In which I travel to Dublin

I have been looking forward to, and planning, this trip to Dublin to see various fiends and to attend Octocon, for months, but as often seems to happen, it appears to have been a long time in the future for ages, then suddenly it was week away, without any warning!
I spent most of yesterday faffing about with last minute work stuff, as my quiet day in theoffice to ensure everything was up together turned into a lot of firefighting. And then the evening was taken up with packing. I don’t know whether it’s just me, but I always seem to end up in a state of panic in case I have packed the wrong things, or too little, or that I will discover that my choices of clothes etc. are wholly inappropriate to the place, or the weather, or the event. Knowing how foolish this is does not seem to change anything. *sigh*

Still, I did manage to be quite restrained when it came to packing books, on the basis that if one is attending a Science Fiction/Fantasy convention in a major city the chances of being unable to acquire extra books if needed are fairly low…

I was disappointed but unsurprised to find my first train of the day was running late (Thank you so much, First Great Western.) Probably just as well I booked the train an hour earlier than I thought was necessary, really….

However, the train did make up much of the time and I arrived at the airport with plenty of time in hand, and was able to go through security with only a minor check (apparently books look suspicious under x-rays, Who knew?) happily, Southampton is a dinky litle airport which, at least on a Thursday afternoon, is not crowded. I actually walked past the entrance to the security without realising it as I was loking for a queue, and had to turn back!

The flight was short and uneventful. I was disappointed that low cloud meant I couldn't see much.

Then Dublin, and a long bus ride brought me to the hotel.Several very friendy and helpful Dubliners ensured that I got off the bus in the right place, and shortly after checking in I met up with Lorraine and her Spirit Guide, @Nemone7. (Check out Lorrraine's blog to see what they'd been up to all day - way more exciting than my uneventful journeying!) for dinner and chat and plaanning of nNew Fun Stuff to do tomorrow. I believe graveyards will be invovled. And maybe tea. 

Also, unfortunately, Early Rising.