Sydney part 5

Saturday 23 October 2010, 7.30 am
Sitting outside a little cafe having croissant and hot chocolate for breakfast – how cosmopolitan 🙂
Wombles had arranged to meet Awaywithfairies at the evil bookshop – which truly is evil – just standing outside it while we were waiting for her I somehow managed to buy a book! Bargainqueen got sucked into the evil too – and then had to dodge the camera crew filming an ad (we assumed) at the checkout, in case anyone saw it and noticed her in the background buying more books 😉
Awaywithfairies led us through what seemed like a maze of streets to Servalan’s building, where we stocked up in the handy bottlestore, then (pausing only to acquire a couple more bookcrossers, who none of us knew, but who somehow gave off a bookcrossing vibe) we were led by Servalan through an even more complex maze of lifts and long corridors to the courtyard, where she proceeded to set up a huge array of salads and nibbles to accompany a barbeque.
More and more bookcrossers arrived, and in true Australasian fashion, the few men were soon happily occupied with the cooking of sausages, while the rest of us were busy with the more important task of searching the rapidly-growing piles of books for treasures. I may have found one of two… (ok, so my bag is going to be just as heavy going home as it was coming over, despite all the books I’m releasing!)

It was a wonderful evening – as I told Servalan, probably the best convention dinner I’ve ever been to. Totally relaxed, easy food (though it was obvious she’d spent a *lot* of time pre-preparing everything!), no having to compete with loud music or worry about annoying restaurant staff by swapping seats when you spotted someone new you wanted to talk to. We could talk, and share books, and laugh, and just enjoy each others’ company. Lakelady told us about her bookcrossing novel (Crossing Paths), and I reckon she could have sold a dozen copies that night if she’d had them with her, but unfortunately the publisher couldn’t supply them except with exorbitant postage attached. But we all promised to hit Amazon at the first opportunity.
After a desert of (NZ :-p) pavlova, and exotic macaroons made by a Masterchef winner (I had one flavoured with vegemite, which worked surprisingly well), Servalan led us through another maze (involving a garage and a swimming pool this time) to a fantastic book exchange shelf, where we unloaded the leftover books, and then all ended up filling our arms again with even more books as we browsed the shelves. My bag was very heavy walking back to the hostel!
One of my noisy German roommates was in the room when I got in, and she told me she’d been kept awake by my snoring the night before. I thought about mentioning that she’d woken *me* up with her loud talking, but instead I just apologised nicely. Not much I can do about it though – it’s spring, so despite the best that antihistamines can do, my breathing isn’t going to be good.
Wombles and mini-Wombles have just arrived, so time to set off on another adventure!