Well we’re back home from CANBERRA and the Corridors of Power and just in time too! WINTER has now officially arrived.

Of course it’s a well known fact that if born and bred Queenslanders are trapped down SOUTH when WINTER clicks in, it’s generally FATAL. Down there they regularly have temperatures in the SINGLE figures and even NEGATIVES. (Although I’m pretty sure that last bit is an urban myth. Negative temperatures? HA! Pull the other one. We Banana Benders aren’t that gullible!)

Up here in the Sunshine State or Wally’s World as some die-hard Maroons* supporters like to call it, we don’t really have Winter as such. (* see final paragraphs)

Up here in Brissie and S/E QLD for example we just have SUMMER and the three basic settings – High, Medium and Low. (We normally avoid that Low setting like the plague.)

Further NORTH in QLD they just have High and Medium Summer. And in the DEEP NORTH around CAIRNS for example they just have either SUMMER or ‘It looks like I might only have to put two layers of sun-screen on today.’

Anyway, all that is neither Here nor There and I only mention it because, well, to be honest, I haven’t got much else to say in this Blog.

However in other news …

A couple of days ago I received an email containing the completed colour illustrations for one of the two pictures books I have under contract with Scholastic Australia. It’s due to come out next year. Can’t tell you too much about it or show any images at this stage but I can say that the illustrator is doing a fabulous job and I’m really happy with the way the words and illos are coming together.

Can’t wait to see the finished product and be able to share it with everyone – especially our gorgeous grand-kiddielinks.

I haven’t been doing much new writing apart from a bit of tinkering with some other possible picture book texts. The bulk of my time at present is tied up working on a separte PROJECT which I’ll blog about at a later date but which unfortunately at present I can’t really say anything about.

And NO, its got nothing to do with my wife and I and our (top secret) work as International Espionage Agents or me planning to get the band back together for a farewell World Tour (sadly).

* Of course the importance of everything I’ve mentioned so far pales into insignificance compared to the fact that tonight is GAME I of the men’s 2024 RUGBY LEAGUE STATE OF ORIGIN SERIES!

For those of you you are unaware of what this is (and I find this SHOCKING in the extreme!) it’s the WORLD’S GREATEST SPORTING EVENT where every year a team of fine upstanding young Queensland men and a team of fine upstanding young Queensland women take on their opposing team of ne’er-do-wells and reprobates from the EVIL EMPIRE of New South Wales in three games of Rugby League Football – ie the GREATEST GAME OF ALL!

Of course I’m not saying it will be the END OF THE WORLD if Queensland lose tonight. No, that’s silly. It will merely be a tragic HORROR of epic proportions as there will still be two more games remaining for us to come back.

If we go on to lose the Series, THAT’S when the world ends. Obviously.

Cheers and Up the Mighty Maroons!
Michael