Introductions

(28-12-2010, 11:39)Umbra Ha scritto:  my nick is the italian version of Chade (Umbra).

I love that, Umbra - what a fantastic idea!

(29-12-2010, 03:17)Wintrow Ha scritto:  P.S.: I'm sorry for my bad english!

You are doing so brilliantly, Wintrow...honest! I think you are all amazing, not just because you are doing so well with your English but that you can speak/write another language at all! I feel very unintelligent in your multilingual presences!

(29-12-2010, 04:46)The Fool Ha scritto:  Since I was a child I have been intrigued by the immense and wild and beautiful lands of Australia, so much so that I spontaneously wrote a 150-pages essay on your country when I was 13 :-)

You wrote one hundred and fifty pages?! WOW! I would have loved to have read that, The Fool! Was there anything in particular that made you become so interested in Australia at such a young age?

(29-12-2010, 04:46)The Fool Ha scritto:  Distances between our villages are not big as yours, but in Southern Italy road links are so much bad that sometimes distance learning would be really welcome!

Yes, I think there would be many different advantages if distance learning were available to all. Often it is not only the distances but also the wet weather and problems with roads that isolate us. This is especially true in the wet season as most roads into town are only dirt roads, as ours are, and so are not passable when it rains. There are also many creeks and rivers that flow across the roads that then make them impassable for quite long periods of time. In fact, there are many record floods happening here in Queensland right now, with many people being evacuated from their homes. We have had a lot of rain so my family and I cannot go anywhere at the moment but at least we are far enough away from our closest creeks and rivers that flooding cannot ever bother us.

We always have extra food and things on hand, especially when we prepare for the wet season, as we know we will not be able to get to a town for many weeks and even months. We also try to be as self-sufficient as we can eg we grow a lot of our own vegetables, eat beef from our own cattle, have chickens for eggs and cows for fresh milk etc.

Other than isolation and impassable roads etc, children who have medical problems or who travel around Australia with their parents for work can also do their schooling via a school of distance education.

(29-12-2010, 04:46)The Fool Ha scritto:  I was born in Southern Italy, indeed, and exactly in Calabria on the Ionian Sea, but I had to move to a northern city, Bologna, to attend the university and I still live there.

I will never be able to eat another red onion without thinking of you! I was also interested to discover that the “University of Bologna is the oldest existing university in Europe”. What did you study?

My two eldest sons had to go to a boarding school for a number of years to complete their secondary schooling and will also need to live very far away from home to attend university. My eldest son finished school in November but will have a year off before he begins his degree.

(29-12-2010, 04:46)The Fool Ha scritto:  It's a pity that you won't visit Italy next year! Where will you go, instead?

I would love to visit Italy one day! For the trip next year, I am going as a supervisor of a school tour and we will be visiting parts of France, Belgium and Turkey.

(29-12-2010, 04:46)The Fool Ha scritto:  If you like to watch some videos and photos of the book tour, you can click on "Album" in the upper grey bar

Thank you! I took a look and it was lots of fun matching your names to your faces...what a gorgeous bunch of people you all are here on Blood Memories!!! I will try and post a photo of myself so you can all see what I look like. Maybe I can also post some photos of my life here.

Looking at the dates, I think I will possibly try to get to Belgium to meet Robin, if I can. It would definitely be worth the extra effort to get there. How funny (and AMAZING) it would be...an Australian reader meeting an American author in Belgium!

I have more of your posts to reply to so I will try and get back to write some more soon, I promise! Thank you all once again for such a special welcome.