We went away for the weekend, leaving the Faeling back in Hastings with Nana and Aunty Kat. So we headed to Wellington. We arrived in time to take a slight wrong turn but still get parked and to the cinema on time. Alice in Wonderland in 3D. Tim Burton has long been a favourite creator of the film variety and he did not disappoint. I was impressed, more than impressed. It was well acted, amazingly created and visualised and just WOW. Though now I need to watch it again I know just who the voices I recognised were. I seriously recommend it.

We did lots of walking around some of the streets of Wellington in the afternoon before returning to the hotel to get ready for the Town Hall talk with Neil Gaiman. Neil raised himself from the demi-god status of a favoured writer to a fully fledged god of Storytelling in my personal pantheon . He was interesting, witty, inspiring and a string of equally expressive and impressive words. If you get the chance to hear him speak and/or to hear him read his own work TAKE IT! You will not be disappointed. He gave the best advice for would be writers like myself. WRITE and then use any means necessary to get published. Although I think I prefer his first advice, kill a goat and then stand at your door at midnight, there will come three knocks don’t answer it, then there will be five knocks, answer it, Stephen King, JK Rowling and I will be standing there. (Approx words but you get the very amusing idea). Hell I’d do that just to get to meet the three of them for a chat. Let alone if it would get me through my writing and editing and get me published. The other advice he gave was finish! This is a bad habit of mine to start all guns blazing and then to start something else guns blazing. But I am trying my hardest to stick with Children of the Immortals. So now whenever I start to get distracted I will just have to have Neil on standby in my head yelling FINISH!

Hearing Neil read his own work was an AWEsome experience. His never before read poem to St Oran rolled lyrically from his tongue and through my imagination. He finished with an excerpt from American Gods, which just happened to be one of my favourite parts of the book, the breathless I believe in all this Mr Shadow speech. (For those there I do now wonder if he is expecting this to become a play and he put this in knowing there was a major costume change underway). I do wish I had been able to get a book signed by him but I was about to fall over from starvation and blisters (note to self check that that only pair of shoes you take still fit after not having worn them since before being pregnant). It was also nice to hear that I wasn’t the only Christian raised child to be completely oblivious to the fact that the Narnia tales were “Christian books” though I have to agree with Neil that they aren’t very good Christian books, given the complete lack of Dryads, fauns, giants, weverwolves and good, strong female characters in the bible. To conclude (and stop waffling) if they make an audio version of this talk I’m getting it to entertain and inspire once again.

Sunday was the Pompeii exhibit at Te Papa. It was fascinating. I have an affinity for ancient Rome and Greece, and this truly fed the affinity. There was a 3D animated 7 minute film of the last day of Pompeii which was wow. The flying embers had me blinking to keep them out of my eyes. Seeing the body castes was emotional and moving. To imagine the final moments of these people is truly terrifying and gives one a renewed respect for the awesome power that Mother Nature can unleash on us. I would love to see more of Pompeii and what has been saved and discovered. One day perhaps when I am on a world tour book signing for my latest best seller I will take the time to go and feed my curiosity. The only thing lacking in the exhibition in my humble opinion was in the are dedicated to the religion and personal gods of the house. Not once was there any mention to Doctor Donna, just not good enough really.

The way home was filled with conversation and planning. As most know we are selling our piece of paradise to move closer to family and Alyn’s work before we have the next Faeling. (No one in the family really wants it to happen, the property sale I mean not the next mini me; I think the Father In Law unit is still trying to find ways we can keep it. Other than Lotto I don’t see it happening.) So yes life is in upheaval with that, caught in stasis unsure of what will happen when and how it will all work out. But it has lead to some interesting side looks at aspects of the lifestyle. Alyn has suggested I professionalise my readings. As some of you may or may not know I do these fairly unique readings with my tarot cards, the Celtic Dragon pack by DJ Conway. No card means one thing, it is simply what I get when I look at it. The same card can have fifty million different messages at any given moment. So I do these readings, mainly for myself currently but often for friends and family, they aren’t exactly tarot readings as I have come to know them on the whole, these won’t tell you a new job will be here on Thursday or yes the bloke at the supermarket will propose in 3-6 months. My readings are more little messages from the universe to think or inspire. Alyn (now confirmed by Teej) thinks my readings are unique and have the ability to be wanted by the endless world out there. So now I am busy typing up sample readings and this week will be a flurry of activity to try and put together a cogent concept and put it into action. It might lead to some occasional pocket money or it could run me off my feet. But either way you never know without doing. So keep your eyes peeled for things to come!