then there was one on continental philosophy that almost put me to sleep. a difficult topic to discuss at the best of times and the presenter wasn't overly engaging. but still interesting, must have been at the time because right now i can't recall. could look up my notes. nuh...
then onto tom gleeson's playing poker with the SAS. funny and interesting, he's always a safe bet.
friday also had us at the screening of son of a lion and a q&a session with benjamin gilmour. dinner then onto number one for wine and readings. very beatnik. and fun.
the saturday part of the festival started off with the 10.30 session "will the real writer please stand up?" which included sarah blasko, miles merrill, emmanuel jal and chris bray. a great start to the day, singing and dancing and the spoken word. love it.
(that's me in the red skirt by the way, intently doing something). onto a conversation between stephen cummings and bernard zuel. i had read cumming's memoirs on the plane, he was part of the australian rock group the sports in the late 70s, early 80s. interesting read.
couldn't get into a session of marcus chown's where we could've asked him ANYTHING and had to settle for stories from the climate change front. which was kind of interesting as i came out with a few titles and blogs to read.
after that was first australians - the book but also a discussion on the sbs tv series that went to air last year. i've decided i'm getting it for my niece for her birthday (shhh... don't tell her). i've seen most of it, i think only the last couple of episodes to go.
free wine at at the launch of an ethereal book, the red highway by nicolas rothwell. then onto a korean bbq restaurant which was hilarious. not only did it seem as though it was the waitress's first night as she didn't explain anything to us about how to bbq our own food, nor did she seem to understand anything jamie said the first time he said it, we were also being called nicole kidman and bruce willis by our new-to-australia korean neighbour. oh and jamie didn't know how to peel a prawn. i've found a weak spot to exploit - yeah! back to number one quayside for drinks and readings... oh for something like "howl". :)
this was beautiful sunday. the weather cleared and the sun was out. i caught a session on literary mysteries, for free i might add as someone handed back in their ticket as i went up to buy one, synchronicity abounds.
into martin chown's black holes, wormholes and vomit balls in space. it was especially for children but i loved it. the kids were eager and intelligent and asked amazing questions. i'm buying the book when i find it. chown writes for adults for the most part, but has just written his first children's book.
after lunch we tried to squeeze into the session, the secrets of writing fantasy for young adults with garth nix and isobelle carmody, but it was full. for some sessions they broadcast it, so we got to sit on the wharf in the glorious day and listen to them like on an old radio serial. very cool. i'm excited because nix has handed over to his publishers the last book in the keys to the kingdom series. yah!
our last session was bloggers vs journalists at the museum of contemporary art. the speakers were erica bartle, tim blair, margo kingston and antony loewenstein. the last two were the writers of the book "not happy john" that came out a few years ago.
and then the holiday was over. train, plane, bus, taxi and home.
(many thanks to jamie and his phone camera)
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