Hello there!
I know you've missed me on the blogs (((laughs uproariously))) so I thought I'd let you know what a great Easter Holiday I'm having. No school for two weeks, so I'm up at the beach catching up with teacher friends, visiting family and beginning remodelling works on the beach house with the idea of moving back up from the city next year.
So, the bohemian life--in between cyclone watching a la Cyclone Ita, coffee and wine, and cooking and eating some amazing meals like Pork in Cider (thanks Manu Feildel, French chef turned Australian celebrity chef after living here for 20 years and hosting a fabulous cooking show My Kitchen Rules) I've been wielding a paint brush and checking out interior design shops. Peregian (Aboriginal word for emu) Beach is well equipped. For a small village of about 3,000 people it's got everything--great beaches, great surf, great shops, great people...
I know you've missed me on the blogs (((laughs uproariously))) so I thought I'd let you know what a great Easter Holiday I'm having. No school for two weeks, so I'm up at the beach catching up with teacher friends, visiting family and beginning remodelling works on the beach house with the idea of moving back up from the city next year.
So, the bohemian life--in between cyclone watching a la Cyclone Ita, coffee and wine, and cooking and eating some amazing meals like Pork in Cider (thanks Manu Feildel, French chef turned Australian celebrity chef after living here for 20 years and hosting a fabulous cooking show My Kitchen Rules) I've been wielding a paint brush and checking out interior design shops. Peregian (Aboriginal word for emu) Beach is well equipped. For a small village of about 3,000 people it's got everything--great beaches, great surf, great shops, great people...
And as much as I've wanted to blog, there just never seemed to be the time. But most of you have been frantic with the A - Z, so I feel a little guilty for choosing to live real life over the virtual life for a couple of weeks, but just a little. I do a runaround every so often, and the posts I've visited are high quality.
I haven't managed to get much writing done, but I always find time to read late at night. Picked up Sebastian Faulks' Faulks on Fiction (the Village also has a fabulous book shop!) which is wonderful. Love his chapter on Mr Darcy especially. Faulks says reading such books as Pride and Prejudice 'made me think literature was the most important thing on earth.'
Faulks expresses how readers relate to books:
'I felt myself unaccountably eager that Elizabeth Bennet should be united with Mr Darcy; Holden Caulfield (Catcher in the Rye) seemed to express almost everything I had incoherently felt; and when at the end of David Copperfield, the hero turned rhetorically to the woman he loved, 'O Agnes, O my soul!', I found I was making strange snorting noises. These were caused by the fact that I was sobbing but trying to keep my eyes open so that I could read the sentences.'
Oh yeah Sebastian Faulks! I know where you're coming from!
So as well as reading Simone de Beauvoir's The Mandarins (post-war intellectuals in Paris) I've been flipping between e-books. Reading several at the same time--Roland Yeoman's Death in the House of Life, Whiskey Sour Noir by Mickey J Corrigan, and the latest, The Paris Time Capsule by Ella Carey. I will be interviewing Ella on this blog in early May, so impressed am I by what I think is her first novel.
So lovely people, keep enjoying your life of frenzy. I'm going to enjoy this last week of holidays before jumping back on the treadmill of teaching and writing that is my life.
So I wish you could join me for an iced coffee at Baked Poet's cafe which makes the best coffee I've ever tasted and I've tasted A LOT OF COFFEE!!
I'll be back with a funny little story next week for the Write...Edit...Publish April challenge. Decided to go ahead even though it was A - Z month. You're welcome to join us if you have a story, poem, photograph/s or whatever that would suit the April Fool prompt. More details on the WEP blog. You can sign up right here in my sidebar.
50 comments:
I'm still enjoying the life of A to Z Challenge frenzy - you keep enjoying real life. We'll both be all right.
A teacher needs to cool her heels sometimes. Have fun! I don't think I'd like watching for the cyclone, however, I've done that tornado watching bit before.
Hope the cyclone goes another way. Glad you are having a good break. I am certainly tied up in the A to Z.
Pick real life over the virtual life when you get the opportunity. After all it's the real life experiences, together with the imagination, which provide much of the material for the virtual one.
Enjoy the final week of your holiday.
Don't feel guilty. Real life is important too and it sounds like you have lots of fun things going on right now.
Oh, your beach town seems so charming. I REALLY wish I was there. Snow is forecasted here this evening. Will winter EVER END?
Those coffee's, both hot and cold, look AMAZING! So jealous... Enjoy the rest of your holiday and HAPPY EASTER!
Hi Denise .. sounds like life is taking a wee rest and then a make-over ... small beach-village life with good food, and coffee and glorious sands .. with lots of books and thoughts .. and knowing there are always prompts for all writers out in the blogoshpere ... cheers and enjoy your last week of relaxing bliss .. Hilary
Denise, it sounds like you've been having such a lovely time. There was a year there in which I repainted my bedroom three times! It's funny how a new coat of color totally alters our perception and experience, our moods.
Also, I really want the dress that woman in that photo by the french place is wearing. Peregian Beach sounds like a little strip of heaven.
Well you have been missed, but I'm glad you're getting in your reading. Any healthy writer needs a dose of reading and life to keep it together. Wishing you the most amazing time while you're away, and epic cheese, of course.
I know exactly how Sebastian Faulks feels! Have a great holiday :)
The winds yesterday threatened to blow us away, but i've woken to a bright, sunny, still morning.
Looks like the cyclone has petered out thank goodness.
You're so right Gaynor.
Sure do Natalie. I know how to enjoy myself.
Peregian Beach is another planet compared to Chicago Michael, but i wish i'd seen your fabulous apartment before you sold it.
Pretty cool Hilary.
Nice dress. Suits our endless summer.
The cheese has been amazing of course Crystal !
Hi Denise!
Sounds like you've had fun! I so want to join you in that small village and experience it!
I have Ella Carey sharing about writing mentors at my blog today.
Kelly, I know how you love to travel! Do pop on over! Would love to share Peregian Village with you! I'm on my way over to hear what Ella Carey has to say!
It sounds (and looks) like you're having a wonderful time! Enjoy the rest of your break!!
Happy holidays, Denise, you sound as if you are having a wonderful break, the photos are sumptuous. I have been taken up with the A-Z, and this being my first, I had no idea how time intensive it was going to be, but have managed to keep afloat till now.
Continue to enjoy your holiday, a good break is where the ideas come from. See you later at WEP, I am still hoping to make it with a direct link.
Sounds like you are enjoying the good life. I got to spend about three days on a beach in California last week and it was fantastic. Saw dolphins in the ocean for the first time. Very cool.
And isn't it funny how close we become with the characters in books so that we feel we have a stake in the outcome of their love lives. The best reads. :))
Sounds like you're having a grand old time. Enjoy the rest of your holiday.
This sounds wonderful! I watch "My Kitchen Rules" when I can. I really like that French chef (and the Australian one too). Sadly, my kitchen definitely doesn't rule...
I'm glad that you know the sweet guy I'm talking about. Pete Evans, the Aussie, is gorgeous too. Finals on Easter Monday. :)
You're spot on on all points.
Hi, Denise,
I'm envious of the good time you're having. The Easter holidays haven't begun here yet. School closes tomorrow for two weeks. I'm looking forward to not getting up at the crack of dawn. Some of that coffee sounds heavenly.
Oh it does sound like you're having a lovely time. I am jealous. I wish I could get away, but as soon as the A to Z Challenge is over I'm going to have to really dive back into writing the sequel to Hurricane Crimes. Beth and Donovan are waiting for me. ;)
Hi Denise,
I'm delighted you are having such a lovely time during the Easter holidays. The beach and yes, I'd love to go to the beach. Another cooking show on TV? Food for thought about that.
You certainly manage to post a comprehensive article. If only that idiotic A to Z would just go away. It hijacks the blogging world and enough is enough.
Good to see you balance it all out with your post. As for me, I apologise for actually doing a post :)
G'day,
Gary
You've made me interested in Faulks.
I can't wait to return to real life, lol. Those drinks look delicious.
Faulks is wonderful.
Hey, hey good to hear from you Gary.
Denise, looks like you're having a blast!
The A to Z is hectic, but I'm loving it!
However, I'm looking forward to returning to "normal" life... and the WEP challenges... I NEED those looming deadlines! I wish I had time to throw in a piece for April... maybe a poem or something... I just dunno...
LOVE the coffee photographs...
I took part in the A-Z Challenge a few years ago and was so burned out by it, I dropped out of the blogging sphere for awhile. But I thought in my madness it would be a good way to reintroduce myself to the blogging scene. Says she ready to collapse. Glad to hear you are enjoying the month of April. Oh and Happy Easter.
Looking forward to visiting and catching up Ann.
Glad you're digging the A ~Z. I'm looking forward to things getting back to normal. Be lovely to have you back to the WEP challenge.
Dear Sis, I'm spending a few moments catching up with a few of my closest blogger friends, so here I am. What a lovely holiday you are treating yourself to. Good for you! Enjoy the rest of it VERY MUCH. Oh reading. Nothing IMHO compares to immersing one's self in a great book. I want to read Roland's book too, it's on my list. And David Copperfield. If only I had more time in a day, and more years ahead of me. Almost two weeks since Jen had gall bladder surgery, the first thing internally in her almost 49 years and 28 years of being in a wheelchair that has gone awry--very swollen and horribly painfully infected--despite our high fiber low fat diet. It happens. It has been a very difficult almost two weeks, but we did it--I did it with the great help of some lovely friends, a fantastic surgeon and skilled and wonderful nurses and doctors. All these learning experiences! I think you know what I mean!! Anyway...this is an answer to the email you sent me, when was it--I think just before the A-Z began. Finally I'm responding, and sending many ((( ))) from me and Jen to you in that beautiful land down under. Ann
Ann, how lovely to hear from you. Good news about Jen. How that must have worn you out, but thankfully you had good people around you.
(((hugs))) to you and Jen.
Denise
Oh, how envious I am! Sounds like a lovely time and when you return from all the fun it will full of inspiration! Don't apologize, just enjoy!
Thanks Workhorse.
I'm seriously going to have to visit you one day.
Can't wait Lyn!
I'm Envious!!! We had a little snow last night and it's freezing here - but it's supposed to be spring!!! Thanks for taking the time to visit my blog while you're gallivanting about :-) Enjoy your well-deserved holiday.
Winter has sure dragged out over there. Not envious at all Li!
You sure are enjoying life and ignoring the virtual indeed. Way to be when it is that nice at your feed. Still cold here, I fear
So i hear. So very drear.
I'm sharing my first A-Z challenge with the IWSG group. It was fun. And a lot less chaotic then doing it alone. Thanks for supporting us, Denise.
I did it alone for 3 years. Ugh!
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