The superhero Superman is celebrating a milestone birthday in 2018.
The ACT Library service is celebrating with Superman 80 years of the Man of Steel family event on Monday 25 June, 5.30 pm at Woden Library. Families are encouraged to come along dressed as their favourite super heroes or super villains.
The event is free but bookings are essential.
For a change at our general meeting in April we played a game in the form of a Crew Hiring Challenge.
The challenge was for each team to agree on a spaceship and its crew – the crew being the Captain, First Officer, Science Officer, Chief Engineer, Navigator, Medical Officer, Security Officer, Quarter Master, and the Sanitation Engineer.
The rules of the challenge were: everything must come from a fictional universe; the crew and its ship must all come from different fictional universes; and the same ship or character could not be chosen by more than one team.
There was a lot of discussion, some spying on other teams and some laughter before three possibly highly dysfunctional crews and their ships emerged.
In no particular order….
Would you travel on this spaceship?
Spaceship Helva (Anne McCaffrey’s novel The Ship Who Sang)
Or would you travel on this spaceship?
Spaceship Millennium Falcon (Star Wars)
Or would you travel on this spaceship?
Spaceship New York City (James Blish’s Cities in Flight novels). Yes, it is the actual city of New York.
May the 4th (be with you) is Star Wars day and one of Canberra’s institutions is celebrating loudly.
At 12.30pm on May the 4th, the National Carillion is hosting a Star Wars concert – with arrangements of new and original Star Wars themes composed by John Williams ringing out across Lake Burley Griffin until 1.30pm.
This is a free event and a rare chance for Star Wars fans to hear the themes played on the Carillion’s 55 bronze bells.
The full program is:
Stargazing Live, the combined television and stargazing event, which will be on the ABC again this year from 22 – 24 May. As a part of this event…
Budding astronomers and space explorers – on Wednesday 23 May, the Australian National University and the ABC will be attempting a Guinness World Record for the ‘most people stargazing – multiple venues’. The current record was set by the ANU at 7,960 people across 37 locations. During this time, we will be hosting a number of events both here in Canberra and up at Siding Spring.
The ABC and ANU are putting out the call to schools, astronomy societies, community groups, and all budding galactic explorers across Australia to join the world record attempt by hosting a Stargazing Live Star Party on Wednesday 23 May.
Yes, you can party with the stars and not starlets!
Details and how to register your party on the ABC’s website.
The Canberra Science Fiction Club usually meets twice each month. The first Thursday is a General Meeting and on the third Thursday members, friends, family or guests can gather together to talk and eat at a restaurant. Each person pays for their own choice of meal. Everyone is welcome. You don’t have to belong to the club to join in. The only requirement is that you notify the Secretary at least two days before attending the dinner.
The Secretary has pre-selected the restaurants for this year and the cuisines are varied – Chinese, Ethiopian, Indian, Malaysian, Mediterranean, Mexican, Nepalese, Thai, Turkish and Vietnamese, just to name a few. Most restaurants have a banquet as well as a normal menu.
February’s choice was Chinese – we gathered at the Fortune Cookie at the Melba shops. Many attendees had dined at the there last year and were looking forward to an excellent meal again. We were not disappointed.
This restaurant is amazing. The staff is friendly and willing to alter dishes if needed. (One of us had a pork allergy and they were happy to substitute chicken for pork in the San Choi Bow.)
Their menu has seventeen classifications for the food – Signature dishes, Entrees, Soups, Beef, Lamb, Pork, Duck, Chicken, Seafood, Prawns, Squid, Scallops, Omelettes, Tofu, Vegetables, Noodles and Rice. They also have a Banquet for 2-5 people or for 6+ diners. And a separate Dessert menu.
The Banquet was chosen (just $40. per head ). I will just describe the dishes we had. Three entrees:- Spring Rolls, Prawn Toast and a Dim Sim type ball. It did not take too long before these were heartily attacked and enjoyed by all.
Then the main dishes were served:-
– San Choi Bow (the meat and spices served in a lettuce leaf),
– Peking Shredded Beef,
– Pepper Fillet Steak Hotpot,
– King Prawns with Ginger and Shallot,
– Stir Fried Seasonal Vegetables with Tofu,
– Boneless Chicken with Lemon Sauce,
– Mongolian Lamb,
– Yeong Chow Rice (a fried rice) and plain Jasmine Rice.
This provided a pleasantly balanced meal with no chillies. Strangely most conversations ceased as everyone tucked in. I think the most popular dish was the Hotpot.
And to finish off – a Dessert of the day.
Two of the diners elected to order separately – a single entree and main, but also followed up with a dessert. They were not disappointed in their choices either.
Drinks available included the usual selection of water, wines, soft drinks, tea and coffee.
Everybody had a excellent time and very much enjoyed the food. We will definitely be back there again.
-SH
These are the CSFS meeting dates for the rest of 2018.
This list will be updated through the year with any changes of venue/date. Please check this post for the latest information.
All general meetings start at 7.00pm, at the Canberra Southern Cross Club in Woden.
For all restaurant meetings, please email or phone the Secretary Sandra to confirm you’re attending and will need a seat to be booked.
2018 will be the CSFS’s unofficial 50th and official 47th birthday!
The CSFS was officially named in 1971 but the first meetings were held in 1968.
Do you think we should celebrate our society’s birthday?
Usually Canberra doesn’t get to see visiting science fiction exhibitions and models. However, that changes this week with an Australian first for ‘Star Wars’ fans.
A full scale model ‘Star Wars’ x-wing will be “flying” into the Tuggeranong Hyperdome from this Monday, 19 February, for a week, on its first stop around the country.
The x-wing exhibit has set opening hours – 11am to 4pm Monday 19th to Friday 23rd, and 10am to 3pm Saturday 24th and Sunday 25th.
The businesses in the Hyperdome are joining in with Limelight Cinemas showing ‘The Last Jedi’ at $6 sessions daily, and discounts on ‘Star Wars’ merchandise at various stores.
Perhaps the best thing for ‘Star Wars’ fans will simply being able to enjoy a celebration of the universe you love.
The Canberra Science Fiction Club usually meets twice each month. The first Thursday is a General Meeting and on the third Thursday members, friends, family or guests can gather together to talk and eat at a restaurant. Each person pays for their own choice of meal. Everyone is welcome. You don’t have to belong to the club to join in. The only requirement is that you notify the Secretary at least two days before attending the dinner.
The Secretary has pre-selected the restaurants for this year and the cuisines are varied – Chinese, Ethiopian, Indian, Malaysian, Mediterranean, Mexican, Nepalese, Thai, Turkish and Vietnamese, just to name a few. Most restaurants have a banquet as well as a normal menu.
January’s choice was Nepalese – we gathered at the Hungry Buddha in Belconnen. Many attendees had dined at the Hungry Buddha in Curtin (before they moved to Belconnen) and were looking forward to an excellent meal. The Banquet menu was chosen (just $35. per head). I won’t go into the Nepalese name for each dish, just describe the dishes.
Four entrees were provided:-
– Steamed chicken dumpling with homemade tomato pickle,
– Corn kernels sautéed with authentic Nepalese spices,
– Spicy peanut salad with lime, tomato and onion sauce, and
– Tender chicken fillets sautéed with chilli flakes, diced capsicum and onion.
It did not take too long before these were heartily attacked and enjoyed by all.
Then four main dishes were served. These were accompanied by Rice, Naan bread, Raita and Pickles:-
– Lentils flambé with cumin, coriander, a touch of chilli and cooked with Himalayan spices and tossed with herb jimmu (or jimbu),
– Nepalese style vegetable (mild) curry of cauliflower, carrot, zucchini, peas, potatoes, bamboo shoots and other seasonal vegetables,
– Boneless chicken cooked in exotic Himalayan spices, and
– Village style bone-in goat with flavours of fenugreek, cinnamon, tomatoes, bay leaves, ginger and garlic.
Drinks available included the usual selection of red or white wines. soft drinks and Lassis.
Strangely enough by the time all this was eaten, nobody seemed interested in a dessert.
Everybody had a excellent feed and very much enjoyed the food. We will definitely go back there again.
-SH
Members of the society are putting together a group to see ‘Star Wars the Last Jedi’. The date and time will be agreed at the AGM
