When it rains in London it can be very grey, even with the pretty evening lights, especially when you're carrying heavy books. Simon was lugging the last of the duplicate books the crime book shop didn't want and I was carrying two copies of a two-volume illustrated hardback edition of Wind in the Willows - one for my mum, who loves the story and one for Isaac, new-born son of our friend Paul Lyons (some-time Callahanian and wonderful cook) and his wife Lou.

I was working late last night (inspiration didn't come for the Webcam piece that last-minute replaced the search tips piece I could have written much more easily, so it had to be perspiration instead); which meant I woke up just in time to stop Simon getting out in time for the China Mieville signing (sorry tamaranth), so we went for brunch instead and then mooched into town looking for the right cables so I can plug two PCs into my monitor and install cruddy software on the other one rather than stuffing up my work PC with 7 Webcam chat packages that hang it so badly it can't run Internet Explorer or shut down without me pulling the plug.

We've started gaming again - Simon had been promising me a dungeon ever since we met 9 1/2 years ago (how long! really! well, the Krazy Kat (l'il angel!) book he found today is the latest attempt at republishing since before we met, I think) and we've started playing with Piers Cawley and friends of his. Simon plays Naismith, a paladin called to aid Piers' paladin but worshipping a different god and with a subtlely different attitude. I play a bard who's not as bright as he thinks he is (duped by NPCs twice in one night - the shame!); the gaming is fun and so is writing up the games in character for the folks who couldn't make it (the bard says 'La' a lot; Naismith says 'we ride at dawn' a lot and we think his sword should be inscribed 'pointy end towards evil-doer'). Which is why we were in Orc's Nest looking for a player handbook where I saw a comic called Dork Tower. The Web is a wonderful place and I've found the cartoon that was on the back of the collection, 'celebrating' the 20th anniversary of the PC.

We spent a couple of hours distracting over-worked friends Robert & Den from the pain of playing with content management systems and stroked their cute cats (Somali, Bengal and mog) who perpetrate things like Freddie St Cats. Simon's taking a bath to recover from coming over all allergic and I promised I'd let him tell the one I spotted on the side of a phone shop that made us laugh. I can't keep calling him sbisson though!

I was also reading a book of essays on 'what Toklien meant to me' - sorry, Meditations on Middle Earth. Esthner Friesner keeps pointing out that Legolas is hot and that's why she liked Star Trek, and blaming Bored of the Rings for her career; tamaranth take note!

Better go - the Indian takeaway will be delivered in a minute...