Thanks!

Bugs. Well, yes, we do have lots of stinging insects. It’s winter, though, so I doubt you’ll be bothered too much! Plus it’s cold enough to wear long sleeves/pants so you presumably won’t have too much skin to get bitten. In any case, some people don’t seem to get bitten by mozzies (mosquitos) as much as others. We all have theories as to why this is so: eat vegemite and you won’t, have fair hair or eat lots of bananas and you will are some of the ones I collected yesterday

If you are a fair-haired banana eater who won’t try vegemite you could always just use insect repellent

Even though we have lots of poisonous spiders and snakes, it’s very very unusual to get bitten. Just wear covered shoes if you go bushwalking!

Your plane reading looks excellent! I hope it goes well and feel free to ask more.

I did finish Uglies and will look for the next one when school starts again.

I really like Tamora Pierce’s books. There was a set with individual names that I didn’t care for, but I always get in line to read her latest offering.

I really enjoy Catherine Coulter’s FBI series and Double Take was just as enjoyable. It’s not great literature but it has good characters and an easy to follow mystery.

Ah. Okay. Do you have any biting, stinging, or otherwise painful and numerous insects? (Because if you do, I will become their new favorite food, and I’d like to be prepared.)

Don’t want to hijack Robin’s blog too much…but there it is.

- almost finished rereading The Dreaming Suburb, by R F Delderfield;
- read Dobry, by Monica Shannon (another Newbery Medal winner);
- started Uglies, by Scott Westerfield;
- and loaded Civ IV back onto my computer, meaning that I’m wasting too much time on that and not reading enough. Bleah.

Um, I’m also just popping by (in my lunchbreak). As usual, I can’t remember which books I’ve finished in the last week.

Oh, and, hi, Robin and crew!