It's a full life, if a trifle banal

As previously mentioned, I had an early morning panel in London on Saturday, at the BSFA/SFF AGM and minicon. We also had theatre tickets on the Friday night, so we decided to bunk off on Friday and do the tourist thing in Our Nation's Capital. Our hotel was in Westminster, so we wandered along the river through Victoria Tower Gardens. My piccies are here. (All taken on the iPhone!)

London has too often been a barrier to me, a place I have to pass through to get somewhere else, so it's good to be able to stop and take the time to look. We dropped into the National Portrait Gallery, principally to laugh at the statue of Victoria and Albert in mediaeval Anglo-Saxon garb, that makes them look like Posh'n'Becks. (I wanted to link to an image of it, but sadly it's not on the NPG site, for copyright reasons. Quite hard to miss if you're in the museum, though.)

Friday evening, we went to see Alan Ayckbourn's Bedroom Farce at the Duke of York's Theatre. Wisely played as a period piece; thank God I didn't have to be a grown woman during the 1970s. The play has a nice conceit – three marital bedrooms on stage all at once, with four married couples hopping between them – and is funny enough, although not side-splitting. It would have been funnier if the pay-off (a collapsing chest of drawers) hadn't been ruined by some idiot's phone going off for the second time that night. Completely undercut the last five minutes. One of the cast members looked absolutely livid, and I don't blame him.

Next morning, we strolled from the hotel through St James's Park to Piccadilly. What a beautiful day! The minicon was happening at the Royal Astronomical Society in Burlington House. Another part of London which I don't know well, and I was grateful for (and awed by) con organiser owlfish's map of the area – hand-drawn, showing all available coffee outlets, and with the legend: "Geography Is Approximate." Words to live by.

I'm bad at remembering what happens on panels when I'm a participant: I'm concentrating hard on listening to what other people are saying and thinking about my response, and my 'record' function doesn't work. The theme was "How do we understand TV as a literary medium?" I think what I chiefly wanted to get across was that television's strength, for me, lies in its domesticity – the small space inhabited by a handful of well-drawn characters – rather than in spectacle, and that, for me, shows such as NuBSG might deliver spectacle, but don't deliver credibility in terms of plot or character. (NuBSG also commits the cardinal sin of being dull: disaster for television.) We also discussed the issue of the respectability of SF, a question which becomes more complex in the context of TV, a form that has often struggled to make a case for its credibility. (Tho' I personally gave up striving for credibility w.r.t. my cultural pursuits years ago: "Sure I write fanfiction! Would you like to read it?" Brazen it out, brazen it out...) I'm sorry I can't remember more. I thoroughly enjoyed myself; hope participants and audience did too.

I sadly had to dash off before the tour of the RAS library; I had a dinner date with mraltariel at the Capital (ooh, get us, proper posh). It's such a lovely place, relaxed and welcoming. For the record, my grub:

• White crab meat with a tomato salad


• Pan fried guinea fowl breast, glazed maccheroni, and pumpkin velouté


• Roast pineapple with star anise, crème brûlée, hibiscus sorbet

Oh yes.

Then back to the hotel, where we rounded off the evening with 'The Pandorica Opens' on iPlayer. ( Brief spoilers )