Tristan Wolf, our imaginative hero is eight years old when his adventure begins. He is as dreamy and clever as only a child can be. We were all Tristan once in our life and maybe now, we have one in it. My guests- smart, creative and inspiring personalities- have accepted the challenge to go back to those years, to go back to when they were around eight or ten to answer some questions about the world around them.
Let me
introduce you to Australian author Paul Day, when he was eight.
Mariana: Hi,
Paul, it’s very nice meeting you. Where do you live? And who do you live with?
Paul: Hi
Marian, I mean Mariana. Is that right? I have an Aunt Marian so it’s a bit
confusing. It’s nice to meet you too. I live in a big house with my family in
Bendigo on McColl Street, just down the road from the mines. It’s not a very
big house and I have to share my bedroom with my six brothers. I even have to
share my bed cause there isn’t enough room. We only have a black and white TV
too and we have to share that also. My Mum and Dad and my two sisters have
their own room cause they are girls. Not my Dad though, he’s a man.
M: How do you get along with your siblings? What do you fight about?
P: I
don’t get on very well with my brothers, except for Aaron. He’s
the youngest
and we do everything together. My other brothers pick on me a little bit cause
I’m small. Plus, they call me dummy and stupid and I don’t like that so I get
upset, a little bit. My oldest brother is ok, but he is always busy. We fight a
lot, me and my brothers, mostly about nothing. Once, my brother went to hit me
and I dodged and he missed and broke his thumb when his hand whacked into the
window. He cried like a baby but I got in trouble cause he dobbed and Dad
thought it was my fault. But it wasn’t.
M:
What school do you go to? What do you like to do at school the most?
P: I got
to Leura Public School in the Blue Mountains in NSW Australia. I’m in the third
grade and my favorite teacher is Miss Simons. She’s the Music and Art teacher
and she is really pretty and nice too. She doesn’t like it when the other kids
pick on me and I spend recess and lunch in the Art room drawing and playing the
trombone. I like camping and hiking and sometimes we get to do that at school.
I also like music and art cause Miss Simons takes it and she is very pretty.
M: And
the worst about school?
P: I
don’t like some of the big kids. They steal my lunch and pick fights and that.
I also don’t like Math because I’m no good at it.
M: What’s
your best friend’s name?
P: My
best friend is Daryl. He’s a bit silly and gets into trouble, but not because
he’s naughty. He gets stuck in things and is always late for class. Once he got
stuck in the drain chasing a stray cat and the teachers couldn’t get him out so
they had to call the ambilians. When they got him out he giggled and said that
they tickled him. It was so funny. But his mummy wasn’t laughing. She was
crying. She yelled at him for getting stuck again. He’s my best friend cause
he’s the only one that doesn’t call me shorty.
M:
What is the food that you absolutely dislike eating? How does it taste like?
P: I hate
brussel sprouts and broad beans. They are yucky. Mummy makes me eat them. I
chew them then I ask to leave the table to go to the toilet and when I’m in
there I spit them out and flush them down the dunny. Mum doesn’t know though so
please don’t tell her.
M: Do
you have pets?
P: I have
a very special little dog. His name is Latch. I called him Latch cause he
followed me home one day and latched onto me and he never lets me out of his
sight. He’s my only other friend in the whole world, besides Daryl. Latch is
funny and silly and he barks at the wall and chases Sally, our cat. She doesn’t
like him, but he likes her, which is why he chases her all the time. I tried to
tell her but she just hisses at him and if he gets too close she scratches his
nose and then he yelps.
M: Are
you scared of the dark?
P: No,
not really. Well, maybe a little. I don’t like dark places, like when me and my
brothers went down to the caves and we got stuck half way along and then my
younger brother screamed because he thought he saw a hand sticking up from the
bottom. It turned out to be just some roots or something. It was so funny.
M: Do
you dream a lot? Do you daydream?
P: I
dream all the time. Sometimes I dream I am a little bird stuck in a small cage
and suddenly the door is open and I am free. Only, I don’t want to leave.
Sometimes I dream I am flying like superman. Sometimes I have bad dreams that
the world is ending and everything is exploding around me and I don’t know
where my family is or anything. I can’t even find Latch and that worries me a
lot. Most of the time I like to dream, but I don’t want the world to end. My
teacher told my Mum and Dad I daydream. But I don’t know about that, cause I
rarely sleep during the day so how can I dream?
M: Who
do you look like, your mom or dad?
P: I look
like my Dad. But I sound like my Mum. One day I will look and sound like my
dad, like Peter does. He’s big and tall and he has muscles and he sounds grumpy
all the time, just like Dad.
M: Who
is your favorite artist?
P: I like
ABBA. I love the blonde singer best. She’s beautiful and pretty like Miss
Simons. Sometimes I go over to next doors and me and Sandy pretend we are in
ABBA and we sing all their songs with microphones we made by ourselves.
M:
What is the best book that you’ve ever read?
P: My
very favorite book is the Loaded Dog. It’s really funny how the dog runs around
the mines with dynamite in its mouth and doesn’t know the fuse is lit and all
the men go running in all directions. The dog is black like Latch and the
Policeman chasing him reminds me of Daryl cause he trips over everything all
the time when he chases the dog. It’s so funny. The dog doesn’t blow up though,
but the buildings do.
M: Do
you think you’ll ever get married?
P: My
brothers don’t think I will. They tease me all the time and say mean things
like, “You’re too ugly to get married”. I would like to marry Sandy, but she’s
a little bit older than me by thirteen months. She’s pretty and me and her play
together sometimes. I think she would like the blonde singer from ABBA to be
her bridesmaid and I think I would like my youngest brother to be my best man
when he is old enough. He’s only four now though.
M:
What do you want to be when you grow up?
P: I want
to be a writer and write funny stories about little dogs doing silly things and
getting into trouble. I like writing stories and Miss Simons, who is also my
English teacher, thinks my stories are really good.
M:
Thanks for sharing with me Paul. I hope we can be friends for a long time!
P:
Thanks. If we are friends, then I can have three friends instead of 2, Lucky,
Daryl and now you. That’s more friends than I have ever had in all my life. I
like you cause you remind me of my teacher Miss Simons.
Right now I
have 13 books published on Amazon (more if you count the print versions). I
mainly write Children’s Books and YA Fiction. I am a Qualified Teacher and have
worked in Public High Schools for the past eleven years. Before that I was a
Motor Mechanic with 13 years experience. I studied at University for 6 years in
between careers.
We live on a
property out in the country with our 2 horses, one dog (Soxy), one cat (Toby)
and 2 birds (Cocky and Teal)"
When I was eight I used to daydream, I played pretend and I
loved to write. I still remember my 8th birthday present and the
feeling of joy it gave me. What was it? A journal, covered in
beige leather, with a writing pad of white satin pages and a black fountain pen that attached to the inside of my elegant and beaming new friend. And this is me, at that age, smiling at the world that I knew…oh, yes, I knew, someday would me mine!
Mariana Llanos
