Things wot I have done in England, pt. 1

Things wot I have done in England, pt. 1

So I've been in England. And mostly not blogging, because I've been busy, busy, busy. I started my trip with my annual appearance at a BSFA meeting, where I saw an interview with Ian Whates, and then went out to dinner with some fen, so that I could spend a little time with some people I know. All much fun.

Then, the next morning, off to the BL. There, I saw someone I hadn't planned on seeing at all, and spent much of the next 10 days or so working in companionable silence, with breaks for coffee and lunch. The BL was fantastic, as always -- not only did I get a chance to work on my Leeds paper, but also to visit with Extremely Cool Colleague and Susan, and had a quick chance to say hello to Dame Eleanor Hull.

Much time in between spent with friends and family, including a trip to Folkstone to see friends (one of whom is up for several very important awards this month -- crossing my fingers for him at WorldCon!) who have new Maine Coon kittens, the usual walks in Regents' Park and Golder's Hill Park with the family, and LOTS of Halo 3!!! Yes, one of the highlights of my summer is playing Halo with my nephew and X's brother and playing video games, while being told, "Aunt ADM, you're CRAP at this, aren't you?" I was, this year too. I think I never got above about 6 kills in a game. Last year, I rocked and managed to do serious damage to BiL's ego. This time, they kept changing up the games and the maps on me ...

I also managed to get killed by Zombies several times.

In the meanwhile, I listened to my niece play guitar (she's very good, and playing a lot of Renaissance stuff), chatted with SiL, and tried to chill as much as possible.

I blogged my first conference already, and am now watching the people start to queue for the buses to our flight from Heathrow, T5.