Way back when, I told a friend on a play date that there was no Santa Claus. I’d always been pretty resilient to news like this and was surprised by the hysteria that followed. Crying, yelling, the whole shebang, and right before my parents came to pick up their problem child, my friend’s dad told…
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When I tell people I write a column about relationships, they tend to (rightly) assume that it’s about the romantic variety. The truth is that at my age (22), there are relationships that are at least as, if not more, important than the ones I spend every week thinking and subsequently writing about. As much…
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A couple of years ago, I was sitting around with two friends, Little Miss E and Cuddles, denouncing men and criticising their apparent inability to process what catches we are after the recent break-up between Cuddles and her boyfriend. I can’t remember what the circumstances were (no doubt it was his fault, or at least…
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In my (ultimately unsuccessful) quest to finish all the uni work that would be due while I was in the United States before I left Australia, and having realised some years ago that I work best late at night, I spent a lot of time strung out on coffee. The unfortunate result of this was…
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A few days ago, I had my first experience with outwardly not being told something because Bob Dylan was concerned I might write about it. He eventually told me because he tells me everything (even though he likes to pretend this isn’t the case) but it did raise an issue that has become rather pressing…
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New relationships bring with them a veritable swag of words, all of them with the potential to catalyse as much strife and unease as the next. Terms like ‘exclusive’, ‘girlfriend’ and ‘Facebook official’ can cause many a reaction, both diverse and averse, in those embarking on the throes of new romance. But no word seems…
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‘Oh my god Dunja, just once would you go for someone clean?’ Such was the reaction of my good friend, Lily, upon seeing a photo of Dracula, a recent partner-in-dalliance. When I pointed out that I do tend to favour men who shower and use cologne, she responded that what she meant by clean was…
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1. Let shit go. No matter whether you break up on good or bad terms, there is almost always some residue from a relationship that is never going to be fully resolved. Let it go. It’s over. 2. Be on the same page. In all technicality, if one of you sees the friendship as a…
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After I moved out of my parents’ home and in with a friend, I had no money for an Internet connection. We also oddly didn’t have a TV aerial, even though we did have a television, and without the usual tools for procrastination, Alice Planetoid and I had to find new ways to waste time….
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Now that I am into my twenty third year of life, I’ve been lucky enough to have wisdom and knowledge imparted upon me that I did not have access to a couple of weeks ago. Of course, this is a lie. My first day of being 22 was much the same as my last day…
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Having celebrated (read: lamented) my birthday over the past week, I have likewise found myself considering (read: lamenting) the birthdays of years gone past. One thing that has been consistent about the anniversary of my birth, almost without exception, is that it’s a bad day. Whether it was Bob Dylan forgetting to pick me up…
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Once upon a time, I had a boyfriend who had an ex-girlfriend who had a facebook account. I knew they were in contact, but the way he described their relationship was the way we are always told is indicative of their being truly over it: brief and amicable. Nonetheless, when he accidentally left his account…
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I have this disease late at night sometimes, involving alcohol and the telephone. I get drunk…and then, speaking gravely and elegantly into the telephone, I ask the telephone operators to connect me with this friend or that one. -Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse Five My name is Dunja and I am a drunk dialer. I have long…
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My recent trip to Europe marked two milestones in my life: 1) My first visit to Germany. 2) My first purchase of artwork. Whilst strolling around the streets of Berlin with a friend, we came across an op shop owned by a rather disagreeable woman, a fact that could be forgiven when we realised the…
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