Jean and Eric ’Avalook at the UK GUFF 2001 Trip Report Published by: Eric Lindsay and Jean Weber Contents (First draft written by Eric; edited and amended by Jean; most photos taken by Jean, some by Starting the trip............................................ 1 Eric, but all digitially processed by Jean.) Corflu - the path to fandom.......................... 3 An earlier version of this trip report is online Arrival in the UK .......................................... 5 (HTML) at http://www.ericlindsay.com/guff/ Eastercon - Paragon ..................................14 Printed copies are available for a suitable donation from: Visit with Skel and Cas...............................19 Eric Lindsay and Jean Weber Scotland.....................................................22 P.O. Box 640 Wales.........................................................30 Airlie Beach, Qld 4802 Australia Southwestern England ...............................33 [email protected] Southeastern England................................36 or from Wiscon .......................................................39 Paul Kincaid European GUFF administrator Return to Australia .....................................42 60 Bournemouth Road Reflections .................................................46 Folkestone, Kent CT19 5AZ, UK [email protected] Background of GUFF (previous administrators & nominees) ....49 Please make your cheque or money order payable to GUFF. We can take A$, US$, UK£. Other Websites to visit: For other currencies, ask us or use one of the Jean and Eric’s Australia travel site, Avalook online payment options given on http://www.avalook.com.au/ http://www.ericlindsay.com/guff/donate.htm Jean’s professional site for technical editors: You can download this report in PDF from http://www.jeanweber.com/ http://www.efanzines.com/. Please make a donation if you download it. Who’s who on the cover: L-R, top-bottom: Lilian Edwards, Alison Freebairn, Please support GUFF by buying trip reports, Brian Ameringen, Caroline Mullen, Christina Lake, donating, bidding at United Fan Fund auctions, Doug Bell, Steve Davies, Ian Sorenson, John or buying books and fanzines from our website. Harvey, Eve Harvey, Alison Scott, Stephen Cain, Giulia de Cesare, Greg Pickersgill, Claire Brialey, Maureen Kincaid Speller, Judith Hanna, Catherine © Copyright 2002 Eric Lindsay and Jean Weber McAuley, Dave Langford, Paul Kincaid, Mark Plummer, Joseph Nicholas. Here’s a sketch map of where we went. Starting the trip It’s traditional to start a trip report with the “getting there” stage. In our case, “getting there” is convoluted and includes a stop in Boston for Corflu 2001. This section covers the part from Airlie Beach to Boston. When booking the international flights for our where we live. Lots of tourist items there, but not GUFF trip, we found that the cheapest fare was on Australian made ones such as we wanted. There United Airlines, going through the USA both ways. was certainly no chance of finding good chocolate This suited us, as we usually fly with United. (We in Airlie. We would have discovered that long ago ended up with a slightly higher fare, for our own had it existed. convenience, but we paid the extra ourselves.) So Ron Serdiuk’s SF and mystery shop Pulp we went to the UK by way of Boston for Corflu. Fiction was in the general area, so after the chocolate shopping we searched for it. Had a great Monday 26 March 2001 time over lunch talking with Ron, whom we had not seen since the madhouse that was Aussiecon We had to leave from Proserpine two days Three. At least his bookshop seems to be managing before our international flight. It was a slow season to continue, despite the GST and the latest drop in for tourists where we live, so Flight West unexpect- value in the Australian dollar. It appears that edly cancelled all but two flights each week when Brisbane will not be afflicted by a category killer we were intending to leave. The remaining flights store like Borders, now established in Melbourne, were not on convenient days for us. Full service and I believe contemplating opening in Sydney. resumes, naturally, just after we were due to depart. Back to Toombul for a second feed at Sizzlers. The good news was a seriously reduced cost for a We were sticking to breakfast and a very late lunch one-way ticket to Brisbane, more than enough to as our only meals each day to start the trip, in cover the cost of an extra night in a motel. anticipation of US food quantities. I sometimes think We even had a phone call from the airline, our primary purpose in stopping in Brisbane is to asking whether we were really travelling on that day eat at Sizzlers. as their plane was full. Flight West must have really There appeared to be a rock (music, not been full, as they used their 90 seat Fokker, the geology) group at the Toombul shopping centre, largest plane they have, and they only have two of surrounded by a screaming crowd. We retreated in that model. It is, of course, horribly cramped in the some haste. They had a typically memorable rock seats. type name, so naturally I can’t remember. Brain This slow departure gave us an evening in Damage, or Silent Shouting, or Noise Level or Brisbane, to catch up on sleep, a chance of a meal something. They could have been Deaf Mutes for at Sizzlers at the Toombul shopping centre, within all the luck they would have had being heard over walking distance from the motel, and time to go the screaming. shopping in Brisbane city. Unfortunately, as we were leaving home, Eric had discovered the pull-up handle on his bag must Wednesday 28 March 2001 have been destroyed by a previous trip, so we Our seat allocation on Ansett was a bit spent some time when we reached the shopping mucked up. They couldn’t give us our international centre inspecting travel bags. He wanted a slightly boarding passes, only the one to Sydney. (Jean’s larger bag, given the way the old small bag bulged comment: the last time this happened to me, the with winter coats, and copies of fanzines and flyers flight from Sydney (to San Francisco) turned out to and items for GUFF auctions. be cancelled and all the passengers were put onto the flight to Los Angeles, causing severe crowding Tuesday 27 March 2001 and rescheduling of connecting flights, so we were apprehensive. Not that there was anything we could Mostly when we stay in Brisbane we encounter do about it.) rain and usually have only an overnight stop before They did tag our luggage through, though we departing early for the airport. This time we had a had misgivings regarding that. Despite it being just whole day for shopping, and the weather was good, after dawn, we noted they did put the correct city so we caught a bus to the city centre and shopping codes on the bags. We have caught a wrong tag areas. once before at an equally early hour, and always GUFF items were on our mind. Small furry check. Unfortunately we then failed to check our animals for GUFF. Chocolates for GUFF. No seat numbers against each other, and were in diffe- chance of finding that sort of thing in Airlie Beach rent parts of the plane for the short flight to Sydney. GUFF 2001 Trip Report Page 1 We were scheduled on UA862 to San motel, and catching this bus around 6 p.m. the Francisco at midday, and had asked our travel same day, however there is a nine hour time agent to allow longer than usual between flights. change in there. Luckily the Logan Express bus was We thus had plenty of time to catch the airline pretty easy to spot, and cheap for airport transport shuttle bus from the domestic terminal to the at $14 for the return ticket. It also thankfully had international terminal, exit the secure area, get our considerable luggage storage under the bus. correct boarding passes, and go through Customs. Ron Salomon and Lori Gillen collected us at We even had time to visit the Duty Free and pick up the bus station a few minutes after 7:00, and took some Bundaberg overproof rum to help fans at us to their nearby home. We thought we would Eastercon remember us as the GUFF winners. probably fall asleep quickly, but we managed to Most people remember the Bundaberg, especially stay up talking until fairly late. Had a take away the overproof. This tends to be a rum to lay down pizza for dinner, which was a real treat as we never and avoid, especially if taken neat as we insist is eat pizza at home. What never? Well hardly ever. traditional. The flight must have been uneventful, as we Thursday 29 March 2001 have no notes about it. We had paid extra (from our We weren’t up until close to midday, as the own money, not GUFF’s), to get upgradeable seats flight caught up with us. We walked down the road so we could use our Mileage Plus points to get into to Kinko’s so Jean could order copies of her fanzine Business Class again. Therefore the food was good printed. Then through an open air strip mall in (and plentiful), the drinks were in real glasses, not search of a place to get breakfast, or maybe lunch plastic, and the seats were reasonably comfortable. makings. Found Office Max on the way (with Well, nothing is comfortable if you’re stuck in it for cheaper copying costs), but had trouble telling 14 hours, but these weren’t bad. which places might have the food we wanted. At San Francisco we encountered the new Eric always has problems remembering that United Terminal, at which the delay getting through US light switches go up to turn on, unlike Australian, US immigration seemed interminable but was really which go down to turn on.