Ruby Street's sweaty new year is ticking over. Planes doing their usual swoop. The weather isn't big, no wind, not much breeze. The to-fro doof doof from over the road has quietened down. Bird sound, sparrows likely.

On my desk a flyer - 'Colin McCahon A Question of Faith' advertising the exhibition at the Art Gallery of NSW with his great 'I am' painting (real title, Victory Over Death 2). But the temperature doesn't suit this work. We are trying to keep out the heat by drawing down all blinds but the light slips in at corners.

I'd be better off lying on the lounge and watching dvds but I've plugged in the latest music favourite: Toufic Farroukh's Drab:zeen. Paris sessions and Beirut sessions. Middle eastern jazz and some beats. French and Arabic vocals.

Learning how to write my way into this. Some have said you can't write in Sydney during summer, heat drains the means from you. We'll see. Green tea is a good thing.



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