- lifts are the most unsociable places you can find yourself in (there's a short story that's slowly, slowly taking shape in my mind about this)
- people live in very small homes quite happily, and apparently the 'not so big' house movement is the antidote to the McMansions epidemic. But, Australian houses lead the world in size - double the size of a house in Denmark but also bigger than American houses - that really surprised me. And, get this...the amount of space we take up as individuals is equivalent to 2.5 tennis courts (that includes roads, housing, hospitals, employment). Hell, why aren't we all Roger Federer then? As a comparison, Parisians take up just over one court and Londoners a mere three quarters. Interesting.
- there's much pleasure to be gained in listening to someone read you a short story...back to our infancy perhaps?
- if you're planning to build a skyscraper don't bother with more than 50 floors - above this and you drastically reduce your return on investment (so glad I found that out!)
- I'd really love to see the Aboriginal opera Pecan Summer, inspired by the first mass strike of Aboriginal people in this country - something I knew nothing about - shame on our education system.
- losing weight is not as straightforward as we think - less calories, more exercise is only a small part of the solution; if you engage others in helping you lose weight you're more likely to be successful; and if you're an all or nothing, black and white thinker you're much more likely to regain the weight you've lost. Be flexible about the amount of weight you can reasonably lose seems to be the message. If only it were that easy :)
And there were a few wonderful hours yesterday morning listening to the live broadcast from the Brisbane Writers Festival. Are you a radio listener or is it the TV that turns you on? Or perhaps you're happiest with the wonderful sounds of silence?
image: 1; 2; 3
