I first learned the word ‘sophisticated’ reading a Baby-Sitters Club book. Stacey, the club treasurer, is from New York and is often described as sophisticated with her fashionable clothes and ability to talk to boys. I’d never heard the word sophisticated out loud, and in my head I pronounced it ‘sop-hiss-ticated’. It was a good… Read Post »

Jess miller, CC BY 4.0, quotation added. There’s a bit in Circle of Friends (the book) when Benny unexpectedly goes to a cafe with her new and charming friends and they each get a plate of chips and one to pick off. I’m not certain anything quite that wonderful has ever happened to me. But… Read Post »

Melbourne spring rebellion 2019 When I was in Grade 4 my class did a project on the suffragettes. At first, my friends and I were not impressed. ‘What even are the suffragettes?’ we said. Half an hour later we loved the suffragettes! We couldn’t believe women weren’t allowed to vote. We thought the hunger-strikes were… Read Post »

Today I found out that my dad got rid of the land-line at his house. It’s the house I grew up in, and the phone number I grew up with too. 54 762631 I have a lot of feelings and stories. When we first got the number, it was shorter – six digits was all that… Read Post »

When I was in primary school I was desperate to start my netball career. I was certain that “career” was the right word as I planned to play netball for Australia and therefore become rich and famous. Behold my nesting dolls of delusion. Joining my first team, Newstead Junior 2, was the start of a very… Read Post »

(The image shows a painting of Florence Nightingale holding a lamp.) When I was in year 12 I wrote a ‘quote of the day’ in my school diary. Sometimes the quotes were from famous people like Oscar Wilde (he was terribly witty and sometimes it feels good to copy that stuff down with a pen). Sometimes the quote… Read Post »

All the funny people at my school were girls. I regularly laughed so hard at netball training that I thought I would collapse. Eating lunch was perilous as there was a high probability that someone would say something hilarious and I would spit out my sandwich. Two of my best friends once put me in… Read Post »

I grew up in Central Victoria. I’ve now lived in Melbourne for almost as long as I lived in the country but the feeling of being a bit rural has never left me. Below are some things that country kids do when they hit the big smoke. (I’m going to act like I speak for… Read Post »

For many people their first trip to Nerd Camp is an emotional life experience slightly more intense than the birth of a child. It is not surprising that school camps are highly charged occasions as they involve teenagers living in close quarters trying to touch each other with mixed results. This happens at Nerd Camp… Read Post »

I read an article about bullying today that I really liked. “The world isn’t neatly divided into bullies and the bullied; all victims conceal sins, and all villains carry sorrows and scars.” I try to write about characters who sometimes do genuinely crap things because I have done crap things that I regret. I was… Read Post »