I took myself for brunch in the sun with some writing which grew nicely. I’ve begun using the black leather, daisy embossed notebook the lovely Grays gave me. March, the cafe cat, played very gently in the sun with two smaller-than-thigh-height people who clearly adored him. I’ve seen March take swipes at rough older kids. These curly two petted him enthusiastically but overly-firmly in all directions and when he retreated under the lavender bush, batted him with cabbage leaves in a fair imitation of giving him something to pounce. He happily swatted the cabbage leaves gently with both paws and gave the two loving looks. Eventually Mum came over and told them the pussy cat was tired… March at that instant laid his head on his paws with all the appearance of exhaustion so both kids believed her and left immediately. He was a most skilled and forbearing cat with small persons. I was impressed. It made a really pretty scene too – lavender and tabby and curly mops in the sun.

Later, I was looking at the development of a new character and ended up checking out a lot of the fictional captains of the ”doomed to sail forever” sorts of vessels (including a French flying canoe) but its all a little too Pirates of the Caribbean, I think. So while I may take the name of one of those characters (either Captain Falkenburg, or Van Der Dekken, which is Dutch for ”of the decks”) … I may steer away from those and use Captain Keen. Which sounds comic-bookish, except that I grew up with a Captain Keen, and enjoyed a firm friendship with the old salt while I was a little girl. He was a ships captain through Asia and the Middle East, and the Americas, in the 1940s to the 1970s. His stories and his curries stay with me still (I have all his secret recipes including a fantastic green banana curry!). I might even name the ships chef after his personal chef, Pasand Ali.

I’m also researching stories in which kids get sucked into other worlds where they find they have magical powers. Narnia is the obvious example of such a world… I’m wanting to collect all others.

One final note: I am in love with The Listener. For $4 it beats many newspapers hands down. The writing is good, the issues are well covered, and the material tackled is relevant and/or very interesting. The current issue denounces the lack of Governmental support for writers here, and suggests that perhaps the nation would be better off ”supporting scribblers instead of scrummers,” which perhaps helps endear it to me. I hadn’t even known that we have a weekly programme about our books… perhaps because, a fact also frowned upon by the writers of Listener, it is shown at 9am on a Sunday morning. With talent thick on the ground, as we begin to leave cultural cringe behind and to celebrate what we create, this too will hopefully change.