It was a dark and stormy day that day I left St Andrews. This was the St Andrews I had feared to face. The Force 3 gale winds, rain, and a links course. Fortunately, I was in a cab heading for the train station. One of the train bridges to Edinburgh was under repair that week so a bus was coming by to ferry the train passengers to Edinburgh. That didn’t seem to put a crimp into my travel plans so I hopped aboard and tootled on.
I got a 4-day rail pass that allowed me to travel anywhere on Britrail on any of 4 days within a 2 month period. I even got to select the days and I didn’t have to worry about catching a particular train or reserving a specific seat. Very handy to give you flexibility in you travel plans. For a while, while in St Andrews, I was considering traveling to Cardiff to see my brother play in the Celtic Lacrosse Championship (Ireland Won!) but the Old Course opportunity came up and I had to defer. But I had the option. (Good thing I didn’t go, turns out the Championship game was Wednesday, instead of Thursday as I thought, so I would have gotten there after it was all over.)
Now, I was on my way to visit friends in London town. I left my golf clubs in left luggage in Edinburgh and caught the “Northern Lights” to King’s Cross. The ride down the east coast through Newcastle, York and Peterborough is a very nice train ride. There was a dining car to snack at and they even provided electrical outlets to power PCs or Ipods.
From Kings Cross I caught the Hammersmith line straight out to East Ham. As soon as I got out of the train I knew something wasn’t right. The stairs weren’t in the right place. And when I walked out of station the streets weren’t in the right place. (It had been 10 years since I was last there!) I soon realized that I had gone one stop past my goal and went back to the right station. Here, everything looked right and I quickly found myself at Avedon’s andRob’ s door. I found PNH and Avedon ensconced at the dining room table, cruising the web and commenting on blogs and articles they were discovering. This would be the scene for the next four days.
One of the nice bits of visiting Rob is that he has a rather large comic collection and I can zone out catching up on ten years worth of comics I wouldn’t otherwise have read. Quantum and Woody was particularly good. The Great Lakes Avengers was also another I hadn’t had a chance to appreciate before.
Saturday, a party was being held for local fans and visiting fans to meet before the Worldcon. I helped pick up the room I was staying in since it would be a sitting room if the weather turned nasty.
Since I had last been here, Rob had done a bit of work in the back yard, clearing out the rubbish and laying down a paving stone patio. The weather was pleasant enough to sit outside and watch the evening skies. I’ll bet with the wireless LAN, Avendon could sit out there with her PC.
Moshe and Lise showed up, Damien Warman and Juliette Woods, The GUFF winners were there. Sharee Carton and Randy Byers showed up a bit late. A number of other fans showed up as well, but I don’t remember them all. I will have to check the pictures. The PCs were retired for the party.
The party went well, the crowd mostly stayed outside or in the dining room so the cleaning of the other rooms was a bit of a waste.
Rob also showed us tapes of a British Quiz show “Have I Got News For You” where four panelists are supposed to provide their definitions of what is happening in silent news clips. It was Hilarious.
We also had a chance to see the new Doctor Who. It looks a lot more adult and action-oriented than the previous ones. This doctor, Christopher Eccleston, only lasted for one season before moving on. I didn’t see the latest Doctor.
Monday, I took the time to go down town and see the Globe Theater, the Tate Modern and the London Eye. I joined Rob and Avedon at Walkers for a special meeting of the regular First Thursday London Fan meeting, since most fans would be heading to Glasgow before the regularly scheduled First Thursday meeting on Thursday. Dave Langford was there handing out the latest Ansible. I met more London fans and some more incoming Americans. I will need to check the pictures to find out whom. I know Caroline and Brian were there and Chaz Baden stuck me with a sticker to indicate he took my picture.
Tuesday was a down day for me. I had planned to hit the first day of the Great British Beer Festival in Kensington and then come back and take R&A to dinner, but I discovered that the festival didn’t actually open on the first day until 5 PM (amazing what you can find out reading the adverts on the Tube) and closed at 10:30 and this was just a little too time conflicting, since I wanted to be up reasonably early Wednesday morning to get the train to Glasgow.
So I relaxed and read. PNH left for Folkestone. We went out to a nearby vegetarian Indian restaurant for dinner, very tasty. I had a chance to visit with Avedon and prepared for the next journey.