A friend shared a link with me on Facebook to this upcoming film festival.

And I thought it would be fun to share this with you, just in case you also have a new appreciation for Korean films (my family loved Parasite!).

The festival begins on October 29th and runs through till November 5th. You can check out the program here.

Have you noticed all the new street libraries that have popped up in the last few months?

In my walks I’ve spotted new ones on Perry Street, on Thompson Street and on Mitchell Street. Just to name a few.

And local Kathy wrote to us last week about the one she’s recently installed out the front of her house in Mercil Road.

She says it has been a joint effort of woodworking and mosaic skills that has kept her and her partner Allen entertained during lockdown.

Locals are invited to stop by and choose a book (there's a chair for leisurely browsing) or to drop off their no longer needed reading material.

And this book library has the added bonus of being near a community nature strip veggie patch. So you can collect some silverbeet for dinner at the same time.

Thanks for letting us know Kathy. Your street library Is a gorgeous addition to the neighbourhood.

Happy reading everyone. And don't forget to eat your greens! 😀

A good way to break the hold of feeling irritable and cranky about our current collective dilemma is to laugh.

The old adage applies - if we don’t laugh we will cry. Well some of these films and books have made me laugh so hard I have cried tears of laughter!

A few favourite comedies suitable for watching with the kids are Mrs Doubtfire, School of Rock and Big.

With older children Meet the Parents and Hot Fuzz are great.

For adults, Bridesmaids and Something About Mary are such cringeworthy, funny films. Also the new movie by Will Ferrell, Eurovision (on Netflix), is definitely funny, cringeworthy, lightweight entertainment.

And then there are some books with humour to help us through. Literally making you laugh out loud while you read them.

• The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion

• Bossypants by Tina Fey

• Lets Pretend This Never Happened by Jenny Lawson

• Why not me? by Mindy Kaling.

Finally, let’s finish on a bit of a “Dad” joke:

“What did the right eye say to the left eye?’ Between us, something smells.

Lovely to see the neighbourhood restocking our street library! There were some great books in there when I last popped in, including Normal People, Helen Garner’s latest book and lots more … why not take a look on your next neighbourhood walk.

If you’re not fired up by mountaineering stories, then how about tennis?

A few years ago I picked up John McEnroe’s autobiography and Andre Agassi’s autobiography in my travels (I think perhaps at the book stall at Clifton Hill Primary School fete), and read them back-to-back over the Christmas holidays, a perfect preparation for the Australian Open in mid January.

These books are good to read as a pair because each player had such different experiences and managed their tennis careers and lives so differently. In essence McEnroe did it all by himself. Agassi built a tennis ‘family’ support structure around himself.

Read McEnroe’s first. Because his career ends as Agassi is ascending. Interesting and memorable if you are a tennis fan.