A Con Report - at last - from a tired Guild Deputy

Well, I'm finally in a fit state to write something! It's only taken 3 days to recover from the bone-weary sense of fatigue. But I wouldn't have changed a SINGLE THING ... except maybe to have ensured that the Procrastinators were fully charged. I was painfully aware as the Con got into full swing that there were many, many clashes in my own personal schedule

However, I'm getting ahead of myself!

I arrived at the Hilton about teatime on Thursday (and definitely agree with other people's thoughts on the hotel! Gosh, it was BIG!) I made it through Registration in one piece and, attempting to get the trolley to obey, staggered off to find my room (4227). Not a bad size, with an en-suite bathroom and a sofa - mind you, I didn't get to see much of the room except in the early hours of the morning, when I went to bed!

I headed downstairs and decided to get a drink at the "The Bunch of Grapes". I was pounced on by Beth (a con newbie all the way from Delhi, although born in Houston). She'd seen my Con T-shirt and had taken the plunge, as she didn't know anyone. That soon stopped, as she threw herself into the Convention spirit with gusto. She'd joined the Seamstresses Guild and I have the photos to prove that she filled a corset VERY well. :-))

I soon caught up with my other Guild Deputy, Loriba, and the 3 of us enjoyed some rather pleasant nachos. It set the tone for the rest of the Con - good food, good friends and a LOT of fun. Loriba and I realised that we had a LOT to do and started planning and plotting.

The next few days are a bit more of a blur - I can remember getting up anywhere between 0700 and 0830 most mornings (Friday morning I actually made it to the Hotel's pool, which was very nice). But for the most part it was Loriba and I meeting for breakfast and trying to plan what we were going to do for the day, creating posters, putting them up, talking with the Monks of Cool (who were AWESOME - thanks to Abbot Orjan, Leo, Gideon and Drachii), liaising with the other Deputies to try and ensure we were all co-operating (Many thanks to the ones who I pestered and cajoled - Periwinkle, Marlies, Winterbay, Snow, Eelco, Eric, Kary-Ann and Viv, Judith and Marco - you were wonderful to work with), and getting to Guild events to ensure that our members had some moral support. (Huge thanks to Davina, Xris, Torak, Flexor, Sabremeister, Kirsten, Richard, Thomas, Yoo, Dave, and especially Kai who all performed so brilliantly. I know there were many others - the couple in Maskerade who did the Agnes/Ghost duet and all the people who turned up to support the Conjurors' Guild, but I can't remember any more names).

We produced some interesting games, as a Guild, which a lot of lovely people turned up to and seemed to enjoy:

"Where's the Mime, MiLord?" - a Discworld variant on "What's the Time Mister Wolf". We were completely floored when Stephen Briggs actually agreed to play Lord Vetinari for us and the Dark Clerks (thanks to Drumknott and Yoo) provided a Portable Scorpion Kit (every tyrant should have one!) Everyone (including Stephen) appeared to enjoy themselves, we even had volunteers to be Guards to drag the helpless or maybe hapless victims to the PSP - very silly and a LOT of fun! (Sorry to Pat's talk next door - we did try to whisper "Pit, pit, pit" at the appropriate times!)

A Live Thud Match! - Loriba was a complete STAR here! She (and her lovely Mum) created the board out of lining paper and some little flags of Red (D for Dwarf) and Blue (T for Troll). She even had a pin board mapped out for the players to use and plan their moves. We were worried that we wouldn't get the people for this (after all - 32 dwarves, 8 trolls and 2 players!) but we needn't have worried! Bernard Pearson (our lovely Guild Leader) said that he'd make a special badge for everyone who played (or was a piece) and the Con turned up trumps!! We even had an audience and an Assassin for a ref (how appropriate). Many thanks to ALL who turned up and agreed to stand around on a board in the evening - you were all WONDERFUL, but special thanks to Pieter and Ynte our players (congratulations again to Pieter for winning) and to Kural Kushi - our ref at short notice!

The Condensed Discworld Competition - which ran for the whole Con. The task was to reduce the plot of a DW novel to a single sentence (Brevity is Best) and pop it in the box at Ops. A HUGE thank you to the 4 lovely people who agreed to be our judges Monday morning - Judith "Lady Vanessa" Proctor, Lisa "CCA" Williams, Pat "the Compere" Harkin and Bernard "the Cunning Artificer" Pearson. They had a LOT of entries to go through but they finally whittled their way down to 4 that were the cream and Bernard picked the Overall Winner

Maskerade "Ahahahahahahahahahaha!!!!!!!!" by Carolyn (M.O.P.P)
Xris got an Honourable Mention as he'd created a limerick of ALL the novels!!

The Trolls' Dress-Tease - this was very silly but seemed to go OK. Xris and Butcher very kindly agreed to be our Trolls and even allowed RJW76 to paint them grey! We then had two Seamstresses (actually the two Deputies, Essy and Periwinkle) race to dress them. Essy & Xris appeared to be going for total body coverage and speed, whereas Periwinkle and Butcher were going for the artistic look. We allowed the audience to judge and they chose Essy and Xris! Worthy winners!

Just A Minute - There were two sessions - I only managed to make one - Torak as host and Davina, Judith, Alison (Mrs Davina) and Periwinkle started - but I've written about this already. I wish I'd seen the Post Watershed one - it was apparently excellent, with an extra rule of "unnecessary cleanliness" joining the more traditional "hesitation, repetition and deviation."

I know there were more things. I actually saw the How to Buckle a Swash this time, took part in Walk the Walk with Kai (who was BRILLIANT), attended A Time and Place for Music (ahh! the Unholy Round with Mole - magic) and also Toast & Jam where a lot of wonderful musicians covered up my singing :-) (thanks Eric, Edmund and the rest of you all for making me sound reasonable), there were some awesome voices there.

Got to see Maskerade again (well done, all the participants - you were ALL great); attend the Gala Dinner (and wear a posh frock); ride a winning dragon (even if the other riders were inhumed around me. ;-) Watched the Reduced Discworld Production (masterfully done guys! Loved the 50 ft woman), and adored the HolyWood ending (Congratulations to you both!!).

Missed the Charity Auction this year (sigh), both the gophering and the watching, although it was lovely to hear that the Beastiary made £40 (woo hoo) -- there's an animal of mine in there (nice warm fuzzy feeling).

I got to see LOADS of people and talk with at least half, run around like the proverbial fly, eat, drink, HAVE FUN and occasionally (very occasionally) sleep! Biggest thanks must go to the Guild of Conjurors, Thespians and Associated Trades members, but the BIGGEST must go to Loriba who was absolutely wonderful and put up with me the whole weekend!

*rubs hands together*
So - how long til 2010?

*grin*

Ssirienna
(Guild Deputy - Guild of Conjurors, Thespians and Associated Trades)