Tampa, FL

So far I haven't written the "great American novel" but I finished a kid's book already send out to publishers (fingers crossed!) and managed to get an article into Pacific Yachting! Guess that's not bad.

Took a stab at getting an article about Sailor's Valentines into the paper in Key West but sent it too late.

Birthday Party

Hello friends...

My sister and I are working on getting out invitations in the mail for our birthday party, but just in case it takes us some time (or yours doesn't make it through the post), I thought I'd just give you more details now.

(drum roll)
You are cordially invited to our birthday party on Aug 18th, at Ruckle Park, on Saltspring Island, BC.

If possible, please please come! I would so love to see you. Even if you are far, far away I am inviting you, just in case you feel like taking a holiday out to this part of the world.Check for more details at our
blog,http://our-birthday-party-2007.blogspot.com/

Now, as to updates, I haven't heard from so many friends in so long I'm beginning to wonder if you've all left on summer holidays!... will do my best to contact each of you separately to say "HEY!"... but if I don't, please please write me soon and at least tell me you are still alive!

hugs and sunshine to you

Australia: June 19

G'Day Mates!

In case you didn't know, I'm in Sydney, Australia!...

Almost finished my stay here (just over a month), and realised I haven't really written to anyone about it... NO time, been 'slaving' away helping my friend Ali move into her house...

crikeey! what a lot of work... (I actuallyheard someone say, 'crikeey'... cute huh) when I was here 10 years ago, the journey was about seeing the Outback and wilderness: kangaroos, koalas, wombats, agro crocodiles, emu (is that the plural? one emi?) and cassowaries (never did find a platypus)... wide open spaces and new people daily... an adventure, driving in the desert in an old beater car...

this time here in Auz has been all about interior decorating adventures (thank goodness I was out last summer with my bunged up ankle, sitting on the sofa watching the Home and Garden Show Channel! or I'd never know all this stuff... ) much hard work, nose to the grindstone doing renovating and helping with settling them into the home they bought in the suburbs north of Sydney...

so it's been prep work and painting: high tea greens, marakesh red, york stone, oak stain... sand sand sand, stripping wood down to bare with nasty chemicals that despite the mask have affected my brain tonight... (hopefully this note isn't too disjointed!) been doing a work schedule that finally caught up with me last week, slumped into exhaustion: up early, collecting materials and supplies and then working thru until sometimes 10pm and later at night...

one day my ankle swelled up again, really got totally burnt out... then this week, the moving company arrived with their stuff, unloaded from a 40ft container! all 294 boxes!... some big enough to hold a sofa, other just small boxes of books... piles everywhere... can't believe she has collected all this stuff in the last few years...

so I've spent most of my time inside (first few weeks were nice but it's now winter and raining hard so I'm rather glad to be warm inhere)... a storm last weekend, pushed a freighter onto a beach near Newcastle... (so very glad to be inside)... so really haven't seen much...

but when we had a few breaks we did some great fun things: highlights include --- saw the Dalai Lama this weekend!!... what a brilliant man, he really does emanate happiness... he spoke on kindness,and his comment on 'war being an outdated concept' got a huge applause... luckily it only sprinkled rain while he was speaking, he finished and moments later it poured!!

two separate nights we went to see some music in Glebe Pt: Liz Frenchman with Fred Smith one night, and with her band JigZag the other... two movies: Oceans 13 (yesterday after DimS um!) and Pirates of the Caribbean 3... day off to go to the Maritime Museum and wander the city... lunch at Doyle's near the Heads at the entrance to the Sydney Harbour, and a Sunday drive to Bondi Beach...

and best weekend being of course the Writers fest: funny to cometo the other side of the world and meet a Canadian publisher here!... didn't have the guts (because I didn't prepare) to pitch him a book: met, shook his hand, and 'choked'!... oh well, hopefully next time... so manyauthors and famous folk: Madeleine Thien, Shane Koyczan (both Canadians), Raimond Gaita (for a movie premiere from his book, also actors Eric Bana and Marton Csokas), Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Andrew O'Hagan, Richard E Grant (also an actor), Pico Iyer, Lionel Shriver, and my fave, Joanne Harris who wrote Chocolat (just finished reading the sequel she was promoting, Lollipop Shoes, such fun)...

in general, I've only hung out with my friend, going where she goes so we can get the projects done... or staying in the house painting and practicing my Spanish with the Nicaraguan painter, Marlon (from Matagalpa)... so I haven't picked up an Aussie accent, nor any hunky Aussie surfer dudes!... no souvenier shopping yet, though I do have an order in for a kangaroo scrotum change purse (anyone else want one?) ...

and seen some nature because out the back of their house is a reserve that connects to a large park, so tons of birds in the amazing trees: fern trees (huge!), eucalyptus, palms, and others grown to huge size that are usually small tropical plants in peoples living rooms... the kookaburros are hysterical with their rollicking giggles, and theres a sort of mimick-type bird sometimes sounds like a cel phone, sometimes like the 'shave and a hair cut' tune, and the brilliant noisy loikeets...

seen a few parts of the city... have done some driving around to go to the shops and supply stores... my friends have a great GPS plotter in the car that says how to get from A to B, “stay left over the Harbour Bridge” ... of course stay left or I'd hit the oncoming traffic!... (only once did I pull in an exit instead of entrance, oops) but I have discovered Tim Tam biscuits (a type of chocolate cookie) much to my waistline's chagrin, I can hear my jeans yelling 'stop stop stop, don't put that in your mouth!'... and sticky date pudding, which despite it's lack of chocolate is so good it should be outlawed...

and though Ihaven't hung out with Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban and Russell Crowe, I keep looking out for them... so I fly out of here on Sunday, back into Vancouver... the plan is to finish my book that I'm fired up about once again!... and work, hopefully on a movie set, we'll see what I can land to pay the bills... hopefully, I'll get a chance to see everyone over the summer...

it will be my 40th birthday this year (wow how time flies), and I'm planning a big shindig with my sister, Tiffany (she will be 30)... setting it for the Sat, Aug 18th so leave that date free and I'll send you all the details in an invite soon! hope to see you then...

hugs

Jan 20, 2007: Key West, FL

Headline: BEEN HERE A MONTH...

WHERE: Here I am in Key West.

WHAT: Job Searching sucks!

WHO: Me and everyones door I knock on to plead plaintively for a paid position. (hows that for aliteration?)

HOW: In bits and starts because some days I just can't handle rejection.

WHEN: Since I got here, well... except for that brief fling in the Bahamas.

WHY: Because otherwise I won't be able to buy food soon, and I'll end up hanging at the soup kitchen.


ALL ABOUT ARRIVING IN DEC:

I'm sitting in a cute little coffee shop that has free internet, and an old friend Chris Fleming is here with his computer and showing me beautiful photos!... Beth is sitting on the other side doing art work... ooo, she just snapped a polaroid of me and glewed and drew until I became ART!... I'm now a mermaid!... very cool... wish I had a camera here

I'm staying a few nights on the schooner Appledore, a bit humid and lovely stinky boat smell, but I love that I'm there!... right in the harbor... looking for a place but first I need a job so I can afford it!

did a job interview this morning, so may go out tomorrow on a boat doing Eco-tours, to see if I want to do it... but when there are no people booked there is no money... the owner is a bit intense...

will do the kayak guide stuff this afternoon as a training run to see if the routine is about the same...


had a good journey down... stayed up way too late the night before in Austin TX with Kurt at Antones Bar, listening to amazing music (Storyville: Malford Milligan an albino black guy as the singer/songwriter, with Stevie Ray Vaughn's old band, Double Trouble and a couple awesome guitar players)... so tired and grumpy the next day

flight was fine, but at Ft Lauderdal airport in the hot, humid struggle of trying to find the bus stop, I was just in time to see the Greyhound bus go by; I missed it!... AARRGGHH... so I stagger back into the AC looking for the rental car place....

"how much to rent one day and drop in Key West?" I ask. -- "$120, it is Christmas week"
I can't afford that and I turned to walk away.

"do you have any discounts?" she asks-- "nope"

"triple A?"-- "that would be a good thing, now wouldn't it?"

"that will make it $56.88" and she starts writing me up... "oooo, so you're saying it's Christmas, thank you."

she consults the computer and then looks up, "I'm sorry we only have the hard top Mustang, will that be okay?"

"Mustang? sure!" ...that's one of those zippy little things, oh boy...

just to put it into perspective, I've been driving a 1989 Isuzu Trooper for the last month that has the "aerodynamics of a refridgerator" (and that's according to the owner) and the power of a sewing machine (okay a big sewing machine, and it did get us from Oregon to Texas)...

I had trouble just getting out of the parking lot because when you step on the gas it goes... no I mean, GOES!!

I can't believe you can rent that kind of sport car, that is all about prestige, and sex appeal... it's a bit heady, the power of possession!... it's almost like it comes with an "attitude" and how could you not drive fast!?

so I drove like a nut case down to the Keys!... music blaring, singing along, windows down, sunshine, blue sky, sunset and the last stretch in darkness zipping past Christmas lights... of course most of the time within the speed limit, can't imagine the nightmare it would've been hitting a key deer in that little plastic car!

got into Key West just in time to see the lighted boat parade, and bump into friends John and Elio, and Chris Fleming in town... found my yoga friend Siobhan... planning to go to a Spa today with Beth to help my sore ankle

will do the kayak guide stuff this afternoon as a training run to see if the routine is about the same... and then the hot date later tonight... I'm so stoked at all this interaction and people to catch up with!...

down side is the panicky moments, when I wonder what the hell I'm doing here... and it's so expensive and how wil I be able to live!... just can't seem to think of it as a long term place, at least not without someone as a partner to pay half the rent!

well, that's future ... today I'm fine, I've eaten... I have a place to sleep that isn't my Mom or Dad's house and life goes on...


Weather:
Its sunny and warm most days. Some wind too, so the yachties here for Race Week couldn't complain too much.

Sports:
Race week means tons of race sailors are in town taking up space but they all seem to spend very little money and have limited interaction with anyone in town. Strange week here.

Book reviews:
I actually read Clive Cussler's Sahara to see how they translated it to a screenplay. Interesting exercise. Made the mistake of asking one of someone at my writer's group if the chapter could be compared to it as he was apologizing for it being so "guy" oriented, he was not happy with the comparison.

Movie Reviews/News:
Saw "Painted Veil" last night. Period piece with beautiful scenery in the limestone outcroppings of China, but so sad. Wept walking home.

Quote of the Week:
“Where are we going and why are we in this hand basket?" --bumper sticker.

Coming Events:
Ping pong game night at the Blue Heaven restaurant.