Ellen Datlow is now back home and has had time to process her photos of the London Chinese New Year parade that I attended with her (and Pat Cadigan and Liz Spencer). You can find them here. Only one picture of me, so this does not count as one of Ellen’s horror anthologies.
Where’s Cheryl?
The Year of the Rat
Today I was in central London with Ellen Datlow, Pat Cadigan and my new friend, Liz Spencer, who was one of Pat’s students at Clarion. The Chinese New Year parade was very good but rather short. The costumes were fabulous, as were the martial arts people. Ellen and Pat took lots of photos. I’ll link to them when they go up.
For lunch we went to New World and ate dim sum. Yum. Though it was a little restrained compared to what I have had in Melbourne and Sydney. No chicken’s feet in sight, and nothing very spicy. Loved the cuttlefish balls and the mushroom dumplings.
Afterwards I committed shopping. I have been to Lush, and bought books. And I found a pub to watch the rugby. More on that in a separate post.
I am amazed at the number of women in London who have gone and got Posh Spice haircuts. What were they thinking?
Some good news on Camden Market. Ellen says that it was the east side of the road that burned up. That does mean that the Fairy Gothmother shop will be in trouble, but most of my favorite stalls should be OK, unless they were using the storage areas across the road. I’ll know more when I’ve managed to connect with Judith.
Camden Fire
A quick update for anyone who has just seen the news from London.
Firstly, I am not in Camden. I’m staying with Bruce and Holly in Queens Park.
Second, the location of the fire is the market area north of the canal, not the market area across the road from the Clutes’. I’ve just tried calling them and got an engaged signal, which is unsurprising. I suspect they are besieged by calls from worried friends right now. I’ve also checked Ellen’s Livejournal and she has a report from last night so it looks like all is as well as it can be under the circumstances.
Meanwhile I am worrying about the market traders. My guess is that a lot of them will have lost all of their stock.
On the Road
Off to London this morning. Internet access will be patchy until Tuesday, but hopefully I’ll manage to get online to gloat over another Welsh win.
I should be catching up with Bruce Holland Rogers, Ellen Datlow and Pat Cadigan, amongst others. Oddly today’s spam included an off to win tickets to “see Ellen live”. I didn’t know you needed a ticket. Maybe they meant Ellen Klages, or Ellen Kushner… 🙂
Home at Last
I did my usual trick on the plane – I was asleep before we left the ground. When I woke up two hours later I looked up at the screen and paused to think: just what movie would feature a young man in old-fashioned clothes walking across a green field towards a hole in wall? Yes, it was Stardust, and I had slept through most of it.
Ah well, it looked quite fun. I’m kind of impressed that Michelle Pfeiffer signed up for a gig that involved her being made to look that ugly.
My flight was late in due to a mechanical problem that delayed take-off (much better than having your undercarriage collapse when you land, I think) and Kevin’s was early, so by the time I had got over to Terminal 1 he was on the ground. We stopped off at Chipotle on the way home to pick up dinner and the staff seemed impressed by how well we got on together. The girl guessed that we had been married for 30 years. I suppose it is good to know that we look happy together, but I’m not sure what it says about how old we look.
Bleagh…
Up at 4:00am this morning. Delivered Kevin to airport for business trip. Going back to bed now.
Giving Thanks
So, here we are at the start of another holiday season. Despite a faint ray of hope this year, it looks like once again I’ll be spending all of the major holiday days alone. The good thing about this is that such days tend to be very quiet, which means I can get lots done. And the thing to be thankful for is that I have work to do. Having work means getting money. Getting money means I survive for another year and get more chances to spend some of my life in California with Kevin. This is very good.
Happy Thanksgiving to all of you folks out there who are tucking into your turkey dinners.
Travel Schedule
Deep breath.
This evening Kevin and I head off for San Jose where we will be attending ConStruction, a local con-running convention. Plans for the now-seated 2009 World Fantasy Convention will doubtless be discussed. On Saturday I will be on a panel talking about outreach.
On Sunday I fly to Boston (again). I have a couple of urgent projects on the go and am unlikely to have much free time (or possibly sleep). I fly back next Friday.
And on Saturday 17th, assuming I have any energy left, I need to be in San Francisco for the latest SF in SF reading. I’m trying not to think beyond that.
Back Home
So, here I am back in California, briefly.
There may be some more WFC wrap later, but for now here is John Picacio who, amongst other things, talks about Derek Ford and has a picture of some of those wonderful Elric sketches.
Meanwhile, I have had a major work project dumped on me. I may be less communicative over the next couple of weeks. I will probably be in Boston all next week, but I may also be working 12 hour days.
Boston (again)
So, here I am in Boston. During my layover in Denver I got to see the first half of the Patriots comprehensive destruction of the Redskins, and on my arrival here I got to see the the Red Sox clinch the World Series. There are a lot of happy people here in Boston.
Me included, because my hotel is thus far proving very comfortable. This is important, oh Smoffish ones, because this is the hotel in which SMOFcon will be held later this year. No time to look around tonight, but I promise more info tomorrow. Let me know if there’s anything in particular that you want me to check out.
Road Trip
It seems like no sooner have I arrived in California than I’m off again. Heres’ the schedule:
- Sunday: Fly to Boston
- Monday: Give training course to client
- Tuesday: Catch train to New York, party at Aussie Consulate, stay with La Gringa
- Wednesday: Tourist; Halloween in Greenwich Village with La Gringa
- Thursday: Train to Saratoga Springs, International Horror Guild Awards
- Friday: World Fantasy Con, buy books
- Saturday: World Fantasy Awards
- Sunday: Train back to New York, stay with La Gringa
- Monday: Train back to Boston, stay with Deb G.
- Tuesday: Fly home, collapse
And then I have only a few days to recover before having to fly back to Boston on business.
Radio Silence Warning
There is unlikely to be much happening here over the next few days as I will be traveling. Tomorrow I will be in London, and by Tuesday evening I should be in San Francisco.
Home At Last
Yawn! Here I am, back in gloriously sunny California. It was a nice, easy trip (thank you, again, United) and I slept reasonably well last night, but it will be a few days before my brain catches up with my body. The only thing keeping me awake right now is that the apartment complex has roofers working on our building.
Today’s #1 job is to sort through several months of mail, including a veritable mountain of books. I’m pleased to see that there are quite a few I’d like to keep, but there are vast numbers of YA, formula fantasy and sex’n’vampires books that are surplus to requirements. People of BASFA, you have been warned.
Where Was I Again?
Let’s see, it is Thursday and it is raining so it must be Somerset…
Yeah, OK, I am back here temporarily. Assuming all goes well I’ll be heading for London on Tuesday and back in San Francisco Wednesday night. In the meantime my brain will have no idea where it is. I have lots to catch up on. Please bear with me.
Traveling Again
More meetings today, but then it is off to Logan this evening. I’m not expecting to be online again until late tomorrow (UK time).
Decadence
So, I have spent the morning indulging in retail therapy in the Prudential Center. My wallet enjoyed the sales, and I suspect Kevin will enjoy the results of my spending. Now I’m planning to veg out in front of NFL Sunday Ticket for several hours after which, this being Boston, I’m heading out for a Legal Seafood fix.
Boston
Well, here I am, back in Back Bay. It has been an uneventful journey, and I’m pleased to say that I’m getting quite competent with Boston’s public transit system.
Because I was going direct from Somerset (courtesy of an evening flight) I was very cautious about being in London on time and consequently had ages to wait in Heathrow. The lines at check-in and security went very quickly. Most of the security madness has disapated, but I note that mascara is still a dangerous terrorist weapon. Also they are being absurdly strict about the one carry-on rule: no handbags, no camera bags, no what the Americans amusingly call “fanny packs”. This does stop the idiots who bring on two massive suitcases claiming that one is a “handbag”, but it is also catching a lot of people out.
Courtesy of the tax-free Virgin store at Heathrow I picked up an actual physical copy of the new Scissor Sisters album, and also a two-disc best of the Mekons collection, Heaven & Hell (featuring the famous Langford). More on these later. Tomorrow I get to go browse in Borders.
Reduced Service Warning
Kevin’s on the road at the moment and unable to moderate comments with his usual efficiency. I’ll be heading off to Boston tomorrow. I should be able to get online on Sunday, but Monday/Tuesday I’ll be with clients most of the day and Wednesday I’ll be travelling back to Somerset. Normal service will be resumed when I wake up.
Advance Warning
I don’t know if anyone in Boston reads this, but I’ll be in town for a business trip Oct 15-17 inclusive. I get in late on the Saturday night (14th) and will be with the client all of Mon/Tue, but I think I have Sunday 15th to myself.
And yes, it is inordinately frustrating to be going all the way to America and not being able to go on to San Francisco, but that’s life.
Bad Train Day
There are some days that I am very grateful that I always try to allow a full day to get from London to Somerset and vice-versa. Mostly the trains work fine, but it only takes a small problem for things to start falling apart.
I got to Paddington at around 1:45, in plenty of time for the 2:05 train. However, the ticket machines were not working (or at least could not to credit card authorizations) so I spent ages stood in line buying a ticket from an actual harrassed human and missed the train. The next train was an hour later, and I got it no trouble at all. Mostly it was an uneventful journey (and I got 2 hours of coding done), but the train was 10 minutes late getting into Taunton, which meant that instead of having 10 minutes to make my connection I got to watch my connection pulling out just as I was pulling in. And that meant another hour wait for the next train. So all in all it took me 2 hours longer than I expected to make a train journey that should only take 2.5 hours.
Ah well, I had a book, I finished reading the Eco.