3:19 AM (0 comments)
Off to GenCon UK today, trying to keep up with a sudden flood work via email, and struggling with a keyboard whose space bar hates me. Now I see why it's called business travel.

9:01 AM (0 comments)
Okay, I'm here again. Sorry if my prose is rough and unedited--I'm in a hurry and still struggling with these stupid keyboards.

Highlight of the day: I finally got to meet Bezzy in person. Good times were had, English food was consumed, games were discussed at length. I have pictorial proof, but as we are still limited to the computers at the (great but limited--I also have pictorial proof of that) local internet cafe, you'll have to take my word for it.

Before we get to today, I give you yesterday in reverse:

Late last night, before heading back to the hotel to read for a while, we walked around in the Knightsbridge area. That's where I stayed when I was in town with my family, so it was fun to walk some familiar streets. It's funny to see which memories survive for four years, and which don't--from three blocks away I could remember a restaurant I ate at with my parents, but I completely forgot where the enormous, lit-up Herrod's was located.

Last night I had one of the best meals of my life at the inimitable Mr. Chow's. But before that, we spent the day out in Windsor, visiting our publisher and walking around town. It was a nice place, but I'm told that like London (and Bath, and everywhere else I've visited thusfar in the country) it's expensive to live there. We were a bit early for our meeting, so we sat in the park for a while enjoying the sun and the beautiful weather.

We had lunch in the shopping district, outside at a sidewalk cafe. Good food, but slow service. At the table next to us, the people left and ran out on the bill for their drinks because they hadn't gotten their food a half hour after ordering, and couldn't get anyone to come out so they could pay for the drinks before they had to go catch a train.

In the morning, we wandered London and Windsor. It's nice to be traveling with someone who doesn't mind stopping in every bookshop we pass. Not that I've bought many books (see my truncated comment in the previous post; expect more on this later.)

Okay, I guess I won't be telling you about today yet--my rented computer time is just about up. Gives me something to write about in case tomorrow is boring, I suppose.

'Til then.

2:50 AM (0 comments)
You know, I have a few things to say about the differences (or lack thereof) between US and British media....but I have to go now. Spent too long catching up on my email.

Later, I hope?

2:39 AM (0 comments)
Some quick links of interest, by the by:

• City of Tomorrow (via boingboing)
  
• Via Mefi, a walkthrough of the Iraqi National Museum
  
• The announcement of Wes Anderson's next movie, also via Mefi

9:34 AM (0 comments)
I live.

No pictures yet--our Net connection at the hotel isn't working, so I'm posting from an internet cafe up the street.

Yesterday was a tiring but fun blur. Much work at work, followed by a rush to the airport and several flights. On the trip over the ocean, I was lucky enough to have one of the few empty seats on the plane right next to me, so even if the seats didn't offer plenty of room (they did), I would have been fine. Finally got a chance to dig into The Secret Parts of Fortune on the plane, and it's a great as I'd hoped it would be. I also got to see a couple movies on the cool little monitor built into the armrest of my seat. A bit of sleep, too, but not enough.

But you're not interested in all that, are you?

Okay, England. We landed, made our way through Customs, down into London and to our hotel. Local time: 11:30 AM. Time according to my internal clock: 5:30 AM. Hours of sleep in the last 36: six. In a bid to beat jetlag, we set out into the city. Had lunch at a nearby pub, then tubed over to the Cabinet War Rooms. I toured them with my family last time I was here, but they're significantly expanded now. Recently, apparently, as the flow of the tour is still a bit disjointed. But it was still cool to see.

Then we walked up through Trafalgar Square up to Leicester Square, passing through some of the great bookstores on Charing Cross along the way. On Bear Road, home to a lot of intimidatingly cool tiny little bookstores, I picked up a great old copy of Rudyard Kipling's Kim--so old that the publisher's logo on the spine is a swastika.

By now we were having problems having coherent conversations, let alone witty ones. But we were determined to stay awake until at least 7:00. That was still three hours away. We needed a destination. So we set out to find Forbidden Planet, a great comic and bookshop. We had both been there before, but it still took a bit of dazed wandering before we got there. I did a lot of browsing, but didn't find anything I wanted to haul all the way back. We did pick up the latest copy of Edge magazine, though. I can see why Bezzy likes it--it's a magazine with an editorial viewpoint very much like his own.

Then, back toward the hotel at last. A quick meal at a Chinese restaurant, and I was in bed before 8PM for the first time in seven years.

I could tell you about our adventures this morning...but there has to be something to write up tomorrow.

Until then.

11:25 PM (0 comments)
For those who don't know, I'm off to foreign lands later today. Hopefully I will see Bezzy, along with many other British things of a more-work-related nature. However, I believe I will continue to have access to the web. So those who need to can contact me via email. Or you can keep an eye on OD, where I hope to post commentary and pictures as the week progresses.

Looking at the picture of the Union Jack, it occurs to me for the first time that the American practice of hanging the flag upside-down as a distress signal would be rather ineffective in the UK, as well as many other foreign nations. Never really thought of that before.

Now, home to pack. Talk to you soon, I hope.

9:37 PM (0 comments)
Opened Yahoo tonight and did a double take at this:



Oh, wait; Tony Hawk doesn't have his own book club--he's just recommending a book for a kids' book club.

More understandable, perhaps, but there's a snarky part of me that finds it just as amusing.

6:49 PM (0 comments)
From JP, a pair of recipes from the fringe: I've had turducken before, but I have to admit that "Whole Stuffed Camel" is a new one to me. Of course, I don't see camel in the local markets very often, so I suppose that's understandable. Still, you have to love any recipe that has "110 gallons of water" as one of the ingredients.

(Image courtesy of a Jordanian second grader.)

6:44 PM (0 comments)
Allow me to point you toward good music you'll only find on the Net: another great new cover in the WhyGodWhy Lounge, this time of a Mister Rogers song. And be sure to check out the newly-opened Metafilter Music for lots of great--and free--music. So good it vibrates.

6:29 PM (0 comments)
There are perhaps three noncontiguous minutes in the year where I don't thank my lucky stars that an article on men's spring fashions has no bearing on me whatsoever.