Charm has a dream!

I want to work in a car repair shop. You know, open up cars, tweak engines, haul tyres, get dirty.
:D :D

The boy who taught me it was okay to let go

I couldn't have been more than ten and still suffering acutely from my childhood fear of losing things. He was the boy who lived in the corner unit, down the half of the corridor in which we never played. He was ducking like a spy behind the railing that kept us from falling seven storeys onto the pavement, popping up every now and then to shoot a playing card-dart at his demoniacal nemesis disguised as a puff of cloud.

What are you doing, I asked, outraged that he didn't realise he would never get those playing cards back.

Shooting, he said. A five of spades catapulted out into the sky and was duly licked up by a tongue of wind.

I don't want them anymore, he explained, sensing my stiff upper lip and quavering knees. He stopped and looked at me. Try it, he said, and put an ace in my hand. I rolled my eyes and flicked it outward with two fingers the way he showed me. The ace sliced our blue bit of sky beautifully.

Whoa, he exclaimed. Together, we finished the deck.

Off To New York!

Won't be taking calls or messages till 13 June.

Life, at the moment, is a mess.

An interesting mess. But I will sort it out soon, I promise.