tagged

and thank you ebony for the tag invitation (and the excellent collage:) - i fear this will expose me for the 100% japanophile i am at the moment, but here goes...

what is your current obsession?

special ordering books from amazon and my local brunswick bound - i just can't get enough even in these dreadful exchange rate times. on my current waiting list is the japanese bath and book design of graphic designers of japan

what are you wearing now?

a massive op-shop fuzzy white jumper with metallic coloured threads running through it, striped leggings from uniqlo and felted slippers from mongolia my friend saatia gave me and that i wear to death in my no shoes home. i am yet to leave the house today :)

do you nap a lot?

i am partial to a good nap, yes. but must admit have not done so for a while now and do always wake up feeling slightly disoriented and vaguely guilty...

if you were a tree, what tree would you be?

a quiet fruit tree in a sunny spot in a a backyard orchard in the country somewhere. perhaps a crabapple.

what's for dinner?

i am on a pumpkin binge at the moment - i might go for kabocha nibitashi and then build other elements from there (miso, daizu gohan, agedashi tofu?) but a bit too early to decide yet...

what was the last thing you bought?

i went nuts ay my local secondhand bookstore run by poets called basho bookshop. i discovered they have a good japanese selection: two books by shushaku endo, a book of haiku by upasaka shiki (haiku is an interesting one - i don't believe it can work transplanted out of japanese culture and language. but i always buy poetry books and then never read them so am sure this one will just end up on my shelf:), writings from japan by lafcadio hearn, a massive kenkyusha old tome of a dictionary and to balance out all that outrageous japanophilia a biography of my favourite forefather of the modern dictionary and all round excellent character samuel johnson

what are you listening to right now?

mum smokes new album. their first album is great - and as someone once said, the best 11th track on an album ever (i am of course entirely unbiassed on that :) the artwork on both albums is by melbourne artist mark rodda.

what is your favourite weather?

right now! mild autumn days with the sun slanting in my eastern bedroom window.

what is on your bedside table?

my talking watch, an alarm clock with a really, really, horrible piercing alarm that i have been meaning to replace forever and a great big pile of books dragged out of my bookcase for further service (norwegian woods, a couple by evelyn waugh, and days of reading by proust ( i like the embossed covers of this penguin great ideas series).

what is your most challenging goal right now?

to get through my masters? 

say something to the person who tagged you

hello sandwich - you are delightful and i can't wait to meet you:)

if you could have a house anywhere in the world, where do you want it to be?

a machiya in higashiyama hills in kyoto. and melbourne of course (but i am very lucky and do have a little one to call my own here)

what can't you live without?

the people in my life, a laugh, linen press my cat, a good song, books and reading, plans and dreams

what was the last book you read?

revolutionary road by richard yates - thankyou first tuesday book club

if you could go anywhere in the world for the next hour, where would you go?

istanbul (on the way to japan:)

last movie you watched?

word wars: a documentary on scrabble players and tournaments in the US - brilliant.