Goodness me, it’s all been wine and roses for Miss Emily Perkins since she hit these shores last year after over a decade in good old Londinium.

She’s just taken up her residency as the Buddle Findlay Sargeson Fellow in the legendary Albert Park flat – and she’s got it for a whole yummy year, not just six months like those who have gone before (and we mean gone, Craig – still one of Chris's best headlines). Yup, she’s going to write full-time for a whole year free from the pressures of financial niggles and small children’s squabbles. Barf. I mean, bless. (Green-eyed monster I’m afraid).

Buddle Findlay National Chairman, Sarah Roberts, says the award is about giving talented writers the freedom to focus on their creative activities. And LeafSalon happens to know that spunky Emily's creative activities may be about to shine forth from places other than the printed page.

Intrigued? Half of you probably already know this 'secret', but we can’t tell you more yet. Watch this space.

Meanwhile, our Em will be unpacking her laptop in the flat she worked beneath (in the art gallery) when she was but a slip of a 17-year-old. ‘This was the first year of the Sargeson Fellowship and Janet Frame was living upstairs. Of course there was great excitement if she ever came down to look at the exhibition, although I restrained myself from mobbing her. So I’ve felt a long connection with the building in different ways and am really delighted to be there now as the Fellow.’ Love those full-circle moments.