January 2010
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Love Letter Lisa Mitchell
“I’d like...
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“We are not errors in the landscape, or meant to be erased”
– from ‘Affair With Three Endings’ — a poem by Kate Northrop
:)
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'Positano', by Steinbeck
I first heard of Positano from Alberto Moravia. It was very hot in Rome. He said, “Why don’t you go down to Positano on the Amalfi coast? It is one of the fine places of Italy.” Later John McKnight of the United States Information Service told me the same thing. He had spent a year there working on a book. Half a dozen people echoed this. Positano kind of moved in on us and we found...
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An adorable email from my father
Hi Melissa, How are you doing? Guess Mandy went and left, and you are settling to attack your research problems. I am right now in Niagara Falls in New York state. The weather is freezing cold, probably -4 degree C, and low cloud. I am staying a hotel which is minutes walk to the great falls. I had a walk on the American side of the falls today. The falls are spectacular. I took some shots....
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“I am what I am today because of the choices I made yesterday.”
– Eleanor Roosevelt (via kari-shma)
I love it when my past self does favours for my present self.
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Neopolitan Dreams Lisa Mitchell
Spent the...
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Happening apart from what's happening around it
(via mountainflower)
There is a vividness to eleven years of love / because it is over. A clarity of Greece now / because I live in Manhattan or New England. / If what is happening is part of what’s going on / around what’s occurring, it is impossible / to know what is truly happening. If love is / part of the passion, part of the fine food / or the villa on the Mediterranean, it is not / clear...
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“If you can’t tell the difference between a spoon and a ladle, then...”
– Demetri Martin
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It puzzles me why people feel the need to say...
Random guy walking on other side of the street: Hey! Hey you! Come here, come to me.
Melissa: *looks around to see who he's yelling at*
Random guy: Yeah hey! Hello! How are you doing? Come over aye.
Melissa: *realises he's talking to her*
Random guy (walking behind her now): Aww, don't be scared. You shy? You're just shy aren't you.
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The last few days
It’s just after midnight. I’ve been sitting here for the last few hours trying and giving up on coursework, an empty bowl from hours ago on the floor beside me, a glass of wine in hand.
No, I lie - the wine was bad so I’d mixed it with soda. Mixing wine with anything always reminds me of making sangria, which reminds me of drinking several large cups at the night markets over...
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“‘I had no illusions about you,’ he said. ‘I knew you were...”
– from ‘The Painted Veil’ - W. Somerset Maugham.
I watched the film version of this a few years ago, stranded in Melbourne over summer. Taken out of context, this passage seems a bit mean but she really was silly and frivolous and empty headed and he really did give her everything. This...
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For You Elephant Parade
<3
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Earrings, data management, edamame thief
So it’s finally happened, after much dread and gloom: SEMESTER ONE, 2010.
Wednesday the 20th came and instead of being happily asleep at 8am, I found my way in a little room in the Menzies building for course induction talks. Did you know they are still fixing up the Menzies building, after all these years? Constuction paper was everywhere, and those single file escalators up and down are...
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“The highest function of love is that it makes the loved one a unique and...”
– Tom Robbins (via kari-shma)
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Rain, rain go away
Woke up to the onslaught of water on glass, dark and heavy against the fog of sleep. I almost couldn’t remember the last time it rained this much in summer without a few days of humidity before it.
It’s been horrible this week - I hate the cold, the way it gnaws at me as I go about the day. It’s rained so much the towels I washed days ago still can’t be brought in (and if...
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Favourite medical conditions
Alright so…I was getting excited the BBC had written something about Takotsubo cardiomyopathy in their list of stuff they hadn’t known about the year before. It got me thinking… what are my favourite medical conditions?
I’ve narrowed it down to:
1. Takotsubo cardiomyopathy 2. Acute myeloid leukemia M3, M4, M5 (and all leukemias in general) 4. Multiple Myeloma 5....
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“I sometimes think that people’s hearts are like deep wells. Nobody knows what’s...”
– from ‘Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman’ - Haruki Murakami (via kari-shma)
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“A definition not found in the dictionary: Not leaving. an act of trust and love...”
– from “The Book Thief” - Mark Zusak
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Last night
It’s late at night in Melbourne. Quiet, empty house - nobody at home, windows open and the same view greeting me as always.
Time seems so still, like an unopened box. The tree in the yard is silent, no wind to bother it and sunset is so perfectly sihouetted I could take out a paintbrush and put it to canvas.
I came home late yesterday afternoon. A taxi driver had dumped my suitcase into...
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Public service announcement
I’M BACK IN MELBOURNE. CALL ME AND HANG OUT.
Yay! :D
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