Arrival at Orbital

We have arrived at Orbital. The con itself looks great; I'm not so impressed with the hotel. The "double" bed is of a size that made us go back down to reception to check that we hadn't accidentally got a single. And the buffet dinner wasn't a long way above canteen standards. (Later edit: and there's only one towel).

However, the convention is off to a good start by giving us free drinks pretty much as we came in the door. We've seen the art room, where there's some stunning stuff - I'll be bidding on a few pieces. And there are no less than three tables piled high with free fanzines, many of which are vintage if not antique - the first one I picked up was from 1966. I have a pile two inches thick here, and that's a tiny fraction of what's there. We're going to trot down shortly and see if we can find anyone we recognise, and assault a few people we know by name if nobody familiar is about.