byslantedlight to struggle free from temp-y work place (although I'm not sure how 4 drabbles in a morning counts as work *g*) so we can head off for Nattercon. And maybe there'll be a Skype call from B before we go, if he isn't out and about (I keep forgetting that I'm now 9 hours behind not 9 hours ahead, and it's Friday night in Sydney right now).And whee! for just being here, after thinking and planning the whole thing for weeks - it was absolutely lovely to see
byslantedlight at the P&R as my coach pulled in, knowing we've got days and days of meeting and nattering with our Pros mates. byslantedlight was fabulous as always and organised an evening out with alicambs, which was great fun, even if Ali and I did go off talking in a foreign language from time to time (there was definitely Bablyon 5, and a little Ultraviolet, although I don't remember too much Stargate at least from my side of the table *g*). But I'm getting ahead of myself... on Wednesday B drove me to the airport to catch my flight. For once I was checked in with plenty of time to spare, so I had teriyaki beef and duck gyoza at Wagamama (yum) before answering the boarding call. This is what Sydney, and Botany Bay, looked like from the plane window as we taxied out.
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The first leg of the flight, from Sydney to Bangkok, was quite comfortable. The plane was only about 2/3 full, so even though I had a window seat I wasn't cramped, and I managed to sleep for a few hours. In Bangkok we had to get off the plane, walk/travellator down a long corridor, go up a poorly signposted staircase, through security, back along the upper corridor, down some stairs to the waiting area beside the gate we just left. I was glad of the leg-stretching later though, because when we got back on the plane it was completely full and there were blokes in both the seats beside me who must have taken sleeping pills or something, because after the meal they both went to sleep and zzz'd their way across Asia and Eastern Europe, which left me feeling a bit trapped - I did manage to get a little sleep, and I read most of "Empress of Mijak", a somewhat dark fantasy novel by Karen Miller that I may post about when I've finished the trilogy.
We were over half an hour late getting into Heathrow and the baggage took ages to get to the carousel, so even though I'd planned for a gap of almost 2.5 hours between arriving and my coach departure time, I got to the stand with about 10 minutes to spare (OK, that was good planning after all). But the coach trip was comfortable, and everything looked like England...
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... and after a shower, and a snooze and some George Gently, BSL got home and we went out for our meal. I had this...
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Steak & Kidney pudding |
and this... and the others had equally lovely things...
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Chocolate fondant pudding with cherries |
and I bumped my head here, because by then I was getting rather full, and sleepy...
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.. and all in all it was the perfect start to An Adventure!
