Australians all let us rejoice - we have a contender for Best Australian Novel of the Last Five Years (At Least!). And it may just win the Booker (fingers crossed). It's the first novel by a Sydney/Newcastle guy called Steve Toltz - and the book is A Fraction of the Whole.

Read it and laugh your head off out loud like an idiot on the bus like I have been doing.

And if you don't trust my judgement for whatever reason and need convincing by reviewers and book boffins, just read these reviews!!!

P.S. Ten things you need to know about Murakami

Further to my horrible depressing day at the Zoo - and the worst was seeing the way the gorillas were kept - here is some very good (related) news - more than 100,000 rare gorillas found in the congo

For the extremely homesick amongst us - Google Streetmaps has launched in Sydney. I might be a bit out of the loop on this, but I've spent the last hour just scrolling around the streets I know - even my Mum's street! And my old office! The street where I was born! Gah. It's bloody fantastic.

check it out

Could these be the fanciest gates in the world?





These are the gates of Chirk Castle. Note the red hand of ulster on the top.

And look here at my monster sunflowers -




Total triffids! The Day Sunflowers Invaded the Earth...