I took the train down to Brighton on Thursday, checked into my hotel, had an ice cream and a beer on the beach, took a nap in the park, and ate some amazing vegan sushi at Moshimo for the speakers’ dinner.

The hotel was very nice, but the toilet cistern in my room wouldn’t stop filling. I ended up turning off the valve at the wall so that I could sleep without the sound of a waterfall, and told them about it in the morning. Good thing I had my Swiss Army Knife with me.

The Brighton Ruby Conference went really well. I had prepared my lightning talk well in advance, sent Andy my slides as PDFs, and printed my notes on paper. I felt well prepared and relaxed, and I think that really helped.

My talk seemed to go down well. I’m glad: it took a lot of effort to prepare for those five minutes!

The conference was well attended, and I was happy to see many old friends.

I spent the weekend cycling 180 km overnight to Suffolk for the Dunwich Dynamo. I wrote more about that earlier.

Here’s a thought: What if the Roswell crash, the Tunguska explosion etc., were jaunts by billionaire aliens who thought they knew better about flying saucer safety?