G’day all my Aussie compatriots at the AISS!
November 18, 2010 at 9:45 am | Posted in Uncategorized | 14 CommentsG’day again all you Aussies out there! That was SUCH a fun day today at the wonderful AISS and I really enjoyed meeting you all! Glad to see you’re visiting my blog (I have my ways of finding out…!). Keep on reading, keep on writing and above all ENTER MY COMPETITION!!! Or my dragon will eat the lot of you!
Thank you to the fabulous kids and teachers at SJI International School and Chatsworth International School Orchard Campus!
November 16, 2010 at 8:32 am | Posted in Uncategorized | 2 CommentsTemujin and I had a fantastic time yesterday with the kids of the lovely SJI International Elementary School, roaring and screaming our heads off! Then today we met the gorgeous kids and very welcoming staff of Chatsworth International at their beautiful old Orchard Campus. What a treat! I’ll post some photos as soon as I can!
Goodbye Beijing, and hello Singapore!
November 11, 2010 at 10:51 pm | Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment
It’s his final Roar! Temujin and I are heading off to Singapore today to have fun roaring like tigers and screaming like spoiled princesses with the kids of Singapore! I’ll also be speaking at the Hands On Literacy Conference at Tanglin Trust School to a Lovely Lot of Librarians and a Terrific Tribe of Teachers (how’s that for alliteration?) from all around Asia – that’s going to be fun! So hello Singapore and adios amigos, I’ll tell you all about it when I get back!
Temujin goes to Beijing, and Tarini and I explore the Forbidden City in Beijing – it’s amazing!
November 11, 2010 at 5:00 pm | Posted in China photos | 2 CommentsTemujin and I roared up to Beijing for a quick visit last week for a wonderful event at Capital M on the Sunday and a terrific school visit to Daystar Academy on the Friday! So of course, on Saturday, what better thing to do than to take Temujin’s favourite cousin Tarini to check out the extraordinary Forbidden City, which many of you already know was Harry Harrison’s inspiration for the Grand Imperial Palace in The Tale of Temujin! Here are some photos of this momentous visit!
The Forbidden City was the Imperial Palace in China during the Ming and Qing dynasties and is the largest palace complex in the world! Building began in 1407 and ended in 1420, and it was the home of the Emperors of China right up until Puyi, the last Emperor of China, was expelled from the palace by the Republicans in 1924.
Tarini and I outside the Forbidden City in Tiananmen Square.
Tarini and a real life Princess Precious!
Inside the first courtyard leading into the Forbidden City.
A very impressive lion guarding one of the palaces – but Tarini wasn’t at all scared!
Guess who’s the Queen of the Castle (or should that be Empress?)!
The eaves of the Hall of Supreme Harmony. You can tell how important a building is in the Forbidden City by counting the number of small animal sculptures on the eaves! This hall is the most important of all, so it has eleven animals!
The exquisitely ornate and colourful painting under the eaves of one of the palaces in the complex.
Two great Imperial symbols: The crane and the tortoise.
The Hall of Central Harmony
The gorgeous golden throne in the Hall of Preserved Harmony
Tarini and I in front of an extraordinary, gigantic stone carving, which was transported from the quarry where it was made to Beijing during the Ming dynasty in the middle of winter, by sliding it along roads which were flooded and then frozen.
The beautiful palace gardens behind the royal palaces where the Emperor and his family and concubines would stroll in the evenings.
These entwined cypress trees are said to symbolize loyalty and love. The last Emperor Puyi and his wife Wanrong had their photos taken in front of it on their wedding day.
A minor pathway in the palace complex. Can’t you just imagine old scholars walking down the path in their long gowns back in the days of the Ming dynasty!
Farewell to the Forbidden City – a worthy memorial to the great Emperors of China!
What is the most IMAGINATIVE word in the English language?
November 8, 2010 at 3:38 pm | Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment
It’s the word “IF“.
This is the word all writers use when they think up their wonderful stories. “If” makes anything possible – the only limits are the boundaries of your imagination!
So I’m dedicating this November to the wonderful word “If”.
My Awesome Author this month wrote her world-famous children’s classic story when she asked “What IF there were tiny people living in the walls and skirting boards of the houses of human beings, that looked like us, and felt like us, and had hopes and dreams like us, but were only 9 inches tall?”. My Brilliant Book is the result of that question! And to continue the theme, my Competition this month is to write a poem called “IF”. See my Competitions page to find out all about it!
AND THE WINNER IS…
November 1, 2010 at 5:49 am | Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment
Hello all you horrible fiendish ghouls, werewolves, witches, ghosts and aliens out there! I hope you all enjoyed frightening the life out of your neighbours last night! And just to celebrate the end of Halloween, the winners of my Haunting Haiku competition have just been announced! Congratulations to Jasmine Yim of Class 5E, Canadian International School (CDNIS) Hong Kong! Jasmine won first place in my competition with a clever two part haiku about a very sinister skeleton! To see her entry, and the nine runners-up, go to my Competitions Page right now! Or something horrible might happen to you – wa- ha- ha- ha……..
The Dog Blog returns with a Hairy Haiku!
October 25, 2010 at 4:29 am | Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a commentWOOOFFF! It’s me, Bobby, back again with the best, most fantastic, most extraordinarily wonderful haiku in the world. I’m INORDINATELY proud of this poem (and if you don’t know what that means, go to my Mum’s new Wicked Word for the Week!) It’s all about what I did last night… Mum didn’t appreciate it, but I can’t think why.
LAST NIGHT
I am an angel
Even when I trash the bins
Like I did last night.
Bobby, Monday, 25 October 2010
Now if I, a mere cocker spaniel, can write a brilliant haiku like that, so can you! Only six days left to go! Get your entry in!
Just 8 days to go: Vive la République!
October 23, 2010 at 4:35 am | Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment
Et voilà! The kids of French International School, Hong Kong have entered the fray in my Haunting Haiku Competition, with 30 great entries! So will it be the French who dominate the winners’ list? Or the Canadians? Or will it be YOU? Hurry up and get that entry in – just click on my Competitions Page above for all the details!
Thank you Ashok, Kathyia, Miriam, Shawana, Dominic and all the other Cranbrook Primary kids!
October 23, 2010 at 4:19 am | Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a commentWell that was fun! I had a great Skype conversation with a whole lot of Grade 6 kids and their teacher Junaida Bana at Cranbrook Primary School in Essex in England on Wednesday, and we talked about everything from food in Hong Kong to favourite books to why I love being an author to the strangest thing I’ve ever seen in China! Thanks kids and Junaida for a great time! See you next February!
London Calling: A big HELLO to the students at Cranbrook Primary School in Essex!
October 19, 2010 at 5:22 pm | Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment
What fun! I’ll be having a video call with the kids of Cranbrook Primary School in Essex, UK, this afternoon when they’ll be asking me all sorts of questions about my books and about Hong Kong and China, not to mention school life for kids living here! So a big warm Jo San to you all, and if any of my Hong Kong fans want to say hello to your UK counterparts, why not post a comment to this blog?
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