Looking forward to

The release of Sophie Hansen’s new book on Monday! I have her other two and they’re both just lovely. Is there anything better than the anticipation of a new book that you already know will be brilliant?

Going for my first run in my new running shoes, which arrived today. Honestly, the last pair I bought wore out so quickly, and I have been feeling the roughness of the trails through the soles for months now. This is a long overdue purchase!

Reading

The Brownie Diaries by Leah Hyslop

Planet Simpson by Chris Turner - I haven’t read this book since 2004 when it first came out, and I had forgotten how brilliant it is, and how timeless/prescient so many of its observations are.

Do Inhabit: Style your space for a creative and considered life by Sue Fan and Danielle Quigley

Markkula Center for Applied Ethics: The ethics of fiction writing (PhD related, obvs!)

A Writer’s Diary by Virginia Woolf

Why I Write by George Orwell

Sydney Review of Books: Circuit and The Writer’s Clutter, both by Vanessa Berry

Listening to

TIDAL’s Baking Beats playlist - I really like lo-fi music for cooking, reading and working to.

Rethink Moments with Rachel Botsman: Trust Issues/Vulnerability is not a Weakness

Unlocking Us with Brené Brown: Accessing joy and finding connection in the midst of struggle, with Karen Walrond

BeWILDered: Self-Doubt and Creativity

The Creative Penn: Your Story Matters with Nikesh Shukla and Dealing with Self-Doubt and Writer’s Block with Dharma Kelleher

Happy Place: Clover Stroud

The Tim Ferriss Show: Interview #366 with Neil Gaiman (Neil loves fountain pens and Leuchtturm notebooks too!)

Eating

Noodles with fried tofu and orange nam jim from Ottolenghi’s Flavour

Apple and fig crumble (using my parents’ apples and my own figs) smothered in this.

Otherwise, it’s just been tomatoes and zucchini every which way - curry, soup, risotto, pasta.

I made a batch of dukkah this week which is fabulous on top of avocado toast, or just with good crusty bread and olive oil. I also like it sprinkled over hummus and cucumber rolled up in a wholemeal flatbread, which has been my regular work lunch this week because cucumbers have been plentiful, thanks to our generous neighbours.

I also made stewed apples (for more crumble, or maybe for porridge), pickled tomatoes and pickled cucumbers.

Picking

Zucchini, tomatoes, beans and silverbeet from my own garden, and our neighbours invited us to go over to their garden and pick whatever we wanted as they’re away and didn’t want the vegetables to go to waste. So there were also cucumbers, in addition to more zucchini and tomatoes!

Watching

Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (Netflix) - what an incredible film, beautifully acted and written. A powerful reminder of why art is so vital, and the terrible price we sometimes pay in the pursuit of it. And Chadwick Boseman’s monologues are all the more powerful knowing that he must have had his own mortality in mind as he shot those scenes, as it was his last film. What a loss he has been.

Black Mirror (Netflix) - I enjoy surreal, futuristic dark comedy that still feels like it takes place in the real world, and this hits the spot while feeling terrifyingly prescient.

Call My Agent! (Dix pour cent)(Netflix) - safe to say we are now completely addicted to this fabulous show, and have also started learning French on Duolingo again.

What do you think - is being off social media agreeing with me? ;)

Wearing/applying

I bought some new jeans last November and they are the best I’ve had in recent history - Curve Embracer by Jeans West. I highly recommend them.

New Vitamin C serum and a new night cream - I may return to the old favourites if these don’t pass muster but so far so good. I’ve had an occasional mild bout of maskne and Go-To’s exfoliating swipeys cleared that up within a day, so I will have to restock those as I am perilously close to running out.

Apart from having them shaped regularly by a professional, I’ve never paid much attention to my eyebrows but a beauty editor friend recommended Rimmel London’s Wonder Last Brow Tint for Days and I’m not sure what it is but (I think) I look more polished and put together on the days I use it! Very easy to apply. I, obviously, use the blonde shade.

Thinking about

My friends currently in isolation/quarantine because their children caught covid at school. I know at least four families in this situation at the moment!

The fact that when I was born, if my mother had wanted to get a passport, she would have needed my father’s permission to do so. Australia didn’t change that law until 1983. That blows my mind and frankly makes me incredibly angry. I love writing historical fiction but oh my god am I glad to live in this time, as a woman, despite how far we still have to go.

An essay I started writing this week about superstition, friendship and the writing process. I’m going to have to dig deep for this one. It will be interesting!

Favourite experiences of the week

Getting a Wordle in two guesses - and Tom got one in ONE! I am yet to experience that phenomenon.

My monthly seminar with ACT Writers - this month’s lecturer was Claire G. Coleman and WOW, what a powerhouse she is. So generous, insightful and fun to learn from. “Don't be afraid to write garbage” was one of her many pieces of pithy advice.

Meeting up with my new PhD supervisor, who is actually an old acquaintance from London! One day we will share the incredible story of how our paths crossed and now have crossed again. It makes me believe in magic.

GRATEFUL FOR

The world has felt very wonky and fragile these past few weeks (and years), so it goes without saying how grateful I am to be safe and healthy. But this week I was also especially grateful for a quiet place to work while I had a deadline, and a kind and understanding husband who made me lunch and brought me tea at regular intervals.

IN AWE OF

Nature. It’s the best reset button.

READING

Meanjin Quarterly: How writing can shred you

Sydney Review of Books: Ditching the New Yorker voice

Smokehouse by Melissa Manning, a magnificent collection of short stories set in a part of Tasmania not far from where I grew up.

An Onion in My Pocket: My Life with Vegetables by Deborah Madison. A dear friend bought me Madison’s Vegetable Literacy for my birthday many years ago and it’s one of my favourites - I didn’t know anything about her though, and now I do! Foodie memoirs are such a comfort genre for me, I find them really cosy and fun to dive into for bedtime or rainy day reading. I loved Madison’s exploration of her life through food, vegetarianism, Zen practice, travelling and working in restaurants. I particularly enjoyed her recounting of when she was basically the assistant to a fairly eccentric woman who lived on the east coast of the US - as I had met many similar characters on my own travels through that part of America, I could picture it all very clearly! I also loved her chapter on her most memorable meals, which I might have a go at writing about myself sometime.

LISTENING TO

Mary Lattimore’s Til A Mermaid Drags You Under - I’ve had this song on repeat all week, for writing, yoga, and meditation. It’s just exquisite.

Wild with Sarah Wilson: This is why you’re finding the world too much, with Johann Hari, Oliver Burkeman: 4,000 weeks, it’s all we’ve got in this lifetime, folks! and David Whyte: the insta-calm of poetry and asking beautiful questions. I love this podcast. I’m constantly in awe of Sarah Wilson’s passion, integrity and fierce intelligence. And her guests are pretty interesting too!

I wrote SO much this week and therefore cycled between all my writing playlists - I have four. A general one (heavily leaning on Einaudi, Frahm, Richter and Hutchings), a Morning Pages one, a “moody and dramatic” one (where I really want to stir up some big emotions, possibly even cry while writing) and a “writing beats” one which is chilled house and dance and more for editing or corporate/freelance writing, where my brain needs to be more alert and focused rather than completely lost in its own world.

EATING

Bruschetta - one of my most favourite things to make and eat this time of year, when tomatoes are at their fragrant, juicy best. And the smell of fresh basil just makes me swoon. You seriously couldn’t get a more delicious, satisfying meal from such a small number of ingredients. If you have grown tomatoes yourself and they’re ready to pick, eat them like this. Mine were still warm from the sun.

A summer tomato and green bean curry (pictured) - all homegrown produce, braised in mild spices, tamarind, coconut milk and curry leaves. Absolutely delicious, though when I make it again I will add potatoes to make it slightly more substantial as it was a little liquid from all the tomato juices (though the broth was beautiful). Let me know if you want me to write up the recipe.

Tofu fried rice (several times!)

Vegan banana bread

I also cleaned out the freezer and made breadcrumbs from all the end pieces I had stored in there, and now have a giant jar of crunchy crumbs ready for an autumn of gratins and pasta bakes.

DRINKING

I’m a bit of a fan of the Twinings Infuse bags for cold water (though, they come in plastic, SIGH) and this week I tried the blueberry, apple and blackcurrant flavour, which I think might be my new favourite. Fruity but not sweet, just how I like it!

I’ve also rediscovered T2 Tea’s New York Breakfast - with soy milk, honey and a pinch of salt. Divine.

PICKING

So many tomatoes. Zucchini verging on marrowhood. Green and yellow beans, cooked to a melting softness in the aforementioned curry. Celery, getting thicker and prouder by the day. Figs, though the netting has obscured their ripeness from me and therefore there were many past their prime rotting in the bottom of the pot, but a feast for the ants. Strawberries are still cropping nicely, and swiping one as I water the garden in the morning or evening is a delightful treat - these are without a doubt the best, sweetest strawberries I’ve ever eaten in my life.

My parents also brought round more tomatoes, zucchini and apples. I’m going to make Pip Lincolne’s spaghetti with roasted tomatoes tonight, and zucchini relish and stewed apples over the weekend.

WATCHING

Call My Agent! (Dix pour cent)(Netflix) - I think I am more obsessed with this show than I was with Pam and Tommy. Such a finely written and acted comedy about the French film world, and more specifically a Parisian talent agency and all the hijinks the agents and clients get up to. We’ve laughed so hard watching it. It’s lovely to see Paris again too - the Paris I remember. It’s seriously brilliant and I highly recommend it!

WEARING/APPLYING

Country Road sweatshirts - I have two (navy and citrus) and live in them. They’re perfect for this in-between time of year where it’s 28 degrees one day and 15 the next!

THINKING ABOUT

A book I saw in a country charity shop two years ago, in the Before times, only just. I really wish I’d bought it and I wonder if it’s still there. I might take a road trip next week and find out…though, with the price of petrol at the moment, perhaps not.

FAVOURITE EXPERIENCE/S OF THE WEEK

A 9km bushwalk with my friend and her dog…and getting an ice cream afterwards!

I also loved having my mum over for coffee and aforementioned vegan banana bread. I know I’ve been back for three years now, but the idea that my mum, who I often went years without seeing, can now just pop round to my place for a coffee is still a novel one, and utterly delightful.