Holidays...

...this is what they are all about. Leisurely start to the day...coffee...TV and reading, reading, reading.
Absolutely loved this book!

Just another manic Monday

It wasn't actually all that manic...I just love that line in the song...can't even think of the song title.

I didn't take any photos- figured many were getting tired of the snow shots but then that's all there is to take at the moment.

It's Monday it may be book club, and it was. This month it was Freedom by Jonathan Franzen. In true book club style hardly anyone had read the book. I had read a few pages and having bought the hardback book...what a waste! The book is a huge sucker and in hardback it is a danger to life and limb if one should fall asleep reading it- which from the small part I read is highly likely.

So book club was all about catching up on what people were doing, their families and their work. Talk was of the flooding in Australia and the fund raiser we are having here, as in NYC, on Saturday February 5.

After a decision about the new book which is to be The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman.

Following that, we plan to read The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver. Both of which are paperbacks but I have bought them on my kindle on my iphone so no danger of great injury from the book at least.

Sunday in the middle

Tami set the challenge to write about the day to day stuff that is happening at this mid point in the month.

My Sunday was hardly day to day it being the end of the Aireys Writers Festival or Festival of Words.

Jude and I started the day with a workshop on short fiction. I actually don't like short stories- I get frustrated with them- they finish too soon for me usually so why do the workshop? It seemed like a good idea and it worked out quite well but what it really pointed out to me is that if I am going to do some serious writing (as in writing to be published) I need to be more disciplined and to actually write something..... soon perhaps.

After the workshop we all met up (Michele, Sue Jude and I) at A La Greque a great restaurant in Aireys that is closed over the winter, I usually miss having a meal there. It was a great meal and Allan Campion a food writer was the speaker and provided great insight into his experiences as a chef and writer. So in all a great end to the weekend.

Now it's back to a little more reality with getting last minute things done- like washing and packing and seeing the last groups of people who have booked me up before flying back to NYC via Santa Fe, on Wednesday.

Finding Fun on Fridays

According to Jane who set the challenge...

This one is simple.

Not for this little black duck! But I thought and read the challenge again...

I want you to find a funny picture from amongst your huge collection of photographs. We all have them - bald babies, sleeping husbands, amusing pet antics. I'd like you to post it on your blog and give it a caption that is a well known (read famous) line from a movie (don't forget to tell us which movie it is and who delivered the line)

Be blowed if I could do any of this so I trawled my photos and then I trawled the quotes of movies and had the following idea for the use of photos of my niece Kate and nephew Nick. The lines are not all that famous but the movie is and it means I could share what clowns these two are, just like their dad.
The lines are from Blazing Saddles.

“Where ya headed, cowboy?”

“Nowhere special.”

“Nowhere special. I always wanted to go there.”

“Come on.”

But I guess I did find some fun both with the kids and the photos and have managed to use these photos that I may not have.
Friday was fun anyway because we headed down to Aireys Inlet again and settled in for the weekend and the Aireys Inlet Festival of Words. We just walked up the road to the Community Centre to the opening. Sue and Jude came to stay for the weekend so it was bound to be fun. The opening speakers really set the scene for the weekend giving great readings from their books and keeping to time!
Cate Kennedy was the keynote speaker sharing her new work yet to be released, The World Beneath she was great and the book sounded so good got a copy and got it signed. The mayor opened the weekend- you'd reckon people would get the title of the events they are opening correct she kept inserting a "the" in the title of the weekend festival making it The Aireys Festival of the word" slightly different emphasis there!
A gropu from the Anglesea Performing Arts Group present Peter Handke's Self Accusation which was confronting and amusing, playing on words. I thought I'd google him and it, both he and it I had never heard of... turns out it is controversial and has been performed in a range of ways. Is there nothing that is not on You Tube?
After all of this we walked over to the pub and had dinner and then walked back home to the waiting and anxious pooch, Spencer. It was very dark walking home but warm and dry.
Now all I need do is catch up on other blogs and blog entries!