4 years without a car

When I first moved to Brisbane I decided against getting a car, still fresh with living in London thoughts of not needing a mode of transport. I lived in Spring Hill and had public transport, why would I need a car? I managed in London without one for two years... of course, London transport is significantly better than what Translink offers. I did okay living so close to the city and working in the city or city fringe areas, I even walked to and from Milton when I worked down that way - it was great exercise and I didn't have to worry about paying for insurance or registration or the increasing price of fuel.

However, after four years I had decided what I would gain back with a car was time—where it would normally take me 10-15 minutes to get somewhere via car, it would take me at least 40-60 minutes via walking and public transport. And since none of my friends have the ability to appear anywhere on time, it also meant I had a lot of waiting around time for people too rude to show up when arranged.

I'm also someone who likes to go out and explore other suburbs and while I managed some of this via public transport, there was none of the 'jump in the car and go far south, or north or east' as I used to do back in my Perth days.

So I started looking for an affordable secondhand car, but I couldn't find one that was what I wanted or didn't require some work. I wasn't interested in a project. I didn't want to buy a fifteen year old car and spend months getting it up to scratch. I just wanted something I could drive straight away without any fuss. Eventually, it dawned on me I should just buy a new car—I'd never owned a new car and well, why not? I'm earning more money now than I've ever earned in my life, I'm doing a job I like and want to keep going with long term, it's a little inconvenient to park on the street in Spring Hill, but my rent hasn't increased by some miracle in two years and I'm happy to stay here, the boy has extra parking at his place—it all seemed to be working out fine.

So I got my ex-Mazda dealer dad to suss out some deals for me, because of course, I'm a Mazda car person and always will be. They're just a fantastic car (I would go into a rant about why, but that's a whole other entry). He managed to get me a great deal in Mackay—and even with flights up, fuel and driving back I was still better off than buying direct here in Brisbane.

After much running around with the bank (getting contracts signed, finding JPs, transferring monies etc), who said I passed a loan application with flying colours, I secured my new car and made plans to get up to Mackay with the boy to drive the new green machine back home. :)

Twelve hours of driving and it's sitting outside my little art deco unit waiting for my council parking permit so it can stay there every day without fear of a fine. ^_^ So exciting! Back in the wheels again.

Pilgrims by Will Elliott

Two friends of mine introduced me to this Brisbane author and insisted I read his first book, The Pilo Family Circus. A sucker for horror fiction I started it straight away. It wasn’t quite what I was expecting and took me some time to get into; however by halfway I was hooked. Pilgrims is no different, although I’m not a fantasy fiction reader, the story was not so fantastical as to keep someone like me from continuing on to the end. Probably a good thing since it’s the start of a trilogy.

A mysterious door appears below a train bridge where our lead character, Eric, passes it every day on his way to and from work. One day the door opens and they discover there’s another world beyond the door along with some other world characters who have popped in and quickly disappear.

You can probably guess where this is going, right? Yes, the protagonist, Eric and his friend, the bum who lives under the train bridge open the door and go through to the other side. Where they discover they’re suddenly on a journey with some interesting and varied characters from the other world.

I liked this book because it takes you on a journey with it’s characters, always picking up and discarding people along the way and in the background a war is brewing. Hugely funny in places, much to Will Elliott’s style, and terrifying in others I really can’t wait to break the spine of book two: Shadow.

Community Recovery

Virtually the entire department I work for has been out on Community Recovery since the floods hit Queensland. Of course, once the floods started taking out more and more towns, they kicked up the training sessions to twice a day for… well, I think they’re still running.

I only did my recovery training a few weeks ago since I was tagged as someone who needed to be in the office (whichever available office we could work from while ours was being flood affected) so I could write and post stories to our website. When Cyclone Yasi hit and again I was needed for more story preparations and it seemed like little chance of me going anywhere.

Now we’re back in our office, and most of the team is back from leave/Community Recovery/other life commitments, I got the call and was placed inIpswich for a week. Slightly less interesting than the previously thought placement of Cairns or Townsville, but also a relief that I didn’t have to go away for 7 days and could come home every night, even if it was a long commute each way.

The whole processes was very tiring given I’d already worked a four day week and come Friday I felt like I should be ending the week with drinks and happy thoughts of two days off. Unfortunately I was starting a new week and wouldn’t get my weekend until the following Wednesday.

The first four days I was lucky enough to be placed in Goodna Service Centre where I could sit in an office and process people’s applications for financial assistance for them. Each centre also housed Centrelink officers, Red Cross, Lifeline and a security guard, so we had no end of support—I really loved working with the people from Red Cross and Lifeline, they’re amazing in their volunteer work and looking after, not just the stressed out people coming through the door, but also us Community workers.

I will admit that being in a people facing environment again was refreshing the first day, everyone was happy with the cheques and assistance I could offer them. Come the second day though, when the Emergent Assistance Grant was no longer available, we saw the more colourful and challenging characters coming out of the woodwork to pile abuse upon us for not giving them what they wanted. I could understand their situation, but unfortunately, I have to follow suit with what services/assistance we’re allowed to offer. It’s also difficult to see people who have already been through so much stress to have to face yet another challenge put in place by the government.

For four days I had people cry, shout, argue, hug me—and while those nice people who sat down to tell me their story made my week, I was also vastly aware of the safety of my silent cubicle back in Brisbane CBD. By day 8 I was well and truly ready to get back to my writer monkey position.

My final day I was sent back to Ipswich Coordination Centre and put on Outreach, which means you spend all day in a Community Recovery 4WD with one other person door knocking in all the affected areas in that region and talking to people about their circumstances, making sure they’re aware of any payments they may be entitled to.

My housing officer I was pared with was happy to hear that I could read a map and made me navigator for the day while she steered the giant 4WD around Goodna and Gailes area. It was a long day, I imagine even longer if you didn’t like the person you were pared with, but I enjoyed it more than sitting in the Recovery Centre. Instead of doing assessments and delivering bad news to those ineligible for assistance, I was actually just talking to people and hearing their stories and providing them information—and as a writer I feel much more comfortable doing this than filling in administrative forms.

My two fatigue days came as something of a relief with me falling in bed around 8pm on Tuesday night.

I’ve already been asked when I can be deployed again—I do like that I have the option of putting my personal life first when I can and I’m playing that card now. But, in the longer term view this thing is definitely far from over, so I expect to be placed again in the not too distant future.

Full Dark, No Stars by Stephen King

In Stephen King’s afterword he writes, ‘The stories in this book are harsh. You may have found them hard to read in places.’ In reading Full Dark, No Stars I found myself putting the book down many times due to the gritty nature of it’s descriptive actions. The queasy feeling would stay with me sometimes long after I’d gone to bed as I imagined all the ways I didn’t want to die.

A collection of short stories, and possibly some of King’s most disturbing writing, Full Dark, No Stars binds together four separate stories which manage to frighten us most because each one could be possible.

Unlike King’s history of threading together the real and unreal until you’re not sure when you’ve crossed over, this collection is frightening purely because such incidents and people exist in our world every day. It’s not impossible to believe these characters and crimes are real and most likely based on real events.

'1992' is a story of Wilfred Leland James who is writing his confession to committing a murder. A man who appears callous in the beginning, leaving this reviewer with little sympathy towards his situation, increasingly descends into his own living hell through a series of chain reactions triggered by his crime. Normally irritated by stories set on a farm, due to the need of the writer to describe how manual labour takes place at every turn, I found '1922' moved along at a steady pace with each sentence earning its place upon the page.

The second story in the collection, 'Big Driver', is about a mystery writer (and let’s be honest, it just wouldn’t be a Stephen King novel if there wasn’t at least one writer character) who survives a horrifying encounter when she gets a flat tyre alongside an empty highway. We’re all familiar with how a scene like this plays out, however the reaction of this somewhat mousy woman is far from cliché. 'Big Driver' delivers an unexpected twist, a twist that left me arguing with its protagonist to deal with her situation in a different way.

While the least gruesome in detail and horror of all the stories, 'Fair Extension' was by far the one I liked least. The story is of a middle-aged man who has been diagnosed with cancer and makes a deal with a jinn-like man to extend his life. Like all such deals, this bargain comes at a cost. Unfortunately, this character seems only to flourish as the story continues with little regard for the cost that balances out his new good fortune. 'Fair Extension' ends without character growth or remorse and because of this it left me cold. I can fairly say I hated the story.

Finally, 'A Good Marriage' is the last story in the book, possibly the most predictable of all four, yet one I enjoyed the most. Where King failed to bring us justice in the first three, I felt the final story brought me the closure I was looking for. A wife discovers a terrible secret about her husband and realises he has kept this secret the entire length of their marriage. This story opens all the questions of how well do we really know anyone, even those closest to us? It sheds light on how easily terrible things can go on without our even knowing.

It’s true, King is the master of bringing our fears to the surface, and he normally succeeds in this by bringing in his much-patented supernatural creature and setting it free amongst our every day environment, tricking our minds into believing it could be true. He plays on the symbolism we see in those non-human beings. But in this book, King only writes those things we read about every day on the news and doesn’t have to stretch our imaginations too far to scare us, because these types of events are happening all the time.

Normally we have the convenience of ignoring that which we don’t want to see by turning off the TV, but King brings those brushed aside situations and places it directly in front of us in the form of Full Dark, No Stars, forcing us to think about what elements and reactions really sit within the human form.

I have painted a dark review, but King has done it again and brought the world a powerfully faultless and cleverly spun read. If you are not a Stephen King or dark story fan, I’d say skip this book. But if you, like me, secretly enjoy being a little bit frightened and occasionally like looking into the darkness of the human soul you will find this to be one of his best collections.

Review published by Media/Culture Words.

Ricotta and Spinach Agnolotti in Tomato Pasta Sauce

My sister, who isn't confident in the kitchen, always asks me to give her the recipe for whatever pasta sauce I cook. I don't work from recipes when it comes to pasta sauce, I tend to just make it up as I go. So, I thought I'd document some of my cooking.

Add some olive oil to a pan and heat over a medium heat.

Crush some garlic and brown slightly in the pan (only takes a minute or two crushed). Depending on how I feel I'll sometimes chop up the garlic or will just add the whole bruised clove in the pan for flavour (removing at the end).

Add a tin of diced tomatoes (you can use fresh tomatoes, but they will need to be seeded and it does take a bit more preparation) and cook for a few minutes, stirring as you go.

It's usually about now that I add the agnolotti (or pasta of your choice) to a pot of boiling water. Add a good bit of salt to the boiling water and cook until al dente (or as per the instructions on the pack).

Back at the sauce add a 1-2 tablespoons of tomato paste (it's up to you how thick you want the sauce and how tomatoey you want the flavour. I usually add 2 because I like the tomato flavour).

Stir through again and simmer for a few minutes.

(Optional) I like to add some red wine to my pasta sauces, just because it adds a nice flavour and takes out a bit of the tomato tang. If you don't like too much of the acidy tomato flavour you can add a teaspoon of baking/bi-carb soda. Let it simmer again on a low heat until it thickens.

(Optional) Again, this is an optional ingredient, but I like to, stir through a 1-2 tablespoons of basil pesto. Simmer.

By about now your sauce should be nice and reduced and getting about ready. Add some salt, stir and then take it off the heat.

Sprinkle in some fresh basil or other herbs, I sometimes use oregano or coriander, depending on what's on hand.

By now your agnolotti should be done. Drain and add to your sauce.

Serve and enjoy. :)

Breaking Open the Head by Daniel Pinchbeck

An interesting follow up to the unrelated book Fire in the Head that I read in 2003, while I sat on a couch in some London 'summer' waiting for work to come my way, about the Shamanic journey around the world. Unlike Fire in the Head, which is a study of the shamanic journey in many different cultures, Breaking Open the Head studies the psychedelic journey of shamanism.

When my boyfriend was reading this book I was really interested in borrowing it after him. All the way through his reading of the book, he kept looking up to read me interesting passages about the effects and experiences certain drugs had on the characters in the book. Unfortunately, once I started reading it I realised I had been given the trailer of somewhat more involved book. It's focus was more on the shamanic journey whilst taking certain drugs and how they are connected to indigenous people around the world and their role within those societies.

Still an interesting book, but sometimes hard work. I will confess I didn't fully enjoy the book until I reached part 7 (the book has a total of 8 parts), but it does open up the possibilities one might not always be aware of or have heard of about drugs and their association with supernatural beings, worlds and dimensions. It also goes into the scientific studies of drugs like LSD by governments and how it was used in psychiatry during the 1960s and 70s, but is all but lost in such professions these days.

This book is neither pro-drugs nor anti-drugs, but simply provides a view of the history of their use and other people's experiences. If you're interested purely in the history of drugs and their effects, like I was, I'd say skip this book. But if you're interested in how drugs have been used in the shamanic journey this would be a very interesting book for you to read.

Snapshot of Daniel Pinchbeck's experience while taking mushrooms:

"Personally, I was not aware of what I was losing until I took mushrooms. During those early trips I realised I was trapped in a state of deferred expectation and compulsive self-distancing. I had a neurotic intellectual's habit of constantly trying to observe myself from some imaginary point of objectivity outside of myself, and this impossible effort sapped my energy and kept me from connecting ot the present. Mushrooms did not cure me of this—for a long time only alcohol could obliterate the division, and it took me some years to resolve the problem—but the bits of dried fungi made me aware, for the first time, of exactly what I was doing wrong."