Smith has a fairly common name, but her writing is the totally opposite. When I unboxed her book I misunderstood and thought she was published by a traditional publisher. She gently disabused me of this notion. One day I feel the traditional publisher will regret turning her away. What Smith ...

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So I unboxed a parcel and made video. It seemed fitting to publish another guest post by Sally Jane Smith the day after that video went live. Since her last article for me she’s published her own book, you can see her links at the bottom. (ISBN 9780645139280) “Aama scoffs ...

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Another book by the great Michael Palin. I do wonder if Palin is tired of having words such as ‘great’ attached to his name. All of them are well deserved, but I just wonder how he feels about it all. I’ve no idea where or when this book appeared in ...

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These pokkuri are Japanese. They are designed for a young girl. You should find bells inside the shoes so the girl tinkles as she walks. Bata Shoe MuseumA close up of one section of the TorahOne part of the TorahThe Village IdiotShoes made by the Noruba people in Nigeria As ...

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So it’s Monday and we’re back from our most recent overseas trip. What? You didn’t notice? I’m glad about that. I tend to tell people only if they need to know. I used to write a lot of articles and schedule them so that I could have a real holiday ...

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We drove to Canberra earlier this year. As normal I don’t tell the world when we’re going away, it’s something you find out later. The reason was to view my Great Uncle’s Log Book from his time in WWII. He was a pilot and this book shows the time he ...

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We snuck away for a couple of days of nothing much. I was planning on spending my entire two days reading, walking and watching rubbish on the TV. I took several books and magazines as I wanted to ensure I had choice, I shouldn’t have bothered. Reading was minimal, we spent a ...

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Uncorrected Proof And you thought you’d seen the last of Port Fairy on this blog, ha! We went to two of the three bookshops (the other wasn’t open) and both op shops, my DD saw this book you see in the photo and passed it to me telling me I ...

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One of the outings we did from Port Fairy was a short drive to Tower Hill. It’s the best place I’ve found to see Emus, they’re to be found all over the place and you have to be careful as they’ll try to pinch your lunch. There’s a trick to ...

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As I said the other day, Port Fairy has a vibrant artistic community. It runs the gamut from silk painting to canvas painting to photography to glass blowing to creature making. The photos I have here don’t even begin to cover a fraction of what I’ve mentioned. We’re totally fascinated by ...

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An apology for not writing Friday photos last Friday but I went back to bed with a migraine. This is the very last article about my travels to and from Sydney for the Book Expo. My first stop on my way home was a place called Yass, it’s quite a big ...

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This is the second last travel article for my Book Expo travels this year, next week I’ll do Yass and then make the move back to books until my next travels. On my way to Sydney I stopped in Chiltern but on my way back I decided to stop somewhere else ...

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Gundagai has become one of those iconic places, if you’re driving from Victoria to NSW or to Queensland (or the other way round) you’ll almost certainly stop at Gundagai. I actually stopped there twice, going to and from Sydney for the Book Expo 2015. Most people don’t go into the ...

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