Book signings and Hotel Rooms

I really was going to tell you about our book-signing in Hobart last Friday, but simply have to include Ray's take on sharing the accomodation with...well, me of course!
But first, the book-signing.

It is about a three hour drive south to Hobart, the capital city of Tasmania, but as always Ray and I enjoyed the drive despite the very cold day. We arrived there on Thursday evening and the next night after the book-signing, it even snowed on Mt Wellington which looms over this beautiful city on the shores of the wide Derwent River. We did not really enjoy the cold winds off that mountain though and were glad we had a cosy hotel room in the city centre - but more of that later!

Robyn, the manager of Koorong and her capable assistant, Amy, looked after us very well and I think they would have been happy enough with the number of folk who bought our books. The book trailers for my three Baragula books were playing on their TV in the shop and of course we had some goodies for customers to nibble on. Ray and I were delighted to have friends from the area call in and especially one couple, Harold and Jill, originally from Sydney we had not seen for many years.

But I think that might be enough about the book-signing but I do want to share Ray's rather cheeky thoughts on our accomodation  - and his wife - while away from home. He has called it:-

                                Motel and Hotel Rooms Test Relationships

Most motels Mary and I use only have one room with the necessary little room. They are usually neat, tidy and provide coffee or tea and if you are lucky, a couple of biscuits. However, there isn’t any escape for you, especially in the evenings and in unpleasant weather when you lose control of the channel changer.

What can you do when your wife wants to watch a soap opera or serial far beneath your acceptance level (especially when you want to watch the sport or cartoons). You can retire to a chair and read but how can you concentrate on the word puzzle with all the T.V. racket blaring out?

Night comes and bed calls but one of you reads before sleep and rises later than the other. How can you boil water without waking the sleeping hunk or cutie so as to cope with the sunrise?

All these traps to a healthy, happy relationship never seem to be mentioned in pre-marriage manuals or counselling sessions. If unresolved before the car starts up for the next leg of the journey it may well cause a chill in the car even on a blistering hot day.

The little room in the motel does offer some respite, but even there you can be disturbed. The answer may be ear plugs and eye patches. Better still mutual grace and compromise creates a warmth far better than any electric blanket. I’d like to adapt the words of Amos 3:3 to suit this blog. Can two endure a motel room unless they are kind to each other.

I have to admit, Mary and I have shared many a hotel room over the years and rarely has there been a chill in the car the next day. She’s nice! (And anyway there was the little room for me to do the word puzzle.)

Ray, writing from the little room.

Well, I did warn you he was being cheeky, but I hope it has given you a smile as it did me - I promise!

On the Sunday, Ray was the preacher at a church at a town called Sorell, east of Hobart. Most of you know that Tasmania was originally settled as a convict settlement and has many interesting historical places. The photos of our room in this town were taken in a cottage part of Sorell Barracks that go back to 1827. Couldn't resist the photos, but it was Ray's turn to utter those interesting but sleep depriving sounds during the night. Mmm...he was nice about it though!

You can see we do have a lot of fun together - including book-signings and hotel rooms!.