August 26, 2025 · Episode 35
59 Min, 07 Sec 

Summary

In this episode, Brea returns from a creative retreat and talks with Lyndon about what solitude gave her: space to reset, organise her novel-in-progress, and rediscover the joy of writing without the noise of daily life. Together, they explore the fragile nature of inspiration, the challenge of protecting it once you come home, and why art needs both distance and closeness to thrive.

They also reflect on memory and how it shapes the stories we carry, the experience of coming back to suburbia after a year of travel, and how even small retreats—a weekend away, a walk on the beach, or a quiet corner—can help keep creative sparks alive.

Love this conversation? Get exclusive podcast episodes on our Patreon and support the show!

Transcript

Lyndon: Shall we recap on the weekend that was, or the week that was, or the couple of days away that we had?

Breallyn: We’ve had adventures really well, we’ve had the one going up and staying at Yackandandah, so that worked out really nice.

Lyndon: That was good.

Breallyn: I mean, it was a sad occasion to go up for, since it was your uncle’s funeral.

Lyndon: Yeah. But it was celebratory as well, wasn’t it?

Breallyn: It was beautifully done really, really nice to spend time with the family while we were up there and Yackandandah is very cute. It was nice looking in all the shops, there was so much nice stuff.

Lyndon: I booked us the motel right in the main street, weirdly too. It was on the exact opposite side of the street than I remembered, because I remember being up there for my grandma’s funeral and we didn’t stay in that motel. But I just recall meeting up with people and like, I think, an uncle and aunty were staying in there. And my memory of it is that it’s yeah, on the high side of the street, I think it was on the low side of the street.

Breallyn: There you go.

Lyndon: So it makes me wonder what other memories I’ve got completely the wrong way around. But, I thought, we’ll just probably just wander the street and get a coffee and not really have any plans. ‘Cause I didn’t really want to intrude on my cousins and their families.

Breallyn: Yeah.

Lyndon: But it turned out completely different. Like we met up with them at the pub on the Friday night, or no, Thursday night. And then we met up with my other cousins and with my brother-in-law and his kids for breakfast in the morning or for a coffee. That was good. And I don’t think I wandered the street at all that day. And then we went back to my other cousin’s house and that was really good, wasn’t it?

Breallyn: Yeah, it was really good to be able to make plans at the time and just,

Lyndon: it’s the best, isn’t it?

Breallyn: Just decide what to do then and there. Yeah, that was really good.

The Art of Spontaneous Plans

Lyndon: Hey, maybe that’s the key, maybe with all of the, like when you’ve gotta just catch up with friends or, spur of the moment’s always good. It’s not always possible. But then if you want to be like, making sure you’re working on your writing or something like that, or exercising, like, you’ve gotta put that in the diary.

Breallyn: Yeah.

Lyndon: But you know, when you put something in the diary and it’s like, catching up for dinner and you’ve been wanting to do it for a year, and finally you’re gonna do it in four months time for some reason so much pressure builds up around it.

Breallyn: It’s funny. Yeah.

Lyndon: But last year I had, I got an email saying, Hey, enjoy your night this Thursday night at Wilco, and I’m like, what’s this all about? And you know, like I get about 30 emails a day that I don’t need to read. And probably everyone does. You just get things in your inbox that you really should delete. And so now I’ve got like five and a half thousand emails in my inbox. It’s a battle I can never win.

Anyway, so I got this thing and I thought, oh, it must be a mistake. And then I read it again and I thought, I think someone’s bought me tickets to Wilco. And I thought, who would do that? I would love to go see Wilco. This is fantastic. And then realized I booked the tickets months ahead of time for you and I to go.

And I had completely forgotten, but I remember at the time going, if I don’t book it now, I won’t. I’ll just do it and then work it out later. And then we’ll have a night out, forced night out and it’ll be awesome. And we’ve done that sort of thing before, but I’d just completely forgotten.

And so you couldn’t come because I’d given you two days notice. But I end up catching up with a friend who I hadn’t seen for a long, long time. And it was a fantastic gig and it was a really good night.

Breallyn: Oh, that’s good.

Lyndon: It’s like you’re, and it was sort of without all of that lead up of going, oh, I’ve got this thing coming up.

Breallyn: It’s coming up.

Lyndon: I hadn’t even put in the diary at least you actually read that email instead of just sent it to spam.

Breallyn: That would’ve been horrific.

Lyndon: Paying a few hundred dollars and then not actually going,

Breallyn: Oh yeah, you’re like your own benevolent grandfather sending yourself tickets. That is then a complete surprise to you. You should do it all the time.

Lyndon: I know people should do it more.

Breallyn: Yep.

Lyndon: Anyway, so that was good. It all went,

Breallyn: It was good. It was very nice to go away thanks to the help of our extremely awesome carers that looked after Birdie while we were gone and the other kids were fine. So, yeah, it all worked out really well.

Planning Breallyn’s Writing Retreat

Lyndon: Yeah. And you’ve just got back from your sabbatical?

Breallyn: Well, I’d put it in the diary. A little while ago that I, and I’d been trying for ages to find a few days away that I could focus on my writing just ’cause I’m at a kind of crucial point of rebooting everything and getting all the threads together. And I just wanted some uninterrupted time to focus. So I’d put it in the diary for this week and then of course our trip to Yackandandah came up.

And we also at the moment have our nephew staying for a couple of weeks here. And I thought between all this stuff going on, I don’t think I’m gonna make it. It’s not gonna happen.

Lyndon: And I said, what difference does it make? Go, go, everything will be fine. And then once you were gone, I just sort of fell into a heap and got nothing done. It’s not really true, but

Breallyn: It’s kind of true

Lyndon: Why you came back and everything was just functioning as per normal.

Breallyn: Not too many wheels had fallen off in the time I was away.

Lyndon: No, no wheels had fallen off.

Breallyn: That was all good.

Lyndon: What wheel? This is like a double whatever. V double semi trailer with like 36 wheels and not a single one had fallen off.

Breallyn: Yeah, but see, these are all the things you don’t see that I do. That if I don’t keep these wheels turning sooner or later, they’re coming off. So I could spend two nights away, but much longer than that and no one’s got underwear to have or bread to eat with. And

Lyndon: That’s not true. ‘Cause you actually were pretty efficient before you left. So I know that there was like an extra, there was nine liters of milk in the fridge outside. There was like,

Breallyn: There was two more loaves of bread in the freezer.

Lyndon: There was so many meatballs made for Birdie that I was able to down half a dozen.

Breallyn: Oh, is that why we’re short now?

Lyndon: I was desperate.

Breallyn: I was a little bit upset at myself because I’d been pretty efficient making some fresh ginger and turmeric health shots that was stacked in the fridge and I was gonna take a few little bottles down with me and I forgot. So there we go.

Lyndon: Yeah, that’s disappointing.

Breallyn: That was one little efficiency that I had to, didn’t had to work out whether it was worth coming back home to grab them.

Breallyn: I know I was at the servo when I realized and went, oh, damn it. Anyway, I survived without them still healthy enough and. Yes, I came back. Things were pretty good. So yeah, it was great actually to get away though. And I didn’t think about all the things that could be going on at home. I just thought about the work that I was doing and walks on the beach and that was it.

Lyndon: Yeah. And when you do get away, I make a point. I try to make a point of not calling you or telling you anything that’s going on, which reminds me, I’ve probably got something I should tell you about. Oh, look at this SF Nubbs coming out from behind the curtain.

Breallyn: The cat’s been hiding behind the curtain, and now she’s here.

Lyndon: We had a house inspection today. The landlord was meant to turn up with the agent, so we had everything clean. We’d thrown the cat over the neighbor’s fence, confiscated all its toys and food. And then they never showed up. So we’ve got like a really tidy home and an upset cat who’s now just wandering around the studio.

Breallyn: She’s looking, where’s my food?

Lyndon: Oh my gosh,

Breallyn: Why are my beds gone?

Lyndon: Poor thing. So yeah, I make a point of not texting you, but I did have a moment on like when we would normally be recording this podcast. I thought, you know what? That doesn’t have to stop us. You can phone it in.

Breallyn: That would’ve been alright.

Lyndon: And I wrestled with that for so long, whether I should or I shouldn’t. I thought, I’m gonna need some extra help on making this decision. So I put it into chat GPT or one of those, put it into my assistant Pablo and said, what do you reckon? And they’re like, yeah, that’s a great idea. And then I’m like, yeah. Although Bree works very hard to get time to write it’s sacred time. I probably shouldn’t be interrupting it really And they’re like, yeah, that’s exactly right. You definitely shouldn’t be doing that, and it wouldn’t matter.

Like it’s nearly like a, it’s not a confirmation bias, but yeah, it’s pretty useless. Like when you’re

Breallyn: Pretty much is just yeah. Your own self telling yourself, yes, you ought to have those thoughts that you are thinking.

Lyndon: Yeah, it was a waste of time and I knew it. I knew it would be, but I was just sort of thinking, oh. There’s pros and there’s cons and in the end I just thought, I just think it’s wrong to do it. ‘Cause I think if I had have called you and said, Hey, you are live to air, I’m, we’re actually right in the middle of a podcast that I started and this is what we’re talking about, I think you would’ve been happy to go along with it, but it would’ve yeah, just wouldn’t have been the right thing to do. So I thought I’ll just wait for you to get back.

Breallyn: I mean, I would’ve, yeah, I would’ve rolled with it. But I’m glad that you didn’t because yeah, it really was good to not have to think about anything, even the things like, oh, how, you know, how much longer until I have to leave to pick someone up or cook dinner? Or when’s the washing machine gonna finish? And then I need to, you know, like all of the things, all of the little, it’s like I’ve got a hundred timers in my head all the time.

It was good to just flick them all off for two days and not really think about them. Because yeah, I ended up writing all the way through dinner time and then going, oh, what am I gonna eat? Who cares? You know, nothing, it doesn’t matter. Yeah. So that sort of thing, you know, just to not be scheduled down so much.

Lyndon: That doesn’t change when I go away. When I go away, I need to know before I go to bed what’s for breakfast. If I don’t know what’s for breakfast or where I’m gonna get it, I’m unsettled. ‘Cause for some reason, as soon as my feet hit the floor. I’m immediately starving, and so, which means I’m immediately hangry.

Breallyn: So funny.

Lyndon: I’m just angry. So I like to know that. And then at some point I’m like, all right, what’s for dinner? Dinner’s gotta be organized. It doesn’t mean I, it’ll be organized. I just start thinking about it. I never kind of go, oh, it’s not gonna matter. I’m like, no, it matters.

Welcome to Pain In The Arts

Welcome to Pain In The Arts, where the pursuit of meaningful art meets the unpredictable demands of real life. You are here with Lyndon

Breallyn: and Breallyn. Thanks for joining us.

Lyndon: You remember, well, you do remember this many moons ago. We got back from traveling around Australia for 12 months. But do you remember when we were deciding on where we would live in Melbourne? It partly came down to budget. But it also came down to the fact that when we were traveling, we could go anywhere, do whatever we wanted, essentially. And there was a freedom of travel I know. I was very concerned about coming back to suburbia and then feeling like we were boxed in.

Breallyn: Yeah.

Lyndon: And that didn’t have that freedom. And so we ended up, that was a big reason that we ended up down the bay. And that we had a place that had a balcony and a little bit of a view. Like we could,

Breallyn: Yeah. We could walk to the beach from where we were. We walked to the beach and we could nearly

Lyndon: See it if you squinted and had a good imagination, you could pretend that the sky was the ocean, but you nearly could see the ocean.

Breallyn: Yep.

Lyndon: Yeah, that’s that feeling of losing something that had been cultivated,

Breallyn: Losing the freedom. I think freedom was super important at that point to both of us. And yeah, we’d grappled with the, I guess all the tricky things about being untethered and traveling and all of the things about actually not having community around you and not having steady work and all that sort of thing. So all of that, we were quite happy to trade in, I guess, for the freedom of traveling.

So then when we thought, no, we are gonna come back and, you know, we’ve got things to work out, we’ve got stuff to do, we are gonna stay in one place and it’s gonna be back in Melbourne with family. And that sort of around us at least within a day’s drive. Within a couple hours drive.

Lyndon: Yeah.

Breallyn: Well, it definitely came down to yeah. What was available and what could we afford. And it was tiny and it was cute and ugly.

Lyndon: It was good. But compared to what else we could have been in, yeah. It was actually really quite good. When we did that trip, we always planned on coming back to Melbourne, but I think once you’re out, once you’ve been on the road for I think like three months, you do start thinking, actually we could. Should we just stay wherever you are? You know, you find somewhere that you actually are enjoying, you go, well, maybe we will stay here for a while.

Breallyn: Yeah.

The Temptation to Stay on the Road

Lyndon: When I lived, well, when my parents took us to Norman, which is the goldfields in WA, it’s the first major town you hit when you cross the Nullarbor Plain, which is, how long will it take to cross the nullarbor?

Breallyn: A few days.

Lyndon: Couple of days. Yeah. Unless you’re a truckie driving all night. But there was a couple there or family there that my parents made friends with who they were on a holiday, like what we were doing just traveling around Australia.

Breallyn: Yeah. Right from

Lyndon: The eastern states. They got as far as Norseman or actually it was a place called Salmon Gums, which is just outta Norseman on the way to Esperance. They got there and never left.

Breallyn: Oh, wow. Yeah, right.

Lyndon: So, I think we were, that happens, we were

Breallyn: Very sure that that wasn’t gonna happen to us. ‘Cause there was even a point where we were offered a job to stay for several months, like essentially caretaking at a station,

Lyndon: At a station in the, oh, was it the Pilbara or somewhere like that.

Breallyn: Yeah. And it was very tempting. It was a gorgeous place.

Lyndon: It was super tempting. And what we, so we were traveling around clockwise, around Australia essentially. And then we did go down the centre and then back up again.

Breallyn: Yeah.

Lyndon: Is that right? Yeah. So there was this sense of momentum in a way. Like we, the station that we got offered a job at was inland and we’d literally just traveled followed a train track to the coast it nearly felt like we would’ve been going back from where we came from. And by that point too, we were not even halfway around the country and we were like, we’ve still got.

Breallyn: Yeah.

Lyndon: A lot of the country to see. So

Breallyn: Yeah, I think we, we thought if we did that then our plan would be quite derailed. And then

Lyndon: I wonder what would’ve happened.

Breallyn: And maybe we, well, maybe never have gotten all the way around. We might still be there.

Lyndon: Yeah.

Breallyn: Be funny.

The Concept of Creative Retreats

Lyndon: But the reason I was thinking about that is ’cause I was going to call you as I was saying before and get you to phone in like, I was intending to actually talk about this idea of retreat ’cause you’re on a writing retreat, so I thought we’d get it right from the horse’s mouth, so to speak.

Breallyn: Right.

Lyndon: But I had been thinking about that idea of making time to get away and go on a retreat. I mean, you can go on a retreat for like a health retreat or a wellness retreat or a songwriting retreat. In your case it was writing retreat on your own. It wasn’t with,

Breallyn: Yeah, it wasn’t organized or anything.

Lyndon: Yeah, it wasn’t organized through anyone or you weren’t necessarily meeting up with anyone to do writing.

Breallyn: No.

Lyndon: And yeah, like to actually to commit to doing something like that or, you know, putting, like you were saying before, there were all these things that sort of came up that potentially were gonna jeopardize that time you’d set aside.

Breallyn: Yeah.

Lyndon: But I was also wondering about the return from something like that. Like how hard is it to maintain either what you were able to achieve or do you try and preserve the head space that you were in? And that’s what made me think about when we returned from our travel, because it was a really important thing for us to accept that we were coming back into a particular environment, but not to be you know, that we still had a sense of freedom and that we could hold onto some of the ideas and

Breallyn: Yeah.

Lyndon: Their experiences. Because the other thing I remember too was I thought, oh, you know, it’ll only like, how long is it before our memories are contained within the photos that we took? Because when I thought back over my life before that, it seemed like my memories of my childhood were, the most powerful ones were wrapped up in a photo.

And I was like, I don’t like the experience of traveling together for a long time and you know, all the people we met, all the places, the sights, the smells, the sounds, everything, you know, obviously it can’t be contained in the photos. And I thought, it’s just gonna fade. It’s gonna fade.

Breallyn: And it does.

Lyndon: Yeah. And then it’ll just come down to those, yeah, whatever photos we did or didn’t take.

Breallyn: Mind you, your mum’s a prolific taker of photos, so there’s lots and lots and lots of photos and albums that you have. And yet I think that I have maybe more memories of my childhood than you do, and there’s not that many photos with my parents really were not into it.

Lyndon: No. They didn’t have photos up at your home at all.

Breallyn: No. And you know, I,

Lyndon: I remember questioning, I said, did they even get married? Like, where’s their wedding photo? Because I was just used to my parents having their wedding photo up and often relatives wedding photos up as well.

Breallyn: I know your mum’s now got massive canvases of all of us up on her walls and stuff. Like there’s photos all down the hallway. Yeah, that’s really something important to your mom. Those, you know, those memories captured in a photo. But yeah, I’m used to more I don’t know that memory comes and goes and more like a scene or a.

Speaking of memory, I managed, the one thing that I did do that wasn’t either writing or walking on the beach while I was away was I caught up with an old friend and we’d grown up down the road from one another really good friend of mine. And we spent heaps of time together. Our families went out together. They did all sorts of stuff and they’re still good friends.

Lyndon: Partied together,

Breallyn: Partied together, but we were unfortunately not a very good influence on each other, so we did all sorts of naughty stuff. And we were having a bit of a laugh. There was a few memories that,

Childhood Mischief and Memory

Lyndon: I only know of one really of you throwing stones at the crossing lady. The poor woman that’s helping. Yeah. The kids get safely to and from school and you thought you’d throw rocks at her.

Breallyn: We got in so much trouble. But you know why? We were talking about this, like, we were like, why did we even do that? It was because we had decided to go like walk the wrong way to school. Instead of going the safe way, we wanted to cross Switchback Road. Where there,

Lyndon: That’s a good name.

Breallyn: Yeah. Road. Well, it was, and I tell you what, the cars would race along there ’cause it was like 80. It was the speed limit, but they would really fly along there. So, you know, they didn’t want kids crossing that road. That’s why they had, we were supposed to walk up Rollaway Rise, which was much softer sounding, and it was, you know, everyone suburb would walk up there

Lyndon: What suburb did you live in Rollaway Rise and Switchback Road.

Breallyn: You’ll have to find out. And then we, then there’d be the crossing. But the crossing lady saw that we were crossing the road in the wrong spot, and also we stole lettuces out of somebody’s front garden. And she told on us, so well, at least we thought that she did. That’s why we said nasty things to her. Wow. But that was, yeah, so I’ve got a few memories.

There was that, and then there was the time that we they’d put, we had a school where there was a really big hill. It was a great hill because you could ride your skateboards down after school. You could ride your bikes. You could run up and down skin your knees when you fell down. It was amazing. And one day they put up a sign saying no bikes. You know, the bike with a red cross through it.

So after school we rode our bikes there with a spanner and we took the sign off and threw it down the drain and then rode our bikes up and down the school hill just to, you know, that’s pretty funny. So we got in trouble for that, but there was, yeah, so there’s some memories that I had.

But then my friend Bianca, shout out to B she said, do you remember when there was a girl that lived on the street? She said, do you remember when this girl really wanted a broken arm for some reason? Like

Lyndon: She wanted a broken arm?

Breallyn: She wanted a broken arm. ‘Cause casts were really cool and slings were, I don’t know, it was just cool. So we spent the afternoon with her laying in the gutter and us riding our bikes over her arm, trying to break it.

Lyndon: How terrible.

Breallyn: I hadn’t remembered it until B said so. So

Lyndon: How hard did you try?

Breallyn: Not hard enough. We didn’t break it.

Lyndon: Oh man.

Breallyn: Yeah. So that there was a memory not tied to a photo

Lyndon: And that you didn’t remember?

Breallyn: No, I didn’t remember it till she told me and I was like, there.

Lyndon: Had there been a photo of that you’d have never forgotten!

Breallyn: Oh, there was a few more things too. Oh, we did some naughty stuff, but yeah. So, I don’t know. They’re the funnest memories when there’s no photo there. Yeah. No adult there capturing it.

The Success of the Writing Retreat

Lyndon: Yeah. I guess I’d be interested to know, like, whether you achieved what you wanted to achieve on your writing retreat and whether it was even a problem coming back home, or whether you were like, no, I got the writing done that I wanted to get done, my expectations were met and I can just step back into life at home again with all its chaos and responsibilities.

Breallyn: Well, it was, I really was a very interesting experience being down there because it’s not the first time I’ve done it. I’ve done it a couple of other times, at least one more time, because I do recall being down there trying to write this same like part of this same book, not the same piece, but part of this same book because I was getting a section of it together for my thesis and.

I actually in a notebook that I have that’s related to this story came across a bit of journaling I’d done where I was down there. At that point, I didn’t have the date, or I wish I had, but I’d been journaling just about how conflicted I felt I was trying to focus on the work. It had just been a really tough season at home with Birdie. My whole thoughts were just consumed with family life and so on.

So it was really like, that was my process of trying to disentangle all of that and get focused. So I was like, ah, yep, I remember being in that little stage of life when the four kids were young and needed constant care and, it was just really, yeah, just so much, so much to deal with. And then trying to find that little bit of time and knowing that I was gonna be jumping straight back into full-time parenting when I got back.

So I was actually able to contrast that feeling of that time with this time.

Lyndon: Mm.

Breallyn: Which also feel, I mean, it’s certainly similar. Like there’s no doubt about, like I said before, I’ve got, you know, a dozen alarm clocks in my head every day for different things going on and where everyone needs to be and different things.

Lyndon: Some of, some of them go off really loudly under your pillow in the morning when I’m trying to sleep.

Breallyn: Yeah. Well, they’re the ones that I need help with. But yeah, there’s so much going on all the time, but it’s, it is a different season and I kind of feel like I’m a lot, I don’t know, I’m a bit more centered now. Maybe, maybe that’s all that is. Or maybe I just don’t have the deadline of the thesis hanging over my head. I don’t know.

But I definitely felt like, I’ve learned a lot about Birdie in those years. We’ve had some really bad downs and some nice highs as well. Yeah, she’s gone through just such a lot. And yeah, I don’t know. I just, I think I’m just in a better place with how to parent her or what, how to meet her needs, I guess. So that helps me to be more centered with my writing.

So when I went down this time yeah, I guess firstly I did feel like I could leave things behind a little bit better, maybe having organized everything. And when I went down, I had most of the stuff, like I, it was good to be able to go down because as you’ve sort of heard about, I’ve been trying to get my data organized, like finding bits of this very massive piece of writing.

Trying to pull it all together into one form so that I can wrangle with the whole thing. And so I’d sort of been doing that in the lead up to going down. So I’ve got quite a lot of it in the one place now.

And the bits that I haven’t actually physically inputted into this one program, I still know where they are. So what I was able to do was really focus on What’s next for this book? What’s next for this thing? So, I was able to plan and plot a lot of points. I did some deep research into a few things that I’d been wondering about, like questions I had about the manuscript and about some of the characters.

So, you know, did a whole lot of sort of side quest stuff, trying to firm up all of my background knowledge about the these characters and what they need. Yeah, I pulled together some really important plot points for later on in the novel and did a whole lot of tidying up and organizing these sort of stuff so that I was able to, I’ve got literally a list saying, what do I write next?

You know, next time I’ve got two hours, here’s a scene that needs writing. You know, here’s something that needs editing. Here’s other things that need inputting. Here’s something that needs researching.

So I’ve literally got a whole lot of these points written down for Future Me to access, which is very nice. My organized side of my brain likes that. And I was also able to just really get into some nice, really big chunks of writing as well. Like just sit there and write. So I got quite a bit of stuff plotted out and written and yeah.

And what was really amazing for me was that I was, I got back into the writing of it, into the, you know, these characters’ voices so quickly.

Lyndon: Mm-hmm.

Breallyn: Like, it just, yeah, it was like no time had passed since I’d been writing it. Which was lovely.

Lyndon: It was important too, probably.

Breallyn: Oh, definitely. ‘Cause one of the sort of fears, you know, well, that I have, I dunno about other writers, but you know, it’s always this thing of like, can I pull this off? Can I even write, will I ever be able to, you know, get this voice again? Will I ever, is it any good? You know, like, and even, after all I’ve gone through to be able to be in a position to be writing. Is it even, do I even wanna do this? And as soon as I started, I was just like, oh, this is the best fun ever. Like, this is the best thing I do.

Lyndon: Mm.

Breallyn: Not the best, best, but like, like it’s the best

Lyndon: Without me.

Breallyn: Best thing I do without being with family. Like obviously that’s the, you know. You love being with your family.

Lyndon: You have to say that

Breallyn: Friends and kids and parents and whatnot, like that’s always great ’cause you always wanna spend a lot of time with family. And I’ve been, you know, fortunate enough in my life to be able to prioritize that. But yeah, this is like the thing that I wanna do. I just could, I could’ve stayed there for weeks on end, you know, and just done the whole project. I would’ve been absolutely happy to do that. So that was really enjoyable.

It was just like, before I started it was like, oh, is it gonna be okay? As soon as I started I was like, oh yes, this is awesome. And the whole way through, I just thoroughly enjoyed it and as soon as I kind of came to the end of a writing block and just was like, okay, I’ve finished that section or whatever.

Now, you know, when you just feel like, yeah, I need a break now I need to go have a walk or something. It was just so satisfying, like came outta that time just going, oh, that was awesome. That was so lovely to do. So yeah, it was thoroughly enjoyable. I really enjoyed it.

The place that I stay, thanks to mum and dad, a little tiny unit down there. It’s like a one minute walk to the beach. And the sunsets were beautiful. The days were beautiful. Yeah, it was just great. So, you know, best of both worlds, just to be able to walk on the beach and then write, it’s like how good can life get? That was

Lyndon: Wow.

Breallyn: Yeah. It’s really good.

Lyndon: That’s good. We have to leave it there for today because you have to go.

Breallyn: I have to go.

Lyndon: We’ll have to finish this later.

Breallyn: Yeah,

Lyndon: We will be back tonight for gin and tonics by the fire.

Breallyn: Indeed.

Evening Conversations by the Fire

Lyndon: We’re back. Although there is no fire happening, no fireplace. Just the gin and tonic.

Breallyn: Were you gonna install a fireplace in my absence?

Lyndon: We have a hearth in one of our rooms and no fire. This is true.

Breallyn: We’ve got, yeah. Well, it’s a, it’s a, like a fire surround, it’s like a timber ornate fireplace surround, which I remember

Lyndon: That you made me steal from the neighbor’s house up the road in the middle of the night

Breallyn: In the pouring rain.

Lyndon: In the pouring rain quick.

Breallyn: There was no theft involved. Let’s just make that clear. It had been sitting outside and then it started pouring and I couldn’t fit it in the car, so I had to make you come and we had to walk with on our shoulders, walk it down. Like we were in an old 1920s black and white sketch show or something.

Lyndon: You can take the girl outta Chirnside Park, but you can’t take Chirnside Park outta the girl.

Breallyn: That’s right, at least I didn’t make you lie in the gutter and ride a bike over your arm.

Lyndon: Although I did see you walking down the street with a wrench the other day. Did I? Yeah. No

Breallyn: I didn’t. You’re making that bit up.

Lyndon: You’re like, did I? Knowing it’s possible not.

Lyndon: No. Hasn’t happened. But I’m missing things outta the garage. Maybe I should check your wardrobe. Check your handbag.

Breallyn: Any schools around here need to be rid of a few signs. I’m your girl

Lyndon: Or crossing ladies.

Breallyn: I never took a wrench to the crossing lady.

Lyndon: No, no. Just some rocks.

Breallyn: A sequel to the story of the girl whose arm we ran over. Fortunately for her, she actually did break her arm a couple of years later.

Lyndon: Couple of years later? Yeah, I think so. When you got your licenses and you just drive over it.

Breallyn: No, I think she was on her roller skates in the driveway. Yeah.

Lyndon: That’s hilarious. Earlier I was asking you about whether you achieved what you wanted to achieve when you were on your writing retreat down the coast. And you were saying how good a time you had, so I’m assuming you did achieve what you wanted to. Well, I didn’t

Setting Writing Goals and Expectations

Breallyn: Set out to kind of go, well, I’ve gotta write, X amount of thousand words or, you know, get the novel up to this point or complete chapter eight or you know, like I didn’t have like a sort of, I dunno, a goal like that, that I was putting some sort of expectation on myself like that I just knew where whereabouts I sort of was.

I sort of. I knew that there was lots of bits of all of the transcripts and stuff that I’ve got, all not transcripts, manuscripts that I’ve got, that I’m still pulling together. So I had some hard copy and some in my computer. So yeah, I didn’t sort of have like a, I wanna achieve this.

It was more like, oh, I can’t wait to get my teeth into this and get some traction going and find where I’m at, move things along. Yeah, so that was more just what I was, I was just wanting to clear out all the other things that have a physical kind of claim on my time and claim my mental space as well and just sort of push those to push those aside for a couple of days so that I could just let all the thoughts about the book come together.

So yeah, in that sense, yep, it absolutely was achieved because I was able to do that. You know, even when I was like doing something, like doing the dishes, I would have another thought about, what, if this happened down the track with these characters, what would happen if they did this?

Lyndon: So the environment sort of is what made a lot of that possible. ‘Cause you’re able to, like, if you were here doing the dishes, you wouldn’t allow yourself to be thinking about the book necessarily because there’s so many other chores and stuff that you need to do, or things that you could be doing here that, you didn’t take with you down there,

Breallyn: Yeah, kind of. Yeah. So here, if I have a thought of, oh, what if this, or here’s a connection or here, you know, like if an idea occurs about the book in some way, I’m not always free to just like, go write that down or follow it through and see whether it’s, you know, valid or like just, enjoy the exploration of where that idea might lead.

Because yeah, my hands are full, my schedule’s full. Yeah. Like Yeah, it’s not that those thoughts aren’t occurring or it’s not even that I’m shutting them down. It’s more that it’s a regretful kind of, oh, that’s a good idea. Or, oh, that’s interesting. And then I kind of have to just let it go because I’m not free to explore it. So. Yeah. And then

Lyndon: You can take it out on the kids.

Breallyn: That’s right. Those little rats.

The Challenge of Short Retreats

Lyndon: You know how when you go on holiday, you are obviously looking forward to the holiday. Normally there’s some sort of journey to get there. And we’ve holidayed, you know, we holiday quite regularly down there. We take time off when we can and we go down there, but we used to holiday a bit

Breallyn: Yeah.

Lyndon: When the kids was, were younger, much, much younger. But often what happens is you get on holidays and, you know, you’ll either get sick the first few days or you just get really lethargic.

Breallyn: Yeah.

Lyndon: And one of my little hangups I suppose is if I had two days away like you did or two nights away. If that was for me, I’d be so stressed that I wouldn’t make the most of it, or that I’d get down there and my body would just, I don’t know, relax or just let go of a whole lot of tension and then it would take so much effort to then be working because it’s a retreat, but it’s a retreat to work.

Breallyn: Yeah.

Lyndon: So how did you combat that?

Breallyn: Yeah, I think that

Lyndon: Discipline, was it just straight, pure hard rock hard discipline? Because if it is, I’m in trouble.

Breallyn: Well see. I’ve had to do that before. I definitely have. There’s been times that it’s just been this sheer like forcing myself to knuckle down Don’t be a cry baby. Just sit down and do your work. Breallyn. That’s how I’ve had to approach myself in the past.

Lyndon: Yeah, I’ve done that before with things in very short bursts.

Breallyn: Yeah. But I didn’t actually have to this time. I don’t even know why actually. But I think I think that thing of, as soon as you get a chance to have a break your body just needing it so badly that you just have to rest. Like, I’ve had that experience many times. I remember when the, when our eldest three were little ones, like little, so our third one was a baby. I had to go to the dentist one time to have a, half my back tooth had fallen out.

Lyndon: And you were very proud of your teeth.

Breallyn: I was. And then all of a sudden you were

Lyndon: Like, I’ve got great teeth

Breallyn: On New Year’s Eve, no less,

Lyndon: No holes, no fillings.

Breallyn: That’s right. Yeah. All of a sudden half a tooth fell out. So I had to, I had to book in, go to the dentist and I had three oh, a baby, a toddler, and a preschooler all with me. ‘Cause of course, who else was I gonna leave them with?

Lyndon: Like me maybe. Well, but I was probably busy sleeping. Yeah.

Breallyn: I dunno what you were doing. So we’re all crowded into the dentist room.

Lyndon: I was probably watching the footy Don’t leave em with me.

Breallyn: Oh yeah. I clearly didn’t feel like I could. I don’t know. No. But they were with me. Yeah. And I was just like, well you’ve just got to stand still ’cause mom’s in the chair. I can’t move. And I was so exhausted at that stage of life that I was like lying back. Having my tooth drilled and I fell asleep in the dentist chair. I was so exhausted. I was just like, oh, this is the most relaxed I’ve been for ages.

Lyndon: It’s hilarious.

Breallyn: So yeah, that was, you know, there’s just been, yeah, like I said, times when, you know, you’re just on, you’ve just been running on empty for so long that that downtime you just need it.

So, I don’t know, I just, I think I was just so excited as well, just to be able to do it. It didn’t feel like I have to knuckle down. I was a bit afraid to go oh, what if. What if the magic doesn’t happen? Like I think that’s definitely always a fear for me is like, what if I can’t write? What if I’m actually no good at all? I’m just completely deluded.

I’ve spent all this time trying to find out whether I like my writing, whether, you know, I don’t just like doing it, but I like reading it back. You know, what if I don’t like it in the end? And, and I think that fear never quite leaves of what if it’s no good or what if the magic doesn’t come this time?

But I think I was just really looking forward to it so much having spent quite a long time gathering all my materials together. And I don’t know even the pressure of having this podcast, ’cause honestly it is a bit of a pressure to go, oh hey, I’m working on this novel. And you know, this is the creative life. How crazy is it?

Like it’s showing, I don’t know, our deepest kind of hopes and desires and what makes us tick. But there’s that very real sense of it could all fail. Like we could put out this podcast talking about our work, and then no one likes it, and, but it won’t, we never finish it or, you know what I mean? It’s,

Lyndon: It won’t matter. That wouldn’t matter.

Breallyn: That wouldn’t matter, I suppose. But yeah, it’s, hard to like, it’s head spaces to jump over when you are in that situation of going, oh, finally here I’ve arrived. I’m, I’ve got this time and now I’ve gotta make it count. And, I’ve literally put, the whole family. I’ve scheduled everyone’s time. You know, we’ve got our nephew staying and I’ve nicked off on him. Our son has to get himself to school. I’ve got carers lined up for Birdie.

Lyndon: Well it was all a roaring success?

Breallyn: It was, but it was like, you know, making everybody do all this stuff in order for me to be able to get away. You know, it’s, yeah, there’s pressure because of that. I suppose

Comparing Creative Productivity

Lyndon: I was just thinking of, I dunno if this is irony or if this is just sad, but do you remember, first, so the couple of, and I told you this earlier today, the couple of days that you were away on your retreat working hard. I just could barely get anything done.

Breallyn: I don’t understand.

Lyndon: And, but sometimes I have, also like, ’cause I get migraines a lot and I forget. In the old days before I had a medication that actually worked really well to take the pain away. I wouldn’t forget that I had a migraine because the pain would endure for so long. And then I’d have really full on, I don’t know what they’re called. There is a name for it. I just, I called it remission or something, you know, it’s like

Breallyn: The migraine hangover Really? Yeah.

Lyndon: Migraine hangover. Yeah. It could last for a couple of days.

Breallyn: Yeah.

Lyndon: Sometimes like the migraine will start in my sleep. And of course I’m not sleeping very well, so I’ll end up taking one of these tablets for the pain. So by midday or one o’clock or something like that, I can be completely free of pain. But I’ve still got effects of migraine, like in terms of it’s affecting my speech a bit. It’s affecting my cognitive ability and it’s affecting my clarity of thought and I’ll forget that I had the migraine.

Lyndon: And then at the end of the day, I’ll be like, I’ve got nothing done today. I don’t know what was going on. And I honestly will not remember that I had a migraine and that I’ve probably still got the effects of it. I just don’t have the pain.

Anyway, so I had it,

Breallyn: It is interesting that, yeah, that every time, like you’ll go, oh, I had these things to do today, and I, and then as you’re talking, you’ll suddenly go, oh. Right. I had a, I’ve got a migraine. I’ve still got a migraine. And it’ll, it, it all, it’s like it takes you by surprise every time.

Lyndon: I know. It’s every time.

Breallyn: Every time.

Lyndon: Just about every time. I know. It’s mental, it’s crazy.

Breallyn: But yeah.

Lyndon: So I did have, while you were away, I had, I did have a migraine over two days.

Breallyn: Mm-hmm.

Lyndon: But I also, I did make a choice to spend time with my nephew. And, which

Breallyn: Was the right choice.

Plus you had the fact that I was away meant that you were the responsible adult in the house.

Lyndon: Yeah, but I didn’t really have to do anything. I don’t do all the things you do. Our son, you know, he’s 18 now, he can get himself to school. Doesn’t need me to stand there yelling at him for an hour and a half. And guess what? He did require that and I didn’t do that. And so,

Breallyn: He makes his own school schedule,

Lyndon: But I’ve got off track. So there was that where I had all the comforts and trappings of home and I had in my mind at least, every reason to be productive. And it just didn’t happen for me. And I did feel that I probably shouldn’t push it and it would be nice to not just lock myself away from my nephew ’cause I don’t see a lot of him. So we had some really good discussions. Yeah, it was great. So it was,

Breallyn: You made the right decision for sure.

Lyndon: It wasn’t, it’s not, I don’t regret that at all. But what I was thinking about and why I said, is this sad? Do you remember when I got COVID and I extricated myself from the family?

Breallyn: Yeah, that’s right. You actually, yeah. You had to go down there so that we could,

Lyndon: I think that was the only time I got COVID. Yeah. It was right towards the tail end of it as well. Yeah. Yeah, the lockdowns

Breallyn: Weren’t as enforced or anything anymore, and I think

Lyndon: Some of our kids had already been like, oh, they’d been locking themselves away because didn’t someone have it? I can’t,

Breallyn: I think. One of them had it and he,

Lyndon: They were just getting over it.

Breallyn: Yeah.

Lyndon: And then I thought it would break their heart if they knew that I had just got it.

Breallyn: And then we all had to lock down again for,

Lyndon: You all have to lock down

Breallyn: Another two weeks. All.

Lyndon: And I thought, what will I do? Am I gonna have to spend the night on the hammock outside? Because back then I was doing a podcast called One Man One Hammock.

Breallyn: Oh, look it up if you, if you like hearing Lyndon’s voice. It is so restful and meandering and all the things

Lyndon: And unplanned. I would, yeah. But I did, I think I did. 12 episodes. It was meant to just be a little short term mental health break thing that I did on the hammock. So I thought, oh, maybe I’ll just spend the night on the hammock. There’s too many mozzies. And I thought, you know what? I’m just gonna go straight down to the beach house.

Breallyn: Yeah.

Lyndon: So I thought, oh, well, I might as well take my portable recording gear.

Breallyn: Ah, is that what you did? I,

Lyndon: Yeah. I took a bunch of things down so that I’d be able to record down there and I thought, I might as well make use of the time.

Breallyn: Yeah.

Lyndon: And took it all down in a backpack and took the guitar down and a couple of other things. I think I had a microphone and I didn’t have COVID that bad, but I did have all those flu symptoms.

Breallyn: Yeah, You know, the achiness and the Oh, it’s pretty horrible.

Lyndon: The lethargy. Yeah. I don’t even know if anything came out of the backpack. I was just like, I can’t do it.

Breallyn: Yeah. You probably just needed the rest. I couldn’t

Lyndon: Do it. Yeah. And I remember having to get groceries delivered to the house. Technically I think I probably wasn’t even meant to go down there, but I was like, this is the best thing for the family.

Breallyn: Yeah.

Lyndon: And I just drove straight down and locked myself in that house basically.

Breallyn: Yeah. Oh, that would’ve been disheartening to,

Lyndon: Yeah. It was a bit annoying.

Breallyn: Like have the time, but not be well enough to actually

Lyndon: Yeah.

Breallyn: You know, to find that sweet spot of the. Of your brain working and being able to create something.

Lyndon: But it was, it, I mean, it was me trying to be opportunistic as well.

Breallyn: Yeah.

Lyndon: And sort of make the most of a bad situation. It didn’t work out. But it is obviously different for you going down there this time.

Breallyn: Yeah. Yeah.

Lyndon: I’m just thinking it’s the same environment. It was the same length of time. Oh no, I was probably down there for longer.

Breallyn: Yeah. You, I think you were like at least a week, maybe even two earlier. I can’t even remember. No, it wasn’t,

Lyndon: No, no, no. I wasn’t down there that long.

Breallyn: That, that is disappointing. Yeah, I don’t know. I don’t even know why this time I didn’t find it too hard.

Lyndon: But what do they say? Like, if you find something that you love, you don’t work a day in your life.

Breallyn: Yeah, but I have worked and worked and worked at writing and when I was doing my masters, I think I cried every time I had to hand in an assignment and I’m not kidding, like,

Lyndon: Nah, believe it.

Breallyn: Yeah. And, I don’t know, it was like a release of emotion about it because it was important to me like that it wasn’t just trying to hand something in to get to get over a hurdle like that you had to do, to pass a course. It was every piece of writing meant so much to me that I wouldn’t be happy you know, unless it had really kind of cost me something emotionally.

So yeah, it was, I feel like I’ve, I have worked and worked and, and I’m sure in the future there’ll be times where. I’ll go down, go, oh, I’m gonna go on another writing retreat. It’s gonna be awesome. And I’ll go down and just hate the whole thing. It’ll be horrendous. And, you know, that’ll probably happen. And that’s, that’s okay too. I suppose it’s part of it.

Lyndon: Yeah. Yeah, that’s right. You can only sort of set yourself up for a win and then like you were saying before, not have too many expectations because Yeah.

Breallyn: Yeah.

Lyndon: It’s just some things you can’t control. Yeah. I mean, and there has to be, ’cause there, there is a magic that does happen when you’re creating something and you can’t make that happen. You can just try and create conditions that are conducive for it to happen. And sometimes, yeah, those conditions are three months of solid hard work with no fruit to show for it.

Breallyn: Yep.

Lyndon: And then you go for a walk and get the whole plot for something or, you know, you get the chorus for a song that you haven’t been able to get a chorus for, for forever.

Breallyn: For sure.

The Art of Retreat – Distance and Micro-Retreats

Lyndon: How much distance do you actually need to cover for it to be a retreat? Remember when you’re at school and you’d have excursions. And then sometimes they’d go, oh, we have an incursion. And I’d go, an incursion.

Breallyn: Oh yeah, it didn’t feel special. ‘Cause you’re at home like,

Lyndon: Well, you’re at school. Oh yeah, well, yeah, school. It’s like, well, what? What is this? Yeah. It just wasn’t the same. So I think I don’t know in my mind can you have micro retreats. So what do you do if you’re just at home and you just need. To, I guess it’s a bit of me time or something like that.

Breallyn: Yeah. I don’t know. Well, I’ve worked,

Lyndon: It’s not the same thing.

Breallyn: I’ve been working very hard as, you know, to try to carve out a writing block in my week. Which I’ve,

Lyndon: I don’t know no evidence about this at all, but I think. You do have to go away, you’ve got to remove yourself.

Breallyn: Yeah. There’s something definitely special about

Lyndon: Don’t you?

Breallyn: Getting away. Yeah.

Lyndon: So then coming back.

Breallyn: Yeah.

The Return from Retreat

Lyndon: Once you come back, I mean, I guess this for you, like we’re just talking about, cause this happened this week and like I said, and

Breallyn: I was looking forward to going. That’s, yeah. And I

Lyndon: Was, and then I decided, well maybe I’ll call you while you’re there and you can

Breallyn: Ruin my retreat,

Lyndon: Ruin your retreat. But it sounds like, anyway, that clearly it was very productive for you, so that obviously was a plus, but was it still hard to come back and look at this pretty face,

Breallyn: I’d have to say it was like the fact that I did have a productive time made that drive back here a lot easier if I had have gone down there and, yeah, just felt sick, exhausted, realized that. Instead of having a couple of productive writing days, all I actually just needed to do was lie on the couch and watch shows because my body just needed to decompress like that.

And that was, you know, definitely a possibility. Like that could have happened. It, you know, if I’d gone last month, maybe that would’ve happened. If I go next week, that might’ve happened, you know? So, I might have just hit a little sweet spot there. I don’t know.

But the fact that it was a good time in terms of good writing I enjoyed just being down there. Like I said, I could just nip across to the beach and walk on the beach when I needed a break. Caught up with my old friend. So I had a really great time. So it wasn’t like I was coming back, going, oh. I could have done so much better. You know, I wasn’t sort of beating myself up the whole way home.

But it was like, it’s always still hard. It’s always hard when you’re kind of coming home from a holiday or a little break or you know, whatever. Something nice. You’re going, okay, now I’ve gotta get my head back into the. You know, their routine and all of the things that have been placed on hold while have been gone, I’ll probably have to get back. You know, I’ll try to get two loads of washing done tonight, you know, that sort of thing.

Yeah. Like, just all that sort of thing. And I had to come straight from there and pick Birdie up from school. So I was straight back into that head space. Like. Knowing that she’d not had me for two days, she might be, you know, having some emotions about that and, like needing to sort of show me physically that, you know, she’d been unsettled. I, you know, wasn’t sure how she’d been, ’cause we hadn’t really, we even, I don’t think we’d even texted had we, so. I didn’t know no. How she’d been,

Lyndon: I did send you a link to a car to go and have a look at for me, but that was, that was just before you left to come home.

Breallyn: So yeah, that was the priority. But no, so I was definitely,

Lyndon: In the area.

Breallyn: No, I came, yeah. Straight home from Yeah. Having coffee with my friend to school pickup and Then she had an OT appointment, so I had to sort of be talking to the OT and figuring things out But then I got like a bonus writing boost because I headed out to. a writing panel at Sunbury Library.

Lyndon: Yeah. And that’s right. You’ve, you came back with books.

Breallyn: Yeah.

Lyndon: And you said, turned out it was an expensive night. I’m like, oh, for, I don’t even know.

Breallyn: For a free library talk.

Lyndon: Yeah, for a free library talk.

Breallyn: Well, I bought their two, you know, there’s two authors that had come to speak, so I bought their latest space.

Lyndon: But you’ve always had this problem though with libraries. I remember our whole married life. You’d borrow from the library and then. Months and months later,

Breallyn: Stop,

Lyndon: You’d take the books back and then you’d go, yeah, it costs me $15 in library fines. I’m like, it’s meant to be free. You’re not meant to be paying.

Breallyn: I know. Well, we’ve moved around a little bit in our city, so I’ve had the some privilege of jumping from council to council, so I’ve actually got library fines literally in every council that we’ve ever lived in. I have

Lyndon: A cousin who did that with parking fines and eventually they said, they caught up with him and said, you either pay and it was like thousands of dollars.

Breallyn: Oh, no.

Lyndon: Or you’ll be spending, and I think it was. It was a few nights in jail or a week in jail or something like that.

Breallyn: Oh, wow.

Lyndon: And I, I can’t remember, I can’t remember what he chose. I was like, wow, you get the choice. So, he probably did the time. But yeah, that’ll happen with you, but they’re gonna throw you in the slammer because you know what these librarians are like.

Breallyn: I mean, you say that some of them have been really strict, but some of them, I found that this is a strategy, this is my tip for anyone listening. If you’ve got lots of fines piling up, you just go to them and say, I can’t afford to pay this. Can you please reduce my fine? They like, just look at them in the eye and just say that. And then often they, do

Lyndon: You try that with the police next time? Yeah.

Breallyn: I don’t think they’re as forgiving, but I’ve literally employed this tactic many times and it’s worked, so yeah.

Lyndon: Wow.

Breallyn: When I got back, the carer hadn’t been able to put Birdie to sleep. So we then spent another couple of hours getting her to sleep. Then I did the overnight in her room.

Lyndon: Mm-hmm.

Breallyn: Slept in birdie’s room then, which interestingly

Lyndon: Enough too in the profession, they’re called active overnights. And I said, why do you call ’em active overnights? And they’re like, ’cause the client is up.

Breallyn: They’re up and down all night.

Lyndon: They’re up and down all night.

Breallyn: These are definitely active overnights.

Lyndon: Active overnights.

Breallyn: Yeah. So I did the active overnight, then I did the morning shift ’cause our carer is away, and then

Lyndon: A different carer.

Breallyn: I just did the pick up from, oh, well I did some work today. Then we did our podcast recording this afternoon. Then I picked Birdie up from school, had her with her speech therapist and. The carers away tonight. So did the night shift, and now I’ll be doing the overnight after I finish recording this podcast. And then a morning shift because it’s Saturday tomorrow and there’s no

Lyndon: One, and yet it’s me with the red eyes. I’m just sad for you. Well, you don’t,

Breallyn: I’m riding high on the joys of having finally written something well, that, that I’m happy with.

So, but that

The Rug Incident

Lyndon: Is true. This is probably as good a time as any to tell you about something that may have happened while you were away.

Breallyn: Oh, really?

Lyndon: Yeah.

Breallyn: Oh, no.

Lyndon: And that I, oh, no, I did text you I texted you in a manner that you might not suspect anything, but I thought you’ll probably ask Why do you, wanna know?

Breallyn: I might have.

Lyndon: All right. I

Breallyn: Think I just ignored it.

Lyndon: No, you answered me.

Breallyn: Oh, okay. Okay.

Lyndon: This would’ve happened probably hours after you had left you probably were just settling in down there. What can you, what text have you come up with?

Breallyn: What brand is the rug in front room?

Lyndon: What brand is, is the My new

Breallyn: Beautiful rug.

Lyndon: What brand is the rug in the front room? Right? Yeah. Because I thought it was Ruggable. Yeah. And then, then you said it was Ruggable?

Breallyn: Yep.

Lyndon: So do you know what happened?

Breallyn: What happened to my rug?

Lyndon: Have you sat in the front room?

Breallyn: No.

Lyndon: Well, you wouldn’t notice anything, but this is what happened, right? Birdie. She knocked down all, you know how sometimes she knocks down all her markers, all her,

Breallyn: Ah,

Lyndon: What are they?

Breallyn: Yes. All her textas.

Lyndon: All the textas.

Breallyn: We’ve got a nice thing of textas, crayons and pencils, all, you know,

Lyndon: Nice wooden box,

Breallyn: Beautifully set up. Yep a big roll of paper for it to draw on.

Lyndon: I heard that.

Yeah. And I’ve gone to see what’s going on and it was just, you know, she’s like, I saw all the stuff there and I said, pack it all up for me. So she was picking them up and then I’ve come back to check on her and I don’t know whether I didn’t notice it the first time or whether she did it in the course of packing up, but there was a couple of lovely new patterns on your rug. 

Breallyn: No. What?  

Lyndon: And I was like, oh my gosh. What? And they, nearly one of them nearly looked like, it was in the same sort of, uh, stylings.  

Breallyn: No.  Oh, I’m devastated. I haven’t even seen it. I’m,  

Lyndon: no.  And then  

Breallyn: luckily they’re, water soluble markers,  

Lyndon: Well I won’t,  I don’t know. All of them were, ’cause what was in there was some, no, because there was some whiteboard markers in there. 

Breallyn: I’m so careful with that too. Oh, no!  

Lyndon: There was some whiteboard markers and I don’t know if they’re water soluble or if they’re different. Anyway, but the marker she used, it was green, bright green and  

Breallyn: Oh no.  

Lyndon: And I spent probably an hour. Doing the dabbing with the cloth and the light was fading, the sun was going down and I’m like going, I have to do this in the natural light, otherwise I won’t be able to see if it’s really come out. and it looked like I got it all out and then the next day went into survey my handiwork and I just saw green specs and I could still tell where the line was. 

Breallyn: Oh no.  

Lyndon: And I had to do it again and it was still coming up. So that was good. So if you see any bits, they will come up, but you’ll probably be hard pressed to see it at all, I’d imagine.  

Breallyn: Let’s hope so. Let’s hope you’ve done it.  

Lyndon: But I thought, I can’t,  

Breallyn: a job that can evade my detection.  

Lyndon: I can’t tell you about that. When you just got down there,  

Breallyn: I did wonder about the text that you’d said, yeah, what brand is the rug? But I,  

Lyndon: you were probably hoping he was gonna buy me another one.  

Breallyn: No, you know what I was thinking? ’cause we’d actually spent a little bit of time trying to stick down the corners with like, oh, you know, this sort of rubber cornering kind of, you know, taping and stuff like that. 

Lyndon: an Inadequate product  

Breallyn: because it was sort of seeing a little bit of bumps and that in the rug. So I thought, oh, maybe it had occurred to you. Oh, why don’t we just get underneath rug you can buy to, go under the whole thing. And I thought, well, a thoughtful husband.  

Lyndon: Yeah. Well I thought if I worded it like that, it’s better than saying, ‘Hey, how do you get, how do you get texta out of say, something that’s very similar to a carpet but sits on top of a carpet?’ 

Breallyn: Oh my gosh. I’m glad I didn’t know.  

Lyndon: So there you go. I saved you the pain of that.  

Breallyn: Thank you. I do appreciate that.  

Lyndon: I didn’t ring you, I didn’t really text you until you were about to leave and said, ‘Hey, do you reckon you could take this car for a test drive?’

Breallyn: Only if I cancel my coffee date? 

Lyndon: Yeah. Yeah. Classic.  Anyway.  

Breallyn: Oh well. Adventures.  

Lyndon: There you go.  

Breallyn: For you.  

Lyndon: Yeah. That was about as exciting as it got for me. Yeah. anyway. There’s always tomorrow. No, there isn’t. I’ve gotta go down the peninsula tomorrow and test drive a car. Funnily enough, you were right there and now I’m doing it. 

Breallyn: I know you’ll enjoy your time down there.  

Lyndon: Yeah. Make a new friend.  

Breallyn: Yep. 

Want more deep dives into the creative process? Our Patreon supporters get exclusive episodes and behind-the-scenes content.