WASTELAND

Had a mixed time at this excellently-run Convention. Cheshire and Callisto did a fantastic job, and everyone had a great time. The writing guests were excellent: Sean Williams is genuinely one of the nicest guys I've ever met, and it's always a real pleasure to run into him. Paul Kidd was brilliant: I sat on a panel with him and discovered a real connection of shared humour, irony, and outlook that made it an absolute barrel of laughs. And I thoroughly enjoyed the experience every time he was in the room: he's a genuinely funny and engaging man.

On the downside, our Saturday night suffered a major interruption when a tiny kitchen fire prompted hotel staff to evacuate the entire building. Luscious had to drag her heavily pregnant self down three flights of stairs, which caused her to suffer terrible leg cramps, which resulted in her waking twice in agony, screaming and panicky. The night was so bad she had to leave the Con at lunchtime on Sunday in order to come home and get some rest. I dropped her off and returned, but I was so tired and grinchy I don't think I did anything positive for the rest of the day, and left the Con feeling very down and depressed.

But all in all I thought the Con was a good experience. Luscious and I don't get a chance to get out and indulge our fannish sides as often as we'd like, and Cons like this are the perfect opportunity to catch up with people we rarely get to see. Let's hope someone picks up the franchise next year and gives us another gathering of the Clan to attend.

4400 REASONS TO SIGH

The most anticipated television event of the year, huh? Well, maybe if you're not an SF fan. Seen it before. Seen it all before.

THE KIDS ARE BACK!

Woohoo! It's our turn to spend a week with the kids for the second half of the holidays! Fun fun fun fun. We've got some serious fun lined up. The kids belong here, and we belong with them.

MORE EBAY MADNESS

Won me an ancient Greek arrowhead from circa 1000-300 BC today (Nice how they can narrow it down so easily :) ). That should spell the end of my Ebay adventure for a while: I've not got enough of my spending money left to make a tilt for anything impressive. Luscious, on the other hand, decided to have a bit of a search while we were waiting for my bidding to reach the last 15 minutes, and ended up buying a ruby ring for (wait for it)......

A buck.

One dollar. For a ruby ring. And it's a real ruby, nothing cultured or paste.

One buck.

NO, YOU DON'T GET A SHOWBAG

It was Luscious' first ever voting experience on Saturday. She used to be part of a religion who are exempt from voting, and this is the first election since she left.

I'm striding across the carpark to the polling line, eyes front, dismissing the likes of Christian Democrats and Family First lunatics with a curt "No" or "I've decided" whilly nilly. And I realise that the Luscious One has fallen behind.

Because she's merrily accepting how-to-vote cards from all and sundry and getting excited because she didn't realise you got handouts and oh wow these ones are green! and......

I swear, if they had a bumper car stall we'd have been there all day.

ELECTION RESULT

Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck fuck.

Fuck!