I Did a Jane Austen Thing

Ask yourselves this: what’s the one thing that can get an introverted book nerd to leave the house in coronatimes?

If your answer was A Jane Austen Thing, you would be correct.

It’s been a long time since I did a coronavirus-related post, and that’s partly because for the past few months, things in Croatia seemed to be going okay. Sure, our case numbers were rising, there were quite a few outbreaks in nightclubs and bars and officials hurriedly appearing in the media blaming young people for being… well, young people, but for the most part we were enjoying the summer, travelling, seeing friends. Apart from the fact that we had to don masks whenever we entered a shop, life seemed to have more or less gone back to normal.

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My Top Ten Non-Bookish Hobbies

Usually when I’m not banging on about books or studying on this blog, I’m writing long Back from the Dead posts to explain why I’ve once again slipped off the face of the planet. If you’ve read any of these posts, you’ll know that the excuse I usually use is that I have so much work to do that I don’t have time. Either that, or I’m just super lazy and unmotivated. And while the latter excuse is definitely one hundred per cent accurate, the truth is that I do also have a (very) few other things that occupy my time other than work and books. Since this week’s Top Ten Tuesday prompt is about non-bookish hobbies, I thought I’d share a few of them with you, although honesty forces me to admit that I ran out of steam at about No. 3 on this list and couldn’t think of any more things that I enjoy doing, so I proceeded to either a) make stuff up, or b) fantasise about the stuff I would do if I were wealthier, cooler, smarter, and had more time – or indeed an entirely different personality.

The Versatile Blogger Award

Okay, I’m the worst when it comes to these things. Carolyn very kindly nominated me for the Versatile Blogger award two years ago (yep, two years ago). I think it’s fair to say I’m stretching the definition of ‘versatility’ to the limit by applying it to the presupposed time limit that usually applies to these things.

Despite All Evidence to the Contrary, I am Not Dead

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I wish I could give some extraordinarily compelling excuse for my extended absence over the past few months: alien abduction, Freaky Friday-esque body-switching, or an improbable scenario in which I somehow discover that Jules Verne was right all along and the earth is indeed hollow and inhabited by dinosaurs, and I end up shacking up with Brendan Fraser and making it all the way to China through the Earth’s crust. But sadly the excuse is, as ever, an extraordinary banal one: a new job, the kind of cold that’s so persistent that after a few weeks it brings along a few of its friends and turns your sinuses into its own personal party bus, all combined with the usual leg-dragging laziness.

Lit Major Abroad: Istria, Home of the Famous Colossal Trousers

Australians are a travel-hungry people generally, not content to sit on this hot, boring little island for too long at any one time. So we generally go overseas and sit on hot, boring little islands there, because it’s interesting and the people are fun and the food is better. Also we can collect those little bottles of soap and hair conditioner that you find in nicer hotels. Because, let’s face it, you never know when you might ten millilitres of runny, fifteen-year-old shampoo from a bottle that is older than all three of your children.

So in true Australian fashion, I have once again abandoned my home, and have headed to the home of my forefathers – Croatia – on the first leg of a year-long stint which will include plenty of travel, and a year of university study in the UK wedged in there somewhere (but let’s not talk about uni just yet, because it makes me terribly anxious, and also I haven’t bought all of my books yet).