Wednesday, June 14, 2006

Greetings from sunny Ipswich

Well, this is a luxury - I have an hour before my next writing workshop, so I thought I'd just update my blog.

Last night I had dinner at the Strangest restaurant. It was called Dirty Dogs and featured curries, which were good, but - and this was the weird bit, folks - all along what would have been the picture rail, someone had built a little extended model train track. Above this was a mural of Australian landmarks - Uluru and a red desert, another wall was blue with either a shark or the Sydney Opera House half drowning in it and so on. The train went. It actually chuffed along the rail above the diners' heads. The train was filled with little stuffed toy dogs. Except for one, which had falled on to the line and was constantly being run over.

Fancy finding a place like that in Ipswich.

I was gobsmacked.

Other than that, uneventful trip. I read Cornelia Funke's Thief Lord, which I enjoyed. I think I particularly enjoyed the fact that it was set in Venice which seemed odd and exotic. Oh, and I liked the self-doubting private investigator, too. He reminded me a little of Columbo, a detective I always liked.

(Do I find slightly shambolic men strangely attractive?)

Dearest Leonie went beyond the call of editorail duty and DROVE me to Ipswich where we got lost because I held the map up the wrong way. And she didn't shout at me once - that was really remarkable forebearance on her part. I don't get what happened to the map - I turned it all ways in the end, and it still didn't make sense. But we found the motel, Leon

Leonie zoomed off with the beginning of a headache, I'm sure. I found Dirty Dogs and sat under a model train staring at a mural of Uluru and a partially submerged Sydney Opera House/Great White Pointer.

I currently cannot access my email - this follows a whole series of email woes that I don't have the technical language to express with expletives dotting this post and as I am writing it from a school library I feel I should be on my best langauge behaviour.

Some good poems were written this morning by the Redbank Plains students - I do like it when good poems are written! And I have an idea of the beginning of a short story, so email or no email, the day is sunny.

Live Long and Prosper! (That was for Alasdair - hey kiddo, how's it going?) Girl Power! (That was for Helen, Rosie and Belinda) You can tell I'm away from home...(I promise I'm not over-spending - that was for the Accountant. Actually, I'm not - I didn't even have time to buy my usual airport book because I was running late (surprise surprise - that was for the Anti-Blogger).

I might go and rustle up a cup of tea and then put on some lipstick and try to look poetical.

2 comments:

Carmsmars said...

Hey CattyRox

Hope the weathers hot - freezing here in Victoria.

Just posted a comment on 'Rant'.

I'm new to blogging still finding my way.

Enjoy the rest of your trip

Gregory Brett Hardy said...

I'm not exactly jealous. I mean, I lived on the Sunshine Coast, and thats warmer than bloody Ipswich. Hope your having fun, though. Tell Leonie, you class says hi!