Timmy's tea time

A face I couldn't resist. This Timmy the lamb toy was discounted "Toys R Us" and I ended up poing him on a chair at the "Star Trek" Meetup at the coffee shop tonight...

"Timmy Time" is a stop-motion animation spin-off of "Shaun the Sheep", which in turn derives from a "Wallace and Grommit" animation.

A mob in a flash

Flash mobbers at Central, Australia Day 2009

My friend Jonathan participated in the Central Flash Mob event today, and provided a blog entry about it. Well done, Jonathan! It would have been fun to be there. (That's not Jonathan in the above pic, of course. The Flash Mob organisers have started uploading photos, with more located on their Facebook page.)



Over our third annual Australia Day dinner tonight at Baia San Marco, my Star Trek Meetup group discussed the concept of flash mobs and, to my surprise, I discovered that our colleague, Adam, had co-organised the first such Sydney event in 2008! Small (stationary) world! Once again, the power of Facebook.


Motionless, but only because they're watching fireworks.

Traffic stopper

Racing back to Central Station to catch my train home last night, after our monthly Star Trek Meetup, I noticed several wacky people whipping out cameras and mobile phones - and even a large tripod - while crossing one of the busiest CBD intersections.

I looked across to the Sydney Town Hall and realised what was up. Not only was the traditional lit Christmas tree in place, but a spectacular moving lightshow of colours and patterns was being projected onto the front of the building.

Pretty!


'Tis the season not to get yourself run over.

VIPs

Today I'm off to Cockle Bay in the city, for dinner with Star Trek friends at the Meat & Wine Co.

It's always an enjoyable time, but I hear on the grapevine that we are in the special "VIP" room tonight!

Cool! Thanks Nate! I know you hung out a long time for your name-embossed designated steak knife: your ticket to upgrades!

Of moths, givers and takers

I waited a few days before posting this, because I've been so angry and I wanted to see if a few days to process the events would help. They haven't really, so here it is a week later, and I've backdated the date so it sits in the right place in my chronology of events.

Last night I was invited to join six other people, all aged between 30s and 40s, equal numbers of male and female to a Japanese Teppenyaki restaurant in the city. as it turned out, I only knew one person (from my Star Trek Meetup Group) but via the unfolding discussions there was another person with whom I shared several mutual friends. Also was going quite well, although it wasn't the best Teppenyaki I've been to - you know the idea behind Teppenyaki, where the chef is in close quarters and does an elaborate performance with the food and cooking implements as he goes? - and after the bill was settled, six of us retired to a nearby wine bar.

Now, the only early inkling that the evening was doomed to swirl into an oblivion of anger and frustration was when one woman mentioned her ex-husbands (plural), and then wanted to know if Star Trek Meetups was "where we picked up our women".

???

Anyway, at the wine bar, the host ordered a bottle of white wine, which a waitress efficiently divided across six glasses. the conversations began to flow again, and it seemed as if people were barely pausing for breath, let along sips of wine. John and I had just finished a conversation about the upcoming Star Trek movie (I think) and the aforementioned woman, who shall continue to remain nameless, leaned forward and said, "So, you guys have moths in your wallets?"

Huh?

It took more than a few seconds for me to realise I'd actually heard her correctly. I looked down at the low table and realised that our host had ordered a second bottle of wine.

Now, the bill at the restaurant had been split evenly, as far as I knew - if the wine accompanying the meal was BYO that others had already paid for, I still have no idea. Nothing was said, apart from splitting the bill and everyone seemed happy. Perhaps due to the wine buzz that had already set in - after several reds at the restaurant, and now the glass of white at the bar - I still have no comprehension of where the woman's comment was coming from. I asked her, politely, I believe, if she thought I was planning to let our host foot the entire bill?

"The world is full of Givers and Takers," she proclaimed loudly. "Richard, here," indicating our host, "is one of the world's Givers. And you two are Takers."

I say again, "?????"

And so endeth all sensible conversation for the evening. I was eventually able to make sure Richard would accept my contribution towards the wine, which had now taken on quite a bitter taste. If the woman's intention was to make John and I decide it was way past our bedtimes, and time to head back out to the Western Suburbs (where she obviously felt we belonged), I guess it worked. John asked if I wanted a lift home, I accepted and we were out of there, and now she had the only other male in the group all to herself.

I can't say I'm in too much of a hurry to meet up with her again. How can people be so deliberately insulting to people they've only just met, and could quite possibly become people they will be seeing quite often in their social circle? I find myself wondering if she truly found my behaviour to be rude and miserly, or if it was just a ploy of some kind, to eliminate some competition, or test our mettles?

And I didn't realise the whole event would be treated by someone as some kind of blind date or game.

Where is everyone...?

Well, I think maybe I'm officially depressed.

On Thursday night, a planned CBD Meetup of local bloggers attracted just a handful of positive RSVPs - which dwindled to only two by the morning of the meeting. I emailed the only other person who was coming and said he might want an early night instead. Then I realised that if anyone did send a last minute RSVP - as has happened in the past - I had no way to find out (work's firewall blocks all social networking sites) and a brand new person would turn up to find nobody at the coffee shop. So I had to turn up anyway...

My emergency back up plan - to catch an Internet friend for coffee also failed miserably (I got stood up) - and I ended up in exactly the dilemma I had sought to avoid: standing around in the cold in the city when everyone else - even the coffee shop's regular crowd - was at home snuggled in front of the TV and heater.

You know, I avoided the recent remake of "I Am Legend" because I heard the featured character ends up wandering a deserted Manhattan, New York. (That was me in Sydney on Thursday night, but I no longer feel like a legend.)

This is sounding bitter but, in these days of mobile phones, the way we all run our lives is changing. To the opposite of Meetup.com's ambitions, we all seem to rely to much on spontaneity and coincidence. Someone else I know (only "virtually") is always saying he "really wants to meet up" with the Star Trek group soon, but he's just emailed me that he's still unable to give any advance dates.

I'm fighting a losing battle. In one Meetup group I run, two members with young families want Saturday meetings. But one is in the inner city; and the other is in the west, and neither want to travel. How many others in our group are willing or able to travel to either event? Who knows? (From experience, not that many.)

Sorry if I sound jaded but I've spent way too many days sitting on park benches wondering where everyone else is. I've been at Meetups (and not official "Meetups") either by myself, or with only one or two others. Especially annoying when we've been expecting 20 or so). I've sat in parkland settings in Lane Cove, Parramatta Park, Royal Botanic Gardens, Manly Beach and many coffee shops and pubs over the years. Thank goodness I have my Star Trek novel with me. I've just endured almost a year's worth of solo "Lost" meetings and solo bloggers' meetings (in the CBD) and solo Art workshop meetings (here at my place in the West). In most cases I'm told at least six to eight people are "definitely" turning up - and it ends up being just me, or just me and one other. And it's almost always a different "one other". If only all the "others" turned up on the same day!

Now I'm even attracting "serial Meetup joiners", who seem to get their kicks out of RSVPing "Yes" to Meetups all over Sydney and yet have absolutely no intention of coming along.

On this Sunday, I'm heading off on a train to a Bloggers meeting in Albion Park near Wollongong. I invited over 140 people through my two blogging Meetup groups several months ago, to meet people from the new bloggers' bbs. What a grand adventure! When we planned it months ago - to give people maximum time to plan their social calendars - I thought I'd be leading an entourage. Guess how many of my members are doing the train journey with me? NONE. In fact, only one member (and his wife) is still going. I'm really hoping the Canberrans turn up from the other direction, and I really hope/assume the Sydney-based people organising it will be there.

Well, in the wee hours of this morning, I put Parramatta and CBD Saturday gatherings on the schedule for the Star Trek gang, and hopefully some members (beyond the Thursday night regulars, who are usually quite regular) will surprise me by RSVPing. I'll hold my breath, but only until I turn blue.

Ooops. ;)

Living in a vacuum

Tonight I had the pleasure of meeting three new members of our monthly Star Trek Meetup group. One, a recent "migrant" from north Queensland is happily making new Star Trek acquaintances. The other two of them, a young couple, have lived in Sydney all their lives, have always been fans of various aspects of the Star Trek phenomenon, but somehow have managed to not have encountered organised Star Trek fandom before.

Furthermore, as big "Lost" fans, they didn't know that JJ Abrams was directing the next "Star Trek" movie, or that it was highlighting the characters from the original series (ie. TOS)! It made my night being able to fill them in with all the hot gossip on casting.

I found this great interview with Anton Yelchin (the new Chekov) on Youtube. Leonard Maltin, who is practically bubbling over with excitement for this new movie, conducted an exclusive chat for ReelzChannel.com :

Let's do the Time Warp again

Big day today. It was off into the city for lunch with 20 Star Trek fans at Star Bar, site of the former Planet Hollywood Sydney. A good roll up and a great venue, if kept a little too dark and moody. Maybe they keep the lights low so you can't notice that most of the showbiz memorabilia that used to be on display was dismantled years ago. Our table was underneath the huge, central, metal rotunda that was part of the staging of a naked Sylvester Stallone's resurrection from cryogenic freezing, a key scene from "Demolition Man".

Then it was off, on foot, to Pancakes at the Rocks (at Darling Harbour, confusingly) and then onwards to Star City Casino to see the latest revival of "The Rocky Horror Show".

Thoroughly enjoyable! I really enjoyed the performances, staging and costumes. Different enough to previous productions to be fresh and interesting, but plenty of nostalgia-stirring memories of previous renditions. Highly recommended. And yay iOTA, John Waters and Sharon Millerchip! Excellent work!

Sunday's magic number: 90.9 - level pegging with last week, meaning that yesterday's sausage roll for lunch, and last night's pizza restaurant meal, counted as a successful Junk Food Day treat.

Year of the Small, Nocturnal, Domestic Rodent

This weekend marked the commencement of the Chinese New Year. The Pig (2007) officially handed over to... the Rat (2008). Or, indeed, the Mouse - if you believe my local coin shop which is distributing special "Year of the Mouse" collectible coins for the Australian Mint. Maybe mice are more socially acceptable to coin collectors? (You dirty rats!)

I was in the city for a Star Trek Meetup in the Royal Botanical Gardens but, on the way through the CBD, I passed all the marchers and floats preparing to start their huge Chinese New Year Parade. Perfect timing, and I couldn't resist firing off a few digital snaps for my Flickr account. Or as a slideshow!

Photographing colourful, waiting, assembled marchers proved to be quite effective - with all the outfits pressed against each other instead of stretched apart during the parade proper - although the dragon and lion dancers came alive with a magic that only moving footage would have been able to preserve.

The most amazing group was wearing grey, faceless costumes of the Terracotta Warriors. Very impressive.

Enjoy!










Sunday's magic number: 92.1. Tempted by food - all around me! But resisting anew. I hope.

To procrastinate, or not to procrastinate? That is the question!

If we blog so we can procrastinate about housework, career and taxes, what is it called when we procrastinate about blogging?

Actually, I haven't really been procrastinating about my blog, although I've only managed weekly posts so far in 2008. I've been very busy behind the scenes.

You see, the Sydney Webloggers Meetups seem to have gone defunct, since last July - assistant organiser Sara has been unwell and she even invited me to help organise a Meetup for her last August/October - but that was when I was galavanting off to Brisbane Trek conventions and a visit to Perth. Since then, the old site has been unresponsive and, with no one moderating its message board, there was no way to tell everyone that we should have another meeting.

So, I withdrew my leadership of the dismally-underpopulated "Lost" Meetup Group, struggling to find any members for the past year, and now I find myself running three Meetups groups: the successful Star Trek one; a fledgling, but growing, Art Modelling one (for artists and models of western Sydney to get together and collaborate on interesting art projects - we hope); and the all-new Bloggers of Sydney.

It's a big month! The Star Trek crew are next meeting up, like we did a year ago, in Darling Harbour for Australia Day; there's hopefully a life drawing session for the Art Modellers the next day; and - by then - the Bloggers will have already met on the preceding Thursday night for their inaugural gathering. As a result of forming the new Bloggers group, I was contacted yesterday by Aussie Bloggers, a new website officially launching on January 21st. It looks very interesting and should be a cohesive way of linking up with other Aussies with blogging in common.

And next week, the new JJ Abrams' movie, "Cloverfield" premieres. Hopefully Australia is getting the teaser trailer for JJ Abrams' currently-lensing "Star Trek" movie, similar to the plan for the USA cinemas! I can't wait, and "Cloverfield" sounds like fun, too. A monster movie - something terrifying ransacking Manhattan - and filmed in documentary, shaky cam-style, rather like the effects for "The Blair Witch Project". And by the man behind "Lost", "Mission: Impossible 3" and the new "Star Trek" movie!

Meanwhile, I am also working on a new book idea. And procrastinating about it.

Sunday's magic number: 91.5 - Well, I'm not really sure. The scales are being wacky today - maybe it's the hot, humid weather. It was my housemate's landmark birthday yesterday, so there was: a scrummy, but sensible, breakfast at the wonderful Mash cafe in Glenbrook in the lower Blue Mountains; a scrummy, but sensible, lunch in the Penrith Domayne centre; and a huge family barbeque last night. I did weigh myself yesterday afternoon, to see what damage the BBQ, alcoholic punch and birthday cake might cause, and the scales said 89.9, so I was thrilled! This morning, the numbers claimed I was 92.5 - several times - but eventually settled on 91.5. I knew I hadn't eaten that much! But maybe these scales are... unreliable. Yeah, blame the scales!

Waxing and waning

Last week I complained that my 50-100 visitors per day blog inexplicably fell to about 30 daily hits, which is way below what it even received when I was last on vacation (and nowhere near computer access).

Today, very strangely, and with no additional publicity or potent posts whatsoever, the stats suddenly doubled! Maybe Google Images had been down, or something? I certainly get a lot of site visitors through my Flickr! pics, and these get catalogued by Google. I'm realizing now that it was the referred links from pics that were lacking on the Site Meter data.

I find it quite fascinating, which is making me yearn, even more, for the Sydney-based Webloggers' Meet-up activities. The group has been strangely quiet recently, despite having 133 members at last count, although several are meeting as a spin-off Data Miners' Meet-up group. Now, I'm guessing that the data miners would know what's likely to be affecting my blogsite - numbers are their business, I think - but since I found myself quite out of their league at the regular Meet-ups, I'm not sure the level of conversation at a wholly data miners' meeting would be less scary and/or mathematical.

I'm seriously thinking of trying to run a Hobby Bloggists' Meet-up group through the Meet-up site, since many of those at the regular Webloggers' Meet-ups do their blogging professionally, but I am also having doubts that too many hobby bloggers will be any more free to meet in the CBD for drinks than those at the Meet-ups I run for Star Trek fans or Lost fans.

Faces old and new

My Star Trek Meet-up Group had another coffee meeting tonight and we were joined by three new first-timers, one a familar face from the old days of ASTREX. Nine members all up tonight, with several apologies.

The manageress of the coffee shop finally asked if we all knew each other from work, but she was genuinely surprised to hear that our common interest was the Internet, and that that had been what ultimately brought us together. She's seen our numerous past monthly meetings, where I've requested the furniture moved to create long tables, and then only four people show up!

I do find myself concerned over the fate of Star Trek fandom at the moment. There seems a great reluctance for people to make meeting fellow Star Trek fans a high priority in their lives. My group could only garner three attendees for our recent picnic afternoon. There was an almost-total lack of enthusiasm or interest - or even curiosity - from the traditional ACT and Brisbane fannish groups to the recent Sci-Nut conventions. In fact, the two lone QUEST members positioned behind their trestle table of QUEST fliers and merchandise at Onelia's Brisbane Star Trek day, last Sunday, threatened to outnumber the attendees who weren't already members of QUEST! And no one in the recently-formed, supposedly enthusiastic BrisScifi group, whom I met online recently, were able to coordinate themselves to drop by either. And the Sydney Webloggers' Meet-up Group seems to have gone stagnant, with my emails going unanswered and no new events scheduled. So disappointing.

Now, I do know it was Fathers Day in Australia that day but, in the good/bad ol' days, many geeky Trek Dads would have accompanied their families to a Star Trek event, or else the fans were so estranged from their families that a Star Trek day might have provided an excellent excuse not to attend traditional family lunches.

Hurry up with Star Trek XI, JJ!

Passing through

Tonight, the Sydney Star Trek Meetup Group had its latest get-together. It was fun to meet Yvonne, a UK backpacker on her last few days in Sydney. I love how a common interest in Star Trek can result in instant rapport among strangers.

... where skeletonised corpses lie!

Walking through the Sydney CBD last night (heading to the Star Trek Meetup at Darling Harbour after an almost-two hour car trip), and again today near Paddy's Market, I was stunned to see over 100 tattered remains of storm-ravaged umbrellas, abandoned in garbage bins, on steps of shops, or lying in gutters. Twisted skeletons of metal ribbing and sodden cloth.

Wow! That was some rain we got. As per usual, the garage here at home flooded - it just can't cope when the rain is so heavy and relentless. Luckily almost everything is up on stilts these days. But Australians can't complain about precipitation these days; like everyone, we all hope this turns out to be Week #1 of long-awaited drought-busting relief.

Into the soggy night...

My online Star Trek friends and I are heading off to Baia San Marco restaurant in Cockle Bay, Darling Harbour tonight. I was planning a leisurely ride in on the fast country train, curled up with a good Star Trek novel ("Vanguard: Reap the Whirlwind"), but my friend Rosalind is swinging by in a car to pick up her cache of wine, ordered at the Pieroth wine cruise last February (I bought plenty of my own, so wasn't tempted to sample hers, and it's been safely in storage while she was overseas).

So wish us luck as we take on the motorway in wet conditions, Friday-night-of-a-long-weekend, but hopefully in the opposite direction to commuter traffic.

After the restaurant, it's off to Pyrmont for an all-night marathon of ST episodes. Or snoring (not a comment on the episodes, but it's a 40+ thing I think; lots of Nanna naps to get through the session these days).

Lost in Sydney

Last night, seven intrepid members of the Sydney Star Trek Meetup Group rendezvoused at Star City Casino, Pyrmont, intending on having a meal together in the Garden Buffet but the queues were ridiculously long and we decided to relocate to the Casino's noodle bar instead.

Our eighth party member (a new person who'd only RSVPed a few hours earlier, and whose Internet profile pic is a startled, white-faced cartoon character) remained... lost. Of course, we had no idea who we were actually looking for. (Deja vu: the last meeting, we spent much of our time wondering about a different new member, who'd also failed to show up - and had similarly chosen to remain genderless and ageless in their online profile.) At least they had my mobile number, so we can only assume they just didn't make it.

Conversation turned to "Lost", the hit television show which shares its executive producer with the upcoming "Star Trek" movie. We decided that there was plenty of fan crossover potential for us to try expanding our regular "Star Trek" meetups to embrace "Lost" as well. It doesn't cost me any more to run two (or three) Meetup groups than one.

So...

Click here to check out
The Lost in Sydney Meetup Group!

Let the "Lost in Sydney" Meetups begin.

Locked in. D'oh!

Last night was my regular trip into the city, to collect my weekly comics stash, but it was also a gathering of the Sydney Webloggers' Meetup Group. I was only able to stay briefly as, making a progressive dinner, it was off to Pancakes at the Rocks by 8pm to farewell our new Danish friend, Jonas, who joined our Star Trek Meetup Group while he was on a study scholarship to Sydney. He's heading off to the USA on the next leg of his study tour. Lucky guy.

I came home on a late-night country train, desperately trying not to fall asleep, lest I end up in Katoomba or Lithgow. I was pretty tired by the time I reached my front door (my housemate went off on vacation that morning) and I had a sudden realisation that losing my keys would be a Really Bad Idea. I was holding the school library keys in one hand while I unlocked the front screen door and then the main door. As I entered my house, I could feel the keys in my hand as I turned the locking clip of the wire door from the inside... and shut the main door. But the deadlock was still locked, meaning that my only copy of the house keys were now locked on the other side, and between the two doors.

Turning to face Jack, my dog, who was wearing his I-need-to-do-wee-wee, real bad face, I had to console him that we were now both trapped inside the house - and it was 11.30 pm. I realised it was too late to ring a neighbour, and even if I could escape through a window, how could I retrieve my door keys from behind the security grill of the screen door? I mean, security grills are made to be secure, unless you are holding the key.

It's probably not sensible to describe in exacting detail just how I managed to retrieve the keys - all by myself, and with no injuries - at 11.45pm, but at least I can now hire myself out as a successful cat burglar. It was a good feeling, I can assure you. I even fooled Jack, who went ballistic when he heard someone rattling the front door in desperation.

With only 15 minutes left to blog by midnight, I decided letting the dog out into the back yard, and having a strong drink, were higher priorities than blogging my latest goof-up. I should confess, it's not the first time I've locked my keys out of reach in this exact way. (This was time #2.) But at least that other time, my housemate was only about an hour away from arriving home from work with his keys.

I have lots of new books, comics and magazines to review, and I haven't really even gotten around to doing a report on my recent vacation. (I'm also having fun browsing all the bookshops I find, cherrypicking titles from the 2007 Shortlist, of the Children's Book Council of Australia Awards, which will be announced next Book Week. Thanks to the previous teacher-librarian, we already had most of the picture book titles.) So much to blog about and so little time.

Happy First Contact Day

I didn't realise until tonight, but yesterday - the date of the Sydney Star Trek Meetup's overnight Star Trek Easter Marathon marks only 56 more years to go until First Contact Day. According to the movie, "Star Trek: First Contact", it will be 56 years filled with war, greed, and (per The Next Generation's premiere episode, "Encounter at Farpoint") the Post-Atomic Horror (famine, disease, pestilence, death, etc), but we hear it's worth the wait!

First stop was Galaxy Bookshop, followed by coffee in the Queen Victoria Building, and then dinner at the Meat & Wine Co. - I finally got to sample their famous "Chef's Skewer", which is truly a meat dish fit for any Klingon: large chunks of recently-stabbed meat, onion and capsicum, threaded onto a thick, hot, metal skewer and suspended from a skyhook, dripping rich barbeque sauce onto a tray of fries. Qapla!

Continuing from where we left off from the last viewing marathon, we watched the rest of Season One of TOS episodes, between drifting off for micro sleeps. Junk food, Easter eggs, alcohol, Coke Zero, "Star Trek Monopoly", hot cross buns, sourdough bread and brie, and the "Where No Fan Has Gone Before" episode of "Futurama", kept the ball rolling...

24 hours later and five members were still watching episodes and playing TNG Monopoly! Such stamina. (I came home to feed the dog.) A big thank you to Nate for letting us use his flat for the marathon. Great fun!

Captain's Log: Supplemental. Update via SMS: the intrepid five apparently went to bed at 4am on the morning of their second night of viewing, so they could catch some sleep b4 breakfast.

If it's Thursday...

What a rewarding time at work today. Two Kindergarten classes made their first official visit to the school library and, as teacher-librarian, I gave them a compressed version of all the activities I've been doing with the Stage 1 classes (Years 1 and 2). The topic for the term is "Nursery Rhymes", so we did "Little Miss Muffet" (starring my battery-operated, black, hairy Bungee Spider - he drops down from his web and crawls back up again!), and "Hey, Diddle Diddle" (featuring my handmade cardboard finger puppets).

We followed up with a reading of The Cat in the Hat, because Kindergarten will be otherwise engaged tomorrow afternoon during the time assigned for the national read-aloud.

This afternoon, as school finished and the playground filled with departing children and parents, several of my little first-time visitors returned, cloth library bag slung over a shoulder, hand inside Mum's or Dad's hand, to wave goodbye to me at the library door. Ten minutes later, when I was in the back office, I heard the pitter patter of little feet. Another first-time library patron had entered to announce, "I just needed to say 'Goodbye'. Goodbye!" And back out he went, the way he'd come. So cute! I wonder if I've made as big an impression on these young lives as my first teacher-librarian, the wonderful Janette McKenny, later Janette Mercer (when she married my Year 4 teacher, Milton Mercer!) did for me in 1967?

Tonight, the Sydney Star Trek Meetup Group had its second monthly midweek coffee shop meeting. Another rewarding experience. I'm looking forward to these Meetups very much. I'm in the city every Thursday night, anyway, and it's nice to have a regular group to commune with after a big shop-up at Galaxy Bookshop. Our next meeting, we return to Taronga Park Zoo.

Great company, glorious weather and fireworks to boot

Despite the massive Australia Day crowds at the Waterfront Bar (which started an entry surcharge of $5 per head about an hour after Nate arrived there), and the throngs on the Old Pyrmont Bridge when they opened it up to let the endless flotilla of ferries go through!), we had great company, new Star Trek friends, old Star Trek friends, glorious weather, and fireworks at our front door.

Baia San Marco's food was excellent as usual. They did not hurry us, despite being so busy, and that left lots of room for chatting - and dessert. When we couldn't get free access to the Waterfront, Baia even let us have our table one hour early!


ABOVE LEFT (clockwise from left to right): Sonia, Djura, Ben, Chris, AdamJ, Iarfirithwen and Caprica_Six. (After a few merlots, and with all the dark lighting, the photos are a bit fuzzy.)


Where would we be without mobile phones? They seem to be the only way to triangulate a group of friends coming together these days:

"Where are you guys? I'm in the queue at the door."

"We're over here. Table 38. We're waving at you now."

"Hey guys, I've been trying to get across the pedestrian bridge for 70 mins. Have you started dessert yet?"

"Where did you go, mate? I thought you only stepped out to see the fireworks?

And so on.

Thanks to all thirteen members who weathered the crowds and supported the first re-energized Sydney Star Trek Meet-up at Baia restaurant, plus the extra members who caught up with us after dinner.


ABOVE (from left to right): Ben, Chris, Therin of Andor and Paranoid Tailor.