To my dear and beautiful daughters, I hope that when someone breaks your heart (and they will), that they do it all at once. A bombshell. A bit of knowledge so exquisitely disarming that it shatters your heart to pieces in a singular moment and they are everywhere,
When I was born, my Nan was 76 and had hair like buttercream. She had been waiting for me, she said, as I'm sure she did of all of her great-grandchildren. I knew I was her favourite because she let her hands rest on my
The first time I fell properly in love, I was 12. We had gone down the coast to a place called Wirrina. Lots of times, actually. Dad would run team building exercises and the rest of us would swim in the world's largest* indoor pool.
I'm getting divorced. If this sounds strange to you, it's because my husband and I have been separated for nearly eight years. Twice as long as we were a couple. This year would be our 11th wedding anniversary. We've been married for more than a third
I almost didn't meet my boyfriend, on account of my mental illness. It was a down day, a blue day, the third day in a swag of no-shower days. I might have worn deodorant. Probably not. My sincere preference that day would have been to
After watching the Digital Writers' Festival session about things we've memorialised online, I went back and had a look through some old blog posts, starting in 2000 when I was an idiot with the world's most terrible boyfriend. But then I found this, from March 2005,
A couple of days ago, Gaz and I said words to each other, some of which I tweeted because my feelings were hurt. Gaz didn't tweet the things I said to him, because a) he doesn't have Twitter, and b) he wears his heart inside
Ten years ago, when I was 20, I had a baby. I'm not sure whose idea that was exactly. It definitely wasn't my mum's idea. I remember the way her voice broke when I told her I was pregnant. I'd known the man who would become
When I was 15, I sang the Hallelujah Chorus. I practised for months, with the choir on Wednesdays and Thursdays and Saturdays and in private on all the other days. I sang until I had the notes just exactly right and did the final, enormous dress
Facebook calls this a "life event". As in, "Henry Smith likes your life event." There are other ways you could describe it, too, like "What are you guys even doing?" and "I thought this already happened ages ago?" I think I will choose to call it, "This dude
You know the way an animal can come in and tear out your heart in only two weeks? It seems ridiculous, like looking for an excuse to be sad about something. Lament the sickness of the kitten, the money you will have to spend, the decisions