toast for tea

Torrential rain sheets past the window of our unit. The tops of the palm trees around the pool, swept to extreme angles by the storm, look like dancing ghouls in the grey of early morning; the howling wind provides a haunting musical backdrop. One of the shade sails to the side of the pool has become partially untethered and flaps about wildly, periodically sending an enormous spray of water into the air as a fresh gust rockets underneath it. Amazingly, the pool furniture is still in neat rows around the perimeter of the enclosure, apart from one rogue daybed, wedged awkwardly between the pool and spa. We are on the top floor of our holiday accommodation, a three storey building, around a kilometre from the beach. The storm – the tail end of ex-tropical cyclone Oswald – after raging all night, is showing no signs of abating. The morning news service reveals that SES personnel have worked throughout the night and that gusts of well over 100 kilometres per hour were recorded on the Go...

Here is what happened. When I tried to wrench open the doors of this blog to actually post something, the handles refused to move; the whole thing was glued together with an amalgam of months-long dust and neglect. Everything covered in cobwebs … So in keeping with the season I have done some Spring-cleaning. BIG sorry to faithful followers. But I have negotiated my way through two more units towards my Masters, started another blog – Ruby Rainbow Reviews – and have completed a first draft of the sequel to Dog Gone . Working title of novel for older readers is Fish and I’ve been having fun trying to distil the storyline into one sentence. Here’s one possibility: One ill-begotten moment of deceit leads Ish to unearth a terrible truth and now he must live with the consequences … Anyway, it’s been so much fun working with Ish and Molly again. Sometimes I feel as if they are real people living in a parallel universe. One day I was so involved in writing a scene, when ...

When a friend hurts her back and loses confidence about walking the Queen Charlotte Track on her own in New Zealand, what else is there to do other than bravely volunteer to keep her company? So, armed with a roll of strapping tape and no preparation - other than the usual walking up and down the millions of steps at our house - and with no time to wear in a pair of hiking boots, I set off with a new pair of cross trainers hoping like hell it wouldn't rain. Here's the result.