Miriam Strickland

Season of lists and mellow thoughts

2/4/2020

By Miriam Strickland

I’M NOT going to write about The Current Situation. ‘Nuff said, surely.

Instead, a collection of comments, inspired by a book I’m reading at the moment. Twenty-One Truths About Love, by Matthew Green. It’s a clever novel, composed entirely of lists. The main character explains that his psychotherapist advised him to start journaling: making lists is his compromise. It’s surprisingly affecting. The following isn’t quite the same, but let’s try it.

4 Comments

It’s complicated

10/2/2020

5 Comments

By Miriam Strickland

PAULINE and I have been a couple for twenty years. As I write that I feel the need to add an emoji, the one with eyes wide, mouth agape and eyebrows raised to the hairline. No other partner ever managed to put up with me for anything like that long, so twenty years really is remarkable. So remarkable that I’m writing about it here in the Post.

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Job done

7/11/2019

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By Miriam Strickland

I’VE quit my day job. Actually it doesn’t make much sense to say that, given that my “other” job has become my day job now. But the day job I quit has been my principal place of employment for over 15 years, and you don’t just quit it without a bit of thought.

Some people around my age have had the misfortune to be pushed out of their job, or to find themselves unable to keep doing it. Not in my case. I was still physically and mentally capable of keeping up with the work, and I enjoyed the vibrant atmosphere created by the new young owner of the business. There was no pressure to make way for younger staff, and no technological changes I couldn’t keep up with.

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A family affair

13/9/2019

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Story by Miriam Strickland
Photos by Pauline Wilkinson

WE HAVE been adopted by a family of magpies. An adult male started visiting in late winter two years ago, and occasionally we’d toss a bit of extra something his way; a few crumbs, a bit of cheese, a worm-sized bit of mince before it disappeared into the meatball mix. So of course he started appearing more often.

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Meet the family!

4/7/2019

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By Miriam Strickland

EXCITING news! My New York cousin is coming to visit! Her mother and my mother were first cousins, growing up together in South Yarra during the Depression and WWII. How did my cousin come to be a New Yorker? Read on.

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Feels like home

16/5/2019

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By Miriam Strickland

RECENTLY someone asked me if I was a local, in a context that meant local to Wonthaggi as distinct from the Bass Coast region. In this situation the simple answer was yes, I do live in Wonthaggi. But as sometimes happens when someone asks you an innocent question, it got me thinking.

I could have answered no, as I’m not third or fourth generation born and bred here. Or I could have said yes, I have lived here for over seventeen years, the longest I have lived anywhere, and feel that by now the place has interwoven with my DNA.

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The pleasure of puzzles

21/3/2019

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By Miriam Strickland

AT OUR final meeting for the year, South Coast Speakers Toastmasters club holds an informal dinner gathering which includes a Kris Kringle gift exchange. We keep the value low as it’s just a bit of fun at Christmas time. I have heard that in past years some of the “gifts” have not seemed very … gifty. Socks, for example.

This year’s selection was pretty good. I recall handmade chocolate treats, a very popular spiced couscous product ready to make at home, and other simple but pleasant things. Perhaps the most unexpected was a set of puzzle books. Which came to me.

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Time flies

29/11/2018

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By Miriam Strickland

JOHN Lennon wrote in one of his songs: “Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans” Have you ever felt that way? Thinking you’ve got a nice routine worked out, busy, maybe, but your activities nicely dovetail and there’s some breathing space built in to make a cuppa and watch the grass grow.

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Family ties

21/9/2018

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By Miriam Strickland

WHETHER by coincidence or design, my siblings and I were born about five years apart. Therefore, every so often we all reach ages with a five or a zero ending. This year is such a year, including one of us at 75 and two at 70. We thought we should mark the occasion.

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Full of beans

17/4/2018

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Tunisian Breakfast Soup

By Miriam Strickland

HOW are you going with your legumes? I hope my previous column encouraged some of you to try incorporating some wonderful “musical fruits” into your menus. This time let’s explore a bit further.

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The F word

13/2/2018

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By Miriam Strickland

DISCUSSING legumes often brings out the child in us. Many of us wouldn’t admit to finding fart jokes funny but the rhyme that goes: “Beans, beans, the musical fruit; the more you eat the more you toot” makes most people smile.

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Blessings!

14/12/2017

1 Comment

By Miriam Strickland

LATELY I’ve found myself saying “bless you” a lot. To customers I serve in the shop, to participants in my classes, to friends and family on the phone. Or I might say it in relation to a third party; for example on hearing an anecdote about someone I don’t know, responding by saying “oh, that’s funny, bless him/her”.

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Lean times

30/8/2017

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By Miriam Strickland

DR MICHAEL Mosley is becoming a bit annoying. Switch on to SBS and if it isn’t a program on ancient Egypt or Hitler it’ll be Dr Mosley.

A slight exaggeration perhaps, but he’s been very busy. He’s presented a dozen TV series and written many books. We now have a blood sugar diet book, a fasting for health and longevity diet book, a weight loss diet book, exercise for managing all of the above, and now a gut health diet book.

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Back to basics

17/6/2017