Wherein we act a little touristy

We have had a lovely couple of days for the beginning of our extra long, long weekend. The kids took the day off school on Thursday and after a short visit to the new house (which we got the keys for on Wednesday afternoon – very exciting!) we headed down to Hobart. First stop was Hog’s Breath, a favourite for the family – not quite as good as the Rockingham one, we agreed, but very yummy still. We then checked into our apartment, in Salamanca, and rested a bit and got ready for the evening. The purpose of our Hobart trip was to attend the launch of Livia Day’s new book, A Trifle Dead (which I was emcee for). Lovely to catch up with friends there (and of course “Livia” (aka Tansy) and the family), and finally meet some online buddies too! The launch went very well, with Stephanie Smith doing a great job as official launcher.

An early night once Miss Seven and I returned to the apartment, but not a restful one thanks to an upset baby in the cot next to my bed, so I was a bit weary by the time we got underway on Good Friday. Still, we started to go the long way home, up the east coast, for something different, but then husband saw signs for Port Arthur and we detoured to visit the Historical Site there. It was astonishing – a MUCH grander scale than I’d imagined, and very interesting. We’ll have to go back, as we were a bit tired for the amount of walking required (and the three year old was getting to “feral” by mid-afternoon!), but I highly recommend a day or two there if you ever get a chance.

We thought we might stay overnight somewhere nearby and maybe go back for a few hours today, but once we got in the car and the two little ones fell asleep, we just decided to keep on driving. Home about 6.30 pm and very pleased to get to bed not too much later!

Today has been pleasantly homely, even entailing cooked (by me) breakfast and lunch! Have been tidying and washing and looking at new things for the new house – I must say, a six day weekend is rather nice.

Busy week

It’s amazing how quickly time races when you are busy. This past week or so has been a blur of socialising (mostly kids), house hunting (still no luck) and publishing activities (whose silly idea was it to put two books together at the same time?!). And just like that, another week is gone!

We had extras here for most of the time – Miss MauMau spent Sunday through Friday here with us, while her mum and brothers were away, to give Mr Flinthart a week on his own. The kids had swimming lessons each day, and we tried to do something else in the afternoons to avoid house-boundness. The girls impressed me by having very few niggles, and only one or two very late nights chatting and giggling! We also had husband’s friend Marty Sunday to Wednesday. Husband flew up to see him in Byron Bay the previous Wednesday, and they were supposed to be driving back with machinery. Somehow that didn’t happen, and they both flew back Sunday instead.

On Tuesday, Master Two became Master Three. We went to Treasure Island for a pirate-themed birthday party with his two little mates and some additional big brothers and sisters and friends. The kids all had a great time, and I didn’t have to clean up

The swimming lessons have been good – week before last we were out at the school pool for a week. The big kids built up some stamina again with lots of lap swimming, and M3 got to do lessons too (although we had a few problems with that – first day I didn’t take my togs and he was feral, even with M10 helping in the water. Thereafter, I went in with him, which was fine, but on the Wednesday, after several warnings, I got him out halfway through the lesson as he just wasn’t listening – no problems for the rest of the week then. Follow through on your threats parents, it works!). This week we’ve been at the swim school near home, which has been great as we’re walking to and from each morning. M3 isn’t swimming, but I’m impressed with their teaching so I’ve booked him in for lessons starting after school goes back. We were lucky to get MauMau in for a class at the same time as the other two, and they all did well.

I should note here that I’ve finally decided to get proactive about the weight I’ve put on over the past several years. There’s no more kids for us, so no excuse not to try to shed some of the “baby” weight (and the lazy weight that’s come with it!). I’ve signed up for 12WBT which is in pre-season mode, and during the warmup period, one of the tasks was to record everything you eat. So I started using the My Fitness Pal app to do this, which is a calorie counter too. And boy, does it wake you up! We now own both digital kitchen and bathroom scales to help record this stuff properly, and it’s amazing how wrong you can be about portion sizes when you aren’t taking any notice. In the past three weeks, just by calorie counting and thus better portion control, I’ve lost five kg. Last week I also increased my exercise thanks to the daily walk to the pool, and when we move, I’m getting a cross-trainer. I don’t expect every five kg to be as easy as the first, but I’m encouraged and keen to keep losing! Thanks Alisa and the other friends who showed how well the 12WBT can work, which helped give me a kick.

I realised just now that for the first time in a while, I haven’t got a holiday To Do list! Well, basically it’s getting these books to print, packing the house and moving. Just need to get a house now…

Running on the spot

Feels like I’m constantly trying to get things done right now and for every step forward I make, another ten steps appear! Top of the list is the house hunting, which is proving depressing. Have applications in on a few places, one that we’ve now been waiting over a week to hear from (and of course, it’s the one we really like, and knowing our luck, we’ll get it, after I’ve spent a week stressing and wasting time looking at a bunch of others!). Have had one rejection so far, and am at the point of looking to a) pay more money, b) look in less convenient suburbs and c) think about smaller places. None of these things are ideal, but we’re getting a bit desperate. Did I mention we’re supposed to be out by next Friday? Ha.

Another thing taking up a lot more time than anticipated is the Aurealis Awards. Entries closed in late December, but we’re still trying to chase down works that haven’t been received by the judges. We’ve noticed particularly that some publishers entered works that they then didn’t send, which is a bit unfair to the authors who think their works have been considered. So I’ve been doing lots of emailing to entrants, and sometimes to the authors of works, to try to ensure fairness and inclusivity, which are big goals of mine for the Awards. And we’re getting there! But it’s been time consuming.

I’ve also been doing a lot of FableCroft work – got a little roll on over the past week, and FINALLY managed to get ebook versions of Epilogue and After the Rain up at both Amazon Kindle and Wizard’s Tower Books. I’m very pleased to have finally jumped that hurdle, and look forward to bringing out the 2013 books in all formats much more quickly!

And that’s what ELSE I’ve been doing! Working on 2013 books! FableCroft announced that we’ll be doing Joanne Anderton’s debut short story collection, The Bone Chime Song and other stories (April), and I’ve been working on One Small Step as well, and a couple of other projects that we’re not quite ready to announce yet, but will be really soon!

We’ve also had lots of socialising (the kids mostly) and more visits from the Merrick-Woods family, and swimming lessons started this week, which is a chunk out of each morning. But the house isn’t a hideous mess, the washing etc seems relatively up to date, and I’m not yet a blibbering mess on the floor. Have I started packing? Erm, no, not really. I keep thinking I should though! Next!

And since the holiday?

What have we done? Well, we’ve had Helen, Stewart and Julala visit off and on since last Sunday, as they try to find their perfect spot to relocate to. We’ve been house hunting ourselves, and have checked out those rentals suitable for us and put in a couple of applications. Fingers crossed one comes through quickly, because we have less than two weeks now until the move out deadline (though chances are we won’t be able to get out before then anyway – ah well!). I’ve been desperately trying to get a little ahead on the editing/publishing things I’d planned for the month, in anticipation of losing a significant chunk of time to packing/moving. And I’ve actually packed the first box! Fortunately (?) quite a lot of our stuff hasn’t been unpacked, which means less stuff to box, but there’s still a fair bit. And some boxes/bags which need redoing. *sigh* What else? A flying visit from the Flintharts while the Merrick-Woods were here. A couple of other quick social catch ups with local friends. An owner inspection of the house which forced a much needed tidy up. And working through a LOT of holiday photos and some blogging. Not all that a productive week, but a start has been made!! And now I am caught up on blogging. Woo!

Holidaying in WA

Tuesday 18th December

Very early start to get to airport for 6.30am flight. Love Launceston airport for ease of bag drop and parking! First time with FOUR kids on flights – they were very very good! Especially the baby, who slept through most of it. Master Two was a bit feral by the end of the second flight, and woke up very cranky from his too-short sleep, but coped okay. Was a bit hot to hang about waiting for car rental, both in airport and again when picking up (they had the wrong car seats so we had to wait for changes) but eventually we got on the road.

First stop to auntie in Perth, partly to say hello, partly to pick up keys to holiday rental which had been dropped there for us. Then made our way to Rockingham to drop the bags and have a little explore of the house (which was HUGE. With lots of stairs! And a fabulous view, which was dominated by kite surfers for most of our visit).

We then headed to the foreshore for a get together with Miss Seven’s old school friends – kids had a ball, I enjoyed catching up with the other mums. We were all getting pretty weary by then, but had to go shopping – reminds me of how much I prefer Click and Collect!

Late in the afternoon we discovered there were issues with lighting in house. Too exhausted to muck about with it after first texts/calls to owner so fell into bed, to deal with it in the morning.

Wednesday 19th

An early start thanks to M2, but nice when I messaged Lyn and unexpectedly she and kids free to come visit – great start to the holiday proper! Electrician came while they were with us, and fixed the problem, thank goodness.

Late afternoon saw us head to more friends, the Giblings, in Port Kennedy for play and dinner. (cut here for big photos and lots more reportage!)