Front of mind

 I did it. I managed to finish this month's book group book with about three minutes to spare. Part of me wishes I had timed things better so I could have savoured the book. After a good book group, I went for a swim, meeting up with my one up for a daily debrief. The pool is good after 8 pm. No kids.

So, what have I been thinking about today? 

1. Next month I must start the book group book earlier. 

2. Living next door to work is really cool - there is something great about going next door and making yourself lunch. 

3. Darwin sunsets are cool. 

4. George Negus died. I still wanted to call him George Fungus, but I can't for the life of me remember who tagged this. Was it Paul Hogan? I do remember him on Sixty Minutes, when it had some journalistic virtues - I'm Ray Martin. I'm Ian Leslie. And I'm George Negus. It's still in the brain along with the Wide World of Sport theme. And I wonder why I find Channel Nine strangely soothing (even if I only watch them to see what the bogans are thinking.)

5. I need to be in the foyer at 8 am to meet one of the BAs so I can head out to the depot. 

6. I need to get to Coles to get a jar of peppers. Roasted peppers, the one you get from the aisle with the olives and sun-dried tomatoes, are great on top of rice cakes spread with hummus. I bought the rice cakes and hummus yesterday. The peppers didn't make my shopping list. Oops. 

7. Night swimming with goggles that have tinted lenses is fraught with dangers. I bumped into a few walls - it probably doesn't help that the pool is round. 

8. The antibiotics I'm taking for this irritating cellulitis are giving me a bad taste in my mouth. I'm inhaling sugar-free mints to counteract this. 

9. We have to Uber out to the depot tomorrow. I'm wondering how I'm going to find lunch. 

10. Oh and it's housekeeping day here tomorrow. Does this mean I have to make my bed and run the dishwasher and put my vibrator away or out of sight? What is the etiquette here?

That will do. 

Bedtime. 

Today's song:

The Deadline.

 It is 11 pm in Darwin. 12.30 am AEDST. 

I have book group tomorrow night, online at 6.30 pm Darwin time, 8 pm AEDST. 

At present, I have read 60% of the book. 

It's not a very hard read, but it does require some concentration. 

I was hoping to get a lot more of it read on the plane on the way up, but the 6'5" FIFO, with extra broad shoulders, and who smelled like stale KFC, who kept elbowing me in the ribs on the way did not help matters. He couldn't help being stuck in the middle seat on the full flight, but still, it's not conducive for reading a book. The new noise cancelling earphones went in. Nup. Didn't help.Too uncomfortable to read. 

The other thing was tonight I was looking forward to coming home (the apartment) and reading. Mid-afternoon I got a message from a friend. Did I want to do dinner? They were up here for a conference and were at a loose end before their plane departed in the early hours. We've been trying to catch up for months. As Darwin is dead on a Monday night, I suggested joining my workmates for dinner at the Cavanagh Hotel - it wouldn't be the first time I've brought a rando along for dinner (I'm well known for collecting random people along the way). They agreed, and after walking them back to their hotel, I got back to my room for 9 pm. 

This doesn't help with the reading. 

The book is The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store by James McBride. It deserves a closer reading that I'm giving it. 

Another thing driving me to finish this is in the 15 plus years I've been the proxy manager of this book group, I've only not finished two books. The first was Half a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. I never started that - I was overseas at the time of the meeting. 

The other was Brendan Cowell's Plum, which I put down to unreadable drivel. 

I'm really good at doing my book group reading - which is maybe penance for all the reading I didn't do during my undergrad degree in the eighties. 

Anyway, if I finish this, read until half twelve, then wake up early, and read for half an hour before work, then come home at lunchtime for 45 minutes, make my lunch and read, then maybe, just maybe, I'll get this read.

It's going to be a stretch. 

Serves myself right for not starting it sooner.

Today's song:

Sunday Questions

 

I'm packing for yet another business trip - and these questions are a great way to power through them. One question, one task. At least the flight isn't until the evening so I have plenty of time.

Questions, as always come from Bev at Sunday Stealing. 

1. What do you hope your last words will be?

"Wow! So that's what's coming! Nothing to be scared about at all. " 

2. What do you spend the most time thinking about?

What's next. Joys of having a neurodiverse mind, I never stop thinking about what is coming up, what needs to be done, what the schedule might look like. It never stops. 

3. What is something you can never seem to finish?

A novel. I have two that have around 60-80,000 words written - I need to get back to them.

And knitting projects. I do finish them, but they take a while. 

4. What mistake do you keep making again and again?

What, other than falling for emotionally unavailable men? Or stuffing up my lunges at the gym (but I'm getting better than that?) and occasionally not listening to my instincts - which I don't do often? I like to think that I learn from my mistakes. 

5. What’s the best thing you got from your parents?

From my mum - skinny ankles, and ability to rhyme and my work ethic.

From my father, the ability to talk to anybody, anywhere, any time. 

6. What’s the best and worst thing about getting older?

Best thing about getting older - not sweating it on the small stuff. Saying no comes a lot easier. 

Worst thing about getting older - the aches and pains and the groaning noise you make when you stand up. 

7. What do you wish your brain was better at doing?

Focussing. My brain works in a way which I'm thinking about five things at the same time. Joys of neurodiversity. But it would be lovely to be able to concentrate on one thing at a time. 

As an example, currently, while writing this I'm also thinking about: 

• How am I going to get the book group book read by Tuesday night?
• When do I really have to leave for the airport?
• Is my washing dry yet? 
• What meetings to I have to plan for the week? 
• What book should I take with me for after the book group book?
• Is the cat happy? (He is)
• To I have my protein shaker in my bag?
• Have I got everything? 

It goes on and on

8. If your childhood had a smell, what would it be?

A cedar pine hedge. And a whiff of sunscreen on a sunny beach. Beachy smells. 

9. What have you created that you are most proud of?

Strangely, it's this blog. It's proof that I write daily. 

10. What were some of the turning points in your life?

Sorry, that's a too deep a question before a four-hour flight to a faraway city for a work trip. 

11. What song or artist do you like but rarely admit to liking?

Phil Collins. Oh, and Metallica. 

12. What small impact from a stranger made a big impact on you?

This is a bit strange, but having French people tell me that I speak very good French for an Australian did bucket loads for my confidence. 

13. As you get older, what are you becoming more and more afraid of?

Getting sick and not being able to support myself. I hate relying on others. 

14. What are some of the events in your life that made you who you are?

Moving to England when I was 23, and staying for eight years. I found myself in England. 

15. What could you do with $2 million to impact the most amount of people?

I would probably give it to a worth charity - I'm thinking Free Hollows or the Catherine Hamlin Fistula organisations

Today's song:

Theatre Review: Six

The Production: Six (the Musical)

The Theatre: The Comedy Theatre, Exhibition Street

Until 20 October. 

Stars: 4

I'm not into musicals, but some are better than others. Give me a musical with an edge, like Chicago or Rocky Horror and I'm happy. I'm also good with the less well-known musicals, like Fun Home, or The Heartbreak Choir, and I'm happy. Anything by Andrew Lloyd Webber, or the remaking of a Disney Classic and I'll run for the hills. 

 When I first was told about Six, I said you wouldn't get me there if you paid me, but a friend got me at a weak moment a few months ago. I said yes, the rather expensive ticket was purchased, and we went today. 

And I was pleasantly surprised. I don't need to go see it again, but I found Six to be an enjoyable experience. Even better, it's over quickly (75 minutes), so I cannot complain at all.  But if you think about it, each wife gets her own song, and there's a couple of ensemble songs - you can't drag it out for two long.  

The show is about female empowerment and agency. Something Henry VIII's wives did not have. So, the cast have taken on Catherine of Aragon (Divorced), Anne Boleyn (Beheaded), Jane Seymour (Died), Anne of Cleves (Divorced), Katherine Howard (Beheaded) and Katherine Parr (Survived) and made them their own, giving a new focus to their stories. 

Not only do I have a dislike for musicals. I have an absolute love of anything Tudor. Henry VIII, his wives and the general goings on at the court of the time is fascinating. It was good to see that within the cracks and the songs, most of the history was well respected. The show got marks for this. 

The singing, the music and the band were excellent as well. There were no standout performances - the whole cast was good. 

And this is an all-female production. The band were very talented women. We were sitting next to the sound booth - it was tended to by a woman, not your normal sound engineer with a ponytail, a hoodie and neck tattoos. (And probably named Dave.)

The full auditorium lapped up the show. 

For this musical-sceptic audience member, I was pleasantly surprised. What impressed me most was that Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss have interpreted this well-known piece of history and made it fun. 

But I don't need to see it again. 

Today's song:

Theatre Review: Cost of Living

 The Play: Cost of Living by Martyna Majok

The Company: Melbourne Theatre Company

The Theatre: The Southbank Theatre

Until: 19 October

Stars: 4 (with reservations)

Walking out of tonight's performance of Cost of Living, Jay made the comment, "Well, the MTC has ticked all of their diversity boxes for the year." 

And it did. 

In mostly a good way. There was the indigenous actor (Aaron Pedersen), an Asian actor (Mabel Li), a queer actor (Rachel Edmonds) and two actors in wheelchairs (Oli Pizzey Stratford and Edmonds). But in a play about carers and those receiving care, you would expect this diversity. 

I went into this play without reading reviews or bugging friends about relating their experience with the play. Jonella and Norty went early in the season but remained tight-lipped. 

I'm glad I went in blind. 

According to the MTC website the synopsis of the play is this:

"When Ani (Rachel Edmonds) is reunited with her estranged husband Eddie (Aaron Pederson) after a devastating accident, their relationship shifts from divorcing to caregiving. John (Oli Pizzey Stratford) is an affluent PhD candidate with cerebral palsy and has no qualms about making his support worker – fellow graduate student and bartender-by-night Jess (Mabel Li) – uncomfortable about her reasons for choosing the job."

The two hours of this play (with no interval) I found patchy to begin with, to the point that I microslept through the first 20 minutes, missing critical bits which would have the play easier to follow.

But then it took off, and took off in a major way, leading to a crescendo which you don't see coming. 

What I did like about the middle, and end sections of the play was the unexpected nature of it all. The bathroom scenes in the middle of the play had the audience spellbound. In particular, Li and Pizzey Stratford's performances are incredibly brave, and visceral. 

But - I wasn't too keen on a couple of aspects. Firstly, this was performed using New York accents. Pedersen's, in particular, was distracting. And I do get why they didn't move the location of the play from New York to somewhere in Australia, as with a play about disability, and the disparities in care and what money can provide, if this was set here this would end up being a two-hour diatribe about the NDIS. 

With the exception of the first third of the play, Anthea Williams' direction is sound. The relationships develop naturally, then come to their difficult conclusions. 

In all, I did enjoy this play. I can see the criticisms that some may have about this being disability porn or it's glorification of the down-trodden carer. 

It's a lot more than this. 

Today's song:

And I think my job is bad...

My job is not bad. Not by a long shot. I am not complaining about my job (although it does have it's moments) I really don't have much to whine about. 

Today, I met somebody who has a right to complain. 

Lunchtime saw me going to the doctor. A patch of cellulitis, which they treated with antibiotics last week, has diminished, but has not gone away. So, it was back to the doctors to see what else can be done for this slightly uncomfortable patch of inflamed skin on my leg. As I explained, I really didn't want to take an existing condition to Darwin to have it fester. As I said to the doctor, the last thing I need is for my leg to turn back and have it drop off. 

I left the doctor's office with a prescription for some stronger antibiotics and an order to have and ultrasound and Xray on my leg to make sure nothing nefarious is going on. This is definitely a due diligence action. From a Millennial doctor who's also a bloke, it felt good to be cared for and listened to. 

The imaging place is around the corner and up the road from the surgery. 

On going in, I was told I could have the Xray today, but the ultrasound would have to wait until the weekend. It would be a 15-minute wait. 

I don't think I've had an Xray in 30 years. The last time that I can remember it was in 1993. I was in Dublin, with a terrible chest infection. I was staying in a youth hostel. I knew I needed antibiotics. The doctor was concerned enough that they thought I might have pneumonia, and demanded I have a chest Xray. All I can remember was being sprawled up against the film like a bug on a wall and it took about ten minutes for me to stop coughing. 

This time, it was just the lower leg that needed its picture taken. 

I was asked to take off my jeans. 

No worries there. 

I'd showered in the hours before. No drama there. My underwear was clean.

The Xray technician put me in the positions they required. 

"I'm glad I'm recently showered. It's my dread fear going to a doctor when you're not fresh."

"You're good," they told me, "I can't smell your feet. You can come back any time."

As I said, I think my job is bad at time. At least I don't have to deal with the great unwashed...

Cheesy feet. Eww. 

Today's song: 

Nobody Wants This

 I'm obsessed.

Nobody Wants This on Netflix is the bomb. 

As romantic comedies go it's funny, relatable, with some very cool characters and daft situations, but mainly it's the story of two people who never should have met. Joanne (Kristin Bell), an atheist, chaotic podcast producer who has very little filter. And Noah (Adam Brody), a sold, dependable, likeable rabbi who oozes progressive thoughts with the laid-back California lifestyle. What could go right? Or wrong? Everything. 

Also, it's like where do you find a Noah?

I mean, he's cute, a little scruffy, emotionally available, not afraid of his emotions and knows how to say no. And state exactly what he wants. 

He's also okay with the different and a bit crazy. 

And he knows how to kiss - and the internet has blown up over this. 

Anyway, I'm not writing tonight because I'm watching Nobody Wants This.

The show has also brought back some memories of what it was like to be the 'shiksa'. You'll have to watch to find out. I never got to the stage of meeting the parents. 

But the "Are you even a bit Jewish?" question was asked once. 

Ah, I'm going back to the couch and the telly. 

Today's song: