Sunday Blog 209 – 16th November 2025 Last week I noted that my mother was a diarist. She also obsessively catalogued her photos. Even, or perhaps especially the unflattering ones. Aesthetics were not her jam; it was all about capturing the moment. I have ended up with the floor to just-about-ceiling bookshelf stuffed with her …
Tag Archives: Memoir
Having a say
Sunday Blog 207 – 2nd November 2025 This Sunday Blog comes with a trigger warning. I’m going to talk about sexual assault so if that is not the right topic for you today, please scroll on. This week I had a major breakthrough with a stale writing goal. The kind that gets written out in …
That’s more like it…
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 …
Dates remembered
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 …
Kalgoorlie dreaming
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 …
A lesson in longing
Sunday Blog 188 – 8th June 2025 In this post-birthday week I’ve been enjoying some guilt-free voucher purchases, and bought a copy of Hannah Kent’s memoir Always Home, Always Homesick. It’s a compelling book unpacking her student exchange experience in Iceland in 2003 which inspired her first novel, Burial Rites. The true story of the …
Journalling, and what it reveals…
Sunday Blog 185 – 18 May 2025 This week I tuned into a podcast all about memoir and journalling, just after returning from my recent Bali writing retreat. While there, I finished transcribing my 2006-2010 journal. (Procrastination about editing the memoir? How very dare you!) Among other things, the podcast episode highlighted that journalling can …
My Favourite Childhood Photo
Sunday Blog 174 – 2 March 2025 It’s one of my favourite childhood photos, ever. And there are a lot of photos. I mean, a lot. I think it’s my broad smile. I wasn’t always a smily child, in fact I was something of a brooding scowler. I’m sure I recall that perfect Perth Spring …
Resonant spaces
Sunday Blog 162 – 8th December 2024 Getting somewhere on time for me is often assisted when I have the arrival time noted as earlier than required. For example this week I had 12 in my diary for Christmas lunch, instead of the correct 1pm. That created a cheeky extra hour to wander around town, …
Stars of the Future?
Sunday Blog 144 – 14th July 2024 By the time I was born, the sixth child in eight years (no multiples), my mother’s hair was grey. I mean, that makes sense right? Wouldn’t such a profusion of children dim the shine of most people’s hair? She’d started late for her generation – 29 when she …