What I Did the Day Before Yesterday 12/05/08

The return of a fan favourite! The day before yesterday I:

- Got up ridiculously early to catch a train from Paddington. It was fine, but there is always that slight sense of stress when getting a bus across London that you’re not going to make it. Traffic delays, unexpected terminations of service, tourists looking for directions; all these things and more can find you desperately trying to wave down a cab in an attempt to make the train on time. Not today however, as the journey was largely plain sailing. Result!

- Upon going to sit down I dropped my cup of coffee on my fold-down tray table, spilling it over both my seat and seat of the man next to me. Not a good start. Luckily I found empty seats for both him and myself. In fact, my seats were the (unoccupied) disabled seats, giving me more leg room to boot.

- Wrote on the train to Bristol, which was fine except typing on a moving train isn’t as smooth as I might like. Given my current policy of not going back to correct typos, I shudder to think how it reads. No wireless! First Great Western sucks.

- Bristol International Comics Expo! Sounds very grand for something which amounts to no more than a big hall full of dealers and comics folk. Will and Josh had already set everything up, and it really does make me proud to see Gosh’s stock represented. We’re very distinct from anything else on offer. We try to bring a mix of books that are away from the comics mainstream, including a selection of our kids books as well. Saw the usual range of folks there and more UK creators than you could shake a stick at.

- Went to dinner at the wonderfully named Cathay Rendezvous, which does very good food for a very reasonable price. 15 of us there, many people taking starters plus a couple of desserts and a bunch of drinks, all for £300 including tip. £20/head ain’t bad for all that. Name-checkable in the bunch were Sean Philips, Mike McKone and Dougie Braithwaite.

-Went to drinks at the Ramada with Will and Cheeky Joe Melchior. Not sure why everyone goes there to drink as the place costs a bloody fortune. I bought a round of two beers and a lemonade for £11.15! Actually, the weekend all around cost me a bloody fortune. My entire week’s discretionary income blown in two days. Saw a bunch of folks there, including Mark Clapham (a customer, who was kind enough to buy us a drink) and podcast kings David Monteith & Barry Nugent, and stuck about until just after 12, when we figured we should probably get back to the hotel.

- Great hotel by the way. A bit of an upgrade from last year, and our twin room had two double beds. Classy!