Eastercon: what we thought of it so far

After a couple of days, I still don't feel I have much of a handle on Bradford. We are staying at the Midland Hotel - all Victorian splendour, and very central - which has the disadvantage of putting us a shuttle bus away from the Con, but gives us the opportunity to explore the city centre. But where is the centre? There are canyons between cliffs of sandstone warehouses, there is a City Hall with a bell-tower worthy of a Flemish wool town, and a Wool Hall that looks like a gothic church (but is actually a Waterstones bookshop), architecture on an inhuman scale alongside vast levelled areas and the hole in the ground left by failed development - the whole made even more surreal by a thick layer of snow. There are shopping precincts, mostly looking very down at heel, but we haven't found a central shopping area; cafés and chain restaurants (we ate cheap and cheerful café food at Lahore, in 70s retro style) but no central restaurant area. There's also the Media Museum, which we visited briefly: some very interesting displays of early televisions! and early cameras! and thoughtful presentations about the social impact thereof. I would have enjoyed it more if they had not felt the need to provide audio commentary at all points, mostly on a non-stop loop.

Two days into the con, I feel on much surer footing. Yesterday I went to panels on The Magical British Countryside (which never quite took off), comparing and contrasting E. Nesbit and C.S. Lewis (a big warm bath of sharing books I love with other people who love them and can talk intelligently about it), Underground London (in which the panelists were having more fun than is consistent with the very best session, but luckily the audience were having fun too, so they got away with it) and Just a Minute (there is a reason why the radio show only runs half an hour - an hour was too long, but it was also too late in the day for me, so don't take my word for it). Today there was a talk about Con Ghost of Honour J.B. Priestley, a book group about Fan GoH Edward James's The Origins of France: from Clovis to the Capetians 500 - 1000 (best quote, from panelist Shana Worthen, that this was the sort of fantasy novel by the end of which we have visited all the places on the map - but that the world building is rather too visible), and a panel on the value of SF awards which was diffuse but interesting. After which I declared myself panelled out for the day, and came back to the hotel in search of sandwiches.

I have given myself permission to enjoy the Con in my own way, which includes accepting that I don't have to limit that to enjoying the Con itself. So I was quite relieved that there was nothing unmissable on this afternoon's programme, and that I could take things easy with the internet (and the pounding beat rising from the ballroom immediately below our room). At other times, of course, there are two or three things scheduled in parallel and I'd happily go to all of them.

And now it's nearly time for Doctor Who.