You know it’s going to be a good day when you begin with a happy ending. I started with a little morning love at home, Crystal Palace, listening to informative insights from New Zealand authors Julie Thomas and Graeme Simsion, who’ve cracked the publishing dream. It was a little bit perfect considering that I absolutely adore hearing positive tales.

Even though it’s a little intimidating to be blogging about renowned writers when I feel that I’ve only just begun putting pen to paper myself, I loved peering through the window and being exposed to great anecdotes and treasures that I can put in my own little literary tool kit. I picked up little nuggets of goodness; like a freshly published book is the best that you can make at that time and to now realise that the movie will never be the same as the book, because it’s a collaboration of many creatives. Julie & Graeme’s chat was a lovely cup of joe, in the morning.

I popped back home for lunch and then parked up in a booth again at the Crystal Palace to listen to Michael Corbalis giving us a piece of his mind. With more degrees than I can shake a stick at and an expert in language and memory, Michael's soothing voice was like bedtime storytelling to my ears.

He began with the anatomy of the brain and I jumped aboard the hippocampus of wandering thought. The lessons he was teaching took me off on notions of conception and I particularly loved his yarn on how laughing is strange; uncontrollable behaviour that renders people helpless. I am a case in point. I also came up with personal epiphanies about the reason I have so much stuff is not only because I am uber sentimental, but those things are a physical memory bank.

After nearly running out of Freddo Frogs for the trick or treaters, I finished my day off with Live At Six at Baycourt. The ladies along from me asked if I had seen the commotion earlier in the foyer. No, I’d been running late because I was trying to wipe away any chocolate eating evidence, but the to do did appear on screen, as part of the show.

Live at Six was a skilfully executed play about the ins and outs of creating a newsworthy story to be splashed across our six o’clock TV screens. More notably; the cunning craft of pitting One News and 3 News against each other on stage and how their stories unfurled, the use of props and set to make you feel as though you were inside their newsrooms, the wake-up call about the world we now live in with social media throwing opinion in our faces, and how scarily easy it is to gain personal information online (especially in a country with one degree of separation).

Yeeesssh, that’s the writers and readers programme begun; listening, learning and theatre-going all in one day. Note to self: It’s probably not a good idea to follow an afternoon mochaccino and cake with a cider. It sends you into a weird time warp of being too wired and needing a nap at the same time.

Outfit of choice: A collection of basics from my globe-trotting stint last year; a blue H&M blazer from Tokyo, a navy tank from H&M in Glasgow, a floral patterned pencil skirt that reminded me of Grandma’s old day chair from London, and the gold L’Ateliers from NYC came out for another spin!

Love ‘Sleep Is Over-Rated Right Now’ NJ

x