Wherever you go, there you are.

[f4f3]

Things continue to happen.

I had a more or less unscripted visit to London, which involved doing some very dull work, and wishing I could spend every lunchtime on a deck chair in Green Park. Not only did I have a very pleasant Marks and Sparks lunch, and listen to The Style Council in their Paris Match phase, but two young women appeared in front of my patch, stripped to their underwear and rubbed each other with oil. As a full reconstructed new man, I applauded their right to self-expression and only ogled from one eye.

 

I went to see Pirates of the Caribbean 1.5, and discovered that you the Odeon in Leicester Square manages a good line in piracy, or at least highway robbery, if you want to have the best seats in the house. Which I do. Very nice Moroccan food in Greek Street, and a nice stroll in the evening. Some days I can almost understand why people would want to live in London.

 

I flew back quite late on Tuesday from Gatwick, which meant I had time to hook up with K and Frankie. After a comedy of errors we ended up meeting at the Chez Gerard at Victoria, which is actually quite a nice place to meet, if sadly lacking in air-conditioning. Frankie overcame this with ingenious (if not lascivious) use of ice-cubes, while I achieved the same affect with the best part of two bottles of Alsace. I won’t say I was drunk on the way to the aiport, but I certainly had a pleasant buzz on. Evenings like that remind me why I’m so inordinately fond of K, and I look forward to dragging him around a golf course soon, with or without Julia Roberts.

 

I’d like to take some time to talk about things that are bubbling under at the moment, but until my subconscious is finished with them, I’ll just leave it at a list of things I’m mulling over:

 

Is this the best time to be thinking of visiting Egypt

I need to start writing fiction again

I must change jobs. Soon.

Will someone (Mike Cobley, maybe?) have a review in this weekend’s Guardian, making it three in a row for the Glasgow SF Writers Workshop?

Comments

[jen-c-w.livejournal.com]

o don't go to leicester square.
Don't ever go to leicester square.
The only reason for ever going to leicester square is going through it on your way to soho.
You will never have a good time in leicester square, and it will always be expensive. jen_c_w trufax

[f4f3.livejournal.com]

Oh, i had a good time, although it was far too expensive, but I promise never to eat there, and to only go to Soho via Picadilly.

[liadnan]

The Moroccan at the bottom end of Greek St on the corner with Old Compton St? Good, though I prefer the Lebanese at the other end.

P:rob not such a bad time to visit Egypt actually. Prices should be down...

[f4f3.livejournal.com]

The very same - I've had some excellent nights out there in the past. I'll try the Lebanese next time though.

There's a part of me that says not travelling to Egypt now puts me in the same camp as those Americans who refuse to come to Europe, but the bomb at Sharm last year did scare the bejesus out of me.

[widgetfox.livejournal.com]

Frankie overcame this with ingenious (if not lascivious) use of ice-cubes, while I achieved the same affect with the best part of two bottles of Alsace.

D'you really think so?

[f4f3.livejournal.com]

Well, I achieved SOME affect with the best part of two bottles of Alsace. It may not have made me the cynosure of all eyes, but I'm sure it made me devastatingly attractive to the opposite sex.

[widgetfox.livejournal.com]

Surely you don't need Alsace to help you with that.

[f4f3.livejournal.com]

It helps overcome my crippling shyness

[widgetfox.livejournal.com]

Can't you just sit back and let them do all the work?

[f4f3.livejournal.com]

That comes later.

[widgetfox.livejournal.com]

Even after two bottles of Alsace?

[f4f3.livejournal.com]

Even after a bottle of whisky.

[widgetfox.livejournal.com]

Especially after a bottle of whisky.

[f4f3.livejournal.com]

Never been one of my problems.

[widgetfox.livejournal.com]

Good to know.

[f4f3.livejournal.com]

I hate that icon.

[widgetfox.livejournal.com]

*smirks even more*

[white_hart]

I rather like it myself...

[f4f3.livejournal.com]

"I'll have twenty Asparagus Tips and bottle of Alsace."

[widgetfox.livejournal.com]

Shurely the other way round? Ed.

[f4f3.livejournal.com]

And a clothes peg.

[widgetfox.livejournal.com]

?

[f4f3.livejournal.com]

For my nose, pre the Asparagus Tips.

[widgetfox.livejournal.com]

Um, you're supposed to eat them.

[f4f3.livejournal.com]

Yes, but I don't have to taste them, do I?

[widgetfox.livejournal.com]

Might be quite dangerous to swallow them whole.

[f4f3.livejournal.com]

Hmm, obviously I need lessons in how to do that...

[widgetfox.livejournal.com]

*writes and deletes a couple of responses*

You won't like it if I say 'one bite at a time', will you?

[f4f3.livejournal.com]

No, I would not like that at all.

[f4f3.livejournal.com]

"Take what you want, said God..."

[widgetfox.livejournal.com]

"The gods are just, and of our pleasant vices make instruments to plague us" - King Lear, I think, and one of my favourite quotes always.

[f4f3.livejournal.com]

"In my time I've been a God and a coward and a son of a bitch. That's the thing about living for as long as I have, you go through phases." Roger Zelazny, Isle of the Dead, one of my favourites too.

[widgetfox.livejournal.com]

That's great.

[f4f3.livejournal.com]

Well, no hat-trick for the SF Writers Circle, but nice to see the Strangehaven book get a nice boost - and I have eaten chips with them.