This is one for the Australians, or at least those who grew up with Margaret Wild and Jane Tanner’s classic There’s a Sea in my Bedroom. This is the ninth installment in the Dalek Game.
I am not a beach-going Australian. I grew up inland. My younger sister and I learnt to swim in concrete cattle troughs (lying under the water to grab the noses of unwitting cows) and in the dams (one of which was allegedly bottomless, and all of which were said by my father to be inhabited by bunyips, which liked eating children but were scared away if there were adults in the vicinity). Sometimes we would go and stay in my father’s godmother’s house at the Gold Coast (it was built by her father, a ship’s captain I think, with narrow steep stairs and porthole windows and a big clam shell for washing sandy feet), but that was a 6 hour drive. The first time my younger sister walked over the dunes and saw the sea she said, “Look, Daddy! What a big dam!” I like the sea, but I find it large and unfamiliar and unsettling, and prefer to walk along the sand – I have a lot of sympathy for the hero of There’s a Sea…, and now that I’ve grown up I’ve bought a new copy to replace the one I lost.
In other news, I have lost my voice (a great trial because I Need To Talk), and have put up all my drawings from Sydney: Part 1, Part 2
June 4, 2011 at 10:05 am
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June 4, 2011 at 11:45 am
Of course I don’t get the inside joke, but I am astonished at how you continue to make the Daleks cute, when Daleks are so menacing in Dr. Who.
June 4, 2011 at 4:37 pm
Heheh – thanks. They are marvelous monsters.
June 4, 2011 at 11:49 am
A book I am unfamilar with … and now will have to hunt down. My little brother dubbed the sea his ‘swimming pool’ when he met with it the first time. :)
June 4, 2011 at 4:38 pm
Oh, you should read it Lynne! It’s still in print – The main character, David, is afraid of the ocean, but he likes the friendly sea he can hear inside a shell, and one night the sea comes out of the shell into his room – complete with seagulls, fish, cliffs, ships and so on.
June 4, 2011 at 4:36 pm
Daddy well remembers you two scaring the beejeebies out of the house cow. Put her off milking for 2-3 days!
June 4, 2011 at 4:39 pm
Thanks Mother :)
June 4, 2011 at 8:51 pm
Katie, this post is full of all the wonderful reasons I love your blog. Daleks, childhood stories (yours are the best I’ve ever heard), and books. Also, well written.
June 5, 2011 at 9:02 am
I look at that dalek and think how handy one would be around the place, for drying washing and for storing stray garments that don’t yet want to go away.