craigoxbrow

I have returned!

London did have internets, but by the time I found internets I could use without my own shinyphone it was already Saturday night and I was quite tired from Dragonmeeting. (Having Dragonmet?)

Remember how a year ago I was in New Zealand and went to the in-progress Hobbiton set/location tour? And had to sign something saying I couldn't share the pictures?

Well, as of today AICN has these pics up. So I feel I can post this one I got now. I have like twenty more, but that can wait another year.

The Grand Masquerade

A lengthier report to follow, but for now...


Hello Russell!

Hello Ian!

Winning the "it's a small world" category, the Spanish couple who organised the V20 Europe collection campaign made a trailer with people from... Embraced in Edinburgh.

With any luck I will soon have a new facey-book photo.

V20 is enormous.

The Gangrel animal features weakness is now temporary.

Tim Bradstreet is made of win as well as the widely-known awesome.

At 3.51 this morning I saw Dracula bodypopping to a song I know from glee.

... Life is strange sometimes.

Right then, Mark safely back in Sydney. No word yet on whether he successfully watched season one of Boardwalk Empire as he planned.

Well, finally put in my Buffy Conpulsion synopsis. The winner is... Evil Buffy.

In the meantime, do some good. Best wishes NZers.

Dragonmeet was lovely. Getting back rather less so. But being an hour and twenty minutes late on a packed train full of drunk Newcastle fans for the last two hours ain't as bad as not being able to get back at all would have been.

Got to meet Ian Livingstone, the man responsible for my first gaming type experience (City Of Thieves, which I now have a signed copy of the new edition of), Robin D. Laws, Kenneth Hite, Andrew Peregrine, Jeff Combos... as a result, my signed stuff bag was rather heavy. And Alex Jurkat wasn't even there but I still got a signed limited-edition Buffy rulebook at the auction. (I never got the limited edition when it was out, that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it.)

C7's new game, by Gar, is Primeval. Sweeeeet.

Hope everybody made (or makes) it back okay.

( Two rather different experiences )

So, yes, lessons learned... pack a lunch if you're going to a foreign city where you don't know anyone, try and go broke in the city with lots of free museums and a British embassy rather than lots of $20-at-the-door museums, expect hotel quality to vary not by price but by location as I was in a fantastic hotel then an okay hotel and then a hole for about $150 a night each, have phone numbers handy in case of emergency, buy a robust suitcase rather than a cheap one, spare a day or two before a major event in a new timezone for jetlag and/or food poisoning, and don't trust credit cards at all.

Hello world. It's good to be back. Particularly after three days alone in a foreign city with almost no money (thank you VERY much $%@!erCard). Feeling almost human again.

And I met JK Rowling at Edinburgh airport. Had I been thinking clearly I'd have gotten a photo to confirm it wasn't an halluciation.