Making Friends With The Neighbours

My friend Laura sent me this song today. She first played it to me years ago, when we were both living in Sydney. It's by New York musician, Jeffrey Lewis, who writes some crazy stuff, but this song is really lovely. I think of it when I am blue or when things seem too much, and remember how lucky I am to have friends like Laura, who already know that I am going to be fine. Ignore the visuals - it's the lyrics that are the thing.

Word of my week (courtesy of Jen ) Defenestrate [ dee- fen - uh -streyt ] -Verb (used with object) to throw (a person or thing) out of a window ng) out of a window. Let's try it in some sentences; Stop speaking to me like that or I will defenestrate you. If this computer doesn't stop playing up, it's going to get defenestrated. I love the episode of The Office, where Tim defenestrates Gareth's stapler. It's so funny!

(The beginnings of this discussion were taken from an old post over at Kurungabaa ) I spend the bulk of my time on the coast surrounded by (or at least, with easy access to) the ocean, sand, sun, clouds, storms, tides, experiences and rhythms that make me feel at home. That make me feel like I belong. I can move with and through them in ways that make sense. As a child, in fact up until I was 19, I rarely left the coast, and when I did it was to go to other spaces that were defined by mountains, meadows, forests and wilderness. Eventually, I made my way to The City, a world that took me some time to find my feet in. But now I love it. When I visit cities I feel at home. I know how to walk in ways that get me around and move me along and allow me to negotiate the buildings, cars, people and general busyness. I know how to duck and weave and wend and wheel, avoid, obstruct and slip in-between. I have found ways to discover and understand cities by getting about on foot and ...

I was sent this link in an email the other day (thanks Ben!) I'm never sure whether to pop these things up, because I try not to support industry stuff too much, but the way this is put together is pretty cool. It's dynamic and interesting and really highlights the surfing over, well, you know. I mean there's still lots of bikinis etc and as you can imagine, there is a lot more I could say, but I kind of have something percolating, so I might wait and see if I get time to think it through properly. For now, see what you reckon... Leave A Message Trailer from Nike 6.0 on Vimeo .

Photo via inbyronbaytoday.com

A post dedicated to my sister, Linda Maree Olive. Notes: 1. At a party, this song is almost guaranteed to get people ripping on the dance floor. 2. This clip always makes me think of my sister, hence the dedication. 3. This is a pretty complete catalogue of my dance-move repertoire.

Lauren and I walked up the wooden stairs from the beach towards the shower. We'd just met in the surf - bonding over each others' boards and the common experience of being one of the only girls out on such a pretty day of surf. We'd started talking and quickly realised we had a lot of interests in common - I'd read some of her papers and had already blogged about one of her film projects called '31 days/31 ways' - so we thought we'd head in for a coffee and a good chat. How awesome is meeting someone new in the surf, by the way! Anyway, we walked up the stairs to the shower, chatting away excitedly about surfing, women, the ocean, uni, talking about how sometimes it can be hard being the only chick in the water, or one of only a few. We talked about how much we love surfing in this area, where there are a lot more women and girls than other places. We de-briefed on the crazy lineup that day and I told Lauren how I'd seen a guy shout at some learner ...