20 September 2007

Hobnobbing

Hi folks! Well, I need to tell you about Day 2 of the writer's festival because this was the day that, as Artist Liaison, I got to meet & chat with several writers. It was really great & I met a few very interesting, pleasant people, amongst them Zoran Drvenkar from Berlin, Louis Sacher from Austin, Robert Gott from Melbourne, one of the guys from The Chaser, Jenny Pattrick from New Zealand and Jane Goodall - both of whom gave me signed copies of their novels. At the end of the day, the festival director asked me if I would mind terribly driving Armistead Maupin & his husband Christopher back to their hotel? Hmmm.... let me see. Oh, all right, if I have to! They were both lovely & we had a bit of a chat about places to visit while they're here. Armistead gave me a big hug & signed my t-shirt too so I was Very Lucky! It was a fantastic festival & I definitely got much more out of it than I think I put in. I will definitely do it again next year. Yesterday afternoon, to thank us, a group of volunteers & sponsors were invited to afternoon tea at the Governor's "pad", Government House. It was rather posh. We had tea from gilt edged teacups & tiny cakes served on silver platters by footmen in waistcoats. The Governor, Quentin Bryce, is a truly elegant, eloquent woman who is very passionate about the arts. It was at afternoon tea, whilst admiring the view from the verandah, that I met Abdel Bari Atwan, a Palestinian who now lives in London where he is the editor of an Arab newspaper. He has written a book called "The Secret History of al-Qu'ida". He was only just granted his visa on the day he was due to appear at the Festival! Anyway, he seemed very impressed with Brisbane & was very pleasant to speak to but when I got home & Googled him, I got a bit of a shock because I'd really had no idea what he did or who he had access to. Anyway, I just realised the time! I have to go get ready for work! Fly, fly, fly!
PS: Yes, I am still running & loving it just as much! Did my first 10km ever in an event with 260 other women & finished in 1hr 18secs, which is nothing to be sneezed at, is it? Got to go!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

jen, it's great to see you're back blogging again. Sounds like your life has been full of 'interesting components'. Keep up the good work - on all fronts! Will look forward to more regular blogging.