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It appears I have wireless computing in my room while I'm at Leeds. I'm typing this in that place, so it must be so. This is because my room is very close to the main block: I'm not complaining! I'm also not complaining about dinner tonight. I'm joining the reggo desk people after they pack up and we're getting Chinese takeaway. Everyone is so welcoming here - ADM was right about it being a friendly conference. This is a bit of a distant location for a campus (and walking past brambles from the bus stop to the accommodation is about as far removed from the Zoo as it gets - though I admit, the Zoo had cherry blossoms) and there are tons of places to eat in town, but catching buses for long rides in unfamiliar terrain alone, at night, has never been one of my favourite activities.

I went to town earlier to find the Armouries and sort out the problems I had with my knight's clothes. They are sorted. I decided that the best approach to today (for I was feeling vulnerable) was to pretend I wasn't shy, and to ask questions and talk with people. Thus I got my armour answers (which weren't obvious from the exhibits) and, in a little, I'll get dinner. I got a sandwich for lunch, using the same amazing technique. And a smile from a dour bus driver when I found the right stop. I feel a bit underdressed, though - I'm wearing just a tank top and pants. UnGillianish, I know, but it was warm and I was celebrating summer and being unshy.

What else do you need to know? that the brambles won't ripen for weeks. That I can't sort out Leeds' architecture. That I have koalas for anyone who comes up to me during the next week and says "You don't know me but I need a koala." That I really ought to check my email.

Finally, the inflammation is going down. Air travel is not good for me - it's taken a week and a half to get halfway down. That's the real reason I'm wearing a tank top. I finally don't look entirely balloonlike.

I love staying in a student room again. It takes me back to when I was a ... wait. I'm a student. I belong here. How odd.

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I am full of Chinese takeaway and local cider. In between the food and the alcohol, I discovered that the IMC will send my books to Australia for me. The firm that's doing it is a favourite shopping haunt of mine already, and have very reasonable prices (both for books and for the postage thereof). This makes it much easier to buy books and means that I have luggage space for other important things.

I've volunteered for a couple of hours doing stuff tomorrow. Everyone was so exceptionally kind to me tonight. Leeds has the atmosphere it has because of the people who run it, I think - warm, funny and good company. (Rachel, you will be pleased to know, I gave them all koalas, which is how I ended up with a half pint of cider and a really interesting bar conversation.)

I'm full of warm fuzzy feelings but am not at all witty. Sorry, folks!

Tomorrow I visit Fountains Abbey.

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This is calm before storm time. One of the people in Leeds I want to see is unable to be contacted (largely because I don't have a phone number and my emails are not behaving) but apart from that, things are going swimmingly. I hae an hour before everything starts, and once it starts, it won't stop until Friday. If I get quiet interludes, I'll blog.

There is a blogger meetup at Leeds, but it clashes with something else, so I'll only be there for a bit of it. And I still haven't finished revising my paper! (It was all finished, and now needs revision - this is the nature of life.)

Fountains Abbey this afternoon. I so intend to emerge educated from this journey.Also, I had a half-baked tjought for my dissertation over breakfast (I'm living UK time and thinking Aussie time - 5 pm is a good time for thoughts, breakfast isn't so good for that) but have put the thought back to bake a little more. What I need is a novel that has exceptionally real-feeling accounts of the Middle Ages that don't draw upon popular assumptions and tropes and one that is all about assumptions and tropes and repeating the familiar. I need to read several novels and play 'spot the assumption' (a charming game, suitable for all the family).