Sarah Brennan Funny & Fabulous Blog

Helloooo World!

You’ve probably noticed the number at the right hand side of this page which tells you how many people have visited my blog. Tonight the total is 60,435! But have you ever wondered where all my visitors come from?

Thanks to some very smart gadgets my blog host can tell me exactly where all my blog visitors live! And you come from every continent in the world EXCEPT Greenland (where are you, dear Greenlanders?) and from just about every country in the world except North Korea, Papua, Madagascar, Central Africa, Cuba, Iraq, Iran and all those “stans” in Central Asia like Uzbekhistan, Aghanistan and Turkmenistan.

But everywhere else is covered! Here are the top twenty countries:

Hong Kong, United States, United Kingdom, Australia, India, Canada, Singapore, South Africa, the Philippines, Taiwan, Ireland, New Zealand, France, the United Arab Emirates, Malaysia, Germany, Indonesia, Thailand, Brazil and Pakistan!

My blog has even had visitors from Mongolia, Guatemala, Finland, Armenia, Moldova, Bhutan and the tiny island of St Kitts and Nevis! So a big HELLO and THANK YOU to all of my visitors! Keep on visiting and post me a comment some time!!

What an Amazing Chinese Week at AISHK!

Wow, those kids at Australian International School Hong Kong are an impressive bunch! It’s Chinese Week and the whole school – kids, teachers and classrooms – was decked out in Chinese costume when I dropped by today! And Chester Choi was there too – take a look at this wall full of coloured-in dragons to celebrate him! Chester’s in the black frame in the middle!

A Crafty Chinese Zodiac Animal Display at AISHK!

The Grade 11 AISHK Design and Technology kids excelled themselves too! Here are their interpretations of  ten of the Chinese Zodiac animals – in 3D! See if you can indentify which two animals are missing!

The results are out!

Well done all of you who put pen to paper in the holidays to write a story about Trouble in Paradise for my summer Clever Competition! There were some fabulous stories of evil gremlins and wicked witches, giant tsunamis and foolish dragons. There was even a grand piano! But best of all were the magical tropical settings, full of golden sand, sparkling sea, lush forests and amazing animals!  Special congratulations to the three finalists in each age category, and especially to the clever first place winners Kaitlyn Leung, Grade 3 Renaissance College Hong Kong in the Years 1 to 3 Category, and Jenna Jones of Grade 6 Springfield Convent, Cape Town, South Africa, in the Years 4 to 6 Category,who each win a signed copy of one of my books! Go to my Clever Competitions page right now to see their winning entries!

Last chance for entries into my Clever Competition!

Times up TOMORROW AT MIDNIGHT for your entries into my Clever Competition! We’ve had some terrific entries – and today the very first entry from a school in Cape Town in South Africa! So if you’ve written that story about Trouble in Paradise – or almost written it – you’ve got one more day to go to get it finished and sent to me at the email address on the Clever Competitions page!

Home again in Hong Kong – and a quick reminder!

Hello Hong Kong! It feels like ages since I’ve been home! After a fabulous two weeks at the Byron Bay Festival and visiting schools in Brisbane and the Gold Coast I got a horrible, awful, completely ghastly lurgy which laid me low in a hotel by Mascot Sydney Airport for SIX DAYS waiting for medical permission to fly! Aaaargh! So I can tell you I was happy to come home to my lovely family and my gorgeous dog!

And now it’s time to remind you all about that Clever Competition! Just six days to go so you’d better get those skates on! We don’t have many entries yet…must be all that sand and sea! So if you can get an entry in now, you’ve got a great chance of being one of the lucky winners! Go to my Clever Competitions page above right away for all the details!!

Introducing a very special Boat Poet

Introducing Sam, a Churchie student and man of many ideas. Sam not only created the wonderful welcome display you see behind us (above) but also explained to me his fantastic idea for Boat Poems. Sam makes boats out of paper, then writes poems on the side, and then sends the boats down the river to whoever may find them. Isn’t that a magical idea? Now that’s a great way to spend the summer holidays, for all you lucky kids still on break in the Northern Hemisphere. Why don’t you make a boat too, write a poem on it, and send it sailing – and if you take a photo of it and send it to me at sarah@auspicioustimes.com I’ll publish it on my blog!

A big thank you to Churchie!

Hello to all the fabulous Grade 4 boys at Anglican Church Grammar School in East Brisbane and a big thank you to their lovely teacher librarian Rose Hoger for a great day on Tuesday! We had lots of fun with my Poetry Workshop, exploring all the different types of poems, unscrambling limericks, decoding haikus and thinking of some truly terrific rhyming words, as well as finding out all about my daughter’s evil hamster Houdini! Photos to follow!

AB Paterson College Rules!

Hello all you funny and fabulous kids from AB Paterson College in Arundel near the Gold Coast! I had such a great time today meeting you all! What with story readings for the Kindies up to Grade 4s, then workshops for the Grade 5s and 6s, it was a full-on day! Here are some photos courtesy of lovely teacher librarian Nikki Carpenter – thanks Nikki (pictured below) for hosting such a wonderful day and making me feel so welcome!

What a fabulous time at Mt Tamborine Library!

Thanks to the lovely Carolann Barwell at Mt Tamborine Public Library for a fabulous event yesterday! It was great to introduce the mountain kids and their mums and dads to the Chinese Calendar Tales and especially Pin Yin Panda! And it was even better to have my Mum and Dad there! Here are some lovely pics, courtesy of Carolann!