Writers at the Convent Weekend

Day 16
A Visit to the Convent

Today we went to the ‘Readers Feast: Writers at the Convent’ Festival at the Abbotsford Convent. The grounds are tranquil and majestic and totally cut off from the outside world. We had lunch on one of the inner patios and realized how quiet it was; although the Convent is located downtown, you can’t hear any road noise. The gardens are well-cared for and the walking paths are bright and sunny.

The first session we attended was ‘The Politically Incorrect Parenting Show’ with Nigel Latta—a little strange to be seen at a literary festival but I loved it nonetheless. Child Rearing is so much like Dog Training. All living things learn the same way, and I love listening to parenting lessons because I can apply it to my obedience classes when I instruct. Nigel was hilarious and I want to pick up his book.

After lunch we attended a session for first time writers, featuring a panel of three one-book authors who shared their very different journeys from idea to print. Chris Womersley, Toni Jordan, and Catherine O’Flynn each read a bit from their books and then answered some really great questions. Hearing their experiences was hopeful and a little uncanny—several times they said things that Caroline and I have said to each other.

We left with plenty of inspiration and headed to Caroline’s brother’s house for dinner, so she could fix his computer—which turned out to be unfixable. But I got to watch Dog for the first time in months!! Come on, if Australia doesn’t care about the whole N-word fiasco, America shouldn’t either!

Sunday, Day 17

Lazy day today:

Started off by going to a computer swap meet with Chris so Caroline could help him shop for a new system. No country is safe from viruses, you know, and later we found out Chris had 27 of them. We were afraid all his documents were gone forever—an important reminder to invest in virus protection and also back up your documents. Anyway, I couldn’t help thinking of John the whole time—he would have loved it at the swap meet! Tons of cheap desktops and laptops and programs and games and parts and accessories… I’m glad I didn’t have any cash or I might have walked out with a new laptop!

After Chris got a slick new desktop, we went back to his place to start setting it up. Caroline is clearly to Chris what John is to me—a Computer God. Every family needs one. *grin*

After lunch, we went back to the Writer’s festival and attended two more classes, one on emotion and one on the criminal mind. Didn’t learn anything earth-shattering, but did pick up some good bits of info. I would have enjoyed more exploration of the origins of evil from the criminal mind talk, but it was still very interesting.

When we got home, Caroline scoured the ‘net looking for a place for us to stay when we go to the Great Barrier Reef. It won’t be cheap: we’ll have to fly there and when gasoline is $86 dollars per 12 gallon tank—YES, you heard me right—you can’t go anywhere without bleeding a little. Caroline will be off for ten days and we want to make the most of it. What better way than to snorkel the Reef??

We headed back to Chris’s house, on the brink of giving up hope. We’ll keep searching tomorrow. Once at Chris’s, Caroline managed to fix his viruses compute (enough to recover his files, anyway) but she spent the next few hours setting up his new one and transferring files. Tanya made some awesome spaghetti and meatballs and we watched TV: The Biggest Loser, So You Think You Can Dance, and a cornball comedy, ‘Boytown’.

I’m afraid to say I’m becoming addicted to that stupid Dance show. *sigh* But check it out:

AND:

Evil stuff.