I’m on my way to an interview on Good Hope FM (in Cape Town) at 10.20am this morning, to chat about our Round-the-World trip – a great place to listen in if you’re confused about all the random world travel snippets I keep throwing at you! Check out http://www.goodhopefm.co.za/ to listen live…

And if you miss that, you can always listen to my pre-recorded interview on WUWM Lake Effect in Milwaukee, where I chat about all things Strange Nervous Laughter… Here’s the link for that:

http://www.wuwm.com/media/lake_effect/le062909_d.mp3

Enjoy!

Strange Nervous Laughter has been chosen by Cosmopolitan.com (yes, that’s the US website!) as one of their Best Beach Books of 2009!

Find the review (1 of only 8 books) under ‘Secrets and Advice’.
The round-up is called ‘8 Books We’re Loving Right Now’ and you can check it out here

This is really exciting news for Strange Nervous Laughter. Cosmo is the most read women’s magazine in America… And now it has a dose of Durban gracing its website!

What’s interesting, though, is thinking back to how I felt a month ago, and realising how much of what I was worried about didn’t materialise. Isn’t it often that way?

I was hugely excited to go on holiday, but a little apprehensive too, for a number of reasons… It was my first solo trip with diabetes, my first overseas trip with diabetes, my first time crossing time zones with diabetes (are you noticing a trend here??) but also my first time away from my man for 3 weeks, and the first time seeing friends I hadn’t seen in 4 years. Four years! It’s a long time. And I was worried that although I felt like we could pick up where we left off, maybe we couldn’t. Maybe it would be awkward. Maybe I’d get claustrophobic not having any alone time for three weeks straight. Maybe I’d get sick of being sociable.

Maybe maybe maybe.

But none of my worries materialised! How fantastic. My diabetes behaved itself wonderfully – I didn’t have any scary lows, I adjusted to eating (strange) American food with no hassles, and I felt remarkably well the whole time I was there. Seeing my old friends was incredible – honestly, it felt as if I’d just left the room and then come back in and it was 2005 (only we all look better and are less crazy than we were in college!) And I didn’t get claustrophic at all. I took alone time when I needed it, but most of the time I was just happy to be with my friends.

I had forgotten how much I love my US friends… I suppose I’d blocked it out so that I wouldn’t miss them too much. When I think back over the last few weeks, the prevailing word that pops out at me is FUN. It was so much fun! I laughed so much, I really connected with people that I love, I saw new things and had so many adventures. I am ready to travel!

It’s amazing how alive travelling makes you feel. Have you noticed that? Being surrounded by fresh sights and new ideas and different ways of living is so invigorating. One of the greatest gifts this trip has given me is confidence in our round the world trip, later this year. I’m ready: physically, emotionally, and diabetically!

It was also great for Strange Nervous Laughter. I met my editor (and had a lovely lunch with her), I made connections with extremely helpful people, I had two great radio interviews, and I feel like I gave the book a good start in life. Where it goes from here is out of my hands!

So all in all? An extraordinary trip, that far exceeded my expectations!
That said, I’m very happy to be home. And I will be until it’s time to sail off into the sunset again…

(Me in NYC!)

What could possibly go wrong?

Well, global warming. In a word (or two).
You see, NYC is not usually wet or rainy in June – it’s summer, it should be deliciously sunny. But the weather has been a little crazy of late, and the craziness did not work in my favour… The forecasts said scattered thundershowers would hit at 6pm. They hit at 2.30pm. My reading was at 3pm.

We’d already baked delicious cupcakes, by this stage (chocolate with vanilla icing and mini M&Ms… yummy!)

And we’d figured out how to transport them across town on the subway (by buying a couple of doughnut boxes from the doughnut store across the road)…

When we exited the subway, it was breezy and warm, and we thought we’d missed the morning rain and were going to miss the evening storms. But when we arrived at Central Park…

The heavens opened. It poured. Bucketed. Deluged us with rain. So that anyone in their right mind, looking out the window in the hour before the reading and deciding whether to come to an outdoor event in the park, would have decided against it (I was already there, so I couldn’t change my mind!)

Still, I had a couple of extremely loyal friends who decided to brave the weather, most notably my Number One Fan, Jess (in her handmade t-shirt)…

Once we realised that the rain was not going to let up any time soon, we traipsed off through the park handing out free cupcakes. It was so much fun! I started off on the baseball field, and people came flocking towards me when they heard the magical word ‘cupcake’ (combined with the equally magical word ‘free’)… and then we walked through the park and I approached people and asked if they wanted a cupcake. They were either totally delighted, or looked a little scared. It was very amusing!

We ended up in a Starbucks (because it was warm, cosy, and quintessentially American)…

Where I gave a short reading, after all…

It was, to all intents and purposes, a complete disaster. But it was a really fun disaster! As I led my merry band of wet friends through the park, handing out cupcakes, I was loving it! It was great fun.

Now, this could have been because I’d had an amazing hour-long interview on Cosmo Radio the day before, and I felt as if I’d already done my bit for book marketing; or because it was the end of a really wonderful three week friend tour all over the East Coast of the USA; or even because I have recently realised that I don’t like organising publicity stuff for myself any more (give me online stuff to do and I’m happy, organise something for me to do and I’m even happier, but don’t put me in charge please!)

It might even be that I am slowly, ever so slowly, learning to let go and see where life takes me. That I am finally learning to be a bit more easy-going and not trying to control everything. Whatever the reason, I had myself an extremely fun disaster of A Reading in Central Park.

Cupcakes, music, reading, book giveaways… how can you resist?

See you there! (in body or in spirit)

“The sixth chapter of Strange Nervous Laughter, a novel by Bridget McNulty, in which we meet Harry, a garbage man with a peculiar smell that attracts broken things to him…”

Harry from Strange Nervous Laughter, a novel by Bridget McNulty.

“The fifth chapter from Strange Nervous Laughter, a novel by Bridget McNulty, in which we meet Meryl, a Guinness World Records representative bound so tightly in a corset of cynicism that she finds it hard to breathe…”

Meryl from Strange Nervous Laughter, a novel by Bridget McNulty

First on the list, nogal! What a lovely start to the day…

(Also about my favourite breakfast spot in Cape Town!)

She’s a beautiful, dreamy soul, walking around with her head in the clouds…

“The fourth chapter from Strange Nervous Laughter, a novel by Bridget McNulty, in which we meet Aisha, a girl wrapped up in her dreams who chooses not to face reality…”

Aisha from Strange Nervous Laughter, a novel by Bridget McNulty