Panic on the dance floor

It's time to solicit some crucial advice from the combined wisdom of readers. The question is - should I go to my 30 year school reunion? Yes, 30 years! Apparently that's how long it's been since I was lying around languidly in an asphalt courtyard at lunchtimes, discussing boys, or INXS, (specifically Michael Hutchence) or teachers,...

Because I could not stop for death

There has been a gap in transmission. It's because everything I tried to write in the past fortnight was awful. The reason is that after the death of a woman I knew, I tried to write something reflective, but failed miserably. As it turns out, all I've been capable of writing about is my own anxieties. * I've been to two...

Farewell to a friend forever.

I had a gorgeous friend. She died last week. I have to repeat that to myself occasionally, like a lesson I'm having trouble learning, because I can't comprehend the finality of it. She died. She'd been rushed to hospital - out of the blue as far as I knew - in a critical condition, and...

I got by, with a little help from my friend

My best friend from childhood? Her name was Jane. We met at kindergarten, although we probably weren’t even friends there, since I was a timid and anxious child, while she was brazen and fearless. At kinder, she once stapled her own thumb and didn't cry. (I don't actually recall the incident, I can only recall being...