i would really like to write something based on the place i work. there are some very interesting characters there, but i think i need some distance between the office and myself so the writing doesn't just turn into one huge, thinly veiled bitch session. yesterday i was editing something that the marketing guy had written, a couple of pages of 'company profile'. the writing was so distracting - it was like he'd crafted a moderately understandable sentence, then put it in the thesaurus machine and cranked the handle one time too many. i was sharing my pain with a fellow employee, and in the course of my intra-office-computer-messaging-therapy-session, i came up with a character that would be based on the marketing guy. in business hours, he would be known as 'roget dovetail'; the minute night fell (or more like the minute he fell asleep, ie in his dreams) he would change to his sexy, for-the-ladies persona, 'thesaurus rex'. there are so many weird relationships in the office - and i don't mean that people are having affairs, there's none of that going on (that i know of, at least) - there are very interesting dynamics happening on our floor, and between some of our people and others who work on other floors within the same building. also some interesting things have happened in the past that stick in my mind... the more i think about it, the more i realise there are quite a few good stories there. but i must finish writing what i started before i start on something new. would make an interesting second novel though!

well, talk about plot twists.
yesterday i was thinking 'cool, last day at work, tomorrow i will go to uni, then friday i will write'. then i get home and there's four messages on my messagebank - okay, one was a reminder i'd left there and another was from the local video store, but you gotta keep the drama! - and it happens that me poor da's eye day surgery yesterday turned into a not-so-routine trip to the eye and ear hospital today for further surgery and an overnight stay. i can almost see his face now, his bottom lip jutted out as far as it can go, white stubble bristle just poking through the foldy skin on his face, all communication reduced to grunts and sighs. and i wonder where i got my drama-queen-gene from. i shouldn't say that, it's never nice to stay overnight at a hospital, least of all when you  weren't planning for it. i hope it's not too traumatic for him... (oh look! surf's up! the guilt's coming in waves!) so, mum's coming over to our house and staying the night. luckily i have tomorrow off, unluckily i still have no idea how to drive a car. really, sometimes i shake my own head in wonder. at myself. just in case you thought i was expressing wonderment at the world in general. which, don;t get me wrong, i sometimes do - but that just then wasn't one of those times.
one wonderful thing - i am currently reading 'the thompson gunner' by nick earls (who is, if you didn;t know by now, an absolute legend). it's about a successful australian female standup comedian, and i can't help seeing fiona o'loughlin when i read it. which, of course, is a good thing. better than seeing, say, bert newton instead, who, though australian, is neither female nor a standup comedian. now that would have been weird.

i'm looking forward to friday, and having a day of writing all to myself. uni started this week and though that means due dates and stuff, it'll help me to have other things on my plate again - i find that i'm more productive when i'm juggling several things at the same time. maybe thats just an excuse actually - maybe i only seem more productive because i procrastinate more - i write fiction when i should be researching and writing assignments, and vice versa - so the whole distraction thing tricks my mind into actually getting more work done. also now cause i've set up a room upstairs, there is no telly to distract me, which is good.
you may have noticed that the old comments system is gone - together with, unfortunately, any comments that were previously left on my blog. so my blog now looks more nigel than it ever has before. feel free to use the new comments window - it even matches the site, colour wise! - and help my blog get over its lonelyness. seeing as haloscan is a free service, here's hoping that i will be able to keep it indefinitely.
don't really have much to say today, so i'll go now. peace out.

i've had a very productive day today. i re-arranged the upstairs room and now it is a lot closer to being my den than it ever has been. i put the bead curtain up over the back door, and i have had a fire going in here since lunchtime. it's very nice, except you have to sit virtually in front of the fire to get any warmth. but hey - i have a *fire*! also, i finally started using the giant postits - i have four stuck to that wall, and i am using them to jot stuff down about my characters. i'm at the point where i need to track whats happening to them, cause a few little changes here and there could reverberate through what i've already written, changing the shape of the whole book...
i'm thinking of starting up another blog to talk specifically about my writing, so i can bang on about my characters without feeling like a wanker.
went to a meeting at fcarts last night about hello kitty. i was a little nervous doing my reading - i have chosen to read a chunk from my novel - but it went well, and i have some interesting pointers to consider. i will be re-jigging the excerpt as a reading, so that should be fun. i also decided what song i would sing at the gigs - 'eye of the tiger'! i found the lyrics online and gave it a couple of practice runs this afternoon, and i must say, within the echoey confines of this room, i didn't sound half bad (then i realised that this was probably the precise feeling most of the unsuccessful candidates who try out for 'australian idol' have... *shudder*). i am so looking forward to hello kitty... after the fringe fest will be a great time for it too, it'll be like one long celebration. yay! before i go, let me just say - recently i have been getting heaps of traffic to this site, and it's all due to three little words - 'mary', 'kate', and 'anorexia'. how about that? although, it seems someone else found me by doing a search for 'lindsay lohan's wedgie'. disturbing, but true.

did you know that you can buy giant post-it notes? well, you can! i bought some from officeworks yesterday. i was actually looking for butchers paper and an easel, cause i wanted something large to write on, but then i came across the giant post-its. how can you say no to giant post-its? i bought some giant coloured markers to go with it, and i realised when i got home that these are now officially my first ever crayolas. as a child i would drool over other kid's crayolas and derwents. i waited patiently for the universe to direct someone else to buy me some, but it never happened. i also wanted a barbie but got the cheaper, more rubbery 'cindy' instead. oh, boo-hoo. i actually got my first barbie at about 24 - it's 'indian barbie' and was bought for me by a friend. i knew then i should have left her in the packaging but i couldn't resist - she was, after all, my first barbie. i'd make a really bad toy collector.
on the way back from my brothers, we drove past a large house on burke road past camberwell junction. it's huge, this house, and i've always noticed it because there's a front upstairs window with tiny stickers all over it, and the frontage of the house looks elegant and gentle... but then you look around the side, and this house goes on forever, huge brick thing with all these pipes and stuff snaking up and down and across the side. anyway, someone had vandalised the front, but rather neatly - whatever they'd written went for two long lines all the way across the front rendered brick fence, and the only bit that wasn't painted over was a drawing of either a hamster or a rat.
hmmm. i would love to find out exactly what had been written there.

so, i've just gotten home from a night out, and i'm feeling a renewed passion for this blog - something i know i've been neglecting lately. and it's late, and i'm slightly inebriated, so brace yourselves, people: this will be one of those 'i love the world, i love my life' kind of blogs that i've lived to regret in the past - but let honesty rule! (sung to the tune of 'let freedom reign', from john farnham's 'that's freedom', if you know what i mean... if not, google it). [what can i say. when i first discovered australian music lyrics (smash hits, circa 1986-1991, thank you niraj), johnnie really did it for me. i actually had a poster of dannii minogue on my wall, but i was a teenager growing up in fiji, so go easy on me.]
anyway. moving right along...
so. what was my point? that's right. tonight, i went to that launch of russell mcgilton's 'yakety yak: bombay to beijing by bicycle, and i had a great time. i took along five friends, and it was beautiful. i was so happy to see a fellow scribe bask in the glory of a major publication. i had three encounters with individuals that i was not expecting - and each of these has given me an interesting insight to the process of being a writer-type-person. i got more joy (oh! can she handle much more? i wonder!) when i got home - for the first time in my freelancin' incarnation, i think i done gone and met an editor's expectation. i was given a brief, an angle, and a deadline - and it seems i've delivered. if you would like to see what i am talking about, keep your eyes peeled for the august issue of concierge magazine, in which said articles my moi will appear under the 'thirst' section. how fitting. shalini gets to review bars. i feel i may have found a calling, other than the dream of being a professional novelist.
cheers, and good night!

my immediate future, according to who weekly:
'legal matters require care this week; don't flout the rules or doubt that individuals mean what they say. if you've been hoping to get a commitment, you have the ideal set of stars. try not to get frustrated - any hold-up or blockage is there for a reason, as you will surely discover a little further down the line.'

song stuck in my head...
I'm sexy, I'm cute! I'm popular to boot!
I'm bitchin', great hair! The boys all love to stare!
I'm wanted, I'm hot! I'm everything your not!
I'm pretty, I'm cool! I dominate the school!
Who am I? Just guess! Guys wanna touch my chest!
I'm rockin'! I smile! And many think I'm vile.
I'm flyin', I jump! You can look but don't you hump! Whoo!
I'm major, I roar! I swear I'm not a whore!
We cheer and we lead! We act like we're on speed!
Hate us cause we're beautiful well we don't like you either!
We're cheerleaders! We are cheer leaders! Roll call!
(bring it on, 2000)