by CCA (Lisa Williams)
Friday
Set off for Convention. Saw some guy clipping his nails at the wheel on the journey – yes, that’s right, clipping his nails, no hands on the steering wheel and looking down at his lap. On the motorway. Eeep.
Anyway, go to the Convention and checked in to what looked like the same single room as last time (good). Did the usual rounds of saying hello to friends I hadn’t seen for a year, or in some cases two. (Or, in the case of Supermouse, MP and Tessa, six years). Hugged quite a few of them :-) Went to the Guild room where I caught up with and hugged Hunter, Loriba/Lottie and Ssirienna/Jan. Jan had had a bit of a nasty fall in the shower that morning and was hobbling around painfully on a stick with Lottie as her helper/gopher. Said hi to Winterbay (Assassin’s Guild Leader with Kincaid)
Sessifet and I got together in the bar (good place to get together for most purposes!) to make little bags of ‘Dwarf Bread Ingredients’ (ie cat litter) to give to people along with recipes for Dwarf Bread, complete with ‘Contents not to be eaten’ disclaimers that Supermouse pointed out we might need in case people were confused/drunk and gave them a try. After this my brain started saying "You need tea, you really do…" so I wandered up to my room to wash, change and chill.
Opening Ceremony was fun. Terry seemed in fine spirits, and I think at one point he mentioned that his Alzheimer’s hadn’t progressed an awful lot in the past year or so, for which he got a deserved round of applause. Guild meeting afterwards featured a chap in a ‘Team Angua’ t-shirt he’d had made, and Davina, who I didn’t recognise as she was still a he, complete with menswear and a beard. Both of these came off during the Convention :-)
‘A Time and A Place’ for music was good fun. I sang Tom Lehrer’s ‘I Hold Your Hand In Mine’ with Ssirienna and Runesmith, and also joined in ‘Cool For Cats’ for Squeeze. I make no apology for the stupid mockney accent I affected… *g* Other notable moment included Heather wearing Eric Jarvis’s hat, and Mole’s rendition of his and Adrian Ogden’s filk ‘Mary Sue’, to the tune of ‘A Boy Named Sue’
A couple of people admired my long swishy skirt with loud swirly patterns, which was nice as it was getting its first outing.
Saturday
After the traditional huge Convention breakfast I visited the Dealers’ Room, which was a good opportunity to say hello to and hug Barry R who I hadn’t previously seen as he was busy guarding the Dealer’s Room door most of the time. (I went on to be ‘mugged’ by Dealer’s Room a couple of times during the weekend – chocolate hedgehogs for my parents and Steelcat, a badge with ‘Ask Again, I’m Shy’ and a lovely necklace from the dealer I shall call the wire wrapping lady. (Who I hope didn’t mind me geeking jewellery-making with her a few times!))
After this I went for a swim and saw Gemma from #afp who’d been in there for a good couple of hours or so! The swimming pool was lovely, and overlooked the lake. Even nicer when the sun was shining through the glass roof.
Martinoh arrived that afternoon, just in time for ‘The Man In The Hat’. As usual, Terry’s interview was funny and interesting. They had Steven Baxter up on stage at one point to talk about his and Terry’s forthcoming project ‘The Long Earth’. I won’t say anything about this as I’m not at all sure I remember the details, but it does sound promising. After this I went up to the Executive Lounge with SaintMaryUK who had an Executive Suite, so was allowed to use it. Lovely place, full of little canapés and cakes and free drink :-) Me and Mary had a nice time up there catching up (I haven’t seen any of her gang for a long time).
Maskerade can mainly be summed up by “Yaay, Ssirienna won!” She was dressed as Dame Gigli from ‘Maskerade’ and was singing what was known as ‘The Departure Aria’ (ie, ‘This damn door sticks, It sticks no matter what the hell I do…’) Min Lacey was her partner-in-sketch, holding up placards with the translations as they were sung. Other noteworthy entries include Richard Arkeley as Johsua Lavish, complete with quite a few of the Seamstresses’ Guild to help out; two women playing Granny Weatherwax and Nanny Ogg as young women; and Brian Dale as the Patrician considering retirement. Oh yes, and Davina’s act was probably one of the most memorable *g*
Hedgehog Party! Probably one of my favourite events of the whole Convention, as it means surrounded by afpers and other Discworldians in the mood to party! I brought some of the world’s crappest modeling balloons (and they really were crap, but also very cheap), watched people blowing them up and having balloon fights, then danced like no-one’s watching for as long as the music lasts :-) By something like about 3.30 am, there were a group of about twenty hardcore dancers left (although most of the other probably had the benefit of alcohol, which I didn’t), as the general feeling was ‘Keep going till Shevek’s too knackered to play any more music…” (This did not happen for ages *g*)
Oh yes. Gideon Hallet’s leggings. Silver, tight, and worn with t-shirt that had a chain mail shirt over the top. I believe they were supposed to be micromail (hence the false beard too). I did at one point comment that, with the holding-a-balloon-posing he was doing, it looked bordering on obscene (by the way, this was a compliment) and he grinned and said he’d got the point where he didn’t really give a shit. Which I think kind of sums up the whole Hedgehog Party feeling, really. Like I said, dance like no-one’s watching :-)
I think I got to bed at about four am, and then didn’t get much sleep after that. I’d completely forgotten about the bottle of Bailey’s I’d brought along for visits by the insomnia fairy, and was too tired to go and pour any out anyway.
Sunday
Knackered. Had breakfast, chatted briefly to Dom, Gemma and Barry in the bar, and then went upstairs, had lunch at 11 am and went to bed for the rest of the afternoon. (Some sleep, but mostly lying down quietly). I missed the Swashbuckling, but from Heather’s photographs it looked good.
Got changed into my Gala Dinner clothes and met up with Loriba and Ssirienna downstairs. Both of these were wearing corsets and looked beautiful. Made me wonder about getting one. We were entertained by an artist called Mr B the Gentleman Rhymer, doing genteel versions of rap and hip-hop stuff. I sung along, but not too loudly.
The meal was lovely :-) Spending it with my friends made it even more so. There were speeches afterwards, and Terry seemed to be enjoying himself immensely. After dinner entertainment included ‘Drag Races’, for which Hamish had dressed up in appropriate gear *g* I went along to the Toast and Jam but there weren’t many people left in there, although I did get to see Plum42 reprise her version of Avenue Q’s ‘The Internet Is For Porn’ which I remember she did in 2008 too.
Once Loriba and Ssirienna had gone to bed, I wandered around looking for more chatting-with-afpers opportunities, but there weren’t any available, so I decided on an ‘early’ night at 2 am *g*
Monday
The usual Monday stuff of ‘Oh no, the Con’s nearly finished, buggerit’. The Rocky Horror Discworld Show was excellent, and then at the Closing Ceremony it was announced that Chairman Brian Nisbet would be Chairman again next time. Well, he did a great job this time, so why not? :-)
Did the rounds of hugging good friends who I know I won’t see again for another year or two, although I missed some as they were busy helping out with tech. I didn’t have the energy for the Hedgehog Party, and went home at about nine-ish, completely knackered and on a Convention high :-)
Same time in 2012, then? Excellent :-)
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