Gosh I hope not, as we are just emerging from bug we caught over the holidays and which laid us out for the better part of two weeks. A brief outing on NYE under the delusion that, actually maybe we were fine? (we were not fine, but we managed to see some fireworks and eat a parmo, go team) and then a lot of being generally lethargic, which was miserable for us but the cats thoroughly enjoyed. Still, the holidays themselves were pretty good before that, we got some pretty snow which we didn’t have to go out in, and …
I won the Rotlser!
File 770 has a nice write up, at the time of posting the official page itself is not updated yet as I assume everyone involved is recovering from a lovely Loscon weekend. One of the nice things about this is that each year’s recipient is added to the Rotsler banner, which is usually displayed at Worldcon. If you visited us in the fan lounge at Glasgow you may have seen it proudly hanging along the outside wall.
The Museum of Classic Sci-Fi
On Saturday we finally headed up to Allendale to visit this local treasure. It’s a one-man operation and clearly a labour of love on the part of its creator Neil Cole. It’s small but absolutely packed with exhibits, with a labyrinthian feel and dramatic lighting. Cole does preservation and restorations, and will enthusiastically tell you about his favourites, or recount a particularly fun acquisition. His inspiration for the museum is from visiting the original Blackpool Doctor Who Exhibition as a kid, so its no surprise that there is a Tardis outside and a dalek guarding the from door, plus the …
Untitled
It’s been cold here, the rest of the area had snow a few days ago but it didn’t quite hit here, just rain and cold. I’m very glad for our new heat pump, have cracked out the slow cooker and made fabada in it (not bad, though the recipe said to cook on low and that was clearly nonsense). The Xmas lights, market, and Fenwicks windows are on in town, and its getting dark by 5pm, time to start thinking about sending cards out so I don’t leave it till the last minute again. I’ve had a pumpkin spice latte …
Okay then.
(Whoops, forgot to press publish – have backdated this now) Took a little break from most of the internet, for obvious reasons ,but also because I was travelling and then tired/ill from said travelling. Feeling slightly better now, physically I still have a cough but my voice is coming back. As for the rest of it, going to make an effort to blog more often, going to keep my Mastodon account, am still on Discord, but otherwise have lost complete interest on social media. My fb and insta still exist so I can look up local businesses – in the …
Here, there, everywhere
The last month flew by, a work visit to London, a family visit here in Newcastle, and then a week of men tramping through the house to install a heat pump. All positive things but each a bit disruptive. The London visit had the side effect of me bringing back a bunch of Mexican groceries from Mestizo and some lovely Spanish cheeses from one of the vendors outside Kings Cross, the second included daytrips to Durham and York, and the third means that after two days of the heating being off entirely the house is now just a lovely comfortable …
Kynren
The grand finale of our weekend in Durham was Kynren. The first big surprise was the surrounding park, its in the middle of nowhere and I wasn’t expecting that much, but its modern and generally well-designed. There are shuttle buses, well marked paths and plentiful staff to guide guests, several gift shops (the merch could be better though), food stalls (very busy) and a Viking village to keep you occupied till doors open. It was crowded though, and some additional distractions need to be added for better flow, plus the bleachers for watching the show acould be improved, it’s a …
Bishop Auckland
At the end of August, John’s parents along with his brother and sister-in-law came up for little mini-vacation. They rented a place in Durham and touristed for a couple of days and then on Friday night we headed over, it being a short train ride away. On the Saturday we visited Bishop Auckland, which previously I had only passed through – as it has a train station and a bus station that connects it to Durham and Darlington respectively and is therefore a convenient meeting point for Alissa and Andrew to collect me when we do craft fairs in that …
Glasgow (But not Worldcon!)
But sort of still Worldcon really. After the convention was over, we had planned for an extra few days to explore Glasgow. Meg kindly offered to put us up and show us around a bit, so on Tuesday morning we said our goodbyes to the last straglers, bundled our suitcases into her car and set off. We were all pretty tired after the convention (I believe the first thing I actually did was have a lovely nap), so there was some relaxing to start with, then a couple of days filled with good food, good drinks, bagpipes and sunshine in …
I WENT TO WORLDCON AND ALL I GOT WAS THESE EXCELLENT FRIENDS – PART FOUR (finally)
And then it was Monday, the last day of the convention. We had belatedly decided to stay one more night, but the Village was asking for a bizarrely high price so we booked at the Crowne Plaza instead. Since the Village stops serving breakfast at nine thirty on a weekday, I got four hours of sleep and dragged myself down by nine fifteen. Except that there was basically nothing left in the buffet and they didn’t replentish it. I had coffee, a spoonful of mushrooms and some egg and not much else before packing up and leaving my suitcase at …