There was a storm early on Friday morning. Thunderbolts and lightning for five hours, from 4am. I know it was 4am because it was so bright and loud that it woke me up and left me restless until morning. On Friday evening, I discovered it had done something to my modem at home. I'm in the process of sorting it out but the upshot was I spent the weekend with no net access.

Friday night was filled very easily, since we had already planned a trip to Totnes's Red Wizard Cafe to eat sushi. It was a good evening, ending with us sat outside a pub in the centre of the small town, watching the hen nights etc stagger by.

Saturday was always going to be strange, due to the lack of new Who, but I found myself bewildered by the lack of the net. Then I got stuck into my reading pile. I even read a Doctor Who novel for the first time in months. I do wonder if my subconscious was preventing me reading these books whilst the TV series was on, as if the fact reading novels filled the Long Hiatus means I can only read them when there is no Who on TV. Despite me being in the camp which doesn't think the novels are 'just replacements for tv Who' but are valid, canonical and as primary as the series. Strange.

Sunday I dug deeper into the pile. It was a hot still day so I sat in the garden with long cool drinks and watched the cats growling at each other. Samuel (who I have a photo of but can't upload because of the no modem business) belongs to a woman over the road but is an explorer and not only comes over but sneaks into the house. Sébastian, despite being twice Samuel's size, is a bit of a wuss in seeing him off. The main read was Gaiman's 1602 (link is to annotations) - a sort of League of Extraordinary Gentlemen using all the Marvel heroes but transplaced to the court of Elizabeth the First.

Rather to my surprise, I then wrote 500 words of a YA fantasy story which may or may not happen. And damned if I'm not pleased with those 500 words. Clearly a weekend in the pre-digital age is a good idea.(I'm currently at the day job, using their connection)

edited to add: gah! blogger have done something wierd! apologies for the formatting....