I’ve been here in Tabriz now for two nights I think. The days are a blur. I can’t even remember which day it is, we’ve been so busy. The festival started yesterday and I was up at 5:15 rushing to pray and get ready for 6:30 am for breakfast. That’s when my translator told me […]

If you would have told me that I’d be visiting the site of a Unesco world heritage site cathedral and monastery in Iran, I doubt I would have believed you. That Australian lady Annie Stewart, being Catholic said that they tended to build these cathedrals on top of high mountains. Walking up the paved path […]

In three hours and twenty minutes I’m off to Qatar and then Tehran. Not sure if I’ll be able to blog, but we’ll see. I’ll be back on Feb. 22nd insha Allah. Over and out.

I’m going to Iran to be a juror for their 16th annual Storytelling Festival. It’s funny how it happened. Came back from Singapore in December thinking of all the stuff that’s on my plate till the ‘next’ trip which was supposed to be in March, first to Texas for a day at a school down […]

Hear ye, hear ye…Announcing the launch of my brand spanking new youtube channel! And what better way to launch it than a wonderful ‘freebie’! Apparently it’s quite normal NOT to like watching yourself on T.V. I feel it’s a bit of a learning experience to always go back and watch myself, see how I handled […]

That’s what one kid said to me yesterday. She was in the grade five class and they’d actually come into the library to return books, but when their teachers hadn’t opted in for the Roses in my Carpets presentation, I decided to do an impromptu presentation for as many grade fives as I could fit […]

Asthaghfirullah! I can’t believe Arab Muslims would have said that to my hosts, librarians who spent some time in Arabia. My hosts are amazing! They won’t even let me lug my presentation case up the stairs! She insists on carrying it for me. We were having a conversation this afternoon, and the inconsistency of Muslims […]

There are four ‘symbols’ of China: the Yangtze River, The Great Wall, The Forbidden City and Yellow Mountain. It was originally called Black mountain because of the colour of the rocks, but the name was changed to Yellow Mountain Huang Shan (Huang=yellow, Shan=mountain) in honour of the Emperor. If you’ve ever seen those painted scrolls […]

Before I transcribe my next installment of my Shanghai journal, I just want to say HAAAA! The Yankees got SWEPT! Blown away! By the Detroit Tigers in four games! Oh how I laughed when that smug-faced A-Rod grounded out in the ninth inning! He’d worked the count 3 and 1, he knew he could only […]

Last night we had the final keynote address from Leonard Marcus, a noted expert in children’s literature, and its history and a biographer of some of the greatest names in child lit! Started writing this post at the Hong Kong airport, and now that I’m back home, safe and sound, I can finish it. Ooh, […]