Transglobe Blog The World in a Blog

Lynda (known online as Mozzette), lives in Brisbane, Australia.

She’s an Epileptic from Brisbane, Queensland, who volunteers at the Logan Art Gallery and loves to write books as well as reading them and collecting them.  She currently lives in Logan City on a disability pension and owns a budgie called Little Miss Stevie. 

My day begins at 6am - sometimes earlier depending on how noisy my next door neighbours are at leaving their house.  I live in a unit/townhouse complex where we all live a little on top of each other; and so there's not much privacy.  I've been living here for a little over 8 years and find it's not my ideal place to live, but it's my home; so I make the most of it.  I'm up at 6am to take the first of my three medications - Epilum.  I take these three medications twice a day, every day.  I can't miss any of them otherwise my health takes a dive and I'm back at square one.  Then, I reset my alarm for 7am and snooze until then; and I then I take my Topamax and most days I get up and take my third medication when I'm downstairs and readying myself for breakfast - and that's the Tegritol, which is taken at 7:30am.  By 8am, I've opened up the curtains, the back door, and fed Little Miss Stevie and Triple M Brisbane Breakfast Show 'The Cage ' is on the radio.

By 9am, I've finished my breakfast and have gotten myself ready to go out to the post office to check my PO Box.  I have to cross four lanes of busy Kingston Road to get there and cross it again to get back.  I'm on a book trading site online called Bookcrossing, and so when I arrive there, I never know what I'll have in the PO Box, I could have a letter, bills or a parcel pick-up card waiting for me in the box.  So, I'm always surprised each day.  I arrive home from there by around 9:20am, open the house fully and then make myself a milk drink and head onto the computer and the internet for a few hours.

While it's booting up, I grab my digital camera (which I always have with me as I'm on a photography site online called 365project) and I photograph all the things I receive in any parcels in the mail for one of my blogs where I thank my friends for sending me things.  I find it's a nice thing to do; and I began the blog for my birthday last year and it wasn't supposed to go much further.  However, I didn't want it to stagnate and I turned it into a thank you blog for all things instead.  It's become a great record for all my friends to see.

I check my mail, facebook, Bookcrossing, Farmville and any other things of interest online.  This takes around three or four hours - maybe a little more if there's a lot to do on some of the sites or something of interest catches my attention.  After around midday, I turn off the internet and get my books out and begin editing them.  I'm working on two books right now.  One is a sci-fi action thriller based here in Brisbane and it's a lot of fun to write; but it's getting harder the further I get into it.  The other is a book full of short stories of vampire romances; and they're the gross and gory type stories.  Not for the faint-hearted.  I have a few fans on the blogs for these as I can't get them published due to the lack of money.

When I'm not writing or editing my blogs with my stories or book reviewing books I've read recently, I'm in front of the easel.  I'm an acrylics artist and have recently taken up collage to see where it takes me.  I began painting with acrylics when I was 24 and have enjoyed the learning experience of it all.  And as with all art, I'm always learning new things all the time.  And so to keep my artistic skills sharp, I volunteer at the Logan Art Gallery; and have been a volunteer there for a decade now.  I have totally enjoyed working there and intend to keep on working there as there's still more people to learn from and meet in the art world.

By around 4pm, I close up the curtains for Little Miss Stevie and she jumps on her swing, knowing it's almost the end of the day.  I head off upstairs again and have a shower and am back down in time for the 4:30pm news on channel 7.  At 5pm, I've eaten my before dinner snack of cheese and biscuits and an old 80's television show is on 72 called 'Head of the Class'.  I watch the shows on this channel until almost 6pm when the Simpsons come on.  I have a small collection of shows I watch each night until around 10:30pm, then I close up and deadlock all the doors, switch off all the lights and head off upstairs to bed.  But I have a lot of trouble sleeping, so I read a book until around midnight or so and then turn out the light.  And even then, I don't get to sleep until around 1am.

On the days I'm either out at the Gallery or doing something else, I use public transport.  Now, Logan City buses aren't the best around; and still need a lot of work to make them really efficient, but the drivers are great.  For the Logan Art Gallery, I catch the 550 and it takes me straight there; with a 10 minute walk to the doors of it.  The Gallery is run by the Logan City Council and is on the same place as where the Woodridge Library used to be; but then another building used to be there too.  So, the land's got historical significance. The Gallery is only a regional one and so it's free admission to look around and we have a shop where you can purchase things that local artists made.

During the other days I'm out and about I'm either doing my grocery shopping or heading off to Mum and Dad's.  When I do my grocery shopping, I make sure I buy enough food to last me a fortnight; as without a car, I can't just pop out to a shop and get something I'm low on whenever I want.  So, I have to make sure I have it; or I go without.  While I'm out, I go to a charity store and look for second-hand coin purses and handbags (I'm a collector of both and love the hunt) and know how much to pay for them.  It's always great to find a bargain. I walk a long way on the shopping days and usually I'm pretty exhausted when I get home.

Lynda’s book review blog is here: http://continuousreader.blogspot.com/ and you can find out more about her on her personal blog here: http://mozetteslibrary.blogspot.com/