I am still here!

Hi! An itinerary of my USA trip in November 1999 can be found at the end of this Hot News Space. (I’m telling you this now because you may never get to discover the itinerary: I do tend to ramble on. And on. And on.)

Last week I wrote twenty five pages in my journal. It covered only the most recent four days in my life. I keep a journal because life moves so fast I won’t remember the best of it or the worst of it unless I pin it down in writing. I also sort myself out as I write, decide who I am, who I want to be, where I’m going, what my strengths are, and my failings, what makes me mad, sad, or happy, and what I hope for in my life and in the lives of those I love. I write my journal when I’m travelling, mostly, because when I’m tired in airports it’s an active task which keeps me awake. But even though I travel a lot I’m way behind in recording and sorting out some of the events of the last two hectic marvellous months. It’s depressing.

And now, to add to that feeling of hopelessness about ever catching up with what matters, I discover that once again the Hot News has cooled and become boring. So do I write my journal or the Hot News? Clearly, you dear readers, have won out in importance in this case. Hot News wins, OK!

I adore the messages in the Guest Book and would like to say again a big thank you to everyone who’s made contact in the last few months. Once again I apologise for not answering the messages: I’m never at home to do so and when I am at home my family and friends have to take priority or we’d all fall apart.

Let me start with family. My dad, who is 87 next week and nearly died last year, is particularly well at the moment, physically at least. Mentally of course he is sliding inexorably downhill. It’s been eight years since his dementia was diagnosed so we are lucky to have him alive, still, and not only alive but sweet and gracious as well. Sometimes he says nothing during the hour I am with him. Sometimes he starts a sentence but doesn’t finish it. Sometimes he tries to form a word or two but can make only sounds. So imagine my happiness yesterday when he took my face in his hands and said with great joy: ‘Sweetie pie! You’re still alive!’

My mother at 84 still reads the books we read, walks around the block daily, discusses politics in an animated fashion, visits my dad for two hours a day, and keeps me firmly in line, no matter what. Once a mother, always a mother!

Now, Malcolm. On Wednesday last week I had an all-day teachers’ seminar in Melbourne, sponsored by Scholastic. Late that afternoon I had to fly to Sydney in order to leave early the next morning for a conference in South Africa. It was all very busy and I was very tired. As I was checking in at Melbourne airport after my long day I felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned round and, surprise of all surprises, it was that crazy man of mine. He’d cashed in some soon-to-run-out frequent flyer miles to fly from Adelaide to be with me in Melbourne airport for two hours before he flew home again and I flew on to Sydney. I was euphoric. Of course.

Chloe is till in Paris, still loving her job at UNESCO but is, like most Australians, finding the northern hemisphere climate a drag. If you’ve had light and heat and blues skies for most of your life the long greyness of northern climes is difficult to cope with. I couldn’t stand it. We had a cold grey day yesterday^it is mid-winter after all^and I hated it.

Why haven’t I been at home lately? First, in early July, there was the national reading conference in Adelaide (ALEA) which was exciting in many ways big and small although I was slightly tense all the way through as I had to give the closing address. I met one of my radio heroes for the first time: Phillip Adams from ABC Radio National. This may well seem a pathetic item to highlight but it meant a lot to me. Phillip Adams saves me from the despair caused to me daily by the right wing in this country.

Immediately after the ALEA conference I took off my teacher’s hat and put on my writer’s hat to whizz around Australia for ten days promoting Sleepy Bears. I was ably bossed and cosseted all the way by Jane Novak, (half my age!) one of the divinely competent and divine publicists at Pan Macmillan. Being a writer on tour is much easier than being a literacy consultant on tour. All you have to do is to disobey a lifetime of advice from your mother and talk about yourself non-stop. Bliss! I loved it. I love people and I met many, young and old. When I’m at home I’m almost reclusive (merely through tiredness and busy-ness) so being out and about for a while was heaven. Thanks a million to all the people from near and far who came to bookshops and evening events, especially to Chloe’s boss from Paris who happened to be in Sydney when I was.

I had nine days at home between Sleepy Bears and Melbourne/South Africa during which I had to write the speech for the South African conference, ‘Reading for All.’ I was very nervous about it. I was hyper-conscious of having a white colonial past and agonised over every word so I wouldn’t appear to be an arrogant know-all. I hope I’m not!

There were about 270 delegates, a small number, but I felt we were dynamic in our various contributions. We came from many countries although there was naturally a predominance of South Africans of all races. I heard particularly inspiring presentations from the Cameroons, Tanzania, Malawi, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Namibia, Nigeria, and New Zealand, although all the sessions were good. I was never under-stimualted. The African literacy stories were filled with hope and despair, courage and tyranny, humour and practicalities. I was barely able to sleep each night, confronted as I was with the huge tasks facing Africa and its literate future. I was brought up in Zimbabwe so did not come cold to this conference: I knew about many of the issues already, but was impressed beyond belief by the very useful sharing of ideas and solutions. It was inspiring.

And now I’m home for two months. I’m supposed to be re-writing the read-aloud book and the Bad Novel but all I want to do is nothing: nothing, nothing, nothing. And now that I’ve updated the Hot News, nothing is what I’m going to do. Till next timeSumall the best!

Future events:
Oct 26th Scholastic teachers’ seminar in Brisbane, Queensland

Nov 6th Columbia, Missouri: Mid-Missouri TAWL conference (Teachers Applying Whole Language)

Nov 10th New Orleans: NYAEC conference (National Assoc. for the Education of Young Children)

Nov 11th and 12th Asheville, N.Carolina: Language Arts Conference at Western Carolina University

Nov 13th Denver, Colorado: Language Arts Conference at Sterling

Nov 14th Denver, Colorado: Signing in the afternoon at The Tattered Cover bookshop

Nov 18th Denver: After-dinner speaker at the NCTE conference (National Council of Teachers of English)

Nov 20th Little Rock, Arkansas: Reading Association Conference