Articles by Mark O'Meara

Image via Wikipedia

Do you know what I had for lunch today? Of course you flipping don’t. If people already knew what I ate for meals, then there really would be no reason at all to have a blog.

I had a mixed grill. That’s right, the classic staple of the pub counter meal, a mixed grill. It consisted of a sausage, a chop, a rasher of bacon, cubby chips, and a green salad on the side. The only thing missing was a glass of beer and some old gimmer using one of those devices pressed to his throat to order a shandy at the bar.

All of this was not, as you might imagine, in a pub but in the staffroom since a class had cooked the meals. All the same, it was both a nostalgic and tasty experience.

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As a child, Tabitha would hold a magnifying glass – the one from her brother’s science kit – over ants on a summer’s morning and wait for the tiny, satisfying pop that they made. As an older teenager, she looked back and recognised herself as a nascent feminist.

As as adult, she bristled when people blamed fires on her.  “It’s bloody unfair,” she thought. “They hate me.”

As she walked from the room, a thin wisp of smoke snaked up from the crumpled paper in the rubbish bin.

Family of Swans in Point Cook by MarkOMeara

As we were at a playground this morning, we saw what seemed to be a family of swans. There are swans in the creek near out place, too, but they disappeared for the worst of the drought.

It’s nice to see swans, They feel a bit more exotic than the various little birds and ducks.

Thanks to the incredible thoughtfulness of Kristen, I unexpectedly got a ticket to hear Joss Whedon speak at the Melbourne Writers’ Festival. This session at the Melbourne Town Hall was billed as a keynote, but in reality it was just over an hour of question and answer, first with questions from an academic from LaTrobe University and then with questions from the audience.

Whedon himself was warm and interesting, although I did find that his habit of being self-depreciating got in the way of fully answering some of the questions. Still, it was a lovely experience and I was really happy to be there.

On a side note, it’s been years since I walked across the city at night, and I was surprised by just how many people were on the street at nine o’clock and then at eleven. I walked about five blocks and each and every street had steady foot traffic.