(no subject)

Today is so far a bit odd. Three different people have managed to make my life a bit more difficult through a kind of teasing passive aggression. None of them are on LJ, which means they don't know about the bad news behind the locked post, but still, three is a bit of a coincidence. Three, not in a day, but in an hour.

The bad news has been twittered, so I'm unlocking the post. I didn't want anyone who knows her to discover through social media, but if it's been twittered and mail listed, the damage has been done. I think the grapevine has worked, though and that everyone I know who was friends knows. I hope they do. If they don't, then they are not going to read my blog in any case.

Maybe it's just as well my coffee delivery hasn't yet happened, for I quite probably don't need extra caffeine for a few days. Just as long as I have coffee for the weekend, which will be all about friends and moving into the new year.

And everything else can wait.

Interview and giveaway

I completely forgot that I was interviewed the other day by the inimitable Rowena Cory Daniells and that (if you answer a very simple question) there will be a bookplate for you (no prize draw, one of each of you) and the art on the bookplate is by Kathleen Jennings (the artist who did the Freedom Maze cover and the Conflux cookbook illustrations). If you want to know more about Kathleen (apart from the fact that she's very tall, a Queenslander, and that her day job is in law) she was interviewed straight after me.

Read my interview! http://www.rowena-cory-daniells.com/2012/09/07/meet-gillian-polack/ Make rude comments! (but not to Rowena, for she is a very nice person - only to me, for I am not)

(no subject)

My coffee delivery has happened. I'm trying a new supplier, for my old one no longer has a reliable roast (as we've discussed here before) and I refuse to pay top price unless I get wonderful beans, perfectly roasted every time. I don't give myself a lot of treats, but coffee is one of them. Or was. We'll see.

The new supplier has fair trade arabica beans, but they're all blends. I shall miss my favourite beans. I've three blends to try, and if any of them are good, I'm in business. Not as fine business as before, but business. They all smell good, which is a start. They're also almost half the price of my original supplier. I shall spend the money I saved paying the bills which keep appearing on my desk. stuff like electricity and body corporate.

If they're only OK, then these beans will get me through the next little while and I can try someone else. If they're wonderful, then I might be sourcing coffee from Perth instead of Melbourne for the foreseeable future.

I'd just made myself some tea when the delivery came, so it'll be an hour before I know, but the new coffee will also be the impetus to get myself through today. I still have leftover ducks from yesterday, for last night was spent largely on the phone and in thought.

My cup of tea should take me through the bill-paying and finishing one of the articles. Then I get to read before I make coffee and finish the second for the day. And then I teach.

Tonight I'm giving myself a quiet evening, for one thing I learn about bad things happen, is they leave a wash of emotional exhaustion and pushing oneself through that does no-one any good.

ETA: The coffee is a roasted just a squidgeon past perfection and the bean lacks complexity, but otherwise, the first coffee is very tolerable. In fact, the darker roast and the straightforward flavour makes a very Italian-flavoured coffee, which will suit most of my friends and, ground finely, will do nicely for historical coffees and Middle Eastern styles. So I'm fine for this kilo of coffee. I'll report in again in one kilogram's time.