Friday 3 May
Oh hello! It’s such a beautiful day out there. I got up and had a hot shower, got dressed and then did a little bit of scrabbling about on my phone. Next, I went for a walk around the oval near our house, popped into the shop for a loaf of bread and some jasmine rice and walked slowly back home.
I bought the bread so I could make a jaffle from last night’s dinner – sausages and mash with tomato sauce. I also made a pot of tea and then sat down to a very excellent breakfast. The pre-breakfast walk was because the rheumatologist reminded me of the importance of staying as active as I can. I had fallen off the walking train when I got extra-sick a few weeks ago, so I’m climbing back on from today. I promise. (While I was on my walk I listened to this podcast about writing WHICH WAS GREAT.)
While I had breakfast I watched the latest Miranda Mills video. I’m going to make potato curry and dahl for dinner tonight. Hence the early rice run.
I did some uni reading (I’m combing through Lucy Treloar’s excellent book Days of Innocence of Wonder – a re-read for me. I loved this book!) I also asked for an extension on an assignment as this week has been a dud, health wise. Hopefully that gets approved and I get a couple of extra days to submit. I’m sure it will.
Yesterday, while I was waiting to see the rheumatologist, I started reading Eat My Words (another re-read). It’s such a good book, especially if you love food and have some familiarity with Canberra (I spent a couple of years there on and off in my mid-late teens).
…
My extension was approved! Phew. I can rest (again) today.
…
Max ordered us Chinese food for dinner, so that was a total treat. I will save the curry and dahl-making for tomorrow night, instead. I watched my Midday Movie — Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret (so good! I adored it!) — ate Singapore Noodles and Sweet and Sour Chicken and Fried Rice and watched reality TV, wrote a tiny bit in my Woolfy journal. Perfection.
Tomorrow will be EVEN better, I am sure, health wise at least.
(above) Still from ‘Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret’
Good Things
- Lemon Blueberry Cream Cake
- A Mixtape from Bev!
- The Split is returning with a two-part special. Loved that show!
- So many gorgeous quilt patterns in this shop.
- This looks a bit like Nat’s eggplant dish from the other night’s Masterchef.
- I caught a bit of this on BBC4+ the other night. I am going to listen to it in full this week.
- My mum reminded me that The Railway Children is also on the BBC Listen app.
- I listened to Nick Cave talking to Richard Fidler and it was a great conversation. Thanks to Michelle W for telling me about this.
- My Lady Jane looks so good! Found via A Cup of Jo.
Saturday 4th May
I actually had a fairly OK sleep last night, after about a week of crappy nights. Maybe the injections from Thursday’s rheum visit are starting to work? That said, I woke up very early, yet did not feel quite as knackered as usual. I crept into the kitchen – so as not to wake the house – and made coffee, then crept back to bed to watch some light telly and wait for the day to break.
I made breakfast (peanut butter toast and a pot of tea), ate it while watching this and this.
Next I got dressed for a walk.
Getting dressed: Jeans, grey turtleneck, old Gap plaid jacket, socks with flowers on them, Blundstones.
I decided to walk to the cemetery today as it’s quite close to my house and the gates open quite early. Mostly I was hoping to see some bunnies (which I did, I saw three!), but I also wanted to look at the graves and roses. I was trying to find a particular grave, but I made the mistake of not researching it before I went. Well. Not a mistake. I decided on the cemetery walk after I left the house, so it’s no wonder I wasn’t prepared. Anyway, I didn’t find the grave, but I did have a lovely and serene walk for half an hour or perhaps a little bit more.
I came home and made more tea, wrote some Marion Halligan quotes in my Commonplace Book and just had a quiet little time.
“… my sister,recently in England with three children resurrected the old ways, always going out with sandwiches, bottles of water, and bread for the ducks.”
— Marion Halligan, Eat My Words, page 11
“We had ice-cream with flavouring; mine was raspberry. I remember the wonderful sensuous leisure of dipping the small flat spoon into the dish, scooping up morsels of sweet cold cream runnelled with red sauce, not having to lick fast and efficiently at a cone before it melted away.”
— Marion Halligan, Eat My Words, page 8
When I was quite little we had bowls of ice cream with flavouring for dessert. The flavouring was different to the bottled topping you get today … it was more like a very strong cordial … perhaps it was milkshake flavouring? My brother and I would sit side-by-side on the floor in front of the TV in the living room of our Parliament Street home in Sandy Bay with two scoops each, a bowl and a spoon. We’d always have a race to see who could mix their ice cream and flavouring (chocolate for him and raspberry for me) into a liquid first. The liquid could be eaten in smaller spoonfuls and made the ice cream appear to go further. That said, we still raced to finish the ice cream. This was a two-part race, to be clear.
While I’m thinking about it, that was such a good house to live in. There was a corner shop a short walk away (my parents sometimes let my brother and I walk there alone with 20c each for lollies), a giant and very long slide over the road, and my Montessori kindergarten (which my cousin attended too!) very nearby. My sister was just a baby then. She had a teeny-tiny room at the top of the stairs next to my parent’s bedroom and I remember being very jealous of her cute mini lodgings. My paternal grandparents lived a short drive away from us, in Lord Street (apt as they were very devout, although as a child I didn’t get the connection and thought it was Lawn Street). My cousins were close too, over in St George’s Terrace, Battery Point. A nice man who was on a children’s television show lived right next door to us too.
Anyway, I’m going to go back tomorrow and find the grave. It’ll be easier to look up the location on my laptop. My phone really struggled this morning … actually, no. I think I struggled. That’s more accurate. I have just this minute realised that I actually almost passed it today. So close!
I spent the day quietly as hoped-for. Tomorrow is assessment finishing day if the analytical part of my brain is back in working order. I spent some time in the garden doing some light watering and pulling out grass bits that are constantly threatening to overtake the beds I made. I watched After the Party which was very good and nuanced and real (note: read about this before you decide to watch it. It’s not explicit but the themes are tough ones). I walked to the Little Shop to buy a can of cat food, walking back slowly with the tin in my coat pocket listening to a really interesting podcast interview with Nick Cave. Then I made that potato curry and dahl I promised myself, for dinner. It was so good. I had it with roti AND rice because I didn’t have much lunch.
I was too tired to write in my Woolfy journal, but perhaps tomorrow will work better for that.
Sunday 5 May
Oh. I didn’t realise it was May the Fourth (Be With You) day yesterday! Not that I am a huge Star Wars fan, but I was raised on the first few movies, before everything became ‘A Franchise’ and when space buns denoted a girl was a sort of super hero and the playground should watch the heck out for her.
I’m up at 7.30 with a pot of tea, still feeling like I am in an illness flare. Never mind. I will just take care of myself and get some fresh air this morning. Then push slowly on with the study I need to do today. I’ll get there. I have heaps of leftovers in the fridge, so I won’t need to cook today if I don’t fancy it. And I have a detailed outline of the work I need to do. I just need to make some updates to it and get writing. I will do the best I can. I am lucky to be well enough to study, but I don’t always get the marks I would get if I were a healthier person. It’s just something I have had to come to terms with. It’s the illness brain.
The illness brain also means that I sometimes make little errors here. A couple of people have picked me up on a couple of errors here lately. I am sorry for those mistakes, pals. It was only small things and if you knew what my inflamed brain felt like, you would understand how these little misfires can happen. But again, sorry if it has altered the reading experience. I can’t promise there will be no more errors, but know that I am trying my hardest. (In case it will scratch your brain, not knowing what they were – one was me writing ‘Scottish lass’ about the slow-living lass who lives in Scotland and does lots of Scottish things (she may not be Scottish herself but I just sort of inexplicably categorised her without thinking too hard) and the other was writing ‘Judy Davis’ by mistake, instead of ‘Judy Dench’ which was just a brain glitch because I know it was not Judy Davis I was writing about. Consider yourself in the know! I’ve updated both errors and thanks to the people who told me about them, because I don’t want to steer people in the wrong direction with these sort of mistakes. I am sure there are other errors in these long entries. I like to know about the errors. At the same time I have to practise some extreme self-compassion when it comes to not beating myself up over making them. We are all human after all. We make errors. We might even handle the error-making in uncalled-for, emotional ways. But it’s most often all okay in the end. A complicated little exchange happens at times like these, but then everyone feels stronger in the long term, due to nutting it out in nice ways.
Breakfast was a little stack of Vegemite toast and more tea. Then a short, hot shower and the getting dressed bit of the day. I’m dressing for a walk. After the walk I will change into my pjs and study/rest/study/rest/snack/study/rest/study/rest etc.
Getting dressed: Jeans, the blue jumper Mum sent me, this old Woolf varsity t-shirt I bought years ago (a fave! I got a Dickinson one too!), socks with snowflakes on them, Blundstones.
I’m bookmarking Hacks Season 3 today. I can’t remember if I watched Season 2, actually. Thanks brain. I will go back and see. I know that I loved Season 1. That much I know. Masterchef is on tonight and I am praying they do not go too hard on the tension because I find it so hard to watch. I am the girl that watched Fawlty Towers with her hands over her eyes, feeling very, very worried about the worrying-slash-outrageous things that were happening … (I only liked Polly). George and Mildred? Same. Shudder. Mr Bean? Don’t even get me started. I’m hiding under the table wanting everything to go right.
Anyway, once my assessment is in I can go back to pacing my day with Midday Movies, carefully choosing low-tension titles like the expert avoidant personality that I am.
I drove to the cemetery and found the grave I was looking for. It was artist Ethel Spowers’ grave and today the anniversary of her death. I had picked all but two of the flowers in my tiny back garden bed, and tied them with a pink satin ribbon before I left home.
I gave the tiny bouquet to Ethel and we had a few quiet moments together.
(above) Swings, 1932 by Ethel Spowers (1890-1947) via Art Gallery of NSW
(above) Tug of War, 1933 by Ethel Spowers (1890-1947) via National Gallery of Australia
(above) Children’s Hoops, 1936 by Ethel Spowers (1890-1947) via Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa
After that I went for a big fresh-air-gulping walk, picked up a handful of acorns, and looked for bunnies (none today!) I wandered into the cafe and grabbed a take away coffee from the floppy-haired boy. He was working in the dark, possibly hoping not to be disturbed. He turned the lights on when I went in though and honestly was super lovely.
I sat outside in the morning sunshine to drink my coffee, listening to the trains rattling by and watching people carrying out their Sunday ritual of visiting loved ones.
After that I went home and Facetimed with my eldest for a long chat. And then I started studying …
… It’s 5.30pm and I’m back. Five hours of assessment-writing and revision and submission and I’m done with it! It actually turned out okay and my brain did not hurt – indeed it felt clear and usable – the entire time. This is very, very good news. Usually it feels like it’s in a vice and when I try to think through ideas it feels like the vice is being tightened. I had none of that today, so I am super pleased.
I’m going to have last night’s dinner curry and dhal dinner again and watch Masterchef after I finish here. I hope you are having something nice or doing something nice today, reader. Thanks for checking in here. I’m lucky to have you. Hopefully not too many mistakes today!! Fingers crossed.
x Pip
If you fancy, buy me a coffee —> https://ko-fi.com/piplincolne
I am a regular long time reader, occasional commenter.
Thank you sooo much for writing your blog and sharing all the things, you are a source of lots of interesting things for me – today Ethel Spowers.
xx
My goodness I loved reading this! Your words are treasures! I can see these diary types being part of a new book from you! I love how you share memories and the ordinary amongst the history and study! Keep on keeping on dear Pip!
I am so lucky to have you as a reader, Denyse. And you know I LOVE your work and find your working history so interesting too. Thank you for piping up! x
I loved the Ethel paintings! What a lovely posy to put on her resting place.
I also love the sound of the bedsit program which I will listen to. We all lived in bedsits in the 80s and they each had a tiny baby belling cooker and oven. It was like a mini cooker with 2 cooking rings on top. I made someone a birthday cake in mine and it was great! I reckon I could manage perfectly well with one now if I had to.
Mine was scrupulously clean obvs as I had sprayed it madly with oven cleaner when I moved in, my friend next door though had a fondness for fray bentos steak and kidney pies (in the tin) … I think you took the lid off with your tin opener and the pastry would puff up on top as it cooked the pie.
Thing was that it would bubble and leak out of one side so she had what looked like little termite mounds (depending on the recent placement of the tin) all over the bottom of the mini oven. It was a meaty smelling bedsit! HA!
She munched them happily every night though as the shop down the road sold things just past their sell by date for like 50p so we were winning 🙂
Lovage xxx
Has there ever been a better band name than “Meaty Smelling Bedsit”? It’s actually for a punk band and they are all vegetarian musicians who sing about their dislike of Fray Bentos. Gosh. Fray Bentos pies. My dad loved those. I remember walking past the oven after dinner (he’d have this for his dinner, not what we had) and seeing the volcanic shifting of the pastry and the bubbling of the gravy. I never tried one but I guess there must be something nice about them. I lived in a bedsit for a short while when I moved to Melbourne (aged 15/16). It was in St Kilda and was with an old high school friend of my brother’s. All platonic and above board but the backyard was filled with used syringes so that was memorable. Somehow we survive these horrors, don’t we?
Hello Pip,
My goodness I love reading your posts. I save them up as a reward after a few hours of focused uni time!
Your Marion Halligan quotes are fab – I’ve been thinking on your words from a few posts back, about how you enjoy specificity in writing. I’m exactly the same, and I felt that specificity in these quotes.
Speaking of writing, have you ever read ‘Queen Kat, Carmel and St Jude Get a Life’? Its been many, many years since I read it, but my recollection is that it was a YA novel about three young women from a country town, who move to a house share in Melbourne for their first year of uni. Being a 90s novel, I’m sure there are aspects of it that didn’t date so well, but I do remember there being some lovely specificity in a particular scene describing a box of food one character brought to the share house from her home farm. It’s funny the little bits of books that stick with us! 🙂
Thanks for all your recent posts. They’re truly delightful and they definitely make me want to start blogging again.
Take care
Liz, I remember this book! Read it many times as a teenager. I remember that part with the box of food from the farm and I remember Carmel walking home with a steaming hot pizza to share and feeling all warm and fuzzy about her blossoming life! Such a great read.
That was a Maureen McCarthy book, right? She used to teach at Melbourne Girl’s College (where my eldest went for a while back in the 90s). Pretty sure she was my daughter’s English teacher for a brief interlude. Also? She was in a relationship with the ex-husband of the woman I ran a cafe with. I met her a few time and she seemed very nice. So there you go. 🙂
Ice cream with either chocolate topping or milo was a “shopping day” treat in our house when I was a kid & we all swirled it around until it looked like a thick shake in a bowl because it looked like more than it was like that. Such fun memories!
I continue to be awed by the many, many places you visit on the internet. There’s always something fun & interesting in your links.
I know this will sound pathetic but gosh I love hearing about your very ordinary breakfasts. I feel like everyone is having something super healthful or very hearty but all I really want to eat is cereal or toast with some kind of topping. You remind me to do what I want not what I think I should. Thank you for that.
And today I went looking for a new show to watch & remembered that you wrote about Better Things so that’s what I started!
Always love your updates Pip. I saved Friday’s post to read today – imagine my delight to find I had two Pip updates to read with my (late) lunch, what a treat!
I’m intrigued by ‘Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret’ – my memories of the book are of the rather cringey experience of having my Grade 6 teacher read the book aloud to the class. He was 23, fresh out of uni! Very brave of him really, and probably quite ahead of his time in terms of smashing gender expectations, but I remember it being quite awkward!!
Do you know the On Being podcast? I recently enjoyed Krista’s interview with Rick Rubin – I have been freaking out about my PhD novel which is due in 9 weeks (!!) and Rick’s theory of creativity and how a creative work is ever-changing was very comforting to hear. There’s also an On Being podcast episode with Nick Cave, which I’m sure you’ll enjoy – it made me cry!! “Read This” podcast’s interview with Mary Beard was also a recent favourite, which I think you’ll like too.
Hope you get lots of rest and nourishment this week xx
I used to listen to On Being all the time but then got out of the habit. I must change that, so thank you for your recommendations, P! I’m excited that you are nearing the end of the PhD. Can. Not. Wait. To read your book!! I know it will be brilliant, because you are. Also? That’s brilliant that your teacher read AYTGIMM to your class. That said I understand the embarrassment … these were things we just didn’t talk about as freely in years gone by, right? Thank you for reading and being so nice about the blog. Have an okay day, peach! x
Loving these gentle updates. I’ve spent a lot time in those streets in sandy bay visiting my uni kids over the last decade. I love your daily outfit update. Always sounds so cute, comfy and fun. The mid day movie was always a highlight on days home from school and the midday show, and I can’t lie once a term catching up on days of our lives. Oh I do miss those simple days.
Cheers Kate
It’s such a lovely area, right? It’s not as sleepy as it once was these days, but I still love it. Hope your day is as peachy as possible! x
Lovely reading Pip! My Aunty Karen had a news agency on Regent St Sandy Bay in the 70’s, near Parliament St. It had a lovely old house attached to it and I loved that house so much, I wanted to live there. We lived in a brand new brick house on the Eastern shore and it wasnt half as interesting. I wonder if it was her store you visited, or maybe the York st store which is still there.
Now I live in an old house in Melbourne.
I will watch Are you there God it’s me Margaret tonight, thanks for recommendation.
Tania in Hawthorn
Well I am sure I would have followed my fast-walking Nan into your Aunt Karen’s news agency at some point, Tania. So that makes us cousins! xx
On the subject of mistakes/errors….to quote an old Amish saying “only God is perfect”. Comment made in relation to quilt making. There is always a mistake somewhere in Amish quilts. !!
Oh thank you for introducing me to Ethel Spowers Pip! It was so lovely of you to pop a little bunch of flowers on her grave x