Author: Jane O’Connell
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Radical re-entry
In 2016 I returned to full-time study. Come to think of it, it was the first time I’d studied full time since leaving school. I studied my BA Comms part time while working the overnight shift in Channel Ten’s newsroom. It is a luxury I can (almost) justify to take time out from my career…
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First day of school
Cole cocks his leg and aims a stream of wee at the red brick wall. It leaves a dark, dribbly stain. I can see what he’s doing from the back step of our Forestville house where I wait while mum gets the camera ready. I’m with Mark and Kelly and we’re all in our school…
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Double thumb or qwerty?
I have stupidly allowed myself to develop two new habits as a full time writer. Even as I write this I am succumbing to one of them – double thumb typing on the Notes app on my iPhone. This particular bent annoys me because I am a mother of grown up children and being adept…
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The Tom Diaries – Twilight
The lesser used definition of twilight is a period or state of obscurity, ambiguity, or gradual decline. To me, this is the perfect definition for the space I now observe my father to be occupying. Tom spends his days in a kind of limbo. His post-surgery rehab is complete and so he must leave Greenwich Hospital.…
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Jackie’s Bar
Cold Tiger beer oozes to the brim of the frosted mug and freezes into a boozy slush within seconds. A minute more and the beer will be cool, a few minutes later, bordering on warm. The trick is to drink it before the temperature forces abandonment. . It’s Friday evening at our local – Jackie’s Bar,…
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A Christmas Luau
A timber hand formed in the famous ‘hang loose’ sign sits on the formica bench in my parents’ apartment, between the kitchen and the dining room. In their last home, where we grew up, it sat on the bench between the kitchen and the family room. “Hang loose!” Dad would say when the going got tough. Hawaii is…
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A is for Ageist
At dinner with friends a few weeks ago the conversation was meandering nicely, from sport to the obligatory weather discussion, some light and breezy comments about renovations, a recent puppy-sitting experience. All very harmless. Until we moved into the Career Conversation. Now this is a bit of a no-go zone for me right now because…
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Hey that’s my coat!
Dessert is a showstopper. Zuccotto says Lance for the third time. Zoo-cot-oh … it’s Italian. It’s inspired by Il Duomo, hence the shape. As he slices and dishes up, adding a splodge of marscapone to each serve I glance across the table at Toni, a charming but somewhat vague woman I’m guessing in her late…
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Don’t mention the ‘B’ word
In my new world without professional borders my day can take me anywhere. Or nowhere. According to my therapist* I am nobody going nowhere doing nothing which is quite a shock to someone on their sixth passport. Today, my new life has taken me to The Lost and Found Department in the quest to furnish our…