Exciting happenings!

Going to Perth, for us, is mostly a big adventure. We don’t go often – the eight hour drive puts a ‘quick trip’ out of the question.

We left very early last week – 4am. My daughter needed to be in Perth for an appointment at 3:30pm – nothing like a deadline and an unfamiliar city address to add some fun to things!

Hayden was so excited as we were leaving and it reflected it what he was saying – ‘this is the most magnificent sunrise I’ve ever seen.’

Rochelle wasn’t as thrilled; she was going in for an operation on her mouth the next day.

When I put my foot to the pedal, I rarely stop until I get where I’m going, but Hayden was right in some respects – it was a beautiful sunrise and I had to stop to take the above photo.

I think it was just fate that the V8 Super cars were on at Barbagalo Race Track. Hayden is mad keen on racing and I, having only ever gone to a few country Speedway races as a teenager and someone who knows little about cars, was rather wary about taking him. But take him I did, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen a kid with as wide a smile as he had when he saw Jamie Whincup’s car. (It’s worth having a mother who can’t stop talking and befriends the officials to find out the best spot to stand and see all the cars – I hope he remembers this, when I’m embarrassing him at age 14.)

One highlight of the trip for me was catching up with fellow Twitter-ers and writers, Sara Foster , Sarah Pietrzak from http://www.ahthepossibilities.com/ and Anna Hill, a freelance writer. As you can see from the photos, we rarely had our mouths shut, we had so much to talk about!

I also managed to catch up with Fiona Palmer for tea, which was a great night.

One thing I noticed on the way to and from Perth is how desperately our country is in need of a good drink. There are ewes lambing onto nothing but dirt, (not a blade of green grass), empty dams, and the seeding that is happening is sending up huge plumes of dust. I can only hope that this year will provide much needed run-off rain for the dams and that the rain soaks in to give a very wet subsoil structure.  Every farmer I know is carrying the burden of three (more in some areas) very average years and for their sanity a soaking rain is needed, very soon.

And the other very exciting piece of news is that as of September, Red Dust and Blue Skies will be distributed in the USA and therefore will be available on the Amazon website.