(no subject)

Welcome kaaronwarren to the land of the blog. She dipped her toe in the water here and quite obviously none of my friends did their duty in scaring her off.

What's really cool about having a blog from Kaaron is she's about to go to Fiji for two years and this means we get to hear bunches about what she is up to. Except if she runs into anyone I know, I don't want to read evil stories about my past - got that Kaaron?

(no subject)

Three matters of great import have emerged this afternoon.

First the Australian Speculative Fiction Carnival is at nrm1970. I look at the sheer number of wonderful things in it and I weep. Why do I weep when it means great reading for days to come? Because it's my turn to host next month...

The second matter of great import is that I have sourced 99.5% chocolate in Australia. Suitable for fascinating historical cookery. Big jubilations.

Now for the embarrassing bit (all the news of great import contains at least one sting in the tail). Some of you will know I have talked to chocolatiers in Melbourne and Sydney, trying to get a supply of unadulterated (or nearly unadulterated) chocolate for historical cooking. I spoke to the super-nice guy in Katoomba and he managed to find out for me that it was supplied to some people in Australia, but he couldn't say whom. And today I found it. In Kingston. When I was on an excursion witha friend and we were after bread and cheese (but we forgot that the Silo bakery is closed on Sunday). Not at a chocolate speciality shop at all. The Essential Ingredient stocks it.

For non-Aussies, The Essential Ingredient is a gourmet food shop with outlets in several cities. I could have gone there two years ago and bought the chocolate.

While this is embarrassing for me, it *does* mean that when I test some recipes you don't have to look on and say "But I can't get the ingedients." I will blog successful recipes on my new food history blog ( http://www.foodpast.com ). Who knows, I might blog unsuccessful recipes there as well. If I feel extra-jubilant the excitement will sneak onto this blog cos all my friends are here.

On a sad note, the chocolate speciality shop in Kingston uses syrup to give its hot chocolate a cinnamon flavour. I can still feel the 'too much liquid sugar' aftertaste, and I finished my hot chocolate over an hour ago.

The third matter of import is definitely the biggest personally. The last comments have come in on my Varuna/Winchester novel and they are *exceptionally* useful (thank you, Russell!!). He brought together the comments of other readers and made me see what I could do about them. His comments are also exceptionally positive. I am banned from telling myself I can't write for at least twenty-four hours. Self please note.