There's been some devastating news in our community. A good man and a great father has died unexpectedly and the area seems to be covered in a fog of disbelief and grief.

But his is not my story to tell. It belongs to his partner and their two girls, the eldest of which was a good friend of my daughter's through primary school.

I'm intruding just long enough to offer an explanation as to why I won't be posting for the rest of the week. The world feels a little shaky after such news and I need a moment to mentally steady my foothold in it.

Back soon. x

Sky high

I have little to zero interest in Facebook, and have an account only to be a friend of my daughter, which was part of the agreement to let her join a couple of years ago. After policing her page for a while I found it was the same as listening to her and her friends wittering on in the backseat of the car - and there's been many a time I wished I had a chauffeur's window I could activate for instant, relieving silence.

I have nothing against Facebook, mind you, it just doesn't appeal. Or it didn't. Until reading the Sydney Morning Herald on our iPad this morning (I'm not a complete luddite) and found my favourite cockatoos - those who live in Sydney's Botanic Gardens and grace many a head in our family photos - have their own Facebook page.

Not just so birdophiles (I mean that in a nice way, not as people who creepily stare at pictures of birds on the internet) can be amused by photos of cockatoos, but, as a bunch of them have been wing tagged, to discover what their flight habits around Sydney are. Apparently, very little research has ever been done on this before.

Judging by these photos, I may have to move to a high-rise apartment on the off-chance the cockatoos choose to sit on my particular balcony-railing one morning. I'm off to break the bad news to my doves.

Photos via www.facebook.com/cockatoowingtags

Paperwork

I'm a pretty organised person but I tend to be a bit lax with paperwork. To the point where I started getting reminder notices for unpaid bills and penalties for late payment, which was enough to spur me into getting this small but irritating part of my life under control.

It was easy, really. Set aside a day to get to the bottom of the basket I threw everything into and decided to deal with paperwork every Monday. Now when mail hits the letterbox, I open it, throw it in the basket and deal with it on Mondays.

Come Monday, I'll pay what needs to be paid and file what needs to be filed, and then put anything with a due date past the next Monday onto a clipboard. If it's an email bill, I'll put a note to myself on the clipboard. Pretty rare now that I have to spend more than half-an-hour on paperwork - usually about 10 minutes.

My system has been running like clockwork for six weeks now and I feel a bit smug that I've formed a good habit.

If only regular exercise was that easy...

Ebony and ivory

The gold ones were too high, so now that there's a bit more room in my wardrobe thanks to the posting off of the giveaway bags I've added these to the shoe rotation. My wardrobe is therefore having an ebony-and-ivory-go-together-in-perfect-harmony moment.

So now I have two pairs of wooden bricks to walk around in. They're surprisingly comfortable as long as I don't step on anything not completely flat as there's no give in the sole. Walking over a grate makes me look a little drunk and I take the right one off when I drive as can't feel the brake pedal properly, but otherwise all good!

Have a lovely weekend. x

ps. I've been to Sweden and have no idea how anyone could possibly totter around in these in Stockholm's designery Sodermalm district. One word: cobblestones...

Ides of March

I have a love/hate relationship with Typo. Every time I'm in the new Westfield I have to go and have a look, but when I do I'm disappointed. Mainly because I want it to be Muji, and it's not. It slightly reminds me of Muji, but only enough to pale into comparision and make me wish we had a Muji in Australia, let alone Sydney. It's also got that cheap Cotton On vibe, yet sometimes manages to turn up something fabulous and affordable, which is why I go back.

These stamps are a case in point. I'm using them more than the similar but smaller set I bought from Muji in London so I have to admit I actually prefer the Typo stamps. But still I pine for Muji. I remember my first taste of Muji, which was in Rome. I came out of the shop with a rather large bag (possibly two) only to be excitedly talked about a few minutes later when my logo-ed paper carry bags were noticed by a bunch of Japanese teenage girls. Yes, an Australian comes to Rome and buys Japanese stuff. Very happy I was about it too.

So was delighted when I heard some Muji products would now be available through an online Australian shop, Amasia. Quickly got Amasia on my screen and headed to its Muji section. And there was a pile of Muji stuff. Just not any of the Muji stuff I wanted.

The ides of March may not have been kind to Caeser, but I'm sure he'd be happy knowing that if he was alive today it'd only take him 15 minutes to walk from the Roman Forum to the Muji on the Via del Tritone. Or he could hop on the metro at Coloseo, jump off at Barberini Fontana de Trevi, saving precious leather on his Roman sandals.

He could even pick up some of my favourite dishcloths for me while he was there.

The ides of March have a lot to answer for.

Birthday song

As I waved The Child off to school from our front gate, this magpie was singing the most lovely song. To my motherly ears, it sounded just like a birdy version of Happy Birthday, but that's perhaps because today The Child officially became A Teen.

We have quite a few magpies in the area, two of which have made a nest in a disused chimney in a house across the street. Once the sun is properly up, they either fly to the tops of other houses and sing or walk around the nature strips looking for worms.

This one's having a sing just after sunrise, hence the sky isn't its ususual blue blue yet.

This is the chimney they nest in, snapped just after dawn.

If you don't know what an Australian Magpie sounds like, they have the most beautiful song (hear it here.) When they're all going at it at once, it sounds like a choir singing from above.

And today that choir was definitely carrolling to the tune of Happy Birthday.

Square necessities

My wool stash was making feel guilty. Here was all this perfectly good pure wool that'd I'd probably never use. Then I remembered Wrap with Love, the not-for-profit organisation that takes knitted squares or whole wraps from volunteers and then sends completed blankets to people who need them.

So I'm knitting squares in between crocheting my own blanket. The project will take a while as I intend on making an entire wrap according to the pattern, but at least I'm on the right track.

Thinking of squares reminded of all the fabric squares I'd cut for some patchwork cushions I made a little while ago. Being a novice patchworker, I cut way too many patches and had spare squares spilling out of drawers. So these will go towards another cover for our outdoor bench.

I now haven't got a square to spare.

Here's the wrap-with-love pattern if anyone feels like putting their wool stash towards something genuinely useful.