My favourite (naturally) of the Shaun Tan exhibit
It’s nearly 9pm on the first Saturday of the holidays and I hadn’t even noticed how late it was. That’s because the past couple of days have simply flown by. Yesterday began at about 3.30am with the departure of husband off to his fly out. Naturally I couldn’t go back to sleep, so after reading a bit I eventually got up, knowing there were a couple of big days ahead. I had to take the big kids to daycare to get to school (which they don’t usually do), because I was taking Master One to the eye specialist. He’s had several bouts of conjunctivitis and a seemingly perpetual weepy eye, so our GP referred him. Since we made the appointment three months ago, he hasn’t had conjunctivitis, naturally! I had it in my head the appointment was for 8.30 but luckily had put it in my phone with an alert for one hour before – was a touch surprised when the alert went off at 7am! Good foresight, past me. Dashed the kids to daycare, then discovered where the clinic actually was – one street down the road from us! No rush required. M1 started out okay, but the nurse put dilating drops in his eyes and within 10 minutes his behaviour had deteriorated quite alarmingly. When we eventually saw the doctor (who was absolutely lovely and great with M1), bubs was pretty feral, but the doc said that’s normal – the drops really upset them because they get all blurry. Poor bugger. Anyway, turns out he has to have a small procedure to open up the duct, now booked in for November 10. Didn’t think I’d have cause to be grateful for our private health cover so soon after paying the monstrous premium for this year!
WA Premier's Book Award winner Sally Murphy with judge Miffy F.
Was advised not to send him straight to daycare, so took him home for a nap (which I also may have done!), then when he woke up, dropped him at daycare and went to work for the second half of the last day of term! That flew by, as there was a lot to do (last day of copyright survey, wooHOOOOO!), and I had to leave spot on 4pm to collect kids and dash home to get ready to go out! Because last night was the WA Premier’s Book Awards, at last! Babysitter arrived at 5, and I left to go to the WA State Library for a really lovely evening. Met up with fellow judges and brilliant authors (including the very talented Sally Murphy, who I’ve been chatting with online for a while now!), enjoyed really nice snacks and drinks, and a truly wonderful ceremony, including a touching Welcome to Country by Barry Maguire, and pre-recorded videos including the ever lovely Shaun Tan chatting with 2012 National Year of Reading ambassador William McInnes. The winners all gave delightful speeches and it was just a great night. I particularly enjoyed meeting Scot Gardner (who was chuffed to win his very first award, as co-winner of the YA category with James Roy), Sally (winner of the Children’s category for her brilliant verse novel Toppling) and Shaun Tan’s mum and dad! Was interesting to see Shaun’s art exhibit as a feature of the evening as well, which was a nice touch as he was inducted into the WA Literary Hall of Fame (youngest ever inductee – by a LOT).
Shaun Tan's WA Literary Hall of Fame board
Not sure I got as much sleep as I would have liked, despite being home before 11pm. Awake too early, but had to get tidied up as the Batts were due at 7.30am. The Batt big kids babysat most of the others (took M1 with us) while Lyn & I toddled up to the airport to meet fellow judge (in multiple awards!) Mif, before she headed back to Melbourne. Had a great time chatting over a long late breakfast, before Mif went off to her plane and Lyn & I came home, via Helen’s just as they were about to finally leave on their big trip! Was so pleased to catch them and say goodbye. Lyn & I arrived home to find happy, fed kids and a house that was tidier than when I left it – gotta be happy with that!
The Batts departed to other tasks, and I sat down to catch up on some online jobs (like writing a blog post) and was checking through the million and one emails I had to respond to (okay, not that many, but there’s over 80 new submissions in my inbox, from just the past fortnight since I got sick! Madness!), when I realised that Bake Club was actually at 1pm at Alisa’s, not 3pm as I had in my head – ah, the week of wrong times! My computer told me that it WAS 1pm, so I bundled up the kids and off we went! No baking for Bake Club for us, but I promise I’ll do better next time! Regardless, it was a really nice afternoon, although M1 was very ready to come home by the end (okay, a bit before the end!) and made his displeasure well known. Little rotter was happy and chirpy as soon as he got in the car though, and STAYED that way for another hour or so before eventually going to bed LATER than he usually does! All that on about a half hour sleep today. Rotter.
And now I’ve just finished watching the penultimate Haven Season Two episode (argh, a week to wait for the finale!) and am about to go to bed. Weary, but have had a lovely weekend so far!
Oh, and yes, submissions for Apocalypse Hope are now CLOSED! Thank you everyone who has submitted. I intend to have the reading completed by October 31. Please feel free to query if you have not heard from me by that date.
A conversational life 