Falling in love

Tusiata Avia. I listened to her at a conference in Christchurch this week. She spoke about poetry and childhood and a sense of entitlement (or not) and then she performed some of her poetry and I fell totally in love with her. I wish her book(s) was for sale afterwards so I could grab something to take home and keep immediately, forever.

But they weren't and so next I will google and fishpond and bigape or whatever it takes to find one of her books. She argued for the particular power of the performed poem and I will see if I can buy a cd of her poems.

Also I got to listen to another wonderful writer - Kate de Goldi - and it turns out I'm still a bit in love with her as well. My friend Elizabeth Gordon spoke about the politics, pedants and power in relation to the teaching of language in New Zealand schools over the past 40 years and that was fascinating.

So I am in this nice motel (all motels are nice to me - much flasher than a tent you understand) and I am there all by myself and I try television which we don't have at home but I only last two minutes because it is too awful to qualify as entertainment. But in the morning?

In the morning I have a shower.

I have breakfast.

I get dressed.

I get organised.

I walk out the door and across Hagley Park to my conference.

At NO point does anyone interrupt me, or lose their shoe, or need a packed lunch.

No one loses their shoe.

There is a huge amount of shoe losing going on in our house, every morning, every week, every month. I loved having a break from people losing their shoe and requiring me to find it.

All the rest of the conference was wonderful as well and I came home all fired up about work though of course I have no idea how I would fit the rest of my life in if I increase my work hours.

I fitted a few things in around conferencing. Mooning over books at Scorpio bookshop. Catching up with a friend who I hadn't seen for ten years. Eating souvlaki which you cannot buy in Wetville. I read an entire novel across 1.5 evenings. I used public transport. I loved being on a bus again. I bought some green clay at the Herbal Dispensary (first stop when I got into town was hippie street) which I have read is good for poultices and until now have never seen for sale in a physical shop.

Now I am back here in Wetville and as soon as I got back there was more wonderful excitement. My old university friend Peter was in town and he came round for dinner and we talked about things literary cultural and meritorious on the West Coast and he thinks we should bring all these wonderful things together in some fashion. Maybe a literary festival. Maybe it could raise funds for the Runanga Miners Hall.

Tomorrow I suspect I will be rotating around the washing machine almost all day and people will lose shoes. But this last week has been wonderful and usefully I do love my children so I won't sell them off after all. Even despite the shoes.

Comments

Corrine said…
That sounds wonderful. I'm off the Christchurch on Friday...by myself. so I'll have some of the same experience.
In our house we loose shoes AND socks. So much so that I've stopped buying them. My kids go to school with bare feet if they can't find their shoes...we ran out of socks last year.
Sharonnz said…
I've heard Tusiata reciting her stuff on the radio before - great! And Scorpios was a fantastic discovery for me last year - especially as they had a sale on!
Sandra said…
Have a wonderful time Corrine. Sharon lovely to see you blogging again. Cool hoola hoops.

Popular posts from this blog

McCalls 7288 & altered Style Arc Barb pants

Livingstone daisies

Heartburn & Paris Etc