Author Archives: Felicity Banks Books

Yep, all comments this week will magically turn into donations to Heifer International. 4 Mum walked in on Hugh and I kissing. “Sex ed clearly isn’t enough,” she said, and gave each of us an egg with a drawn-on face to look after. She said it was the latest technology, and it would teach usContinue reading ““Meg the Egg” story so far”

One of my close friends gave me a really excellent book for Christmas – something which was very touching, since he originally planned to give me lollies (and yep, I’m dieting – it’s the only way to achieve the healthy weight range this year, which I’ve been fighting to reach all year despite sickness and stupidContinue reading “#249: Re-gift”

Today’s mission was to visit a secret hiding spot – somewhere high up. I chose a Chinese Elm tree at my parents’ house. Back in the day, I used to be able to climb this tree to get onto their roof, then slide down a branch Legolas-on-the-Oliphaunt’s-trunk style to get down. The access branch hasContinue reading “S#57: Secret Squirrel”

My sister and her husband and baby daughter are a-visiting, yay! Yesterday, for one day and one day only, my entire immediate family (plus spouses and children) got together, and ate Christmas lunch. The newest member of the family was understandably suspicious. . . . . . and it was VERY clear who’d taken on theContinue reading “#246: The Whole Family Thang”

Today CJ and I went to a Christmas party, and discovered our friend had made a village of gingerbread houses, with one for every single guest (he made them from scratch, too). Seriously awesome – and seriously fun.

Art should provoke an emotional response. Some modern art is brilliant, and some makes me say, “That’s PATHETIC!” (which is, technically, an emotional response). I’ve been thinking about my own piece for some time now, and wanted to make some kind of comment on Christmas. Here’s what I finally came up with (there was aContinue reading “#242: Modern Art”

To a Christian (such as myself), Santa is a big fat symbol of capitalistic greed taking over what’s technically our religious holiday. (99% of us get over it on the theological loophole of, “Ooh! Presents!”) I had a strange and somewhat disturbing moment in Indonesia one Christmas, when I discovered that poor Muslims were refusingContinue reading “#241: Good Santa/Bad Santa”

Some of you rabble have been around long enough to recall that I bought a bristle-nose catfish many moons ago, and named him Watson. Here’s what he looked like then: He’s the white-spotted comma shape on the plastic wood. You may notice there’s no bristles on his nose. That’s because he was too young, andContinue reading “#240: It’s a boy!”

I’m a familiar face at church (despite my increasingly rare attendance due to dieting making me extra-crazy), so when four face-painters weren’t enough for the tiny crowd, I was asked to help. I am no artist, but one thing I can do is pretend to be confident. Thus, carefully restraining myself from utterances like, “Whoops!Continue reading “#239: Facing the Paint”

There’s a lot about Christmas I don’t like, but I do like the eerie mass choir of carols by candlelight. Conveniently, my church (Woden Valley Alliance Church) runs a massive community event for Christmas each year, and it happened today. I’m mentioning the church by name because it’s a seriously well-run and worthwhile event, including a jumpingContinue reading “#238: Carols by Candlelight”

Nice and easy one today. My main lifelong dream is pretty obvious – to be consistently published by a reputable publisher (with good enough distribution that my books actually get bought by the public in high enough numbers that the next book gets published, and the next, and so on). Today’s lifelong dream won’t comeContinue reading “S#50: Decide on a Lifelong Dream”

Not all family bonding has to happen on December 25th. In fact there’s a vital ritual that millions of families partake of every year. This year in my family, it all went horribly wrong. Well, to be fair, horribly wrong would involve one or all of the following scenarios: 1. Buying a live tree that happenedContinue reading “#236: Decorate a Christmas Tree(s)”

The guitar is my favourite instrument. I love the curvy shape.* I also love the intimacy of the sound, and my favourite music is often a single person singing and playing their guitar. During high school I was obsessive about guitars for a few months. I remember walking along practising chords on the air. IContinue reading “#20: Acoustic guitar”