Publisher's Synopsis
THE WRITING LIFE Thoughts along the Writing Journey: A book being written "on the go" From my blog at https: //craigswritingjourney.wordpress.com/ About the Author Craig is an extensive world traveller (on a "shoestring budget") and failed professional emigrater who has spent most of his lifes savings on airfares. He is still sliding down the razor blade of life on the beautiful undiscovered island that is New Zealand, somewhere near the bottom (rude!) of the world near Antarctica. There he talks to the 60 million sheep! Through a rather strange set of circumstances and finding himself in a small town near the bottom of the world ...and with nothing else to do, he started writing. Craig loves to encourage and empower people to be the best they can possibly be, and to encourage, help and support people in creating what they most want in life "Together, one mind, one life (one small step at a time), let's see how many people (and lives) we can encourage, impact, empower, enrich, uplift and perhaps even inspire to reach their fullest potentials...and strive for and perhaps one sunny day even achieve their wildest dreams." "You will do foolish things, but do them with enthusiasm." -Colette INTRODUCTION: Five years ago my wife Gill felt compelled because of a series of traumatic and unavoidable circumstances to return to her home town in New Zealand. She had been away about 15 years first doing her nursing training in another NZ city, then working in England, where she met me, then living in South Africa with 'yours truly'. I won't go into the rather bizarre set of circumstances now, because that can be the subject of another book. All I will say is that it was a very stressful time of our lives. Either fortunately or unfortunately, I was also dragged along with our twin boys G and S. We were powerless to withstand this irresistible force of human nature. I was shot in the posterior by an anaethetised dart and when I woke up I found myself in "Sleepy Hollow". The boys were six at the time and already seasoned jet-setters around the world, unlike their "poor" parents. These are the circumstances which led to our adventures into the unknown, far, far away from 'civilisation'. This manuscript is our account of our experiences, impressions and life "down under" - on the other side of the world from vibrant and colourful South Africa, "the beloved country". I have always lived in big cities, mostly in Cape Town... but also in London, Durban, Wellington (NZ) and also in Perth in Western Australia. So it was quite a culture shock to experience the very different and strange attitudes of small-time provincial New Zealand. It has certainly been quite an experience to sample the "atmosphere" in this country town in the midst of the passionless country as New Zealand is sometimes called. Note though that they are NEVER EVER passionless about their rugby or 'footie' as it is sometimes known. Even ordinary housewives have their strong views on the scrummaging technique of the All Black front row. It has even been a great culture shock for my quiet, yet powerful wife ("TT"), who left "Las Vegas" about twenty years ago to travel the world and find me. Shame*! Poor Gill drawing the short straw! She thought she'd married an insurance executive for my money, but ended up with a penniless writer. * Shame is a very 'Sutheffrikun expresshn', that women especially say when ogling little 'crappy' babies. For the sake of good taste and diplomacy and so as not to offend the locals (who are offended very easily anyway and are fiercely parochial and protective of their city of 30000+ people), I will not mention my place of residence by name. Instead I will call it "Sleepy Hollow" in 'never-never land'. The following is a factual account of our sojourn here over the last five and a bit (now twenty-five!) years... Updated July 2015 from Dropped out in Godzone by "Ray and Gill Carruthers"
