Europe 2019 : Day 10 History and the Future

Sunday 18^th August

Only two major items I needed to pay attention to this day: the former Worldcon Chairs' photo at 10:30 and then the Dublin Literary Walking Tour at 11:30.

Up really early due to a car or house alarm in the street that started at 4am and then continued on and off until Rose and I headed off to the convention centre at 9:15. Oddly enough no-one else in the house heard it until I would stop them and ask them to listen, “Oh, yeah” was the response. This may indicate my hearing is good or my mental state is agitated. Maybe both.

The photo shoot is always preceded by the announcement of the Site Selection ballot, this year for 2021. The winner, as predicted, was Washington DC. I'm not sure if I'll be at that Worldcon: weve got a lot of travel coming up and Robyn isn't keen on visiting the USA while a certain person is in power. Decision to be made later.

Generally speaking attempting to get a bunch of old Worldcon Chairs all into one place at the one time is like herding cats. But it worked. Rose and I got through it all by 11 and we then headed off to the Dublin Literary Walking Tour that Robyn had arranged for us. (Photo link.)

Joined by Nick Price, ex-Melbourne friend now living back in England, Rose, Robyn, Julian Lucy and I spent the next two hours wandering around the streets of Dublin, stopping off at various points to be informed about things literary by our guide Sean. Oscar Wilde, James Joyce, Sally Rooney, Samuel Beckett and others were covered. We visited Sweny's, the pharmacy featured in Joyce's Ulysses, and were serenaded by Joyce volunteer in the store. We passed pubs and parks and the commentary took on a very political slant, which was only to be expected. Literature and politics are intimate bedfellows in Ireland and trying to discuss one without the other is rather a waste of time.

The divine Oscar reclines

Wilde quote

Sean declaims

By the end of the tour we were well-informed, tired, hungry and thirsty, so we retired to a pub and had one of the best Sunday pub roasts I've ever had. We finished mid-afternoon and it was one of our best days in Dublin.

Rose and I wandered back to the convention to catch up with a few people again, Robyn and Lucy went off to the Chester Beatty library and others went elsewhere.

Sunday night was Hugo Awards night but I don't usually go so it was home for a pick-up dinner of leftover party food and some salads Julian and I picked up in a local supermarket.

We tuned in to the webcast of the awards, agreed with some and disagreed with other, as you do, and then I was off to bed. Some of the others went off to George RR Martin's Hugo Losers' party at the Guinness showroom while I retired for the night, replete but very tired.