Tuesday, August 04, 2015

Cool Weather

It's England. It's overcast. It's 18 degrees Celsius.

And it's perfect.

I don't think it was the heat - or the humidity - that was the problem. I've been to places that were hotter (Tashkent 51c, Samarkand, Bukhara, both 49c). And places more humid (Dushanbe 48c 80%, Hong Kong, Singapore - where if I hadn't known for certain that I can't breathe water I'd have sworn the humidity was 100%).

No - the problem was air-conditioning. US Americans seem devoted to the stuff. Hotels, shops, private houses - all air-conditioned. Often to the point of needing a coat indoors. This means you never acclimatise to the heat. Samarkand & Bukhara aren't exactly hot-beds of air-con so within a day or two I became accustomed to it. In Dallas (and NOLA) I never had that chance. So every single time I left the house and walked into 35+ Celsius it was like opening an oven door. That "whoa, that's hot" feeling.

No fun at all.

The trip was fun though. Learnt a lot. Bought a lot of books (they're cheaper at the con than usual). Caught up with friends - though not a much as I wanted. the GCLS Con has grown - which is great for the Society, it's more professional, moving more towards becoming a respected group. But I miss the smaller, more intimate, show it used to be. Where you could hang out with friends a lot more. And where it wasn't so hard to choose which sessions you would be able to attend, and which you had to forego...

Ze

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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is a great site, and I really appreciate all the work you guys do, just wondering though if it's possible for you to put the pairings in brackets after the title? A lot of these fandom a have multiple possible pairings.

Thanks for the great site.

9:48 PM
zero2aries said...

You're welcome. Glad you like us.

Sorry but no, it's not a realistic proposition. Depending on when (which day) I start checking the sites we cover (and they all have to be checked - even if I'm certain there won't be anything new - because sometimes they surprise me and there is) it can take between 3 & 4 hours - each time - to check, note, and fill out the page ready for posting. If I haven't check my sites until the day I'm due to do the updates - make that 5 hours.

I shudder to think how long it would take if I needed to list pairings (especially stories with more than one pairing) as well as everything else.

Especially as it's so easy for readers to check the pairings themselves - just click the link, look at the author's header & notes and there you are. Pairing in almost always listed. So read or back-button as suits.

2:16 PM

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