Archive for the ‘travel’ Category

Posted on October 21, 2008 - by MG

Revelations in Oz

Brother-in-law Paul reckons it’s too cold to swim without a wettie. But Our Kid is tall and strong and lives in the mountains! Nothing can put him off!

Ah, mes braves, so much to tell about my visit to Western Australia, I don’t think I’ll have time.

Bullet point summary then:

• My sister’s new baby is awesome. I couldn’t get enough of holding him. 8-week old babies are delicious. They just lie in your arms looking up at you with their gorgeous little eyes.
• My sister’s whole family is awesome. When two very good looking people marry and produce children you get beautiful kids, but my nephews and niece are also clever, funny and adorable. I say this entirely without bias.
• Claremont is terrific. They know things about baking there that have long been forgotten in this country. The coffee shops of Claremont (and prob Australia in general) are several notches above what we are allowed in the UK. I still have fond memories of the passion fruit muffin I ate the last day I was there. With whipped cream on the side, and not the spray kind!
• The Indian Ocean looks fab but it’s devilish cold down in Perth, where Antarctic currents wash up on the beaches. It took me a whole hour to pick up the courage to swim at Meelpup Beach, despite the dazzling soft white sand and crystalline, turquoise water. Waters are sharky, too…Great Whites and tiger sharks munch on Western Australians all too often.
• Talked to almost 400 students at local Claremont schools. Great fun and some wonderful questions. Including one (of a long series of intelligent queries) from a Year 9 (= to UK Yr 10) at John XIII College.
  “Has becoming a writer changed you as a person?”
  Hmm, very perceptive to imagine that it might. The answer is a resounding yes. As I told the Year 9s at JTC, I used to spend precious little time on inner contemplation, the opposite, in fact. As a scientist and an entrepreneur I was quite sniffy at all the industries around self-help; NLP, psychotherapy for the mentally healthy, basically anything that encourages you to look into your inner self. Even now I’m uncomfortable with those things. An inner voice objects with the cry “Stop finding yourself so damn interesting!”
  But as a writer I’ve been forced to spend hours and hours mining my feelings and emotions and memories for material. Yuck! I had hoped I could write entirely without recourse to any of that. But I’m not clever enough to write intellectually dense yet emotionally spartan material. I’ve become rather contemplative. It’s all a bit embarrassing.
• A new friend, Daniel confirmed a long-held suspicion of mine; over a plate of slow-roasted, aged organic beef and a glass of decent Cab Sav, he told me that men fall properly in love only once. “Your first girlfriend kills you,” he said.
  In ZERO MOMENT I am currently enjoying tormenting poor Joshua’s tender young heart. Since I’m a girl I can only guess at what teenage boys go through. (Well I observe, remember and then guess.) Daniel’s comment was timely confirmation.

I encourage all my male readers to backup - or deny Daniel’s assertion. Does your first girlfriend spoil you for all those who follow?

Posted on October 13, 2008 - by MG

Good Old Rotto

Good Old Rotters (actually it should be ‘Rotto’ - the preferred Aussie form)

Originally uploaded by mgharris

Well here I am at Rottnest Island, formerly a prison colony now converted into an eco-island playground for Western Australians.

I brought my daughter and her cousins to enjoy the gorgeous unspoiled beaches and crystal clear pools of (chilly!) water.

As for me, it may be the last chance to enjoy the sun before returning to an autumnal UK…

Ah, Rotto. Just as good as my brother-in-law used to tell, back when we shared tissue-culture room cleaning duty, in my younger days working in the lab.
Emailed from my BlackBerry®

Posted on October 8, 2008 - by MG

Perth before the moisture burns off

Reclaiming the lake in Claremont, Perth.

Every time I’ve been to Perth, WA, this lake - which is visible from the flat we stay in - is nothing more than a muddy puddle from which bleached old tree stumps emerge, like ancient bones.

 But in October - spring in Australia - look! Blue water and everything.

It’s wonderful to meet up with my siblings and  nephews/niece. Australia always freaks me out because you travel for so darn long to wind up in a country full of English-speaking people who live in nice bungalows with front gardens and eat fish and chips by the sea.

I shouldn’t be posting to my blog, I should be trying to sleep. A touch of insomnia from a bit-of-a-cough and I have to get up in 90 minutes to drive ‘down south’ to Smith Beach.

A very interesting guy called Daniel introduced me to a jazz recording of a pianist named Jan Johansson, a wonderful album called Jazz Pa Ryska.

Hmm, I thought. I’ll use that.

Meanwhile have been thinking a little about ZERO MOMENT. I typed the last sentence a few days ago but now need to do a good polish before anyone is allowed to read it. Anyone means two people right now; my agent and my husband. And then my new editor.

I keep getting the feeling that it might be quite good. But then again it might not be. At this stage, I can’t tell.

Meanwhile, check out the awesome Jan Johansson. Died in 1967, very sadly. Daniel gave me the CD. I’m taking it right back to my daughter’s jazz piano teacher…

Posted on August 28, 2008 - by MG

MG and baby bro

MG and baby broOriginally uploaded by mgharris

Yes, yes, I’m fully narcissistic with all these photos of me-n-someone else but COME ON!

What cooler way to navigate the mountains of Switzerland than in a Porsche?

R kid is driving, Michael who lives in Switzerland with wife and kids.

Today we did birthday celebrations (including mine!) with cousins and all. Two of the boy cousins, Max and Cyrus, are 14, the same age as Josh Garcia in books 2 & 3. Watching them play like daredevils in the playground I wondered how they’d fare if plunged into the same kinds of perils and dangers as Josh. And decided that they’d probably do pretty well, no worse than Josh.

At 14 they’re MUCH fitter and stronger than…ooh, let’s say, for example, me. They may still be children but they’d survive jungle dangers far better than I.

I’d be a total wuss. I’ve seen the rainforest thicket into which I sent Josh. You wouldn’t get me more than 5 metres into that without severe panic…
Emailed from my BlackBerry®

Posted on August 27, 2008 - by MG

Swinging under the Spitzhorn

Swinging under the SpitzhornOriginally uploaded by mgharris

Lying here watching my daughter on the swing, my legs are actually sizzling inside my jeans.

Yes, heat! Have hardly felt it all summer long but here in the Swiss mountains, there’s plenty.

Oh it’s lovely, very Swiss with log cabins and the gentle tinkle of cow bells and the smell of warm hay.

I feel a desperate need for cheese and milk chocolate…

The manuscript is taking a break while I work on my tan and play with babies.
Emailed from my BlackBerry®