Post con (con write up to follow)

Sitting in a café watching the rain come down and waiting for it to stop. Music is good, food was okay, coffee is bloody awful. I'll get to today in a bit, but first a bit of a retrospective.

As the con has progressed, I've got more confused about whether I'm enjoying it. George RR Martin made me realise what was bothering me in the Q&A session after his reading: he was asked "What do you enjoy doing at Worldcon?" And replied with a cheerful leer "Getting drunk and chasing women." (Though he did go on to clarify he'd caught one some years ago).

While I was (unsurprisingly) viewing this con as a way of hoovering up unresisting ideas - which went reasonably well - the majority of people who seem to get a real kick out of it - and on who my expectations were based - are those for whom the seminars are an excuse, a lure, to gather like minded people. As it happens I did have dinner with two people I'd had brief contact with online before the event (and two nice conversations with Patrick Rothfuss who kindly didn't tell me to go away when I kept bugging him) but I didn't experience the meetings and butted in conversations that seem to be a staple way of meeting people. Which, when you consider that isn't how I was behaving/planning my activities is rather unsurprising.

So, after GRRM's reading I attended the closing ceremonies, I then bimbled around the waterfront and the old town for a few hours, got changed and then headed to the "Dead Dog" after party. After ghosting around the rooms for 10 minutes it became clear there wasn't going to be a cry of "You look interesting, come, join this conversation" so I wandered back to my hotel, feeling pretty rubbish.

A decent nights sleep, my first lie-in and finishing my book have restored my energy levels somewhat. Walked up Mont Royal (from which Montréal apparrently takes it's name - it's not a dreadful pun) and took a few photos. Delighted to find some water fountains and to get back down to a coffee shop before the heavens opened.

After a brief rest and picking up a waterproof headed out to the Olympic park which feels a lot more than 4km away. (Video and pics coming.) Caught the tube back to the city, and after a bit of a wander I've found some free wifi and I've just caught up a bit and added to this (from "somewhat" above).

As well as writing this, checking email/twitter/feeds has all been done on my phone despite lugging my laptop around! Will post this and then see if I can find some free video editing software since I suspect nothing I've shot will be suitable for public consumption without tweaking.