Excuses, part 673052

Sorry, I've been in London — where I saw these guys and did this gig, plus a signing at Forbidden Planet, lunch with my editor from Orbit, a kaffeeclatch that wasn't, this exhibition, and a partridge in a pear tree.

I am now flattened: which would be okay if I wasn't trying to write a keynote speech for this conference, running the washing machine until its bearings glow red hot, checking that my travel insurance is kosher for swine flu pandemics in strange places, and being stalked by an unhapp