Issue Number 54
  (February 2000)

1999 was a good year

Diary notes by Jean Weber

When last I published this fanzine (February 1999), Eric and I had celebrated our first Christmas in our new home, I'd bought a new car, my main computer needed parts, I'd been diagnosed as developing cataracts, and I'd set up a website for my professional and fannish interests.

Since then I've been having a great time working on things like writing a book (finished in September) and starting another, starting an e-mailed newsletter for technical editors, developing my editor's web site, setting up a web-based business with Eric (an e-mailed newsletter about travel in Australia, with an associated web site), and doing a bit of travelling. Meanwhile I've been neglecting my fannish activities.

The big news is that Eric and I have bought the motorhome for our trip around Australia (see We bought a motorhome).

Although I had a fair amount of paid writing and editing work during the first six months of the year, work dribbled off to very little, and all my other activities were taking up too much time, so at the end of November I decided to officially retire from the workforce. I don't expect this to make any practical difference in my life, except that I can now draw on my super-annuation (personal retirement fund). I'll still be doing odd jobs, writing books, running my websites, traveling, and generally over-extending myself as usual.

Selling a house (and burning bridges)

In February Eric and I drove my new car to Sydney and finished cleaning out his house in preparation for selling it. The tenants expressed strong interest in buying it, but never quite got organised to do so. Eric finally told the real estate agent to advertise the house, eventually got an offer and the sale was finalised in mid-November.

That was our (mainly Eric's) last tie to the Sydney region. Breaking it is an important part of our escape from the city. (And visiting the city again, despite some successful shopping and the enjoyment of seeing various friends, wasn't one of the high points of our year. We're really glad to be gone.)

February-March trip to Sydney

We had decided to drive to Sydney in February (rather than flying) partly so we could bring back another carload of stuff, and partly to do some sight-seeing along the coast of Queensland and New South Wales. Heavy rain along most of the coast foiled that part of the plan.

The first day or two driving south was fine, and then the storms arrived. We heard one day that a town (Gympie) in southern Queens-land that we'd passed through the day before was now flooded. (As we'd crossed the bridge over the river, I'd remarked how high the water level looked.)

We visited friends who'd moved last year from Sydney to the Byron Bay-Ballina area and they showed us around. The rain was only spitting a bit at that point, but the wind was strong. We watched hang-gliders jumping off the famous cliff at the Byron Bay light-house and hanging around in the strong (but not gusty) updraft. If the people doing tandem flights for tourists hadn't been booked out that after-noon, I would have gone for a flight too. (I've never tried it.) At one point a large seabird came by and inspected the gliders, presumably decided they weren't rivals on his territory, and went away again.

We looked at a few towns and beaches along the NSW coast, but the blustery wet weather didn't encourage us to linger.

In Sydney we got quite a bit done and saw some friends. The weather was mostly good while we were there, but on our way back, the rains came again. We did stop at the interesting museum at New Italy, about 50 km south of Ballina, but didn't stay in the Ballina area.

We'd intended to look around the Gold Coast and Brisbane area a bit (and I was going to talk with some technical writing recruiters), but the rain -- a heavy downpour -- really put us off. After a quick visit to the Beenleigh Rum Distillery south of Brisbane, and lunch at a Sizzler's, we fled north, skipping even a visit to Bundaberg.

Near Rockhampton, about 6 hours' drive from home, the weather started to lift, and around Mackay (2 hours away) the sun came out! It was like a "welcome home" sign!

Airlie Beach was hot and humid, but the air conditioning in our apart-ment worked and the view was wonderful (the clouds were decorative, not menacing). The Rainbow Lorikeets all flew in to demand food. (A few days later, now the middle of March, we got torrents of rain in Airlie Beach, but I was working indoors anyway, so it didn't matter.)

June: Townsville and north

In June Eric and I drove to Townsville (about 3-1/2 hours north of Airlie Beach) for the Campervan and Motorhome Club of Australia's annual rally. The weather was fine for that part of the trip and the day afterwards, and we managed not to get sunburnt despite spending hours wandering about the rally looking at rigs and talking to people.

Around 800 rigs showed up. Sizes ranged from converted VW kombi vans to converted Greyhound buses, and included lots of commercially-built things (like Winnebagos) as well as privately done jobs. We came away with far too many ideas, most of them incompatible with each other.

After the rally, we looked around Townsville for a day, got the car's airconditioning fixed (faulty seal), then drove up the coast to Cairns. Rain started again, and Eric had some sort of flu, so we gave up after a couple of days and went home.

The wet season lasted several months longer than is considered normal, at least along the coast.

July: Cairns, Cooktown, Atherton Tablelands

In July, encouraged by beautiful weather and no rain expected for a week or more, we set off again to Cairns. Our excuse was to visit all the big rental companies for motorhomes and campervans, thinking that we might buy an ex-rental vehicle.

When we arrived in Cairns (on a Wednesday afternoon), we learned that the Cairns Show was on Thursday and Friday, so there was no accommodation after Wed night (we'd intended to stay for at least 2 nights). We did manage to visit the major campervan rental companies (all of them located within a block of each other); that gave us plenty to think about and discuss for the rest of trip.

We drove up the coast to Mossman (on the edge of Daintree country), where we learned that the Mossman Show was on the weekend, and everything was booked from Friday night on.

So instead of staying there for 2 nights, we decided to press on to Cooktown (where Eric has never been). Arrived there on Friday afternoon to discover that the Cooktown Races were on the weekend, so no rooms were available on Saturday. Meanwhile the weather continued beautiful.

We decided not to see how far we could get up the Cape York Development Road in a non-4WD vehicle, and headed back to the Atherton Tableland. In Mareeba, we finally found room at the inn (their show had been the week before) and stayed for 2 nights, doing some bushwalking on Sunday. Monday morning we decided we'd had enough (and clouds were gathering), so we drove on home.

You can read more about this trip, and see a few photographs, here: http://www.avalook.com.au/northqld/cairns99/index.htm

That was the trip which really convinced us that we needed our own motorhome. We could have just parked in a roadside camping area (along with many other people doing the same thing) and not worried. Also, looking wistfully at the road up to Cape York, we said to each other, "We really must get a 4-wheel-drive." Thus was our fate sealed (read on...).

August: visitors before Aussiecon

At the end of August and beginning of September, the big event was, of course, Aussiecon, preceded and followed by visits from various overseas friends.

On August 16 our first visitors, Greg Benford and his companion Elisabeth Malartre, arrived. Gay and Joe Haldeman, with Rusty Hevelin in tow, arrived two days later.

Photo to left: Joe and Gay Haldeman. Photo to right: Rusty Hevelin.

Greg Benford is interesting, but after the Haldemans arrived, he went into lecture mode rather often, which got boring real fast. Fortunately Joe, Gay, Rusty and Elisabeth were all delightful, so I enjoyed everyone's visit.

We did various touristy things, including a boat trip to some of the islands, and ate out at some of the restaurants that Eric and I hadn't been to before (all very nice).

Elisabeth's credentials are: land use consultant and science writer with a PhD in biology. Not only was she very pleasant and interesting to talk to, but she was as good as having a natural history guide visiting -- she identified our "eagle" as an osprey, after it conveniently flew by (fish dinner clutched in talons) one evening, and told us interesting things about all sorts of animals, birds and insects that we encountered.

I was in the last stages of writing my book at that point, so I didn't participate in many of the daytime activities of the group, but one advantage of being visited by a collection of writers is that they understand the situation and are not offended. In fact, we celebrated Joe's completion of a book that same week, and both Joe and Greg were emailing stories and other writing to various editors. Photo to left: Greg Benford and Elisabeth Malartre.

Other celebrations that week were for Gay and Joe's wedding anniversary and Eric's and my new web-based business, Avalook.

Meanwhile we enjoyed the winter sailing season here in Airlie Beach, when the weather is extremely pleasant and hoards of southerners start fleeing the cold. We don't sail (though Eric keeps talking about joining a group); instead we watch the yacht races from our balcony.

Many winter visitors arrive in boats, but one Friday night a collection of weird cars rolled into town. They were the Variety Club's fun race, one of several annual Australian charity events involving old cars, fixed up in odd ways, travelling mostly along the back roads.

September: Aussiecon and visitors after

We enjoyed the con and managed to avoid doing any real work on it, except for organising one party. I saw lots of old friends and many people I've corresponded with for years but never met. It was a thoroughly enjoyable week, except for getting the Melbourne flu.

Photo to right: Chris Callahan, Jean, and Dick Roepke at Aussiecon Three. Chris and Dick (from Maryland in the USA) invited me to my first-ever sf convention, Aussiecon, in 1975 -- so I like to say that my involvement in fandom is all their fault!

After the con, we had two sets of visitors. The first were Tom Whitmore and Marci Malinowycz. Eric took them sailing and sightseeing while I worked on my book and attempted to recover from the flu I'd picked up in Melbourne.

One highlight of their visit was an evening at the brand-new (and only) sushi bar in Airlie Beach. We sat at the bar in front of the sushi chef (instead of at one of the tables), shared our sake with him, and maintained a running commentary about sushi. I had a great time and learned a lot, in addition to enjoying some yummy food. Photo to left: Tom Whitmore and Marci Malinowycz.

A few days after Tom and Marci left, Elaine Normandy and Jack Heneghan arrived. Eric and I had a pleasant 3-day visit on a catamaran to the islands and the outer Great Barrier Reef in their company, but my throat virus had turned into an ear infection, so I wasn't feeling very chipper (I thought it was seasickness at first, despite very calm seas). You can read more about our trip on the Pacific Star at http://www.avalook.com.au/pacstar/index.htm

I very much enjoyed the opportunity to visit with both Elaine and Jack, and I hadn't had much chance to talk with Jack before -- he was away on business most of the time I was visiting Elaine a couple of years ago. Photo to left: Eric, Jean, Jack Heneghan, and Elaine Normandy after our trip on the Pacific Star.

The last of our expected overseas visitors (jan howard finder) showed up in early October. I was busy finishing my book, so Eric took jan off to show him the town and do athletic things like paddling outrigger canoes at 6 AM. Photo to right: jan howard finder on sailing vessel Illusions.

October: My first book is launched

I managed to finish the book and get it off to the printer in Sydney on time, so I was off to Sydney again (by air this time) in late October for the annual 2-day conference of the Australian Society for Techni-cal Communication (NSW).

This year the highlight for me was launching my book at the cock-tail party on the first night. I sold more copies than I'd expected to, but not as many as I'd hoped.

The bad news was that the printer did a lousy job. Fortunately I discovered this in time to have some of it fixed before the launch, but I was extremely annoyed, not least because I had not accepted the lowest quote. It's a long story; no need to go into the gory details here.

The book is titled Electronic Editing -- to go with e(lectronic) mail and e(lectronic) commerce. It's for editors who receive and send files over the inter-net, edit files on their computers (instead of, or in addition to, printing them out and marking on paper), and sometimes have to work in a word processing or desktop publishing program they are not very familiar with, because that's what the client wants. So it's got some general stuff (that applies no matter what software you're using) plus several chapters on specific software, mainly gleaned from my notes from when I had to become an overnight expert on a program.

I'm marketing it through my editors' website, newsletter and internet discussion lists. The plan is to sell mainly the downloaded version (print it yourself), which is less hassle for me. I haven't managed to find a way to get copies printed and distributed in North America. Shipping them from Australia costs too much, and I don't want to deal with sending out stuff any more than I have to. I'd rather pay someone to take care of that end, while I write another book.

If you're interested, visit http://www.jeanweber.com/bookshop/ e-edit.htm

On 17 October I celebrated living in Australia for 25 years. Emigrating was definitely one of the best decisions I ever made.

I'm now working on a book with the working title of Editing Online Help. My original intention was to have it done before I left for my trip to the USA in February, but for several reasons it's dropped down the priority list and getting badly behind schedule.

Avalook at Australia

Eric's and my new venture is a travel website named Avalook. We've been incubating this idea for some time, but finally (on that trip in July) we thought of a name that was short, memorable, and not taken.

I hastily filed the forms for business name registration, and as soon as that arrived (several weeks later) I applied for the domain name. That came in quickly. Meanwhile I'd cobbled together a page for the site, so I could upload that immediately, and printed some flyers and business cards.

We've developed the site since then, but it's still rudimentary. We have a lot of material, but little time in which to organise it. My main interest is in our e-mailed newsletter, which I send out every two weeks. My original idea was for a newsletter with an associated web site, but the website is very seductive. Real Soon Now I'll get the business plan written, especially the part about how we're going to make this venture pay for itself. We have lots of notes.

Here's the address for the website: http://www.avalook.com.au/

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We bought a motorhome

The big news is that Eric and I have bought the motorhome to use for our trip around Australia. The purchase followed months of discussions and searching, and weekly complete changes in the specifications we wanted. The problem was easy but the solution wasn't: we needed a small vehicle (preferably 4-wheel-drive) with the internal dimensions of a Greyhound bus. Obviously this was impossible (Tardises not being commercially available), so we looked at compromises: large, small, expanding....

Finally, the right vehicle presented itself, so we bought it. It's custom-built (by its previous owner) on a 4WD truck body and is approx. 27 feet long and weighs 11.5 tonnes. You can see the photo in color at http://www.avalook.com.au/motorhom.htm

The previous owner delivered it to us, and it's parked at a storage place nearby. Before we could legally drive it, we had to get truck drivers' licenses. It's certainly a different experience from driving my car! Other vehicles (mostly smaller) now give way to us, instead of trying to run us off the road.

USA trip in 2000

Eric and I are attending Corflu and Potlatch in Seattle in February-March, visiting my parents before the cons and spending a few days in Las Vegas afterwards.

UK trip in 2001??

Eric and I are standing for GUFF, the fan fund that operates between Australia-New Zealand and Europe (mainly the UK). It typically funds a trip every two years instead of every year like DUFF and TAFF do.

Health news

We're both fine, though the cataract in my right eye has been giving me double-vision problems. I'm booked to have the operation in March, a week after we get back from the USA. This will delay our travel plans because I'm not allowed to go into dusty conditions for at least six weeks after the operation -- that eliminates most of outback Australia!