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ANN BRADY

Author, Speaker & Mentor

JUST GO WITH THE FLOW

This is Part One of a series of blogs I should have been doing from 1st June.

Not having blogged for some weeks I thought it time to do a bit of catching up. The reason for my sloppiness is that I have been or at this moment in time still am  in Australia visiting my family. And even though I had planned on blogging while travelling the best laid plans of mice and men etc somehow never seem to work out.

My husband and I left for Oz at the end of May. The idea was he would stay for 3 weeks  during which we would celebrate the grand-daughters 18th birthday. She’s the youngest from my youngest daughter from  a previous marriage. I have to admit that I am currently on husband number 3. Maybe I’m a glutton for punishment! Who knows? Either that or I’m  just living a future novel - my life story. And what a life it’s been. However, I digress.

The first 3 weeks went well and in due course my husband returned to the UK where he quickly settled into the life of a bachelor for the next 2 months. That and visiting the two step-grand-children and doing all the grandfatherly stuff one does.

And so I duly moved in with my youngest daughter and her two, now young adults, kids. Knowing their would be times when they would be busy working or doing their own stuff I pre-organised some meet ups with local authors and members of the Queensland SCBWI Organisation. SCBWI stands for Society of Children's Book Writers & Illustrators. I’ve been an International and UK member for sometime and thought it would be nice to link up.

This year I didn’t get a hire car as my daughter had lots of hours owed her from work so we had planned on spending time together doing girlie things. Everything was going to plan. Or so I thought.

First thing to go wrong was one of grand-daughters having a car accident. Luckily she wasn’t hurt but it meant her car has been off the road now for over 4 weeks. This means my daughter has had to run her to work and collect her in the evening. Then a couple of weeks ago the eldest daughter flew off to the UK as their father has recently come out of hospital and needs some care. This means I have limited means to see my other two grand-children who live some distance away. And finally my youngest daughter has been head-hunted for a National Managerial position. This gave her two weeks to hand in her notice and pass over all responsibility to the next person.

Despite all this excitement we did manage to get some jobs done such as a visit to the opticians, got youngest grand-daughter to an interview at TAFE (equivalent of UK after school college) and managed to fit in a couple of trips to IKEA.; My  youngest daughters favourite shop. And it didn’t cost me very much this time either!! Not to mention the odd meals out and celebrating the other grand-daughters boyfriends 21st and hers in advance as I will be back home when she turns 21. We also managed to attend to Teddy Bear’s Picnic with Teddy’s in attendance. Boy what a life they lead here down under!

And in between all this I have been reviewing and editing a very long manuscript. Hang on aren’t I supposed to be on holiday??

At the end of the day I have now decided to give up organising anything unless it’s absolutely necessary. At my age who needs the stress or worry of it? I think I will just go with the flow.