For corporate coach and children’s author Andrew Daddo, the working day might start with a superannuation conference and end with some good fart jokes.
“One day I might be talking to captains of industry about whatever is floating their boat,” he says.
"Then I might have two hours off and I'll sit down and try and work out what a teacher's face looks like when they are asking a rhetorical question.
"And I'm trying to describe their face so it looks like they're either trying to fart or not to fart.
"Not many people get the chance to do that sort of stuff. It's pretty good fun."
Daddo has published his 25th children's book, Ned, a story about coping with expectations, being your own person and not eating the cheeseburger that was meant for the class time capsule.
Ned's problem is that he has the worst possible Year Five teacher, Ms Lucas, also known as Ms Mucus, a self-described "dragon".
She has a grudge against Ned, has done ever since Year Two when she disqualified him for an illegal breast-stroke kick in the school swimming carnival.
Can a tall Ned and a short Ms Lucas see eye to eye? Or will he continue to end up in the principal's office, disgracing the Jenson family name?
Ned sits alongside Jack (written by Tony Wilson) Michael (Phillip Gwynne) and Sean (Will Kostakis) in the Stuff Happens series, which aims to improve the emotional literacy of boys aged seven to 11.
"It's about empathy and trying to understand that it's OK to feel," Daddo says.
The challenge is to deliver that message without losing boys' attention, which is where humour comes in.
"For kids who want a reason to read, fart jokes aren't a bad thing," Daddo says. "We all deal with difficult things with humour, well most of us, fingers crossed. It's a great tool to have."
Daddo mined his own childhood for Ned, borrowing bits from his Year Four teacher, Mr Fisher.
"He was big, balding, gruff, but gee he was good," Daddo says. "The scary ones are the best ones. It's the teacher who's your best friend on day one, that's the one you watch out for. Because they're going to turn.”
He says teachers, like parents, have to be respected in order to teach children "some pretty heavy life stuff".
"It can't all be Happyland. Because sometimes you've got to tell them what to do."
For Daddo's children Felix, 15, Anouk, 13, and Jasper, 10, there is no TV during the week, no tablets and no PlayStation.
While not opposed to new technology, he hopes a swipe of a finger across glass will never replace the "beautiful, tangible” experience of turning paper pages.
"How do you give a kid a special present of a digital book?" he asks. "How do you physically do it?
"I was given a book called Nobody Listens to Andrew when I was a kid. I've still got it. If I was given that on a USB stick I can guarantee it would not exist."
Daddo wants children to realise the power of their imaginations, and so does Ms Lucas, who challenges her class with open questions.
What is the one thing in the world they cannot live without? What would they do if only they were allowed to?
Daddo - if only he were allowed - would set about fixing the Pacific Highway from Byron Bay to Kempsey.
"I would take to the national embarrassment that is that stretch of highway because it is a disgrace,” he says, launching into an “old man rant”.
When not talking about infrastructure, Daddo sounds happy with life. He has an ABC health show in the works, as well as a young adult novel tackling more serious themes.
“Be open to all experience,” he advises.
Just don’t act on every impulse, especially if it involves the cheeseburger meant for the class time capsule.
The Stuff Happens series is published by Penguin, $9.99.
