This will hurt me...

Spring-loaded box traps.

A fool-proof way of dealing with troublesome children!

Everything that I learned about parenting I learned from Raiders of the Lost Ark.

The things that you see when sitting on the toilet. The toilet, Mayfair Plaza, Sandy Bay. October 2011.

I always seem to be finishing books on the Friday and consequently posting the review the following week, so forgive me if I’m a little vague on Herta Müller’s The Appointment. I shall confess that I was not familiar with Müller’s work until she was awarded the awarded the 2009 Nobel Prize in Literature.

Müller is a Romanian-born German novelist and poet most noted for her exploration of the effects of violence, cruelty and terror; usually in the setting of Communist Romania under Nicolae Ceauşescu. It is this stifling atmosphere of repression that pervades throughout The Apartment.

The unnamed narrator – a young, female factory worker – has been summoned for questioning by the secret police for a relatively benign crime. From this point, her life has become subject to the whims of Major Albu, who summons her for random interrogation sessions with seemingly little purpose other than driving her mad. As such, the major preoccupation in her life appears to be holding on to her sanity.

Stylistically the book is a challenge. Entirely set during a long tram ride to another interrogation, the narrator unwinds stories from her past; reconstructing how it was she got into her current predicament. Both the style and the tale itself are [suitably] disorienting and taut, offering an unsettling depiction of how people adapt and survive under oppressive systems, and at what cost.

This is a challenging read. I suspect that the unrelentingly fragmented and bleak tone will put many off, but if you think that you can cope I would keenly recommend checking it out.

Spring has sprung which means that [beach] swimming will not be too far away. Ezra can barely contain his enthusiasm.

A caged bird never wins grand finals. ANZAC Park, Lindisfarne. October 2011.

Some days it is hard.

Some days it is less hard.

Some days, even, it is easy.

Some days it is so so.

I think that today is a ‘less hard’ kind of day, with a possibility of an upgrade to ‘hard’.

Ez takes his man marking very seriously, and moments after this photograph was taken Henry collapsed in a crumpled heap with bruises up and down his legs...

A pipe in a wall in the middle of the road. St George's Terrace, Battery Point. September 2011.

Is it good luck or good management to have ended up marrying the person that a) you think is the sexiest in the world; and b) you love most in the world?

Answers on the back of a postcard please...

One of the best thing about Ezra is that his smaller arms and hands means that he’s far more able to get them into the tiger snake holes…

Careful of the drips with your lens. Princes Street, Sandy Bay. September 2011.

The Lucky 33 Meme [part 2]!

17. Do you know how to do the macarena?
I most certainly do not!

18. Is the sun shining where you are now?
Absolutely and I am loving it.

19. Do you think clowns are cute or scary?
I think that clowns are supremely unfunny.

20. If you could change one thing about how you look, what would it be?
A little less frayed around the edges would be nice.

21. Would you be my good angel or bad angel?
I'd be an ambiguous angel.

22. What color eyes do you have?
Seal brown.

23. Ever been married?
Just the once.

24. Bottle or Draft?
As I stated last week, I am against the draft. Also, I am very anti-bottling bonsai kittens.

25. If you won £10,000 today, what would you do with it?
Exchange it to Australian dollars and quickly deposit in the bank.

26. What kind of bubble gum do you prefer to chew?
I am not a bubble gum kind of dude.

27. What's your favorite bar to hang at?
Monkey bars.

28. Do you believe in ghosts?
No more than I believe in vampires, werewolves or compassionate conservatives.

29. Favorite thing to do in your spare time?
Take photographs. Or read. Or just bask in silence.

30. Do you swear a lot?
I swear much more that I really should, but much less than I used to.

31. Biggest pet peeve?
Smelly dogs on furniture.

32. In one word, how would you describe yourself?
Demanding.

33. In two words, how would you describe yourself?
Well-intentioned.


Focus on the flower. Princes Street, Sandy Bay. September 2011.

Red is the colour of my true love's platelets, in the morning, when we rise. That's the time, that's the time we love the best.

Coming back with crays. On the Derwent, as seen from Long Beach, Sandy Bay. September 2011.

The Lucky 33 Meme [part 1]!

1. Can you cook?
Absolutely!

2. What was your dream growing up?
Lots of beautiful women.

3. What talent do you wish you had?
Turning a blind eye.

4. Favourite place?
Home.

5. Favourite vegetable
The wonderfully durable potato.

6. What was the last book you read.
The Appointment by Herta Müller

7. What zodiac sign are you?
Taurus.

8. Any Tattoos and/or Piercings?
Not one. Ever.

9. Worst Habit?
Groping my wife.

10. Do you personally know anybody on Blog?
Erm...

11. What is your favorite sport?
Sychronised jelly tickling.

12. Negative or Optimistic attitude?
Realistic.

13. What would you do if you were stuck in an lift with someone of the opposite sex?
We would wait.

14. Worst thing to ever happen to you?
My children were born very loud.

15. Tell me one weird fact about you:
I am nine percent blancmange.

16. Do you have any pets?
Only a wife and two children.

Occasionally - usually on grey and wet days - Ezra announces that advanced industrial society has fundamentally prevented us from reaching a non-repressive society that is rooted in fundamentally different experiences of being, fundamentally different relations between humans and nature, and fundamentally different existential relations internally.

While I concede that he has a point, I haven't the heart to tell him Marcuse beat him to it by 60 years...

Someone is playing silly buggers! Regent Street, Sandy Bay. September 2011.

My Top Five Words Favourite Words [Today] The Don't Have A Direct English Translation!

Mamihlapinatapei
A Yagan word for the wordless, yet meaningful look shared by two people who both desire to initiate something but are both reluctant to start. Jennifer and I know this look all too well...

Ilunga
A Tshiluba word that describes a person who is ready to forgive and forget any first abuse, tolerate it the second time, but never forgive nor tolerate on the third offense. It is safe to say that I am not really an ilunga.

Torschlusspanik
A lovely German word that literally translates as “gate-closing panic,” but contextually, it implies the fear of diminishing opportunities as one ages. How very appropriate!

Ya’aburnee
One from Arabic now, a lovely little word that basically means “You bury me”. The desire for burial reflects the hope that one will die before one's partner because of how difficult it would be to live without them. Selfish, but understandable.

Dépaysement
Of course, we can't miss French. I like this word that refers to one feeling 'out of place' in one’s home country. I imagine that we have all felt this at one time or another.

Yes, Henry is trapped in some kind of futuristic dystopian nightmare...


...Only to discover that actually, it was quite nice there.

Ez, Hen and Jen. Clifton Beach, September 2011.

Flat. Down. Listless. Melancholy. Blue. Dejected. Despondent. Disconsolate. Doleful. Downcast. Glum. Grim. Lachrymose. Low. Moody. Mournful. Pensive. Wistful.

Dover Beach, Matthew Arnold

The sea is calm tonight.
The tide is full, the moon lies fair
Upon the straits - on the French coast the light
Gleams and is gone; the cliffs of England stand,
Glimmering and vast, out in the tranquil bay.
Come to the window, sweet is the night air!
Only, from the long line of spray
Where the sea meets the moon-blanched land,
Listen! you hear the grating roar
Of pebbles which the waves draw back, and fling,
At their return, up the high strand,
Begin, and cease, and then again begin,
With tremulous cadence slow, and bring
The eternal note of sadness in.

Sophocles long ago
Heard it on the Aegean, and it brought
Into his mind the turbid ebb and flow
Of human misery; we
Find also in the sound a thought,
Hearing it by this distant northern sea.

The Sea of Faith
Was once, too, at the full, and round earth's shore
Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furled.
But now I only hear
Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar,
Retreating, to the breath
Of the night-wind, down the vast edges drear
And naked shingles of the world.

Ah, love, let us be true
To one another! for the world, which seems
To lie before us like a land of dreams,
So various, so beautiful, so new,
Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light,
Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain;
And we here as on a darkling plain
Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,
Where ignorant armies clash by night.

That's me.