wicook
Member
A few months ago, my wife was accepted as a presenter at a conference in Melbourne. I thought it would be worthwhile to see if I could get a lead to a store where I could pick up some nice bits of Aussie wood. So I looked at the member map page and found out that Darley (Serge) lives in the Melbourne area. To make a long story short, Serge spent several days showing me around Melbourne (after we'd spent a couple of weeks exploring other parts of Victoria)! We had a great time together and exchanged pens...and on our last day in Melbourne, our wives joined us for an evening out. What a great experience and an unexpected level of hospitality...although my daughter replied with something like, "yeah, as if you wouldn't do the same thing" when I mentioned it in an email.
Oh, yeah, the wood stores never materialized, but Serge was generous to a fault and I ended up sending myself blanks in the mail (we were on our way to New Zealand and they don't allow wood into the country). I wan't able to find a Kiwi pen turner, but visits to some timber yards there yielded some nice pieces of native woods, too. In several instances, I walked out of the stores with more than I paid for once they found out why I wanted the native woods (I showed them a pen). In retrospect, I should have taken a supply of give-away pens for the folks who went out of their way to give me all the extras!
Maybe I'll start planning our next holiday based on where I can find some neat woods...and neat locals!
Oh, yeah, the wood stores never materialized, but Serge was generous to a fault and I ended up sending myself blanks in the mail (we were on our way to New Zealand and they don't allow wood into the country). I wan't able to find a Kiwi pen turner, but visits to some timber yards there yielded some nice pieces of native woods, too. In several instances, I walked out of the stores with more than I paid for once they found out why I wanted the native woods (I showed them a pen). In retrospect, I should have taken a supply of give-away pens for the folks who went out of their way to give me all the extras!
Maybe I'll start planning our next holiday based on where I can find some neat woods...and neat locals!
