Sorry, it has been a bit of a while hasn't it? And I never wanted to be the sort of person who starts blogs with 'gosh, I've really let the blog go recently...' But there it is.
There has been plenty of CATE activity on my part; it's for that very reason, in fact, that I've struggled to actually keep the site updated. For one thing I've been writing the CATE book, which is going to come out in April (in Australia) and June (in this country). This has meant, among other things, ploughing through the archives of all the blogs people have done and the many bits and pieces of CATE material that's cropped up here and there. Quite soon I will start emailing people asking if I can use or that quote, photo, etc. Anyway. It has to be finished by Christmas and you'll know if you have been anywhere a shop or TV recently, Christmas is coming surprisingly quickly. (The most depressing Yuletide thing I've seen so far is the cover of 'Glamour' magazine: 'HOW TO MAKE IT LOOK LIKE YOU'VE SPLURGED WHEN YOU HAVEN'T!' It's hard to see how they could get much further from the innocent traditional joy of present-giving without running a cover with a line drawing of Tiny Tim being kicked in the face.)
At the same time, I am starting to use my Al Gore education to prepare a sort-of-comedy version of his world-famous lecture tour, which I'll be performing in Australia next year while I'm over there for the festivals, and then in Britain next summer. This is all assuming I'm able to come up with something that isn't rubbish. I may just have to do the lecture straight, in a Southern States drawl - it's worked pretty well for Al.
This coming week I'm doing a talk on the environment/comedy show at my sisters' school to promote their Young Enterprise scheme, which involves the promotion and sale of good old canvas bags. (Thanks to everyone who suggested slogans for the bags; I'll be posting some photos shortly.) I'm not entirely sure how I am going to approach this, but it will be the first time I've properly tried to fuse environmental talk and laughter. My mission for the next twelve months is to become good at this so that I can get a large number of people interested in CATEry.
In the meantime, the CATEWalk is going slowly but surely on. This, if you've just tuned in, is a scheme where we're trying to all make journeys on foot that would otherwise have been taken by car, with the eventual aim of collecting enough non-carbon-producing miles to offset the trip I took to Australia to do the Al Gore course. So far, according to people's posts, we have walked a princely 127 miles. Not a bad achievement, although some way short of the 21,124 needed to complete this immense undertaking. I am going to throw the challenge open to everyone I meet and to my audiences on tour next year. I will not be beaten on this.
The same goes for the CATE Celeb Challenge. The letter's still not been printed in any of the newspapers but I am emailing famous people like nobody's business. More news soon.
If you've walked anywhere or done anything, please do keep posting here on the site. Sometimes the site may go quiet when I'm trying to live the rest of my life but it is never abandoned, and it will always come back stronger. Like God. I think.