The NaNoWriMo British Contingent ~ Part I
Sunday, the 27th of October, 2002 - 7:44pm (on the 28th)
Current Song ~ "Dead Souls" by Nine Inch Nails. Damn, I'm getting repetitive with the music...
Clocks went back today. Or at least, most clocks did. I, being stupid, forgot about this whole time-change lark, and was thus up, dressed, and ready to go out at twenty past seven.
This would have been less irritating had I been able to get on with a few things on the web, but some time during the night, the internet failed.
Came back on at about quarter to nine, which gave me time to skim diary entries before leaving for Church.
Ah well, going back to bed and doing a little reading (still working my way through "A Mind of Its Own") while eating mini flapjacks was pretty damned enjoyable.
Today was Bible Sunday, and as one would expect, the Sermon was all about the Bible.
While talking about the differences between the Catholic Bible and what the C of E uses, the Vicar referred to the non-apocryphal texts as "the pukka scriptures".
There's something I wasn't expecting to hear!
It must be said - the music was not up to its usual standards this morning. For a start, the hymns on hymnboard and service sheet were screwed up, which meant of course that bookmarking the hymn pages as written on the hymn list was for the most part a wasted effort.
It also comes a bit hard to have your book open and being all ready to launch into song, then hearing that you are, in fact, doing something completely different.
Grr...
It also didn't help that we were, for whatever reason, pretty out of it. The notes were pretty much right, as were most of the words (so easy to mix up those verses!), but the three of us were in ever so slightly different time zones.
That never helps...
Yet again, we did two hymns in place of an Anthem, and those went okay (thank heaven!).
Here endeth the Church segment of this entry.
In the afternoon, I went to the London NaNoWriMo Meet-Up.
Be proud of me: I managed to find the Borders in Charing Cross Road. You may not think it would be any great challenge for one who has lived in London all her life, has frequently gone to that bookshop with various family members, and disembarked at Charing Cross Station.
If you are indeed thinking this, then you are surely forgetting my total lack of a sense of direction!
We met at the Starbucks on the first floor of said branch of Borders. Which leads me to wonder one this: Why would someone, if equipped with the knowledge that a dozen people were expected to attend and that the Starbucks is incredibly narrow, choose to arrange a meeting there?
I may never know...
The numbers in attendance were not as large as expected, mainly due to there being gale force winds in much of the country as of yesterday night.
Travelling by public transport is problematic at the best of times - the trees all over the line were not helping matters...
Still, we got a pretty good turn-out, and if any more people had arrived they just would have had to sit somewhere else.
I'd had my doubts about the meeting place beforehand, but for slightly different reasons.
Firstly, I am the only person in the world who can't stand the smell of coffee, or so it would seem. I've met other people who hate the taste of coffee, but I appear to be alone disliking the smell.
Secondly, Starbucks takes innocent chai, gives it no time to infuse, and adds a ton of sweetener in a failed attempt to disguise the fact that the stuff is totally fucked. I tell you, it's enough to make a speciality tea enthusiast weep over the counter!
Thirdly, Starbucks brings out my inner Communist. The place just gives me this urge to scream "Capitalist swine!!".
But anyhow...
I was not, as those who have met me will have guessed, especially talkative. That's putting it mildly. As I've said many a time, I'm not good with crowds of people that I don't know very well, nor with conversation while sober. Still, listening to everyone else was far more entertaining than I'd anticipated - we're a pleasantly eccentric little group.
After the departure of the woman who couldn't socialise with people who're drinking alcohol, we left Starbucks and wandered down the road to the Moon Under Water.
And I shall continue this tale in another entry, for this is become absurdly long...
I shalt be back as soon as possible!
Lily
