Bologna Oh Bologna Notes #1

Bologna Oh Bologna Notes #1

If you hear the word Bologna, what is the first thing that comes to your mind?

When I asked my daughter, who likes eating more than I do, the first thing that came to her mind was Spaghetti Bolognese. The Bolognese sauce, known in Italian as ragù alla bolognese, is a meat-based sauce originating from Bologna, Italy.

As for myself, a children book author, the first thing that came to my mind was, of course, the Bologna Children Book Fair, the most prestigious children book fair that takes place in March every year. Ever since I started writing 11 years ago, it has always been my wish to go there one day.

And thus, a month ago, when I got an email from Mbak Yanti, my editor that said:

Dear Arleen,

We submitted your name as one of the speakers for Bologna Book Fair and your name has been approved.

The slot is 31 March 10:00-11:00

Are you willing to go? Ticket and accommodation will be provided. Details later.

Please respond ASAP.

I had to pinch myself and had to read the email three times just to make sure that I wasn’t dreaming and that she was really talking about THE Bologna Children Bookfair, and not asking whether I wanted to join her for lunch with spaghetti bolognese as the menu (because her birthday was coming soon :)).

My heart, of course, leaped.

But I couldn’t say yes right away.

You see, I’m just not the travelling type. I’m the type of person who love my routines. I want my freshly squeezed juice (and I’m sure it’s not that easy to find papaya in Bologna and the hotel most likely wouldn’t want to lend me their juicer), I want my homemade soy bean milk and my steamed egg (3 white eggs without the yolk and just a dash of Maggie soy sauce). But most of all, I’m just not used to being away from my kids for more than one day (the trip will take about a week). And yes, there is my office work, as well, but I think I still can make myself stay away from my colleague for a few days. They are not as cute as my kids, anyway.

So I asked for a few days to think about this. The excuse that I gave was March is a very busy month for a finance person like me and thus, I may not have enough time to prepare the necessary presentation material in time, especially because we don’t have a topic yet (they suggested a topic but it was not approved).

Will write again tomorrow to tell you about my decision. Can you guess what it would be? I’m sure 99% of you would guess correctly :).

Arleen