Today we puttered around Swindon and a few other places. The Cairn Mascot of the Five… the female one… joined us. It’s been a very long day for little blond doggies. Halle would like to tell you all she’s extremely tired and would appreciate small tidbits of bacon to be delivered to her place on the sofa.

Yesterday was London. The pouring rain was gone today. So if we’d gone to London today, it would have been sunny but honestly, I wouldn’t have traded yesterday for anything. It was the ultimate London experience.

• Waited for a bus that didn’t come.
• Witnessed a protest which affected cab service. More on that later.
• Dug through the Tube map to get to where we needed to go. This was done quite successfully.
• Queued like made
• Called a cab that didn’t come because of above protest.
• Managed the Tube again, despite the waterfalls of sluice coming down.

Have had a lot of coffee and tea. Some lovely biscuits and well, a begging Cairn.

Today we hit up lunch at the Riverside Pub. Fantastic Yorkshire Pudding filled with bangers, mash and young peas. So so nice. And then an apple and blackberry crumble with ice cream. Tamm said Bollocks after getting BBQ sauce on her shirt and the older women next to us fled like the banshee were on them. Okay that could have been because they were done with lunch but mostly… we said it was the swearing.

Outside were two workers and I got them to show me their ink. I shall share the pix. They were adorable. One had Maori markings and had just finished them. They were at the first peel stage. He was so sweet.

Further along the day… in a day of churches, we came across the gravesite of Tiddles the Church Cat who was a very beloved member of the community.

Sadly, Tiddles Too failed at being a Church Cat, mostly because he refused to stop bringing in half dead rats into the church during services and liked letting them go among the pews as well as being unable to be left inside of the church at night because he tore shit up. Tiddles Too’s Church Cat career ended one day when someone fed him canned cat food at their cottage and he said fuck this Church Cat shit, I’m moving in with them. I didn’t ask if there was a Tiddles Three.

In Cotswold, there’s a butcher shop with a Pickled Tongue sign and apparently hares. I took a picture of the Harry Potter Hare in the bookshop. There were other more disturbing hares outside. I’ll share those later. They’re the type of hares where one needs a bit of strong drink before viewing them.

London was soaked through to the bone. TO THE BONE! Chanced across a protest. And then it became impossible to get a cab. Okay so that’s all just stitched up together there. But those were the events.

Couldn’t get to Baker Street mostly because the tour company we hired had the buses running late. So we went on the Red Line and then the skies opened up. There were waterfalls running the Tube’s stairs. It was insane. I got soaked. We all got soaked.

But I got a picture of one of the Tower’s Ravens.

And had Fish and Chips for lunch.

So dead tired. So this will be quick. See you in the morning. Well my morning.

So we’ve come back from Oxford. I am dead tired. We had Indian food for dinner. I’d tell you more but there’s a bunch of silliness and giggles. I have a cup of tea and we’re watching Banshee.

So far I’ve been embroiled in the war of Nero and Costa coffee. Tamm however swears by Café Nero’s hot chocolate. Penn swears by Costa coffee. I didn’t care which so long as I got coffee.

Oxford was really nice and I really did a good twist to my knee. Life is so good right now. We’re heading to London tomorrow. There will be some walking so I’m hoping it feels better by tomorrow morning.

Today is a special shout out to Harry Potter fans in the area because there’s a huge Potter connection with Christ Church, apparently. And it’s so adorably cute. No really. It’s all over. As well as Alice in Wonderland but that makes sense because of Carroll. I’ll be uploading pix at the end of this so you can see. But I’ll be picking out certain photos and I just don’t have the brain to go through 1000 shots. I shall have brain at some point.

Starting JD Robb’s latest In Death tonight. Maybe. Watch me pass out.

Mary Calmes and Jordan L. Hawk have books coming out. Get them. I’ve read them. They’re gorgeous.

Fit To Be Tied by Mary Calmes

Deputy US Marshals Miro Jones and Ian Doyle are now partners on and off the job: Miro’s calm professionalism provides an ideal balance to Ian’s passion and quick temper. In a job where one misstep can be the difference between life and death, trust means everything. But every relationship has growing pains, and sometimes Miro stews about where he stands with his fiery lover. Could the heartstrings that so recently tied them together be in danger of unraveling?

Those new bonds are constantly challenged by family intrusions, well-intentioned friends, their personal insecurities, and their dangerous careers—including a trial by fire when an old case of Miro’s comes back to haunt them. It might just be enough to make Ian rethink his decision to let himself be tied down, and Miro can only hope the links they’ve forged will be strong enough to hold.

Amazon Link: http://www.amazon.com/Fit-Be-Tied-Marshals-Book-ebook/dp/B014V4EDHQ/

 

Dangerous Spirits by Jordan L Hawk

After the events of Reyhome Castle, Henry Strauss expected the Psychical Society to embrace his application of science to the study of hauntings. Instead, the society humiliates and blacklists him. His confidence shaken, he can’t bring himself to admit the truth to his lover, the handsome medium Vincent Night.

Vincent’s new life in Baltimore with Henry is disrupted when a friend from the past asks for help with a haunting. In the remote town of Devil’s Walk, old ties and new lies threaten to tear the lovers apart, if a fiery spirit bent on vengeance doesn’t put an end to them first.

Amazon Link: http://www.amazon.com/Dangerous-Spirits-Jordan-L-Hawk-ebook/dp/B01255T684/

The sans part has since been rectified.

Yesterday we were in Bath. Lovely place. There was an art gallery that was on the bit of the odd side but then we like odd. The Herne sculpture was awesome, especially since the deer rack’s shadow cast down as wings on the wall.

Went to the Ale House on the corner of the square. Absolutely adorable bar man there and we got lunch. I got a meat pie, the rest of the Five got chili. Really. Chili. I am judging so hard. *grins* To be fair, we also got a plate of nachos to share. I have to make actual guacamole for them. But it was nice. No mushy peas for me. Minty or otherwise.

The Abbey itself was gorgeous. Took a lot of inside pix there. I’ll post those out in a bit. I’m doing this blog post on the fly before we had over to Oxford.

We walked about a bit, looked at the Roman Bath building but the queue was huge. They were processing tour groups through so it was chaotic.

Tried to take tea in a tea room. Got shunted around to their other tea room then ended up in the front room and they put us at a table above the others. Soooo much food. Ended up taking the cake home.

Hope everyone’s doing well. I’ve got to start plotting Kai out and then just going for it. I’ve got some inklings of what I want.

Right now, I have coffee and Halle the Cairn is keeping me company.

Good morning and hello from slightly damp Swindon. Today we are going to head down to Bath once we get all of our bits and knobs together. The UK has been great as have been the people. At the moment, I am having coffee with the Five. Well one of the Five and one of our cairn mascots named Halle.

To be fair, Halle is snoring. She’s very sweet but a bit disgruntled she doesn’t get any excess food because the increased ratio of people to dog should work out in her favour but for some reason it doesn’t seem to result in additional bacon or biscuits.

There are roundabouts galore here. I hit about five of them. There is a Magical Roundabout which I think I posed a video of once… but it’s pretty much a squillion roundabouts with tiny roundabouts inside of it where people go about in circles for hours and sometimes just give up, pull over and live their lives in the glorious town of Roundabout.

Sleep has become a distant memory. I imagine I will pass out tonight. I sincerely doubt I’ll be able to sleep in because well, coffee aroma in the morning rises up and tickles the brain.

Hope you all are doing well. *grins*

The view from the UK Meet’s chatting room.

Well, I broke the hotel’s internet.

I didn’t mean to and the front desk clerk assures me that I did nothing of the sort but I know she is lying just to make me feel better. Went and grabbed something to eat downstairs and came up to do a post for tomorrow morning.

So there we have it. The first casualty of the trip…the internet.

It was a very long 10 hour flight mostly because the flight attendant really didn’t want to be there and it showed. It was hot but my seat mate was okay. Chair was meh. Food was… well, they were preparing me for a Sunday Roast at Aunt Edna’s house down in Leeds. Aunt Edna who doggy bags her friend’s BBQ leftover because she knows you’re coming to visit and can’t be bothered to cook.

The UK is the UK. Just as you’d imagine. But with more Jaguars. The driver… yes I had a driver because I knew I’d be sick as a fucking dog when I got off the plane and tackling a bus or train wasn’t going to happen. Especially after UK Border / passport check and luggage retrieval.

Landed at 330. Got out of Passport and all of that at 510 then off to Bristol. I had the windows open and practically hung my head out of the car window like a golden retriever.

But I am here. And planning to go to bed because it’s that time here. And I’ve had a really long day ;D

If you are here, let me know. I will say hey. 😀

By the way, I am sharing the floor with the Japanese Rugby team. God, damn. Life is good.

Morning all!

I’ll probably still be in the air when this is posted but I thought I’d preload a blog entry just to have something here.

There are a lot of things to worry about when traveling and apparently having enough power cords is one of them. Seriously, does EVERYTHING have to have its own power cord? Apparently so. Damned electronics. I’m lugging a bunch of tablets, phones, laptops and cameras with me. You’d think I was going to go shoot a documentary and cut it on the fly.

Also in my luggage are skanky My Little Ponies for one of the five to dissect and make pretty horrid things with. With any luck, one of them will be a fanged pony. I’ll ask for pix.

This isn’t going to be one of the longer flights I’ve been on and truthfully, I’ll be able to sleep through most of it. Redeye to London isn’t that bad. Fighting the traffic to the airport probably will be worst. So we’ll see how that pans out.

I don’t have a lot of writing news. Mostly my brain’s been taken up with how I’m going to get on at Bristol and what else I have to do for GRL. I do need to just sit down, have a cup of coffee someplace and ruminate about Kai 2. Which reminds me. I need to shove a notebook into my luggage so I can just jot notes down instead of dragging out the laptop when I want to go wander.

Unfortunately for me, British Airways doesn’t do TSA Pre-Check so I have to stand in line with everyone else. Sighs. The horrors. *Grins* Knowing Security, that’ll take a bit. Especially at San Diego International.

When I get back, I’ll have to get on my swag for GRL. Just the paper bits since I’ve got the physical stuff. I don’t know what my plans are for cons next year but I’m thinking of doing a MidWest tour, mainly so Mary Calmes can lock me up in her house like she did last year and then her cat, Dewey and I can sing the blues together in Stalag Calmes.

There’s a bit of an ear stuffiness going on with me but I have Sudafed. I’m taking a bunch with me because you know, ear stuffiness is horrible. A lot of it has to do with the hot/cold air San Diego is having right now. It better be gone when I come back. *grins*

Talk to you all once I get landed, settled and probably some sleep and coffee. If you’re attending the UK Meet, wooooot! Say hey.