We had an enjoyable weekend last weekend. It was the weekend the UK filk convention would have been held. Last year's convention was the last large in-person gathering we attended. This last weekend the UK filk con teamed up with Capricon, which would have been held in Chicago this last weekend. Capricon had a lot going on in several programme ( Read more... )

We've been to Germany and back. For whatever reason we decided to take the Channel Tunnel route, and both ways we ended up on a later crossing than we'd planned. Wet weather and slow traffic on the M4 and M25 were mostly responsible for the delay on the way out. We got a train an hour later than the one we'd booked, and got to Bielefeld after 9pm. ( Read more... )

February started with snow. We went to the UK Filk Con on the 1st. Luckily I'd parked the car at the bottom of the drive the night before, as the six inches (or so) of snow would have made getting out a little tricky if I hadn't. As it was, the drive was slow as far as Reading, and under other circumstances we'd probably have stayed at home ( Read more... )

The end of last month is a bit of a blur. There was a radio club steak night on the Tuesday, and somewhere along the way I also did a bit of compost-turning, which left me with a stiff back for a few days after ( Read more... )

The Monday of a Con is a time for final chances to catch up, and for saying goodbyes. There was plenty of that, as well as the inevitable hotel-paying and checking-out. We headed for Stansted at about 10:30, and got there in good time for one more long goodbye. Then on down via the tech hire place to Miki's, and then, after a cup of tea, home ( Read more... )

No fan-run convention runs smoothly without a fair bit of behind the scenes work ahead of time, and plenty of work at the Con. I'd particularly like to thank ( Read more... )

Down to breakfast a little earlier than on Saturday, and into a bit of a con-com dilemma. What do you do when one of your singing Guests of Honour has lost her voice. We didn't have a good answer, so there was a lot of finger-crossing-thumb-pressing-hoping going on behind the scenes ( Read more... )

Not awake, up, and down to breakfast, perhaps, quite as early as I'd have liked, but no matter... I didn't catch Cecilia Eng's workshop, but did catch the meetings after it ( Read more... )

....and Friday morning it was time to pack the car, drive down to Miki's to collect her, then go to the tech hire place in Sevenoaks to pick up speakers and radio microphones, and head for Marks Tey. As drives go, it went smoothly enough, with no hideous jams, and we got to the hotel at about 1pm. After a quick lunch we nipped out to the local(-ish ( Read more... )

Sunday was, I think, one of those days that took a while to get started. I did manage to get on to the radio club morning Net, but not much else happened until late afternoon, when I went out for a short Ingress-led walk that ended up lasting about two hours. While I was out a friend dropped a compression tester through my letter-box, so I used it ( Read more... )