My word

What an interesting few weeks I’ve had. I moved house on April 19 and only yesterday unpacked most of my books. Once again the fiction books are mostly colour-blocked and they look good. The neighbourhood is a mixed bag. Lots of elderly retirees and a smattering of noisy dickheads who think the whole street wants to know when they’re having a fight.

Whoever said moving house was up there for stress levels with death and public speaking was right but we’re settling in slowly. The cats were freaked out for a few days but they seem fine now. They have a lot more room to run and chase and fight and sit in the middle of the stairs while we’re walking up and down.

I feel super lucky. Housing shouldn’t be a privilege but more and more, it seems to be that way.

So after all the drama of moving/life/business/full moon frikken eclipse season/mercury fucking retrograde… hubby and I had a nice 24 hours in the big city up the road last week. We had a nice quiet dinner, stayed in a lovely, plush hotel and went to see comedien Dylan Moran. The only drawback was the last 20 minutes or so were like an asmr video to our poor tired ears. He mumbled and grumbled and hubby nodded off for a bit a… Seriously if you want a good night’s sleep, go and see a whispering comic, stay in room 519 at the Adina on George Street in Brisbane and take some melatonin. Snoozetown.

It was fantastic to get away even if it was just for a day.

I feel like that’s a song lyric…

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My word for 2023 was supposed to be flow and that was clearly the product of delusion on my part. My word should be something like persevere, just keep swimming, plow through… but then maybe that’s what flow is. The ability to keep going with the tide regardless of where it takes you?

I’ve finished the hand edits of my crime story and it feels good to be working on it again. So yeah, I guess I’m flowing… But sometimes I want to scream at the top of my lungs, to quote that 90s song, What’s Going On? I’d like to think I’m a patient person but the checkout queue at the supermarket pushes every one of my buttons.

Now before you tell me to use Click and Collect check yourself. I buy some weird crap, stuff that isn’t available on the supermarket websites. I also frequent the whole food stores and there’s always some lonely person talking about their personal dramas at the checkout that makes me want to quote that other more recent song, STFU.

It’s become part of my practice. Know you’re breathing in, in the supermarket… know you’re breathing out… still in the queue…

I’m glad we don’t have automatic weapons in this country because we would have a real problem. So many angry people and sometimes, I’m one of them! I don’t know about everyone else but my journaling, meditation and yoga practice are the only things that keep me sane and out of the criminal justice system.

I’m off to yoga now