Tansy Rayner Roberts's Blog, page 190

my little sunshine

So today was a big milestone for baby Jem. I signed her up for two mornings of daycare this year, knowing that it would be good for her to be around other babies, and I will need all the help I can in meeting my deadlines. Of course it didn't sink in that 'next year' meant the 4th of January… until the 3rd of January.

The whole family bundled her into the baby room at the local centre this morning – met the carer, helped her to settle in. By the time Raeli and I left, it was nearly 10am. We ...

Last Hurrah (back to reality)

A fun, chaotic weekend most definitely ensued.  flinthart arrived yesterday afternoon, bearing children and returning  girliejones to us in one piece. There followed a rollicking house party involving champagne, Seabreezes, limoncello, baked potatoes and merry, merry times. Raeli bonded tightly with the Mau Mau, and the other two junior Flintharts inhaled a whole season of Justice League Universe along with a treeful of plums, while the adults made up for a year's worth of missing...

The Shape of 2010

I don't do resolutions in the traditional sense. I'm a big fan of small achievable goals, and they never sound all that impressive when you lay them out. Managing to achieve so many of last year's 'wishlist' though makes me keen to do it again.

This then, speaking from the very biased position of 2 January, is a list of things I expect or want to have happen in 2010. I think it's going to be a pretty good year.

1. Finish Cabaret of Monsters (book 2) and Saturnalia (book 3) and submit them on...

2009: A Year in Reading

I was going to spend NYE footling around on the computer, as we never go out for it (hate crowds, hate expectation of having fun, all potential babysitters have more active social life than we do) but it was too damn hot (38 degrees, insane for Hobart let alone anywhere else, and it didn't start coming down below 30 until an hour before midnight) and we had thunder and lightning which meant we unplugged all the computers and just watched TV. Dinner was icecream and dessert was champagne. The ...

My Decade

I end this decade richer for two children, one doctorate, several novels both published and unpublished, and many friends. I had quite a few stoppings and startings in putting this post together, largely because I kept forgetting parts, thinking of new things to add, or realising I had put things in the wrong years. I'm sure I have forgotten many more things, but if I don't post it now it will be another week. Feel free to remind/correct me of extra details/events in the comments!

2000 –...

2009: Done and Dusted

I'm not doing anything to commemorate the end of the decade because I can barely contemplate the concept and short of a meme to tell me how to organise said thoughts, I'm ignoring it for now (cough okay while I was putting this together people came up with a meme, I'll get to it eventually). The year is another matter.

Here with commentary is the wishlist I set out for 2009 a year ago:

*get my driver's licence
Achieved in March, after great suffering and stress (and failing in January and...

Unseen Academicals, by Terry Pratchett (with added commentary from a lone Arsenal supporter)

It happened again this week. I have lovely, understanding and supportive friends & family, but I have one hobby that many of them ( jumbled_words and  zeft aside) just can't wrap their heads around. Arsenal. Football. I not only follow a team and show every appearance of understanding what goes on both on and off the pitch, I am to all intents and purposes, obsessed with the game. Which is, for those of you completely lost at this point, a sport.

Me being interested in sport goes completely...

Home for the Holidays

The great thing about having a houseguest (especially the awesome kind that you want to talk to all the time), is that it has all the benefits of going away for the holidays (especially 'I can't possibly get any work done so this is enforced leisure time') but with the comforts of home. Yesterday we had the girls around for a sewing circle for them to meet or catch up with GJ. I haven't been able to go to sewing group since I had Jem, so that was rather lovely. I finally dug out my needles ...

holiday-hosting as a competitive sport

The best thing about having a visitor from interstate is that you get to play tourist. Yesterday we took  girliejones to the Salamanca Markets so she could get some pre-emptive present & souvenir shopping done, and today we went out to the Sorell Fruit Farm, one of those places we've been meaning to go but never got around to.

Not that we actually went and picked berries or anything, but we could have done if we'd wanted to! Instead, we reclined in a lovely garden, eating amazing food and...

Leviathan, by Scott Westerfeld.

There are very few novels written in this century that leave you with the urge to shout things like "jolly good show!" Leviathan is most definitely one of them.

Over the last several years, Scott Westerfeld has established himself as a writer of fast-paced, edgy YA novels in a variety of flavours: future dystopia teenagers, vampire apocalypse teenagers, magical demon-slaying teenagers… With Leviathan he now turns his hand to steampunk, presenting the first volume of an action-adventure epic...