Woo-hoo - six more sleeps and I take the bus to Adelaide! As well as getting to spend time with Annalou, I will see my daughter, maybe a son and a grandchild or two and at least a couple more friends whom so far I only know from mailing lists. Six days of Writers Week - joy oh joy! I'm looking forward to hearing Lian Hearn and Margo Lanagan in particular, as well as enjoying the good company and all the other goodies on offer at the festival.

For the first time, I feel as if I've broken the back of the job list - I'm crossing off more items than I'm adding each day and that's got to be good. I still have to tidy the garden, save all essential files to the neat portable hard drive my son Scott bought me for Christmas, clean the house (I don't, usually!) and sort out some things for The Specusphere. Three books eye me balefully, reminding me that I have to write reviews and upload them ready for the new issue that goes live next Saturday. Starting on 1 March, The Specusphere goes bi-monthly, so there will be a flurry of activity in the last week of February, April, June and so on. Of course, the first big bumper issue has to coincide with my travel plans but that sort of synchronicity is par for the course, at least in my life. Isn't it the same for everyone?