Awakening to the laughter of kookaburras.  The chilly evenings of the Queensland winter return to the daytime heat and humidity that out-swelter the summer of my regular environment.  A pile of Sunshine Coast newspapers lies beside me, all torn open to the two-way crossword and sudoku puzzles that I devour.



My partner’s gone down to Brisbane for one last night with her friends but I decided to stay back and enjoy a quiet night to myself on the Sunshine Coast.  I’ve spent quite a bit of time here, in this house with a clever open-plan design and lots of screen doors overlooking the very green hillside.  The in-laws; I think of the Peter Falk/Alan Arkin classic or the many cultural stereotypes but none of it applies to me.   My in-laws are all about feng shui, an electric hob, a borrowed espresso machine.