Delia Sherman's Blog, page 17
September 11, 2010
New Zealand--Kauri Museum
"We're not aggressive tourists," Ellen said in Warkworth, as we were figuring out the rest of our trip (againagainagain). "We're more interested in being somewhere than seeing lots of sights." Which is both a true word and a good thing, especially on a trip as haphazard as this one has turned out to be.
A final word about Warkworth. If you ever find yourself on your way to the New Zealand Northland, tired, stressed, perhaps, by your first encounter with the wrong side of the road and Auckl...
A final word about Warkworth. If you ever find yourself on your way to the New Zealand Northland, tired, stressed, perhaps, by your first encounter with the wrong side of the road and Auckl...
September 10, 2010
Melbourne WorldCon
This was from September 4, when I was in mid-con. I could go back and change all the tenses and update, but what would be the fun in that? I'd rather write a new post about New Zealand and get back up to date. So, here's a glimpse into the past, written on the second day of the con, when I knew nothing of Cthulu (except what I'd read), lasers, or the Australian Health System.
As always happens when we're at a con, events have overtaken my ability to keep up with them. Also, internet access...
As always happens when we're at a con, events have overtaken my ability to keep up with them. Also, internet access...
Sydney/Melbourne
Sorry this is so late. What with one thing and another, I haven't got around to posting for far too long. Now we're ensconced in a lovely B&B in the Kauri forests of North Island, New Zealand, I can get caught up on many things: sleep, posts, laundry, and my poor, neglected, half-finished story.
First, here is a post I wrote September 3, on the plane from Sydney to Melbourne. It seems like 9 years ago, not 9 days, but I've noticed that time seems to move differently when we're on the ro...
First, here is a post I wrote September 3, on the plane from Sydney to Melbourne. It seems like 9 years ago, not 9 days, but I've noticed that time seems to move differently when we're on the ro...
September 9, 2010
Melbourne/Auckland
The end of the con was a bit of a blur. Literally.
Monday at dinner, I began to notice a giant black squid floating and pulsing in the corner of my vision. The world was covered with floating black soot and my glasses seemed to be unaccountably smeared with unremovable vasoline. Denial immediately kicked in: I'd had two glasses of wine, it was a visual migrane (which I've had before), it would be gone in the morning, I'd be glad I hadn't worried Ellen with it, and we'd go out to the zoo wi...
Monday at dinner, I began to notice a giant black squid floating and pulsing in the corner of my vision. The world was covered with floating black soot and my glasses seemed to be unaccountably smeared with unremovable vasoline. Denial immediately kicked in: I'd had two glasses of wine, it was a visual migrane (which I've had before), it would be gone in the morning, I'd be glad I hadn't worried Ellen with it, and we'd go out to the zoo wi...
Melbourne/Sydney
The end of the con was a bit of a blur. Literally.
Monday at dinner, I began to notice a giant black squid floating and pulsing in the corner of my vision. The world was covered with floating black soot and my glasses seemed to be unaccountably smeared with unremovable vasoline. Denial immediately kicked in: I'd had two glasses of wine, it was a visual migrane (which I've had before), it would be gone in the morning, I'd be glad I hadn't worried Ellen with it, and we'd go out to the zoo wi...
Monday at dinner, I began to notice a giant black squid floating and pulsing in the corner of my vision. The world was covered with floating black soot and my glasses seemed to be unaccountably smeared with unremovable vasoline. Denial immediately kicked in: I'd had two glasses of wine, it was a visual migrane (which I've had before), it would be gone in the morning, I'd be glad I hadn't worried Ellen with it, and we'd go out to the zoo wi...
August 31, 2010
The Blue Mountains
They really are blue.
The color, our hostess informed us,comes from the oil evaporating from the eucalyptus. There are billions of them, tall, graceful, curving trees with long, graceful, curving leaves at the ends of the branches. The effect is lacy, sensuous, oddly formal when the trees are isolated in a meadow, something like the the green sponges I used to cut up to indicate forests on 3-D maps when I was in grade school when viewed in aggregate, at a distance. Only prettier, of course....
The color, our hostess informed us,comes from the oil evaporating from the eucalyptus. There are billions of them, tall, graceful, curving trees with long, graceful, curving leaves at the ends of the branches. The effect is lacy, sensuous, oddly formal when the trees are isolated in a meadow, something like the the green sponges I used to cut up to indicate forests on 3-D maps when I was in grade school when viewed in aggregate, at a distance. Only prettier, of course....
August 28, 2010
Australian Dinner
One of the things I like best about staying somewhere with a kitchen when I'm traveling is the luxury, when I happen upon a farmers market, of buying stuff and cooking it. We'd bought some fresh ravioli a couple of days ago, knowing we'd want to have a dinner at home, and a pack of snap peas, but nothing else. Here were pastures of plenty: new young spinach for salad, apples, fresh quince jam--and a lot of other stuff I didn't get because we're not moving in here, we're just visiting for a...
August 27, 2010
Sydney 2
It's been a full two days. Museums, history, dinners with people we like. Also birds, fruit bats, trees, bushes, and different kinds of grasses in the Botanical Gardens. My dogs (as my Papa used to say when his feet hurt) are barking.
I now know more about Sydney than I used to. I know that the Botany Bay so beloved of broadsheet balladeers was not where the convicts actually landed. That would be Circular Quai or Port Jackson, neither of which is particularly poetic, nor do they rhyme o...
I now know more about Sydney than I used to. I know that the Botany Bay so beloved of broadsheet balladeers was not where the convicts actually landed. That would be Circular Quai or Port Jackson, neither of which is particularly poetic, nor do they rhyme o...
August 25, 2010
Sydney 1
We've been in Sydney a day and a half, more or less. It's perfect sucker spring weather--bright, warm in the sun, clear as a crystal bell, with a few fluffy white clouds on the horizon, just so you don't get bored with a perfect blue sky. We're staying at a friend's flat in Surrey Hills, which represents the best of both worlds. We get to stay in an old and charming part of town, on a street lined with tiny two-story row houses, each with a pressed-ironwork balcony. And we get to look, fr...
August 21, 2010
Aussicon Schedule
Just got my schedule for Melbourne. If you're there at the con between September 3 and September 6, here's where you can find me.
Fri 1300 Rm 211: Foundlings and orphans :
Sat 1500 in 211: Reading (possibly from a new story)
Sat 1600 Rm 201: Signing
Sat 1700 Rm 203: Academic Panel: Fantastic females: reworking feminism in women’s fantasy (chair):
Fri 1300 Rm 211: Foundlings and orphans :
Faye Ringel, Sarah Parker, Delia Sherman, Gillian Polack, Mary Victoria, Mur Lafferty
Sat 1500 in 211: Reading (possibly from a new story)
Sat 1600 Rm 201: Signing
Sat 1700 Rm 203: Academic Panel: Fantastic females: reworking feminism in women’s fantasy (chair):
Delia Sherman (mod)...
