Where did Saturday go?
Aug. 29th, 2010 11:15 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lizbeeNo, I know where it went. SHOPPING. And then socialising.
In the morning -- EARLY IN THE MORNING -- which is to say around the time I'd leave on a weekday -- I trekked into the city to meet up withmyniamh and weaver to scout out fabric and patterns for our Kyoshi Warriors costumes. (Along the way, I bought two new pairs of shoes -- everyday boots and black ballet flats for Ye Upcoming Wedding -- and caught up with an old Borders colleague. I also read the current issue of SFX in Magnation, where they had a really scathing review of the Last Airbender movie. Which was satisfying.)
Anyway, costume browsing was fun, although the kimono pattern we eventually chose will require a lot of adaptation. The costume parts of pattern books are always a bit worrying; I counted one Asian model out of all the books. The lowlight was a white model who had been effectively blacked up with bronzer to model the Exotic Indian Sari costume. WTF, pattern companies? But anyone who's seen a craft fair full of golliwogs, or encountered an Exotic Asian Quilt Pattern in a magazine knows that the crafting community is a bit, shall we say, behind when it comes to things like not being massively racist. (I think this is because it is dominated by middle-aged, middle-class Nice White Ladies who think that talking about race is worse than selling freaking GOLLIWOGS.)
I also discovered a pattern for a Sexy Elizabeth I Costume. I can only assume this is somehow part of an elaborate homage to Kate Beaton.
Eventually, after some trekking between Lincraft and Cleggs, and a break for a pie and burrito (...both me), we sourced greasepaint and went our separate ways. I went off and bought a few more things for the wedding, and then stopped to read my book and rest my wee feet in the Myer Ladies Lounge. (There's a Myer Ladies Lounge, btw.)
Now recovered, I trekked off to meetcalapine, who's here for Worldcon. I was nervous, as I always am, about meeting people from the internet. What if they're strange? What if they have questionable hygiene practices? What if we just don't click? But she was lovely. If you've ever read her LJ and thought, "No one can possibly be as nice and clever and funny as calapine seems, you're right. In real life, she's MUCH nicer and cleverer and funnier. And also Scottish. I mean, I knew in theory that she was Scottish, but it helps to have her around, actually being Scottish.
I had this grand plan to give her a tour of Melbourne via the bookstores, but apparently books are immensely more expensive here than anywhere else in the world. (I have long suspected I was somehow being cheated, AND NOW I KNOW FOR SURE.) We did spend some time in Hill of Content, because its history section contained new biographies of Livia Augusta and Catherine Parr, and two shelves of books about Britain in the Jazz Age. (Which would have come in real handy back in 2005, thanks, universe.)
They also had some very questionable shelving choices, like putting Let The Right One In in the kids section. It was a few shelves away from Mockingjay, which is TAUNTING ME by being out in the world before I've read it. I mean, I have a copy, but I'm trying to save it for the plane trip to Brisbane. (I also plan to load my Kobo up with some ebooks. Has anyone read the Red Riding series by David Peace? It looks interesting, but I've been fooled before, and it would be terrible to be trapped in Queensland with nothing to read. Because it's not like I'll have any kind of wedding preparations to be involved in, no.)
(I may also have plans to load Kobo up with AtLA fanfic. If anyone's interested, this is a really handy site that can grab fic from the Pit of Voles and export it in a couple of formats. Of course, it only works with FF.net, but the formatting is good once you've found fic that doesn't make your eyeballs bleed.)
Afterwards, we wandered across the road and fetched up in Madame Brussels, where we somehow spent the rest of the afternoon. I tried to sellcalapine on Avatar. She mocked me for having insufficient love for monochrome. We debated whether or not cucumber has any place in a rational human's diet. Then I ate the cucumber from her Pimms.
(She has this very charming idea that all Australians are very healthy eaters, and that's why, when you order Pimms here, it comes with a fruit salad submerged in it. So it's a good thing she'll never know I just had red bean and walnut paste cakes for breakfast.)
All of a sudden, it was VERY DARK. Apparently we'd just spent three hours and a hundred dollars in Madame Brussels. (In my case, it would not be the first time.)calapine got a text from a friend, asking if she wanted to come out to dinner. She said yes, invited me, and we wandered over to Crown (*obligatory Melbournian shudder*) and met up with robshearman, mondyboy and Dave Of No LJ. They were all really nice, and it was a pleasure to meet them and debate the relative merits of "The Time Monster" (considerable) and compare cats with robshearman. (I also compared babies with mondyboy, but I think his wins automatically on account of being a son instead of a nephew. WHAT, YOU DIDN'T KNOW IT WAS A COMPETITION?)
Many hours later, they dropped me home, which was especially nice as it was (a) out of the way and (b) 1 am. So I can tell you straight off that I know where most of Sunday morning went, too: sleeping in. But now I've put on a second load of laundry, and I'm about to put the cat on his lead and let him play in the grass while I weed the front garden and do other strenuous and exciting things.
In the morning -- EARLY IN THE MORNING -- which is to say around the time I'd leave on a weekday -- I trekked into the city to meet up with
myniamh and weaver to scout out fabric and patterns for our Kyoshi Warriors costumes. (Along the way, I bought two new pairs of shoes -- everyday boots and black ballet flats for Ye Upcoming Wedding -- and caught up with an old Borders colleague. I also read the current issue of SFX in Magnation, where they had a really scathing review of the Last Airbender movie. Which was satisfying.)Anyway, costume browsing was fun, although the kimono pattern we eventually chose will require a lot of adaptation. The costume parts of pattern books are always a bit worrying; I counted one Asian model out of all the books. The lowlight was a white model who had been effectively blacked up with bronzer to model the Exotic Indian Sari costume. WTF, pattern companies? But anyone who's seen a craft fair full of golliwogs, or encountered an Exotic Asian Quilt Pattern in a magazine knows that the crafting community is a bit, shall we say, behind when it comes to things like not being massively racist. (I think this is because it is dominated by middle-aged, middle-class Nice White Ladies who think that talking about race is worse than selling freaking GOLLIWOGS.)
I also discovered a pattern for a Sexy Elizabeth I Costume. I can only assume this is somehow part of an elaborate homage to Kate Beaton.
Eventually, after some trekking between Lincraft and Cleggs, and a break for a pie and burrito (...both me), we sourced greasepaint and went our separate ways. I went off and bought a few more things for the wedding, and then stopped to read my book and rest my wee feet in the Myer Ladies Lounge. (There's a Myer Ladies Lounge, btw.)
Now recovered, I trekked off to meet
calapine, who's here for Worldcon. I was nervous, as I always am, about meeting people from the internet. What if they're strange? What if they have questionable hygiene practices? What if we just don't click? But she was lovely. If you've ever read her LJ and thought, "No one can possibly be as nice and clever and funny as calapine seems, you're right. In real life, she's MUCH nicer and cleverer and funnier. And also Scottish. I mean, I knew in theory that she was Scottish, but it helps to have her around, actually being Scottish.I had this grand plan to give her a tour of Melbourne via the bookstores, but apparently books are immensely more expensive here than anywhere else in the world. (I have long suspected I was somehow being cheated, AND NOW I KNOW FOR SURE.) We did spend some time in Hill of Content, because its history section contained new biographies of Livia Augusta and Catherine Parr, and two shelves of books about Britain in the Jazz Age. (Which would have come in real handy back in 2005, thanks, universe.)
They also had some very questionable shelving choices, like putting Let The Right One In in the kids section. It was a few shelves away from Mockingjay, which is TAUNTING ME by being out in the world before I've read it. I mean, I have a copy, but I'm trying to save it for the plane trip to Brisbane. (I also plan to load my Kobo up with some ebooks. Has anyone read the Red Riding series by David Peace? It looks interesting, but I've been fooled before, and it would be terrible to be trapped in Queensland with nothing to read. Because it's not like I'll have any kind of wedding preparations to be involved in, no.)
(I may also have plans to load Kobo up with AtLA fanfic. If anyone's interested, this is a really handy site that can grab fic from the Pit of Voles and export it in a couple of formats. Of course, it only works with FF.net, but the formatting is good once you've found fic that doesn't make your eyeballs bleed.)
Afterwards, we wandered across the road and fetched up in Madame Brussels, where we somehow spent the rest of the afternoon. I tried to sell
calapine on Avatar. She mocked me for having insufficient love for monochrome. We debated whether or not cucumber has any place in a rational human's diet. Then I ate the cucumber from her Pimms. (She has this very charming idea that all Australians are very healthy eaters, and that's why, when you order Pimms here, it comes with a fruit salad submerged in it. So it's a good thing she'll never know I just had red bean and walnut paste cakes for breakfast.)
All of a sudden, it was VERY DARK. Apparently we'd just spent three hours and a hundred dollars in Madame Brussels. (In my case, it would not be the first time.)
calapine got a text from a friend, asking if she wanted to come out to dinner. She said yes, invited me, and we wandered over to Crown (*obligatory Melbournian shudder*) and met up with robshearman, mondyboy and Dave Of No LJ. They were all really nice, and it was a pleasure to meet them and debate the relative merits of "The Time Monster" (considerable) and compare cats with robshearman. (I also compared babies with mondyboy, but I think his wins automatically on account of being a son instead of a nephew. WHAT, YOU DIDN'T KNOW IT WAS A COMPETITION?)Many hours later, they dropped me home, which was especially nice as it was (a) out of the way and (b) 1 am. So I can tell you straight off that I know where most of Sunday morning went, too: sleeping in. But now I've put on a second load of laundry, and I'm about to put the cat on his lead and let him play in the grass while I weed the front garden and do other strenuous and exciting things.
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no subject
Date: 2010-08-29 01:25 am (UTC)I'm just hoping that someone's hoping to corrupt those children by putting Let the Right One In in the children's section, in the same way my dad corrupted me by letting me read Stephen King and vampire books at a young age; although there are a lot of people who can't seem to understand the concept of an adult novel with a child protagonist.
no subject
Date: 2010-08-29 01:29 am (UTC)I must arrange something while people are in town.
no subject
Date: 2010-08-29 01:43 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-29 02:00 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-29 02:25 am (UTC)(I had the golliwog argument again when we visited the Tyabb Packing House, which has a room full of old film posters, including a big framed one for Cushing!Who. It also has quite a few golliwogs. "They've come back into fashion!" "THAT DOESN'T MEAN THEY'RE NOT STILL RACIST!")
I was Quite Happy when I realised my own home of Crack and Bad, Twisting the Hellmouth, has the ability to download the whole store in ePub format. I need to promise myself come Christmas that I will not fill a Kobo entirely with bad Buffy/LotR crossovers.
no subject
Date: 2010-08-29 02:54 am (UTC)ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS AND TWO PEOPLE SOUNDS LIKE IT BREAKS THE PERSON TO JUGS MADAME BRUSSELS RATIO.
no subject
Date: 2010-08-29 03:01 am (UTC)And, y'know, several individual glasses.
And I had a sandwich.
*eyedart*
no subject
Date: 2010-08-29 04:06 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-29 04:58 am (UTC)(sigh) She probably wouldn't want to meet me anyway.
no subject
Date: 2010-08-29 12:15 pm (UTC)Eh? Where has Calapine been drinking? They obviously don't know how to make Pimms - a variety of fruit is standard!
no subject
Date: 2010-09-01 03:13 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-09-01 03:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-29 12:38 pm (UTC)I'm not sure whether the Red Riding quartet features similar failed stylistic experiments, but the level of violence (included sex crimes, I assume) should be at least the same. They might require both a strong stomach and switching off one's inner liberal feminist temporarily. Same reading strategy that helps me get through a James Ellroy novel.
no subject
Date: 2010-08-29 01:31 pm (UTC)and compare cats with robshearman.
this amuses me more than i can express.
give calapine a hug for me if you get to see her again. and rob. :D
no subject
Date: 2010-08-30 08:04 pm (UTC)I have no intentions of reading anything by David Peace, but my eye is as ever caught when my rare surname pops up. And Dad was pointing out to me Friday night that our ancestors who immigrated to the US a couple of centuries ago hailed from Yorkshire. I think I should e-mail a link to that page to Dad.
I thank you for that link to the tool that converts ff.net fic to e-reader format -- I have a backlog of fic I saved (or saved the first chapter of) but haven't had time to read, and after rereading a novel-length fic series that had been thoughtfully provided in MOBI format, I wished frequently for the ability to convert long fics to something I can carry around with me and actually get around to reading. I know several of the stories I have marked on my thumb drive are from ff.net -- and since I took a few moments to google on the topic, I turned up some other options for converting to a format my Kindle app should be happy with, that I may try out on some of the other novel-length fics I haven't gotten around to.
no subject
Date: 2010-09-01 03:12 am (UTC)