salad days

It's cooled down quite a bit. I apologise for the previous gripes re: weather but trust me 3, 999, 999 other people in Melbourne were making that same kind of assessment. It was toxic. It didn't go with a satisfying bang, either; it just absented itself.

Yesterday morning I rose early having had little sleep to attend what was called an 'imago' ceremony in Brunswick at which my neice was being welcomed into the world of secondary school. Along with six or so others. What amazed me was the way that these kids could talk in public. A few of them even did it off the tops of their heads. Of course they were in a comfortable and indulgent atmosphere but I still felt all the conflict I felt at that kind of age, the squirmy kind of suspicion of being patronised, that you had to play a role, etc etc. I think this provides me with some insight as to why I am so poor at public speaking or even speaking to three or four people at once (i.e. job interviews). Yeah interesting man.

After that I dropped in on Andrew and Katrina to return Andrew's excellent honours thesis which he lent me, about Stan Willis and his campaign for recognition/reparations for industrial deafness. And then I came back and Mia and I took Annabel to the airport (she will be missed), and then went on to see The Cannanes play at the Railway Hotel which is a hole and the other bands playing were so toxic it was nauseating (pic above is of Fran and James playing this show). Cannanes sounded pretty good though. After this Toby, Suze, Jane, Miranda, James, Mia and I went to Warwick Thai and had excellent food although they didn't bring the Warwick Butterflies.