Chris loves ‘messing about in boats’ – specifically the catamaran she and her husband sail along the coast of eastern Australia.
She has written some descriptive and humorous articles about her voyages. Her writing is subtle and understated with imagery that is as original as it is accurate. Chris is working on a novel set in Sydney during World War Two. The text focuses on several women whose lives and relationships are irreversibly affected by the War. |
Latest Writing
Slumped Have you spied that new University of Technology building at Broadway in Sydney? The one that looks like a crumpled brown paper bag. You can’t spot it from the Country Trains entrance to Central and try your hardest, there’s no way you’ll pick it out while dodging and sidestepping foot traffic along the main drag. It’s slumped, in hiding, around the corner. Knocked up in one of those shabby-chic backstreets. Just as well. When I say knocked up, I’m not inferring that the place is likely to expand. Who in their right mind would consider that? It could burst if someone clapped too hard. I’m referring to construction techniques. The imagery of a brown paper bag stuffed with non-sequential numbered, used notes doesn’t bode well. Weren’t there whisperings of shoddy workmanship? A free-falling crane wasn’t the only mishap on site. Let’s just hope that the crumpled bag look isn’t an indication of slapdash workmanship. I’d expect that the brickies sniggering probably fizzled out by the time their trowels tapped at the corners. More than likely there’d be a fair amount of considered head scratching, stirred up with a gob full of colourful language to decipher the angles. What about the interior spaces? Those jarring, sharp edges that twist and tilt towards the pointy end. Do they conjure an ambience for inspirational education? Do you reckon you’d regain any sense of equilibrium, be able to ease your mind enough to relax into a contemplative zone? I’d freak out. My head would be in a spin. My first glimpse of that eyesore was on the evening news where they interviewed the architect. The poor bloke was stunned, so embarrassed that he back-pedaled as quick as a head of state who’d modeled himself on Vladimir Putin back in the day. Surely he entered the competition as a joke. Backfired all around when he romped home a length ahead of the field. And now look what we’ve been landed with. Demoralized by an ever-slumping brown paper bag that’s screwed up, all set for a toss in the nearest skip. Maybe youngsters, up and coming designers think it’s cool and I’m just showing my age. But it’s like jazz music to me. Those discordant, side-slipping angles make my blood curdle. |