Last weekend Nathan and I went to Griffith for the wedding of one of Nathan's work colleagues - Jeremy to Natasha. It was a lovely wedding and reception and great weather. Natasha was lovely. While we were there we saw some of the orange sculptures that the Griffith community create each year for the garden festival. They were so vibrant that I took some photos! For Helen the guides had created a sculpture...

Guide Display

For Norm we though the motorbike was pretty cool... hope you are doing well on the trip to Antarctica

Motorbike

And I like the chickens - even though they are a bit corporate...

Chickens

Mum this is mostly for you so that you can see the pictures that I took of Auntie Ann and her rowdy happy mob. We had a great day at Cheltenham with a great Italian meal followed by a nice walk around the parks and shops. It was a great day with good weather. We finished up at the hotel checking out their pond full of carp and the girls named a number of them.

Got caught up in the traffic jam on the M4 on the way to the airport but, made it home ok. Took a few days to recover, all that flying had upset my stomach and sinuses. Unfortuately will be ok enough to head back to work tomorrow :( Sorry Steve if you are reading this but it was nice to have four days where I havent been thinking about work. For the last month it has been rare to think of something else other than work and logistics.

Nathan wanted proof that I actually went as the phone conversations were so close sounding he didn't believe that I had gone! So I have included a photo with me in it, just about the only one - it is from the evening we went to a Broadway show in NY one of the highlights of the trip. Of note the others include the Washington National Zoo and the fruit in the markets in Ottowa.

Thanks Christine for letting me know about the Women's Weekly Penguin Books Short Story Competition. If anyone else is interested you need an entry form from Women's Weekly October 2006 issue. The prize is $10,000 and publication in Women's Weekly with the opportunity for a manuscript to be read by Penguin books. Not many more details but some other information on writing can be found at their website. Central character must be a woman and length is between 3-5000 words. It looks like they hold this competition annually so if you don't have a story (possibly like me) by the closing date of February 5, 2007 then look out for it next year.

Mostly this post is for Claire but you might find it interesting. While I was in the US I visited Hampton Virginia for some meetings. I went for a walk one evening and found a cool gallery, Blue Skies Gallery. They had work from around 20 artist or so displyed in a rather large open room. They each had a small display with their card next to it. It appeared that 3-4 of the artists would man the shop at a time. It seemed like a great concept to get you art out and about for people to see and also buy. Claire I saw some great work by Jean Harrison in fibre - unfortunately the work on the website doesn't really capture what I liked in the art in the store.

The work was excellent quality and I thought hard about buying a couple of the paintings. The prices were very reasonable. In the end I bought some hand painted Babushka dolls that I sort of collect now that I have so many! I'm a big fan of them and remember playing with them as a child. They are delightful as you are always surprised that there is one more inside. Here is some more history if you would like to know more.

My first Babushka dolls - 7 pieces in Semionovo style

My second and third Babushka dolls - one in Semionovo style the other not a traditional style

My newly purchased Babushka dolls (that might become gifts for my nieces) most of them are not in a traditional style though the ones with the more rounded bellies and flowers are Sergiev Posad style

Well I made it to Canada and am now back in America - Washington. Ottowa was a lovely city and I could definitely spend some more time there. The addition of the french influence on the culture is a plus as they have better coffee and bread than America seems to have. We had time for a bit of touristing in between the work.

Canadian Parliament in Ottowa.

Well I have managed to stay in a hotel with free internet! Having fun so far on the work trip checking out San Fransico and it is a lovely city with a beautiful bay and steep undulating streets. It is the end of summer and it surprised me how warm it is - I have a slightly burnt face and had to buy a hat. Silly of me to not bring one with my fair skin. Anyway starting work tomorrow which hopefully will be good. My hotel room is rather lonely though at the end of the day and the company of my travel mates will probably wear thing in another week. The idea was to write some novel so cross fingers that will keep me entertained. I feel a strong urge at the moment to write emails to Nathan and keep in touch with people I know and I have only been away for 2.5 days. Hope you are all well.

San Francisco from the water.

Well the writer's festival was great. I only managed to make it to one of the days due to other things - but I had a nice relaxing time listening to the panels and thinking about writing. The workshop was good though the acoustics were terrible and it was difficult to hear Trudi Canavan giving us her advice. We mainly discussed tension and how to build it in stories. It is most important for the first few chapters but applies to every section. I think I distilled it down to be about providing sufficient suspense that there is a question in the mind of the reader. The question could be about the motivations of the character, the next piece of plot or about the reasons why something has been referenced or ocurred.

Anyway I will probably be offline for a while as I am heading overseas for work this Sunday. My parents are coming for a quick visit tomorrow until Sunday as well! So it is all happening. It will be good to see them again. If I manage to have a hotel with an internet connection that isn't too expensive then I may post something while I am away - I will take some photos so you can check them out later.

I still haven't written any novel - I am begining to think all of these festivals are just excuses :) Still I am learning things that I can put into practice later. I am hoping that I can write during all those boring hours at airports that I will be having in the next month.

I was going to post you a picture of the blue CZ that I am cutting in a pear shape for my sister Alison - but you wouldn't belive - it fell off the dop! I've decided its a combination of a new epoxy and cold weather. I have redopped it with the old epoxy but sooner or later I will have to figure out how to use the new epoxy as the old stuff is running out.

I won't be posting much next week as I will be in Melbourne for a course for work. I'm visiting Alison this weekend before hand. Not sure what we will be up to but maybe a bit of shopping.

It looks like I will be travelling overseas for work in September. I am not sure if I will be posting or not - depends if I take my laptop and how often the hotel will have an internet connection. I'll take the camera along so you might get a few photos for a change.

Anyway have to go and pack for this Melbourne trip - leaving tomorrow from work.

The ACT Readers and Writers Festival is on the 25-27 August. The theme is Deserts & Desertation : Landscape and escape. The highlights from my perspective include a two hour workshop with Trudi Canavan and a number of great talks on creating imaginary landscapes, and Sunday brunch with Marion Halligan. Most of the sessions are at the National Library and a program will be in the up coming City News. More details from ACT Writers Centre.

I have a tendency to write about things that are coming up - I think it is because I am always planning and trying not to forget what I need to do next. I do try to write about things that have actually happened here because I think it is more interesting and less lectury (if there is such a word). I have done a bit of writing today - which is a first for a long time. I think it has been a month. Possibly this was due to work being stressful and busy weekends. I still haven't found a strategy for finding the best time to write - during the week it just doesn't seem possible - though I have had a tendency to get sucked in to the tv and lazily blurg through my evenings. My new strategy is to do the cleaning etc during the week (still watching a few chosen tv programs) and leave the weekends free for writing. In the mornings are particularly suitable as Nathan is usually sleeping in. We shall see how this new strategy works. The writing I have done today is a polish on a short story I started a while ago. It is now about 2000 words - which qualifies as a short story - but not a long one. I think it is mostly there but not sure I am happy with anyone else reading it yet. It is about a friend of mine who comitted suicide about 8 years ago. The novel has been on the shelf too. I think it is so big now it is daunting me. I am not particularly happy with the wording (the ideas are ok) and I can see so much that I need to do that I have been putting off tackling it. I figured a few short stories might be just the trick.

Oh - Claire, Lynn you'll be glad to know we went skiing the other weekend and I had a great time. I'm even tempted to go again. We've just learnt that Chris and Jamie (two of our other friends) are catching up in NZ for a skiing trip in a couple of weeks. Jamie has been in Manchester while Chris is mining in Port Headland. Yes that's right the UK - I am so jealous. Looks like she will be there for a three year stint for a company she has just got employed with.