Snail mail, books and foodie tours

I am feeling most relieved to have the door key to our Boston residence for 5 nights.

I remain highly suspicious of the likelihood of us successfully making the 40 minute transition between our two supposedly connecting flights in Washington's notoriously congested Dulles International Airport. If we get bumped there's only one later flight which will get us into Boston, and that will be well after Midnight.

For this reason, our AirB'n'B host has kindly sent us the door key to our grand 1890s building, just in case. I've seen historic photos of the (former hotel) foyer, and I can not wait to tip-toe through there, on the way to our 'condo', after our double flight journey. The word 'condo' sits uneasily with my Australian sensibility, but I admit I am curious to assess for my self what this translate as, in real terms.

Clearly snail mail is still perfectly functional for such purposes (those which it was intended for, such as transporting small and light materials across the globe). Still, it seems wonderful to me that one little envelope with an unidentified key in it can make its way safely from the North East Coast of the U.S. to country Victoria in Australia.

Which reminds me, I'm anticipating that we may need to send a box of goodies home at some stage. We sent a box home from Manhattan seven years ago, and it was here before we were, which was a nice thing to come home to. Not that we intend to buy much at all, but you just ever know.

Being, as I am, the Artistic Director of a major book festival, I have found myself researching the best pre-loved, English language book stores in Montreal, which is probably a dangerous move. Montreal is renowned as a city of book lovers and literary events, so I can't help but feel I need to check some of them out, at least in a window shopping sort of way... I often find myself drawn to architectural coffee-table books or cook-books when abroad. This is craziness as they're generally hard back and always heavy, but oh, so tempting. I'll have to exercise some considerable self-control.

We are doing a three hour foodie tour in Charleston, South Carolina with a company called 'Chow Down'. It should be lots of fun. We did one, as a family, on Hong Kong Island three years ago, and that was just brilliant. Not only were the food offerings supreme quality, we learned a whole lot about the political economy of urban change in Hong Kong and it's civic history. We walked and walked and it was an architectural and visual feast, as well as a greatly educational experience.

I was fortunate enough to do a cooking session in the French Quarter of New Orleans back in late 2002, and although that was entertaining, and the host was a charm (a true Southern Belle, in fact), it was not my thing exactly. I much prefer walking tours that mix in opportunities for different types of tastes and support a range of diverse small traders. If there's some consideration of architectural, local community and political history thrown into the tour, even better. That's just me. To each their own.