December 2008

So this is New Years Eve

December 31, 2008

One of the reasons I began twittering was to see if any of the threads of ordinary life I occasionally jotted down there could later on be turned into a longer, better observed essay/post here. 90 per cent of the time, no, they haven’t, but I feel I need to refer back to a final few [...]

It’s a good thing Keira didn’t get the Bratz doll on Christmas Day…

December 29, 2008

…because I swear to God that all of my goodwill and cheer would’ve evaporated just as quickly as it did today when I spent a good part of twenty minutes separating the damned thing from all its packaging. Now I just have to reinforce the Velcro across her breasts because the poor darl’s baps keep [...]

Taking a temporary leave of absence

December 26, 2008

Today we’re travelling through mid-western NSW to visit Adam’s family and consequently my Internet access will be limited for a short while. I will return later with our Christmas recap, but I cannot leave without first sharing one story. As Keira opened this present: she exclaimed, “Oh! This is just like the one I saw [...]

Merry Christmas

December 25, 2008

May you have a happy and hopefully restful holiday season. Merry Christmas everybody, love our little clan. xxxx

Miscellaneous Mum’s Christmas Card Challenge – complete!

December 24, 2008

An hour ago I sent the ‘e-card’ to all the collated commenters at Miscmum.com this year and thanks to you all – your friendship, your contributions – I’ve just donated $125 to my Oxfam Fundraiser. This said, there were a lot of emails spat back to me with “message undeliverable” titles, so if you believe you [...]

Hello (a belated hello?*) to any new Notebook magazine readers

December 21, 2008

As we were vacating our beach unit yesterday, I tripped down the staircase while carrying a large box of uneaten food. I landed awkwardly, bumping my knee and grazing my arm. The arm was particularly sore, stinging and weeping ruby dots, and I trudged off to breakfast feeling quite forlorn.While we were waiting for our [...]

Link to a mini-review for “Surprise!”

December 20, 2008

The first (that I’ve seen) mention of Surprise! can be found here: Australian Bookseller and Publisher Summer 08/09 edition, pg 57 For the backstory: a contact of mine emailed me yesterday saying, “I was flicking through the magazine and saw your book being featured! Have you seen it yet?” and my response was, “NO! I didn’t know! Gah! [...]

A gentle reminder…

December 19, 2008

…about my Christmas Card Challenge. There’s only a few days left! Before I left for holidays I spent the best part of an entire afternoon going through all the comments from this year and collecting the email addresses for the recipients of the e-card (and possibly the prize!). It was quite an interesting exercise, as [...]

Wrap-up of my local school talks

December 17, 2008

Since being home I’ve been lucky enough to be asked to go visit some of the local primary schools to talk to the children about writing, books and reading. It’s been an immensely rewarding experience. I’ve mostly been seeing extension English children – Caucasian and Indigenous alike – in the upper grades of years 5 [...]