Worldcon Day 1

After 6 hours of intense REM sleep (anxieties and stress processing, I suppose), we broke out of our comas at 6 am, finally unpacked, removed the travelling stink (memo to self: must apologise to Gary & Sarah for not showering last night), and burned the offending underwear. The world looks a lot less blurry in the morning.

Most of the day was taken up with getting the lay of the land. We found out pretty quickly that, because we were on Con rates, the Marriott did not feel obliged to provide a "complimentary" breakfast. That's despite the fact that we're forking out $180 a night after taxes for a room in a FIVE star hotel without even a fridge. Anyone else notice a trend in the American economy here? I'm getting the impression that the whole service industry is run like Ryanair -- no matter what you're paying for, everything extra costs more. Want Wi-Fi access in your room? That'll be another 59¢ a minute. See that bottle of water on the dresser provided for "your convenience"? Check the small print that says "If consumed $3.50 will be billed to your room!" Gary said he'd ordered cocktail last night in the hotel bar while he was waiting for us. That was $10. In fact, most of the street bars we tried last night wanted $5 from each of us as a "cover charge". We settled for one of the many alfresco bars down on the Riverwalk and notice that none of them cared to advertise their prices before you order. That seems to be true for anything you buy here in San Antonio. Texans do not appear to believe in open competition by virtue of price warfare. Perhaps everyone is so rich that they pay whatever they see on the bill: "if you have to ask how much it is, you probably can't afford it!". (In case you are wondering, a draft beer comes to around £4-5 a pint.)

We did have a fun breakfast in a local German restaurant. Bratwurst & eggs, anyone? The waitresses go overboard on the humour to work up their 15% tips. G & S went off to visit the Alamo while Linda and I checked into the Con (Gary was already the proud possessor of an ID badge and a thick programme of upcoming events; Sarah is declining to play citing us as " bloody wierdos" -- not out loud, of course).

By the afternoon the enormous convention centre is beginning to fill up with attendees, booksellers, artworks, fanzine stands, geeky t-shirts, white hair, white beards and big bodies. I downloaded an interactive programme to my tablet which directed me to room 008A at the end of the river-level floor of the centre to attend a programme on "Contaminating Other Worlds". We found Gary already perched in the back row having attended the prior talk on "Space Medicine". Damn! This boy is keen. Our talk basically revolved around "Human Race Vs Martian Microbes". Or Europan or Titan microbes, for that matter. I think the verdict was "stuff the microbes", especially if it delays space exploration or costs us more. There were a few die-hards muttering about analogous oil spills and alligator-eating Burmese pythons in Florida, not to mention the Prime Directive for Martian unicellular life, but generally I got the impression that the Solar System Belongs To Earth! At least as far as the American pro-space crowd was concerned.

The evening saw us at a reasonably priced Mexican restaurant on the Riverwalk. G & S caught up with us after he had squeezed one more panel discussing "Sacrificing Earth: The Politics and Science of Ecology". He really is putting me to shame. A word on the Riverwalk -- it's best described as a mini-American Venice. The canals are full of motorised "gondolas" passing by alfresco restaurants. For a better picture the Con downloaded this cartoon map: