Been a bit quiet eh? That’ll be the school holidays – bliss on the roads, and not much going at LeafSalon either. It’s a different story outside the virtual world: should our readers be able to pop out into this house via the screen you would encounter an all too real madhouse. I think there’re about seven kids out there at the moment – I’ve just hurled some cheese and crackers into the mix and shut the door.

However, we have managed to encounter some culture in the form of a quick jaunt to the capital, sans sprogs, and a look around Main Trunk Lines, the exhibition that Jenny Bornholdt and Gregory O’Brien set up, which is about to close at the end of the month. It’s absolutely brilliant, but if you’re going to see it, allow at least half a day as it’s an extremely dense body of work. How they hauled it all together I have no idea.

More on this tomorrow hopefully, but I’ve just heard that as part of the event programme for the exhibition, you’ll be able to catch four of the five Te Mata Poet Laureates on stage at the National Library Auditorium, this Thursday evening (6 October).

There will be the inaugural Laureate Bill Manhire (1997), along with Elizabeth Smither (2001), Brian Turner (2003) and the current Laureate and exhibition curator Jenny Bornholdt. Hone Tuwhare is the missing poet. ‘Light refreshments’ will be served at 5.00 pm, and the readings, chaired by John Buck of Te Mata Estate, commence at 5.30 pm. And blow me down if it isn’t free.

For more information about the Laureates and how you can get them to come to your school, literary festival or what have you, check out the Modern Letters Laureates page.

Also on in the next couple of days in the South Island – Jenny Pattrick, Fiona Farrell and Tania Roxborough will be touring about various libraries:

Tomorrow, Wednesday 5 October: Palmerston Library, 1pm-2pm, and
Dunedin Public Library, 7.30pm-8.30pm
Thursday 6 October: Balclutha Library, 11.30am-12.30pm, and Gore Library, 2.30pm-3.30pm