shake it like a badly-developed polaroid picture! (or: Glasgow Collectormania '09)

[hathycol]

I am back and have survived a truly awesome weekend. As is now tradition, I am writing a convention write-up for the weekend. Hurrah!

I woke up bright and early, only to gaze upon a sky that was not especially bright. Still, I finished up my packing and headed off into the rain in my father's car, borrowed on the basis that I would die horribly if I had tried the journey in my own crapbucket. ALL GOOD. I actually knew the route to Glasgow pretty well, since it's on the route to St Andrews for me. However, I wasn't doing the whole journey by myself. At Carlisle, I picked up Louise at the train station with some mild issues with signposting to the train station, before barely making it out alive and heading back onto the M6 and sallying forth to Glasgow, with a stopover for lunch.

Now, I knew how to get to Glasgow and had written down instructions about how to find the convention location. Unfortunately, Louise had put them in a safe place - her rucksack - which was now firmly ensconsed within the boot of the car. We were also recieving regular text messages from Lucy, asking when we would be at the Travelodge, etc, etc. As we whirled around the M8 (the ringroad for Glasgow) we were unsure when we would arrive, where the junction was, stuff like that. Then we hit a large amount of traffic.

Some swearing later, it turned out we were going in the right direction and everything. This was a Good Thing Indeed. And Lucy was able to get into the Travelodge, so that was fine too. Decreeing this was a good start to the weekend, Jeeves turned up shortly afterwards, and we all went for a walk along the Clyde, and booked somewhere to eat for the evening. Kirsty turned up when were actually went to Pizza Hut, so we all sat around the table and chatted in the happy realisation that we were with fellow geeks, aho are clearly the best kind of people. I also ate the Best Dessert In The World, which got a 'cor!' fom Jeeves, and a mild shrug from Louise. 'It's okay.' I believe it was mentioned in the menu as 'ready, steady, spoon!' which was the most amount of giggling I have heard in a while.

We watched random telly in the evening, and chatted some more, before going to bed and trying to deal with the overheating in the knowledge that we were getting up spectacularly early in the morning.

Amazingly, though, we did all wake up on Saturday and managed to shower and get out neatly and everything, just in time to get there and be in the queue and harrassed by stomtroopers and an old school Cylon. Good times. Once we got into the convention, we bought our party tickets - I was ticket number one because I'm just that cool - and headed around to see some of the guestds. First up we mobbed Robert Picardo - the Doctor from Voyager - and were saddened by his hat-wearing. He was lovely, though, and asked me about my name. I burbled a bit. This was not a classy moment. We then hopped tables to Amber Benson - Tara from Buffy - who is maybe the loveliest woman in the world. She was sweet, charming, and put lots of effort into the autograph I got for loneraven. She is also stunningly beautiful. Some people have all the luck!

Next, we wandered around to the Doctor Who side of the autographs, and mobbed Peter Davison again - he recoiled when he saw our scarves, we haven't done anything wrong - and then did the same to Mary Tamm (Romana MkI). She is just as indimidating as her character, actually! Sophie Aldred was much friendlier, and very mumsy, which was a nice contract to Ace.

We then went to the talks. We started with Robrt Picardo, who was charming and witty. I really like Q+A sessions, but I am very fond of guests just sitting and talking and charming the pants off all of us; you also don't have the awkward 'argh' moments when people ask daft questions. I am a bitter old convention hag, though, so there we go.

Next was Kai Owen, and an audience of mad Torchwood fans so it was great fun, more like a riot than anything else. He said that he was going to be in Pobol Y Cym soon (the Welsh language soap that I sometimes watch for the lolz, since I don't, you know, speak Welsh) and that he didn't know about more Torchwood. Someone asked him what it was like off-camera on Torchwood, and he looked serious for a moment before answering 'one word: porn.' Hilarity ensued.

Jeeves, Louise and I sat in for Amber Benson whilst the others went to hold our places for the Doctor Who talk. I might actually love Amber Benson. She was sweet, charming, answered all the questions, clearly loved all of her work, and I cannot believe she's 32!

Next was the Doctor Who talk. Ann had turned up by this point, towing Richie - who, when I spoke to him on Thursday night, swore down blind he wasn't going so to be honest I'm still not sure why he turned up; apparently he drank whiskey on Friday night and then woke up with a hotel room booked and a bag packed. Either way, we were all sat slap bang in the middle of the front row because we're just that cool. (As we speak, Peter Davison is probably preparing that injunction against us.)

There was lunch after that, before heading over to the Cosplay. Now, fair play to cosplayers in the world; I like you guys. I am amazed at your artistry, and the amazing costumes you come up with. There were some brilliant costumes and I was thoroughly impressed by a fair few of them, and I'm sure the various anime and gaming costumes were probably good. That said, though, oh dear, I do like the car crash elements of the thing!

Next was Casey Biggs - Damar from DS9. Now, I have only seen one episode with Damar in it but, well, I love me from DS9. It was a great talk to sit in on, actually. (Also because the height Louise and I were sat at meant we could see the other guys harrassing someone dressed as Spiderman.) Once again, he talked at us rather than the other way around, and it was clear he really, really liked Star Trek, and the fans. He was disparaging of William Shatner, pointing out that it is only geeks like us that keep lots of amazing events and charities going. I heart him. I really do.

We were all beginning to flag at this point, though; we'd all been up ridiculously early and we also had a party to get ready for. After an early tea and a trip to Sainsburys, we headed back to the hotel room to get ready. Bear in mind that despite the stereotype of geeks as not washing or caring about their appearence, we had to, between us, wash, curl, dry and straighten hair (not all on the same head), finish costumes, try on dresses, change, pin sleeves on, pu ton ears, as well as the usual make-up routine. Amazingly, we were ready on time and headed out to the convention centre, when predictably is started to rain on the way. BOO.

Still, we made it and started the dancing off nice and early, geeking out to all sorts of fun bits and bobs, trying to keep my hat on. (A surprisingly difficult challenge.) We talked to people, and drank in moderate amounts, and were just really getting into the swing of things at eleven when...

... it ended. Well, sort of. We all got sent downstairs to some sort of staff party, which was not what we had paid for. It was awful and the only sour note of the weekend, but we did have fun talking to people around the table in an indignant way! I made the mistake of drinking beer though... bad move, after an awful lot of wine previously.

I am unsure when I stumbled into the hotel room.

The next day dawned. I wish it didn't. I somehow managed to get out of bed, wailing about painkillers and beer and why I hated my life, before having a shower and feeling a bit more human. We sauntered over to the convention again, waiting in the queue with tea and Lucy hugging a Tai fighter, before heading in and going back to the Robert Picardo talk for sheer entertainment. Some of the friends we'd made the night before came to chat, whilst I tried to be human again. I got Casey Biggs autograph and stupidly blurted out that Cardassians were my favourite aliens (I ddn't add 'because I think the spoon on the head thing is hot'), and we got Amber Benson to wear the DocSoc scarf! I LOVE HER LIKE PIE.

We had lunch on the basis that hell, we needed nutrition and we were at a bit of a loose end. We then headed over to the Doctor Who talk again - I could see Peter Davison on speed-dial to the lawyers - and then the convention was over. Well, it wasn't over, but we all had places to be and Louise had a train to catch in Carlisle that I needed to drop her off from. We somehow made it on time, and I drove down a rainy M6 back to Ormskirk, via the chippy.

So, that was my weekend. It was amazing like whoa, despite the party malfunction, and I'm missing loads of amazing stuff and chat out, but there we go. I got to be geeky, see some of my favourite people, dance to Star Trekking as a Doctor Who companion, and I also bought a brand-new handbag covered in Marvel prints for a tenner. Bring on the next one! There is talk of venturing Down South for it and everything...

Oh, and you can look at pictures of us Doing Our Thing here!

Comments

[kelemvor.livejournal.com]

Amber Benson rules. That is all.

[hathy-col.livejournal.com]

SHE IS THE NICEST PERSON IN ALL THE WORLD.

[tau_sigma]

Generally I am scared of conventions because they involve an awful lot of people, which is something I'm not so good with. But you make them sound so much fun, I am quite envious. It sounds AMAZING. And wow.

[hathy-col.livejournal.com]

It is so much fun! The good thing about conventions is that although they can be mad, there's a lovely sense that these are, you know, our people, all with common interests and what's best is there is very little judging going on of each other; it's a really friendly atmosphere, as a rule.

Also it socially acceptable for grown men to dress as Spiderman which is just marvellous to see.