At SMOFcon the AussieCon 4 folks expected hotel bookings to be open on January 15th – that’s this weekend. I have just spotted this on the A4 Travel LiveJournal. Apparently there’s some delay and the new ETA is between now and the end of Feb..
For those of you about to start on a rant, this is what happens when a convention has multiple hotels and the attendees expect a full-feature room booking service that holds their hands throughout the process.
Thinking of traveling to Melbourne for Worldcon next year? If so, check out the new LiveJournal Community created by the Aussiecon 4 folks to allow members to share travel tips.
Next year Australia is hosting Worldcon. Of course it also needs to hold a national convention where it can give out the Ditmar Awards. Different countries have different approaches to this.
– The Americans don’t bother to hold a natcon when Worldcon is in the USA, or when it is in Canada.
– The British won’t be moved from the Easter date for their natcon so they hold it anyway and everyone complains about how much work this is and how poorly attended it will be.
– The Canadians generally elect the Worldcon to be their natcon as well.
– And the Australians hold a natcon separate from but coincident with the Worldcon – hence Dudcon III.
Why do the Aussies do this? Well one very good reason is to raise money to support the Ditmars. If you can charge membership for the natcon and all you have to do is hold the award ceremony and a party then you can raise a fair chunk of cash. Why would anyone be so daft as to pay good money to be a member of such a dud of a convention? Well, because they want to support Australian fandom, perhaps because they want to vote in the Ditmars, and perhaps because the idea of a membership category called “Protector of Kittens” is too cute to resist.
Alternatively people might have a hankering to be GoH at a convention. The Aussies are putting both their local and international GoH slots up for auction.
Further information, including how you can get to be a GoH, help protect kittens, or even design your own custom membership category, can be found on the Dudcon III web site.
Thankfully I don’t get a lot of loony right wing spam, and when I do it is mostly not worth bothering with because it is American in origin and therefore follows the same tired tracks of blaming the international conspiracy of godless Communists, gays, feminists and latterly scientists for all of the evil in the world. Today, however, I got spam from Australia, and the Aussies, bless them, still believe that there can be no greater danger to the world than the awful British. (Well, we did beat them at cricket this year, you know.)
Right wing loony spam arriving at this time is almost inevitably about the great “hoax” of climate change, and how it is going to be used to deprive people of their natural human right to drive big cars anywhere for free. The Australians, however, have uncovered a much greater plot. Those dastardly Brits have plans to massacre 5 billion people, and establish a world government! Yes, really, we do.
How do they come to this conclusion? Well apparently the UK government is merely a front of this organization. And of course all forms of birth control are actually murder. The world government thing is a little more obscure, but it appears to be because Gordon wants some form of international agreement on carbon emissions, and any international agreement is “world government”.
So now you know. Don’t have anything to do with those dastardly British, particularly that David Attenborough fellow who is apparently one of the brains behind all this evil. They are all wannabe Fascist dictators thirsting to set new records in genocide.
Kevin and I are both very tired this morning. We have no idea why. However, breakfast and caffeine should fix that. In the meantime, in the great hobbit tradition of Second Breakfast, I offer up a big plate of link salad.
I see from this morning’s blog reading that Jay Lake has booked up to do the Grand Tour of Down Under next year. That means he will be attending Au Contraire in Wellington the weekend before AussieCon 4. This is a great opportunity for writers to get to see New Zealand as well as Australia, and do something good for fans in New Zealand along the way. And, of course, in Wellington you can get to see Weta, Rivendell and the Colossal Squid as well. I’ve no booked my flights yet, but I am planning to be there. See my New Zealand video diary and photos from this year for more background.
Heads up, America, the world’s best chocolate biscuit is now available at a grocery store near you!
Yes folks, Pepperidge Farm has done a deal to import Tim Tams from Australia. (And I do mean import – it says “Product of Australia” on the wrapper, which I don’t think it would say if they were made locally.) Our local Safeway has both the standard and caramel flavors. Apparently they did a trial last winter, but the biscuits were exclusive to Target. According to this report, this winter the standard and caramel flavors will be available widely and Target will have an exclusive on the dark chocolate variety.
Stock up while you can, people. They will only be available through March.
By the way, this report suggests that there are differences between the US and Australian versions. That’s by no means impossible – Arnott may have had to change the recipe to comply with US food laws, or Pepperidge management’s ideas of what Americans like. I’m not sure I have any actual Australian-bought Tim Tams, but I do have a packer of the “Arnott’s Original” variety that World Market has been importing for some time. I will do a tasting and report back.
So, there we were, down to the wire at last. Only two teams left: the highly fancied New South Wales Blues, and the rank outsiders from Trinidad & Tobago. Would it be yet another tale of Australian dominance, or a Caribbean carnival?
T&T got off to the best possible start by wining the toss and electing to field. They have chased targets very well in previous games, including their win against NSW earlier in the tournament. They also bowled very well. At one point NSW were 83-6 and looking very shaky indeed. It needed a big match player to step up, and fortunately for the Sydney team they had one. Brett Lee played the innings of his life, scoring 48 to help his side to a final total of 159.
Even then T&T looked favorites. They had chased more than that against NSW before. They had chased more than that against the Cobras last night. All they had to do was keep their cool.
Of course NSW do have close to a full Australian test attack. They have Stuart Clark, Nathan Hauritz, and above all Brett Lee, who has been the standout bowler in the tournament. Lee took 2-10 in his opening two overs, which were actually amongst his worst figures so far.
Fortunately for T&T, no bowler is allowed more than 4 overs in a game, and with Lee rested they set about rebuilding. They kept up with the rate reasonably well, but continued to lose wickets. That brought in their main strike batsman, Kieron Pollard, who immediately set about the bowling. Before long T&T were ahead on run rate and and starting to look good for the win.
And then, disaster. Pollard slightly mistimed a shot off Haurtiz, and who should be there on the boundary to pocket the catch but Brett Lee. From then on T&T were done for, and Stuart Clark masterfully cleaned up the tail to register a 41 run win.
So it is business as usual for cricket: the Australians are World Champions again. But the T&T team should not be disappointed. They performed well above expectations and go home well rewarded. Pollard got a check for $25,000 for hitting the most 6s (home runs) in the tournament, and the team as a whole won $1.3m. That will go a long way in a small island economy. It is great to see Caribbean cricketers strutting their stuff on the world stage again.
As for the tournament, it was a great success. Aside from the rather dodgy Delhi pitch, everything went according to plan. Lalit Modi was beaming with happiness at the presentation ceremony. He said he wants this tournament to rival that other Champions’ League – the one run by UEFA for some silly sport played with the feet. Given the entertainment value that the past two weeks have provided, I think he has a good chance.
And finally, a word about the man of the moment. Everyone knew that Brett Lee is one of the finest bowlers in the world. It was his absence through injury that meant that Australia lost the Ashes in England this summer. When he was fit again the Aussies destroyed England in the one-day series. Today Lee starred with the ball, but was even more of a hero with the bat. He was also named Man of the Series.
He’s a genuinely multi-talented guy. He’s well aware that the career of a professional sportsman is short and has other strings to his bow. He has his own rock band. He has starred in a Bollywood movie. And he has co-written a series of novels for young boys. Naturally they are about cricket, but they are also time travel stories. So Lee is a bona fide science fiction writer.
There will doubtless be a lot of singing in the NSW dressing room tonight, and possibly a few beers drunk as well. To help them out, through the magic of YouTube, here are Brett Lee’s Six and Out rocking along to “Cyclone Sally”.
When she is a female Intersex or Transsexual person and lives in Australia, apparently.
I got this story via Kate Bornstein on Twitter. It sounds too crazy to be true. (Kate had doubts at first as well.) But I have been checking it out and it looks real. Here’s the story.
A common issue for both some Intersex people and male-to-female Transsexuals is suppression of male hormones. For Intersex people who identify as female this can help avoid the masculinizing effects that their unusual biology forces upon them. So someone like Caster Semenya, who has grown up female and identifies as such, may take pills to stop the excess of male hormones in her body making her look too much like a bloke.
For male-to-female Transsexuals such therapies are very important in the crucial period between being accepted for treatment and surgery. Most countries require MtFs to live as women for a few years to show that they can cope in their new gender role before allowing them to undergo surgery. That task is much more difficult for them if their bodies are still pumping out male hormones unchecked. Just think facial hair. Most FtMs can stop taking these treatments after a few years, but some, either through choice or because of medical conditions, are unable to have surgery.
A commonly used drug for these purposes is Androcur (the trade name of cyproterone acetate). It is even, as this site notes, prescribed to people who are raised female with no obvious intersex condition but who develop a problem with facial hair.
But not in Australia. Because in Australia, under this regulation, you can only be prescribed Androcur if you have prostate cancer or if you are a male sex offender who is being treated to reduce your sex drive.
As a result, doctors treating Intersex people and MtF Transsexuals in Australia — in the absence of a cancer diagnosis — have to register them as “sexual deviants” who are receiving treatment for dangerous behavior. Understandably some people in Australia are not too happy about this.
As I said earlier, this is so bizarre than both Kate and I were initially skeptical. However, I have since found this report by the Australian Human Rights Commission which clearly states:
the health system is not inclusive of people who are sex and gender diverse. Several responses mentioned that in order to receive specific hormone treatment a person must be labeled a sexual deviant.
I’m currently trying to find out exactly what the consequences are of this labeling, and whether the patients are necessarily aware of being so labeled. The explanation that I currently have suggests that the records in question are kept by a body called the Therapeutic Goods Administration, and they may go no further than that, but on the other hand they could be searchable by potential employers. I’m also interested in when the regulations came into effect. The information I have so far suggests 1995 or 1996.
If anyone in Australia has more information on this I’d be delighted to hear from them.
Update: More information here from Caitlin Ate who is a prominent Australian blogger and therefore hopefully won’t get accused of being anti-Australian for discussing the issue.
Update 2: More information on this comes from Zoe Brain. Two rather bizarre pieces of information. Firstly people in Australia can apparently be prevented from seeing their own medical records on “privacy” grounds. And secondly the list of “male” sex offenders kept by the TGA is apparently so discredited that being on it is no barrier to getting security clearance, especially if you happen to be a woman. Isn’t bureaucracy wonderful?
Well, not quite free, because you are supposed to attend Worldcon and write a trip report. But hey, trip to Australia, what’s not to like?
If you are in North America you need to take an interest in DUFF, the Down Under Fan Fund. If you are in Europe it is GUFF, the Going Under Fan Fund, for you. Those links will tell you what you need to do to apply. Good luck.
Much to my surprise and delight, I have email from the boss of the VHA Airport Shuttle company whose services I wrote about from Melbourne. Apparently I got the service times wrong, and they should be as follows:
Possibly more importantly I’m told that if you pre-book and pre-pay then you can get tickets for AU$11.50 each way, which is cheaper than the bus.
Obviously things could change by next year, but I’m going to put them in touch with A4 and with any luck some sort of a deal will get done.
I have posted convention reports from both Conscription (New Zealand) and Conjecture (Australia). I think that clears all of the outstanding material from the southern hemisphere tour. Phew. Now back to things I was working on before I left.
That’s the last of the video online. You can see the Australia videos here. Those of you planning the attend Worldcon in Melbourne next year can get a sneak look at how convenient the con hotel (and its large bar) are to the convention center. And of you are an author, please listen to Julie Czerneda explain how much fun the southern hemisphere tour can be.
Finally I have a few photos from Melbourne. These are mainly of the new convention center and of useful things at Melbourne airport – all for the benefit of folks considering traveling there next year for Worldcon.
[shashin type=”album” id=”24″ size=”medium”]
The next stop on the tour is Adelaide, where there are photos from the Australian Natcon and also a few tourist shots. Costumers may want to check these.
[shashin type=”album” id=”25″ size=”medium”]
I’ll be heading out to the airport shortly and will be on planes and trains for the next day or so. Don’t expect anything from me until Thursday evening, UK time (Thursday morning US time). I’ll tweet when I can.
The trip has been great fun. It has, of course, been a financial disaster, but I hope I’ve managed to avoid wingeing too much about that. The last few weeks have also been very bruising psychologically, often for things not connected with the trip. And of course this amount of traveling is very tiring. However, I have got to meet, or re-connect with, a whole bunch of wonderful people, attended two good cons, and see a lot of two very beautiful countries. I have eaten too much good food, and got a fabulous new coat at a bargain price. I also, very unexpectedly, got to laugh at Australians about cricket. I can’t ask for more than that.
Hopefully the information I have been gathering about travel down here has proved useful, and will encourage more people to make the trip next year. There is a lot more to come, and it will appear slowly over the next week or so as I get time to write/edit/post it all. If you do find it useful, please link to it. There are lots of fans who don’t read my blog and who have no idea I’m doing this.
I’d like to give special thanks to Carolyn & Tasha, and Daniel & Kelly, for being so kind to me in NZ; to Terry, Sally & Alan and Medge & Bean for making me welcome in Melbourne & Adelaide respectively; to Donna, Russell and Julie & Roger for being great company at both conventions; and to both convention committees. Also a huge thanks to Hilton who gave me free upgrades for all four stays I had with them.
And now, it is time to finish packing and check out. After that: Sydney, Singapore, London.
I have been very remiss on the food updates. Time for a long post.
We need to start in New Zealand where various people offered me interesting substances. There were Toffee Pops, which are rather like flat, round Twixes. They were nice, but not a patch on Tim Tams, I’m afraid. Rather more interesting were Pineapple Chunks – lumps of pineapple-flavored candy coated in chocolate. The candy can be either chewy or crunchy, which may depend on the ambient temperature or on the batch – no one seems quite sure.
Also found in New Zealand, though it is originally from South America, is the feijoa, a type of fruit related to the guava. I had a feijoa smoothie at it was quite pleasant. Despite what Wikipedia says, the Kiwis pronounce it fey-joe-uh. Us Californians know better.
Finally in New Zealand there was the great Mars v Moro taste test. This, you will recall, was all about the Mars Bar (made by Mars, and not called Mars in the US) and the seemingly identical Moro Bar (made by Cadbury’s), both of which are available in NZ. Having done a back-to-back tasting I can confirm Peter Hamilton’s judgment that the Moro is much less sickly-sweet. Whether this is a good thing or not is open to debate, as I suspect it means you can eat a lot more of them in one go.
In Australia I mainly contented myself with checking out new varieties of Tim Tams. I particular like the Black Forest variety in the Sweet Surrender range. I also discovered the new Tim Tam Crush range, which is a different shaped biscuit. I have tried the honeycomb and a mint flavor, and I have a cookies & cream packet yet to sample. They are nice, but I much prefer the traditional biscuits.
While the eating in Adelaide was very good, there was little in the way of bush food. Even the cheeses we bought from the market were French. So for my last night here I determined to find something Australian to eat. The hotel restaurant obliged. For starters I had Morton Bay Bugs (a type of small lobster) done like a prawn cocktail. The main course was Barramundi with stuffed squid in a bouillabaisse sauce. And for dessert I tried some local cheeses from Raw Materials in Gippsland. The cheddar was pretty good, though not very strong by Somerset farm standards. The blue was OK, though a bit uneven in texture, but I’m sorry to say that the “brie” tasted nothing like brie.
Seeing that I was dining alone, my waitress offered to fetch me something to read. I ended up with some copies of Australian Vogue and was astonished to discover from it that Australia is now officially the most obese nation on Earth. And this from a nation that is supposedly obsessed with sport! Obviously they all only watch it these days. I know I have eaten too much while I have been on the road. I ought to go out and walk. But I have a luxury hotel bathroom at my disposal, and a new flavor of Lush bath bomb. I’ll start the exercise regime tomorrow.
I have been over looking at Melbourne Airport. Please note that things I have seen may change by August 2010, but hopefully most of them will not.
Firstly, for the benefit of Kevin, the gaming area has four pinball machines: The Addams Family, Batman, Indianna Jones and The Simpsons.
For everyone else, the Vodafone cellphone rental shop in the International Arrivals area is still there. If you need a phone while you are in Australia you can rent one for the duration of your trip.
And now, transport. This is where you need to be clever, because Melbourne Airport is a trap for the unwary tourist.
If you come straight out of International Arrivals (Terminal 2) you will see no options for transport except a taxi. Do not take this option unless there are at least 3 of you. It costs AU$51 for a ride to the Hilton South Wharf, and there’s a AU$6 surcharge if you pay by credit card. Instead turn left and make your way to Terminal 1 (QANTAS Domestic), which is in the same building and a very short walk away. There you will find two additional options.
The VHA Airport Shuttle is a classic SuperShuttle-style service. It is AU$25 single or AU$40 return to the Hilton South Wharf (cheaper for some other hotels), and it will deliver you door-to-door. The first shuttle runs at 6:00am, which is just about right for flights from London.
And even cheaper option is Skybus. This is a bus service that runs between the airport and Southern Cross station in the city. It is AU$16 and AU$26 return. Southern Cross is around 15-20 minutes walk from the Hilton South Wharf, and isn’t an easy trip with heavy bags. In theory Skybus offers free transfers to hotels, but this is noted as “subject to availability” so you might have to wait a while, or you could get a cab which won’t cost nearly so much for that short trip. Service frequency is hourly through the night increasing every 10 minutes during the day. I would have used it to go shopping today if the weather hadn’t been so foul.
Dear Mr. Rudd,
I understand that your country has been suffering a severe drought in recent years. Nevertheless, during my short visit here it has rained almost every day, most recently very heavily. This is no accident.
The ability to cause rain to fall on Australians is a super power that I developed primarily to save the English cricket team from beatings at the hands of your national squad. This power was originally developed for use in the UK, where rain is considerably easier to come by, but I was surprised and delighted to discover that it works in Australia as well.
I hereby offer to put my powers at your disposal. My needs are very simple. All I ask is residency status in your country, a small apartment in Melbourne in which to live, and the right not to be described as a “whingeing Pom” by everyone that I meet here. In return I shall cause rain as and when you require it.
Looking forward to hearing from you,
Yours sincerely,
Cheryl Morgan
The Ditmars were announced last night and the live blog of the ceremony can be found on SFAW. My particular thanks to Cat Sparks and Rob Hood for dropping by. It is always good have winners in the audience.
I was pleased to see that the Best Fan Production award went to an online book review zine: AS if!.
But what I most want to talk about now is a brand new award which was announced here and will have its first presentation at Aussiecon 4 next year. The Norma K Hemming Award is a diversity award for “exploration of themes of race, gender, class and sexuality”. It is named after Norma Kathleen Hemming, a feminist author and fan who was active in Australia in the 1950s and died tragically of lung cancer at the age of 33. You can find more about Norma, the award and early Australian feminist fandom at the Australian Science Fiction Foundation web site.
Precise details of how the award will work are still being ironed out, but it will be a juried award. Given that it is diversity-based, and not just feminist, I asked about disability issues. The ASFF folks promised to look into this, but someone else in the audience suggested that the Australian disability community might not be happy about being included. You do have to check these things.
Still, I am delighted to see Australian launch an award of this type. We already have the Tiptree and Carl Brandon Awards, and the feminist award in Japan. There may be others I’m not award of, but as far as I know the UK doesn’t have anything like this.