I dreamt last night that I was

the creative consultant on the content of the bonus material / intermission scenes of the fully immersive virtual reality Chronicles of Narnia.

Newton's Wake : A Space Opera, The Bloody Red Baron

Newton's Wake : A Space Opera by Ken MacLeod. I suspect this was a really good book and I'm going to go back and re-read it after I pry it back out of cricketk who also had reason to believe it was a good book. Lots of very cool ideas including a combat archeology team and AI consciousness storing.

The Bloody Red Baron by Kim Newman. A dark alternate history where Van Helsing lost and vampires populate the world. It desperately needs an editor to weed out embarrassing typos but the amusement value of seeing all those famous names fighting WWI is high. Dracula (of course) is helping the Germans, Mata Hari has mesmerising vampiric powers and Edgar Poe has dropped his middle name and been whisked off to write the biography of the Red Baron.

Am going to switch to re-reading old favourites until I'm less tired and stressed.

Paddling #1 Had the BEST time.

Met up with a bunch of enthusiasts getting together to practice. Was taught many useful things including how to get out of a kayak when it is upside down, even when you have the skirt thingy on.

Had much fun fooling around and trying things.

Got taught how to roll a Dagger (short, flattish and apparently good for white water) and flip yourself upright again from being upside down. Took a few tries to get it right and I strongly recommend doing it with a mask on the first few times. Must remember to take it slowly and get starting position right at the beginning, it's easy to rush it when you're hanging upside down in the water.