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I've crossed the continent to visit Western Australia for the HPC Advisory Council Conference. My own talk, which will be presented in a couple of hours, is Exploring Issues in Event-Based HPC Cloudbursting; short version, it is not as great in practise as the promise. Unlike my usual visits to the western lands, my visit it too short and my timetable too full to host my usual visiting dinner. My old mentor, Bruce T., collected me from the airport and we had a long lunch and long natter (especially on how the voting public is utterly punishing the Liberal Party after last week's leadership circus - and the results) at the still-gorgeous Dome Cafe in Maylands, before heading to Fremantle, Western Australia's old port town, staying at the renovated Esplanade Hotel which provides an excellent view over to the harbour.
Fremantle is a charming place, a little quiet, with a superb collection of late 19th and early 20th century buildings and historically famous for its migrant population, solidly left-wing politics, and understandably a very fine collection of cafes and bookstores. Bruce used to be a senior member of the Fremantle Society, who saved a lot of the historic buildings (which the private University of Notre Dame have since snapped up), helped publish a local newspaper, and was president of the local Labor Party branch in the 70s when John Troy was the MLA. As much as I like visiting Fremantle, the only time I lived there was a short period in my childhood. In hindsight, I rather wish I spent more of my time there in my undergraduate days. True there was much to be said about my old haunts in the inner urban areas of Perth city, but I do get the sense that there is a Fremantle-sized hole in my life experience.
Another planned event which is going great guns is RuneQuestCon DownUnder for November 11 at Kryal Castle. They offer quite an affordable convention price and dinner, which includes the usual functions at the castle, so our current plans are to combine both the outing to the castle but a variety of RuneQuest activity, which will include discussion panels, a gaming session, auctions, a LARP, and so forth. Whilst organised by the RPG Review Cooperative, it is also endorsed by Chaosium, publishers of RuneQuest and Glorantha-related material who will be generously providing a few giveaways as well. Unsurprisingly the next issue of RPG Review, the ten-year anniverssary issue, will also be a RuneQuest special.
Fremantle is a charming place, a little quiet, with a superb collection of late 19th and early 20th century buildings and historically famous for its migrant population, solidly left-wing politics, and understandably a very fine collection of cafes and bookstores. Bruce used to be a senior member of the Fremantle Society, who saved a lot of the historic buildings (which the private University of Notre Dame have since snapped up), helped publish a local newspaper, and was president of the local Labor Party branch in the 70s when John Troy was the MLA. As much as I like visiting Fremantle, the only time I lived there was a short period in my childhood. In hindsight, I rather wish I spent more of my time there in my undergraduate days. True there was much to be said about my old haunts in the inner urban areas of Perth city, but I do get the sense that there is a Fremantle-sized hole in my life experience.
Another planned event which is going great guns is RuneQuestCon DownUnder for November 11 at Kryal Castle. They offer quite an affordable convention price and dinner, which includes the usual functions at the castle, so our current plans are to combine both the outing to the castle but a variety of RuneQuest activity, which will include discussion panels, a gaming session, auctions, a LARP, and so forth. Whilst organised by the RPG Review Cooperative, it is also endorsed by Chaosium, publishers of RuneQuest and Glorantha-related material who will be generously providing a few giveaways as well. Unsurprisingly the next issue of RPG Review, the ten-year anniverssary issue, will also be a RuneQuest special.
