DC

It's difficult enough getting back into the rhythm of regularly updating without dropped internet connections and Dreamwidth eating a (complete!) entry. This is the third attempt at updating since Eastercon... fingers crossed.

Anyway, I went to Eastercon — Illustrious, held at the Birmingham Hilton Metropole (or some arrangement of those words) by the NEC. If you want the one-line summary, I can't beat Dave Langford's: a pleasant weekend in a painfully pricy venue.

( The long version. )

Well, I went to Eastercon (LX, in Bradford) and had a good time. My original plan had been to take the laptop, but when I saw what the hotel was going to charge for wifi I reconsidered that plan, which seems to have been wise. (Not only was it very expensive, it didn't work very well, if you will excuse the understatement.[*]) Given that I started to feel unwell the night before I travelled down (still not sure what was going on there), and that something was giving me much grief at the hotel in the form of allergies affecting eyes, nose and throat, the spoons lasted pretty well. In fact, bizarrely, the single worst bit of the con was the closing ceremony: sitting in a chair with poor support for more than an hour wiped me out. By about two thirds of the way through it I was seriously despooning. Fortunately, there was sustenance in Ops which revived me so that I was fit to head out for the train. Anyway, I'll try to post a bit more about the con when I have more time. It was good fun, saw lots of lovely people, had an astonishing amount of hugs and free alcohol... Yep. Fun.

Today I surfaced for a bit, met a friend and went to the cinema (In The Loop — more vituperation per minute than any other film). Soon I need to drag myself home. Oh, and by the way... If anyone doesn't know or has forgotten, Satellite 2 in July in Glasgow will be a jolly good convention, with Iain M. Banks, science, lots of fun, and real ale. You know you want to be there.

Oh, and in case it isn't obvious: I have not remotely caught up with my flist. :(


[* One of my favourite overheard exchanges from the con: Fan: Your wifi in this hotel's shite! Hotel staff: Yeah, that's why I don't use it.]

I am only online for a short time at the moment, this is not a full con report or anything like it. It was a fantastic Eastercon. I always get an energy bounce from cons, but this time I seemed to have gallons of adrenaline pumping through me most of the weekend. It was the best con I have been at in many years. And that is even without taking Mitch Benn into account (my muscles still ache from laughing). Saw lots of friends, made lots of new ones. Fabulous weekend. I'm still on a bit of a high from it.

I have lots of emails and various new contacts to get back to, not able to do it right now but I will do it as soon as I can.

So. Tomorrow it is time to decamp for points south, and Eastercon. I have been having a quick look at the programme, groaning at having to be up and sentient at some ungodly hour on Sunday (11am!), but generally thinking that it looks like a damn good programme. It certainly has one of the classic features of a good Eastercon programme, namely that whenever I see an item I really want to see, it coincides with another one I really want to see (or have to be at). Contemplation is looking good, and I think Chris and Fran and their team have done an excellent job in getting an Eastercon together so quickly. I am hopeful that this will be a good one.

I hope that someone will go to The Great Clomping Foot of Nerdism at 20:00 on Friday and tell us all about it here afterwards, since having volunteered someone for another panel on at the same time I kind of feel I should be there to lend moral support. I shall avoid referring to the Eastercon Better Not Mentioned, honest. I also would have liked to hear the talk on Web 2.0, but have to be elsewhere at the same time.  Yep, this might be a good one.

I am slightly.... No, a bit more than slightly concerned about my spoons. Various things have contributed to my spoons being depleted in recent months, and also to my not getting the opportunity to adequately refresh them. I am probably at the level I would have liked to be around Sunday at the moment, which is not brilliant. I may be able to run on adrenaline (I can do bursts, of up to a week if necessary, if I don’t really stop and I am driven by necessity or having a good time, but it demands payback afterwards). Probably with caffeine. I might be able to build in enough rest time to see me through without that. We shall see; if anyone comes across me and I seem antisocial (apparently not listening or focussed, monosyllabic replies), then it is spoons that are the problem.

One of my concerns about spoons is that it might limit the amount I can do, in terms of helping out. (Because as well as being a good thing to do, it is fun.). Let's hope not.

According to the final (I am not saying a word...) Contemplation programme, it is still not certain that Doctor Who shall be shown on the Saturday. Know what? I don’t really care. I am baffled that the same time which gave us most of Eccleston’s series and something like The Girl In The Fireplace can also give us drivel (being polite, here!) like, oh, Fear Her, and the guff about Rose which inundated the last series... and Saturday’s episode. (And, to focus on a completely unimportant bit of trivial detail, could they not have found someone who could show Freema Agyeman how to use a stethoscope the right way round?)

Just wondering, too, if I was the only person who heard the continuity announcer heralding the start of the third series of Doctor Who and thought something along the lines of Mumble mumble mumble feckin’ 29th!

Life On Mars... It has just occurred to me to check what has happened to the DVD release date, since that was supposed to be next week, but that was before sodding football screwed the screening of the current. Yep, it has been pushed back to April 16th. Interesting that last night there was no end-of-episode preview of next week. A good episode... though I may have nightmares about Gene Hunt, Diana Dors and a bottle of chip oil for some time to come... hopefully sans the Tufty costume, at least.

By the way, Satellite 1 shall have a presence at Contemplation (all the Politburo, I think, unless something unexpected happens). At Eastercon you can sign up for Satellite 1 at the current rate of £15; prices rise when Contemplation is over.

Incidentally, there is a group picture of the Politburo on the web site. Interesting how stern most of us look; I was certain I was smiling, too...

---

While I have been writing this, a worrying tickle has set in in my throat. Oh, for fuck’s sake! That’s all I need, another URTI... Fingers crossed it comes to nothing.

OK, I wish Convoy well and all that, we all want a good Eastercon, and I have always, myself, enjoyed cons in Liverpool (sometimes despite the efforts of the hotel, it has to be said)… but am I the only one looking at their website and wondering why they appear to be targetting the cutting-edge technology of Netscape 3?

My mother has not been too well, lately, and despite my and my father’s efforts to persuade her to see a doctor see was intransigent in her refusal to do so. Yesterday he insisted, though, and within a few hours my mother had been admitted to hospital. We don’t know precisely what the problem is, as we haven’t been able to talk to the medical staff yet, but the likeliest problem seems to be some cardiac difficulty given her condition; there are other possibilities, though. We should know more later this morning. I am confident that she’ll get treatment which will help her a lot.

This is exactly what I didn’t need, quite apart from the obvious fact I don’t want my mother to be ill. The problem is that she has been admitted to Stobhill. There’s nothing wrong with it as a hospital — it’s rather good, in fact — but it is a fucking awful place to get to. As far as I can see (which might not be too far, given how bad the route map is) it is served by two buses, neither of which it is easy to see where you might get it, neither of which runs more frequently than every half hour, and neither of which runs at night (probably). Yesterday, I tried to make sense of the bus route map, failed, and got a taxi from the city centre as I could not waste more time — but I can’t afford to do that too often. The nearest railway station is still far away enough to require a taxi from it to the hospital. Getting there from here takes quite some time, I need to allow at least an hour and a half. Once there, it is one of those sprawling hospitals where you have to walk for ages along long, long corridors to get anywhere.

A while ago — was it two years? I’m not sure — my father was in there for major surgery (which went well), and even though he was not in for long, going out there with my mother led to my having a serious relapse for the best part of two months; I was pretty much not up to anything. As I am coming out of a bit of a relapse at the moment, this doesn’t bode well... In fact, last night I had more extensive fasciculation in my legs than I have ever had (it made getting to sleep difficult), and I was very shaky on my feet this morning. I am going to have to really pay attention to the organisation of my rest, which hasn’t been necessary for several years. Bugger.

---

On the good side of things, Trout last night was pleasant, with some faces I haven’t seen for a while, a good turnout, and the prospect of a Trout trip to the Paisley Beer Festival. Also good was the discovery that the “poetry reading” which was apparently going to take place in the Ingram on the same night as the pre-Eastercon Trout is in fact a readings session organised by the local SF writing group, in fact by one of the Trouts! All simple, and we will have most of the pub that night by the looks of it.