#5: Shopping up on work trips because my brain thinks it's on holidays

A short dispatch from the Sunshine Coast

G’day from Maroochydore on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast. I am here, on the ancestral lands of the Kabi Kabi peoples and the Jinibara peoples, as a speaker for Beyond the Book, a festival celebrating the makings/makers of childrens literature with students from years four to 12.

I flew out of Sydney early Wednesday morning and gained an hour because of the time difference. And it was the most glorious day! From the moment my feet hit the tarmac, I felt the stupendous Queensland heat, but unlike trips past, it just felt legitimately warm instead of humid. Coming off a summer in Sydney that was so humid I was certain I was having an early menopause, this was surprisingly refreshing. I walked to the beach, swam in the hotel pool (which I had to myself for an hour), and scoped out the huge Sunshine Coast Plaza with this river thing running between its buildings, where people can sail.

It was incredibly lovely to have nothing on my schedule for a change, and not to have kids in my care at the same time. This is a rare occurence, and on the second day, when I got back to my hotel room at 2pm and had nothing planned for hours, I simply sat in a chair and gazed out the window, eating a peach and some chips. Later, in the same spot, I filed my nails.

Coming to these writers festivals is not something I always do. Unless we are blockbuster sellers (which I am not) we’re generally on a sort of rotation depending on what books we’ve released the prior year. I did a lot of these festival visits last year and did not expect any in 2024, but I hadn’t been to this one yet so when the invitation came through, I said yes. But it’s also tricky because I am the one who normally does school pick-ups and drop-offs, so it involves a lot of negotiating and then when I get here, a lot of that responsibility is gone and my brain thinks it’s on holidays. As such all my usual sensibility is thrown out the window.

Which is how I found myself stuffing two ceramic platters and a tablecloth in my hand luggage this morning, ahead of my flight back home to Sydney later today. You’d think that with this mini-haul of homewares that I am hosting dinner parties or lovely lunches left, right and centre, but I can’t even remember the last time I had friends over and I think that being on work trips allows me to indulge my fanciful dreams of having a Nancy Meyers-style house, a sort of bohemian writerly attitude 24/7 (as opposed to the stressed and anxious, no-set-working-hours-mum thing I’ve currently got going) and the time and space to host my loved ones over for salon-style gatherings where we discuss creativity, history, style, and a future that looks brighter than the current circumstances we find ourselves in (I say the latter now as I am petrified of buying anything on the credit card because we’re trying to refinance our home loan).

Research shows that I am not the only one who behaves like this on vacation, even though I am not technically on one (again, the emotional part of my brain is going ‘but the location says otherwise!). Apparently all our brains are “ignited by the spark of novelty” which prompts us to “think beyond the confines of the ordinary”. Given my ordinary - to quote another writer here, who is quoting her own friend - is the working mother “at the coalface” of parenting, I am not surprised that I’m going to latch on to plates. In the most mundane part of my days, I have the loftiest ideals about all the versions of me that are possible, so it’s no surprise that when it’s warm outside, and the water is lapping at my feet and the out-of-office is on my email, that I am going to let that lofty part of me have her moment, quite literally, in the sun.

What I bought up here

1. Two platters from H&M: This one says something about gathering around a table with those you love. The other has a tiger and tassels on it, and looks VERY bohemian. I actually walked away from this French-y one, but I bought the other one immediately on sight because I was born in the year of the tiger and it just felt instinctive. (I don’t actually set foot in H&M in Sydney, which says another thing about brains on vacation).

2. This dress from DISSH: Again, I haven’t been to any of the dissh stores in Sydney (they’re new-ish and I haven’t shopped much of late) but as soon as I saw this dress I could imagine myself wearing it so many ways. I just love the flexibility of a sleeveless shift, and the button details on it are really something. I tried on the blue shirt too, but I am not so lofty on vacation that I forget that I am trying to make a living wage as a writer, and that someone buying my book from Kmart or Amazon nets me about 50c.

3. Slabs from Noosa Chocolate Factory: There were so many of these I wanted to try, but I settled on honey jelly, blueberry jelly and raspberry jelly, plus a block of fruit and nut. I’ve given up chocolate till Easter and know they won’t be at their freshest when I do finally dig in, but the use-by date says I’ve got till Christmas so hoping for the best.

Must dash off to the hotel breakfast now, I am on edge as I must make my flight home in order to get on another one to Perth for their writers festival this weekend. And then it’s back to weekly classes and meltdowns over homework and banned chocolate bars. Hope your weekend looks bright, where ever you are!