There were flying Welsh socialist monkeys flipping coins in the shadows of an unknown flying airship.

In short, the day was great.

With length, the day was really great. I woke up with that familiar thought "I wonder if I'd get in too much trouble if I slept through it?" only to realise I wasn't going to Uni, but heading towards Brisbane to meet up with a group of other people I had never met before in my life. (Not including a brief encounter with Kaldeko on my highschool bus, apparently!) My nerves and excitement got the better of me, and I got out of bed.

Two hours later, the Mothership and I navigate the streets of Brisbane (by me totally disregarding any of her directions and getting to intended destination alot sooner), finding a carpark and racing towards organised meeting place. Stupidly enough, I hadn't really stopped to think about said meeting place til I was halfway to Brissy, but, luckily enough I remembered some shit about a fountain and the casino. Oh, and I brought the Farseekers book with me, just to identify myself as a complete geek!

I spotted Nicola and Kaldeko, or rather, they spotted me looking bewildered and from that moment the chatter started. It was a who's who of online screennames and real life nicknames. Kaldeko (Sarah), Nicola (Nicola), Sas (Sarah), Astra (Lauren), Melanie (Mellanina) and I spent 15 minutes swapping customary titles before embarking on a quest for sushi (Sue-see anybody?) and coffee.

The day past rather quickly, as the next time I looked at my watch it was 1.30pm after wandering out of the Brisbane Writers Festival blinking in irritation as I had yet again forgotten to take my damn sunglasses out of my bag. The panel we went to was really fantastic, and I was very happy that they dragged me along to it. I cant remember all four of their names but I know that they all spoke extremely well, especially the first chicky who spoke about the mysteries of history and things going bump in the night. After we got out of the Brisbane Museum, it became necessary to take some strange photos, which required me to become very humble and damn near kiss the ground.

No, this is not an exercise in religious humility... I'm trying to take a damn photo.

Sas then had the bright idea of actually ASKING somebody to take it for us, which saved me getting gravelrash on my face again. Yay for Sas the humanitarian! She even gives balloons to small children!!! Unfortunately, we had to say goodbye to Nicola who was abducted by Slavers and taken to her workplace to sell fattening carrot cake to dieting extremists (who should have been eating Mud Cake anyway).

To Southbank then, for a brief wander around the markets and a seat right near the crystal waters of the Brisbane River. *scoff* With icecream and drinks (some of us, anyway) we then sat down and continued our discussion from the morning coffee session. It seemed like we had known each other for ages, as the chatter didn't have any of those uncomfortable lulls that usually happen. Instead, we laughed and joked like old friends. (Which, I guess in a sense, we were!) My summary of said conversation is as follows:

Lauren is magnetic, but only in one direction. She really knows how to attract those serviettes! Sarah (Kaldeko) is quite talented at scaring the living shit out of poor possums and Bat-people, while Mel is somewhat of a caffeine junkie who shares my hatred of early morning classes. Its such a pity she's studying Maths!! :-P Meanwhile, Sas had everything under control, just dont phone her up for sex!!!

All in all, it was a damn good day!
Glad I woke up for it!

Jac.