Today I was in central London with Ellen Datlow, Pat Cadigan and my new friend, Liz Spencer, who was one of Pat’s students at Clarion. The Chinese New Year parade was very good but rather short. The costumes were fabulous, as were the martial arts people. Ellen and Pat took lots of photos. I’ll link to them when they go up.

For lunch we went to New World and ate dim sum. Yum. Though it was a little restrained compared to what I have had in Melbourne and Sydney. No chicken’s feet in sight, and nothing very spicy. Loved the cuttlefish balls and the mushroom dumplings.

Afterwards I committed shopping. I have been to Lush, and bought books. And I found a pub to watch the rugby. More on that in a separate post.

I am amazed at the number of women in London who have gone and got Posh Spice haircuts. What were they thinking?

Some good news on Camden Market. Ellen says that it was the east side of the road that burned up. That does mean that the Fairy Gothmother shop will be in trouble, but most of my favorite stalls should be OK, unless they were using the storage areas across the road. I’ll know more when I’ve managed to connect with Judith.