Sunday Blog 204 – 12th October 2025 Asking for a friend. Or my dear departed dad I suppose. Not that he was particularly interested in birthdays while he was alive. Let’s say it wasn’t part of his family culture. He was one of eleven children in a family with few extra resources for birthday treats. …
Continue reading “If you’re not alive, is it still your birthday?”
Sunday Blog 203 – 5th October 2025 It’s Dad’s five year deathiversary, and I think enough time has passed to tell this story. It wasn’t until two weeks before his death that I even knew there was a three-for-one grave at Fremantle cemetery that Dad had purchased back in 2003 or thereabouts for his brother …
Continue reading “Meditations on deathiversaries, Irish twins and headstones”
Sunday Blog 202 – 28th September 2025 Act One – 2019 The very first time I went to the Limnisa Writing Retreat in Methana, Greece, it was 2019. It’s fair to say that year I’d had a difficult writing holiday. Before I left Perth, I’d planned an online meeting with my mentor when I was …
Continue reading “Limnisa – always different, always the same”
Sunday Blog 201 – 21st September 2025 The Greek writing retreat I’ve been immersed in since last week has many repeat customers, including me. This is my third time at Limnisa, near Methana in Greece. With its ocean, olive trees, choice of apartment living or retreat centre it’s the perfect mix for me. Memories of …
Sunday Blog 200 – 14th September 2025 Around about this time last week, I was forming a desperate resolve. Just 48 hours into my French writing retreat, I realised I couldn’t manage another seven days. There was a slim window of escape around 3pm when they were picking up the next retreat attendee from the …
Sunday Blog 199 – 7th September 2025 I’ve been on the road since Friday 23rd August. I’ve flown across the world, driven hundreds of kilometres in Ireland, both in the Republic and Northern Ireland, then travelled to Italy for five days and am now in France. Two Sundays have gone by without a Sunday blog. …
Sunday Blog 198 – 17th August 2025 This week I’ve been to Melbourne for a two-day meeting which I had intrepidly volunteered to co-chair, then I played catch-up with other work and volunteering commitments and worked on my final assignment for my first unit of a creative writing graduate certificate. As I’ve been focusing on …
Sunday Blog 197 – 10th August 2025 On a wild, wet Saturday a couple of weeks ago, I was scampering across Perth, spreading myself across several different writing events on that one day. I missed the interview with Helen Garner, arguably one of Australia’s greatest living writers, at the WA Museum. Luckily Gillian O’Shaughnessy took …
Sunday Blog 196 – 3rd August 2025 On the 3rd of August 1979, I was fourteen years old, and I’d never left Australia. I was about to head off for sixteen glorious weeks in Europe with my parents and my (plentiful) siblings. I flicked through the photo album from that time today, marinading in the …
Sunday Blog 195 – 27th July 2025 This week I had a mini-break in the mining town of Kalgoorlie, a 6-hour train ride from Perth. Kalgoorlie was my home from age 8 months to 3 years. No, I don’t remember it really. But I also went on several work trips there in 1988 and 1989 …
