About

ThirdCat is my blog name from when it seemed like I needed to be anonymous. I am Tracy Crisp. I’ve got a proper website about my work but I also wanted to rejuvenate my blog, so I came back to an old wordpress template and started blogging again.

All of the old posts are here, but I think lots of the photographs have gone and most of the links are broken. Almost no-one reads blogs anymore, or at least almost no-one reads these personal, domestic blogs about day to day life. But welcome to you if you have found your way here. I write about nothing in particular which might be of interest to you or it might not. I have a substack newsletter which is kind of like blogging, but with slightly more focus.

I do have a psychology degree, but I’m not a psychologist. So don’t take anything on here as advice, not even of a general nature.

This is the about page from years ago, and then updated. It doesn’t make much sense any more, but I don’t want to lose it. It’s like when you renovate your house, but you keep a bit of the old wallpaper on the walls of the new walk-in wardrobe just to remind yourself of how things used to be. (I’ve never actually done this with the wallpaper and the walk-in robe, but it was the only analogy I could think of)

And this is the original About page from when About pages first landed on blogs, but the bits in italics are the updated parts now that I’ve restarted the blog. I don’t know, it just seemed right to keep the old, but also make it new.

I (no longer) live in Abu Dhabi. Abu Dhabi is slightly north of Adelaide where I lived for many years (and now live again). Adelaide is west of Auckland where I lived for some years and where I have never felt more at home. Auckland is east of Port Pirie (which is north of Adelaide) which is where I grew up and is the place I carry in my heart.

I caught the Trans-Siberian train from Beijing to Moscow and saw Lenin in his tomb. That was a long time ago. I once, unwittingly, caught the Love Boat from Vancouver to San Fransisco. I lived in New Zealand for four years, but never bungy jumped. If John Howard had won the last election, I would’ve moved back to New Zealand. And I would’ve jumped. If Tony Abbott wins the next election, I’ll be staying here.

If I could live anywhere in the world, I think it would be Mexico. Or Spain. Or Paris. Paris would be my first choice.

I have two boys. They don’t look like me. Not at all. I thought I was having three, and I guess that tells you something about my intuitive powers. I don’t have any cats, but I’ve had my share. For  a short while I had a Dog, but he couldn’t come to Abu Dhabi. Just because you’ve got a Dog, doesn’t make you a Dog Person. That’s something I’ve learned. We’ve had a few dogs since then, and I’ve become something more of a person who cares for dogs.

In February 2009, I turned 40. My, but it seemed like a big deal at the time. And now I’m 50.

I write short stories and essays and my first novel, Black Dust Dancing, was published by Wakefield Press in March 2009. And my second novel, Surrogate, was published by Wakefield Press in November 2018. It was a long time between drinks.

A few years ago (and now a few years more than that), I started performing standup comedy. It feels good when people laugh and shit when people don’t (this is still true). In August 2009, I went to the Edinburgh Fringe and put on my first solo show. It felt good when people laughed and shit when people didn’t. The mister was my tech crew, and we had a brilliant time. Back in Adelaide, I started writing and performing a regular show for the Adelaide Fringe. I stopped pretending I could do standup and my performance greatly improved.

In Adelaide I had a Real Job I never blogged about. Here, in Abu Dhabi, I’ve got myself a Real Job. My Dream Job. I’ll never blog about it. Back again in Adelaide, I work as a funeral celebrant, and have a website talking about that work over here.

I can get emails at: tracyqcrisp at gmail.com