Lateral Movements

Some of you might remember this post, when I declared to all and sundry that I would not, ever, be running a marathon. The act of running a half-marathon was enough. More than enough, even. Despite the fact that I actually kind of enjoyed parts of it, and that I completed it, and that, eventually, [...]

Jared and I bought a Volkswagen Golf last month. To my great relief, it’s an automatic. Embarrassingly, I can’t drive a manual. There was an unfortunate incident when I was 17 involving me, my dad’s truck and my Grandma’s barn, and ever since then, I’ve been wary of manual vehicles. Jared’s mom is teaching me, [...]

I’m not sure when the word ‘vacation’ was replaced by ‘travel,’ or why it needed to be. Because for 21 years, I took vacations, and they were awesome. Exhibit A, “Vacation”: Exhibit B, “Travel”: Most summers we loaded up the van the night before, anticipating a four AM start to the vacation. “I’m going to [...]

Today, I sent my child out into the world to fend for itself. Here it is: That manuscript-looking thing is my Australian partner visa application. Originally slotted to be submitted by the 1st of February, I finally put it in the post today, the 29th of April. This thing is four years in the making; [...]

So I’m writing a book. For real. For those of you who are going, “Yeah, yeah, we’ve heard this before,” well, this time, I’m serious. “Yeah, yeah, you’ve said that before” – Shut up, okay?! This is actually a transcript of conversations in my own head, not with any real people, but what you should [...]

Fall started on March 1st in Australia – no messing around with that solstice business here. I’m re-training myself to talk about the seasons according to the Southern hemisphere, but the truth is, July will always represent summer, and December is winter. Period. But autumn and spring, I have an easier time flip-flopping. Autumn in [...]