A day well spent
Feb. 15th, 2014 10:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shewhomustToday's fixed point was Simon Morden's book-signing at lunchtime in Newcastle, and we managed to fit a number of other very satisfactory things around it.
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durham_rambler and I took a morning train into town, early enough to give us time to meet samarcand for coffee, tea and conversation (one of the things we talked about: what do 'walnut', 'walrus', and 'wampum' have in common?).
The signing was at Forbidden Planet: I don't think I've entered the shop since Travelling Man opened just down the street from them, and as far as buying comics is concerned, that seems about right - the visible part of the shop is all games and merchandise. But downstairs there's a well-stocked little F&SF bookshop. Right now it's even better stocked, since it has signed copies of a number of books by Simon Morden, including his latest, Arcanum. Simon talked a bit about the book, which sounds terrific: a tiny kingdom whose control of magic guarantees peace and prosperity, which doesn't need anything else because it has magic - but what happens if that changes? Then we all bought our books and got them signed, and I picked up a copy of The Curve of the Earth, too. because I could, though with some trepidation because I enjoyed the original Petrovitch trilogy so very much, and I can't see how you canfollow it with another book (but then, I felt the same way about the first book of the trilogy, too, so what do I know?).
A whole gang of us trooped off to the Milecastle for a convivial lunch, thendurham_rambler and I did a few errands: to the Theatre Royal to book tickets for Tyne, to the posh food shop in the Grainger Market (there's a dissonance in there somewhere) to buy some chestnut flour (and some plain white flour while I was there, because I'd run out), to the completely unposh card shop in the Grainger Market to buy a birthday card for a great-nephew...
During that morning conversation I had also taken the opportunity to picksamarcand's brain about the cataloguing of comics, so when we got home, I downloaded his recommended software, and I have started poking it and trying to make it work for me. Part of this process involved clearing a path through to the bookcase behind the armchair, and looking into bags and boxes to find out which comics are where. I haven't even touched the heaps, yet, because I'd like to try entering a complete run onto the database to see whether it works for me. So far, it's promising...
durham_rambler and I took a morning train into town, early enough to give us time to meet samarcand for coffee, tea and conversation (one of the things we talked about: what do 'walnut', 'walrus', and 'wampum' have in common?).The signing was at Forbidden Planet: I don't think I've entered the shop since Travelling Man opened just down the street from them, and as far as buying comics is concerned, that seems about right - the visible part of the shop is all games and merchandise. But downstairs there's a well-stocked little F&SF bookshop. Right now it's even better stocked, since it has signed copies of a number of books by Simon Morden, including his latest, Arcanum. Simon talked a bit about the book, which sounds terrific: a tiny kingdom whose control of magic guarantees peace and prosperity, which doesn't need anything else because it has magic - but what happens if that changes? Then we all bought our books and got them signed, and I picked up a copy of The Curve of the Earth, too. because I could, though with some trepidation because I enjoyed the original Petrovitch trilogy so very much, and I can't see how you canfollow it with another book (but then, I felt the same way about the first book of the trilogy, too, so what do I know?).
A whole gang of us trooped off to the Milecastle for a convivial lunch, then
durham_rambler and I did a few errands: to the Theatre Royal to book tickets for Tyne, to the posh food shop in the Grainger Market (there's a dissonance in there somewhere) to buy some chestnut flour (and some plain white flour while I was there, because I'd run out), to the completely unposh card shop in the Grainger Market to buy a birthday card for a great-nephew...During that morning conversation I had also taken the opportunity to pick
samarcand's brain about the cataloguing of comics, so when we got home, I downloaded his recommended software, and I have started poking it and trying to make it work for me. Part of this process involved clearing a path through to the bookcase behind the armchair, and looking into bags and boxes to find out which comics are where. I haven't even touched the heaps, yet, because I'd like to try entering a complete run onto the database to see whether it works for me. So far, it's promising...
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Date: 2014-02-16 12:21 am (UTC)I love reading your out-n-about posts. I feel like I'm there too.
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Date: 2014-02-16 08:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-02-16 08:47 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-02-16 08:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-02-16 08:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-02-16 02:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-02-16 08:36 pm (UTC)I've found the point at which you can tag with a location, but not yet how not to have to go into each issue and do it individually. And pretty convinced that I do need to add this field.
Despite which, yes, I think I'll be moving beyond the free trial stuff.