HAAAAAPPY NEW YEAR'S EVE!!!

Happy new Year's everyone!!! And because I missed last week, Merry Christmas as well. Sorry, I am in a bit of a rush. We have guests and are going out and I have to ype really fast so ;lkjfgkjbsdf djkbf sdfjsjfbsr hfklwe f!!!

Seeya in 2009!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Stay gold.

Wally

Food, food and more food

Yep, that's why I haven't posted for a couple of weeks, I have basically just been eating my way through December. Yum Cha at the Red Emperor (mmmm, yum cha), too many Vegemite or honey sandwiches to count, dinner and lunches at Condottis, dinner at Vue de Monde, possibly the fanciest pants restaurant I have been to, although the Sofitel one is up there, literally and figuratively speaking. Is that how you spell figuratively? I don't know, the spell check thingie isn't working for me. Sigh, it's a tough life huh?

So apart from eating what's been going on? Markets have been busy as anything, I have popped back out to a few schools, Brunswick South included which was great fun as per usual. Three visits there this year, my record along with three visits to St Pauls in Warragul. A few others have had the pleasure/luck/misfortune to see me twice!

Anyway, that is it for me today I think. I am a bit tired and I am about to cook dinner for lunch, as I am off to the Dingley Twilight Market this afternoon. Mmmm, dinner for lunch, and tuna pasta at that. Life tough? No way at all, I am having tuna pasta! All is good with me!!!

Have a great week and keep living the dream.

Stay gold.

Wally

A fun feast at Cheltenham East

Howdy pardners! How's your week been? Actually, don't answer that, unless you do it as a comment on this blog. If you say your answer, I won't hear it ... unless unless you're Ashana and you're here saying it to me. And you could just tell me then, you wouldn't have to read this to know I am wondering how your week's been.
Anyway, let's move on. I hope you've had a good week, let's leave it at that. If you want to fill me in on some of the details, feel free to comment or email.
I've had a great week. I spent Monday out at Cheltenham East Primary School, and I had a great time. We drew, we laughed, we listened to burp sound effects on my phone, all very, very good. Some of the kids even gave me a picture for me to keep, and then today Harry gave me one he had done on his computer, so that was very cool.
Tonight, I know it's Friday night, and I should be out raging or something, but I will be in bed nice and early as I am up at 4:15 tomorrow to journey out to Red Hill to do the market out there. Say hi if you see me there. Then on Sunday I am out to Yarra Glen for that market. Whoo, it's all happening!
Have a great week everyone, and keep living the dream.
Stay gold.
Wally

Running rings around Pakenham Springs

That's right. The regional tour has continued over the last couple of weeks. A couple of weeks ago I was out at Eaglehawk North P.S. near Bendigo for two days. It was a great couple of days, and I got to catch up with the big grizzly bear that roams around those parts.

Then I was out in Pakenham at Pakenham Springs Primary, a new school that has only opened this year. It was a very cool couple of days too, I had a great time drawing and mucking around with the kids. Some in-jokes were started and there were lots of laughs, which is just how I like it!

Then this week I was back in the car dropping off orders. Monday to Melton West, Tuesday to Pakenham, Wednesday to Eaglehawk, Thursday to Pakenham, Friday to sleep? No sir, I was out at the Festival of lights in Frankston, one of my favourite festivals of the year to go to. And, although it was a quietish night cusomer-wise, us stallholders had great fun. We did one of those stories where someone writes a sentence, passes it on, and the next person writes a sentence, and so on. Very cool story too, even with an illutration. We did two actually, both very funny, both just a little weird! There was Captain Shiny pants, and a boy made up of two boys, one of which was a hunter, the other a vegetarian. It was great fun and a great way to pass the time. I am back out there today for the big one, the motherload, the broo haha, the day I hope to sell a whole truckload of books!!!

So have a great week ,and keep living the dream.

Stay gold.

Wally

Share-a-not launch into the world

That's right baybee, the Share-a-not is coming to a world near you!!! My brand new book, The Share-a-not (if you didn't guess that already), is out ... well, sort of anyway. I have copies, and you know what? I may have already written about this last week. I will check once I am done. So you may be reading all this for a second time, but too bad so sad my friend, I am excited! I am having a book launch next weekend for the book, in the luverly Ivanhoe Library, with great people around me, and from then on it is just a matter of time before The Share-a-not hits the bookstores. At this stage we are looking at it being sometime in December or early january. What? you say? After Christmas? Well surely that isn't a bonus. Correct, I would answer, it would certainly have been my preference to have the book in bookstores before Christmas, that being when lots of people buy books and all, but it's not meant to be and that is that. So it falls on me to sell as many as I can and I plan on doing exactly that! Markets, schools, fairs, fetes, festivals, I will be at them all and I will be pushing my book so hard that it will be like concrete, or diamonds, or something even harder than a diamond, whatever that may be.

So that is my main news for this week. I was out at Ruthven Primary for my last week, whic hwas a little sad, as I have really enjoyed my time there and will miss the kids greatly. They were a great group and made me feel really welcome and I just had a ball. So thankyou Ruthven Primary School, I hope you all enjoyed my time there as much as I did.

That's it from me. I am off to Bendigo on Sunday to do workshops at Eaglehawk North Primary with my old mate Anthony. It will be great to catch up with him after not seeing him for a few years, and it will be great to meet some new kids and have some fun drawing and writing and reading and chatting with them.

Have a great week everyone, and keep living the dream.

Stay gold.

Wally.

Slackness, school visits and launches

Well helllloooooooo! I know, I was slack and didn't write anything last week. Well, actually, I tried, but couldn't log in. Anyway, that was slack. I was as slack as a piece of string that is being held slackly so that it is slack and is hanging loose, and then you pull it tight but someone comes along with scissors and cuts it so now you have two slack pieces of string so are doubly slack and that is what I was. But not what I am, because here I am, writing people, writing for you!
So I guess I had better say something worthwhile.
I have been to a couple of schools! Goonawarra last week, and saw the Prep-grade 2 kids, who were all awesome, and one even gave me a dog tag to wear! That was so cool, and such a nice gesture, I was really pleased and thought it was so nice that he did that. But we had great fun, the kids even threatened not to let me go home!
Then I was back out to Ruthven this week, where we did writing workshops, told stories, and made cat noises ... rrrowwwww. Sorry. I think you had to be there for that one, but it was pretty funny.
And my new book is here. I have stock of the Share-a-not, so buy buy buy! Just kidding, although it is available from my website, www.adam-wallace-books.com and I will sign every copy you buy. Worth a fortune people, they will be worth a fortune in years to come! I am having a launch for the book in a few weeks, so that will also be great fun, to have a bit of a get together with my favourite people and show them the fruits of my labour ... mmm, fruit. I could have an apple about now. In fact, I think i am going to go and get something to eat.
Have a great week, and keep living the dream.
Stay gold.
Wally

Ruthven and Converses

That's right! As you may have gathered from the subtlety of my title for this blog, I went out to Ruthven P.S. this week, and I have also got a new pair of Converses!!! That is very exciting for me, I've wanted a pair for ages. And now I have a personalised pair. White hi-tops with some fancy dogs, dragons, cats and more all over them. Not to everyone's taste, not looking at anyone in particular,but they sure are to my taste! I love them.

They also went down well at Ruthven Primary School, which is out Reservoir way, no matter how you pronounce Reservoir. I spent the first of three days I will be out there doing drawing workshops. By choice. When put to a vote, every class I saw chose drawing over writing. Hmmmm. No surprises there really I have to say. So we did some drawings of dogs, cats, dragons and more. We did accents, we did cat noises, we did the works. It was great fun, and by the end of the day I was totally ready for an afternoon nap! I don't think I am going to get one in today, but I may need one after I eat my chicken schnitzel with bolognese sauce!

That's right people, and I am starting a new paragraph here for no reason other than I want to, I am having lunch at the Palace Hotel, where they serve 5, count 'em, 5 different types of parma. Oh my God, I am drooling right now writing this. Can water wreck a keyboard? Anyway. I don't have dairy, a well-known fact, so I have my parma sans cheese, but schnitzel with bolognese sauce man, how good is that? When I go to a pub for dinner or lunch, I generally have to make the choice between bolognese or a schnitzel ... no such dramas at the Palace, my friend, just stick that bolognese sauce on top and let me at it!

I won't even need to review the meal next week, because I tell you right here and now it is going to be pretty damn good.

I have to go. I need to prepare my taste buds.

Have a great week everyone, and keep living the dream.

Stay gold.

Wally.

Going along to Yarrawonga

Well hello everyone! Sorry I didn't make an entry last week, but things got a little full on down here. My Step-Dad Bryan died last week, and he was one of the nicest, most generous, most positive people I have ever known. He will be greatly missed.

Last week I also spent some time up on the Murray at Yarrawonga. it is the Murray up there isn't it? i don't know, I was always hopeless at geography! Anyway, i was up there as part of a Holiday Enrichment program, put on by Jim Gillies. I have to tell you, if anyone from up that way reads this, get on it next year and get to this thing. It is so awesome! Seriously people. I went up there and held 5 workshops on the Tuesday, but over the Tuesday and Wednesday the kids there (from Grade 5 to around Year 8 or 9) had the choice of activities such as, if my memory serves me correctly, and it usually does, except when I have to remember someone's name ... anyway, cool activities. Here they are. Rock climbing, Illustrating, cartooning, Aboriginal art, drumming, a cosmodome (I know, sounds impressive huh?), claymation, hip hop, a light plane flight and of course thrilling awesome writing and drawing workshops with yours truly. I think there may have been more things as well, but that's all I can remember. Oh, there was also Damien Brown, a weightlifter with Commonwealth Games gold medals who was the keynote speaker on the Tuesday.

I wanted to do the rock climbing. It looked unreal fun. They told me one of the girls climbed the wall thirty times! Thirty! I think I would have had dead shoulders after once!

It was fantastic though, and great fun to be put up at Club Mulwala, which was sponsoring the event.

So that was that for me. A good but sad week. The funeral was real nice though. We all wore bright colours, a real love of Bryan's. Rest in Peace Bryan, it was a pleasure and an honour to know you.

Wall.E by Wally

Yep, that's right people. A couple of days ago I journeyed to the cinemas (a bit of a rare event for me these days) and I saw the new Pixar movie, Wall.E. Now, being a children's author, I naturally have dreams of seeing one of my stories up on the big screen. An actual movie of it, not just the story, that would be dodgy as. People come in, sit down with their popcorn and drinks and chips and lollies, get relaxed, watch the previews, the screen widens, the lights go down, they read one of my stories, the lights go up, they go home and that is not $15 well spent! No, I would looove to see one of my stories made into a movie. I actually have the exact story I want as well. It is written. It is ready to go.

Anyway, moving on from my future glory, Mak took me to go and see Wall.E, and, I have to say, it was really, really, really awesome. It isn't one of those laugh out loud movies, like Shrek or Over the Hedge (although there are some funny bits in it), but it has a real heart to it. Wall.E is one of the nicest, most genuine movie characters I have ever seen, and he has a three word vocabulary. This goes to show, I think, that most people talk too much and that sometimes you can show your true colours and heart without having to blab on all the time. There, now I will get off my pedestal for a bit.

So this is a quick entry today, as I have things to do, places to go and people to see, all while trying to plan my siesta. I am going to finish by saying go and see Wall.E. No matter how old you are, it is a great movie and I am giving it the three thumbs up and 24.5 stars.

Have a great week, and keep living the dream.

Stay gold.

Wally

Two reasons why September 19 is a great day.

Greetings everyone! I hope you have had a FANTASTIC week. My week has been really good. Bit of work, bit of bumming around. No tennis which was a bummer. but, and I say but, this week is great for two reasons. Not only this week, but today, September 19th, Why? I hear you think. Well, I will tell you.
1. September 19th is my birthday day! Yaaaaaay. Yes, that's right, thirty something years ago some lady had a baby, and that baby came to be known as Adam Wallace! I won't give away exactly how old I am, you wil have to guess when you see me. I will tell you it isn't 100 as one kid guessed a couple of weeks ago!

2. September 19th is International Talk Like a Pirate Day! Hells yeah it is! How cool is that? My birthday is on the same day that everyone is (or at least should be) talking like a pirate. Arrrrr me hearties, man the poop deck (tee hee hee), avast ya landlubbers, pieces of eight and all that sort of cool stuff. I have a patch and a pirate skull cap, but I don't know if i will wear them today or not. I may wear them when we go out tonight , I will see how courageous I am feeling. Either way I think I will make everyone I speak to today say something in a pirate voice, or else I wil make them walk the plank.

Have a great day everyone, and keep living the dream.

Stay gold.

My first blog as a blogger doing some blogging

Greetings one and ... well, maybe just one, but hopefully one and all. Welcome to my new blog. I know that I have written many posts on my website, all hilarious and informative of course, but this is the first time I have written something where I really have to remember the L or else it will become gross. I mean, come on, imagine the title of this blog if I had forgotten to put in the Ls. Seriously, seriously smelly writing people! And now I have got that out of my system, so to speak, I will move on. Deep breath and ... done.
It has been a pretttty cool week in the life of me. I don't know why I did a lot of ts in pretty, but there you go. Anyways, I played pool on Monday night. Look at me go. I hadn't played for ages, so for the first few shots I nearly missed the white ball, let alone actually getting anything in. But it didn't take long for the old hustler in me to come flooding back. That's right. Twirling the cue behind my back, one handed shots, behind the back shots, left handed shots, I did them all ... and not one of them pocketed anything. I lost more games than I won. but at least I looked good doing it! So from here on in the tactic is more practice Wally, more practice. I'm coming for you Stolzy, you are going down my friend! It was great fun though, and amongst all the fun the little competitive fire in me, the one that was, well, you know how when a fire is dying down and all there is left is ashes and some burnt out wood and maybe some plastic thing that really stinks and is probably toxic and you look closer and burn your nose so you look closely but not too closely and you blow under the ashes and there it is, this one little red glow left on the edge of an old, burnt out log? That was my competitive fire. It had started glowing a little bit during my tennis games, but during the pool game someone blew my spark and it started to glow a little brighter and then a little more blowing and it glowed even brighter. By the end there may have even been a small, hardly noticeable flame going there. All I need now is to go and get some old newspaper, a bit of kindling (little bits of wood, not the author ... no, wait, that was Kipling. Sorry), and then get that fire roaring again.
Right then. I am ready to go. I am off to grab my axe and start a-chopping. I feel so pumped. Wow. Ready to take on the world baby. Look out world, the competitive Wally is back! COME ONNNNN!!! Actually, this has all been a little bit tiring, this getting fired up and pumped and excited. I think I will go and have a little lie down first, but then, after that, it is all on!
Have a great week everyone, and keep living the dream
Stay gold.
Wally.