I’m on the Murray’s bus, headed towards Canberra. Just a moment ago, the driver told us we’ll be arriving roughly forty minutes later than scheduled, due to heavy traffic in Sydney. Despite the delay, I love the bus trip to Canberra: I’ve had a brief nap, answered a bunch of emails, and have read some online newspapers. In some ways, the delay is a blessing, as it has given me the time to begin this, my first “proper” blog post for the year.

Even though I’ve been reasonably busy, both work-wise and socially, I’ve been procrastinating with my blog. Lately, I’ve been thinking my life is a little “boring” right now – just go to work, come hone, watch TV, and listen to the radio, with no exciting overseas holidays to reflect on or anticipate – and therefore have had nothing of value to write about. But then, a few days ago, I remembered when I began this blog years ago I would often write about the movies, books, television I’ve been watching etc, and so this year I’ve decided to also share some of the more “ordinary” parts of my life.

Over the last few weeks I’ve been to see some terrific movies. “Three Billboards” is violent, but compelling. You really need to suspend belief for “The Sound Of Water”, but it’s a beautiful journey. And of course, I’ve been to see “The Big Gay Movie” of the year so far, “Call Me By Your Name”. It’s a wonderful story about the summer relationship between two young men. The relationship is complicated by one of them being under eighteen, though there’s not a huge age gap between them. The end of the film is very sad, and I had a few tears.

Season 4 of “Rita” was released on Netflix last week. Although previously, I’ve binged on the Danish program about a non-conformist teacher, I’ve been taking this new season a little more slowly. Friends who’ve watched the whole series have said on Facebook they found themselves “blubbering”. And so I’m anticipating a sad conclusion, and therefore, have been avoiding “the binge”, wanting to hold off and really enjoy every moment of what I assume will be the final series.

I’ve been slowly enjoying the Hillary Clinton biography (as well as being fairly honest, she shows a fair deal of self-awareness), and I’m about half way through Luke Harding’s book about Russian involvement in the US election, “Collusion”. I’m currently listening to and loving “The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning”, an older woman’s story of de-cluttering, after the death of her husband. Though the narrator is English, the intonation and the visualisation is taking me on a wonderful trip to Sweden.

There have been a few terrific catch-ups with friends. There was a long lunch at the awesome Chin Chin and drinks at Kinselas with a couple of old school friends; dinner and some jazz, featuring Lily Dior, who performed some of the back catalogue of Sarah Vaughn at 505 Cleveland Steet; and awesome drinks at The Winery with a friend who now lives in Paris, whom I haven’t seen for a couple of years, but who was back in Sydney. In fact, the last time I saw him was in Canberra at the “Australian Of The Year” ceremony, which co-incidentally is why I’m headed to Canberra now.