[HPFGU-OTChatter] Melbourne weather, what's up, scuppered trip

Catherine Keegan keegan at mcn.org
Thu Nov 22 15:34:39 UTC 2001


At 01:51 AM 11/23/01 +1100, Tabouli who is enjoying her spring wrote:
>Actually, I remember comforting myself with that very same thought one 
>day, after typing a whingey message about the HP movie and walking out 
>into radiant sunshine, cool breeze and 23 degrees (72ish in Fahrenheit?)!
>
>I probably will be nipping off to the States in the middle of next year 
>(been invited to present at a conference in St Louis!), and will probably 
>fly into California, as I have a friend (Australian Chinese) to visit in 
>San Francisco, and would be very happy to be introduced to the Real 
>America by a Real American!  I warn you though, my cross-cultural feelers 
>will be positively quivering with activity, Sneakoscope-like...

SF will completely fascinate you.  Chinatown is a world unto itself.  When 
my various past jobs used to send me into it for training (IBM and SAS both 
have major class sites there), I'd spend my lunch hour hiking around in 
Chinatown.  Excellent food.  Exotic markets.  Tacky souvenir stores.  Tiny 
women who march in front of you in line and stare you down if you look like 
you might disagree with them.

Of course, there are also large Russian, Hispanic, Irish and Indian 
enclaves, too.

>By the way, can I guess from the "Furniture, Clothing, and Accessories For 
>the Medievalist!" bit that you have ties to the SCA, or is that drawing 
>the bow too far?

*cough*  For over twenty years.  I try to remember to set it to "none" but 
I miss every now and then.  We make furniture and I do commission sewing 
plus we also do some metalwork.  The furniture is winning.  Not as 
lucrative as programming (check out the C++ code on the main list - almost 
made me decorate the monitor with coffee this morning. ) but I don't get 3 
AM phone calls, have oncall or have to come in at weird hours to install 
software.

Tabouli continues
  At the current exchange rates for Australian dollars (read pitiful), it 
looks like the most I'll be able to afford is a brisk whisk around the US, 
if that, unless I mysteriously strike it rich somehow.

Well, let us know when you do get a chance to come over.  I'm sure several 
of us on the list would love to meet you.

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!  Here's to undoing all the dieting for the 
last two weeks after getting back from France.  Turkey!  Pie!  Way too much 
stuffing!

Catherine in California




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