• Mood: accomplished

Earl's Court and Greenwich.

The London Film and Comic Con in Earl's Court 2 was broadly as expected, with lots of opportunities to spend stupid amounts of money on stuff designed to excite the target audience. They got me -- I have a new t-shirt (mostly black). I refrained from joining autograph queues, I admired some of the nice outfits, I encouraged some SF fans to come to the Tun, and I had a productive chat with a very busy jamesb about Worldcon things.

The picnic (for ladymoonray and zoo_music_girl's birthdays) in Greenwich Park was just what I needed to cool off, chill out and de-stress. LMR I know reasonably well, and ZMG hardly at all. In fact, that sort of describes pretty much everyone there. Of the thirty or so in attendance, I knew perhaps a third well enough to talk to comfortably. What I really needed to do today was lie down and rest, stand around on the edge of conversations, and chip in just enough to feel I was contributing.
Two picnic quotes worth of note, from two different people:
Firstly, "DougS! I didn't recognise you with the beard" (followed by warm handshake).
Secondly, "Doug? Doug S?" (look of fear) "Were you in a pub in Islington once?"

For a group to which I really don't belong, they let me fit in very well.