Aussie Expats Update – Projects New and Old, and Babysitting!

Happy Friday everyone!

Remembrance Day (the Australian version of Veteran’s Day, for any Americans who are confused by that term) was yesterday back home, but since it’s the 11th here, it means a chance to think about what armed servicemen and servicewomen have sacrificed for their countries and their loved ones. Especially for us, that’s pretty important—in a world rent by conflict, it’s vital that we remember what the cost of peace and democracy here, and what responsibilities we each individually have to make the world a better, safer and more accepting place in order to honour those who have fought for, and protected, our way of life.

But it also means that it’s a public holiday, and since Dave and Lee have jetted off to Boston for the weekend, James and I are taking care of their two sons, Eli and Eddie. Woooooo practice parenting! We’re really just big kids ourselves (Disclaimer: James is a very serious and very professional Army officer. Not playful, childish or crazy at all. Pinky promise…), so dealing with children for us mostly just involves playing around and making forts out of the furniture. The awesome thing about having a home gym is that the boys love it, and James is letting them play in there while I quickly smash out this short post!

I think I finished the first draft of my novel this week! For anyone who has ever had that moment where they think, ‘hmmm ok, yes, this is done now,’ about something they’ve worked really hard on for a long period of time, you’ll understand who crazy and exciting that is. Of course, it’s really open-ended because (perhaps foolishly!) I’m hoping that eventually this will be a multi-book series. And also possibly because I wasn’t 110% sure how to end it, so I just sort of fumbled my way through: it’s gotten me this far, who am I to dismiss it now? Anyway, lots of work still to go, as I’m only roughly halfway through typing it all up… And then, of course, it’ll need to be edited! But I’m still excited, and I’m going to own it.

I also got some mail yesterday from home. My grandma has sent over a parcel of information about my grandad, in the form of newspaper articles, speeches, awards and other paraphernalia so I can start piecing together his biography. Like my novel, I have absolutely no idea how to go about all of this, so it’ll be an amazing adventure… And I’m looking forward to a new and very different project! That being said, if anyone out there has written a biography before and has any advice, I’d be very grateful for it—otherwise I’ll be relying on Google in conjunction with my own crazy mind and love of adventure to see me through. It would be an understatement to say that I am really incredibly excited to try and capture the story of my grandad (and, by extension, some aspect of my paternal family). I only hope I can do justice to him, his life, and his work!

Have an awesome weekend everyone: I’m off to make some forts, fit in some study, play around a bit and maybe go to the pool before homemade pizza and ice-cream and cake tonight! Keep an eye out next week for some blogs about what’s happening in the world at the moment, developing the plot of my novel and staying sane while transcribing 110k words.

— Ana.