Well, I’m all packed and leave in about 35 minutes. The family will be here, and I’m going to miss them. Dinner in Sydney tonight with pals, Ellen K tomorrow, and then on to Reno. Should be a great week and a half. I’m going to be interested to see how it is flying Virgin. This is the first time I’ve walked away from Qantas on an international flight, so it’s going to be a real test. We hope to take the whole family to the US in October/November, so this is a trial run.

I expect to be tweeting while traveling, and possbily blogging.  There’s also some chance we’ll podcast, though don’t be surprised if there’s nothing next weekend.  Consider it a possible hiatus.  Anyhow, till the other side, g’bye!

As I write the big clock at RenovationSF says it’s five days and five hours till WorldCon.  What’s focussing my attention much more is that it’s about sixteen hours until I board a flight for Sydney. Tomorrow night I’ll dine with friends in Sydney, then on Sunday will fly on to San Francisco.  I’ll be tired and jetlagged, but  I’ll also be staying with a dear friend and preparing to see many more in the coming days.  It should be a wonderful week and a half.

Have I been preparing? Well….yes.  I have packed (looks over shoulder at suitcase on floor of office). I have also got the day job to at least the point where I can be away for a short while, most projects are fine, and the reading is only a dreadful tsunami now.  I have new business cards for Gary and I for the podcast, and I’ve also posted the last podcast before WorldCon.  All is in hand (I think).

I have also read Snuff, the new novel by Terry Pratchett. It’s a Sam Vimes novel where Vimes, Sibyll, Young Sam and Willikins retire to Sibyll’s country home for a holiday. It goes as well as Vimes in the countryside ever does and, even allowing for a slightly bumpy start, I loved it a lot. One of my favourite books of the year.  I hope to finish reading two other novels between now and WorldCon, but who knows? Till then!

The big clock on the Renovation website says that it’s seven days till WorldCon. Here things are in the kind of chaos you might expect, if you’re used to dealing with easily stressed middle-aged flyers.  For some reason I’ve evolved from the nice, easygoing relaxed flyer who could throw a few t-shirts into a bag and go into someone who needs to be sure he has the right playlist on his iPad, that all of the plugs are cords are checked, and so on and so forth.

For the most part, all of that sort of preparation is well in hand. I fly out of here at about 10.00am on Saturday, and all is looking good for that. I do need to do a little panel preparation, but I have some time for that.  Oh, my schedule, should you be interested, is:

Renovation – Programming

Makes for a busy Friday, and I am not going to be able to make the Locus party, which I’m very disappointed about, but all of those should be fun. For those interested, I’m doing a signing or a Kaffeeklatch but will be round the Locus table in the Dealer’s Room a bit (if anyone’s interested, let me know in comments and I’ll set a time when I’ll definitely be there).  Other than that, it’s all pretty much set, unless you’re free for dinner Friday.