NYWF Daily Wrap-Up - Sunday

Sunday starts late and slow. Newcastle has put on glorious weather for the last day of the festival, but for me it’s just a little too bright to deal with at this stage. Thanks to Daylight Saving we all lost a precious hour of post-ball sleep somewhere in the early hours and my poor QLD brain just can’t cope. 

I soldier on to the Press Room. It might seem a bit odd to blog about blogging, but each day of the festival starts with an hour of typing and eating lollies with other writers and photographers and it’s super nice. So that’s what I’m doing when I learn that the first event I was going to go to was actually moved to earlier and I’ve missed it. I’m disappointed, but also realise this might now be the first day I can go and eat proper breakfast. Which it turns out I can, so I do. One Penny Black provides me with delicious avo on toast and 45 minutes of extra recuperation time.

Alive, awake, alert and enthusiastic, I head to Mustard Chef. It’s a very simple concept - food bloggers make sandwiches while talking about their writing. I tweet that it’s ‘delightful’ and that seems to be the best adjective to describe it. Everyone makes and eats sandwiches from delicious ingredients donated by the Newcastle City Farmers Market and it feels really communal and nice.

I’m running out of time before my flight so I find my friends Alex, Tim and Beth and together we bus it up to the Zine Fair. This year it is at the Hunter Design School, which gives it a significantly less grimy feel than the car park of previous years. This has pros and cons. Pro - airconditioning, Con - less space, Pro - doesn’t smell like a car park, Con - doesn’t feel quite as zine-y? Is that a thing? Anyway I spend the last of my money on zines and prints and am very happy.

I head back to Staple Manor, post my blog, find some people to say goodbye to and then my suitcase and I start making the lonely journey to the taxi rank. I take a detour to fish and chips and am way too chill about the fact I’m running late for check in. I make it with 2 minutes to spare and I’m not even stressed, just filled with a glorious feeling of buzzing happiness. 

For those who don’t know, I live in regional Queensland, so after a short flight, I have a 3 hour drive home. Luckily, my partner does the driving so I’m free to gaze out the window and reflect/ drool a little. After hour 2, I drift in and out of sleep and I dream that I’m still in Newcastle. I walk up and down Hunter Street, smiling at people that I met at the festival. It’s a nice dream, and when I wake up, we are nearly home. 

In my last moments before bed, I scroll through the #NYWF14 tag on twitter. I catch up on what I’m missing, and stare at tweets longingly, as if I can will myself into the Dystopian Late Night readings just by sheer force of wanting. But of course, I can’t, and while I’m sad I had to leave early, I feel so connected to all these people. 

My last thought before bed is that, for me at least, this was the best National Young Writers’ Festival yet and that I can’t wait to see what next year has in store.

Farewell NYWF you beautiful, sexy beast. I’ll miss you, but I’ll see you again very soon.

This is my final daily wrap up from the National Young Writers' Festival, you can read them here or at www.youngwritersfestival.org where you'll also find a tonne of other cool content.