Okay, Dev wants me to draw my favourite house.
This is hard, because I don't think I have a favourite house, housing is not something I think of. I used to love my sister's house in St Peters - and old Adelaide Sandstone, with a renovated kitchen and a big back yard for the dog. It had a main hallway, off which the bedrooms came off as well as the more formal lounge - that was a great house. They're now four houses on from that one, selling it on in the early naughties.
Oh, now I have it - my favourite house is my friend Jacqui's house in Old Woking - it's a 400-year old cottage. Two bedrooms, one which is sort of shaped like a coffin, which looks out over the back yard. It also has THE BEST BATHROOM, with a big lie down tub. A nearly circular staircase leads you down stairs to a functional galley kitchen, lounge and dining, complete wtih a large open fire. The French doors at the back leads out into the garden and back onto the River Wey - which floods occasionally. Ivy covers the back wall. The roof is slate. It's just fabulous.
And now she wants me to write about my favourite person. I have quite a few favourite people, but I'll keep this one to a non-threatening choice and talk about my Aunt Marg.
Aunt Marg is now 92 and she lives in a nursing home in Canberra. She has had the same haircut for as long as I can remember - a grey bob, which she has always cut herself. The only deviation from this was when she got cancer, had chemo and she got chemo curls when her hair grew back.
She's the mother of five kids, and she appears to love them all equally, although my cousins will dispute this. She gave them all nicknames, which have stuck well into their fifties and sixties - I still call my cousin Andrew, Doig - because he was an oigle-doigle, the only thing that could ever fall asleep on a fence post.
My aunt has the Order of Australai for services to midwifery. She's delivered countless babies in her life - there is a family story that when my cousin Melva (yeah, Melva) was born, two days later, with the doctor being away, she had to go on a house call and deliver somebody else's baby. It's a thing of great pride in the family - my uncle - her brother - also got one for services to country medicine.
She has a very calming soul. I remember going round to my aunt's place as a child - they used to live in the inner suburbs of Adelaide. She was nursing and my uncle had gone off to Uni after being given a golden handshake to get off the land near Keith. I've also felt like my aunt's sixth child. My cousins treat me like their annoying younger sister.
Now - quick ones.
The food I love the most? Ice cream. Just because. It's calming and comforting and when you eat it, you feel special. I love the first lick of a chock top, or how the spoon sinks into a tub of Ben & Jerry's and you wonder what bits you're going to encounter (and when will we be getting Cherry Garcia here? I found Chunky Monkey at Woolies the other day - though I'm boycotting Woolies because they're in bed with Newscorpse). It makes me feel special does ice cream.
And what is my favourite season?
I'm an Autumn girl. I love the smells. I love kicking leaves, the fact you can sleep under the duvet again. I like the rain, then you get a nice sunny day and how the kick comes out of the sun. I like that daylight savings ends in Autumn, the nights which close in, that you can eat cooked food at night, not just salad.
And my favourite smell?
Is dog's paws in the morning. Yeah, I know, it's strange, but it's a really comforting, musky, earthy smell - sort of like toasting hazelnuts. It's not like puppy smell, which I ADORE too, but it's just a very musky smell which I can't get enough of. Maybe it's because my dog was my best friend as a kid and the dog would greet me in the morning by coming up to me and putting her paws on my chest.
My favourite item of clothing / thing to wear?
I have a red, woollen wrap which I bought for my fortieth birthday. It's light, yet warm. It's in my favourite colour, a deep pillarbox red and every time I wear it I get heaps of comments. It can do all sorts of things, wear it like a blanket, scrunch it up like a scarf, wear it like a dupatta. It only comes out for special occasions.
Today's Song:
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