If there was any doubt that the year was already moving forward, I head back to the day job tomorrow. Lots and lots of work to do on an important project there, while at the same time getting The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year: Volume 8 and Reach for Infinity ready to deliver by month’s end.  Both books have very tight turnarounds and, then I have to deliver Fearsome Magic by the end of March. In between there’s some Springsteen madness, and then it’ll be well and truly tax time. So, pretty much the run from now through to Easter will be crazy. After that, Worldcon and London beckons in August. Is the year almost done already?

My family has a tradition of having birthday seasons rather than simple “birthdays”.  I think this might be because we have a failure to commit, rather than because of any intention to brilliantly extend things.

Anyway, it was my birthday on Thursday.  We had intended to go to our favourite restaurant on Wednesday, but instead ill-health intervened. This happens sometimes, so we made up for it by grabbing lunch at the Fat Dragon in Mount Lawley. I’ve always loved the restaurant, but perhaps because of the hangover from being unwell I didn’t especially love it this time. I didn’t really notice, though, because I was surrounded by family which made it special.  We ate and drank and talked and had a good time.

And there were gifts. Terrific gifts. I don’t want to gloat (I do!) but an original Shaun Tan drawing, scotch-related gifts, a voucher for a laptop skin, some caramels – all very nice.  And then at lunch my mum, brother and sister gave me the MacBook Air I’m typing this entry on which blew me away.  I knew I was going to get it, but it’s pretty incredible.

Friday was more of a work day, which I needed, but Saturday there was a small party at my mum’s house. Marianne,  Barbara, Stephen and mum put a lot of effort into making it terrific, and Keira, Robin, Nick and Amanda, Alisa, Chris and Mackenzie, and Theresa showed up worth gifts and great company. It could have been bigger (I know mum would have liked it if it was), but it was sort of just right as it was with dear friends making it special. I’m very grateful to everyone for coming, and also want to thank everyone out there who sent good wishes. They were all appreciated.

We were all up rather late, which meant today has been a bit of a day of rest. Some editing, some cricket to watch (5-0!), and no reading. There may be reading tonight because I want to get the next round of short fiction reviews out.  On those, I hope to do two entries of reviews each week. Have to see how that goes.

So I missed the mad rush for rooms for  Loncon 3,  the 72nd World Science Fiction Convention, which is being held in London between 14 and 18 August, that apparently happened in the early hours of this morning. The people running the con are doing their best to manage the demand for accessible and affordable rooms in one of the biggest and most expensive cities in the world, and that meant lotteries and late night rushes. I secured a room of sorts, but am still tinkering.

Oh, and as  I should have mentioned I am attending the convention with my twelve year old daughter, with a side trip to Paris and the south of France,  and need to arrange rooms and flights, but haven’t really got my act together.  Lots to do!

Well, yesterday was the big day. I was smothered in gifts and had a lovely lunch with family. I was probably still a little bit below par due to illness, but am definitely close to full recovery and enjoyed myself more than I have at any point in the preceding two weeks.

I had, of course, intended to do a little work. Heck, I intended to do some today. Instead, yesterday was slackness and configuring my sparkly, shiny new MacBook Air, and today was errands, cricket and not really much more. I’m getting close to where I have to get things done or terrible trouble will result. I have a party tomorrow night, but tomorrow I really need to get my best of the year intro drafted. It’s that time of the year!