Making Friends With The Neighbours

Home. Late Spring. Warm water. Nice bank. Bliss. Image via The Comm on Ground of Byron Bay

There are few more satisfying feelings in the world than that waterlogged, salty, muscle-aching, red-eyed, stoked exhaustion after a really, really, really fun surf. You know when you stay in the water until you are not even sure you can make it in and you decide that this is your wave in, and then that wave is SO much fun, that you just HAVE to go straight back out, and then halfway through the paddle you realise that your shoulders hate you, so this time it will DEFINITELY be your last wave, but then that wave is just so perfect! And then, when you finally get yourself to the beach, one of your dearest friends is standing on the sand begging you to go back out for a few more and suddenly you have so much energy all over again, but halfway through paddling back out you remember about the way your shoulders hate you and decide that this is definitely going to be your last wave in and then it's such a great wave and so you reckon you will just go for one more... You know the kind of...

When I go to weddings in Australia, there is one part I always dread. It is the moment when the celebrant says something like 'I am legally obligated to read the following words under Australian law. Marriage in Australia is the legal union of a man and woman in matrimony' or something along those lines. I wait for it every time, and every time it strikes me and makes me feel quite sad. '...between a man and a woman...' I feel sad because those words mean that so many of my friends who are in committed, long term, loving relationships (or even passionate, short term ones!) are not allowed to be recognised as married within the confines of Australian law, nor are they entitled to all the kinds of status, rights and meanings that marriage both bestows and entails. In other words, their relationships aren't really recognised by Government. Well you know what? Fuck that! A dear, dear friend of mine sent me this clip made by ' FCKH 8' in the USA (a country that ...

Strangers to ourselves, a stranger from another land, stranger than fiction, strange days, strange fruit… Strangers enter our imagination, testing us and our own boundaries, understandings and comfort zones. Strangers teach us, frighten us, reveal new possibilities, worlds and experiences. They are mysterious, unknown, dark, animal, foreign, familiar and everything we wish we could be. In the sea we are always and never strangers – our inability to survive in water, our lack of fins, gills and scales leaves us gasping for air, dehydrated and vulnerable. But in this strangeness, new relationships can be revealed. Kurungabaa: a journal of literature, history and ideas from the sea , is calling for submissions for an upcoming issue, themed, ‘strangers’. Fiction, prose, poems, essays, art, photographs are all welcome. For further information, contact details and submission guidelines go to the journal’s blog, http://kurungabaa.net/ .

OK, so I know I have posted this song before, but seriously you NEED to watch this clip from beginning to end because Diana Ross is killing it! I'd love to own and wear this dress, or some Olive-modified version anyway. I would fill it somewhat differently I fear, but I'd still give it a go! And I'd certainly throw similar moves and shapes - you know it. Also, how off her head is she!

Earlier this year, I went up to the Noosa Festival of Surfing for a couple of days. Friends of mine were competing so I wanted to watch and support them and as an extra added bonus, the waves were amazing!! The days were spent surfing, chatting, sitting, eating, drinking and teasing each other mercilessly (some more than others). I learned a lot in those days - about comps, about boards, about surfing. One day we were sitting on the rocks off First Point, watching the women's pro longboarding heats, checking out our friend's competition for the quarter final. I can't remember all the surfers in that heat, but what I do remember is at one point one of the women getting a nice wave and the announcer calling that wave and referencing the woman surfing as "the surfer in blue". As in, And that was a great wave for the surfer in blue! My very astute and observant friend (let's call him Mark) leaned across to me and explained, So that 'surfer in blue' is the ...

A rainy day, spent almost entirely in bed. No music, no television, very little talking - just me, clean sheets, the sound of rain outside the window, a little bit of family skyping, tea, toast and a book. Heaven.

Nigella Lawson. I mean, wow. "...when I see a picture of someone who is really hugely fat I don't think 'How hideous'. I think how delicious it must have been to get there."** **Massive apologies to my friend Helen who is going to hate this.

'Are you ok?' This is such a small question that can mean so much. For me, usually, the answer is 'Yes, thanks for asking!', but there have been times when being asked 'Are you ok?' has been the catalyst for tears, honesty and love. We're all so busy and often disconnected in our lives that it is increasingly important to take time out to think about the people around us, the people we care about and the people that care about us. For more info, go to the 'R U OK? ' website .