2008 - Bath - Jo Skel

July. Within recent weeks I'd started to build up a friendship with two people from work: Jo Skel and Lyndsey M. Guttingly, both of them have decided to bail out from the company; it's a real shame because they're the kind of people I enjoy spending time with. Hopefully the friendships will survive beyond the walls of the company.

2008 - Bath - Lyndsey M

July.

2008 - Bristol - Ostrich Pub - Nice Guy Tony

July. Tony is now a dad. And remarkeably it hasn't affected his ability to participate in game sessions at all. What I have noticed however, is a dramatic lack of contact between us outside of game sessions. And I miss that contact. I miss the friendship we used to share. But, he's busy with being a dad and having a promotion at work; and I'm busy writing the new novel, Edge.

This was a night at the regular haunt of game players: the Ostrich pub. Primarily to introduce Alt.Dave to some of the other guys.

2008 - Bristol - Ostrich Pub - Kevin

July. It was a fun evening, despite the rather odd subjects of conversation, and the occaisional dimensional slippage of Kevin's physical form (pictured). On a serious note, it's a good feeling when I look at these pictures and see people like Kevin are still around... people who have travelled through the dark days I experienced 2004 onwards... and Yellow Dawn continues to grow apace.

2008 - Bristol - Ostrich Pub - Dom

July. The rendezvous at the Ostrich was also about hooking up with Dom, who was over from Dubai visiting for a few weeks. It was lovely to spend some time with him, just a shame I was so damn busy with the novel that we only managed to see each other a couple of times in the 6 weeks or so he was around in the UK.

2008 - Bristol - Indian Restaurant - Hagen

July. This was on a night when I decided I'd had enough of writing for one evening, and was missing my friends. So I drove over to Hagen's place to discover he'd been getting busy with Home Base... and bought himself a complete wooden garden furniture set, including a huge table, trellis partitions and lots of plants...to liven up the concrete forecourt outside of his pad. It looks great now. We headed down to my favourite curry house in that part of Bristol.

2008 - Bristol - Indian Restaurant - Simon P

July. We rang Simon and asked if he wanted to join us: he came for a drink but didn't touch any food. This is the place Simon quite literally passed out (from a mega hot vegetable chilli thing) last year: he was only saved from crashing to the floor by his wife, Vixter, who managed to grab him by his arm as he toppled sideways out of the booth.

2008 - Bristol - Sky Bunker - Djr

July. I'm nearing the end of the new novel, Edge. And I'm going a little crazy. I seem to be spending days and days covered in blood and gore - within the story. I take this picture one night, during a 15 minute break from the book... I posted it up on Facebook as my profile pic with "All Work and No Play Makes Dave a Dull Boy".

2008 - Bath - Yen Sushi - Zee West

July. Another great thing about living in Bath is the simultaneous realspace location of Zee West (B)... somebody I've known for YEARS through the realm of cyberspace and a cross-over into realspace. She's still fighting the good fight for (S:::egg), networking and doing her thing. She also share my love (as does everybody) for the incredible food presented by Yen Sushi.

2008 - Bath - Jason A

July. I've been working with Jason for nearly a year now. I think synchronicity was working overtime the day it brought Jason, Stu K and I together... these are people I have to spend the majority of my days with, and I'm happy to say it's a real pleasure. Although I'm dubious as to how much longer the trinity will hold together... already things feel different as the work level increases to a point where more new people are required... Eugene is leaving us. I'd said to Jason, don't get emotionally attached to business... accept changes when they come - because they WILL come.

2008 - Bath - Jo Skel

July. Another rare sunny day...so another afternoon spent supping Leffe outside the Delfter Krug.

2008 - Bath - Guy W, Dan R

July. Not a love bite, not even lipstick. This is the result of a solitary tea-towel strike from yours truly on the torso of a colleague. Frustratingly, after a couple weeks of regular tea-towel bouts in the kitchen... everybody now refuses to take me on. Darn it!

2008 - Bristol - Cosy Castle - Dom M

July. It was game day. A Saturday session; so around noon I'd been seeing Tony arriving, usually with Mark in tow. Followed by Hagen, with Chris and Kevin (equipped with a sack of Pieminster Pies you lovely man you!).

This session had an honorary guest seat for Dom, so at least he could get some gaming in whilst visiting the UK. Here he is rolling up a character to use.

2008 - Bristol - Aivind

July. Aivind's world has swung through 180 degrees: his long term partner relocating back to Norway. Now he's back in a familiar house share and sharing another fab night with great people.

2008 - Bristol - Angus

July. Aivind's housemate, one of them, and the man with the BBQ.

2008 - Bristol - Aivind/ Angus party crew

July. The evening zipped by amongst BBQ'd delights and a 75Cl bottle of Leffe for me... a lot of laughs and yet another good night with these people.

2008 - Bristol - Cosy Castle - Djr, Richy Rhino

July. Through a gradual process of attrition, Jo and I have been fighting back the jungle that is the garden. Jo's brother, Richy, came over one sunny afternoon to help us defeat a big bastard of a bush... so big thank you's there. Mind you, Satan's bush still remains on the patio, where the wind last dumped it... too thorny for me to get near it.

2008 - Bath - Lisa TD

July. Lisa entered my world via serendipity. A girl at work called Sophie B read the article about me in the F-Word magazine. We bumped into each other in the kitchen one afternoon and she told me about her friend, Lisa, who was a published author, and looking to get out of the shit deals offered by traditional publishers... looking to try Lulu. Would I mind meeting her, Sophie asked. So we hooked up for coffee and an instant bond of friendship was formed. We made plans to get together again for dinner at Lisa's place... with Sophie, Jo and, somebody I knew Lisa had to meet: Sonja.

The meal took place and was a great success. Sadly, I've been so busy with writing I've barely seen Lisa, or Sonja, but there's been a nice exchange of words by cyberspace. I'm looking forward to seeing this new friendship flower and grow.

2008 - Bath - Sophie B

July.

2008 - Bath - Djr

July. I suppose this is a typical image of me for the majority of 2008. I went from clean living at the end of 2007 to a point where I was heading to the pub for a drink as soon as I left work... a lot of pressure at work, combined with the intense pace of the novel. Hmmm. I remember years when I only really drank coffee and tea. What happened to those?

2008 - Bath - Ben C

July. There's a difficult aspect to Ben... it can be quite hard to get to know the guy, but once you punch through all that armour he's got going on, he's a top bloke to spend time with. A talented web designer, and an artist in his own right... he's currently working-up an image based on the world of Yellow Dawn. Something I'm very flattered by, and excited about. Hopefully it'll be ready in time for October's sci-fi lit/gaming festival.

2008 - Bath - Jo Skel

July.

2008 - Bath - Lyndsey M

July.