Sydney Bloggers are evicted from restaurant

... well sort of. We were given loads of hints, and a five-minute warning; and they wouldn't serve us any tea even though the other table had tea. Apparently we were outstaying our welcome, or they wanted to go home, or some other lame excuse. ;-)

I am most pleased with this photo as I am half-hidden, my favourite pose.

And that was even though Fi Fi had struck up a rapport with the lovely Japanese waiter by comparing foot sizes with him.

Luckily the food was delicious and the company most excellent. As has become commonplace with blogging dinners there was lots of laughter, much silliness and perhaps one or two more glasses of wine drunk than was advisable.

We may not have set the 23+ person record set by a recent Melbourne bloggers dinner, and we may not have been able to convince Eleanor to belly dance BUT we did stay on until the collective staff of the restaurant grabbed each one of us by the arm* and ushered us to the pavement where we continued talking for some time.

We know you're jealous, and with good reason. :)

Oh, and looky what I got from Frogdancer. Beautiful handmade coasters. Love them. All because I booked a restaurant.

*ok, so some exaggeration, but not much.

A blogmeet and a wardrobe malfunction - but not on the same day.

I'm loving this whole blogmeet thing.

Yesterday I met up with my friend Fe, and two other great bloggers Guera and Super Sarah, along with their beautiful children. Guera was holidaying here in Sydney and organised the meet. Thanks Guera!

Again, it was so easy to chat to these people you have 'met' on-blog and it was a lovely morning.

Unfortunately, I had to run off to other (ballet class) commitments after an hour so I think I missed meeting one other blogger which was a shame.

Next time we've resolved to make a long lunch of it.

**********

Oh, and I have to tell you about my wardrobe malfunction today...

I was walking to the ferry for a 9.30am meeting in the city. At 8.40am I arrive at the ferry stop. Just as I was congratulating myself about being at the ferry in plenty of time I notice that one of the buttons has popped off my new shirt dress. The button was in a very strategic position and now I am gaping somewhat inappropriately. My ferry was due to leave at 8.52am.

A friend lives about 100m up the road. I run up the road hoping that she is home. She is. I arm myself with a needle, black thread, a safety pin and some scissors and resolve to work out a plan on the ferry ride. I just make the 8.52am ferry.

Of course the ferry ride is too bumpy for operations that involve scissors, sharp needles and a fully-dressed woman.

Once at Circular Quay, I duck into the Ladies Bathroom (noice) and perform an intricate operation involving removing my top button and transferring it to the gaping hole - all while remaining fully dressed, dignity intact, minutes to spare before my meeting.

Who says the modern woman has no need for needlecraft skills? Or a friend that lives near the ferry.

Festival of Mary: The Weekend

One never needs an excuse to visit the Blue Mountains an hour and a 1/2 from Sydney, but sometimes a little nudge such as the lure of a surprise party doesn't go astray.

So when Blue Mountains Mary's husband J put out the word that he would like Mary's blogging pals to be at her surprise party Fairlie and I couldn't resist. Well, that is after we considered the possibility of tearing the very fabric of time and space by mixing the blogging world with the real world. Fairlie has this potential dilemma all covered in her post here.

So on Friday night Firegazer, the kids and I met up with Fairlie at our fabulous rented house in Katoomba. Above is a pic of the yard the kids had to play in. Such a struggle.

On Saturday, in an effort to avoid being detected in town, we avoided the main shopping strips and went to lovely Blackheath for our morning coffee. The Victory Cafe must've known I was coming and reserved a table in my name...

To further avoid detection we hotfooted off to the Mt Tomah Botanic Gardens. Stunning. When we mentioned to the kids that there was a Waratah festival on Padawan Learner exclaimed "What? The Waratahs are here? Where?". He was a little dismayed to find that the festival was about the NSW floral emblem, not his favourite Rugby team.

Later that afternoon the kids relaxed in the spa putting up with the views available from our rented house.

Then it was time to surprise Mary. We took along this box which contained gifts from many bloggers from around Australia who were unable to get to the party. We knew Mary had cottoned on that there was some sort of surprise party afoot but we were pretty confident that she didn't know about the blogger angle.

Fairlie and I, along with The Poolboy and Firegazer had a blast at Mary's party. We nimbly fielded questions about blogging and met some fabulous people, including one of my favourite bloggers, Pretty Essential.

The next day, after dropping into a fabulous recovery BBQ at Mary's house, we went of to the Circquinox Festival at Norman Lindsay's old house in Faulconbridge. The EasternMaxes had been there before but the addition of the fabulous circus acts in the gardens was a real treat for all of us.

All in all, a great weekend. A big thank you to Mary's husband J for organising such a mammoth event and giving us a nudge to visit the beautiful Blue Mountains. And thank you to Mary for welcoming us to her home to meet her family and friends.

On Festivals and Blogmeets

I have always held the Melbourne Writers Festival in the highest regard and would look forward to the one weekend each year that I would listen to interesting authors talk about interesting books and then watch with amusement as they leer at the author-groupies from the bar after their session had finished. After all what's a party without the people-watching?

Melbourne had the advantage over Sydney of an intimate space, a central gathering area for groupies, I mean festival-goers, and plenty of good, cheap and quick food options to munch on between sessions.

This year the MWF moved from the Malthouse in South Melbourne to Fed Square. An impressive location, to be sure, but lacking in the intimacy of the old Festival.

The venues were mixed. This one, the BMWEdge was spectacular, but cavernous. Great for large groups of people but if 100 people gathered to listen to an emerging author it was just plain awkward.

The central atrium was also spectacular. But without the convenience of hawker-style food we had to go to restaurants and cafes to eat and so festival goers were locked away rather than milling around the central court.

But, I hear you say, writers festivals are all about the writers aren't they? Yes, mostly. Or mostly mostly. But the choice of writers wasn't spectacular either. I find myself choking and gasping as I have to admit that when it comes to a Festival of Writers this year Sydney has pipped Melbourne at the post as the best party.

Sorry.

If Melbourne doesn't pull its socks up I'm afraid I'm going to have to plug for a weekend at the Byron Bay Writers Festival.

For a full wrap up of the festival, including the best bits (there were some good bits) check out Fairlie's excellent summary.

Melbourne did, however, outdo itself in the Blogmeet stakes. Fairlie organised a dinner for Melbourne bloggers and we were delighted to catch up with Frogdancer, H&B, Suse from PeaSoup and Stomper Girl. You can tell there was non-stop chatting because despite being at the restaurant for four hours we managed only one course and glass of wine, or two; and we completely forgot to take photos. These great bloggers came from all over Melbourne to this dinner and a great time was had by all.

To those who couldn't make it this time - I'd love to catch up next time I'm in the Great Southern City.