Gosh where did the time go

 Some of you may have noticed I fell silent for a few days. Um. That is because things then got busy! 

Oh dear, scanning my phone to remind me of everything isn't working too good.. I might need to scan the programme too! As far as I can work out, that was the day that after the Connie Willis panel I spa'd for a bit and then laid down on my bed and chatted to nancy and accidentally fell asleep and missed the Connie Willis and Neil Gaiman panel! Eeeeek! Ah well, these things happen. Was this the night I went to Trellis's and had lobster?it was ok. It was seared and served I. Two halves with Mexican condiments and yeah. It was ok. I also ate the creme brûlée,and had two long island iced teas, so it was a good start I was with Ferret and Zoethe and Yani and his partner, and I also chatted with Allison Goodman and her husband for a bit too.

Then I checked out the room parties. I was so stuffed from dinner, but the con suite meal had been fish tacos, and people had INSISTED I try them, and Katie helped me put a standard fish tacos together,so I did get for try one, even though my stomach was already groaning! It wasn't all that exciting tbh, I think the very full tummy combined with me being two or three hours after peak time made it a. It less exciting than usual. I didn't finish it, even though there was chipotle sauce on it. :) 

So... The parties. The SFWA party was on, but I didn't know anyone and every one was already earnestly talking to each other, so I moved on to the British party but they still seemed to be setting up and were about as friendly as the SFWA party but then... Then... The Edge party fucking Rocked. Not only did they have massive amounts of apple pie, but they were also doing champagne and chambers cocktails, which gave me a happy glow and I randomly chatted to a woman who writes epic fantasy and had just finished a series for someone and then saw the big throwing out of the creepy guy by security and then I found Anastasia and she and Rachel had limoncello so we played Smooth with that, but I gotta tell ya, it doesn't work so well with a sweet alcohol like limoncello. 

Part  2 of this post coming in a sec due to iPad weirdess :)

I apologize for my posts.. The iPad is not my favourite device right now!

 So... Champagne and CHAMBORD cocktails, not whatever the iPad turned it into. So, I talked to random peeps, found some friends to start the real party with, started the game of Smooth, and then the limoncello was almost gone, and someone told me the booze from the Canadian party or something had been donated here, and to go and get a bottle of it so we could keep playing. So I went to the bar but the woman didn't want to give me a whole bottle of anything, and she didn't know who Anastasia was, so isaid that ok, I'll just have a spiced rum and cola and went back. 

People came to see Anastasia and heard about our alcohol problem so took me back and we grabbed the last of the spiced rum, and a nearly full bottle of triple distilled vodka. Yay! Some real drinking could begin! So we started playing never ever....

We even managed to collect more people! Corby came back at some random point, and Colleen and Len joined our party. We stayed drinking and in theory playing never ever  until Rachel and Anastasia went home, then we retired to Len's room to keep drinking and talking. Corby left at four so I guess it was a very very late night!

So the next day was the banquet. I got two hours sleep the night before, so I managed to shower and throw on my awesome dress and some makeup, and we headed down. I felt kinda seedy and sick LOL and struggled through the tri-tip dinner and blah salad. The dessert was very rice chocolate ganache and that was nice but on my tummy that morning... It was hard work. So I ended up escaping before desse had even finished being served to every one in the hall, and padded out for two hours.

I missed Alisa getting her award, for which I am dreadfully sad, but she has heaps of friends there cheering for her. I am so very pleased for her. She works bloody hard at Twelfth Planet Press, and I am glad she is getting international recognition for what she does, and the awesome autors she e works with. Ok, iPad is going weird again, I guess there will be a  part three of this post...

Part three. Read these in the other order!

 So. I slept, missed important stuff, got up and then drifted around the dead dog party and had a spa with two gorgeous young men. They were just delicious hee! But they were also twenty two and so young hahahahahaha so anyway drifted to the con suite and ended up going out to dinner with a whole bunch of people, Grace, Miriam, Gini, Brandie,... There were nine of us I think and we had a brilliant dinner at a place called Pam Pam'swhich tbh was a bit of a dive. It the company more than made up for it. I got to have chicken fried steak! I have photos. It was ok. 

We had such a ball we're going to do an anthology together. Dear gods LOL this should be highly amusing. I need to get a first draft to her by the end of November.... Hahahahahahaha I'll just tack it into my nano schedule.

Then we came back to the par and hung out and had some great chats with Kim, who is from Toronto and part of the Toronto team. She tried to talk me into doing to Toronto and made me promise to write her. Um, GOING to Toronto not DOING Toronto, :) dead dog parties a great. :) so the I drifted about a bit more and then showered and bed! 

Nancy checked out the next morning, and I went to the zoo! When Anastasia heard that I was thinking about going to the zoo she pulled out a free pass and made me promise to go, so I did. It was pretty awesome! She saved me $40 which I think promptly spent on a one hour private-ish tour,where the driver went wherever we wanted and was really lovely. He was also the second person to suggest I should go to Hillcrest, and that there was just 'something aout me' that meant he could tell I would like it. Hillcrest is the goth/alternative area that Anastasia was hoping to get to on Saturday night but it hadn't worked out so we got drunk instead... I think we got the better end of the deal. :) 

So the zoo was pret awesome, and the tour I picked was also pretty awesome, and the family with us too some pics for me, so there is now actual proof I went somewhere!most of the photos of me are ones I took myself. Ok, looks like we're heading up to part four of this post. Wow, it had been a busy time!

Part four of the Never Ending Post

 Where was I... At the zoo. I went in the cable cars, saw eagles, saw their camp critter show, which had an owl, a sea lion, a dog, a porcupine, and they had a good patter so I learnt things. I had a pecan apple cinnamon muffin with coffee for breakfast, checked out the outback section, saw koalas and a wallaby and the had BBQ ribby things at the Sydney cafe. Meh. The I got lost a lot and saw lots of greenery on the escalators and wandered helplessly... Lol may I recommend next time for any one going to buy a ticket for the hop on hop off bus? Would have made things much easier lol. 

Came home and swam and spa'd which was lovely, and then got really dressed up cos it was Halloween and I was determined to do dinner and dance in Hillcrest. Except... We found a really good Italian resturaunt, and after the class of verminer wine, the huge bowl off fritto misto, gamborini back squid ink pasta and red schnapper with olives, capers, tomato sauce and free tiramisu and coffee... There was no chance of going anywhere else, and Carol was already exhausted. So no dancing for me, though we did see lots of people in costume. We enjoyed the meal but the only thing we finished was the tiramisu! We did enjoy the food. Us it was very rich and huge and we knew we had dessert coming.

So we went him, finished the packing we could, and attempted to sleep. I didn't have much luck with that, I kept thinking of lovely things and how much I was ready to come home and hug my family. I wondered if the coffee truly had been decaf, but there's not much point arguing abut it hours after I have left the resturaunt :) 

We got to the airport today and they couldn't find our booking! Anyway, that all got sorted pretty quick and iit's the first day of nano in Australia, and here I am writing. Mega four part blog post.band you know what? Fuckkit, I am going to add these posts into my word count dammit. 

:)

Love to every one, can't wait for the next thirty hurs to be over with. See you all from NZ now!