Skyring
Established Member
- Joined
- Oct 18, 2005
- Posts
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Bletchley Park – CC image via Wikipedia
Every year since 2005, I've attended (or tried to attend) the BookCrossing.com world convention. A grand name for a gathering that rarely exceeds a hundred attendees but these are friends, my tribe, my passion.
2023 was a small affair in Falkirk, Scotland: Journey to the Land of the Flying Barges
2024 was April in Tampere, Finland: Will there be PJs – Return to Finland
2025 I missed out on Wageningen in the Netherlands because I couldn't really justify leaving my wife with two rambunctious grandkids two Mondays in a row. Can't win 'em all.
2026 and the UK will once again host the worldcon, this time in St Albans, a cathedral "city " near London, north of Heathrow. If a town has a cathedral, it's a city, by law. Doesn't look like that big a place, but they can squeeze in a hundred BookCrossers and I'm the only attendee from Australia.
One of the highlights will be a trip before the gathering properly begins. To Bletchley Park, a place I've always wanted to visit, home of the Enigma codebreakers during the Second World War, the people who gave the UK an enormous advantage over the Axis because they could read a lot of the German secret traffic and arrange for countermeasures.
First weekend in July. As I speak, I have my flights and my AirBnB paid for. All I really need do is book a hotel in Manila and work out how I'm to get to and from St Albans. Realistically, I just need to catch an Uber to the airport and begin writing in the lounge.
