August 19, 2025

On the mend

One of the women on the NT tour said it would be six weeks before I could ditch the splint for my fractured wrist and start using my hand more normally. She was right. It’s definitely improving though, and I’m cleared to drive again thank goodness, but there are still things I can only do with difficulty, or not at all. Thankfully partners do come in handy for such occasions! So it’s going to be a few more weeks before I feel confident about lifting heavy items, unscrewing the tops of jars, or doing some of the Pilates poses that involve strong(er) wrist movements than mine currently has. The first time back at senior’s gym tomorrow will be interesting. Definitely no lifting dumbbells for me yet.


At least keyboarding is easier. One-hand typing isn't to be recommended. I kept remembering the amazing pianist on the ABC TV's recent series The Piano which featured talented pianists from around Australia, some of whom were invited to Sydney's Concert Hall to perform. One of those selected was a very talented pianist who'd suffered a stroke in his '20s or '30s but had gone on relearn playing the piano with staggering skill - using just one hand. What an inspiration. And a reminder not to complain given my limitations were only temporary.


No physio is required though, just the hand/wrist exercises I’ve been doing anyway and that are getting easier. My wrist soon lets me know when it’s done too much and it’s time to stop. In what is hoped will be Tassie’s last gasp of freezing winter weather hasn’t helped though, as I noticed yesterday. The wrist ached pretty much all day so the arnica cream had a good workout again.


Comments on the scar have all been ones of surprise – especially when people are advised where the surgery was done. I can only repeat what I was told afterwards: the surgeon who operated on my wrist at Alice Springs Hospital is regarded as one of the best, if not the best, in the country for this procedure, and his team are also held in high esteem. I think I was therefore remarkably lucky in the care and attention I received there, as well as back here in Tasmania. The follow up at Launceston’s Orthopaedic Clinic has also been excellent.


And the plate and pins in my wrist won't set off airport security as they're plastic not metal. Plastics are sometimes good for something even if I do wince a bit while admitting it. 

 

 

 

 

 


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The controversial and unaffordable stadium

By Anne Layton-Bennett • November 18, 2025
Political controversy continues about building Tasmania's third stadium at Hobart's Macquarie Point, a monument to the AFL that the majority of Tasmanians have consistently said they don't want and which they know is unaffordable at a time when public services are at crisis point. Yes to a team, No to a new stadium.

It's still a waiting game

By Anne Layton-Bennett • November 9, 2025
Seeking a publisher or agent for my book was never going to be easy, and so it is proving to be.

Strange and Marvellous Things

By Anne Layton-Bennett • October 27, 2025
Well done to the north-west Tasmania branch of Fellowship of Australian Writers . Once again their editorial team led by Allan Jamieson have produced an excellent anthology, with the intriguing title – as above – and an undeniably quirky cover. The rather wonderful octopus is just one of the creatures on it, indicating a watery theme until your eyes pick out the morose-looking frog, sporting what appears to be a death-cap toadstool hat, and a moustachioed chap apparently hitching a ride to work on a magpie. They all suggest an intriguing mix of writing to be explored within. I appreciate I’m a little biased in promoting this collection of stories, memoirs, poems, anecdotes and travelogues of far-flung places, since I've got work included, but after my copies arrived in the post last week, and from dipping into the book already, it really does look like another interesting and eclectic read – as FAWNW’s previous anthologies have proved to be. Tasmania is definitely not short of some talented writers, even if all of them don't necessarily have a published book to their name. Neither do I as yet, but with my magnum opus finally completed, and currently being strategically submitted to publishers that are ones most likely to be interested going on their previous publications, my fingers are firmly crossed. For a first-time author I knew this part would be difficult, as well as time-consuming given the lengthy delays before possibly receiving that much anticipated email or phone call - or not if the six- eight- or ten-week deadline is reached with no news at all - but hoping that with Dr Bob Brown on-side and putting in a good word when and where he is able to do so, my submission will be plucked from the pile sent by other hopefuls. Then it will be a case of hoping it will spark enough interest to ask for a publisher asking to see the full manuscript. Strange and Marvellous Things (edited by Allan Jamieson, FAWNW) 2025 is available online or at good bookshops. RRP $25.00

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