last days of autumn

made it - just!

i was a little late getting to trish's birthday dinner at koliba, a czech and slovak restaurant in collingwood last night. oops! and sorry.








on the walk back to the car, a shop selling glasses had this display...

cars, rain and more rain

jamie and i drove up to winton for classic car racing. it started out grey in the city and it didn't get much better the rest of the day. i wasn't really prepared for wet to be honest, left the umbrella by the door and my jacket wasn't exactly water proof. oh well... that may or may not teach me. ;)











as you can see from the picture below we ended up buying a couple of rain ponchos. the guys selling them were hilarious. i had bought one five minutes before jamie and had decided on blue. the stall owner decided jamie couldn't have anything but pink. we were a pretty pair and got a few comments. a super day even for the wet.









(p.s. i didn't forget, i just didn't blog yesterday, it was my niece larissa's birthday. she turned 12. i did call and sing to her, in front of work colleagues no less... so i'm not totally a bad auntie. happy birthday for yesterday, riss).

isn't this odd?

i was contacted a week or so ago by the guys at bloginterviewer.com and now my interview has been posted. anyway... here's a link if you want to use it. ;)

sometimes

i'm more about what comes next than what's going on right here right now.  slow down, you move too fast...

sunday seems so long ago...

i love mornings. and this morning i got to start alone. after grabbing some breakfast and hiding the muffin (and frapp) in my bag to sneak into the session, i got to listen to a panel of four discussing the merits of writing children's books in the digital age. well, we've been in the digital age for a while now but it got me thinking on where i have to take my tv series. the speakers were tristan bancks, wendy harmer, david levithan and laura harris. very interesting. also a tall ship sailed by the window, kind of surreal but cool.

the session after was with anthony eaton and brian faulkner on writing science fiction for teens - the emcee was useless but the speakers were engaging. i got to talking with a few of the people sitting next to me and it was a fantastic discussion on writing for young adults and kids and is it more difficult than writing for the adult market? i LOVE writers' fests.

jamie and i ended up at the sydney morning herald's best young australian novelists for the next hour. it was interesting listening to four writers reading excerpts from their novels. i can't say they're on my list of books to read, not my kind of thing, but still interesting. though i must admit i was getting a bit too comfortable and warm in the dark - could've dozed off. ;)

the last talk that we got to was on repressive regimes, i enjoyed this as well. the speakers were a journalist who's book on north korea will be a must and a novelist who wrote on kampuchea. fascinating.

then it was off to collect the rest of our group before heading to the airport. boohoo! another festival over. that's two for me now, and i can see a sydney trip every may in the future. i just have way too much fun.

it's raining, it's pouring...

we got more than a little damp getting to the first session of the day. the discussion started with ali alizadeh's book, iran my grandfather, which is a fictual or a faction. that's probably something i made up. but you know what i mean... a story based in fact but has been stretched for creative reasons. but i'm interested to read this because it will start me on a search for the truths of the matter.

then there was a fascinating conversation with john ralston saul. he made the collapse of globalism sound so accessible. and used the word stupid quite a few times. very funny.

then onto a pub lunch to warm the cockles.... mmm...


the afternoon sessions included a female panel talking about... you know i really don't know what the point was. it annoyed me to be honest. then caught hip hop versus the spoken word, which was great. definitely glad i decided on that one. will have to catch some slam events back home.


a couple of hours later found the four of us wandering around darling harbour looking for a restaurant. we decided on jordans, and it was absolutely fabulous.









(i was slack and ended up leaving jamie to play photographer yet again)

words and more words

after a breakfast bagel with a bird sitting at the next table, it was onto the first session of the day. an interesting discussion with susan maushart, who had taken her family off-line for 6 months and lived to tell the tale.

then since the day was sunshiney, we took some time out and sat on the wharf, reading the paper and listening to all the conversations going on.






one moment there was sunshine and next...




the afternoon sessions ranged from political talk, to a free-for-all in "so you think you can write". oh my, that was very... interesting, disturbing, strange. one poor chap wanted to write his story of the money pit of bonnydoon (the property from the castle) but couldn't quite get it together. and another fellow who went in for a nose job and ended up seeing the future. i know... i know... if you wrote about it no one would believe you (hang on, i'm writing about it...it's true dammit). later on it was into a discussion about dissent through a new journal, binge thinking. i signed up to receive more info on this. i like the idea of salons and crazy arguments with friends over food.

the view of sydney's luna park from across the water. a fantastic location for the festival.



andrew flew in to join the fun and we headed off to a pizza place at the rocks for dinner. not a late night. it's amazing how tired you can get from just sitting around listening to people talking about really cool things.

(many of these photos by jamie)