Whisperings from the cave

I just had one of those floaty, in-between thought and daydream moments when I knew that magic was afoot - or at least giving the venetians a quiet little shake.
I am presently holed up in my office at uni. Let's just ponder that for moment. I am sitting in a corner office at Melbourne University, heaters on, door locked, all by myself. There is no washing machine to load, no bench to wipe, no table to tidy, no dinner to plan. And yes, of course Virginia Woolf is whispering in my ear - "I told you so". It is made all the more delicious because I have a thermos of chicken soup and am riding a pseudoephedrine tinged cloud of cold medication - I've entered the woods of the cold but yet to trip-trap across the bridge to full blown flu. (And with my quiver full of chemical and herbal remedy arrows, who knows, I may defeat this lurgy yet).

So I was curled up in the comfy chair - yes, the room is that big! - getting lost in Kevin Brophy's book on "Patterns of Creativity" when I decided I needed to come up for air. I put Kevin down just as he was trying to explain to my fuggy brain Aristotle's take on mimesis and it's implications for understanding poetry (I'm sure I've got that wrong but I'll enjoy correcting myself). I wandered (ooo I realised I had typed 'wondered' instead - I kinda like that) over to the computer - one of those indecently large, sleek, lovely-to-behold "apple" things that I adore and my husband loathes and there it was. Exploding into starbursts of crimson, aqua, gold and emerald. Unfurling streamers of colours, waving at me like those fantastic balloon creatures that they have outside of used car yards. I was transfixed. I let it lure me. It saturated my tired irises and sparked something off deep inside my neural pathways. I think I mentioned my love of pretty, shiny things. And look where that has led me on this cold, rainy, Melbourne lunchtime. To you. I told you magic was afoot. And then, and then, and then..... I found this. And it changed everything. And now I'll share it with you. Here it is, imagine it is in a small, turqoise box (no, not that pale blue Tiffany hue). You lift the lid, it sticks a little because the cardboard is thick and this box wants to be kept safe. And there, nestled on bright yellow tissue paper is this....now click. And enjoy. We can talk about it later.