I once got told I had a good face for comedy (?) and now I know why! I spent the last half-hour killing myself laughing.

Thankfully, the rest of you don’t look quite so silly, and there are actually a couple of decent ones of me somewhere.

Ahhh, what a night. Thank you, Mimi. And thank you everyone who came, I really feel pleased and happy that we did it, and I absolutely loved the band ‘Acoustic Kitchen’.

This was my speech. Quite serious, but fitting :

“I started writing The Frog Theroy when I was fifteen and finished it when I was fourty six, so I’m hoping the next novel doesn’t take me as long!

It is close to my heart, because it vaguely mirrors my own challenges when growing up. None of the characters are based entirely on myself, but I most identify with Flow; the easy-going joker, who is trusting and gullible. 

These character traits do not protect him from life’s challenges. All of us need to assert ourselves at times, no matter how loving we are. Flow learns that he can be assertive, without compromising his nature, when he finally stands up to his girlfriend, who has been bullying him for some-time.

I did not have an easy home-life, and stories helped me imagine how to change things.

Words are powerful. Fables are powerful. The theory that a frog will jump out of hot water, but stay in and die if heated slowly from cold, is an effective metaphor of how a situation can gradually get worse, and trap a person.

It felt like the perfect story for the main character, Kim, to use – in order to show our heroine, Clea, the danger, she was in at home.

Change can be difficult. Change can be frightening. Stories help us to emotionally evolve.

I am currently blogging about urban-eco projects. I grew up in an environment that celebrated convenience. In my house, you put rubbish in a black bin-bag, and it magically disappeared.

Now I know much went to landfill. And that even now around 10 million tonnes of plastic ends up in our oceans every year, leaving our next generation with a huge problem.

But we have internet. We have imagination. And where there are problems, there are solutions.

A 14 year old girl invented a robot that can pick micro-plastics out of the sea.

A young man from Kenya has invented a glove, which translates sign language into audible speech.

Could robots be used to rid Angola of landmines, so elephants could walk safely once more? 

I hope to start conversations that inspire myself and others, and to gather research for my next book.”

Thank you BenDan photography (call 72783300/76637629 and see BenDan Photography Facebook page) here are the lovely photos. I love Gaborone.

Next week, back to normal. Enough with the frogging; a bit more blogging 😉