Sculpture by the Sea, Jacarandas and purple prose

Feeling triumphant as am up to 18,128 words as of last night. There is however the slight problem that today is the 15th of November eg halfway point so presumably 25,000 words is an indication of roughly where I should be. I can see there are going to be a lot of hot evenings spent sitting at the computer wondering what my character is going to do next. The answer so far is very little – husband suggests I need to add car chase, guns and sex in order to ensure I am creating a future bestseller. I counter that it is a writing exercise rather than a novel production line and anyway I can’t worry too much about plot as I am so stressed about the fact that my main character who is supposed to be a 15 year old boy speaks in the voice of a 45 year old woman – funny that – or not funny in the case where you are trying to create believable dialogue.

To move off the self indulgent navel gazing – or surely novel gazing in this instance, I have to report that at long last it has stopped raining and we have just had glorious hot weekend. I had my first swim of the year down at Balmoral Beach. I’m very easy to spot in the water as I’m the one doing the good old Pom breast stroke, head held high above water level.

One of the most vibrant signs of early summer in Sydney is the jacaranda trees which are in full purple flower at present. Purple never seems a very normal colour for a tree, this particular shade puts me in mind of one of Dame Edna’s more enthusiastic blue rinses, but the jacarandas do look absolutely stunning against a clear Sydney blue sky.



Sculpture by the Sea is another sign that summer has really begun. This is an annual event where the coastal walk between Bondi and Tamarama is transformed into a sculpture exhibition. The coastline is the most spectacular setting for all the sculptures. Husband took last Monday off and we spent a very happy morning, battling the crowds (goodness knows what it was like on a Saturday given the amount of people at 10a.m. Monday) and wandering along the path, gazing at all the sculptures. We were blessed with the kind of day where the sky glittered blue and gave an extra dimension of vibrancy to all the art. I've posted some of Husband's photos to give you an idea of the range of sculptures.







I always find the range of artistic imagination totally amazing and I think the concept of a temporary sculpture park is brilliant. It finished this weekend and the organisers reckon that over 400,000 people walked through the exhibition which I think is pretty good for a modern art festival.

I now feel revved up by all that artistic effort and achievement and as the chances of me being able to sculpt anything other than a poor imitation of Tracey Emin's unmade bed are pretty remote, I'd better return to my own particular artistic creation, the strangely mature and female sounding, teenager.