That was the BiCon that was..

BiCon was fine. I was suffering a bit from hay fever on the first day, but some drugs sorted that (thank you). I did a mix of fun sessions and the activisty ones.

On Saturday, it was amusing to see Stonewall's one, where 'Getting Bi at work' magically morphed into '(Pay to?) be part of Stonewall's role model thing'. The pair of them acknowledged that some work needs to be done, but I think they still don't realise just how toxic the brand became. One slide asked 'Why does Stonewall think that you should be part of..' and my first reaction was to think, yes, why does Stonewall think that? Saying 'why should you..' would have been shorter, for example. So there's money in it for Stonewall or they're seeking to reinforce the brand to what are - to normal people - annoying levels.

The best bit was seeing that their 'A role-model isn't..' slides fitted the Cake awards perfectly. People who've got them aren't on a pedestal (come on, this is the bi community), perfect (thank you to the people who've allowed this to be emphasised), always senior, heroic, inspiring for everyone, or the same as the other ones.

It was a pity that the BCC Ltd AGM clashed with at least three other things I would have liked to have gone to - Nickie's thing on being older (with the smaller version of the group photo, I know which one is me despite being so few pixels, because of how few of us have visible grey hair); the safer sex one (I saw the flipchart later - when the real answer is, say 50-200 out of 1000, saying it's 83/1000 is being misleadingly way too precise); and Sanji's Pass the Parcel.

The DMP was its usual mix of the best and the worst of BiCon, and I am glad I stopped there being an unnecessary vote at the end.

I'm quite glad I stayed off-site - what time did planes start in the morning? I noticed they were still going at 1am. Apart from that, and the need for fans in every one of the smaller session rooms (not just the one that had one), it looked a very good venue.

Those of us playing games in the evenings weren't thrown out at an arbitrary time, even if the building was locked so people couldn't get in at around midnight. I got to try some new stuff and some old stuff. I've since bought one of the former and, no it's not Cards Against Humanity, about which the only good thing I can say about it is that the makers encourage you to print your own copy.

Becoming Scotland's next top mistress has a price...

After BiCon, I had a great time in Edinburgh while JA was at Quaker summer school. I had forgotten how much I love the Edinburgh Fringe - see the posts at Theatre Reviews.

I had also forgotten that spending lots of time in often under-ventilated rooms with strangers from around the world can lead to catching things!

So I brought back something that led to a bad sore throat. Fortunately, it only started to develop on my last day there, but my maximum length of any bit of sleep over the past 72 hours has been about two hours. You can get an idea of how poorly I looked on Tuesday in the way that when she saw me, L stopped being annoyed that I hadn't put some washing out and sent me back to bed.

Fortunately, now I'm just wincing slightly rather than whimpering every time I swallow, but my food intake over that time has been about three yogurts and, yesterday evening, some home-made gazpacho (never mind the vitamins etc, it's cold and blended... and I'm having some more now).

My voice has been affected in that when I can talk, it's become very, very deep but usually, it's much easier to whisper. I am trying to remember when I had a similar voice problem that lasted for many weeks and ended up getting a referral to hospital. It was probably in the 1990s, because I was at the flat in Harrow.

While I was in bed, I did look up some more about the acts I'd enjoyed and, argh, one of them presumably deliberately misquoted a friend as part of trying to demonise them. I don't think they've changed their mind over the issue in question either...