Friday night was amazing – so many smiling faces, so many good wishes and so many wonderful friends! I felt as though I air-kissed everyone and talked to no-one. I signed a stack of books and wished I written something more meaningful in each and everyone of them. My voice decided to disappear and I wish my tears had done the same thing… (You all know I have weak tear ducts…)

Jenny Gibbs, Garry Glaskin, Andrew Brown and me!

Garry Glaskin, his family and staff were superb. The drinks flowed, the canapes kept coming and the evening ran smoothly. Thanks to the whole team – you’re fantastic!

Kerstin and Andrew (but you always be Peter to me!) from Collins Booksellers at Smithfield were sensational. They’d only just returned from holidays, and it was also Andrew’s birthday, but they came and supported Border Watch. Then they lugged home what didn’t sell and set up a wonderful display in the front window of their bookstore! Thanks guys!

Jenny Gibbs from Hachette did a great job of keeping me calm, organising things in the background, helping to set up and providing general all round support. Bernadette and Fiona, you have a wonderful employee – treasure her!

Collins Booksellers, Smithfield

My brother, Graham, and nephew, the gorgeous Andrew, ran my blog for the night and Skyped Mum in Brisbane so she and my nieces, Sophia and Libby could watch the proceedings. Unfortunately we didn’t manage to patch through to France where my sister, Bron, hubbie Terry, my niece, Rebel, and nephew, Wolfie are living. Instead they gate crashed with an email (which started the tears)and followed that up with a stunning bunch of flowers.

My nephew, Andrew

My ever patient husband took a day off work to lug eskies, fridges and food, to pick up visitors, top biscuits with salami (and he did very well to not eat every second one…) and run endless errands. Thank you – you know how much you mean to me.

Then there were the guests! You came, you chatted, you made my night! Thank you – put March 4th, 2011 in your diaries and we’ll do it all again next year for Beyond the Borders!

xxx

Helene

Helene spoke last holding a bouquet of flowers from mum and Bronwyn, and Dad. (Dad died four years ago, but his spirit lives on, and as he was the author of a couple of unpublished manuscripts, so does the tradition).

The name that launched her first book - Helene

Helene was preceded by Gary Gaskin, the owner of the gallery and Jenny Gibbs from Helene’s publisher Hachette (two French names in the one paragraph).

Jenny Gibbs (Hachette) Gary Glaskins (Glaskins Gallery)

The tribe in France would be wondering if the wet, green wood they’d been sold would burn hot enough to heat the house and melt the frosting on the inside of the windows. They’d also be wondering if the snow plows would make it down their street sinces the south of France is supposed to be mild and sunny at this time year, not freezing cold and snowing…

And that conversation led to Ice Hotel in Sweden. If you’re going to be somewhere inconveniently cold why not do it in style?! Every year a team of designers converge on Jukkasjärvi and create their own special magic 200 km north of the Arctic Circle. Since GW considers me to be an aviation nut he suggested we might like the ‘Fly Me to the Moon’ suite (he’s a Frank Sinatra tragic so the song by the same name may have influenced him…)

The hotel opens in mid-December and each week more rooms are completed until the hotel is at capacity. Come springtime it simply melts away. Ephemeral art at its best. The rooms are individually themed, drinks are served in the Absolut Icebar (that would be an absolute hangover), and the dog sleds are waiting to take you further into the Arctic Circle – new meaning to running with the pack?

Sitting in our 30 deg pool, with our rapidly warming wine, it all seems a little surreal. GW did tip a tray of ice cubes into the water but the effect just wasn’t the same…

View from the Stamford Sydney

Am now sitting in my hotel room in Sydney, trying to remember what I forgot to bring with me and feeling sorry for myself while attempting to wrestle a feather pillow from the tight grip of Houskeeping. Times like this when a girl just wants her own bed…

Some consolation is the view out the window. It seems both ironic and sad that sunsets after bush fires are so much more beautiful than those on a clear day. Mother nature compensating for the devastation the fires have wrought.

I guess, in the big master plan, a head cold is a small inconvenience really…

Eleanor Dark's Studio

Wow, I’m here. After the weekend from hell, Varuna is a slice of paradise. Highlights of my weekend included forgetting to take my reading glasses to work and then discovering my boss had turned up to do a routine check of my performance and I could barely read the simulator screens, let alone my notes… Having to shell out a lot of money to get my husband back to Cairns in time for work… Realising that I never manage to pack enough cold weather clothes when I head south from Cairns… And it rained and rained, then rained some more…

But now my luck has changed. I’m fortunate to be participating in Varuna’s LongLines Programme  which aims to help develop writers from regional Australia. Five of us will spend the week under the mentorship of Peter Bishop discussing our work, ideas and themes. It will be wonderful!

So here I am in Katoomba. My bedroom at Varuna is the Maid’s room, a charming small bedroom with a single bed tucked away at the back of the kitchen.

My writing space is Eleanor Dark’s original studio. A marvelous one room cottage next to the main house, it has an aura and presence all of it’s own. I am so privileged to be able to work here for the week. Sitting at Eleanor’s desk, looking out the big bay window watching her grandson tidy the gardens is inspirational. Tangible history is a powerful force for me. (Not to mention watching someone else doing manual labour is kinda soothing as well…)

So back to ‘Line in the Sand’ and hopefully Eleanor’s presence will inspire me.

http://www.technologyreview.com/energy/23561/?a=f

The article makes some interesting points about how far technology can go to reducing carbon emissions.  Will we end up paying someone else to offset the burden?

Age not a barrier to peak performance (Health Beat Sept 29, 2009)

“Can experience, knowledge, and judgment compensate for subtle mental and motor changes? Two very different studies suggest that seniority does have its compensations.

Senior pilots

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) requires all commercial airline pilots to retire at age 65. However, general aviation pilots do not face a similar maximum flying age. Is it safe for older pilots to take command in the cockpit?

To find out, researchers from the Stanford University School of Medicine studied 118 general aviation pilots between the ages of 40 and 69; most were men. Each volunteer was checked annually for three consecutive years. The evaluations included a battery of cognitive function tests and five tests of flying ability and performance in a computerized flight simulator.

The older pilots scored lower on the baseline tests at the start of the study. Interestingly, however, the older pilots maintained their skills over time better than the younger individuals. In addition, the most experienced and expert pilots scored high on the initial round of tests and then showed fewer declines over time than the pilots with less experience.

“Flying” a simulated single-engine plane over flat terrain and near mountains is one thing, piloting a 747 quite another. The Stanford study doesn’t address the FAA’s retirement age, nor should it encourage a former Navy pilot like McCain to take the controls of Air Force One. But it does show that training and experience can compensate for the tick of the clock, and that age itself does not necessarily predict performance. And if you don’t believe Stanford researchers, just ask the 155 people whose lives were saved when 57-year-old Captain Chesley B. “Sully” Sullenberger landed disabled US Airways Flight 1549 in the Hudson River on January 15, 2009. ”

So, yes, the study used a relatively small sample and didn’t measure airline pilots, but the results kind of back up what I see in the simulator. And what I also see in the wonderful retirees that live near me in Cairns – sharp as tacks despite the dodgy knees, troubled shoulders and diet of medication!

‘Old’ doesn’t mean unskilled. ‘Young’ doesn’t mean bullet proof!

Safe flying.

Helene