It was the Thursday group's gaming evening last night, so I was planning on asking the guys about QCon. The Thursday gaming sessions are often the only time we get to meet up, so we usually start by finding out how things are going with everyone. Mark and his wife Mel have just had a baby, and are trying to move to a larger place, and this has - as is typical when buying a house in the UK - turned into a long involved saga with updates every week.

Anyhow, the news yesterday was that the entire house chain had fallen apart the day before when the buyer of their place failed to get her shit together after several months and numerous missed deadlines - causing the owner of the place they were buying to pull out of the deal, and leaving them about three thousand pounds (about five thousand dollars) out of pocket from the surveys and legal work they've already had to have done. He appeared to be taking it remarkably well, but obviously he was pretty gutted.

(A note to those from more civilised countries:- House purchases in England often involve what is termed a "chain", where first-time buyer Person A is buying a house from Person B, who will then use the money to buy a house from Person C, who will then use the money... and so on. The point is that everything has to be synchronised between all the various people and their solicitors, with all the contracts being signed on the same day, and all the purchases and moves going through on the same day. This can be very difficult, especially since up until the exchange of contracts stage, nothing is legally binding, and it's all done on faith).

Anyhow, a little while later in the conversation I mentioned QCon, leading to an exchange that went something like this:

Me: Oh, conventions... Ubercon isn't on this year, but there is another one at the end of June.

Bog Boy: Where's that one then?

Me: Well... it's sort of in Ireland.

Bog Boy: It's Belfast isn't it?

Me: Yeah, QCon!

Mark: Oh that's like Killercon then, just spelt differently.

Me: [Sarcastic] Yeah, they spell "Killer" with a "Q". But no seriously, I'm sure you're probably safer walking around Belfast city centre at night than say, somewhere like Liverpool.

Mark: True, although with the way you like to talk about politics and history...

Me: Yeah. True.

Mark: ...Irish politics and history.

Me: Yeah, it is a bit dodgy if you're in Belfast and you're someone who can't resist talking about Irish history and politics.

Mark: An Englishman who can't resist talking about Irish history and politics.

All: You've got no chance. [I can't remember the actual line here, but there was a general group consensus at this point].

Mark: [Pointing at luciddestiny] You've got the keys to this place, haven't you?

Luciddestiny: Yeah.

Mark: Good.

Me: What, so you're going to go home and tell Mel not to worry, because you've sorted a house out?

Mark: Something like that. When's it on?

Me: End of June.

Mark: We've got to wait three months?

Me: Well apart from anything else, it's got to be at least two months or he [pointing at Luciddestiny] won't get the car. [The new Mini I'm going to buy].

Luciddestiny: Yeah.

Me: I suppose actually I might as well get the colour and alloys you wanted, seeing as how I'm only going to have it for a month.

Luciddestiny: Blue, with the spokes.

Me: Right.

Mark: Can you give this place a clean before you go?

Me: Clean it yourself ya bastard!

Mark: The mortgage is all insured, isn't it?

Me: The endowment part is, I'm not sure about the repayment part.

Mark: [Concerned tone] I think you ought to check that out... before you go to Belfast.

The rest of the evening passed with a series of in-jokes (Me: "So I guess you're going to rip down my bookshelves then?"... Mark: "No, I'll keep them - I'll get rid of the shit that's on them though"), with me protesting that they should be nice to me given that I only had another three months to live.

At one point Mark did to the standard line, "We shouldn't really joke, because if he does get killed over there..." - but that turned out to be just a lead-in to another joke that I've now regrettably forgotten.

But the upshot of all that is that if I go, I'll most likely be going on my own (unless I can talk Stu into going).

Tags: qcon