I'm just a short sleep and a brisk workday away from a prompt Lufthansa wheels-up for the Second-Greatest City in the World, namely London. And what, you may ask, will I be up to in that Priyanka Chopra of cities? And how can you be part of it?

Why, it's as simple as coming to Dragonmeet, where I shall be joined by the estimable robin_d_laws and the ( Read more... )

Just a ping to let the watching world (and mollpeartree) that I am once more ensconced in the Woosterish embrace of Pelgrane Global Headquarters here at stately Spectrum House. Luncheon is pressing (as the good, if hatless, robin_d_laws reminds me) and I must soon get to autographing the Dragonmeet Limited Edition copies of Night's Black Agents to pay for my lunch ( Read more... )

Well, the Orford Road Tapas Bar may be out in the wilds of witch-haunted Essex, but it pours a mean sangria. The secret, we decided some time during the second pitcher, is the Cointreau. They also have a pulpo gallego to kill for; the octopus must marinate or something, because it becomes yielding and succulent -- and the potatoes it rests on soak ( Read more... )

Yes, it's 70 and sunny here in the capital of the Eastern Hemisphere, and so of course I am immured at Pelgrane Global World Headquarters tapping away at the computer for your edification and amusement ( Read more... )

So that just leaves Monday, as Tuesday was the Day Of Eighteen Hours' Travel With What May Have Been A Mild Case Of Stomach Flu Or Just My Well-Deserved Punishment For All My Rich Carryings-On Like Some Kind Of Toff.

And Monday was the day of the much-bruited Tube strike, so after a decorous interval of Hard Work by simonjrogers we all (Simon, myself, and robin_d_laws) ( Read more... )

The last two days (as I type this it is very very barely Monday) have been consumed by Dragonmeet. Saturday was Dragonmeet proper; Sunday was the post-Dragonmeetup at the Pendrell's Oak pub. Then robin_d_laws and I scampered off just ahead of the Tube strike to enjoy simonjrogers' delightful notion of proper care and feeding of freelancers, namely a sumptuous repast at ( Read more... )

Or so you would think to see all the Londoners bundled up in their Dickensian coats for a mere 30 degree day, sunny and beautiful in the heart of South London.

Which is to say, for mollpeartree and anyone else who tracks my movements, I've landed in London and arrived at Spectrum House, worldwide headquarters of Pelgrane Global Enterprises ( Read more... )

The problem with reversing the outcome of the Suez Intervention of 1956 is that it's intimately tied up, geopolitically and diplomatically, with the simultaneous Hungarian Revolution of 1956. Look at this timeline:

July 18: Hungary's Stalinist premier, Rakosi, removed after Khrushchev denounces Stalin.July 19: The U.S. withdraws financial support ( Read more... )

Back from London, jet lag slept off, and only needing to bring everyone up to speed on the last day or so of the trip. (Strangely, jet lag the other way -- from US to UK -- apparently turns me into a real boy. On this trip, at least, I was up with the larks' immediate associates and nodding off at midnight or one every night ( Read more... )

Today, robin_d_laws and the wonderful Valerie left to return to their Care-Bear-infested, cruller-enriched demi-paradise, leaving me bereft and at loose ends.

After a decorous interval, simonjrogers decreed hooky from work, and we descended into Whitechapel to go on an extremely self-guided (and I use the term "guided" advisedly) walking tour of Ripper sites. We managed ( Read more... )