It has been a week of cakes and talks.
I have few problems with the first; a lot more with the second!
I spent last Friday baking endless traybakes ready for an all-day sale of tea and coffee (and cakes, of course) on Saturday. Two good things arose from this:
- We raised a lot of money.
- There was a whole tray of chocolate fudge cake left over.
You would hope that this would power me through the preparation of a talk for a breakfast meeting on Saturday morning (I know – breakfast! I have to be there by 8am! This, in itself, drags the talk down into the realms of plain and ordinary!)
No such luck. I have spent the week worrying and panicking and thinking everything I could possibly say would be dull and uninteresting.
What would you like to know about being an expat? An expat mother of two young children? An expat mother of two young children living in Africa (Zambia, to be precise)? What is it that made my life there soooo different to life here, in the UK?
I’m settling on…
- bugs
- breakdowns
- malaria (shame that’s not alliterative!)
…with a smattering of promotion for the tourism board (safari animals, Victoria Falls, sunsets). All in all, touching on stories from In the Shade of the Mulberry Tree with the addition of a few from Book 2.
[You’ll like Book 2. It has cockroaches and termites; a roof rack flying off into the sunset; elephants, lions, rhinos and leopards (some a little too close for comfort); fuel and water shortages; an actorator; starring roles for The Bishop and The Professor; and an event that threatened everything.]
Talking of which… well, more news next week, when I hope my writing life will be a little more normal. But Book 2 does have a title. Want to know what it is?
