Now that half of the children have left the nest, the house is starting to look a bit empty. There are rooms that don’t even get visited every day, so it seems about time to find a smaller place to live. Having only recently completed the renovations, the plan was not to move for about two years. However, the other day we were driving home and saw that a nearby apartment complex that has been under construction for the last six months, was open for inspection. We just went in to have a quick look and walked out having bought one.

It is only two bedrooms, but it is brand new and has plenty of space. The complex has a park in the middle and the apartment backs onto the park with a gate straight into the back courtyard.

Check out the preliminary pictures. (This is the display version, ours is actually not finished yet).

I received word the other day that a high school teacher in western Sydney is using “The Tale of Billy Carpenter and Smith’s Elastic Brace” in his Year 7 English class for poetry appreciation. The class are generally not good readers and the fact that an MP3 of the poem is available on the web site makes it easy for them to read along. How do this educational pioneer find out about my work, you ask? Well, they are an ex-flatmate.

Last night I had the honour of attending a gala dinner at the Sydney Hilton to receive a Bronze Award for the Sydney Water Annual Report in the Australasian Reporting Award. I work as one of the three people on the editorial team that puts the report together.

It is the second award since I have been working on the report, the first being for the 2005 report. (We didn’t enter in 2006). Now it is time to start working on the 2008 report. Head down bum up from now till it is finished.