bedroom galilee clive barker bathroom amy and isabelle elizabeth strout car/walk evening susan minot
office look sharp! joe jackson lilith fair 2, 3 various car more tales from the city [book-on-tape] armistead maupin living room the sci fi channel
brand x the message came from out of the blue: Brand X welcomes you into its clutches.
1999 june 29
quokkas
has anyone checked out quokka.com?
when i heard the name on the telly, i immediately had to check it out because i absolutely could not reconcile the site's description with the quokkas i knew and loved. the site is full of extreme sports: lots of interaction, lots of shockwave flash animations, lots of very fast very dangerous very athletic stuff going on there. quokkas are tiny little marsupials that hide in corners when they hear you coming, and would just as soon nibble on a few leaves as run a marathon or bungee jump off a bridge.
quokkas live on a tiny little island off the coast of perth, western australia--rottnest island. we used to go there for summer holidays some twenty-odd years ago, the first few years staying with the lanes, our next door neighbours, and finally renting our own bungalow, flat 122, the last year we were there. the quokkas were everywhere, and especially in our little courtyard; they liked to hang out in the shade made by the walls. we kept trying to pet one but they didn't seem to keen on the idea and after a while, and many instances of my mother yelling, "leave the poor beasties alone!" we gave up and went about other rottnest business.
there were no cars allowed, except for a few service vehicles, so we rode our bikes everywhere. down to the milk bar for chocolate and export cola. to the absolutely divine bakery and the cream buns they sold; my god but i loved those things. i can almost taste them now and if rottnest weren�t on the other side of the world, i'd hop on over and get myself half a dozen, calories be damned.
we'd pedal to the other side of the island and swim in the crystal blue lagoons, brightly colored zinc oxide spread across our noses to protect them from sunburn. as i recall, i was very fond of sky blue that summer, though jubilee and the boys were into yellows and oranges. we'd swim out to the edge of the lagoon and scare ourselves silly with the tales of the great white sharks that were rumoured to live close by. everyone had seen jaws and was convinced the next major shark tragedy was going to happen right off our coast.
the ride back from rottness, on the hovercraft/hydroplane thing was great fun too, even if it made me dreadfully ill. i loved flying through the water, spray in my face, my hair being whipped into a giant knot. we always reached the shore too soon for my liking.
i've been watching the washing machine again.
last night i washed this giant furry blanket thing i've had for over ten years. i'm pretty sure i hadn't washed it even once since it first arrived on my bed, and the color of the water as it ran through the wash cycle bore me out. it was disgusting: dark yellowish gray, even the second time i ran it through. the third time, though, it was just a pale gray and after two rinse cycles, i think it is as close to clean as it is going to get at this point.
too bad it's summer now and too warm at night to use it. it smells all snuggly.
quokka, quokka, quokka, claire
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