(no subject)

Remember, everyone coming to Conflux, that you get to celebrate your leap year day then (at the banquet). Which reminds me, I have to update my who-is-testing-what list. There's about four weeks (maybe five) for that initial testing to be finished, which means that an awful lot of recipes are flying around looking strange. It also means that my shopping list is going to be interesting for the next little while.

I keep thinking it's already March and that I ought to be evaluating my February. I was embarked upon a wild month of various forms of sleep most of February (as a legacy of January) but everyone already knows that.

What's more important is that a number of old and good friends contacted me out of the blue this month. If all goes well, I should be seeing one of them in just a couple of weeks. We joked that every five years we have one intense and very long conversation and we catch up on everything. I haven't seen David since I was in LA, so this will be cool.

Now all I have to do is engineer a visit by all my other old friends, or make sure I see them when I travel. They're all friends of twenty years or more standing, so it's going to be interesting doing catch-ups. We've already ascertained that we're the same people, underneath. Some married, some not. Some divorced, some changed careers. Now all we have to do is work out what this all means. Besides more friendship. We already know there's friendship in our shared futures.

(no subject)

Today has been phonecall day. The Canberra day weekend is going to be entirely lovely.

I'm teaching writers blogging stuff (including a run-down of cool terminology so they can sound impressively knowledgable) at the ACT Writers' Centre on the Saturday. We already have enough students to make it completely viable and I get to explore Gorman House Markets during lunchtime. Last time I taught on a Saturday at Gorman House I managed to get hold of some cool historical cooking equipment .... which I have yet to use. No, that last sentence was not really relevant to the earlier part of the paragraph, but footnotes are exhausting so you get strange topics shifts instead. Also lazy punctuation. I can write rationally and sensibly, but today I choose not to.

On the Sunday my favourite organic fruit farm is having an open day. Jonathan calls it a sort-of-Open-Day because he can't have everyone wander through the orchard, due to insurance. Actually, it's two sort-of-Open-Days, since Saturday is also open.

I have no idea if I can get to Pialligo Apples (it all depends on friends with cars and so far I haven't asked anyone) but there are a few historical varieties of apples ripe now. I missed the ones I covet the most: they ripened in January when I was busy writing and travelling. Anyhow, there are seriously cool apples in Pialligo and you should go even if I can't. Drop in on the way or a couple of days before and I'll give you a cuppa and some medlar liqueur for Jonathan. I need him to sample my medlar liqueur and I have no idea how to get it to him. He says the medlar crop is looking good this year, but it will be 2-3 months before it's ready to pick.

Speaking of liqueurs - and alcohol in general - Purim coincides with Easter this year (and Anzac Day coincides with Passover *and* my birthday). If anyone is free on Good Friday and wants to drop round, I will be serving medlar liqueur in the evening. Let me say this very clearly: it is religiously incumbent upon me to get drunk on Purim and this year it just happens to coincide with Good Friday. So me getting drunk is not being rude to Christians - it's respecting my own religion.

I will also have teas and coffees and hot chocolate and tap water for anyone not alocholically inclined, and friends can bring their own mixed drinks.

A group of us had been thinking about a RPG, but I honestly think too many people will be away over Easter for that to work. If the RPG happens, it will happen another night - on that particular Friday I plan to do the right thing and drink. I don't actually drink much - just a sample of each of the four varieties of medlar liqueur will probably be religiously sufficient. (Yes, I made four types.)

I also intend to make traditional dishes such as Haman's Ears and Haman's pockets and maybe Haman's toes. Male visitors are welcome to cross-dress, but it's optional.

All this makes it sound like a big thing, when really, it's not. It's a minor but fun festival and I intend to celebrate it in a minor but fun way. With poppyseeds. With alcohol. And, if I end up drinking alone, with Fiddler on the Roof. True friends save other friends from drinking alone to Fiddler on the Roof.