Busy busy busy

I am not going to write about the referendum here. It’s all I’ve been thinking about. It’s all I’ve been talking about. It’s all I’ve been worrying about. So I’m going to write about something else.

Over the last few weeks I’ve been so busy. The mist of coursework fell heavy across the land, and my home became overshadowed by the stormcloud of important political decisions. But I still found time to get mobbed by parakeets, stalk Tony Abbott on his University of Melbourne visit, acquire a rickety yellow bicycle, see the Twelve Apostles on the Great Ocean Road, compose a nightclub anthem, book a holiday to New Zealand, and buy a tacky little landmark ornament, my signature tourist purchase for every city I visit abroad.

Today we went to St Kilda and had lunch at Lentil as Anything. Lentils is a chain of five vegetarian restaurants run entirely on donations: rather than paying a fixed price, you give however much you can afford or think the meal is worth. The food is delicious, so well worth the suggested price of (to my memory) around $15 – but the donation box means that you don’t have to feel bad if you can’t spend that much. We also had a wander around - and lie down - at the Veg Out Community Garden.

I am midway through the semester and my days are spent in the library, my evenings in the city, my nights in the shared kitchen, and my money on coffee. (Zeugma.) Summer is on its way. My time is beginning to run out. I’d better make it count.

Simple steps to creating an Aussie nickname:

1. Shorten the word to one or two syllables.

2. Add 'o' on the end.

That's it. Congratulations. Servo, bottle-o, Johnno. Works every time.