What's with today, today?

"Did you move to Scotland for a woman?" "No, for money" "Oh, I understand. It's hard in Turkey. Everyone's wearing burqas!" - American tourists to owner of Turkish restaurant in Inverness Rowley died in 1806, leaving the estate in trust for his 5 natural children 'begotten on the body of Elizabeth Selwyn' and one sixth for his wife 'so long as she does not live in a state of co-habitation or marriage with any man and continues to take care of my said children'. -From an article on early Stanmore history- a little cold "He's at a funeral" "Who died now?" "Oh no, he's been dead two years" -Overheard In many cases, fiction over the last 35 years has eschewed the novel's traditional attempt to render depth, preferring to tell a story, which, instead of seeking to offer truth, deep meaning or philosophical belief, depicts particular aspects of the modern world refracted

Daydreamer by trade "No more dreaming like a girl, so in love with the wrong one" - Florence and the Machine (although I later found out it's actually 'wrong world', which is even better) "There's always a bit of a tug-o-war between the sexes, there's always a bit of tension when there's romance involved." - Overheard in a cafe, older woman giving advice to younger woman "All of that filthy empathy for the way we're feeling" - Bright Eyes What the preacher wants to show him is that the real basis of wisdom is a frank acknowledgement that much of what happens is quite inexplicable to us, and that most occurrences 'under the sun' bear no outward sign of a rational, moral God ordering them at all - JI Packer, 'Knowing God', on Ecclesiastes We were all struts in a rickety scaffold, holding each other up. We were all falling down. "He is as delighted as he is wet" - Soccer commentary, rai

I've just started reading Proust's Remembrance of Things Past , I'm hoping to blog about Swann's Way for the century of books, for the 1910s. I'm not sure if I'll get it done by the end of February, but I thought it was a great opportunity to read this book that I've heard so many great things about. I do most of my reading on the train, and this morning on the way to work I was standing in a train carriage, reading my book, when a lady interrupted me to ask if she could take my picture. And I was flattered because yes I was wearing what I thought to be a pretty good outfit at the time, but as you may have guessed she wanted a picture because I was reading Proust. She said something like "seeing a young person like you reading Proust gives me hope for the future." Then she asked if I was on my way to uni. She may have overestimated my youth, I'm not really sure, would she have done the same if it wasn't casual Friday and I was wearing my

A full bottle of wine next to the public phone - Pitt St Bree and Adam Locked 2gether in hatred as it's the closest to love- we're forever - sad toilet graffiti at The Annandale "When the dog that you tattoo on your arse turns into a shark" - Overheard on a train Though contrived, this little story might as well exemplify the mischief that involves us all who take on the job of turning real life into words. Always the essential thing gets lost. That's one rule holds true of every inspiration. - 'The Moon', Jorge Luis Borges "His dad's a novelist" "What, writes books and stuff?" - Overheard Graffiti on a train seen on the morning commute: "Be not a man of success, but a man of value"- Einstein "I just want to go live in Europe... I want to do everything and I want to do it now." (other person says something) "But when? What's the plan? How will it all fit in?" - Overheard o

Pictures of light The shadows form a lattice on the wall The wall that glows in afternoon light Light which picks out the many-coloured bricks Bricks that stand so tall against a fearless sky Sky of a bright and everlasting blue Blue that will nonetheless fade... Fade like the shadows on the wall. Not quite a poem? A girl and a boy walked over the bridge hand-in-hand and the air around them glowed while the wind whipped past a lonely bus-stop. a fraction of the whole: fine filigree twigs against a liquid sky, brittle being in the immutable immortal.

"He asked her to marry him. She giggled, "okay!" Perhaps before realising that he was serious, or that he truly loves her" - BJE May's engagement story "Some people die, just dreaming of the outside world" - Cuban resident on imprisoned defectors, from Frankie "Love is made of differences and suffering and apartness, and of the struggle to overcome this apartness." - Anais Nin, 'The All-Seeing' from Under a Glass Bell The lampshade is torn it lets the light spill out pure and sharp. "You'll be right there beside me when I do it." "Don't do it for me" - Overheard, a couple in a dark alley "You've seen my show more times than I've performed it You may not think I'm splendid anymore" - Pat singing song by his friend Andre "We dream more, change our minds more often and are in love with the little possibilities available to us." "Do I identify with Gen Y? Yeah I do!

I like the area I like in, I like its little quirks, its personality. The walk home from the bus stop often uncovers interesting things. Yesterday someone had posted to a telegraph pole a poster, with those little tear off things at the bottom and a picture of a firefighter against smoke at the top, and the poster said this: I exist! Conform, consume, sit down, watch t.v., shut up and obey? No thanks. Somehow, anyhow, let it be know that [and on tiny tear off pieces of paper below] I EXIST I EXIST

are what it's all about. Like the bus driver I had today who greeted us all as we got on the bus, made the bus laugh with his running commentary and added: 'Next stop the Enmore theatre. I will not be performing there tonight because I will be on this bus' I kind of love that bus driver, even though what I really wanted was to sit and read my book and ignore the rest of the world. Like the free copy of last year's Good Food Guide I got with my newspaper. I should do this every day.

"Free trip to Blue Mountains with lunch and dinner $99 ($59 without food) For $99 you get morning tea, lunch and a four course dinner and a free trip to the blue mountains!" - Sign at Indian restaurant in Surry Hills. Doesn't sound all that free to me... "You know why? That card's expired- 05/11. Oh, is that the 11th year or the 11th month?" - Overheard "Write poetry on property" - Graffiti on Vintage Cellars A sandy coastline- Ivan Shishkin Hot Springs of the Yellowstone- Thomas Moran The trunks in the grass- Vincent van Gogh - Paintings "who are you, little i (five or six years old) peering from some high window, at the gold of november sunset (and feeling: that if day has to become night this is a beautiful way) -who are you little i, e.e. cummings "Totally unfunded blackspot" - Sign on Princes Highway "Ye shall find refreshment, thy whose bus is without conditioned air" - Nestea ad, emphasis mine "Pe

"He wants me to elope with him to South America... Maybe Central America..." - Overheard on a bus "As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another" - Proverbs 27:17 "Above all, what interested me was the inarticulateness of grief, that these are two writers who are supposed to be the best at articulating anything in our society who can't articulate to each other... I don't think anyone can articulate it. It's hard to be tangible with your heart." - Maria Theodotis? (handwriting illegible) on the play 'Construction of the Human Heart' SMH 28.09.07 "Bingie Bingie is one of the best places to be" "Rachel, where are you? Met Sunday afternoon on the train. Call Steve on -" - Poster outside Stanmore station "I glide in on moonlit air gaze over dew-jeweled grass to the glass-still sea. All beauty lies within the scope of my eyes. The play of light in limpid pools where dark/light intersect create new patterns

I had millions of ideas to share with you all on the bus ride home, but once I got here they all went out of my mind completely. But why is it that my bus always leaves exactly as I reach the bus stop. No matter when I start running, or where the bus is when I begin, or how fast I sprint ('sprint' for a given value of 'wearing work shoes') the moment I can reach out and touch the doors is the moment that they close, and the bus drives off, not heeding my waving arms and exclamations? On another note, I have often spent time defending Gen Y against the various slights made on them, but maybe there is something in this attention span, instant gratification thing. I say this because I notice myself checking facebook compulsively for new updates, but worse still getting annoyed when there haven't been any new posters put up on the traffic light post near my bus stop for over a week. Where are the new things? I already know I can get beginner piano lessons, I need more

I was reading an article today about posters which have been popping up on lampposts in Melbourne and entertaining the local populace by saying things like: "I like doing stuff but I always end up doing the same stuff again and again. I'd like to meet up with people who like doing stuff, preferably different stuff to my stuff..." And signing it 'Craig' Some think it was an ad for a classifieds website. But it turns out there was (already?) someone in New York doing the same thing and signing off 'Chris'. You can find out about it here: http://zoomdoggle.com/2009/03/honorary-doggler-chris-not-craig/ These people believe that the originals were a spoof of the website. Anyway it's pretty random and the website made me smile, so I felt I should share it. I saw an unusual poster on the corner of Enmore Rd and Stanmore Rd last night, but didn't get a chance to get a proper look. I all can really say is that it was up pretty high, and I think it involved

It's been a busy few weeks, what with starting a new job and all. When leaving my old job I got a little bit nostalgic, since everybody was saying good-bye. I was thinking "this is the last time I'll mop the floor" etc. I started wondering whether or not regular customers would miss me, or even notice I was gone. All those people whose orders I remembered by heart, who I used to exchange a smile with when they came in, I remember them, but I wonder if they'll notice I'm not there... I started worrying about a regular elderly man who comes in and sometimes seems confused. He never knows how to order. I hope they look after him. But then it was all over, and I said good-bye to the world of fast food and hello to offices and Excel. The world of high-finance and rush hour commuting and so on. Currently I don't mind getting up in the morning so much. All the sunshine helps, as well as the person who went around tying inspirational quotes to trees with ribbon. I

From my little black book. Sign outside Branxton: "Drive carefully, we have two cemetaries, no hospital" Tombstone, Tilba cemetary: "Whiffo gone fishing A free spirited man who is forever in our hearts" "Heinz tomato ketchup makes food taste KETCHUPPY" - tomato sauce bottle "I was just wondering how I ever could have laughed at you" "I hope you'll always laugh at me" The Day Will Dawn, cheesy movie from 1942 "Each man kills the thing he loves" The Ballad of Reading Gaol, Oscar Wilde Ad outside Japanese restaurant in Sydney city "Sexy chicken on rice" "I don't own a house or a car, all I have is a borrowed tv, but that's what you get when you take off and travel." Random bus stop conversation “She had a voice with hormones” ‘A Woman’s Secret’, 1949 movie “Oolong Imperial: A work of tea art” Tea rooms in the city “The burdens and the joys of being chosen to be more than a flu