It’s true. Keep Calm and Carry Vegemite is out today. In all good online bookstores on your computer, so you don’t have to even get off your lazy backside! Momentum Books, being the kind of people they are, have compiled everything for you here. And only $2.99 people! And, yes, even at that discount price there is still much talk of children’s bodily functions (you know you want it). A hamster dies, too! Now, that never happened in Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat, Pray, Love, did it?

I wrote about the death of Alexander the Hamster in Denmark, which is pretty much the final tale in the book form of Keep Calm and Carry Vegemite. Because nothing says Mother’s Day, or charity more than the demise of an innocent hamster and our family’s subsequent mad dash around the streets of Copenhagen looking for a replacement.

Right?

Right???!!!

Alexander 2.0, the newer, fatter, whiter version of the original Alexander…

Yay!

We’ve spent the last fortnight driving around the bottom of England, saying a last farewell. Feelings have been mixed on this extended goodbye. We’re off to Spain next for a Mediterranean cruise and the husband has been watching the weather there every day and wondering why we’re still in England at all. There’s no denying it, the weather all over the UK right now is terrible. Currently colder than winter than Brisbane, with rain, rain, more rain and a side of rain. Naturally, the English carry on with what they believe they should be doing in summer — driving to Cornwall, eating ice-creams and swimming — because that’s what you do in summer, even when it’s 16 degrees (and there’ll be no chance for another year). Personally, I found something much more suitable at the B&B we stayed in… The Shack. If you booked in advance, you could indulge in a lovely three course dinner in a beautiful little stone building complete with a fireplace, all to yourself (which we stoked up, trust me). Gorgeous!

The Shack

Anyway, after making our way through Dover, Hastings, Brighton and most of Cornwall, we now find ourselves in Bath, waving bye byes. And it’s the perfect place to do so, with a magical mix of Roman, Georgian and Victorian history (and bucks and hens parties and vomit, unfortunately, but you can’t have everything, can you?). Despite thunder and rain today, we managed to pack a lot in — the Roman Baths, the Assembly Rooms and Fashion Museum, the Circus and the Royal Crescent.

The Royal Crescent

I have to say the highlight, though, was Superdrug, where a shop assistant got incredibly excited in my presence. ‘Are you Australian?’ she asked, after hearing my accent. When I told her this was the case, she actually jumped up and down, clapped her hands and squealed, ‘Oh my God, I love Australians! Oh my God, you’re Australian, that’s so cool! I love Australians! Oh my God!’.

Seriously, I couldn’t have asked for a better send off. I’m considering paying her to follow us to Luton airport tomorrow to give us an even bigger, rock star-like goodbye with screams and fainting.

Well, that’s it from me, I guess. Until next time, England. Hopefully it won’t be too long between visits…

Allison Rushby’s six episodes in an original e-serial, pitched as DOWNTON ABBEY for the New Adult market where triplets, estranged since birth, are suddenly brought together and forced to compete for their inheritance, to Dan Weiss at St. Martin’s, with Vicki Lame editing, for publication in 2012, by Sara Megibow at Nelson Literary Agency

What will happen will be that, starting in January 2013, one 20,000 word episode will be released every fortnight or so over a three month period (we’re still ironing out a few details, including how often the episodes will be released, and the title).

Anyway, while I’ve been writing, I’ve been so lucky to be able to jump onto the train and be in London in less than an hour to check on the fine details where research is concerned — it really has made a huge difference. On my last trip to London, I bought myself a little treat — a retro Mini tour of the sites mentioned in the e-serial. While on the tour, I took a few pics and videos…

Am so looking forward to January to see what everyone thinks!

I’ve been trying to make regular mad dashes to London (my favourite city in the world — I don’t get the fascination with New  York at all, though now I have a new publisher ensconced in the Flatiron building, I may have to make a quick trip…) to do overnight stays and cram in as many museums, art galleries and shows as is humanly possibly. Last weekend, I made what will probably be my last trip for a while. While I was there, I did a retro Mini tour with a company called Small Car Big City. For the last year or so, I’ve been writing a (humongous, gigantic, it quite seriously almost ate me alive) e-serial for St Martin’s Press which will be launched starting next January and will be published in six episodes of around 20,000 words each. The e-serial is set in London in 1926 and as it mentions all kinds of yummy places, I thought I’d retro Mini tour the sites and make a little video to put up on my web-site when the e-serial comes out. So, here I am, about to Mini off… don’t I look fabulous, darling (seriously, it’s like being a sardine in a tin can, but who cares when you look so darn cute getting about town in the thing)?

We went to: Belgrave Square (where most of the e-serial is set), Russell Square, Hyde Park, Liberty, King’s Cross station, the Savoy hotel and all kinds of other places besides. Afterwards, I also managed to fit in seeing Singin’ In the Rain (brilliant) and a bit of sale shopping (also very nice).

I’ll miss being able to pop down to London in less than an hour on the train, that’s for sure. I’d better find myself a UK publisher fast, so I have a Very Good Excuse to go back again soon…

I took many photos to set my desktop by at a later date, but it wasn’t until we headed down along the water toward the park’s pavilion that Ms8 became animated, running up to me and begging me for my camera. Amazed that she was suddenly  interested in visiting her 5345th stately home in less than a year, I quickly passed it over. Only to download the pictures a couple days later and find approximately 234 photos of this…

I recently found out that Katherine of Aragon once lived in our village for around a year. Apparently after Henry VIII had his marriage to Katherine annulled, she was sent to live just up the road from us. Here…

How cool is that? The ye olde stuff around these parts really does blow one’s mind…