Bid for 2002 Eastercon surfaces

Pat McMurray is uncharacteristically Incandescent

PNN has learned that Pat McMurray is preparing to launch Incandescent, a bid for the 2002 Eastercon. Pat is currently in detailed negotiations with a hotel on the south coast of England. He requested that PNN not name the hotel, as he is not yet seeking publicity for the bid. PNN respects his wishes - after all, he's bigger than us. But we can confirm that the hotel in question, which has recently changed hands, has not been used for a major SF convention for more than a decade.

Pat was showing off a draft flyer for the con, which mostly contained the sort of earnest protestations of world-changing philosophy that are so common in Eastercon Progress Reports. But your fearless correspondent knows perfectly well that come the relevant Maundy Thursday, we'll all be in the bar in that sort of interchangeable Eastercon way.

Elsewhere at the Flo, it was business as usual; once again things seemed slightly busier than last month as fans gradually realise that there is enough space, good beer and tasty food. There was no bar upstairs this time. Dave Langford announced with a gynecological gleam that poor old Florence was suffering from blocked tubes.

The combined efforts of the SF fans and the darts team contrived to drink the pub out of beer. Kev, fresh from his charity date with a tank full of piranhas ("they took one look at me and hared off to the other end of the tank") explained that there was no room in the cellar to rack any more. So expect Soviet style real ale shortages all summer.

Claire Brialey was in fine form, announcing that she had, in her customary fashion, turned 29 the previous week, and had celebrated by drinking a lot of stuffed animals and shoving a bucket of scotch down her cleavage. Or something like that. My notes are indistinct at this point. Seccon was generally pronounced a success, and there were odd rumours of a rather similar follow-up to be perpetrated next year by the PNN team. Watch this space.

Transatlantic travellers Patrick and Teresa Nielsen Hayden marvelled at the spectacle that is the Florence Nightingale <FX:shouts> "We can't hear ourselves think in here!", swooned at the now commonplace sight of Joseph Nicholas's divine legs in an exceptionally ugly mini-skirt, and waxed poetic about daytrips to France - "We drank a lot of wine, we ate a lot of food and took 150 digital photos. And you know how much it cost on the ferry? Five Pounds! And that was a return! And Rob Hansen said 'Go to France? Why would you want to do that?' " Meanwhile, transatlantic cinema-goer Square Bear sported his shiny new Jar Jar Binks t-shirt and explained that The Phantom Menace was well worth travelling several thousand miles to see.

Upcoming events at the Flo include the BSFA meeting on June 23 - where Patrick & Teresa will be the guests, and "Skeptics in the Pub" - now regularly meeting on the third Thursday. All of these happen upstairs at the pub, which can normally be found at 199 Westminster Bridge Road, London. The primary London Circle meeting is held on the first Thursday of every month and sf fans of any stripe are welcome.

-- Alison Scott

04 Jun 1999