https://www.notablog.com.au/blog daily 1.0 2026-04-03 https://www.notablog.com.au/blog/kpey1n87w44k58de18hzumsc110hkr monthly 0.5 2026-03-29 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6912817ee7ef3f6e4c8dd98a/1773556866590-OWD5WZH7TE4NMGFCKXLC/mean+streak.png blog - mean streak - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6912817ee7ef3f6e4c8dd98a/340b7d25-c151-4cef-9f6d-bacb109f124e/first-time.jpg blog - mean streak - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://www.notablog.com.au/blog/five-for-friday-1 monthly 0.5 2026-03-10 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6912817ee7ef3f6e4c8dd98a/4e9e664b-e63d-43d6-ab70-7960d17782d8/5forfridaymar.png blog - five for friday - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6912817ee7ef3f6e4c8dd98a/71faad23-2b44-46ee-a3e5-b6cbb2e36459/pacific.jpg blog - five for friday - The Pacific (spoiler alert) is set in the Pacific Theatre of WWII – including Guadalcanal and Pavuvu (Solomon Islands), Cape Gloucester (New Britain), Peleliu (Palau), Iwo Jima, and Okinawa. The series follows a cluster of US Marines fighting the Japanese Imperial Army in treacherously hot, wet, and poorly resourced conditions. (Side note: Rami Malek appears as ‘Snafu’, delivering a flawless Creole accent in one of his first major roles at the time.) While sometimes still perpetuating an obvious ‘America good, Japan bad’ ethos, the series does a harrowing job of highlighting the profoundly injurious effects of war on combatants. Even more so than either Band of Brothers or Masters of the Air, The Pacific underscores the senselessness of WWII, particularly in the Pacific region, where thousands (if not millions) of soldiers lost their lives fighting low-stakes but high-casualty battles that ultimately had little effect on the overall trajectory of the war. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6912817ee7ef3f6e4c8dd98a/86fecbc2-306e-4b58-99d7-e927b10407d5/curel.webp blog - five for friday - But my skin is so dry. It’s the texture I longed for as a teenager circa 1998, when nothing signalled unkemptness so much as a shiny T-zone. These days, as I stumble towards the desiccated age of 42, I want to look more like the love child of a disco ball and the Tin Man. Dewy. Hydrated. Shiny af. Daiso saves the day because – at least where I live – it stocks Curel products, one of my favourite brands from Japan. The intensive moisture cream is rich and emollient without being too turgid and heavy. It reminds me a little of the Glow Recipe avocado night cream that was also ruthlessly discontinued. (You can buy Curel products from W Cosmetics, too.) https://www.notablog.com.au/blog/back-in-the-saddle monthly 0.5 2026-02-20 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6912817ee7ef3f6e4c8dd98a/c8b49aa0-3fe7-4360-8635-368d3767831e/Untitled+design.png blog - back in the saddle - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6912817ee7ef3f6e4c8dd98a/0ca5da00-42d4-427c-8cf2-97d9ddd4d90d/8F9D67D4-A2A5-45C0-92CD-A21354E9000B.JPG blog - back in the saddle - THANKFULLY, THE HISTOLOGY REPORTS came back clean in terms of serious nasties. I’ve been using the doctor’s print-out as a bookmark. There are pages of surgical notes I don’t understand, but the summary is simple, rendered in capital letters. I cried all the way home when the print-out was still crisp and fresh, then jammed into my handbag. ‘You look so tired,’ my doctor had said. She’s known me for more than a decade now, including the year I spent in and out of hospital undergoing treatment for the intractable depression that once settled over me like a toxic fog following a run-of-the-mill wisdom tooth extraction. (General anaesthetic messes you up.) https://www.notablog.com.au/blog/writers-block monthly 0.5 2026-01-27 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6912817ee7ef3f6e4c8dd98a/1768883768758-Z2AXCWJK9VK7WE1AUTGA/Untitled+design.png blog - writer’s block - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://www.notablog.com.au/blog/five-for-friday monthly 0.5 2026-01-29 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6912817ee7ef3f6e4c8dd98a/363b0b77-afbc-4fe3-835a-b29bb4d963ac/Untitled+design.png blog - five for friday - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6912817ee7ef3f6e4c8dd98a/1768173167502-ZR7W1IULKTCBVOW4SIPH/images.jpg blog - five for friday https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6912817ee7ef3f6e4c8dd98a/1768173185483-RNYYS2Z2N635NRMGSINN/SEARCHLIGHT_PICTURES_Roses_The_Nod_e41c2438bf-tmygzieitwabnkj-4x3.jpg blog - five for friday https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6912817ee7ef3f6e4c8dd98a/1768175055665-G3VM1VRVSNZSD8K7PY00/images.jpg blog - five for friday https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6912817ee7ef3f6e4c8dd98a/2062447e-e7e3-4f46-a941-256a8ca2bb96/210223811.jpg blog - five for friday - I’d picked it up on a whim before Christmas, having spotted a hardcover copy in Dymocks for $45 then a paperback in Target for only $12, a purchase that left me feeling rueful and a little dirty. Feelings of shame aside, I decided to make it my first read of the year as something fast-paced and frictionless yet also clever, and on those points the novel succeeded in spades. On others, though, I couldn’t help but wonder if the book’s alarmingly short gestation undermined its potential. (Kuang published Yellowface in mid-2023; Katabasis – at 560 pages – came out in August 2025.) As the name suggests, Katabasis is set in the underworld, a version of Hell into which two Cambridge graduate students descend in search of their recently exploded supervisor, Professor Grimes. Such is the urgency of retrieving Grimes for the purpose of guaranteeing tenured jobs post graduation, Alice Law and Peter Murdoch, scholars of magick, together cast a spell that allows them brief access to the afterlife, even as it halves their estimated lifespans. At least, that’s the original premise. https://www.notablog.com.au/blog/resolved monthly 0.5 2026-01-12 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6912817ee7ef3f6e4c8dd98a/1768176155176-OR2TL1YBYNLX3ONJJFVI/Untitled+design.png blog - resolved - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://www.notablog.com.au/blog/a-few-of-my-favourite-things monthly 0.5 2025-12-26 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6912817ee7ef3f6e4c8dd98a/a816b193-216d-430a-af7e-4300d51498c2/Untitled+design+%281%29.png blog - a few of my favourite things - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6912817ee7ef3f6e4c8dd98a/1766634140610-4J3BJ257DSKWEXFX2N1K/toxic+town.jpg blog - a few of my favourite things https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6912817ee7ef3f6e4c8dd98a/1766634140922-6TGLYCVG0PGV2H66M5U8/boots.jpg blog - a few of my favourite things https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6912817ee7ef3f6e4c8dd98a/1766634142567-RS0BVPPJQG8FRWWENCMQ/dyingforsex.webp blog - a few of my favourite things https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6912817ee7ef3f6e4c8dd98a/9566566b-1533-4a09-bc35-24beb4e7994b/emilie+nicolas.jpg blog - a few of my favourite things - Favourite songs I discovered in 2025: Emilie Nicolas – ‘Feel Fine’ #1 Dads & Tom Snowdon – ‘Return To’ Ólafur Arnalds & Talos – ‘Signs’ Haux – ‘Seaside’ Billie Eilish – ‘my future’ Biblio – ‘Curls’ Ásgeir – ‘Fennir Yfir’ Gordi – ‘Avant Gardener’ The Paper Kites, feat. Rosie Carney – ‘By My Side’ The Sei – ‘Let It All Go’ To be clear: some of these songs are several (even many!) years old, but they were new to me in 2025. I’ve played them a lot. (Where did everyone end up once they ditched Spotify? I’m still using Apple Music.) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6912817ee7ef3f6e4c8dd98a/8e31678b-35fa-4951-95a4-5098e106b0ca/DLKL_BNE04116-940.JPG blog - a few of my favourite things - Obviously, the best thing I did this year was GET MARRIED! We chose to seal the deal on 2/2 because we’re old, and it was a date we could easily recall. I don’t regret having a small wedding, but it meant limiting the guest list quite aggressively. We were intending to have another reception-style party on a different day, probably in winter, but then the whole year seemed to simply disappear into a vortex of work, work, work, quitting a job, starting a new one, COVID, pregnancy, then another pregnancy loss. It’s been a year. I still feel guilty about leaving some friends and family out of our special day. This photograph, however, makes me laugh every time I look at it. (There’s a reason nobody in my family lets me cut anything – turns out I butcher not only blocks of butter, cheese, and bread but also slabs of lemon cheesecake.) My little yellow frock was an Italian-silk shift dress that I bought off the rack from Oroton on my lunch break in the CBD. After a hair-related debacle that left me panicking half the day, we ended up popping a Valium before walking down the ‘aisle’ – and we had a ball. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6912817ee7ef3f6e4c8dd98a/1766635136988-1XCSAEK2AKOMK7EOTOIX/tenderfoot.png blog - a few of my favourite things https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6912817ee7ef3f6e4c8dd98a/1766635131126-N4NBAXEBIL37Z7OCCSM2/body%2Bfriend%2BUS%2B2.webp blog - a few of my favourite things https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6912817ee7ef3f6e4c8dd98a/1766635142372-QOTYI6NP4YTS54EFEAIZ/bulletpaperrock.png blog - a few of my favourite things https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6912817ee7ef3f6e4c8dd98a/978e3f30-9cdb-4566-8b91-4095400c4414/5338-honey-and-pine-nut-tart-1120.jpg blog - a few of my favourite things - Finally, the best recipe I stumbled on all year was this honey and pine nut tart from Sainsbury’s Magazine, of all places, which I found online while desperately searching for something baklava-esque in pie form. I baked it for a dinner party and have made it half a dozen times since – with all sorts of nuts, including almonds, pistachios, and hazelnuts. The pastry comes together in the food processor (no fussy cutting-in or other tedious steps), and it just seems to work out every time, even on the occasion that I forgot it was in the oven and over-baked the filling. It’s better when the centre is still wobbly instead of cakey, but you can’t go too wrong. My mother-in-law, not a big dessert person, even went back for seconds when I made this tart for her birthday a few months ago, which has never happened before. https://www.notablog.com.au/blog/panic-at-the-nail-salon monthly 0.5 2026-01-15 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6912817ee7ef3f6e4c8dd98a/683b5eb5-b62d-4cbe-8b93-b3dcd2b23ffa/nail+salon.png blog - panic! at the nail salon - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://www.notablog.com.au/blog/albums-i-have-loved-before monthly 0.5 2025-12-17 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6912817ee7ef3f6e4c8dd98a/1765886649366-80HTKKFH842PMUZKTXEN/albums%27.png blog - albums i have loved before - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6912817ee7ef3f6e4c8dd98a/30cf0c65-1509-4f06-a4f2-905635803f6a/61shgIEQD1L._UF1000%2C1000_QL80_.jpg blog - albums i have loved before - Olive – Extra Virgin Released in 1996, this CD was part of my older brother’s collection. Olive – a British trip hop band made up of Tim Kellett as producer, instrumentalist, and songwriter; Ruth-Ann Boyle as vocalist; and Robin Taylor-Firth as co-producer and keyboard programmer – shot to fame for their song ‘You’re Not Alone’, which reached number one on the UK singles chart. I came to the album a few years later, probably because the disc was lying around at home, and it became a fast favourite, though my stand-out tracks still include ‘Killing’, ‘Blood Red Tears’, and ‘You Are Nothing’. Extra Virgin is a quintessentially ‘90s project (just look at that cover art): synth-y, echoey, and full of pleasingly savage songs to accompany a range of break-up situations. Ruth-Ann went on to sing lead vocals on the tracks ‘Gravity of Love’ and ‘Silence Must Be Heard’ for Enigma's 2000 studio album, The Screen Behind the Mirror. Her cover of The Cars’ ‘Who’s Gonna Drive You Home?’ is also airy, dark, and altogether wonderful. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6912817ee7ef3f6e4c8dd98a/8a99accf-9272-4fe5-ab11-686c7d7240cd/61GTlVGMoDL._UF894%2C1000_QL80_.jpg blog - albums i have loved before - Enya – Watermark I have a distinct and vidid memory of watching Rage on TV while on Christmas holidays in Australia, sometime in the early ‘90s, and being mesmerised by the music video for Enya’s ‘Orinoco Flow’, which was played alongside ‘She Drives Me Crazy’ by the Fine Young Cannibals before the ad break. We used to listen to Watermark on CD when Mum was driving, though not when my baby sister was in the car because she used to cry. As I got older, I sometimes imagined I looked a little like Enya on this album cover – at least while my hair was still black. Something about her eyes and the shape of her nose? I remain openly obsessed with Enya, which I divulged on radio this year (repeatedly, actually, until the hosts made me stop). But what’s not to love? Enya lives in an Irish castle with up to 12 cats at a time. And, according to this Pitchfork article, ‘a generation of artists who grew up on Enya have now arrived to recover the nuances of her artistry and reclaim her as a role model’. Her music is timeless. Watermark is one of eight of Enya’s studio albums, and in addition to her iconic ‘Orinoco Flow’, it includes sombre yet beautiful tracks such as ‘On Your Shore’ – my second favourite pick. (It probably still makes my sister cry.) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6912817ee7ef3f6e4c8dd98a/708964d3-5abb-4f49-b1b7-9c082fed694b/71mg-aHJwjL._UF894%2C1000_QL80_.jpg blog - albums i have loved before - Burial – Untrue I have a feeling one of my billions of cousins recommended this album to me back in the day. I bought it on Apple iTunes, put it on my iPod Shuffle (omg I’m a hundred years old), and played it relentlessly while travelling around Europe with my dad in 2008. My father, bless him, has sleep apnoea, and although he dutifully lugged a CPAP machine across Germany, Austria, and the Czech Republic, the whooshing Darth Vader sounds he made at night – just trying to breathe, I guess – used to keep me awake in our cramped (budget) hotel rooms. I actually think it was the beginning of my prolonged struggle with insomnia. To avoid smothering Dad with one of those thin yet somehow heavy hotel pillows, I’d plug my ears tightly with earphones connected to the Shuffle, knock back a Restavit, and hope for the best. Untrue, I should make clear, is not a bunch of lullabies. ‘Burial’ is the alias of William Emmanuel Bevan, a British electronic musician from South London. Untrue feels something like The Prodigy meets James Blake, ethereal but dank. This album will always be Berlin in autumn to me. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6912817ee7ef3f6e4c8dd98a/15a85615-35d8-4da1-87d4-46f7804bf044/david+gray.jpeg blog - albums i have loved before - David Gray – White Ladder The soundtrack of my early 20s, White Ladder was one of many albums I came by simply because my best friend shared my exact taste in music but always made much more effort to discover new artists. (This state of affairs remains intact almost three decades later.) David Gray – a Welsh singer-songwriter who rose to prominence in 1998 with this album – played at QPAC only recently, and I had no idea until he’d already moved on from Brisbane. (I’m gutted.) White Ladder features some of his best known songs: ‘This Year's Love’, ‘Babylon’, ‘Please Forgive Me’, and ‘Sail Away’. But it’s possibly the final track, ‘Say Hello Wave Goodbye’, that’s my actual favourite: an acoustic cover of Soft Cell’s 1981 original. The strident quality of Gray’s voice, and his unique delivery, sets him apart from other moody guys with guitars. I remember someone asking me once, while listening to ‘This Year’s Love’, ‘What on earth is he saying?’ It does sound very much like this year’s luvaddbeddalllaaaaarse – or something even less Intelligible – but it’s part of the song’s lasting charm. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6912817ee7ef3f6e4c8dd98a/eb2c4b89-6be1-43df-8099-0629e6283bfd/graceland.jpg blog - albums i have loved before - Paul Simon – Graceland Another CD from my mother’s stash, Graceland holds a special place in my heart. An unusually adventurous Year 5 teacher chose ‘Under African Skies’ for our end-of-year gymnastics performance (circa 1993) at the international school I attended for most of my primary education in Papua New Guinea. I’m making it sound naff, but just imagine a gaggle of kids from a dozen different countries rolling and cartwheeling and cascading as Paul Simon harmonises with Linda Ronstadt, and you might indulge me this moment of nostalgia. There’s not a single dud track on this album, which Paul Simon recorded in both Johannesburg and New York, breaking the cultural boycott of South Africa during its policy of apartheid. He’d recently parted ways with Art Garfunkel and split with his wife, Carrie Fisher, experiencing a long and serious bout of depression. After the failure of his previous album, Graceland catapulted Simon back into the annals of music history, earning him a Grammy in 1987 for Best Album of the Year. Graceland remains controversial for several reasons, including the uncredited influence of Heidi Berg (dick move), but his collaboration with Ladysmith Black Mambazo and an assemblage of other South African musicians helped bring African music into the mainstream – and the album is sometimes still described as one of the best ever made. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6912817ee7ef3f6e4c8dd98a/8462f9ce-d592-4890-be24-3980447d1830/71d2eh2JGEL._UF1000%2C1000_QL80_.jpg blog - albums i have loved before - Faithless – No Roots No Roots is exactly the sort of album that should be experienced from start to finish, in the way nature (or Maxi Jazz) intended. It’s not only poetic, dynamic, and varied but also politically charged, featuring vocals from Dido, Nina Simone, and LSK. (Dido’s older brother, Rollo, was a founding member of Faithless.) While playing the CD on repeat as I drove between Brisbane and my hometown, I’d often play ‘Miss U Less, See U More’ at least half a dozen times in the middle. I’ve always been a pathological song-repeater (could be a touch of neurospice), but that track was uniquely addictive to my mid-20s brain. The album also features some of the most unexpectedly poignant lyrics you might find in a clutch of dance tracks. I’m not sure where I’d put them, but perhaps I’ll have these words tattooed onto my body someday: Shame your mind Don't shine like your possessions do RIP Maxi Jazz. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6912817ee7ef3f6e4c8dd98a/81fedea5-3677-48ea-8bbf-60d85b78a701/surfacing.jpg blog - albums i have loved before - Sarah McLachlan – Surfacing Last but not least, it’s a toss-up between Sarah McLachlan’s Fumbling Towards Ecstasy and this one, Surfacing. Fumbling Towards Ecstasy is a quieter album; Surfacing is famous for McLachlan’s haunting song ‘Angel', which she wrote in remembrance of artists and celebrities lost to drug overdose. Many people are familiar with the opening track, ‘Building a Mystery’, which was Canada’s most successful single of 1997 and the winning song that year for the Grammy Awards’ Best Female Pop Vocal Performance. In my opinion, though, there are other tracks on Surfacing just as worthy and memorable as both ‘Angel’ and ‘Building a Mystery’ – including ‘Witness’ (hazy, smouldering, distorted) and ‘Do What You Have to Do’ (utterly devastating). Once more, I owe my enduring relationship with this album to my music-loving buddy, himself a great fan. https://www.notablog.com.au/blog/on-being-right monthly 0.5 2025-12-17 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6912817ee7ef3f6e4c8dd98a/1765884087196-261XJMKN1E8WE8AE37RK/Screenshot+2025-12-16+at+21.15.51.png blog - on being/doing right - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://www.notablog.com.au/blog/on-clouds monthly 0.5 2025-12-16 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6912817ee7ef3f6e4c8dd98a/1765884360905-Z8TNE29VBTNSUGQNW7RC/Screenshot+2025-12-16+at+21.22.31.png blog - on clouds - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6912817ee7ef3f6e4c8dd98a/66c30d9e-2908-4948-b9fa-3dd02ce39ea7/1200x1200bf-60.jpg blog - on clouds Driving back from my hometown last week following a medical appointment, I put on an episode of Bella Freud’s Fashion Neurosis in which she interviews Ocean Vuong. I’ve recently begun a process of envuongification: two friends, whose tastes I trust implicitly, have waxed so rhapsodic about Ocean Vuong that I’m gradually succumbing, the way I usually do: from the outside in, paratext to actual text. My envuongification has started with songs and podcasts. The books, I’m sure, will come in due course. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6912817ee7ef3f6e4c8dd98a/009a51b8-d6da-4ccc-a725-864b7eb311b0/clouds.jpg blog - on clouds - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://www.notablog.com.au/blog/five-for-friday-november-2025 monthly 0.5 2025-12-16 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6912817ee7ef3f6e4c8dd98a/1765884495072-JBFIU1PV3F8R841SAG4T/Untitled+design.png blog - five for friday - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://www.notablog.com.au/blog/blog-post-hello-world monthly 0.5 2025-12-16 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6912817ee7ef3f6e4c8dd98a/1765884262114-5JRUG1N997R9HBHYINLQ/Screenshot+2025-12-16+at+21.18.10.png blog - are you there, world? - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://www.notablog.com.au/newsletter-1 daily 0.75 2025-12-18 https://www.notablog.com.au/newsletter-1/blog-post-title-four-lr658-tcthp-wf5mw-pwz9b monthly 0.5 2025-12-18 https://www.notablog.com.au/about daily 0.75 2025-12-17