I’d Like to Issue a Formal Complaint.

I am attending Dublin2019 – The 77th World Science Fiction Convention – and I am dying.

This morning has gone as follows; I woke up way too early (hungover from the beer and whiskey tasting from the night before) to light streaming through my blinds (note to self: buy sleeping mask) and thought, today is the day I look at the programme. (Excitement!)

After a very necessary jaunt for coffee and electrolytes I proceeded to download their scheduling app.

The nightmare begins here.

Thursday has a total of 200 items listed. Let us do some quick maths (help). The first event is at 10am, the last runs until 12.50am (call it 1am) That’s 15 hours, the panels are mostly an hour each, that means that for each hour in the convention day there are on average 13.3 CHOICES. Whats more, the panels and whatnot are staggered by a half hours. This means that if, for example, I wanted to go to ‘Writing Robot and Nonhuman Intelligence’ at 12pm but then at 12.30pm I ALSO need to see ‘How to Build an Evil Empire’. What am I to do??? This is just the first day!!

And I want to go to Every. Single. Thing.

Dear Worldcon, I am not mad, I am not disappointed, but for the love of all that is holy (and my mental health this weekend) when are you issuing the time turners??

Adulting

Of the 6 (or 7, or 10 depending on which helpful site you visit telling you about these things properly) tasks to do on your First Day in Canada I accomplished…

(drum roll please)

One.

Oops.

Sydney

Check out that featured photo! I am not proud of if per say, (it was such an easy shot to take) just exceedingly happy that I had done the sensible thing and packed my camera into my hand luggage. Its a travelling necessity, really. I took about 40 shots of the sunset as we rose through the clouds and I don’t think one came out badly. Such a dreamy exit from New Zealand. Everything looks like candy floss, and that’s not even the most candy floss shot from the set.

Anyway, back to Australia and on to Sydney! Where I met up with one of my Canadian friends I met in Malaysia and who took me on my first rock climb. Kayla is awesome, really chilled, friendly, super smart and she took the time to take me down to Bondi beach. We had a proper aussie brunch (aussies know how to brunch – even if it’s without the standard alcohol accompaniment you get in the UK) and we went on a walk to catch some of the best views.

Bondi Beach

At this point in my journey I had a Golden daytime. It was fabulous. As you might imagine.

Some of my memories of Sydney are, unfortunately, less than pleasant. I stayed in a hostel that, whilst serviceable, was not ideal. After spending so much time in south east Asia in gorgeous facilities with a pool, amazing showers and more the aussie-western world asserted itself in the form of a slightly dingier hostel that promoted claustrophobia and bad sleeping at night. It’s not socially acceptable to be in the buff in a six bed room. No matter how hot it is.

After the Kiwi experience this was a little bit of a shock and a downer, but I persevered and just got out of the place – and walked to the Royal Botanical Gardens of Sydney. As well as their ‘Hyde Park’ – GET ORIGINAL NAMES. *cough* moving on…

During the day I very happily wandered around the Sydney – discovered a store called Lululemon (ouch my non-existent wallet..) and generally really loved soaking in the vibe. At night was one of my favourite activities – the night noodle market. Happens every year and I was so happy that I caught it. It’s a collection of some of the best food stalls all in one place. And, whilst there were good noodles, I LOVED this one dessert cart which rocked my world. I have never seen such fancy desserts outside of what my sister has cooked. They were divine. Give me a moment whilst I reminisce.

I really liked Sydney, it felt really clean and nice. 🙂 It didn’t have as much of an art vibe as Melbourne or Wellington but was a lovely place.

Onwards!

Compulsory to have this shot when you’ve been in Sydney.

Wellington

Moving from my lovely WWOOF family, I then went to stay with Bhagee and Vithiya – the other kiwi friends I’d made in India.

A huge thank you to them for their incredible generosity.

It was so cool to be able to catch up, and I got fed! (I’m so shallow) I alllso was introduced to the best coffee in town by Bhagee’s housemate. The intel was as great as the coffee. And what good coffee it was, nutty and fruity. I had the perfect flat white. Saying that, the entirety of wellington had really good coffee. I looked up the independent coffee houses and did myself a tour, and it was fabulous. I think Wellington was up there with Melbourne in terms of coffee, but Wellington was a little more relaxed and a lot smaller.

I have mentioned previously that the interior design of coffee shops makes me incredibly happy. The effort is always made to make it that much more unique appeals to me on a fundamental level. I think it’s because I am nosey as all hell. It’s like that feeling when you are going round your friends house or room for the first time, unashamedly staring at  everything. Band poster you didn’t know they liked? Awesome. That book you had been meaning to read? Borrowed. Pictures of them as a child? Jackpot.

Digressing here, above is a picture of one of my favourite cafes from Wellington. Pretty cool, huh?

Looking back on Wellington it seems I was very focused on drinking, coffee yes, lots of it. But also craft beer. Oh the craft beer. This was quite a big thing for me as I am not usually a beer drinker. But Bhagee took me to The Garage Project, a craft beer mecca where we very happily got tipsy on tasters, I chatted with the lady behind the bar for ages and Bhagee got me the best chips in Wellington to munch on. It was good times, I discovered a love for stout, my favourite being one with a coffee flavour (don’t look so surprised) and a really nice fruity one which was so light and refreshing. Definitely another interest to take home with me.

Millennium Falcon at a Craft Beer bar…

The view form Mount Victoria

I spent a lot of time just exploring Wellington on foot, I got to know it pretty well. I visited the botanical gardens, museum, walked up Mount Victoria and took the cable car up as it seemed like thing to do.

I meant a wonderful elderly gentleman at the top of Mount Victoria, he was retired ex-ambassador army background who hikes all the way the Wellington coast every Sunday. He was a sweet heart and we had a strange if lovely conversation about ghosts.

Speaking of coastal walks, Bhagee and Viddi took on me on a gorgeous one. The featured image of this post is from the walk and is of the long white cloud over the South Island we could just about see from the hills. Aotearoa being the name of New Zealand and it’s most common definition being the ‘land of the long white cloud’. It was a pretty perfect day.