The great, late Jim Morrison said it best "people are strange". Are they what! Friday night, desperate for some healthy (I use the word advsidedly) adult interaction, I drag my sick and sorry arse to the playgroup mums' night out. This is a fantastic and much anticipated event whereby all the ACC playgroup mums disentangle ourselves from our offspring and significant others and go to a restaurant for some half-decent food and not-so-decent conversation. Here's the scene: about half a dozen of us are at the restaurant waiting for the others. A woman (not one of ours) walks in, looks around, comes over. She says she's looking for a "mother's group". We say "we're a mother's group". She tells us she wasn't sure whether her dinner was tonight or next Friday so she came down anyway. We are all smiling politely and waiting for her to bugger off. She doesn't. She says "I'm here now, you don't mind if I join you?". Obviously the answer is "of course we mind, you crazy cow, piss off" but what comes out is "no, we don't mind, do join us". At this point she sits down and acts like it's totally normal to gatecrash a mother's group dinner with people you've never met in your life. She stays for the whole evening, eating, chatting, pretending to be a normal person.

Now some of our mums thought this was fine, a bit whacky, but generally OK. No people, this behaviour is not OK. It is bonkers. It wasn't a speed dating night for desperate and dateless adoptive mums. Maybe I'm overlly protective about these get-togethers but I have a pretty strict criteria - you must be an adoptive mum (or at least come with one - sisters, friends, etc. are allowed under certain circumstances), you must hate DoCS and have dedicated your life to opposing their evil deeds (OK, that last one is optional but certainly preferable and to be strongly encouraged). Strangers desperate for a night out, while to be empathised with, should under no circumstances be encouraged. Call me mean-spirited, call me cold and heartless, but "find your own damn friends" I say.

One good thing about being sick is I got to finish two books last week. I had finally finished "A Widow for Year" by John Irving the week before last and gee, was I glad to get that finished. Those John Irving books are so engrossing they sap the life out of you. I felt like I had been reading "Widow" for about ten years. Not one of his best though. So then I started on "Post Mortem" by Ben Elton. As with all his books (except High Society which was just too much hard work, terribly depressing despite the comedy) this books was really entertaining and I got through it in two days. It's a murder mystery (which I love) but with a twist. The protagonist, the detective, gets involved in a bit of nostalgia and joins Friends Reunited, the website which allows you to go back in time and find your old school friends. I could really relate to all the 80s references and I just found it a fun read. Highly recommended, especially if you were a teen of the 80s, like moi.

Then I got onto "In the company of cheerful ladies" which is the fifth (?) in the series of The Number One Ladies Detective Agency books. As with all the others this was a lovely gentle book which left me feeling happy with the world. Nothing like taking a quick visit to Botswana and the world of Mma. Ramotswe to refresh the perspective and wash away my usual jaded attitude. If you haven't discovered these beautiful, gentle books yet (as Mr Meldrum would say) do yourself a favour...

Have I mentioned my love for Antony and the Johnsons? If not, I should have. I "discovered" the devine Antony at a very special and amazing night I attended in January of this year at the Opera House - "Came So Far For Beauty" a tribute night to Leonard Cohen's music. I only went because of Nick Cave and came away with not only Antony but a love for some previously unheard of (by me) musicians such as Rufus and Martha Wainwright and The Handsome Family. Anyway, Antony is a giant, New York-based, transgender singer (feel free to re-arrange those descriptors in any order you like) whose voice and demeanor just blew me away on the night. He is like a fallen angel - his voice could not possibly come out of his body and he doesn't quite seem to reside comfortably in his own body. Yet for me he is musical magic: his voice is beauty, sadness, joy, bitterness, hope - every emotion and so much more. If you would like to hear one of my favourite songs "Mysteries of Love" please click here http://www.theworldofadam.com/mystery.html . However, Antony's songs are not all love and kisses, far from it. One of my favourites is called "I fell in love with a dead boy" and another "Fistful of Love" has much more emphasis on "fist" than on "love".

What can I say? I have eclectic taste in music.