I knew there'd be a few things from the Con I'd forget to mention. One was the Songs of Monstrous Regiment session, in which Edmund and Flexor performed and discussed a few songs which are referenced in MR, and how the stories they tell match up to the events of the book. CTony and Lonecat provided vocal accompaniment, and I provided marching snare drum for a couple of bits (entirely unrehearsed, I might add). Most of the material was traditional folksongs, though it did also include a song about Vietnam from Country Joe & The Fish. We performed to a rather larger crowd than I'd anticipated, and happily it was all very well received. Even Pterry applauded, before briefly stepping onstage himself to deliver a much more lighthearted song.

And there was the moment on sunday night around 01:30 when a honeymooning couple were spotted checking in at the reception desk, and everyone turned out to line the corridor and applaud. It was a joy to see the bemused look on the face of the bride as she passed through a cheering crowd which included wizards, assassins, beautifully dressed ladies of negotiable affection, and one guy dressed only in a kilt and blue body paint from head to foot. Well, they wanted a day to remember, they got one. :-)



Since arriving at Chez Mary I've been taken for a drive in timpootle's electric van, which is surreal because it's so quiet. And I picked out Rosenkrantz and Guildenstern are Dead from the house shelf of DVDs, but haven't seen it yet because I realised I really needed to watch Hamlet in order to appreciate it, so I watched the Kenneth Branagh version.

And today I have been out to see Cars, which is a coming-of-age story with touches of Doc Hollywood and Cool Runnings, among others, and which seems like it could get overly heavy on the sap but gets better as it goes along and is ultimately damned good. And yes, there is a scene you need to stay right to the end of the credits for.

And we also had dinner at Chiquitos beforehand. It's a restaurant chain that does mexican food, and I would like to say that it was darned good food too, and generously proportioned. Not for folks who don't like chillis (waves at lonecat), but otherwise somewhere I would now recommend without hesitation.

And I've bought a replacement for the bottom head for my snare drum, which I discovered during the aforementioned Songs of MR segment had broken. Had to rely on my backup snare (Pearl Chad Smith signature) for the T&J, so I will fit the replacement tomorrow while Mary's teaching. Also bought 4 pairs of sticks for a tenner from the bargain bin. One pair of my regulars costs almost that much.