H&N
In case you noticed, the messageboard is currently out of action - this is due to severe overload from those poxy spammers. 30 spam posts a day is bordering on excessive, no?

Fcon
So close to announcing stuff, dammit.... we're just waiting for the BFS web guy to finish doing the new website then it's all trumpets and brass bands.

Prism
This is your last call for news if you've anything that needs going in the Jan/Feb issue - I'll need your press releases etc. by the end of the week or it'll have to wait 'til the next one!

Egypt...
...was fab! Totally recommend it to anyone thinking of going. (We did it the easy way - a Nile cruise with guided tours almost every day - subsequently, I'll have no money for the next 5 years.... )
Evil twin and I had a lot of fun playing spot the Stargate/Mummy Returns references... Karnak! Philae! (Seen them, been harassed by the tourist tack touts...) Abydos! (Which, apparently isn't just a planet in Stargate, it's actually a real live town too!)
Didn't get to see the pyramids as we were at the other end of the country (and the Cairo overland trip was on the same day as the one to the Valley of the Kings so we went VoK instead)
And I'm all templed out now!

And they take English money everywhere! How handy is that?! Although the whole tipping thing gets very old, very fast. (What, you want me to pay you a tip for selling me something in your shop... dude, please...)
And someone offered 3000 camels for Evil Twin! Seriously! (Someone else started out offering 1 camel for taking me, mum and Hells as a package, but obviously we were holding her back because someone else offered 20 camels for Hells on her own, then one of the waiters upped it to 3000 after seeing her in Eqypt gear on one of the boats theme nights. They also all begged dad to leave Hells behind when we left...!)

Good grief the Nile gets a bit manic with boats, though. Apparently there's about 346 cruise ships going up and down it (and they park up 6 in a row, so sometimes you have to walk through a few other ships to get ashore...) then there's hundreds of these boat taxi things (the word 'taxi' should give you half a clue about their style of driving... how they never hit anything I'll never know...) plus feluccas (small sailboats) and rowboats all over the place.

So much wow! So I'll shut up now!

Body present, brain elsewhere....

Morning! So, we got back from Egypt at 4am yesterday (more on *that* in a day or so when I'm awake...) and it seems I've now got the gross sounding cold the people in the seats behind me on the plane had. Double yuck. Like I need any encouragement for ear, nose & throat problems...

Meantime, while I've been gone, it seems everyone has been busy sending in their submissions! Nice one, thanks. (People have also been busy filling the forum with spam posts again, the gits...)

Now just the 400 odd emails to sort out....