Dearest Friends,

Merry Christmas.  I hope you are well.  This is my last installment for 2008.

I'd
like to say a special thank you to all of you who came to one of the
sold-out 'Curiouser' launches across Australia last month - we all had
a brilliant time. 


Here's an excerpt from a recent review of 'Curiouser' from Toronto, Canada:

'As a side note, she seems to like a style of having a nose pad or something on her face'.


A style of having a nose pad.  Read that out aloud slowly.   (they don't have zinc in Canada)

Last
week Keir, Matt (tour manager and genius sound engineer) and I came
back from a sojourn in Cambodia, where we played a gig for MTV Exit (a
branch of MTV Asia) at Angkor Wat, a 12th century temple that was the
capital of the Ancient Khmer Empire.  The show was to raise awareness
amongst potential victims of human exploitation and trafficking. 
Placebo were also on the bill.  They were all very lovely guys and even
came early to the gig to watch us from side of stage!  It was a magical
concert for an extremely worth cause.  You can read an article about it
at http://www.news.com.au/..couriermail/story/0,20797,..24817208-5003421,00.html


In other news...things feel like they are changing.  Ben has a new
cat called Roland (after the brand of keyboard).  We now have a
monitors engineer, a smart young man called Simon.  Nicole is moving
house.  Matt is doing the liver cleansing diet.  Steve has some new
singlets.  Also, after three and half great years working with Leanne
de Souza, I am now being managed by the fabulous Bill Cullen at One
Louder.  (They also manage four other artists who I respect and admire,
including Paul Kelly, The Drones, End of Fashion and Sarah Blasko). 


We're also having our first party in years - Keir is hosting a
Christmas party at our place tomorrow.  He has asked everyone to bring
their own chairs, and their own toilet paper in case we run out.

Here are my some of my favourite books this year:


What is the What (Dave Eggers)
Survival in the Killing Fields (Haing Ngor)
The Fatal Shore (Robert Hughes)
The White Tiger (Aravind Adiga)
Gould's Book of Fish (Richard Flanagan)

I
would like to convey my sincere gratitude to all the people who allow
me to lead this life.  Those of you who have come to a gig, seen us at
a festival, bought a cd, written to me, asked me to sign a piece of
your body or listened to my music in your lounge room this year - thank
you !  Have a lovely Christmas and New Year's.  Come to the Woodford
Folk Festival!  If not, I hope to see you in 2009.


Warm wishes,

Kate