(no subject)

I may change my coffee supplier. I had the perfect place: the roast was always divine and beans amazing. This time, however, some beans were a bit over-roasted, some were under-roasted and one bag tasted off. This was so unlike my coffee person that I emailed about the foul taste and got a polite dismissal. If it was just the one bag that was a bit rancid, to be honest, I'd still stay with these people because this is the first time in many years that there has been any problem at all, but one of the reason I loved them was because they always had a totally, totally perfect roast. I'll buy cheaper coffee (more within my budget rather than using the money I need for other things) if I can't guarantee that perfect roast.

I don't have many luxuries, so this is a sadness. Not worse than a sadness because it means, when I've drunk the underroasted beans and the overroasted beans (I've already thrown out the rancid ones,since they were stinking up my coffee container and the supplier wasn't interested in them) I get to explore different tastes again. Even when a coffee vendor buys coffee from the exact same location, the beans taste different (that's another thing I'll miss - this guy had a knack for sourcing the best beans from any location: his Costa Rica Tarrazu was much more complex that anyone else's, but underroasted that complexity doesn't show) so it's going to be an interesting exploration.

It'll be an interesting exploration at the lower end of the market while I'm studying and I'll no longer be able to promise my friends the best coffee to drink, but I don't want to pay top prices when the coffee isn't perfect.

My coffee guy is probably going through a blip and will have perfect coffee again from here on in, but until my finances come right, I don't want to risk it.

This sounds very much like one of those First World Problem things, but I've given up so many small luxuries to get through the health and the study, that I leaned on the divineness of my coffee rather heavily. It's still not serious, just minorly sad.

(no subject)

I shall be helping at the Folk Dance Canberra tent tomorrow. If you are a Canberran and you want to come and give me a hard time, I'll look forward to it. I'll be there (on and off) from late morning until at least mid afternoon. This is my idea of a day off, of course. I so need a day off! The rest of my tomorrow is bound up in some serious Aurealis thinking, for I promised a final report back to our panel's head judge (with opinions!) on Monday.

Today I've read a book by Margo Lanagan for an article (I still need to get the editor some info - that's later today) and I have a piece to write for BiblioBuffet. All the rest of my day is probably dissertation and working on the Beast. What I don't get done today, I have to finish Sunday evening and Monday morning, so I intend to put in a solid afternoon and evening's work today.

Yesterday I took a break from my regular work and read the Macquarie Pen Anthology of Aboriginal Literature. Australia was patriarchal in a very unhealthy way. It still is - less badly, but still that way inclined. The source of solutions when things go wrong is to shoulder the problem and to say "I can fix this - you go play with your toys." The letters on this in the anthology show, more clearly that anything I've read, that the policy of trying to turn people into permanent dependents started very early on in this country's modern existence.

I also read a volume of poetry by Anita Heiss (who you may well meet here, during Women's History Month) and it helped me sort out which experiences of racism she and I share and which are more heritage specific. I wrote a long paragraph describing what she said and what it means to me, but it became very convoluted. I keep dwelling on one comment of hers: when we discover the capacity to treat other human beings as human beings, then that is awesome, but we should be careful that we don't privilege ourselves with the discovery. Anita pointed out that she doesn't have to be told she's Koori or how to be Koori, because she's Koori already and that being forced to travel everyone else's paths of discovery is assuming that hers are less valid. I have explained this so badly! If any of you want a better explanation, read her writing!