Autumn in Australia

Well, it's been nearly three weeks here in Melbourne, and I think I'm starting to feel at home in the big city and at Five Mile Press.

Getting up at 6.30 in the morning is a real struggle for me, considering I would be fast asleep at that time in England. I have been getting trains, trams, buses and lifts to and from work, which take about an hour and a half each way. I normally get home at between 6.30 and 7pm in the evening, when it's dark.

Everyone thinks Australia is always sunny, but it's not. It's autumn here at the moment, and can get pretty cold in the mornings and nights. It gets dark at about 5.30, but to be honest, I love walking round the city at night, with it's bright and colourfull lights, and full of life and energy.

In the last two weeks, I have seen and done a lot at FMP. I have been taken out to lunch by my new design team, taken for a Yum Cha with the company to say "sorry your leaving" to a member of the editorial staff, who will be starting up freelance. One of my design colleagues turned up the other day with a sprained ankle after playing netball, and we had muffins today, just to say "thanks for your hard work". I hope your reading this Michael, you never know what joy, muffins can bring for your valuable team!!!

We have been very busy the last week or so with the US bookfair, so I have been printing numerous titles out, and even did my first dummy today. FMP and Autumn seem to work very similar so far, but slightly different in the mock-up department. They don't' have a huge laminator or even a gummy machine, everything is done with double sided sticky tape. They don't always mock-up on dummies either, they make them up without. Brilliant cost savings on couriers and materials! That would be my number one tip so far. I will try and come up with another one at my next blog. Here's a sweet koalato look at, from Healesville Sanctuary. Ta ta for now.

Slide show: Autumn in Australia