Well, the weather up there on the sur­face looks windy! But poetry read­ings went well and were warmly received. My ses­sion was fol­lowed by some superb indi­gen­ous songs by Lou Ben­nett and Ricardo Idagi and the most glor­i­ous poetry from Yahia Alsamawy, a sur­vivor of Saddam Hus­sein’s tor­ture who now lives in Adelaide and writes sub­lime love poetry.

Down here in the murky depths, there’s been a bunch of bad news, so for­give the occa­sional dour looks and lack of cheer.