Tuesday

Whoops – the two previous posts have ended up in reverse order. Oh well … today I did talks to the Year 7s at Ursula Frayne College in Victoria Park –

I forgot my Steampunk hat as well as my wallet, and had to zoom back to the boarding house before zooming out to Scotch College in the afternoon –

Northern suburbs

Start of another week – almost always two schools per day this week. Both of my schools were in Perth’s northern suburbs today. There was St Marks at Hillarys in the morning –

And Prendiville Catholic College in the afternoon –

Both times I had a lapel mic – a rare treat! Usually I’ll do without a mic rather than use a handheld – and I’ll never ever use a mic fixed on a stand!

Weekend rest

I always forget a photo somewhere, and I forgot at Chisholm Catholic College on Friday. (I was going to snap the library, this huge dark glass block that looks like it landed from outer space in the middle of the school … Can’t even find a photo on their website, suspect a Roswell-style cover up.)
Surprise – met Gina Goddard, who works at the school, which led to me inviting myself to the wedding of Liz Grzyb and Russell Farr on Saturday. It was at Perth Zoo – perfect spot and a lovely event. Only one thing wrong – I forgot my camera again!
Instead I took a pic this morning of the fountain that plays all night just across the road from my bedroom window –

And my hired car with the boarding house behind –

I’ve fallen on my feet with this boarding house – it’s got everything for a two week stay, and very reasonable by Perth standards.

Continuum at Melbourne

Great time at Continuum, fun panels, dinners and lunches with friends, a night of dancing, successful second launch for Song of the Slums, all good. It was especially good that Lewis Morley, creator of my steampunk guitar, was there for the launch when I showed it off, plus Cathy Larsen, creator of the cover. Here’sCat Sparks doing the launch, improvising air-yodels to match my air-guitar!

Here’s Cathy –

– and little Ashleigh Barton, checking out the novel to see if her mum should get a copy (so cute!)

Here’s the view down one end of the table at Saturday night’s dinner –

From left – Michael Pryor, Russell Blackford and Jenny, Janeen Web and Kirstyn McDermott
And the other way –

Trudi Canavan on the right, then Paul Ewins, then Sue Bursztynski
And a final pic in the foyer at ether, with, left to right, me, Dirk Strasser, Bruce Gillespie and George Ivanoff

So many more people I wish I had photos of, and so many other events – oh well, next con.

It Plays!

I was doing talks at Ballarat High School yesterday, and a student brought along an amp to a Q & A session with the Book Club – plugged in my steampunk guitar, and it played! I hadn’t tuned it, the amp sound was fixed to acoustic, not funky electrical, and I’m totally out of practice (never was that good anyway), but hey, it was wonderful to hear the sound coming out of it!

Staying in Ballarat over the weekend, I went to Sovereign Hill on Sunday – a recreation of a gold diggings and Ballarat in the gold boom days. Don’t know what I expected, something like the Old Sydney Town recreation that failed – but this was a million times better! So much detail, so convincing, I loved it. Here are the redcoats coming up the main street –

Family time over, back to work!

Well, weekend with Chris’s family in Brisbane is over – so great to see them all, Bec and the grandchildren. Aileen has now flown back home too, and I’m immersed in school visits again. Here’s the family round the dinner table –

Left to right, that’s Steffie, Chris, Ashleigh, Bec, Alyssa and Aileen. Plates are laden with delicious lasagna!

Wow! Steampunk guitar! Oh wow!

It’s absolutely gorgeous! See it from a distance, and it’s spectacular – the globe even has a switch to create zigzags of lightning, mad scientist style. Look at it close, and there are a million clever details! Lewis Morley, I declare you are a total genius!