Catching up

It's Saturday morning and I am sitting, with my little pot of tea, having just sent Toby off to Goulburn with friends for a road race. A sleep-in would have been nice, but I can catch up on my blogging instead. I have had problems with my technology, that's the excuse for not posting, but there are ways to work around it, so here we are.

This year Wagga City Library held their first One Book One Wagga event. The One Book One Community idea isn't a new one, lots of places do it and now Wagga does it too. The idea is that the whole town reads the one title and then the author comes for a special dinner and other events.

I don't work at Wagga Library any more so I wasn't involved in the organisation. My team did contribute several book club kits so that our book clubs could read the book together, but otherwise, I was simply able to be a community member. I went to the launch, I read the book; Mark Dapin's Spirit House. I was all set to go to the gala dinner with friends when I had a call asking me to step in as compère after the ABC Radio fellow was injured (not in the studio!).

I do a fair bit of public speaking in my job and have been MC at little and big events, so I wasn't nervous about speaking in front of 100 people. I was, however, very nervous about having to come up with intelligent questions for Mark and being able to respond to the answers and make the whole thing flow well. I also had to skim the book again as I had finished it in February!

Thankfully, it went well. Mark Dapin is a journalist as well as an author, and has many funny stories of the people he has written profiles on over the years. The Gordon Ramsey story is legend and I recommend you read it and his other columns on his website - you may have read him in The Good Weekend, Sydney Morning Herald or The Age.

I wonder what I was talking about...

Having to hold a microphone and my questions kept over the top hand gestures to a minimum.

Spirit House is a very hard hitting novel, funny, but also horrifying, sad and ultimately hopeful. This is what I wrote on Goodreads, before I knew I would be speaking to the author:

Four and a half stars, we really need to be able to give half stars. It took me a little while to warm to the characters, to David's gruff Grandad and his rude friends, always down at the pub, but I slowly became very attached to them. This story is important, a personal history of Changi, the Thai Burma railway and the lasting impact of war. Tears were shed for these fictional characters and the people who really lived through the atrocities.
With so many larrikins, the horror was balanced with humour and it was a funny and very touching read.

 It was a really interesting experience. I wouldn't like to be an author, though. It makes you so very vulnerable, which is fascinating in such a tough fellow as Mark Dapin.

Last weekend Andrew took Toby to Junee for soccer and I drove Joss out to Big Springs for cycling. I haven't been out that way before; it was really beautiful.

Bethany knitted in the sun and I chatted to other parents for a while before rushing back to my book. I was right at the end of The Goldfinch so it was hard to be sociable. I won't make you read my review, you can see it on Goodreads if you want to!

I went to the cinema for the first time in around a year. I like movies, and there were plenty of films out at Christmas that I wanted to see, but I just never seem to go. Half of a Yellow Sun got me out on a Sunday evening. I read the book years ago and loved it. I love African fiction and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is one of the first Nigerian authors I really enjoyed. It's hard to judge the film on its own when you have read the book. My mind fills in the story, rounds it out, so that it is hard to tell if the film is doing a good job on that front. Chiwetel Ejiofor was in it (you may know him from 12 Years a Slave, Serenity or Love Actually) as well as Thandie Newton and Anika Noni Rose from The No. One Ladies' Detective Agency. It is set before and during the Biafran War and uses maps and original newsreel footage to give us a picture of the situation. Of course, some changes were made and much was left out, but on the whole I think they did a stellar job with a brilliant book.

Today, Bethany has a violin concert. Hopefully I won't be too long in posting about that.

A special achievement

Don't mention it to Bethany, she is trying to forget about it and gets very cross if you bring it up, but she did the coolest thing on the weekend. Our sleep in/quiet Saturday plans were deferred as Toby had an early soccer game and our family was rostered on the bacon and egg roll stall at the Farmers' Markets for the cycling club.

Andrew did soccer duty and Joss, Bethany and I went to the lagoon at 7.30 to set up. In the past Bethany has taken orders and given change with me, but there were more kid helpers than adults this time, so she was left jobless.

She and the other younger girls used up crusts feeding the ducks, they wandered around, ate polka dot pancakes and then discovered the turtles in the lagoon.

These turtles are best observed at close quarters so Bethany climbed down to the lagoon's edge and perched herself on a rock. You can see where this is going. One of the other girls ran up to tell me that Bethany had fallen in the lagoon and there she was, completely soaked from head to toe. I was angry for a few seconds, she was in her new shoes, but we were all laughing very quickly, much to Bethany's horror.

I tried to convince her that this was very special, that I don't know anyone else who has fallen in the lagoon and she should put it on her resume. She laughed a little, but is now trying to put the whole episode behind her.

I had left my phone at home, but one of the other cycling mums took a quick photo.

 

In other news, Joss has decided (with significant prompting) to start cooking some regular meals. This should minimise the complaining I get from her about what's for dinner. Her first effort last night was veal schnitzel. She isn't one to start simply or cheaply. She did a good job, enjoying the whole flour, eggwash, breadcrumbs business and having her fingers crumbled. We got out the potato ricer for mash and that was fun, too. It was yummy, and perhaps she choose things that make less mess in the future.

Apologies

Sorry Mum and Dad. Good blogging habits are so hard to maintain!

Today is the last day of school and I am so relieved. I have had two strong reasons, recently, to be thankful for the stage my children are at. Firstly, the end of daylight saving meant that we actually got to sleep in for an extra hour. Facebook was full of horror stories about super early starts. Secondly, the holidays mean less work for me, not more. No lunches to make or supervise the making of, no homework, no reminding Bethany that she'll miss the bus if she doesn't get going and no remembering which uniforms and accessories are required for each day.

We have been enjoying proper rainy weather and the landscape has turned green. We have purchased long pants, cardigans and closed in shoes in preparation for our trip to the Blue Mountains next week. It's my favourite time of year, off to Easter Convention!

Bethany and Andrew went to Sydney last weekend to visit Grandad in hospital (he's OK). The weather wasn't good enough for the zoo, so they went ice skating. She got the hang of it in the end, but is still sporting a significant bruise on her cheek! We're hoping for an injury free Easter.

Veggies

Andrew is getting right into gardening. This is our third house and this interest is just kicking in now. I'm enjoying it too, or at least am certainly enjoying the fruits of his labour. We have a large amount of garden to fill, front and back, so it is going to take a long time, but it is coming together.

The latest project, a raised veggie garden! Yesterday afternoon Andrew was teaching Archie the piano while I had coffee with Jane. Jane looked out the window and found Milo digging in the new garden bed, thankfully without veggies at that point. I called his name and he paused, mid scoop, with his bone in his mouth.

After his teaching, Andrew and Bethany planted the veggies and completed a fence! Hopefully, Milo found another spot for his bone.

Rest

We haven't got Autumn colours yet, but the weather is definitely changing. It isn't really cool, the humidity nearly killed me on my last two runs, but I can imagine snuggling up with a blanket and that's a lovely start.

I didn't travel this week, but was very busy at work. We had a parent teacher interview for Bethany and it was a relief to make just the one appointment after 18 at Joss and Tobes' school.

I'm enjoying a quiet cup of tea on a foggy morning before going to Child Protection training at church. I'm trying to adjust my attitude, I know why we do it and understand the importance, but it's my one quiet morning (soon to be lost to soccer) and I have done the training twice before. It's a shame I'm not reading Middlemarch on an eReader, because it's a tricky book to hide! I'll just have to participate.

The road

I have been out and about for work this week. I drove an hour in one direction to Holbrook on Tuesday, to talk to some seniors about Ancestry Library Edition. While writing the talk I made some fabulous discoveries about my own family. Unfortunately, my excitement has not translated into action and I have not followed it up, yet. I''ll get there, Dad.

On Wednesday I drove an hour in a different direction to Cootamundra, a pretty, vibrant town where I talked about smartphones. You may have guessed that it is Seniors' Week, which, somehow, always means technology talks.

I love driving through the country. The muted greens of the gum trees, the golden straw coloured paddocks, still looking like summer. I engaged in some dangerous and not very successful photography.

Tomorrow morning I'm up at five and off to Sydney again, this time for a children and youth meeting. Seniors' Week being the perfect time for such things. It's in Blacktown, too, which will be a new experience for me. I hope they have decent coffee there. I once went to a meeting at Ashfield, which had the advantage of being much closer to the city, and after wandering up and down the street in search of a cafe, I ended up getting a coffee from a Michel's in a shopping centre. There is plenty of good coffee in Wagga!

Cooler

We watched the huge, orange moon rise as we ate dinner. It was almost a shooting star it was so quick! At one point it had a thin line of cloud across the middle and Bethany said it looked like a moustache.

We have been enjoying some cooler weather, looking forward to Summer departing, though it isn't ready to go quite yet, Autumn is just teasing us. Sunday was the coolest day and I was very glad because I finished my 5 to 10k app, again. I ran my first 10k run since I sprained my ankle last year. Now to build up to 21k.....

I wrote a post about my running for ABC Open..