No Pride

Hi all,
I have begun the process of proofreading my new book 'The Reluctant Pom' during breaks from renovating our kitchen. I can only wish that the work on the kitchen was going as well as the book.

I spent most of last week removing wallpaper, a task which was made much harder by the fact that the previous occupier had decided to take the easy way out and paper over paper. In total, I had to scrap off 5 layers to get down to the plaster. The stuff was stuck like a tic to a terrier, which made me consider using a steamer. However, I quickly recalled the incident that happened last time I tried one and knocked the idea on the head. Memories of a shed load of plaster falling off the wall and into my bath will never leave me.

I know that some people have no pride in their work, but even I was astounded by what I found when I removed some of the wall paper. Take a look and see what you think.

I couldn't believe it when I pulled the paper back, but there it was, a piece of tin that could have come from an old biscuit tin. It had been stuck into a hole with some horrible rubber cement. It was half covered the kitchen cupboard which must have been put up after the hole was blocked.

On closer examination, I discovered that they must have decommissioned a gas boiler and used the tin to block up the hole.

What sort of person would do that? whoever it was they certainly didn't have any pride. I had to take down the end cupboard before I could even start to sort out the mess.

Ah well, it will give me something to do when my eyes get tired of proofreading.

The Reluctant Pom

Hi all,
Just thought I'd give you an update on my latest book, The Reluctant Pom. I started writing it last year and almost finished it around Christmas time but then we moved house and it has been on the back burner ever since. Anyway, the balance of power between much needed renovation work and writing is shifting towards doing a few hours on my book ever week.

During the last week I have finished the actual writing process and have begun the tedious proofreading process. Once I've been through it a few times, to get it into a what I think is a perfect copy, I will let my wife loose on it and she can find her usual thousand errors that I missed.

Because this book deals with my enforced trip to Van Demon's land I think it would be nice to add a few photos of interest. The picture below is one of me standing outside our house in West Footscray, I was 16 at the time and can't believe how thin I look.

This will be a first for me because up until now my books have been text only. That is with the exception of my first fishing book, which included a few line drawings.

No doubt choosing a few photos will be a fun process and will bring back lots of pleasant memories. Target for publication is the end of August so I'm going to be pretty busy.