ran the car into someone’s tow-bar the other day. a strange bit of brake in my car just stopped working (it does something with fluid). all is okay, only a bent bumper. but it just goes to show that any sense of mastery or control you have can be easily unseated by random stuff. it never pays to be confident.

one of the plugs came out of my right thong as ‘cricketed’ in the backyard last night. it hasn’t happened since a year ago, canoing around tuross heads. i stepped in the shallow mud to rescue our vessel & felt helpless. such are the links.

i’ve been sketching today for the cover of my next chap. i am no artist, but this will not stop me.

fourW came into the world on saturday. not many writers there to read, but lots of champagne was some recompense. alan gould launched for me & did comment on the books scope – ‘writers from ireland living in poland who choose to publish in wagga’ etc. but he slipped in a mention at the end of some of the poetry’s ‘opacity’, which he thinks there is ‘too much of these days’. i like that he spoke his mind (spoke his mind?) & couldn’t really take it to heart. i don’t want to fathom it all. not yet.

this saturday it’s sydney. i’m driving up & back in the same day. & not much looking forward to this.

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