The Fifty People you Meet in Heaven
Jun. 26th, 2005 07:50 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
skyringI'm in heaven, no doubt about it. I wish I could bottle this all up and enjoy it for ever and ever.
Resuming the story, a day late. And a quick update before I flash back. We went on our release spree and flash mob yesterday and had an absolute ball. GREAT flashmob location, even if I didn't realise it had happened until it was over. And then there was the trivia night, where I was once again overwhelmed by how well read BookCrossers are. Best of all, my team won, though in truth I had very little to do with it, besides being a smartarse on cheap champagne and entertaining the crowd.
But to get back. You'll remember that Futurecat, Lytteltonwitch and I (in alphabetical order) had driven down to the Gold Coast, where we walked the golden sands under a warm blue sky. We drove back over the Story Bridge, returned the car and walked back through the late afternoon to our hostel, just in time to be part of the growing crowd of BookCrossers gathering outside the entrance.
Old friends and new ones. As you know, I have a licence to hug beautiful women when I'm a BookCrosser, so I did. Let's see. In no particular order, there were Charbono and Jenny-G, Wombles and MadamMuck, Catsalive and FuShMuSh, Arrietty, MeganH and husband Leith, and k-j-h and thebiblioholic. The last three being blokes, and thebiblioholic having flown from New York to be here.
And there were undoubtedly a dozen more, because we began to create a traffic hazard, but please please forgive me when I don't get everyone - there were more and more BookCrossers flooding into my overloaded remembering resources all through the evening, and it's a day and a half later as I write these words after being flooded with pleasure all weekend long.
Wombles and MadamMuck are local lasses, and they were there to guide us across the road, onto the train, down the line, up the street and around the corner to our meeting room for the Meet'n'Greet in Fortitude Valley.
It's always special being part of a herd of BookCrossers on the move. There's jokes, laughter, sharing and a trail of books and stickers behind. And fridge magnets - Charbono had stocked up on diamond-shaped BookCrossing magnets nad left them on every conceivable metal surface. And where they wouldn't stick, she stuck them up with Blu-tack.
Friends, I was on cloud nine from the moment we joined the queue of BookCrossers stretching down the grand spiral staircase. I didn't stop smiling until, well, I haven't stopped smiling yet. So many people!
Luckaye, who was the first BookCrosser I ever met in the flesh, and had gone to some trouble to make it in tonight. CoffeeBron, who gave me a hug as a fellow Canberran, thinking I was lost and lonely in this distant city - not realising that I'd lived for a year a hundred metres away in jacaranda-lined Love Street.
(As I write these words, my camera, being used as an artificial memory, has just run out of battery power. I'm running on raw brainpower now.)
Toxic - the incredibly bright and brainy 13-year old Toxic, and her mother likewise. They had driven up from the Gold Coast to attend.
Caldron, Jawin, WhiteQueen, Neesy and Cackleberry (in no particular order) who had done wonders organising the convention. Smooth as clockwork for the whole weekend, and a lot of fun.
And dozens of others. I tried to spend a few minutes with everyone, but before I knew it the evening was over, four hours later. But I cannot close without mentioning Newk, who was as irrepressible as ever with a swag of outrageous t-shirts. He didn't stop smiling the whole night either.
And then again, we were floating home, leaving a trail and a tale of books.
Resuming the story, a day late. And a quick update before I flash back. We went on our release spree and flash mob yesterday and had an absolute ball. GREAT flashmob location, even if I didn't realise it had happened until it was over. And then there was the trivia night, where I was once again overwhelmed by how well read BookCrossers are. Best of all, my team won, though in truth I had very little to do with it, besides being a smartarse on cheap champagne and entertaining the crowd.
But to get back. You'll remember that Futurecat, Lytteltonwitch and I (in alphabetical order) had driven down to the Gold Coast, where we walked the golden sands under a warm blue sky. We drove back over the Story Bridge, returned the car and walked back through the late afternoon to our hostel, just in time to be part of the growing crowd of BookCrossers gathering outside the entrance.
Old friends and new ones. As you know, I have a licence to hug beautiful women when I'm a BookCrosser, so I did. Let's see. In no particular order, there were Charbono and Jenny-G, Wombles and MadamMuck, Catsalive and FuShMuSh, Arrietty, MeganH and husband Leith, and k-j-h and thebiblioholic. The last three being blokes, and thebiblioholic having flown from New York to be here.
And there were undoubtedly a dozen more, because we began to create a traffic hazard, but please please forgive me when I don't get everyone - there were more and more BookCrossers flooding into my overloaded remembering resources all through the evening, and it's a day and a half later as I write these words after being flooded with pleasure all weekend long.
Wombles and MadamMuck are local lasses, and they were there to guide us across the road, onto the train, down the line, up the street and around the corner to our meeting room for the Meet'n'Greet in Fortitude Valley.
It's always special being part of a herd of BookCrossers on the move. There's jokes, laughter, sharing and a trail of books and stickers behind. And fridge magnets - Charbono had stocked up on diamond-shaped BookCrossing magnets nad left them on every conceivable metal surface. And where they wouldn't stick, she stuck them up with Blu-tack.
Friends, I was on cloud nine from the moment we joined the queue of BookCrossers stretching down the grand spiral staircase. I didn't stop smiling until, well, I haven't stopped smiling yet. So many people!
Luckaye, who was the first BookCrosser I ever met in the flesh, and had gone to some trouble to make it in tonight. CoffeeBron, who gave me a hug as a fellow Canberran, thinking I was lost and lonely in this distant city - not realising that I'd lived for a year a hundred metres away in jacaranda-lined Love Street.
(As I write these words, my camera, being used as an artificial memory, has just run out of battery power. I'm running on raw brainpower now.)
Toxic - the incredibly bright and brainy 13-year old Toxic, and her mother likewise. They had driven up from the Gold Coast to attend.
Caldron, Jawin, WhiteQueen, Neesy and Cackleberry (in no particular order) who had done wonders organising the convention. Smooth as clockwork for the whole weekend, and a lot of fun.
And dozens of others. I tried to spend a few minutes with everyone, but before I knew it the evening was over, four hours later. But I cannot close without mentioning Newk, who was as irrepressible as ever with a swag of outrageous t-shirts. He didn't stop smiling the whole night either.
And then again, we were floating home, leaving a trail and a tale of books.
