who needs love when the sandwiches are wicked?

Oh, you guys, you guys, I have been so busy recently and there is no sign of it letting up. I can’t even complain about it really; oh dear, poor me, I have been so busy seeing FRIENDS and SOCIALISING and HAVING FUN but it’s all surrounded by doing full weeks at work. To put this into context, I get up, go to work, come home, make/eat dinner, clean up and whatever and by that time it’s 8pm and I can’t force out an LJ post. So I will update soon with more stuff!

However, last weekend I went to LFCC and come hell, high water, or having to write the draft on the work PC on a quiet afternoon (if anyone comes over to look I have an extremely convincing looking policy open in another window) I will always do my con write up. So!

Friday afternoon was horrendously busy in work. I knew I had Lucy and Tali coming to stay and the morning was slow, the type where I got through my workload and was all prepared to stroll out at 5.27pm. The afternoon was full of niggly things that absolutely had to be done then, but it was okay! Because Richie would be at home and Lucy and Tali would go THERE and everything would be fine.

At 5.27pm my boss asked me to do a system change. At the same time, I got texts from Richie saying he was running late. All was woe and pain. I refused to make the changes and flung myself out of the door and did the world’s most efficient Friday night Tesco run on the way home from work. Luckily all was well and they were all at home when I arrived. Yay!

That evening we ate a mountain of pasta and sat around the kitchen table, drinking wine and catching up. I do so love having friends around in the safe knowledge I’ve fed them! However, we couldn’t have TOO late a night, as we were planning on getting up at 5.45am. CONVENTIONS!

( In which Paul McGann flirts, or Day 1 )

( Musings on spoons and the womblus Rex, or Day 2 )

It was a lovely weekend, all told. On Monday I was a tired and gibbering wreck in work and frankly am not much better now, but life goes on. I would say 'my feet have stopped hurting' but due to busy weekends I am running a LOT in the mornings before work and I did a 12km and now they hurt again, but I can't really blame LFCC for that.

I need to go to more conventions, I think. I have missed them. All my pictures are on facebook; I missed out on loads of awesome cosplayers, like a lovely Supergirl, a fab Jesse and Cassidy from Preacher (a side note: Richie and I are trialling Amazon Prime and have inhaled Preacher in a fortnight. It was awesome and oh TULIP YOU ARE BEST) and generally just wonderful awesome people.

But now: onwards! And I will definitely write up the rest of my Very Busy July soon!

So this weekend I had a weekend with the lovely Tali and Lucy and we went to LFCC AND DID SOME TOURISTY SUMMER STUFF. We were totally awesome like that.

Tali arrived on Friday night, a Friday I had not spent productively. Although I had a productive Friday morning, I went out for a birthday lunch with some of the admin girls. On the way back, it dawned on us there were no directors in. So we hid in the basement bar of the building and had a large glass of wine before I went back to work, which was in retrospect a terrible idea as I managed to totally forget that I was meant to take Monday for a training course. Whoops.

However, I was correctly distracted because Tali was on her way! Her satnav, despite trying to send her somewhere else, actually led her directly to my work. We went home very slowly due to problems with the buses and spent a lovely Friday night chatting and watching some TV. We had a leisurely morning, too. Lucy was due to arrive just before 11, so I cooked brunch for us both. I had French toast for the first ever time a couple of weeks ago so I decided to make it for us, with fruit and enough sqooshy cream to drown a battleship. It was jolly nice, if I say so myself.

Lucy arrived not long after we'd washed up, so after a cup of tea we headed out into the wide world of London. One of my favourite things to do is to go for Borough Market for lunch and then amble along the South Bank, and we were rewarded with brilliant weather. Plus Lucy and Tali liked the market, which doesn't necessarily always happen as it's very crowded! We ate delicious food. It was the first time I'd ever eaten koshari, an Egyptian street food that is basically "HERE, HAVE SOME CARBS WITH YOUR CARBS" (seriously, it's rice, pasta, vermicelli noodles, tomatoe sauce, lentils, chickpeas, AMAZING DELICIOUSNESS) and we sat in the shade at the corner of the market and consumed. We then toddled back for enormous cookies and pieces of cake and some cider from the cider stall. What more can you ask for than a delicious lunch like that with your friends?

Digesting, we perambulated along the Thames and managed to snag a table as a riverside pub, so drank expensive drinks again in the shade while the river gently sloshed and we waited on Richie. Crossing Blackfriars bridge we went to The Blackfriar pub which I had heard had an amazing interior; it was in fact full of REALLY FREAKY MONKS HEADS so we grabbed a table outside as soon as could!

Fiona joined us post-quiddithc practice and we got some more food before heading home. It was an evening of Psychobitches, showing Tali The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt for the first time (we shouted "WHERE IS YOUR ADULT?" on more than one occasion the next day) before the depressing realisation that those of us who were con bound had to get up in about six hours. Oh dear.

( SHAME! SHAME! or: LFCC the only day )

It was a lovely note to end on. We trundled our way home on a crowded set of Tubes, feet aching, sweating desperately, but overall happy. Tali left pretty much as soon as we got home, which was a shame simply because it's always nice to have friends around.

So that was my weekend. I am now full of con lurgy and in the process of losing my voice, which is fun. However, this weekend it's time to see more friends and go to Birmingham for a beer festival, so I shall ignore this and pretend to be healthy. Woo!

A lot of people have been complaining about LFCC, and the crowds, and wow, whilst I agree with you it's fairly hard not to shout "LOOK AT DASHCON". That said, we didn't even get an extra hour in the ballpit. There was no ballpit.

In all seriousness: I had a marvellous weekend and now I am going to TELL YOU ALL ABOUT IT!

I cheerfully worked my way through the last week, and on Friday I trooped over to King's Cross to pick up Lucy, who I then dragged to the supermarket because I am just rubbish at preparation so had failed to get any food in the house. Still, we filled a basket full of packed lunch and snacky items and trooped back to our house for a rather chilled out evening. For various reasons - budgets, quidditch, family issues to name but a few - only Lucy was staying at mine, which led to a reasonably classy Friday night - I made a pasta bake and we sat around the kitchen table, gossiping and slightly baffling Richie with talk about fanfiction. I managed to get Lucy reading a fic called Motion Practice, which is ALL OF THE THINGS I HATE in fiction: they're all gay, it's a workplace AU, no one has powers AND YET IT'S THE BEST SERIES EVER. Lucy kept periodically looking at her phone, apologising, and then we discussed the evidence in the case and squee-d. It's been... too long since I did that, actually.

We attempted to be sensible and go to bed early for lo, the next day involved way, way too early a start. I crawled out of bed at 6am, and Lucy and I got ready with whispers and copious amounts of tea. Thing is, I was fairly sure it would be an outrageously busy and popular event so thought we would be very cunning and get there nice and early. We headed there and changed at Victoria, all the while wearing Trek dresses - it was comforting to get to the station and see two kids dressed as Mario and a bloke dressed as Hong Kong Phooey! When we actually arrived at the convention, though, DEAR GOD. There were five separate queues, and Lucy and I were in two different ones as it was due to different ticket requirements. I walked around the venue, and around, and around, and around, all the while with never ended hordes of people. I found the end of the queue eventually, and made friends with those around me. A security guard told us that there had been people waiting since 10.30pm the night before, and more and more people passed us. The queue snaked around. Twice. Just... wow. It gave me time to put on my new pair of knee high boots, though, which were surprisingly comfortable even with a heel. Plus I looked awesome. Yes, I'm vain.

Still, I got there with a reasonably amount of time, having abandoned my hopes of meeting Stan Lee a few months ago. I waited on the inside for Lucy, and on her arrival we went and grabbed VQ tickets for Terry Farrell (JADZIA DAX!!!) and David Wenham, who we referred to as 'skooshy face' for most of the weekend because of reasons. We the started a day of mostly slowly looping around and trying not to get squashed in the mega, awful, terrible crush. I have to admit it was fairly awful, and I am going through a period of having my head screwed on to optimum settings.

We started by heading to the wonderful Robert Rankin, who I have failed to get a photo with AGAIN. I got a signed copy of his new book and asked him to keep the change towards the crowdfunding for a film of Alice on Mars, which I am selfish and really want to see, what can I say. He seemed really touched and insisted on shaking my hand several more times. I do so love Robert Rankin, I really do.

We ended up meeting Terry Farrell reasonably early too; Lucy is just up to the end of Season 6 in her DS9 re-watch so managed not to cry at her. Terry Farrell remains unspeakable beautiful and wonderful, for those interested.

In an attempt to get some fresh air, we went over to the 'second' hall - the whole event was split into two areas, with a Stan Lee/comic building and a 'everything else' building. We failed to spot Stan Lee, but did have a marvellous cup of tea in a quieter building. We forced our way through the crowds to have a sit down on the cool floor of the main building, and ended up making friends with a rather frantic redshirt, who it turns out is so much of a Terry Farrell fan she's known as 'Dax'. She had two costumes for one photoshoot, and couldn't find her friends - or they couldn't get across the room anyway! So we looked after her costume, and I helped her get changed with my epic dance skills. I felt like I had done a good turn by a fellow fan, and felt in a good mood to troop over to the main stage for a cosplay competition. I must say that cosplay is getting more professional each time I see it, and this was an amateur competition. There were loads of great entries, included a wonderful Prince Hans and Anna (who had a full song and dance routine!) and some Game of Thrones ones who looked actually like the actors. Slightly uncanny, to be honest!

After this we managed to meet David Wenham, who does not have a skooshy face but was still nice. We fought our way back to what ended up being a super awkward Talent Show (I'm taking tap shoes next year, on the basis that I will beat this thing) and then gave in to the heat, changed, and headed out into the not-that-much-cooler night. We met Richie (who just doesn't like cons) and Fiona (who was playing quidditch, lower q for legal reasons) in Chinatown and I drank two very hasty pints before we went to the mighty Wong Keis and set on our food like starving wolves. Om nom nom.

The next day was another ridiculously early start, and queues pretty much just as bad. I am quietly glad I didn't bother with cosplay, though, as I couldn't have faved lugging the hammer around. That said, we got in much quicker this time around and the day itself was a little quieter. Fiona was able to join us as well, which was lovely.

In the back of the room was the 'books' area, and we (well, I) decided to go to a panel called 'Murder Most Magical' which had Paul Cornell and Ben Aaronovitch on the panel. At the time of the panel I was only 1/3 through Whispers Underground so it was a bit tense but it was rather lovely, actually. Paul Cornell seems to be a bit of an idiot, though. I couldn't find Ben Aaronovitch afterwards, though, which was a shame. I actually didn't meet any guests on the Sunday in the end - how odd!

THAT SAID: I did get a corset though. I regret nothing. It's purple and black and OH SO PRETTY. Also met lots of Fiona's quidditch friends (my life, everyone, my life) and watched a lot more cosplay. I just... wow. I wish I had some of these mad skills in terms of making costumes, and performing, and being able to take my glasses off or having useful hair. There were Orange Is The New Black cosplayers, everyone. Life is BEAUTIFUL. And these were just the amateurs!

Plus got to see Dax-The-Nickname in the Jadzia wedding dress. MAD SKILLZ.

Lucy had to leave with reasonably time to spare in order to go to York, so I quietly wandered over to the Stan Lee hall and had a wander around. "Huh," I found myself thinking near the blocked off stage. "I recognise that voice." And lo, for it was STAN LEE ON STAGE and although I couldn't hear the talk I peeked in and got a photo. That will do for my proximity, I think. After the Stan Lee lot went I went in to watch the professional cosplay, and felt all of the above feelings with possibly a touch more sadness.

Plus, well, this was my first con where I felt a teeny tiny bit old. At one point I asked Lucy to delete a photo because I looked a bit wrinkly in it, and there were lots of tiny teenagers at this convention and oh gosh I have been going to these things for over half of my life. Hell, I started going to Showmasters events over ten years ago, now, when they were back in the shopping centre and I went with Clare and Iona. I still love them, and there is still a big part of me that squees about fic, but now I do it at my own kitchen table. It's weird. Good weird, I think, and lord knows I don't want to be a teenager again, but weird.

And indeed, it's been an interesting week. I am SHATTERED (not surprisingly). I also got the joy of taking a pregnancy test on Monday, which as I suspected was a cheery negative. Going off the Pill has messed up my cycle, in that I currently have no cycle. Deeply odd. I mean, come on, I'm using contraception, but it's still offputting. I took the test after the con so on the offchance I was up the duff I wouldn't be stressed about it during the weekend. PRIORITIES ARE CORRECT. I have also had to go to an out of hours emergency GP clinic for a nasty set of insect bites on my leg (not infected, yay! but hardcore antihistimines are making me sleepy) and now it is Thursday and I genuinely don't know how that happened.

Today Chris Eubank asked me for a lint roller. Now I'm sat in the sun, with a TARDIS hairgrip in my hair and a chap dressed as the 7th Doctor.

I LOVE CONVENTIONS. More upon my return!

Posted via m.livejournal.com.

Normally I would have posted this sooner, except I have instead been SUPER SOCIABLE. Despite London still being in something of a heatwave, I am spending this evening by my lonesome, in my pajamas. I am way too old to be sociable for extended periods of time!

All this said, I had been looking forward to LFCC all week. It meant I had people coming to stay, and fun times, and general awesomeness. I hadn't taken into account the fact it was going to be about a squillion degrees. Argh. Still on Friday I came home to Louise and Fiona, who had been let in by Richie rather than enjoying some very discreet burglary. I cooked for all three of us, and we had a quiet night in which was actually quite nice. Well, it was 'quiet' except for the bits when Louise was shouting abuse at the tennis.

Later on, Richie, Tali and Ann came home - they'd been at a radio recording - and we had a good gossip and catch up before heading to bed.

( Time for sunscreen, or Day 1 )

( Finn Jones and his beautiful face, or Day 2 )

On Monday I hauled myself out of bed for work, and went with Louise to the train station. I found myself having errible post con blues in work, a combination of exhaustion and vague sadness to be sat indoors. Plus, I got a test message from Richie at 1.30pm telling me he and Ann were in a pub that was all of a minute's walk from my work. ALAS.

By about 5.30pm I realised he hadn't responded to my enquiries as to location, and remembered that said pub is a basement bar. Based on my knowledge of Richie, I headed over to the pub only to find a slightly tipsy Ann outside. I was RIGHT!

So on Monday night I found myself drinking instead, and meeting with Dee and one of Ann and Richie's old university friends (City drinking! And admittedly I was in my smartest business gear for convuluted reasons so at least I looked good) before going to a German bar for beer and sausages. Well, I didn't have sausages, but there we go. We walked home down the Embankment in the warm evening air, which was a bit of a treat. London is magical at night if its warm and you're a bit drunk.

Tuesday night Ann was still here, so after a long day at work (I am rubbish at this socialising thing) I came home, got hastily changed, and out we all went to a pub quiz at a place in Walthamstow village. Fiona came and joined us, and we ate a yummy tea before getting trounced at the pub quiz. (We did have an awesome name though, of 'You're a quizzard, Harry!') Still, with the warm clement weather remaining it was a pleasant evening.

Now I am going to bed to try and catch up on sleep. Ann has headed off to visit Louise Work social thing tomorrow and then Amanda Palmer on Friday night! (I have taken Friday afternoon off to have a nap. I do not regret this.)

TL:DR? LFCC was splendid. Well organised, good friends, and all guests being wonderful. Despite the exhaustion, I don't regret ANYTHING.

So! This weekend I went to Milton Keynes for Collectormania and LO FOR IT WAS AWESOME.

In the run up to the weekend I had, coincidentally, the busiest and most professionally fulfilling week for a long time. I organised the shit out of things, was personally thanked by board members for doing stuff, and as a result of some of this stuff we've got two new starts. NOT BAD INNINGS METHINKS.

It did mean, however, that I felt I deserved rocking up super casual on Friday and bumbling off at 4.30pm. If anyone asked where I was going, I had what I thought was a bulletproof response of a weekend with the girls. I had not anticipated follow up questions.

"So where are you off to?"

"Weekend with the girls! It's great to catch up!" (Which, you know, true!)

"Oh right! Anywhere nice?"

Deer in headlights moment. "... Milton Keynes?"

"Why?!"

"Er... convention. Er. Dressed as Thor. Er, I'm leaving now."

( Day 1, in which the Chris Judge saga begins )

( Day 2, in which there are Klingons on the starboard bow )

( Day 3, in which the Avengers assemble )

( Day 4, in which things wind down a little )

I wish I had done this write up a little earlier, because it was such a lovely weekend. I think a lot of us had stuff going on, with work and family and home and all sorts of things - but for a full weekend we had a great time with our friends and dressed up and danced and basically had some escapism. It was awesome.

Plus, I had hardcore postcon blues this week. Work was rubbish for long and various reasons, and I lost my umbrella and generally rubbish stuff. Luckily I have today 'off' and now I've cleaned the flat I'm going to watch Parks and Recreation all day and tonight make a Sunday roast. This is all good stuff.

So, confession time: I was not well at all on Friday, to the extent I sort of considered not going. Then I decided that if I ate some fast food it would be kill or cure and I might as well find out on the M6. Fortunately, it was in fact cure, so Richie and I sped up the M6, and he read out the occasional text messages from the dudes and dudettes that had arrived before us. This was about my... fourth, I think? Glasgow Collectormania, though, and I had no intention of missing it, work and stomach be damned.

Richie and I arrived just as most of the gang (i.e. Lucy, Louise, Ann, Dee, Frank and Fiona) were arriving back from Pizza Hut, and we ended up just sitting in Lucy's room, having a good catch-up and generally gossiping. Tali arrived not too long after that, and after a mild key-based altercation we all caught up properly. Sometimes Richie and I are a bit isolated in Southport, and whilst I obviously love Richie dearly it's nice to catch up with other people! That said, we ended up sharing a room with Lucy and Louise who very kindly gave us the double bed. THANKS, GUYS.

( Day 1, in which I overcome some fears and also HUMILIATION )

( Day 2, with more ritual humiliation )

It was a lovely weekend, and it was great to see everyone again, despite the ritual humiliation! And on Friday I'm off on honeymoon. Time is officially FLYING, but I'm going to spend tonight watching the Paralympic opening ceremony. Devastated to discover that wheelchair rugby (a.k.a. MURDERBALL) is on when I'm away, and I think that the U.K. is probably the most enthusiastic about these games. I really hope Austria is a big fan of aforesaid murderball, that's all.

HEY YOU GUYS I HAVE RETURNED FROM CONVENTION. I am battered, bruised, and feel little like I have been put through some kind of wringer, but it was COMPLETELY worth it. Even if I did have to do a full day at work on Friday. Woe. By about quarter to four I was on a constant stream of "CAN I GO NOW PLEASE I WILL MAKE THE TIME UP HONEST" and by ten to four I was in the car, changing into comfy driving shoes and heading to Milton Keynes.

I have recently taken to listening to Radio 2 on the way home, because I loathe Greg James and miss Scott Mills. I sort of hate myself for this. However, it did have the advantage of getting to listen to The Longest Travel Bulletins Ever. During one of them I even passed the incident she was talking about, I felt quite proud of myself. I've made an executive decision to never drive anywhere on the Friday before a bank holiday weekend. By some miracle all of the traffic going my way kept moving all of the journey, albeit slowly and with me taking the M6 toll road. But yeah, wow, those are some scary reports you don't want to hear when you're driving.

Anyway, I arrived in reasonably good time to be informed that I'd already checked in. The woman behind the desk looked horrified. I assured her it was fine, and sauntered off to go and meet whoever had already arrived. It was Lucy! We chatted, compared driving notes ("I HAVE BROUGHT SO MUCH STUFF" "ME TOO") and before long we were joined by Ann, Louise, and Dee, and Lucy went to go and pick up Pippa. We ordered pizza, and ate leisurely whilst watching Have I Got News For You. By definition, a good evening. Plus the random banter in the evening was marvellous, including Ann's Lies To Small Children. ("If you say gravity, you have to pay Stephen Hawking £7.50.")

( 'As awesome as a fish!' or: Day 1 )

( 'Oh, that was YOU' or: Day 2 )

Alas, exhaustion and train times beckoned, and we had to all head out separate ways. I came home and fell on the sofa and pretty much stayed there for the next 36 hours. It was a lovely weekend, though - I missed several people, of course, and we probably should have spaced out some of the guests better, but it was still well worth it.

Now I am stony broke, and my MOT is due at the end of this month, so obviously today Richie and I bought a TV. Er, yes.

Pictures here, including Finn Jones and his beautiful face.

This is a convention post. Honestly, it is. Just let me get through a fairly large whinge first.

There was a plan for Friday. I always feel better at the concept of a plan. We were going to go to St Andrews. It was going to be awesome. We were going to leave ridiculously early but that was okay because it meant we coiuld beat the traffic and make it to St Andrews and today I would write about all my lovely wedding plans and get on with finally almost sending some invitations.

Unfortunately the gods of fate had different plans. After an hour or so on the motorway, signs saying 'M6 CLOSED' started flashing up. This is Very Not Good as the M6 is pretty much the essential road for getting to Scotland. This meant that everyone else wasalso stuck on the M6. To cut a long story short, a lorry had overturned, spiralled through the central embankment, and shut the entire M6 down as his load was plastic and glasses bottles. All of the traffic had to be funnelled away from the motorway and through Carlisle up to the next junction. We spent four and a half hours in traffic.

So, on the plus side I managed to fulfill a life long ambition of reading a book and successfully driving. (Caitlin Moran's How To Be A Woman for those who are interested. It's fab.) On the downside, I burst into tears on the A6 because we were meant to be seeing our reception venue at that exact point in time and we were probably never going to make it to Scotland, let alone St Andrews.

We gave up on getting to St Andrews, and eventually spent a night in a lovely posh hotel on the outskirts of Glasgow (we felt sorry for ourselves, okay?) where we got a bit drunk instead. Hey ho.

However! All was not lost! Because at least we were in the environs of Glasgow, meaning we could make it to Collectormania with a little more time to spare. Until I got lost. Whilst using a SatNav. AGAIN.

Anyway.

( Day 1, in which we battle with neds )

( Day 2, in which peer pressure has a happy outcome )

And now I am back at work. We are attempting to make invitations and find time to go back to St Andrews in a very short amount of time. BUSY BUSY.

I have the worst post-con blues in the world, probably emphasised by belayed post-holiday blues. As such, I am spending this evening curled up in my room and remembered the awesomeness that was this weekend AND YOU ALL GET TO SHARE.

I spent the run up to the convention being madly, madly busy and I have also developed... well, it's not quite insomnia because that involves roaming around at 2am sort of thing, and I am sleeping, but it takes me ages and ages to actually fall asleep, and I can't sleep through the night at all so I am a little bit sleep-deprived too, not enough to stop functioning but enough to make the world sort of fuzzy. It was in this eminently sensible mode that I went to work on Friday, with all of my belongings stuffed hastily in the boot on my car, and as K and I were left alone for the final hour of work I drank loads of tea, took some pep pills and headed off as soon as physically possible, after entering my location in Cynthia The SatNav who is simultaneously my best friend and my worst enemy.

( ... are you drunk, or am I? Day 1 )

( Hello, sweetie! Day 2 )

( Eyepatches galore! Day 3 )

In conclusion, despite the exhaustion and the slight fewness of guests (Joe Flanigan and Alice Krige both cancelled last minute) I had a really lovely weekend, getting to catch up with some of my favourite people and have lots of lovely moments and wander around dressed up as some of my heroines.

And now I face a long, long run of work. Oh, joy.