Tickets for QED 2014 are now on sale. If being in Manchester the weekend of the 12-13 April next year is at all feasible for you and you have £99 I strongly recommend going.
The people who run it are terrific and they do a brilliant job, and there are terrific people attending as well. (I met Rhys Morgan there, also his father Dr Paul of that ilk, also Alex Gabriel, also Maureen Brian, also Author of Jesus and Mo, to name only a few.)
I’d have loved to attend, but holy shit! I just checked the current procedure for applying with an Indian passport for a Visitor Visa to UK from USA (where I now reside and work). It turns out that:
(a) My passport would have to be mailed to the UKBA office in New York City with the application form, and they will not accept personally delivered passports and documents. I hate sending such vitally important documents by mail; it is a MAJOR PAIN to get a replacement of my Indian passport, if that gets lost somehow in the mail.
(b) I’d have to get photographed and fingerprinted at a center run by USCIS(!!) every freakin’ time I apply for a UK visa, and include with my UK visa application some kind of certificate stating that my biometric information has been captured.
(c) This needs to be done – separately – for EVERY single person who accompanies me (this goes for children, too, for those who have them).
No, thank you. Maureen, I’d love to meet you, and Alex, and Rhys, and the J&M author, and assorted UK friends, as well. But no, not as long as these idiotic visa rules are in effect.