Monday, August 13, 2007

It was the best of times and it was the best of times...

I've just spent five days in Sydney at the Romance Writers of Australia yearly conference and it was an absolute blast. I adore Sydney. Beautiful weather, a city surrounded by either water or park, and Jenny Crusie and Anne Stuart as your personal writing mentors for the weekend . How can you go wrong?

Well there's the $10 they charge you just to stand on the airport train station platform (not including ticket!), and perhaps the way everything seems to cost twice as much as it does here, but other than that, it's a beautiful beautiful town.

Statistics gathered from the conference include

Number of times that I...

Downed a bucked-sized cocktail in the bar: 2

Spilled something on my top: 6

Chewed on complimentary mentos while listening to speakers : 0 (hard to believe, isn't it?)

Bought a book: 7

Told my husband I'd won a book in a raffle: 7

Turned to the person next to me while Jenny Crusie was teaching and said 'that's pure gold' :5

Had writing epiphanies :4

Won a raffle/door prize : 0 (you'd think that would be humanly impossible considering the number of tickets I bought)

Spotted the Sydney Harbour Bridge: 4


Found a fabulous Cafe/Foodstore: 1 (thanks Gusto in Paddington!)

Whined about the fact that my pants don't fit: 25

Ate the donut anyway: 2


--000---

One of the highlights of the entire trip was watching amazing writer and fabulous friend, Melanie Scott, win the prestigious and much coveted Emerald Award. I think I was more nervous than she was on the night, but I guess when you've weathered being a double Golden Heart finalist, you can do anything. And what was really hilarious and kind of touching was that she was so surprised to win that she hadn't even prepared a speech, and sat in a total daze for fifteen minutes afterwards. Which was lucky for me, because she didn't notice that I'd totally scoffed her flourless chocolate cake.

And then there's Keri - who hit the extended NYT Bestseller list AGAIN with the wonderful Embraced by Darkness.

There's nothing better than a friend's success. It makes me smile just thinking about it.

9 comments:

Kiki said...

I love celebrating my friends' successes. Each year, I meet more people, which means I have more people to cheer for at the awards dinner. It's the best feeling!

If you think about it, you get all the good stuff. It's not *you* who's up tehre in the spotlight, but you still get to anticipate and celebrate (and I totally hear you on stealing their cake...).

Did you come home without a cold? Seems like everybody caught some nasty bug over their aircon... >_<

M.J. said...

You stole my cake?? Really? I so didn't notice. Sneaky VT is you.

But how come the cake stealer doesn't get the flu and I do? Unfair. Or maybe it's because my mentos scoffing number was closer to 2.3 trillion : )

Matilda said...

Let's have breakfast so we can hear all about it!!!! Congratulations to your friend Mel. You must be so proud of her... I'm proud of her and i don't even know her! I wish her all the best! And I look forward to seeing you soon!

Robyn Enlund said...

Hey kiki! It was great to meet you, if only briefly :-)
I came home with an extra few kilos, but no cold (thank goodness). But Mel got it.

And hey Ms Matilda. We'll go to brekky really soon. There's a great place in Fitzroy.....

Anonymous said...

Wonderful writing! Love your sense of humor. -- wildjusticelgf@yahoo.com

Robyn Enlund said...

Hey there, AGLT. Thanks :-)

Anonymous said...

It always gets back to food, I see! Keep up the truly great writing. Very alive, very honest. What a lovely person you must be.

Matilda said...

aglt, lovely and then some! I'm proud to be her sister-in-law!

Robyn, you're the best! Breakfast soon, yes!!!!

M.J. said...

aglt, Robyn is one of the loveliest people around. No-one could ask for a better friend (I'll even happily let her eat my flourless chocolate cake...there's a mark of respect!)