London calling?

It's a long hike - almost 5,000 miles for me - but I'm giving some thought to going to London for the WorldCon next year. It is early enough in August that my wife may be able to come - she's a school teacher, and this year, for example, she couldn't come to San Antonio because by the Labor Day weekend school has already been in session for two weeks. But LonCon 3 will start on August 14.

My wife might come along for touristy reasons, and I wouldn't blame her. The whole trip could be declared as a business expense.

Neither my wife and I have ever owned a passport and traveled outside the U.S., so that would make it quite an adventure. But it might be worth a try.

It's just speculation for now, but I did fill out a volunteer form. We'll see if they would be willing to take me as a panelist. Also, even if they will have me, until the day we leave I wouldn't be certain I'll be going - crap has a way of happening.

The day I was to drive to San Antonio for WorldCon I awakened to find the drain for an internal A/C unit had clogged and flooded two guest bedrooms, and I had to wait until a repairman made a service call to the house. I hit the road late and didn't arrive in San Antonio that Thursday until after 7 p.m.

When I was starting to attend conventions over a decade ago, these kind of last-minute calamities happened so frequently that I stopped pre-registering for conventions. Although it's more expensive, I'd rather walk up and pay at the door.

I never was able to attend a convention I pre-registered for - something always came up. For years now, I haven't had to pay because I've been a panelist, and this past WorldCon was the first time I can recall I pre-registered and was able to attend - barely.

I assume the pre-registration curse was avoided because I didn't pay the full amount until I arrived, I wrote the final check when I picked up my packet.