My first proper stop in my drive up to Sydney for the Book Expo was Chiltern. I figured it’d be a good place to stop for a break, some lunch and a bit of a walk to get the blood pumping again. It was beautiful. In looking for a park ...

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By now you’ll know I took a road trip to Sydney for the Book Expo. Driving up was really easy but driving back was a challenge. I’ve taken photos at most stops and also at the Book Expo so you’ll be able to see what I did. As I generally do with ...

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Mea culpa. During our tour of Israel we saw many churches and sites where Jesus had been. Before we our conference started we also did a tour of the tunnels under the Western Wall which included the area where Jesus would have overturned the money changers tables. Revolution! We saw so many ...

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50 Shades and For Dummies As you know I’m horrified by the 50 Shades phenomenon, the writing is very poor and the BDSM is so wrong (I have this from a BDSM friend who talks about an escape word which does not appear to be evident) so I was not happy seeing this ...

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it means I’m about to fly off on a jaunt to Israel. We’ll be away for three weeks and at this point in time I can guarantee pickings will be reduced on this blog. I have typed up something I submitted to my English teacher but she didn’t like it enough so ...

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Gullible’s Travels by Billy Connolly Just for something completely different I had a read of Gullible’s Travels by Billy Connolly. It’s not quite the same as watching him recount the same stories on TV but it’s not too bad. Connolly seems to write the same way he interviews, by the ...

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You know, I was going to write some words about the whaling industry in Portland but it seems I have no photos of the equipment and most of the links I find when googling are about whale watching. I don’t condone the catching of whales but I have admiration for ...

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I’m not going to enter debate as to the sainthood of Mary MacKillop, she was certainly a good person and is the first person born in Australia to be made a saint. MacKillop was born in Fitzroy on the 15th January 1842 and died in Sydney on the 8th August ...

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I spent one day combing the shops in Portland and having a whale of a time. There are four bookshops and (I’m told) four op shops, I found all four bookshops but only three op shops and took photos of some of the above for you. The bookshops range from the ...

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There’s some controversy over who was the first settler in Portland. William Dutton built a house there first but as he was a whaler he only spent part of the year there, Edward Henty landed in Portland in November 1834, built a house and turned the first sod (you can ...

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I’ve barely finished writing about America and we go away again…being fair to myself, America was a big trip and it took me a long time to write about most things we did. This time we only spent a week in Portland so I should be able to finish writing ...

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There are advantages to following people on Twitter, distinct advantages. Not only do you get all the news and gossip but you might also get notifications about competitions and giveaways. The photo above is my loot from TezMillerOz. She is sent so many books for review on her blog that ...

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I’ve been back for a few weeks and have been rather disorganised with regards to writing for the blog but it is now time to become organised again. It seems my migraines are back and I won’t know until I wake up if I’m going to be able to get ...

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This is the last post in my American odyssey. “Finally”, I hear you say. I know it’s been a long journey and for that I apologise. This week we return to our regularly unscheduled programming, but only after I tell you about Providence. I reserve the right to continue putting some ...

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