On Valentine’s Day and awkwardness

Of all the cultural holidays that exist in the world today, Valentine’s Day is by far the most supremely awkward. A casual ‘What are you up to this week?’ often results in a response  like ‘Well, it’s Valentine’s Day tomorrow and I’m forever alone so I’ll probably just be at home eating chips.’ This kind…

On lost things and lost people

  There is a certain romantic appeal about lost things. Ships that have been lost at sea haunt the imaginations of storytellers for generations, and lost aeroplanes set all sorts of elaborate theories in motion. Lost people, too, have throughout history and literature carried with them a certain romantic appeal: Coleridge’s wandering narrator in the…

On clouds, and remaining an individual amidst a crowd

https://flic.kr/p/7PZ2At Image courtesy of Jake Brewer/Flickr/Creative commons Clouds are frequently considered for the information they can give us about the weather, about what types of crops will fare well, and about what clothes we may wear comfortably. It is less common, however, to find clouds consulted for the wisdom they may offer us about ourselves.…

On Twitter

In an effort to be more organised, I have created a Twitter account. On it I will be posting all the interesting links, images and thoughts for which there was not enough room in my blog entries. Also just interesting things that have caught my eye. Such as this mattress, which, among other things, can…

Short Story: On the breeze with a cigarette

It was nearly the weekend. Dan and I stood in the usual spot, in an alleyway just down the road where the building was almost, but not entirely, out of sight. Between an industrial bin and a parking garage. Dan leaned against the wall smoking. “Smell that. Doesn’t that remind you of last year?” Dan…

On the dangers of seeking perfection

The other day I revisited Mount Dandenong with a friend of mine, and came home once again astonished by the natural beauty of that mountain. Specifically, we visited the Alfred Nicholas Memorial Gardens, and as we sat under a tree enjoying our picnic I was struck by a strange but not unfamiliar, very disruptive kind…

Short Story: Across a Table

‘But why are you screaming?!! Stop screaming, we are right here!’ A look of bewilderment appeared in his eyes. He let it stay there so that this terrible exasperation might crouch behind its shoulders and remain hidden. ‘I’m not screaming,’ he replied in confusion, holding his palms upwards towards the sky. But his companions flinched…

On the groaning that often comes with Christmas

The other day at work – as is the polite but often tiresome custom when working in retail – I found myself making small talk. What are you doing for Christmas this year? I asked the man who unpacks boxes and marks off stock at the back. …Christmas? Boring! Just the same thing as last…

On the wisdom of the avocado tree

Spring arrived recently, and as such I have been trying to grow an avocado tree. After watching numerous videos on Youtube that suggest that the process is actually a relatively straightforward and simple one, I assembled my three pronged, alien-like avocado pip on my windowsill. And then just in case it didn’t work I assembled four…

On unluckiness: Friday the 13th

Nothing was entirely supposed to go right and so nothing has particularly gone wrong. Alain De Botton Today, Friday the thirteenth , is purported to be an unlucky day. It is unclear what, historically, has made Friday the 13th a day of bad luck, but popular theories have connected it to Biblical events that were said…