I'm back. Why is it always so much colder in Melbourne than Sydney? Boo to weather. Um, Sydney was very busy and full of pilgrims wanting to see the Pope. We caught a glimpse of him in the Popemobile from the window of the hotel where we were conferencing. Popemobiles go fast : )
Apart from that, I got nothing.
Oh, except, if you love Joss or want to see why millions do go here. Only do it in the next few days before it goes away.
Also, my iPhone does rock. It was very cool to be able to get my email on the fly while I was away!
Showing posts with label trips. Show all posts
Showing posts with label trips. Show all posts
July 18, 2008
May 28, 2008
Guten morgen
Well, Guten tag to my aussie readers and guten whatever is appropriate to anyone else not in Germany.
Where I finally am after a trip that turned into the usual Mel travelling comedy of errors. My connecting flight from Singapore to Frankfurt was cancelled, so the airline put us up in a gorgeous hotel for the night. The Mandarin Oriental. Which is possibly the nicest hotel I've ever stayed at. Beautiful building and wonderful staff. Our flight finally left Singapore around 4pm Singapore time (6pm Aussie) yesterday (Tuesday) and got to Frankfurt at 11.10pm Frankfurt time (er, 7.10 am Wednesday Aussie). So I got to the hotel just after midnight after a very speedy drive on the autobahn (nothing like speeding in the dark in a mercedes taxi at 150kph to wake you up a bit). Sadly I didn't get to see much as it was dark, obviously.
Got to my room only to discover that my case was wet (and no, nothing of mine had leaked) so yay airline. Most of my clothes were quite damp but at least they've mostly dried overnight. Not what you need at the end of a 42-43 hour journey though.
At least with the stopover I'm not too tired, though only slept about five hours last night, plus four on the flight. The hotel here is an old castle apparently, and the suburb is one of the wealthiest areas of Frankfurt. It looks kind of like the sound of music, I'm up on a hill looking down to trees and gorgeous buildings and Frankfurt in the distance. Am going to go out exploring the grounds a bit more later. There will be photos but they'll have to wait until I'm home.
More as there is more to report, the conference starts this afternoon so it's going to be busy.
Where I finally am after a trip that turned into the usual Mel travelling comedy of errors. My connecting flight from Singapore to Frankfurt was cancelled, so the airline put us up in a gorgeous hotel for the night. The Mandarin Oriental. Which is possibly the nicest hotel I've ever stayed at. Beautiful building and wonderful staff. Our flight finally left Singapore around 4pm Singapore time (6pm Aussie) yesterday (Tuesday) and got to Frankfurt at 11.10pm Frankfurt time (er, 7.10 am Wednesday Aussie). So I got to the hotel just after midnight after a very speedy drive on the autobahn (nothing like speeding in the dark in a mercedes taxi at 150kph to wake you up a bit). Sadly I didn't get to see much as it was dark, obviously.
Got to my room only to discover that my case was wet (and no, nothing of mine had leaked) so yay airline. Most of my clothes were quite damp but at least they've mostly dried overnight. Not what you need at the end of a 42-43 hour journey though.
At least with the stopover I'm not too tired, though only slept about five hours last night, plus four on the flight. The hotel here is an old castle apparently, and the suburb is one of the wealthiest areas of Frankfurt. It looks kind of like the sound of music, I'm up on a hill looking down to trees and gorgeous buildings and Frankfurt in the distance. Am going to go out exploring the grounds a bit more later. There will be photos but they'll have to wait until I'm home.
More as there is more to report, the conference starts this afternoon so it's going to be busy.
March 02, 2008
Back from Tassie
Yesterday my toes were here:
With some friends:
Or here's the non-toe view.
Today I'm back. I had a great time and my gorgeous cousin is safely married to her gorgeous boy. It didn't rain so they got their beach wedding, though the wind made for some extra glamourous veil-streaming-in-wind shots. I got a little bit of writing done but not much, so time to get back to work!
With some friends:
Or here's the non-toe view.
Today I'm back. I had a great time and my gorgeous cousin is safely married to her gorgeous boy. It didn't rain so they got their beach wedding, though the wind made for some extra glamourous veil-streaming-in-wind shots. I got a little bit of writing done but not much, so time to get back to work!
July 08, 2007
Two
Less than forty eight hours until I get on the plane.
Had a minor virgo brain induced stress out yesterday but since then have organised most of my stuff (just the good old US dollars to buy tomorrow) and calmed down.
My pitch is still annoying me but I've still got tomorrow and then three days at National to practice. So all is good. I'm trying to avoid taking my giant case but looking at the pile of stuff that is growing on my smaller case, I'm not sure that's possible. I'm not the world's lightest packer. And I'm not sure how you can pack lightly for something that involves several separate evening events, pitching, a full on formal award ceremony and cold hotels indoors and Texas summer outdoors without ending up paying a fortune for hotel laundering. I'll take another run through the pile tomorrow and discard some things hopefully before the final case decision is made.
Today in my continuing efforts at distraction, I had a lovely breakfast with the VT and hubby at the Commoner in Fitzroy (lovely middle eastern influenced breakfast food - highly recommended) then dropped in on other friends to meet their new kitten (who is adorable though at that crazy zap-around-and-change-your-mind-about-what-to-do0-every-five-seconds pounce and bounce kitten stage (and I have cute teeny tiny kitten claw marks to prove it). My two seem practically comatose in comparison. Then I came home, did a bit more pitch wrangling, read the last part of the fabulous Chris's wip and even did some exercise. Go me. Tonight is McDreamy night, so yay. Now if only I convince myself I don't really want a hamburger for dinner.
Tomorrow, I pack for real and then probably freak out. Maybe a movie would be good....
Had a minor virgo brain induced stress out yesterday but since then have organised most of my stuff (just the good old US dollars to buy tomorrow) and calmed down.
My pitch is still annoying me but I've still got tomorrow and then three days at National to practice. So all is good. I'm trying to avoid taking my giant case but looking at the pile of stuff that is growing on my smaller case, I'm not sure that's possible. I'm not the world's lightest packer. And I'm not sure how you can pack lightly for something that involves several separate evening events, pitching, a full on formal award ceremony and cold hotels indoors and Texas summer outdoors without ending up paying a fortune for hotel laundering. I'll take another run through the pile tomorrow and discard some things hopefully before the final case decision is made.
Today in my continuing efforts at distraction, I had a lovely breakfast with the VT and hubby at the Commoner in Fitzroy (lovely middle eastern influenced breakfast food - highly recommended) then dropped in on other friends to meet their new kitten (who is adorable though at that crazy zap-around-and-change-your-mind-about-what-to-do0-every-five-seconds pounce and bounce kitten stage (and I have cute teeny tiny kitten claw marks to prove it). My two seem practically comatose in comparison. Then I came home, did a bit more pitch wrangling, read the last part of the fabulous Chris's wip and even did some exercise. Go me. Tonight is McDreamy night, so yay. Now if only I convince myself I don't really want a hamburger for dinner.
Tomorrow, I pack for real and then probably freak out. Maybe a movie would be good....
July 07, 2007
Decisions, decisions
So I'm starting to pack stuff or at least put stuff in piles to be packed. The most important decision, seeing as I have the GH frock sorted, is what books to take for the plane trip. As I've said before, I read fast, so with 19 hours of flying ahead of me (not counting layover times) I need a few books. I've taking Stray, which I've been saving up but I need some more. I usually take books I've read before. Because I've found on the long haul flights, that reading is really more of a distraction than anything, so I want books I know I can enjoy and that it won't matter too much if I'm a little (or a lot) tired and not really able to concentrate 100%. Movies, attempting to sleep and eating plane food can only take up so much time.
The trip back is fine, RWA is apparently the land of free books plus there's the literacy signing where you can buy books to get them signed, so I'm sure to have some new copies of old faves signed or some new books to try.
So what's your idea of a good plane book? I'm not running out to buy anything new (see above), so what should I take? Recommendations anyone?
The trip back is fine, RWA is apparently the land of free books plus there's the literacy signing where you can buy books to get them signed, so I'm sure to have some new copies of old faves signed or some new books to try.
So what's your idea of a good plane book? I'm not running out to buy anything new (see above), so what should I take? Recommendations anyone?
June 10, 2007
May 25, 2007
Better
Well, something worked overnight, I feel a LOT better today, despite the fact I don't think I slept terribly well. I kept dreaming about people having babies...no idea what thats about but it wasn't me having them, which is good : )
The cold is still there, lurking a little, but I no longer feel like a limp dishrag with a head stuffed full of cotton wool. In fact, I've had quite the productive day. I've finished the draft of my partial revision and sent it off to be looked at by wiser heads. It'll get another polish before it goes off to Miriam in a few weeks. I've even done (ssssshhh) housework and gone for a walk. And the business cards are sorted and ordered.
Soon I'm going to the mall for a poke around Borders to see if anything takes my fancy and to pick up my tickets for Dallas!! Yay. Less than 7 weeks now (counting days? who, me?). Then I'll come back and see whether the wolf might be ready to come out and play.
Happy Friday!
PS Anyone know why blogger isn't emailing my posts to me? Anyone? Bueller? Confusion reigns.
The cold is still there, lurking a little, but I no longer feel like a limp dishrag with a head stuffed full of cotton wool. In fact, I've had quite the productive day. I've finished the draft of my partial revision and sent it off to be looked at by wiser heads. It'll get another polish before it goes off to Miriam in a few weeks. I've even done (ssssshhh) housework and gone for a walk. And the business cards are sorted and ordered.
Soon I'm going to the mall for a poke around Borders to see if anything takes my fancy and to pick up my tickets for Dallas!! Yay. Less than 7 weeks now (counting days? who, me?). Then I'll come back and see whether the wolf might be ready to come out and play.
Happy Friday!
PS Anyone know why blogger isn't emailing my posts to me? Anyone? Bueller? Confusion reigns.
February 19, 2007
Hard work and good news
We're back. Lots of working, lots of talking, lots of eating, not so much sleeping. Your standard confab of writers. Sydney was lovely if humid.
I woke up after not quite enough sleep to find out the Wolf has finalled in the specialized category of the Great Expectations comp : ). Even to make things better the VT has finalled in the YA category!
And the day job has been obliging and agreed to me taking leave to go to RWA national in Dallas in July!! My first US conference - I can't wait. But I refuse to work out how many sleeps to go just yet.
Now all I need to do is some BIAW words...
I woke up after not quite enough sleep to find out the Wolf has finalled in the specialized category of the Great Expectations comp : ). Even to make things better the VT has finalled in the YA category!
And the day job has been obliging and agreed to me taking leave to go to RWA national in Dallas in July!! My first US conference - I can't wait. But I refuse to work out how many sleeps to go just yet.
Now all I need to do is some BIAW words...
February 15, 2007
Sometimes it makes you wonder
I'm working at home today. Because there's meant to be an electrician coming. But apparently maybe now, that won't happen. Sigh.
Why do I need an electrician you ask? Well, because while I was being an environmentally responsible homeowner and putting more low energy bulbs in my lights, one of the fittings broke. Not the outside easy bit but the inside, hold-the-bulb-in bit. So my cost saving measures will cost me about $100 to fix. I suspect, somehow, that the universe is laughing at me.
In other news, Hugh Jackman, Johnny Depp, Nathan Fillion et al failed to show up on my doorstep with buckets of red roses yesterday for Valentine's Day. I'm sure they just got lost : ). Hope y'all out there are celebrating (or did celebrate for us Aussies) with your hottie of choice. For me, that was Hugh Laurie on House.
Off to the annual RWAustralia committee meeting this weekend, so blogging shall be scarce. I'll be carting my Alphie to try and keep the pages ticking over. Have fun!
Why do I need an electrician you ask? Well, because while I was being an environmentally responsible homeowner and putting more low energy bulbs in my lights, one of the fittings broke. Not the outside easy bit but the inside, hold-the-bulb-in bit. So my cost saving measures will cost me about $100 to fix. I suspect, somehow, that the universe is laughing at me.
In other news, Hugh Jackman, Johnny Depp, Nathan Fillion et al failed to show up on my doorstep with buckets of red roses yesterday for Valentine's Day. I'm sure they just got lost : ). Hope y'all out there are celebrating (or did celebrate for us Aussies) with your hottie of choice. For me, that was Hugh Laurie on House.
Off to the annual RWAustralia committee meeting this weekend, so blogging shall be scarce. I'll be carting my Alphie to try and keep the pages ticking over. Have fun!
May 31, 2006
I'm back
Well, mostly back. My stomach still seems to be on NZ time. I keep getting hungry two hours before meals. Hopefully tomorrow I'll be back to normal.
We had a fab time at Kara. Once we got there. Two of the girls had a bit of a flight cancellation drama so, instead of a nice leisurely drive up from Auckland on Friday afternoon, we had a long haul through friday peak hour and the wild NZ rain in the dark Friday evening. Of course, being intrepid romance writers, we made it in the end. Even if we were expecting an orc attack at any moment at one stage. It was that sort of trip. The trip home was much less eventful. Though there were feral chickens. My flight even left slightly early, made up time on the flight and landed early. The other two got stuck again. Obviously they didn't appropriately appease the flight gods or whatever.
Daphne and Robyn (and Keith) were lovely and full of wisdom and insight. Plus they revealed the recipe for a Ruby Tuesday to complement the cowboys that became the evening drink of choice. Plotting works well with added butterscotch schnapps apparently. And pineapple lumps. Though the scales this morning suggested butterscotch schnapps and pineapple lumps do not further one's weight loss goals. Back to the exercise grindstone for me. If I wake up.
The cats were even glad to see me. Mainly, I suspect, because I am keeper of the heater. And it is COLD here. It was warmer in NZ! But there has been lots of smooching and purring and instant occupation of my lap when I sit down so maybe they missed me too. The grey cat seems to be perking up a bit now that we've played with her medication dosage which is good. Only perking up has so far translated to destroying a cushion and strewing the house with shredded foam rubber. Nice. Lucky I have the trusty Dyson.
NZ is very beautiful. This is the first time I've gone beyond surburban conference centres and I'm keen to go back and see more. I'm sure Aragorn is lurking there somewhere : ) If not, there's plenty of breathtaking scenery to discover. Particularly if I go with the girls and have more adventures in navigation.
I even managed to solve the story issue that was stopping me in the wip, so have been editing and seeing where I'd gone slightly askew storywise for the last day. Now it's time to go forward again. I wonder how many pages I can do in five days?
We had a fab time at Kara. Once we got there. Two of the girls had a bit of a flight cancellation drama so, instead of a nice leisurely drive up from Auckland on Friday afternoon, we had a long haul through friday peak hour and the wild NZ rain in the dark Friday evening. Of course, being intrepid romance writers, we made it in the end. Even if we were expecting an orc attack at any moment at one stage. It was that sort of trip. The trip home was much less eventful. Though there were feral chickens. My flight even left slightly early, made up time on the flight and landed early. The other two got stuck again. Obviously they didn't appropriately appease the flight gods or whatever.
Daphne and Robyn (and Keith) were lovely and full of wisdom and insight. Plus they revealed the recipe for a Ruby Tuesday to complement the cowboys that became the evening drink of choice. Plotting works well with added butterscotch schnapps apparently. And pineapple lumps. Though the scales this morning suggested butterscotch schnapps and pineapple lumps do not further one's weight loss goals. Back to the exercise grindstone for me. If I wake up.
The cats were even glad to see me. Mainly, I suspect, because I am keeper of the heater. And it is COLD here. It was warmer in NZ! But there has been lots of smooching and purring and instant occupation of my lap when I sit down so maybe they missed me too. The grey cat seems to be perking up a bit now that we've played with her medication dosage which is good. Only perking up has so far translated to destroying a cushion and strewing the house with shredded foam rubber. Nice. Lucky I have the trusty Dyson.
NZ is very beautiful. This is the first time I've gone beyond surburban conference centres and I'm keen to go back and see more. I'm sure Aragorn is lurking there somewhere : ) If not, there's plenty of breathtaking scenery to discover. Particularly if I go with the girls and have more adventures in navigation.
I even managed to solve the story issue that was stopping me in the wip, so have been editing and seeing where I'd gone slightly askew storywise for the last day. Now it's time to go forward again. I wonder how many pages I can do in five days?
May 19, 2006
The morning report
For some reason I have the Lion King in my head this morning. Hakuna Matata and all that. Who knows why?
Anyway, I am back from taking the grey cat to the vet for yet more siphoning of the liquid gold in her veins so we can see how her various exotic diseases are doing. She is not happy about this and is currently hiding behind the bookcase in the spare room glaring at nothing in particular but saving extra ferocious ones for me if I dare to check on her. She'll be fine in a few hours. Especially now she's had breakfast. Cats don't understand fasting. Lots of WTF? and WHERE THE HELL IS BREAKFAST? looks this morning. Followed by a nice dose of "If you put me in a cage I will yell and tell everyone all about it". Note to the grey cat - everyone has a care factor of not much. Except that dog who thought you were interesting (who was v.cute - a maltilier named Mr Darcy, all white with some faint apricotish-coffee coloured patches from the cavalier side, who apparently lives with his sister Lizzie so nice to see Jane Austen alive and well in the suburbs, even if it is a slightly incestuous take on it).
So anyway, that's my morning. I'm about to do some exercise then write. Goal today is 11 pages. Cos I like 11 that's why.
The rest of the day will be housework, a trip to the shops for a new camera battery and other supplies for my trip to NZ (6 more sleeps, almost there), and unfortunately some day job work. At least it's sunny, if chilly.
Hakuna Matata.
Anyway, I am back from taking the grey cat to the vet for yet more siphoning of the liquid gold in her veins so we can see how her various exotic diseases are doing. She is not happy about this and is currently hiding behind the bookcase in the spare room glaring at nothing in particular but saving extra ferocious ones for me if I dare to check on her. She'll be fine in a few hours. Especially now she's had breakfast. Cats don't understand fasting. Lots of WTF? and WHERE THE HELL IS BREAKFAST? looks this morning. Followed by a nice dose of "If you put me in a cage I will yell and tell everyone all about it". Note to the grey cat - everyone has a care factor of not much. Except that dog who thought you were interesting (who was v.cute - a maltilier named Mr Darcy, all white with some faint apricotish-coffee coloured patches from the cavalier side, who apparently lives with his sister Lizzie so nice to see Jane Austen alive and well in the suburbs, even if it is a slightly incestuous take on it).
So anyway, that's my morning. I'm about to do some exercise then write. Goal today is 11 pages. Cos I like 11 that's why.
The rest of the day will be housework, a trip to the shops for a new camera battery and other supplies for my trip to NZ (6 more sleeps, almost there), and unfortunately some day job work. At least it's sunny, if chilly.
Hakuna Matata.
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