Adventures in Berlin

Ich liebe Deutsch.  Actually, that’s not entirely true.  I have German family, and after the Brexit vote went and applied for German citizenship.  Dropping my paperwork off at the embassy, the gentleman who examined it reported that it was “very organised” and I just about managed to stop myself from shouting, “see?!  I belong!”  Unfortunately, turns out that before 1952 women under German law were considered adjuncts to their husbands, and since I’m trying to claim citizenship via my Gran, and she married in 1948, turns out she doesn’t count.  If she’d been male, she’d count, and I’d be hugging…

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Some Days In The City

‘Tis the season of grass pollen and brown fluff, and all across London people are snuffling, coughing and choking their way through a gently, if variably beautiful summer. Growth is everywhere.  Trees that five weeks ago were stubby twigs with tiny buds are now dangling over the pavement, forcing people to duck beneath them as they scurry around.  Along the canal, the walkway has halved in width in some places as wild blueberry bushes and giant budlias have suddenly spurted forward, growing just fast enough to remind you that urban civilization is indeed a tender thing, and will fall within…

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You, me and the environment

(A shout-out must go to the podcast “Reasons to be Cheerful” for reminding me that this is very, very worth blogging about more….) I’ve stood for local council for the Green Party in the past, and done a bit of work for them.  And it was exhausting and frequently stressful, and every time the last ballot was counted I swore never to do it ever again, and it is also and incidentally the right thing to do and I’ll probably muddle in again in the future despite being bored of hummus. Because let’s face it, climate change is the single…

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AMA and 84K!

If you are in the USA, the 84K publishes today, whoooo! If you are in the UK, then despite the fact it’s my home turf, I think you’ve got a few more days to go, although to be honest things are already shipping and there are copies in some good bookshops and it’s all sorta go anyway. To celebrate, I am spending the day eating cake (more cake), scampering between a few meetings and doing an AMA!  Pop over to Fantasy/Reddit and have a knatter here!

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Save Stage Lighting

In 2020 a new law will come into place across Europe which aims to make lighting more efficient.  This is a Good Thing.  Tungsten bulbs have, in the past, clocked in ridiculously high wattages for absurdly low outputs, and given that large swathes of everywhere are in danger of being flooded by man-made global warming in the coming decades, every little helps. I mean, regulating industry properly would be great too, but hey… The technology of lighting has leapt forward in the last ten years by leaps and bounds, and this is reflected in theatre and gigging too.  LED is…

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MCM Comicon London 2018

Comicon!  Let’s all go to Comicon whooopeeee!! This year it’s happening 25th-27th of May at London Excel, and I’m going to be there with all of these fine fellows talking about books, and adventures, and generally chilling out.  Come along and say hello!

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