Writing, writing, writing

Books and stories on the boil 📚 A sci-fi romance short story 📕 A mystery short story 📕 A mystery-romance novelette 📕 A space opera novel 🚀

Staying active

Between pole, pilates and walking, I'm pretty much set for a good few months. Throw in the occasional morning finess class at my partner's new gym (due to start any day now, honest!), and I'll have a well-rounded fitness routine that's neither too much nor too little. (Only occasional because I am NOT a morning person.)

Maintenance and care

My Merrell walking shoes keep falling apart and I keep gluing them back together. Though annoying, this equilibrium is fine with me. I am enjoying seeing how just tiny repair efforts can keep an otherwise decent pair of shoes going for months and months. There are no rips, no leaks, just perhaps the original factory adhesive chemically disintegrating over time.

Even simple modern objects are so complex, a synthetic fruit salad of polymers (which themselves are a salad of their own), composite fibres, and various cured goos. But that doesn't mean a breakdown of one element invalidates the rest. Some bits are very repairable at home.

I have another pair of shoes, canvas, that are breaking down. Soles worn at the toe and heel, and the back seams fraying apart. There's not much I can do for the sole, but I wonder if I can patch up the back and use these old boys as gardening and pottery shoes.

Recycling tip: A good way to recycle holey old socks is to dab essential oils on them and stick them on your clothes hangers as moth repellents. Good essential oils, according to possibly non-fact-checked articles online, are:

• cedar
• bergamot
• clove
• lavender
• lemon
• rosemary
• thyme

Terra serenus

Our two midyim berry bushes have been fruiting for weeks. Every few days we get a mouthful or two of lovely purple-speckled white berries that tastes like eucalyptus gingerbread biscuits. It's wonderful.

We have regular bird friends coming to our garden now. Mainly doves, Willy Wagtails, various honeyeaters, the odd rainbow lorikeet, bloody noisy cockatoos, and one that might be a butcherbird.

The plants that went bleh in summer are coming back to life with the rains ☺️

Recent readings/watchings/playings

• Hyperion by Dan Simmons
• Bird Deity by John Morrissey
• Exit 8 (2026)
• Criminal Record (TV)
• Fighting Fantasy audio drama series
• Power Wash Simulator
• Factorio

Misc learnings

Cinematic technique.
Octopus anatomy.
What it’s like to table a market stall.
How jq and zsh arrays work.
History of modern work.
Crime on the high seas.
Literary techniques.
Cosmology & Big History.
Maintenance mindset.
Linguistics.
Tulpamancy & thought forms.
Attachment theory.

Current obsessions

Old movies.
Essentialism.
Pottery.
Handmaking gifts.
Ships & shipping.
Vampire lore.
Slow productivity.

Pls no

Invasions and kidnappings.
The genocide in Palestine.
Technopoly.
Culture of uncare.
Hyperactive Hive Mind.
Hyperconsumption.
Bullshit jobs.

This "Now" update was inspired by Derek Sivers’ Now page movement and Kohan Ikin’s Now page.