Friday

The UGGs are on, and so is the cardigan. Melbourne's gone cold.

Today I taught at a girls' school - a group of Year 8s - and it was fantastic. They were great, I was great. Sorry, can't help the hubris but you gotta own it, don't you? When I finish a session that's gone well (I'd say 99% of them) it's like I imagine a stand-up comedian coming off stage after nailing a show. The high is immense; the feel-good of having done good work, connected with the audience, gotten the laughs where you wanted to, had them thinking where you wanted them to.

At Year 8 we teeter on the edge of explicit stuff, keeping it just this side of confronting. We keep it to the theoretical in a way, and try to deal with what they are facing, realistically, in their lives now and within about 6 months or so. Some will be starting to be sexually active, most won't. Some will have partners they kiss and cuddle with, some won't. For me, today the session was more about 'what's it like growing up to be a woman?' and what are some of the things we have to think about. It's good to get their opinions and responses, invite them to think about what some of the choices they might have, and might have to make. Body hair is a simple one. How do they feel about shaving and waxing? At that age, it's not quite about vulvae yet, it's about legs and armpits. It's not about us standing up and telling them what's what either.

One question that I ALWAYS ask groups when oral sex comes up with (or we bring it up): Is oral sex 'real sex'?

And no one ever puts up their hand to agree.

They don't count it as real sex, which it isn't if you think real sex is only intercourse. But then, I ask them, how do gay or lesbian couples have real sex? If you only count it as penis in vagina sex, then how do other people lose their virginity? If they don't have a life-time of penis > vagina sex.

Interesting questions, all of them.

*

And in other news, there is no other news. Let's call it publisher three has asked for an extra week. Publisher one (the one who LOVED it and is now in turmoil with the 'internal stuff') my agent hasn't reported anything from, other than that she was trying to find out if there was still any hope for my book. She doesn't hold much hope herself, she said, but there's still a chance, I guess, we haven't had a no. Publisher two is one from the original group who passed and apparently has been asking again. So that's it. No YES, one sniffing, one asking for more time (do not know if this is a good sign or a bad sign)

FUCK

and one silent.

silencio
silencio

I am as understanding and at ease as Naomi Watts in Club Silencio in Mulholland Drive. The good thing is: wine, fish & chips tonight, plenty of writing time over the weekend and into next week AND then next week also, me and old chicken-foot Clokesy head off to Hong Kong for five days. Nice.

And GO CATS. Geelong and Collingwood play tomorrow night. 3/5 of our household is COLL; 2/5 are pro-Geelong people. Interesting.

The bad thing about sharing a bed is that

when the other person wakes you up with their sharp chicken foot at 5am, and then does it again, and again, and then when you are really awake they start breathing really heavily and then snoring, that's all not even the worst thing. The worst thing is that you can't turn on the light to read and then hopefully fall back to sleep.

Oh no.

You have to get up and leave the bed, go out into the chilly house.

You can't make a coffee because it'll wake up two of the three children.

So you tell yourself you might as well work.

But in other news, how were those Geelong boys last night?

TGIF

Oh, isn't it loverly? Melbourne's weather has been brilliant lately, those gorgeous rich tones of colour and the sun low in the sky when I go for my walks. Just beautiful.

Went to a launch last night, at Readings in Carlton. It was Krissy Kneen, she of the Furious Vaginas blog. This is her third book (I think) and I've read the other two, a memoir and then a trio of connected novellas. Her stuff is full-on, I suppose you'd call them pornographic, especially the last book Triptych. She writes beautifully though and with sincerity so there is nothing louche or lewd or lascivious; not negatively anyway. And she is really prolific, they seem to be published at a rate of one a year. Or more?

Just dropped P and her friend at a party. I'm tired, so I'll have a shower and go and read in bed. Wait for the text: Mum can you come and get us. Lucky they are only ten minutes away.

Happy weekend. Go Cats.

So a technical problem

It's like this, Alex. (I know it'll be you who helps me but that doesn't mean other people who know what they're doing can't jump in and assist)...

In the old days, at the bottom of my posts page, I used to have something like 'more posts' or 'next page' and this is gone now.

I'm not sure it's because the blog has grown OR whether something has happened with my settings. But I would like to be able to go to a month on the side list and trawl through all the posts in that month.

Just can't seem to be able to do this.

*

Also, does anyone remember the '80s diaries and how my dad was caught up in a moider? And I don't know if I mentioned on here but I got a couple of comments from a woman purporting to be the killed woman's bio-daughter. Well, it was a cold case and it is now heating back up. All sorts of police interaction (not with me, with my dad). Oral swabs, official statements. At one stage I said to Clokes 'maybe they think he did it?' (not wanting to say 'maybe he did it') and then dad said recently, when I said 'maybe they're saying that to everyone', ie 'we are close to an arrest, we know who did it we're just getting our stuff together' as a way to make people nervous?? and I said 'maybe they think you did it' and dad said 'well I know I didn't do it!'

Anyway, Happy Fathers Day, Dad (don't know if he reads this anymore).

*

Also GO CATS

Friday cry time, and go Cats

gone fishing

Farewell dear friends.

See you when we get back.

There will be diarama and news and maybe some photes, and surely plenty of stories to tell.

x

Oh and GO CATS.

Monday

Well, it all went brilliantly. BRILLIANTLY I TELL YOU.

Tooth settled with some quick Nurofen and I got onto the antis.

And we drove, oh how we drove. The weather was filthy for most of Victoria. It took us an hour and a half to even get onto the Hume, fucking hell, my inner voice was going, while don't worry, we'll get there my outer voice was going.

Stopped for petroleum and food about 3.5 hours in. Then a coffee stop for about 10 minutes after another couple of hours. Princess talked the whole way; her story idea for a book. So not only am I to try and write my own books, I have to help her with hers.

God help me.

We managed without music or any other diversions for hours. It was only as it got dark that we put some on. First we listened to a truly atrocious CD called Great Driving Songs or somesuch. It's Clokes' and because most of our stuff is in storage still, we are light on for CDs. We skipped through most of the tracks. They were woeful.

Then I tried to introduce her to Fat Boy Slim. She liked the first song, then wanted to skip the bit where the lyric is Fat Boy Slim is fucking in heaven. Fair enough. Then we listened to the Beach Boys. The good old reliable Beach Boys.

It was dark and my night vision is not great. We crawled along, driving very carefully, also cause by now my tooth was hurting again. We got there. We checked into our very clean, nice motel, about 5 mins drive from my bro's house. We ordered in food, had showers and slept together in the Queen size bed, using the single as our vertical wardrobe. Am I the only person to do this?

Next morning we decided not to do anything. The weather was cold, so we woke up at 9am to feast upon our breakfast tray, then lay in bed watching tv (her) and reading (me.)

I had texted my sister the night before, with no reply. Then I texted my brother-in-law cause he's usually good with his phone. No reply. Then I'm starting to worry a bit that their plans had changed. Imagine if they'd all driven to Melb? I had checked they'd be there through the week, so was fairly confident but when you do wild and crazy things, sometimes your brain can make you second-guess stuff.

So I called my brother on his mobile. He answered and was happy to hear from me. I asked if the others were there, I hadn't heard, yes, they were there, he said, sitting on the couch. They were all getting pretty excited. The bbq was going to get fired up, and they had a couple of other friends arriving to have lunch and watch the game.

"Oh ok," I said. "Well, I'll call later, to talk during the game, have fun!"

He he he.

Then I set about making mini floggers for the kids. Then we got ready and went and picked up some bbq meat stuff and two bottles of champagne and a box of nice chocolates for my bro's long-suffering partner. When Melba and her sibs get together, we can be a little much for other people.

We drove there. Princess said she was nervous.

"What if they're not happy to see us?" she asked.

"They will be!" I almost shouted at her.

"But how can you know?" she asked.

"Because they're family, and they like us. It'll be good, don't worry."

So we managed to get to the door. We rang the door bell, Princess hid behind me, scared. They opened the door and we jumped up and down shouting "SURPRISE!! SURPRISE!!"

It was awesome. My brother was really moved, I could tell. They couldn't believe that not only were we there, but we'd driven up the night before. Sneaky!

We had lunch, cracked the champers and settled down to what was a fantastic and exciting game of footy. It would have been bad if Geelong had lost and we'd been a miserable little cavalcade back down the Hume. As it was we flew our Scarf of Victory, only pulling it inside the window once we got to St Kilda Junction. We wore our Hats of Victory for most of the weekend.

I got back last night to a table full of newspapers, oh joy. Reading through them, still not finished. I have sheets of newspaper stuck to the wall with blu-tack. My father is incredibly happy, not least because of my sneaky plan. My brother is happy we went up, and my sister cried when she saw us, and then again when the Cats won. We jumped up off the couch, we shouted, we stamped and we howled.

It was great.

And getting a text message from INC was great as well. Thank you friend. Thanks too to everyone who asked about my tooth. It really is a bastard but it's behaving itself now. I'm so glad we went. Surprises are good like that if you have the right family. And Princess really jumped on board and got into it as well. She hates long car trips, but there was not one complaint. She is the acest of all.