In a literary world

I spent the whole of this afternoon attending a Young Writers Seminar. It's so unlike me. I know. It's like hubs attending a bag-making class. Anyone who knows me will avoid inviting me to such affairs. It's called lesson learnt.

Today wasn't about me. I was there to support hubs who had been invited to speak at a panel -

Pun intended or unintended - should everyone attempt humour in writing?

Okay, I was really there for the "stunning lunch buffet" which is stated in the programme so it must be true. Oh, fyi, hubs is a humour columnist. Does he have a technique? Or does he just wing it? Who knows? All I know is he sits in front of the computer, stares into space for a crazy long time and then taps away at the keyboard with two of his fingers. In between stares into space, he checks out Amazon, eBay, watch and t-shirt sites for inspiration.

This morning started out quite dreadfully. I had to wake up at 6am as the kids had to go to school for Total Defence Day run. It's punishing waking up at 6am and I know later in the day I will get very sleepy.

It took a long time for hubs to wake up. See, me? I can get ready to go out very quickly. I am what you call low-maintenance or some may call unkempt. A pair of jeans, tees, lipstick and I'm good to go. And yes, I care about how I look. So I never fail to at least run my fingers through my hair.

Me hubs is what you call high-maintenance. He takes a while to decide what to wear. (perhaps he has too many choices? just a suggestion:D) I made the mistake of telling him his shirt looked too tight on him because he immediately went to change. You would think once fully clothed we would be out the door soon. Wrong. The right shoes could make or break the outfit. I forgot if he changed shoes today. It's all a blur. The easy part is the accessories. Necklace and watch. Sometimes bracelet. I'm so glad he doesn't wear rings.

"Effortless" charm.

The seminar is held at a hotel. We did not have a chance to explore it.

A quick cup of tea to wake him up. As a panelist, he got to wear a name tag on a lanyard. My name tag was a sticker.

Here he is strategising with fellow panelist, Neil Humphreys on what to say. Mr H is an author based in Singapore.

The panel. I'm quite surprised it's full house. It's quite brave of hubs to do this. I would be petrified to speak in front of a bunch of people. Completely freeze. Maybe even pee a little in my pants. That is why I can never run for president or be a rock star. The session was very jokey, as expected. People laughed a lot.

After the Q & A, we had lunch. I ate most of it before I remembered to take a pic.

The lagsagne was stunning.

The oriental fried rice bombed.

After lunch, we stayed on for the next panel -

Creative prose for new media

I was a little concerned by the word prose. I am someone who's entertained by Survivor, The Amazing Race and Project Runway. The only time I would use prose is in Words with friends. The second thing that concerned me was there was a powerpoint presentation.

Prose + powerpoint + a heavy lunch is a terrible combination. Before long, I found myself sucked into the terrible black hole called sleep. It cradled me in its arms, slowly rocking, rocking. The worse thing was I tried not to sleep. So I kept jerking awake. Just imagine my head lurching back and forth, back and forth. Sometimes flinging backwards. It was a long battle. It resembled a scene from The Exorcist, 1973 version. At one point, I heard the speaker saying :

I hope I'm not putting anyone to sleep or something to the effect.

Finally I tumbled out of my sleep. And the session was still on!

Oh prose
You wear me so
Thy words so soothing
Had me snooze

 See you in my next post. I promise not to sleep.