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Trip Report Now Available!

Yes, it's been a long time coming.

I've put a lot of work into getting the report from my trip report finished, and I hope the result makes it worthwhile. I wanted the finished product to look really good, and I hope I've achieved that. We had a few copies at this year's Eastercon, Worldcon and Octocon, and the response has been great.

More copies are now on their way to Europe and Australia, and it will be on sale at future conventions.

To get a great finish, I used magazine printing from Blurb.com. If you'd like to order a copy by mail, it's much cheaper to order direct from them than to have them shipped to me and posted a second time. €5 from the price goes directly to the GUFF fund. Unfortunately, the shipping on single issues is pricey, so if you'd prefer to wait and pick it up at a con, it should be considerably cheaper.

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2012/13 GUFF Race Results

Here are the results of this year's race, with a total of 86 votes cast:

 EuropeanAustralasianOtherTotal
Julie McMurray195630
Mihaela Marija Perković3112649
No Preference4217

There were no first preference votes to hold over funds.

As Mihaela has received over 50% of the first preference votes, she is deemed to be elected as the 2013 GUFF delegate.

james's picture

GUFF Ballot 2013

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GUFF 2013 is now on. Candidates for the Europe to Australasia race are: Julie McMurray and Mihaela Marija Perković. You can vote via Paypal [see http://guff.lostcarpark.com/vote ] or send cheque (made out to 'GUFF') or money order or cash in person to James Shields. 7 The Way, Highlands, Drogheda, Co. Meath, Ireland ( email james [at] lostcarpark [dot] com); or Kylie Ding, 80A Forrest Street, FREMANTLE WA 6160, AUSTRALIA (email kylie_ding [at] hotmail [dot] com).

The ballot form, including candidates' 100 word platforms have been attached in PDF and Doc formats.

Voting ends on Monday, 7th January 2013 at 23:59GMT.

Please disseminate widely.

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GUFF 2013 - Call for Nominations

GUFF is the Going Under (or Get Up and Over) Fan Fund which transports SF fans from Europe to Australasia (and vice versa). Nominations are now open for the southbound race, to transport a European fan (or fans) to Conflux [ http://bit.ly/qoaFb9 ], the 2013 Australian National Convention (NatCon), to be held at the Rydges Capital Hill in Barton, Canberra, on 25th to 28th April 2013.

Depending on the length of trip they're able to make, the winner could also consider attending Swancon [ http://bit.ly/LS56VT ] in Perth (29th March to 1st April) and/or Au Contraire 2 [ http://bit.ly/O6BMe5 ] in Wellington (12th to 14th July). The winner will also be required to take over the administration of the fund for the next northbound and southbound races.

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What I said at the Hugos

Presenting the Hugo for Best Fanzine

I really meant to do this months ago, but got distracted.

Thanks to the miracle of the Internet the video of the full Hugo ceremony is just a click away.

In case it should cease to be available in the future, I though it would be a good idea to transcribe what I said when presenting the best fanzine award.

"I think one of the traditions which is unique to science fiction fandom is fanzines. I know there are fanzines in other fields, bit I think our ones are quite different and unique to us. I think it's something that has really defined us over the years. I think it's got easier with technology, but our standards have got higher. We enjoy each other's fanzines from other parts of the world, so for me it's a great honour to be presenting this year's best fanzine award. The nominees are..."

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Flying home

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Qantas Airbus A380

After a fun breakfast barbecue organised by Sue Ann and Trevor, we headed to Melbourne airport.

I had perhaps been a little ambitious in my packing, and the various souvenirs, and all the fan fund auction stuff put both my main bag and my carry on luggage over their limits. Oops. I slip away to remove a lot of books. I establish that I am allowed a laptop bag, so I get away with a couple of extra kilos that way.

I manage to get checked in on the second attempt, and head for a coffee with Sue'n'Trev. Soon it's time to say goodbye and go to find my plane.

After the security check I make my way to the gate. There she stands, the A380, huge and supreme in the afternoon sun.

It's quite an experience, even in economy class. There are a few neat features like a usb port for charging phones and things, and a network port that suggested internet might be available one day, through I couldn't find anything saying it could be used or what it would cost.

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Subiaco Library

The Tea Party by Shaun Tan

After a pleasant stroll around the Botanic gardens, we ended up in Subiaco library, where Shaun Tan has painted an amazing mural in the children's library. So I thought I should show it to you.

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Rottnest Island

Me on the Rottnest ferry

Rottnest Island is a small island 19km off the west coast of Perth (Perth doesn't really have any other ocast). It's 11km by 4.5km at the widest point. And it's populated by Quokkas - a sort of giant marsupial rat (the name rottnest comes from the Dutch explorer who discovered it, and mistook the Quokkas for rats).

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New hat

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My New Hat

Nothing to do with the GUFF trip or fandom, but I thought I'd show off my new hat thanks to McDonalds WiFi. I know it's corny, but I really wanted a crocodile Dundee hat with corks around the brim. But you can't get them apart from crap joke shop ones, so you have to make your own. The only problem is that now I like the hat too much to punch holes in it.

Expect to see it at a con near you.

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Oops, I seem to have started another convention...

Dublin 2014 Eurocon Bid

When I heard about the New Zealand NatCon, Au Contraire, a week before Aussiecon 4, this year's Worldcon, I thought it was a fantastic idea. I thought it was such a good idea that we should do something similar in Dublin for the London Worldcon bid in 2014.

I mentioned this idea to a few people back home before leaving, and got a very positive response. I then mentioned it to some people at conventions down under, and they all said they'd love to come to Ireland. So I guess I was committed to running it.

Then another idea came to light.

For both Glasgow Worldcons, the Eurocon was incorporated into the Worldcon, and I assumed this would also be the case for London. However, since 2005, Worldcon has moved to a 2-year bidding cycle, and at the time when the Eurocon bidding takes place in Zagreb, London won't yet have won the Worldcon bid, so it won't be a convention, and without a convention it can't bid for Eurocon.

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