My hip is bruised from helping pack away the zine fair tables. Nearly everyone just got up and left at 5pm, which I thought was very rude, given they were given this opportunity for free; it wouldn't hurt them to help out just a little. Some people didn't even bother taking all their zines with them and left them on the tables.

But overall it was fun, though amazingly hot given its winter. I sat in the sun all day, but I talked to people and sold a bunch of zines and some kanzashi flower brooches. I hadn't expected the brooches to be so popular, it turned out I should have made more. It's good to know, I'll have more ready for next time.

In class we got back our results for the panel. I got 90, and all the kids in my panel got a High Distinction. I'm proud of us, we worked hard for our marks. Though the whole class did well, Jill said, which is awesome.

Uni is done for the semester. It kind of crept up on me; for weeks I was too busy to even think about it so it feels quite sudden. I'm beginning to consider my plans for the six weeks I have off. I've decided I'm going to make a craft zine to sell at the next zine fair, and make more brooches. Paloma was talking about maybe holding a zine fair in Wollongong, which I think sounds pretty awesome. I need to get stuff ready incase it goes ahead.

The final panel

The last panel was the one Luke chaired, which was held in class. It was set-up like a current affairs program and he was the right-wing bigot-host railing against the guest writers, Freya and Chris. It was HILARIOUS.

Talkin' bought my generation

Maddy's panel was held exactly a week after mine, at the 5 Islands Brewery by the beach. The topic was "Talkin' Bought My Generation" and the panelists, Steph, Bridget, Laura and Paloma, talked about, you guessed it, representations and implications of this generations in writing.

After the panel a few people (ie. CLAIRE) performed songs.

zine zine zine

I didn't want to write about these things out of order, but the photos from the two student panels remain trapped on my digital camera, so I guess in the meantime I will write about how things are going with the zine: last Sunday I got together with Bridget and Laura from class at the Flame Tree Music cafe in town, and together we went over all the submissions and did some editing. Not much, mostly just a spelling and grammar check, fixing stray commas, stuff like that. In most cases there was scarcely anything that needed fixing in those areas anyway.

Next up I need to make the changes in the word documents, then I can get printing. I have a rough plan of lay-out in my head already, and today I settled on what the text on the front cover will say. I won't reveal it here, people wanting to know will have to buy a copy, ha ha.

June 2 is the day it all has to be ready by. I won't lie, I am quite stressed about it, not because I don't think I can get it done, but because there is just so much to do, both for this subject and others and it is quite overwhelming.

I have a half-table booked for the day, and I am planning to also sell copies of Tide for the uni, as well as maybe jewellery and other small items that I have made myself, assuming I have time to y'know, make them.

the creative extravaganza

The past few weeks have been so jam-packed with events that I have fallen behind in updating this in only a matter of days.

Friday May 18 was the Creative Extravaganza, held at the Hideaway Cafe in the Wollongong mall, The turn-out was pretty big, and tonnes of people read, sang, or performed their original works, to the delight of the crowd who really got into it all.
The judges were Paloma, Laura and Freya, with Samira announcing the acts. Prizes were CDs, books and bottles of wine, all donated by local businesses, which were won by (in order):
Claire Garett, who got first place with a performance of a song
Luke Johnston, who got second place for his poetry
and Dane Naoum, who won third with his performance poetry that involved the audience.

Special mentions went to Daniel East, Adam Norris and Maddie Phelan, and my very own special mention goes to the chicken and sun-dried tomato risotto, which was delicious but too huge to finish.

Panel photos

The guests arriving


During the panel. Left to right: Samira, Alida, me, Lauren, Madeline.

Kind of blurry. My camera really sucks. Perhaps in future I'll draw pictures in MS paint instead of posting photos.

Poetry reading

Five days late, but still just as good... except for the whole "flash not exactly working, so I had to edit most of these in photoshop" thing. Sorry about the poor quality, guys.


Bede Payne, the guy who created and runs the poetry collective, giving his introduction.


Claire and Dane who were in the audience. They both also read.


Patrick Lenton doing a reading


If you squint, you might just be able to make out Daniel East behind the mic

It was at this point my camera was stolen by a crazy woman, who somehow used all the battery without taking a single photo and thus ended the nights photo taking.