I'm just back from the wonderful Topsy Turvy Bristol Conference on children's literature. Everyone else seems to have taken lots of photos, but I only have one, that was emailed to me - you'll see why in a minute.
My talk was the first - 9.45 on Saturday morning, so it was good to get that out of the way and be able to enjoy the rest of the time ... but that wasn't the real beginning of the weekend, which started as Mr Bufo and I walked round to the station on Friday morning for me to catch the 10.54 Great Malvern train. I'd already got my ticket - an advance one at the ridiculously low price of £9.90 return, so I couldn't use any other than the train shown on the ticket. And I had a reserved seat - or so I thought.
The train was late - by about 10 minutes when it got to Romsey, but picked up a little bit as it went on. My seat was occupied by a lady who also had a ticket with that seat number on, and as the card in the back of that seat had the details of her journey, I found another - facing the direction of travel, which I prefer anyway, that had no reserved ticket, and so we progressed.
I did a bit of knitting - the scarf I had nearly finished, which did get completed over the weekend, though I only have a photo of it half-done:
During the journey I had texts from Gill and Alison, whom I was due to meet at Temple Meads, on their own progress towards that destination, and when I tried to respond, found I was out of signal for a long stretch between Bradford-on-Avon and Bath, but was finally able to update them that I was almost there.
Came out from the station to find them on the forecourt, and we progressed to the bus stop. Only a minute or so later hte bus arrived, and we were en route to the River Cottage Canteen.
A group of us from all over had arranged to have a late lunch there, which was great, then our cases took the seats of those who had been cooped up in cars all morning, and more than half a dozen of us walked from the restaurant across Durham Down to Wills Hall, where it was all about to happen.
The weekend was as well-organised and interesting as it always is, and the penultimate speaker was Jen, who is 'JS' on a certain forum. She and I had promised to include Cestina and Elder from that forum in a hug, so, thanks to Emma who took the pic on Jen's phone - here we are, wishing the other two could have been with us as well. Maybe next time? The dates for 2018 are 27-30 July if you want to mark your diaries now!
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