Sydney again...

Sydney, more or less on the other side of the planet to where I live, is a hell of a long way to go for a nightstop, and my sleep is invariably crap, mostly catnapping at odd times, and after 24 hours of this I get back on a plane and do it all again in the other direction. Whinge over.

Anyhow, a visit to Sydney wouldn't be complete without dropping in to its fine SF/F/H establishment, the Galaxy Bookshop on York Street. In addition to what I've said about Galaxy at Danny Yee's site here, I'd also say it's the kind of bookshop that just about any book-loving SF fan might dream of running. One down side is that just about everything is imported so prices are typically steep, sometimes adding more than US$10 to the cost of a hardback or US$5 to a papperbok though the range is impressive, it's well organised, and it's good to pick up some Aussie stuff that never makes it over to Blighty. This visit was also considerably brightened by meeting up once again with zarabee, erstwhile Andromeda Spaceways editor, and once again we led each other astray by adding several more inches to each other's TBR pile. Oh fuck, as if I actually need more books. And I'll be taking up her good suggestion of a regular SF bookcover post, probably one a week.

zarabee also introduced me to jblum and kateorman who co-authored one of my favourite reads of last year, the award-winning Doctor Who novella Fallen Gods (my review here). This was a hook-up I was particularly looking forward to and Jonathan & Kate are now on my official Lovely Persons List. We had a great Chinese meal at Sydney's long-standing Mother Chu's, and yakked all evening about fandom, fanzines, fan fiction, Harry Potter slash (more details here), support groups for partners of sad people involved in Harry Potter slash, Doctor Who, The Prisoner, and the inevitable bit of left wing Aussie/US/UK politics. I also got to speak to SF/F author Richard Harland on zarabee's mobile, though he could hardly hear my end of the conversation as the restaurant was so bloody noisy, so hopefully we can meet up next time I'm Down Under, probably in April. Woot!