And rest...

[la_marquise]

It's been a busy 10 days or so. Over the Bank Holiday weekend, the marquis and I, along with desperance, groliffe and Caro winolj, set off for Staffordshire for a long weekend at historic Tixall Gatehouse, all that remains of a former 16th century mansion. Lovely place, with big airy rooms, beautiful proportions and much comfort. There was walking and pub-inspecting and observing of local flora and fauna -- Staffs is full of Bedlingham terriers and huge mastiffs. Who knew? And I dragged everyone off to Ironbridge Gorge to see the Museum of Iron, for Werk reasons. We headed back on Tuesday, with the marquis, A and C going straight home, while Chaz and I went back to Ironbridge to see the Victorian town museum, where they have a working beam engine and many, many fine industrial objects, as well as working shops. He took lots of photos.
The marquis had picked up an awful coldy-fluey thing while we were away, and was really not well for much of last week. He's feeling a lot better now, but we had to cancel a planned outing to see the new Conan film, and his regular role-playing evening. (Much Jackie Chan was watched instead.) On Friday, we set off for the Write Fantastic gig in Glastonbury, but he wasn't well enough to come along, which was a great shame. We collected klwilliams at Heathrow en route, and I got to play chauffeur (though Chaz refused to let me wear his cap. I think he thought I might be ever so slightly taking the p*ss. I can't think why.) It was a good gig -- I thought my Arthur talk was a bit dull compared to the fascinating talks on more esoteric things given by mevennen and others, but I got good feedback. freda_writes was a wonderful GoH and not only gave a reading (she's so good at those: she always gives me goosebumps) but also talked with great depth about process and myth and imagery and her vision of writing.
And I was taken for a drag up the Tor by Lily-pup and Cassie. That is a high honour, and I am appropriately grateful.
Sunday, I packed Chaz and Karen back into the car (poor Karen: just in from California, and we take her over half of Southern England) and we headed into London, where I was scheduled to appear on a panel at the British Library with fjm, novelist Peter Hamilton, creative scientist and TED Fellow Rachel Campbell, and the mighty Neil Gaiman on sf and the future. I was rather scared of this -- big guns!, plus driving in central London without Phil -- but it went really very well. fjm was a fabulous moderator and the discussion ranged from zombies in Asian cinema, to Chinese futures, to space opera, to machines that replicate digestion, to feminism, capitalism and the role of sf in dismantling patriarchy. And afterwards we had a lovely Chinese meal with coth and her family, who, it turned out, had flown back from the US after Worldcon on the same flight as Karen.
And that's me for the last ten days. Time has been spent with good people, and I survived driving to and from the BL and now I'm back home with the marquis and all is right with the world.
Well, almost all. Horus informs me that it is Too Windy and His Fur Is Being Ruffled and He Does Not Like.

Skirt of the day: burgundy silky print.

Comments

[woolymonkey.livejournal.com]

Good to have you back. All monkeys would be up for Conan at the weekend, subject to homework commitments.

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

Sadly, we're away on Sat and much of Sunday. Friday might work, however.

[coth.livejournal.com]

Glad you enjoyed it all. And good to meet Karen.

[xenaclone.livejournal.com]

I very much enjoyed your Arthur talk :-)

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

Thank you.
I have had that word with St Francis de Sales, by the way.

[ex-triciasu.livejournal.com]

Yay, you!

(it is windy, tho)

[mizkit.livejournal.com]

You know, you just seem like a really nice person, I said perhaps randomly. I must meet you in real life sometime soon!

[bellinghman.livejournal.com]

Wha?

Oh my goodness, yes. That you two have not met each other is a sheer disgrace. And you probably need to meet Chaz/desperance as well. Actually, I think you need to come over here and do a bit more meeting up with UK fandom. An Eastercon would be the obvious answer (we'd be delighted to do airport/whatever collection), but if you wanted to come visit this general area instead, we've got a reasonable selection of airports around. We're the wrong side of the country for SailRail to be particularly easy though it's certainly doable.

[mizkit.livejournal.com]

I met Chaz all too briefly at P-Con a couple years ago. It was a great con, but the one downer of that one was not getting to talk to him more :)

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

Very much ditto!

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

Oh that sounds like such fun!

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

It was lovely. The Write Fantastic event was held at the Grail Centre Gallery, too, which currently has an exhibition of paintings by the incredible Anne Sudworth, which was a privilege to see. (http://www.annesudworth.co.uk/gallery1.html)

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

Oh, GORGEOUS!

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

They are even more amazing up close, where you can see the layers of pastel and charcoal. And in person she is just delightful.

[llwheeler.livejournal.com]

Glad you had a good time! I'm sad I missed your Arthur talk, I'll have to get you started on the subject someday.

Gus offers his sympathies to Horus, as the weather is Not To His Liking here either. (We dropped about 30 degrees in one day, storms on and off...)

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

Horus says No! to storms.
I will witter about Arthur at the drop of a hat, but not usually on line, because I'd be typing at it alld ay.

[llwheeler.livejournal.com]

:D one of my favourite (and most difficult) papers I wrote during undergrad was searching up the references to Arthur in the Saints' Lives.

But yeah, I hear you about typing all day. Some topics are just best kept to in person discussions.

[a-d-medievalist.livejournal.com]

Sounds like an exhausting, but really fun, time! By the way, did you know GH has a new Arthur book coming out? He's finished it, and I think is waiting for proofs, so not too long now...

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

I didn't know that, no. Thank you!

[dorispossum.livejournal.com]

also suffering from ruffled fur in this wind. :( Hope marquis recovering - or even recovered!

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

He's a lot better today: we're thinking about Friday for Conan, if it's still showing.

[ms-cataclysm.livejournal.com]

Roger and I would be up for Conan too.

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

I'll let you know if we decide to go.

[dorispossum.livejournal.com]

Unlucky (for us) timing - current plan is to see my brother on Friday (though we'll be free saturday/sunday). As op is next week, keen to see bro while he's still comparatively cheerful. But will get in touch if plans change. Otherwise will have to compare new Conan to sublime Schwarzenegger version with you some other time (maybe over Ghibli..?)

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

I hope the op goes well.

[klwilliams.livejournal.com]

You were fabulous and very interesting at both talks. Thanks for driving me around.

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

Goodness, you're welcome. I'd have been doing the driving anyway, after all.

[freda-writes.livejournal.com]

Lovely to see you, and your Arthur talk was fab! Thank you for your kind words about my GoH spot and reading. I finally got the hang of keeping the piece fairly short and reading s-l-o-w-l-y!!!

Hugs, xxx