Last week our awesome daughter Meg was up from Melbourne for some Wilderness Society work meetings. She stayed with us along with our two gorgeous, full of energy, non-stop grandkids. And of course after weeks and weeks of blue skies, it has to rain.

But we still had a great week together and I’m pleased to report that Ard and I have almost recovered.

Among other activities (including lego-building, drawing, various games, crafts, numerous episodes of Spidey and His Amazing Friends, picture book reading, Keepy Uppy, ball kicking and catching, a visit to My First Gym & the Ekka, etc) we also made it (when it finally stopped raining!) to Bribie Island and Eat Street.

During the week I also had a school visit to Ambrose-Treacy College to speak to their 190 Year 7s about Don’t Call Me Ishmael. I’ve visited this school for quite a few years now and it’s always fun to talk to the boys. Fortunately their reading of the novel is for most of them a very positive experience!

Oh and I had a birthday. No big deal. It happens every year about his time. But I recieved lots of birthday wishes especially on facebook for which I am very grateful.

One message and photo came from the publishing team at Carl Hanser in Munich Germany. In return I sent the Carl Hanser team a couple of shots of me with the books they have published over the years.

Germany has been such a huge part of my writing career. Carl Hanser’s editions of my books are always beautiful and working with them has been a really wonderful experience.

That’s about it. My next school visit is to an all girls school that is studying Don’t Call Me Ishmael. I’ll let you know how that goes in the next blog.

Cheers
Michael