Day 23 of the Café Writing Tour, and I’m enjoying the sub-artic frost of the wintry yet breath-taking Bowral.

After breakfast at Briars, we headed to the Bradman Museum for our cricket fix, and then back into town for a coffee at the Bean Café (they do a Rueben, here, Marisa!) before we went and checked out what the main street had to offer. Continue reading →

Day 14. A day at Bron’s Casa Java. (Sometimes known as Scott’s Casa Java, depending on who loses the argument about whose turn it is to make the coffee.) Very focused on the assignment today, in spite of being bleary-eyed after a late-night watching Novak take another step toward my goal of paying attention when someone might win the Grand Slam (THE Grand Slam, people). In addition to not being troubled by the bleary state of things, I was also hardly distracted at all by Allan Karlsson. Or  the beautiful cold sunny day that’s followed the Weekend of Floods. Or the latest episode of Game of Thrones (OMG, Dave, hurry up and watch it already). Or watching my dogs stare-off over who gets the plum position in the chair opposite my desk. (They have entire arguments, intense arguments, without saying a word – they just stare at each other. Then they look down at the chair. Then back at each other. No way am I going to get in the middle of that.) Continue reading →

I would like to begin the Day 10 update on my Finish-My-Course-One-Café-At-A-Time Writing Tour Sabbatical by giving a shout-out to my wonderfully geriatric friend Agnes, who signed off our phone call today with a cheery admonition to ‘go write today’s blog’. It’s been a long day, and I was in need of encouragement – so thanks to her, here I am. (I’m sorry, but no, I can’t tell you where she lives.)  Continue reading →

Day 7 of my Finish-My-Course-One-Cafe-At-A-Time-Writing Tour Sabbatical. After a one-degree start this morning – ONE DEGREE, PEOPLE (Winter is HERE) – I find myself at Lilly’s, a little café that opens out on an outdoor courtyard facing the road through Rhodes, and I’m enjoying the lovely 18 degree sunshine of a beautiful afternoon. With a scarf. And a jacket. And wishing I’d brought my beanie.  Continue reading →

Day 3 of my Course-by-Café Writing Tour, and I took myself south-east this time, towards the coast. I drove down President’s Avenue, topped the rise at Woolooware, and enjoyed that awesome moment of the first glimpse of the ocean at Cronulla.  Continue reading →

Day 2 of my Finish-My-Course-One-Café-At-A-Time Writing Tour, and I travelled up to the Paragon Café in the main street of Katoomba. The restaurant itself is one hundred years old, and the function rooms at the back were built in the 1920s and 30s. Cole Porter, George Gershwin and Glenn Miller played to me while I frowned over my studies, and the faces of so many Hollywood celebrities looked down at me from their frames on the wall – actual visitors, don’t you know!    Continue reading →

I volunteered some time to help out at the Sydney Writer’s Fest this year. It may have been a completely mental thing to do – I’m still undecided. SWF always falls in one of the busier of my work weeks; it’s always been hard for me to get there. But this year it was also the week before I started my six weeks’ leave (!). Continue reading →