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[NY Day 12] Catching up
Late checkout arranged. New suitcase bought. One Rueben on rye consumed (the Rueben weighed almost as much as the suitcase). Time for a brief pause as the sounds of New York assert themselves through the open window. Should probably catch up on the blogging. This is it, the last day in NYC. It’s been an amazing trip, seeing iconic landmarks, standing where the awesome and inspirational stood, often while people walked past, perhaps not knowing the esoteric history of the spot, possibly knowing and not caring, or possibly just quietly satisfied that their daily life takes them through such places. A lot of songs have been going through my head…
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[NY Day 9] Supplemental
Feel free to skip this one, it’s just a few random snippets for me to look back on maybe later. My ribs hurt. At first I thought it was because of my internal organs expanding to fit all of the food, but then I remembered the morning I woke up from a coughing fit, that seems more likely. Still coughing a bit, but no longer coughing up stomach acid or bile. Must do a bit of walking when I get back: feeling somewhat bloaty. Also need to get more ginger pills, and maybe eat some more vegetables, and something dairy other than whatever I’ve been putting in coffee. Could also…
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[NY Day 9ish] World Fantasy Convention part final
This is brought to you by a grant from the Western Australian Government Department of Culture and the Arts. This isn’t quite a convention wrap-up, but I am writing this as the train speeds south to New York City along the Hudson River, with Saratoga Springs behind me. But I’ll do a proper wrap up later. I’ll start by saying how chuffed I am that pal and Aussie Angela Slatter won a World Fantasy Award for her collection Bitterwood Bible. It was a strong field of 5 fabulous works this year, and it’s great that she came away with a trophy. I’d say that the dealer room is the elephant…
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[NY Day 7ish] World Fantasy Convention part 2
WFC Day 3 Brought to you by a travel grant from the Western Australian Department of Culture and the Arts. There’s no hiding from it: the dealer room this year is quiet. Too quiet. The talk around the room is that it’s among the quietest ever. It’s not that people aren’t buying, more that people just aren’t coming into the room to browse. I’m told that this con has full attendance, so around 1,000, but I’v seen busier rooms at cons of 200. The crazy part of the low sales is that, comparatively, we’re doing okay. We’ve sold out of a couple of titles that started with 6 or so…
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[NY Day 4] World Fantasy Convention part 1
Day 1 of the World Fantasy Convention, brought to you by a grant from the Western Australian Department of Culture and the Arts. Itwould be fair to say that I was alittle slow this morning. Late night + alcohol + early morning = not the best start. It toof a full breakfast, with extra bacon and a very deep bottomless coffee to bring me to some semblance of life. Day 1 of the convention was a little slow in trading, but was marked by higher value sales. We sold almost all of the limited edition hardcovers I packed, making me wish I’d paced a few more. Sales of the standard…
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[NY Day 3] Heading upstate
Today’s the heading out of NYC to Saratoga Springs Day. Go north young man and all that. I didn’t necessarily feel so young dragging all my suitcases across the road to Penn Station, and through the crowds to where I had to board. When it comes to finding and boarding cross country trains, I think the UK does it better: their stations are better sign posted, and platforms are more easily found. I managed to walk past the right queue while I was looking for where I had to go, because a random queue next to an escalator going down doesn’t immediately say “this is where I board the train”…
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[NYC Day 2] Downtown, the Village, On Broadway
I’m writing days 1 and 2 out of order because, basically, day 1 got a chunk written off in a migraine (then again, given I crossed about 13 time zones, it was a pretty long day). Dragged myself out of my migraine stupour and headed west in search of breakfast. I succeeded in the form of a ye olde style diner, with endless coffee refills and a menu out of what I imagine is the 1950s. This place perfectly fit the bill for my wants: coffee, no frills, and a solid plate of food (I skipped dinner last night). Went for the eggs, beef and hash or something: a couple…
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[NYC Day 0] Leaving Perth
Weird to think that I’m on my way to New York City. Boarding is not for a while, I got through security etc in very little time so I’ve got a moment to chill in the Qantas lounge. The place could use an extra power point or two, but the air con is good and the peach iced tea is drinkable. It’s probably a good thing I’m on my own this trip as there’s no real champagne in the place for L. I’ll be happier when they finish all the work around Perth airport. The drop off bays are really badly signposted, the roadworks make it way too interesting, and…
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@home, 2015 | new york new york, new york city, north america, preparation, saratoga springs, transit, usa
[NY Day -5] A new trip beckons
It’s been a while, and there are a few posts missing. And somewhere an update crunched the template I liked so there may be some further changes to how it looks around here. But enough of the boring stuff, a new trip is on the horizon! Next Sunday I’ll hop into a big ol jet airliner that will take me to JFK in NYC. As Michelle Shocked said, “New York City, imagine that”. It’ll be a whirlwind 13 day trip taking in the sights and sounds of both New York City and Saratoga Springs, NY. I’ll share some more stuff later, once the packing starts. <insert a message from my…
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Visions of China: Blurred Visions of China
Monday morning is hereby cancelled by order of hangover. We struggled down to the restaurant for lunch, thought a laksa might bring me to life but hotel version not the greatest. Back upstairs for a nap and a massage: I got the wonderful gentle one, L got tortured. Boarded a metro train to the next stop, a weird busy mix of shopping and food. We headed for a hot pot restaurant, a place where everyone sits around big pots of boiling soup, plonking skewer after skewer in, eating lots and lots. Chicken, pork, vegetables, tripe, tofu, eggs, pigs blood, sheep brains. The 10 of us had two pots, one full…
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Visions of China: Wedding Impressions
Rose early for the big fat Chinese wedding. The plan was for the boys to be on the road to the bride’s house by 9, but some things are cross cultural: when the bride’s hair and make-up isn’t ready, everyone waits. The cars for the groom’s party arrived and we piled in, briefed for our roles but still not prepared for all that comes with a wedding. We knewthat we’d be trailed by a camera crew, but didn’t realise they’d be driving alongside the entourage, hanging out of windows and sun roof, filming as we weaved through the traffic. Arriving at the bride’s house, no one told us we’d be…
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Visions of China: Second impressions
I think it was the Pabst that gave me the crappy head, as I only had three very small measures of baijo. The hotel breakfast took most of this away, with all the staples plus some chicken noodle broth and some loal cardamom-flavoured doughnuts. The breakfast buffet does offer a wide selection, including broccolli/cauliflower, taro cakes, pumpkin balls, black rice congee (it’s purple), spring rolls, cold meats and cheeses, all sorts really. And tepid coffee. While I haven’t ventured to try a local coffee around the town, the hotel coffee is about the worst I’ve tasted, worse than anything the English have ever served me. Then a bunch of the…
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Visions of China: Wuhan first impressions
China is a magnificent, ancient, land of culture. I am, if nothing else, maybe slightly above the average base grade western barbarian tourist. I don’t speak the local lingo, save for a handful of words (thank you, hello, pork dumplings, fire water/Chinese ‘Whisky’) and can read nothing in Chinese script. So I’m obviously prepared. The good news is that L and I are going to Wuhan, one of the older and more civilised Chinese cities, proudly promoting a long history of Chinese defiance (gave the Japanese as good as they got, and were a KMT stronghold for a number of years). It’s also not really a tourist town and boasts…
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Visions of China: prelude
This trip takes L and I behind the great firewall of China, and then across the alleged land of the free, the USA. Kind of in Nixon’s footsteps, so to speak, especially given the final stop of my itinerary is the World Fantasy Convention in Washington D.C., and I figure if anyone had world fantasies in D.C., ol’ Dickie Milhous fits the bill. I’ll update more tonight or tomorrow of the adventures the last 3 days have presented, from dodgy taxi drivers to happy hello children to purple washing machines and ballerinas in plastic spheres. But suffice to say L and I are both well, though doing it rough —…
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British Isles tour 2014, Day 0
Qantas lounge, Perth Airport. Next stop, London, to start the Ticonderoga takes on the British Isles tour. First stop is Loncon 3, the World Science Fiction Convention, where we’ll wheel and deal. Then it’s a few days down time in Plymouth with L’s aunt, before Dublin and Shamrokon to wheel and deal some more. L is already on the road, France, Belgium. We’ll meet up in London on Thursday. Aside from the wheeling and dealing and glamorous and sexy world of small press publishing, I’m aiming to tick off the following: see the Thames Barrier in action (Wednesday 13 August is the monthly maintenance where they do this) drink a…
