Sunday Blog 131 – 14th April 2024 While it may seem odd, I always make my bed when staying in a hotel. The room looks nicer every day and, in my humble opinion, you’re less likely to lose things. You can really enjoy the space all the time. This is perhaps influenced by the fact …
Author Archives: pipbrennan
On this day 26 years ago
Sunday Blog 130 – 7th April Diary Entry, 7th April 1998, 11 Olibiados Street, Thessaloniki It’s the morning. I awoke at 4 feeling distinctly queazy after dreaming about eating a mouthful of dried Earl Grey leaves and then trying to get rid of them by washing them down with water. Anyway, that plus the very …
Banning tech from the bedroom
Sunday Blog 129 – 31st March 2024 This week, spurred on by a podcast on sleep hygiene and the horrors of incessant social media, I took decisive action. Definitely no devices in the bedroom. My iPhone, iPad and AirPods are now banished to the study to charge overnight. If I want to use them in …
Reflections on coloured pens and dull meetings
Sunday Blog 128 – 24th March 2024 While I usually date my advocacy career as beginning with my daughter’s birth, in truth, I have always quite enjoyed sharing my opinions. I enjoy puzzling apart systems, how they work and what the puppet strings might be that are putting on the show we live with day …
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On lying about being the outdoor type
Sunday Blog 127 – 17th March 2024 The incomparable Joan Didion wrote, “I’ve lost track of a few people I used to be.” It sounds witty and funny and kind of relatable until its profound truth smacked me in the face from my old journal. My words from August 2002 stare back at me from …
Meditations on Perkins Paste
Sunday Blog 126 – 10th March 2024 In 1972, my world was a bit of a shit-show. I was 6, going on 7, in a small Grade 2 classroom in suburban Perth, under the expert tutelage of a psychopathic nun. She meted out regular duff-ups to a few of us in the class—there was never …
Rearview Mirror
Sunday Blog 125 – 3rd March 2024 A quick weekend getaway that involves a car drive has got me thinking. Primarily how much I dislike long drives. It was just a bit over three hours, but with frustrating, almost incessant road work delays. I’m not sure if the detour Apple Maps suggested was in fact …
Sydney with Taylor
Sunday Blog 124 – 25th Feb 2024 The last time I was in Sydney was before Covid. Finally I’m back, travelling for work, accidentally coinciding my visit with Taylor Swift. As I wait at the Artisan Hotel off Pitt Street for my dinner companion I think about it all. The Sydney streets had become smudged …
Swanbourne Nostalgia
Sunday Blog 123 – 18th February 2024 This year I promised myself I would attend more workshops at Mattie Furphy’s House, the Fellowship of Writers WA base in Swanbourne. Mattie was part of the Arts and Craft movement in Perth. The home she and her husband created has been moved a short distance away from …
It’s complex
Sunday Blog 122 – 11th February 2023 Trauma, that is. I’ve waded through the entirety of the tiny print, very dense The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel Van der Kolk in the last week. Because I need to have this seminal text under the belt. Before I get too far into reviewing my single …