Things and other things

I still haven’t heard anything from the travel agent – I suspect our complicated intersecting itineraries are causing her some headaches 😉 Maybe on Monday…

I have, however, heard back from Deidre, the President of Bookcrossing Singapore. I’d sent an email about a week ago to the contact they have listed on their website, but apparently he’s not involved any more, so it had taken a while for the email to find its way to her. Anyway, she sent me a really nice email back, explaining that it would be unlikely we’d find anyone willing to host us, because most people in Singapore live with their parents until they have families of their own, so having people to stay isn’t usually convenient, but that she’d ask around anyway.

The accommodation isn’t a big worry there anyway, because I’ve been checking out backpackers, and they’re about the same price as here, so it won’t blow our budget to spend a couple of nights in one. And Deidre seemed very keen to meet us (in fact, she said it would be a great honour! I don’t think anyone has ever considered meeting me an honour before!!!) and organise a meetup for us, so at least we’ll get to make contact with local bookcrossers and spread the word about 2009.

I’ve got another thing to put in my “stuff to take to London” box, too. Auckland bookcrosser ruby11 sent me one of the reading journals she makes, to give to the London committee to use as a prize or something. It’s a lovely journal, with pages to record thoughts on the books you’ve read, and fabulous quotes about reading at the bottom of the pages. It’s also got a list of useful websites, like The NZ Book Council and Booksellers NZ. And of course www.bookcrossing.com features prominently in the list as well 😉

Yet another catch from the Wellington YHA: Asya by Michael Ignatieff. And it’s gone back on another YHA bookshelf, this time in Franz Joseph.

NZ Bookcrossers have been busy this week doing their bit for the 2009 preparation by buying notebooks. Whitcoulls has had their usual Back to School sale on, and as in previous years have had little 3B1 notebooks as a loss leader, two for 10c. They’re a great size for little notebooks to go in goody bags (suitably decorated, of course, as in 2005), but there’s a limit of 10 per customer. So we put out a call on BCNZ for everyone to donate 50c and a few minutes of their time to pop into their nearest Whitcoulls and buy 10 notebooks. We had a great response, and should now have more than enough for the convention. But just to make sure, lytteltonwitch, MrPloppy and I did the rounds of a few Whitcoulls today to each buy 10 in each shop.

Unfortunately, our quest led us past the Warehouse in Northlands Mall, so we dropped in to just have a quick look in their craft section. And discovered a huge selection of beads. So it looks like my output of bookstrings, which had been tapering off for lack of inspiration, is about to pick up again…

While at Northlands, we thought we’d better pop round to awhina‘s place, or we’d never hear the end of it. However, despite the car being outside (and I’m sure I saw movement inside the house as we pulled up), nobody came to the door when we knocked (or rather, rattled – the screen door onto the porch was locked, so we had to knock on that). Lytteltonwitch was going to leave a book on the doorstep as a calling card, but then we noticed there was a window open, so she had the bright idea of dropping the book through it. Unfortunately, the window was kind of high up. And neither of us is all that tall. Eventually, with a lot of struggle, she managed to get the book balancing on the window frame, but couldn’t reach it to push it in. So we left it balancing there, and drove away in gales of laughter, wondering how long it would be before she noticed it there (or if the neighbours were going to call the police after seeing strange women trying to get in the windows – I’ve often seen bookcrossing described as reverse shoplifting, but reverse burglary???)

Currently reading: A Long Way Down by Nick Hornby