a great, free web app for writers, called Write Track. In preparation for NaNoWriMo, I logged in to set up my NaNo project (it starts in 2 days and I’m chomping at the bit) and found that Write Track had had quite a make over, so(…)
After more than a year of using the Ergo 4000, I thought I’d do an update review, because it’s hard to find reviews that cover durability and long term ergonomic performance (and I promised one, in my original review, it’s a little tardy.) Durability: First, let me say that the keyboard has held up extremely(…)
Plotto: The Master Book of All Plots by William Wallace Cook My rating: 3 of 5 stars This classic story structure how-to (first published in 1928) is, at the least, a fascinating insight into one prolific writer’s creative process. Originality, Cook insists, is the aim of his method and so the “plot suggestions”, which make(…)
Some Kind Of Fairy Tale by Graham Joyce My rating: 5 of 5 stars “Fairy Tale” is a contemporary urban fantasy, rooted in British folklore, which explores a question those of us who read fantasy must often push to the back of our minds: why doesn’t anyone just think the character is mad? I’m almost(…)
Disneywar by James B. Stewart My rating: 2 of 5 stars I listened to this on audiobook, so I’ll discuss the content and the production separately. Content: Maybe it’s because I’m a trained historian, but I found myself mumbling, sometimes shouting at my kindle: “according to who?” “says who?” “you can’t know that was what(…)
Wired for Story: The Writer’s Guide to Using Brain Science to Hook Readers from the Very First Sentence by Lisa Cron My rating: 5 of 5 stars Every writer needs to read this book. Every writer. That is all. View all my reviews
Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life by Anne Lamott My rating: 4 of 5 stars I’d heard about this book for years, but hadn’t read it because I generally prefer to read books about writing theory, rather than “writer-on-writing”/writer’s journey books, but I thoroughly enjoyed this one. Lamott is serious enough about(…)
Writing Your Way: Creating a Writing Process That Works for You by Don Fry My rating: 2 of 5 stars Like many others, I came to this book as a long form, fiction writer, so I found little of use in it. The writer does say, in the first chapter, that the information should apply(…)
So, this might end up as one of my over-enthusiasm inspired, downright mad ideas, but I’ve been preparing for it for a little over a month, now and a) I’m feeling pretty good about it, b) it’s been a while since I’ve shared anything about my expat experience, and c) I wanted some sense of(…)
