Australiababble Week Thirty
Well, if I manage to get this written and sent before my internet connection fades it will be a small miracle…
I write from our apartment looking at mist shrouded mountains, covered in dense jungle, as my youngest pointed out, as we flew over, ‘It looks like a forest of broccoli!’ sweet? He’s seventeen!
I am in deepest Queensland, which is very jungly, very hot, humid and full of signs telling me that imminent death lurks around every corner. I have been warned of snappy crocodiles, nippy spiders and killer fish! On one particular trek, I was warned that I was in crocodile territory and I swear that the longer I stared at the grey, muddy pits over which I trod, the more I spotted several pairs of staring eyes, hovering on the surface. Thank goodness for Tena lady, nuff said. 
The boys have a new hobby – taking every opportunity to throw sticks, leaves and bits of rubbish at me before shouting ‘Snake!’ or ‘Spider!’ apparently my deafening shriek and dancing on the spot as I dive for cover is HILARIOUS. Bless them. Don’t worry folks I am plotting my revenge. I shall keep you posted.
They are learning to dive this week and are out on the ocean with the Major. I am using the time after the hectic schedule of Sydney to write. I am in full flow; tip tapping for up to ten hours a day on my new novel Heaven and Back. I can barely go a chapter without sobbing – you have been warned! Think I should partner with Kleenex?
My stomach is in knots as publication day for ‘A Little Love’ draws closer – it’s always the same, I feel very anxious about how its going to be received and that doesn’t disappear until its been given the once over by you lot. I really like it and I hope you do to!
I am still getting used to the fact that I can walk into a bookshop in Australia and see my books. It is the most surreal thing, I am on the other side of the world from where I have sat in my little lounge, tapping away and there they are – my stories being bought and read in Australia! Phenomenal. I feel the same about seeing them in foreign languages too, but Australia is something very special.
This will be my second Christmas in a row away from home. I was working in New York last year and am already promising that this time next year I will be in the UK – I miss it very much. Have hardly been there this year and I feel very homesick.
I can’t open my mouth over here without someone using the C word – CRICKET! I stand flabbergasted and awkward as I confess I haven’t the first idea about who is playing and what’s going on, while they bombard me with facts, figures and stats all confirming how shite we are, apparently! I’ve tried to ask for things in a vaguely German or French accent, to no avail. They STILL want to talk to me about how crap the Brits are at Cricket! I give up.
Right – not sure how much time I have left before the man in the next apartment realises that I am stealing his Wi-Fi or the connection breaks… again.
If I get arrested, please send a cake with a large file in it and tell my mum I’m sorry.
Hope all is good with you and from the other side of the world, I send you A Little Love…
Mandy xxx
©Amanda Prowse – all enquiries PFD ajhughes@pfd.co.uk. +44 (0)20 7344 1084
