Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Remembrance of fans past

By some weird coincidence, four old friends were in town the same week.  Leigh Edmonds, Valma Brown, Eric Lindsay and Jean Weber.


We met up for dinner at the New Sydney Hotel, along with Robin & Alicia Johnson and Cary & Marjorie Lenehan.   The years just rolled away and it was like we were at a science-fiction convention in the 1970s.   Well, except for the silver hair, prescription medication and the high-tech computer hardware.


Eric and Jean were on holiday before catching a plane for the Melbourne convention.  Leigh and Valma were in town doing research for a book Leigh is writing.  But the conversation ebbed and flowed, jumping from topic to topic and occasionally harking back to an incident in 1968 or 1975.


It was amazing how we all felt so much at ease, as though the last twenty years hadn't happened and we'd just seen each other a few months ago.


A couple of them asked me if I was likely to attend Aussiecon IV.  


No, I told them, I'd ruin my reputation for being a recluse...

Monday, February 22, 2010

A farewell to poultry

My sister Julie always regards Registered Mail as bad news, and this time round she was right.


"You have seven days to remove the roosters from your property," said the official letter. And by the way, here's a $240 fine for having them in the first place.


This marks a turning point in Julie's life. The last few years, suburbia has grown all around her little farm, and now the full might of the Environmental Health department has come down on her.


What will she do with thirty roosters? Kill them? Release them in the country? Give them away? Sell them?


I don't know.


Stay tuned for more news.