Attacked by Swans! And good (but not exactly unexpected) news

[ffutures]

Today's walk took me first to Little Venice where I disposed of a few slices of slightly stale bread in the traditional way, by feeding them to the assembled ducks, coots, swans etc. Along the way I managed to fumble one bit of bread so that it was still between my fingers when a swan grabbed it, and I can now truthfully say that I have been bitten by all of the main vertebrate groups including birds, reptiles (lizards, tortoises and snakes), fish, amphibia, and mammals (including primates).

Unfortunately I didn't get a photo of this, for fairly obvious reasons, but I did get a couple of nice pictures of some coots that are nesting on the rudder of an old sailing barge at Little Venice:





It's noticeable that their main nesting material seems to be old plastic bags and other rubbish.

I took a slight diversion because I wanted to visit a shop in Church Street market, and found my way back to the canal at the weird upside-down house - photos tell the story:







After a nice lunch in Camden Town I went on to a pub in Great Portland Street, where the Britain in 2014 Worldcon (World Science Fiction Convention) committee made an announcement of epic importance; they'd won the bid (to nobody's great surprise, since there were no other contenders), and Loncon 3 will be held on 14th-18th August 2014, but more importantly the guests of honour will be:

Iain M. Banks
John Clute
Malcolm Edwards
Chris Foss
Jeanne Gomoll
Robin Hobb
Bryan Talbot

Much rejoicing on this from me, and from the assembled gathering.

For much more on this see

www.loncon3.org


After that I went home, stopping to get a few more pictures of the Crossrail works at Royal Oak Station - suddenly realised that you can see them from the bridge by the station where there is a temporary structure over water pipes, raising the ground level by a couple of feet.






And so to the computer, and this update.

Tomorrow - the school term begins...

PS - have a small bonus convoy of baby ducks, a photo I took a few days ago.





Later: Forgot to say that there is a livejournal for the Worldcon, loncon3

Comments

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

Oh dear - the coots' nest really is rather a sad wee rubbish dump, isn't it?

I guess the canal-side upside down house is simply sensible - pu the public rooms on the level the door comes in!

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

They do seem to be opportunistic scavengers - it's a pity there's so much crap around, they do run cleaning boats along the canal occasionally but too much rubbish gets dumped in it.

[jinxed-wood.livejournal.com]

And Dublin is also hosting Eurocon in 2014 (Aug 22nd - 24th) I'm thinking of going to both! I've never attended a Worldcon before and the idea of listening to Iain Banks and Robin Hobbs speak fills me with joy!

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

The timing is deliberate, of course!

[jinxed-wood.livejournal.com]

Oh yes! The Irish committee used it as a selling point - they're unabashedly unashamed about this :-P

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

I think the Worldcon date was deliberately chosen to be convenient for the Eurocon, rather than vice versa.

[jinxed-wood.livejournal.com]

Ah! I though you were talking about the timing of the bidding (ie - Ireland applying for Eurocon the same year as London applied for Worldcon)

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

I may be wrong, but I think both ideas came up independently at around the same time.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Forgot to add that since I'm retiring next summer I will actually be able to get to the Eurocon too - usually Irish cons are a little too late in the year for me.

[jinxed-wood.livejournal.com]

Fun! I'll be seeing LJ people in the real world. A rarity for me as I live off the beaten track.

[jinxed-wood.livejournal.com]

I know Dublin wanted Eurocon and they couldn't have been more happy when London bid for Worldcon. I'm not sure of the exact ins-and-outs of it, but I know the Irish committee discussed using the London Worldcon bid as plus in their favour when plugging their own bid. That happened at last year's Octocon in Dublin. I don't have any indepth background on it, though. maybe it's one of those chicken and egg scenarios?

[stevegreen.livejournal.com]

That's a great line-up. I'm very nearly tempted.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

It ought to be good, and there's a good selection of accommodation in all price ranges very close to the Excel centre.

[stevegreen.livejournal.com]

If it was only a matter of the cost, that would be good to know.

[samthereaderman.livejournal.com]

I joined the London Worldcon yesterday. See you there.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Yup. Ought to be fun.

[pauldrye.livejournal.com]

You can't turn professional until you've been bitten by fungi. If it was good enough for H.P. Lovecraft...?

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

There's a cheery thought; does a venus flytrap count?