LABOURS OF LOVE As predicted, it has been a while since the last Mumblings -- three and a half years, in fact. Numerous factors have conspired to delay this issue and most of these will become evident as you read. One which will not occurred late last year and caused me to consider rewriting much of what I had ready by then. But labours of love cannot be denied and I've decided to save the bad news for the next issue. For now, without further ado, I give you...a brief aside. If you get a feeling of deja vu whilst reading this issue, don't be surprised. The issue before last (#12) opened with the birth of a baby, continued with a trip report (of sorts) featuring an On-line conference in Sydney, included material on early Aussie fanhistory, ran some letters, and ended with scenes of Thylacon, the sf convention in Hobart. Over the past few years, all of the above has happened again, as you will see. In order of importance, we begin with a real labour of love. The new baby, Lauren Aphra Nelson-Lee, was born on October 8, 1998. That's her on the cover, of course, and opposite*. Cute, ain't she? She's a great kid and Ella is chuffed to be a big sister. The circumstances of their births were quite different. Lauren's actually occurred pretty much according to the "plan" we'd had in mind for Ella's -- inasmuch as these things can be planned. We did plan the support crew for the birth. We had to, since (1) it included my mum and (2) my mum lives on the other side of Australia. Choosing the dates for her stay thus became a bit problematic. If we waited until Megan went into labour, it would likely be all over before my mum was half way across the continent. The airlines aren't terribly sympathetic to situations like this; they wanted firm dates. So we took a guess, allowing for the fact that Ella had been late, but knowing that second births are usually easier, and consequently quicker, than first births. Lauren, demonstrating a remarkable independence of mind at an age yet to be measurable in positive numbers, had ideas of her own. She held on, and held on. Mom had lots of fun entertaining Ella -- and less fun helping around the house, probably -- but we all started to wonder if she was going to miss the birth itself. The morning of her booked departure date, the travel agent rang to say she had been able to push back the date by calling in a favour. Whew! This was such a relief that it may have affected Megan's biological clock. Whatever the reason, I was up a plum tree trimming branches later that day when Megan stepped out to say things were happening. I put our bags in the car, we rang our midwives Elaine and Jean to say we were on the way and then everyone piled in for the short drive to the Launceston Birth Centre. In the years since Ella's birth, the Queen Victoria Hospital had been closed and the birth centre in the same building transferred to a renovated home across the street from the Launceston General Hospital. The logistics involved mean that the birth centre has become a less attractive option for many, since it's a slightly longer, and exposed, trip to the hospital maternity wing if anything goes wrong during the birth. We still preferred the birth centre, though, and all of the signs were good so we met Jean there. Elaine was detained at another birth in the LGH. Megan hopped into the bath as soon as we arrived since she recalled during her labour with Ella, that this provided greater comfort than either the pethidine or nitrous oxide gas. As it turned out, xxxxxxx * See note on bottom of p.l5 - 2 - --------------- THE FACE OF THE FUTURE NELSON-LEE; Lauren Aphra - Megan and Chris. are delighted to -apnounce the birth of a sister for Ella, October 8, 1998 at the Launc ceston Birth Centre. -Many thanks to Doris, Elaine, Jean and Gerard. - she didn't need any drugs this time. After just a few hours, she was fully dilated and ready to push. I hopped in the bath to give her what help I could. Before long we were startled to see a mass of dark hair which just grew larger and larger with Megan's exertions. Jean eventually stopped her to check that the umbilical cord was not wrapped around the baby's neck -- about the only intervention in the whole procedure. And then, with a last mighty effort from Megan...we had another baby! The contrast in births could not have been much greater. Distressed by a knotted umbilical cord and long labour, Ella Frances had had a forceps delivery in a hospital maternity ward and spent two days there. Lauren Aphra entered the world in a warm bath and came home the next day. And her name? We chose Lauren, in part, after the actor Lauren Bacall and because it sounds nice with her middle name. Aphra came first, at Megan's suggestion. Aphra Behn was a fascinating character who lived in the 17th century. Raised in the West Indies, she married in London at the age of 18 but her husband died eight years later. She became a spy for Charles II in The Netherlands, but he never rewarded her for her services and she wound up being jailed for debt. She began to write -- poetry, novels and plays -- to support herself and in so doing she become the first English woman to earn her living as a writer. Her wit and talent, not to mention her association with many scandals of the time, gained her great popularity. A perfect role model for any young woman! Lauren has been the biggest change to our lives over the past few years, but there have been others. Before her arrival, the circumstances of my employment changed considerably, for several reasons. Early in 1996 my boss retired. I had known that she was thinking about this but the timing still had an element of surprise in it. Knowing that she would be retiring at some time in the future, I had decided to increase my chances of succeeding her by gaining a management qualification. She encouraged me in this, but then, before the first unit of my course began, she handed in her notice. Her position was advertised, I applied and was fortunate enough to land it. Despite the appointment being made on a 1-year contract basis (a point only revealed at interview) and at a considerable drop in salary, I was quite happy with this result. Not least because, quite frankly, I felt I'd been making a reasonable contribution to our work for a while. My new boss was quite happy, too, no doubt in part because she was gaining quite a budget saving (as well as a first class librarian, of course). More importantly, to me, was that the library staff seemed genuinely pleased, which made it easier to implement a number of changes which we all felt were overdue. No sooner was I in the job, however, when I was told to plan for its demise. Senior management had become enamoured with the possibility of merging our library with that of the adjacent University of Tasmania and I was directed to cooperate fully with UTas staff preparing estimates of how much this would cost. In truth, this did not come as a big surprise. The suggestion had been made several times in the past and the limited nature of my contract forewarned me that something like this was brewing. I dutifully provided all of the facts and figures required, attended numerous meetings to discuss options, and then left the matter in the hands of whatever gods there be. In the meantime I also had to find someone to do my former job. This proved easier said than done. To cut a long story short, we did eventually find a library graduate who was not completely adverse to cataloguing, but only after three months of searching. It was a busy time. - 4 - So, the rest of 1996 was spent training Andrew in my old job, learning a new job myself, and planning to do away with both. At the same time I was studying the management units I had already committed myself to. Rank doth have some privileges, though. For one thing, it was now easier to justify attendance at professional conferences. The next one I attended was early in 1997, in Sydney. I can't remember many details of the presentations made at Online 97. I enjoyed the conference and trade exhibition, but it seemed to lack the energy and excitement of the 1995 conference. Perhaps I was preoccupied with other things. One of these would have been study. One of my management units was taken over that summer semester and I had an exam to sit a few days after returning from the conference. I was finding it hard to keep up with my reading at home, so I hauled all of the texts, guides and readers to Sydney in the hope of catching up. I purposely booked into the lowest grade hotel I could find, one devoid of televisions, telephones and any other things which might distract me. The room I had was just large enough to contain a single bed, a side table and a chair.