Eternal Twilight Convention - Day 2

Saturday - Day

Okay - the fun stuff happens now…told you this would get long!

It was another 'night before Christmas night'….and I woke far too early - so messed about straightening my hair :p My first signing, according to the schedule was due at 9am with Peter Facinelli!! My group (all ticket holders are split into groups for the photo and signing sessions to make things easier) was the first to be called, we were already waiting in line when he came in, drinking tea, in a striking suit and shades!! I was getting nervously excited!! My turn came…got to the front and another girl a couple of people in front of me was also called Claire, so when he saw my name (the crew write it on a post it note for you so the guests know what personalisation to do - I guess to speed things up a bit - they do have 800 + to sign!) he made a comment about it being another Claire and I stupidly just said ‘yes’…*rolls eyes* Then he told me he had a cold or something and his voice cracked as he was speaking to me, so he told me he was going through puberty again…and all I said was ‘oh, right,’ I felt an idiot, but all these silly things were popping into my head to say and I was fighting them back! I’m sure I said something else to him…but dunno what…I remember he looked up at me after signing, then looked back at the photo and added another little heart on his signature!! Bless!! I thanked him and then left (it’s all actually really quick!)

Considering how confused I was with the schedule lists at first, it was quite easy to work out where and when I needed to be in places. My next thing I think was my photo with Justin Chon…whilst waiting we had to pass the room where Kellan was doing his photos and I got a tad distracted watching him! Justin was fun and seemed bright eyed and happy. The photo shoots are even quicker than the autographs - it’s a case of ‘next, big smile, 123 *check the back of the camera* take a ticket, next,’ but…considering they have 800 people to get through in two days - hardly surprising! I’m quite amazed they do it all really!! He said hey when it was my turn, threw his arm around me, asked me how I was, I said I was good…they took the picture, checked it and was told to move on….I thanked Justin and left.

Not sure what was next - I had all my photos and two of my autographs on the Saturday morning, so this might be out of order. At some point in-between my photos and autographs I was sat waiting around in the hotel corridor when another girl came and sat next to me, think she asked me who my favourite Twilight character was, I answered Jasper - turned out he was hers too! Then I asked her if she was alone, and she was as well - we high fived! And we just kinda hit it off and got chatting and hung out together for the rest of the weekend!!! She was the first person to really talk with me. She was from Australia in the UK on a gap year. Another group of girls sat with us for some of the time and we got chatting as well and I spoke to SO many people that weekend!

Think my photo with Peter was next - I was well aware of how close he got for the photo, putting his head on yours and I loved it!! I’m terrible I can’t remember much of my encounters with Peter…but they were all so wonderfully friendly and sweet and lovely with the fans - they never looked fed up and pissed off about all these photos and signings they had to do - they always spoke, at least said hello during each of them - I made a point to thank them for everything each time. Oh!! One funny moment with Peter, when I went to step away from him after the photo, he pulled my hair a little. When I got the photos back later, I noticed my hair was all tangled around his fingers that were on my shoulder. I just hope I never left a load of red strands in his fingers - my hair tends to get everywhere!! And he smelt good!!

Ashley was beautiful….she is easily one of the most beautiful women I have ever met!! I got her autograph and she asked me how I was, told her I was good and was thinking, ‘say something, say something‘…so I asked her how she was - she said ‘Oh I’m quite….good’ - she sounded a little weary, bless her. She was sweet in the photo too - putting her arm around me and everything - only she looks SO pretty on the photo and I erm…don’t!! I just wish I had told her that I thought she was perfect as Alice, apart from slightly shorter hair, she looked and acted exactly as I imagined from the books - including the way she gazes at Jasper…and I wanted her to know that because some people have said she wasn’t right for the part. And should have told her I love Alice! Definitely my favourite female characters in the saga.

Kellan photo shoot…I had wanted a hug…Stephanie Meyer once said that hugging Kellan Lutz was as close to hugging a real vampire as you would get. I wanted to experience that - but…didn’t dare ask - I wasn’t sure if we were allowed to since they tried to get everyone through so quick and I would hate to be shouted at in front of any of them, so I didn’t ask! But he did put his arm around me, tight! Had his head resting on my mine and gets in really close and snugly and I could have stayed there all day…I don’t even know what I said to him (apart from Hi and thank you) - the man has some effect on me - think he takes tips from Edward because I was dazzled!

I think it might have been the photo with Christian last - who is tiny!! And seemed rather timid and I felt for her having all these people to meet (and I was also wondering what the heck she was wearing…:s) felt like she would break when I put my arm around her for the photo. But she was very sweet and gracious and stuff.

After all that excitement, and I was amazed I wasn’t more nervous around them than I had been - I was quite calm really. But, then I think I went out with new found friend, Kate to get something to eat before the talks began at 3pm. On our wait out, we discovered that Bella's truck had turned up and was parked outside the hotel!! It was actually a copy of the Chevy truck from the books and movie - same year and same colour! On our way back, we had to play and take photos with it!!

The talks were wonderful and hilarious and insightful! My face ached so much from laughing all the time and my ears/head hurt from all the cheering and applause! I wish we had been allowed to do movie clips - because there were some hilarious moments, some wonderfully interesting moments and some exclusives!! I actually started writing down some of the funny answers they gave that I could remember - but I got carried away and remembered more than I thought….and was getting on for pages here!!

After the talks was the auction and items went for ridiculous prices!! I did bid on a few things, but won nothing! Would have loved the signed script or the signed chair Kellan had used all weekend, but they went for prices outside my price range!! One girl bid over £600 for a place for two people at the dinner with the guests that night, and then the same girl bid over £150 for a signed photo of Rob Pattinson!! A signed copy of Twilight by Stephenie Meyer also went for over £600 and then two slow dances at the party that night with Peter went for around about £300 each!! Madness - obviously the current recession is not affecting many Twilight fans!!

So…after the talks, I met up with Kate again (I had a silver ticket, so got seated closer to the front than standard tickets) and met up with someone else she had been chatting too - also called Claire, and instantly seemed to hit it off with her! By this time I had gotten my photos back as well and almost died with happiness at them….*sigh* Stood around chatting for a bit and then headed back to our hotels to change and have time out before the prom party started, arranging to meet in the lobby of the Ibis and head over together (along with another friend of Claire‘s and her daughter)

It was SO much nicer walking into the party with a group of people, than alone. When we got back to the Park Inn, Justin was just returning in his taxi and I for some reason made some comment about my date being here!! Lol!! But we didn’t wait to bother him, just walked into the hotel and he followed us!! The decoration were amazing!! For those that have not seen the movie (and why not?) the prom theme in Twilight is Monte Carlo - gambling. The convention organisers (Massive Events) had decked everything out beautifully again! There were gambling tables in the bar area with black and red streamers everywhere, large playing cards hanging from the ceiling and balloons. But in the main hall, they had a set like the gazebo, complete with twinkling lights just like in the movie when Edward dances with Bella at prom. There were also card themed balloons (hearts, ace of spades etc) and more cards.

When we arrived, Peter was performing his dances with the two lucky auction winners - in the gazebo, to the song Bella and Edward dance to in the movie - Iron & Wine ‘Flightless Bird, American Mouth’ - SO cute!! Obviously they were surrounded by fans and I couldn’t see much, but have seen video clips since - bless!!

I hung out with my new friends, took photos of one another in the gazebo thing once it was clear and they even got me dancing quite a bit - with little encouragement!! Though I got confused with the cheesy dances!! It was SUCH a fun night!! Chloe and her friend hung out with us for a little while, dancing, chatting and drinking. I remember going to the loo once and walking past Christian who was helping out on one of the gambling tables, and then Kellan who was being mobbed at the bar - poor guy!! I would have loved to go over to him and offer to buy him a drink or ask him to buy me one, but…I didn’t want to add to the craziness around him!! No wonder they all left soon after - though Peter was apparently seen on the dance floor briefly!

If it hadn’t been for my sore feet thanks to stupid shoes scraping all my heals and then getting stomach ache, I would have stayed at the party longer because I was having fun - but in the end me and Claire left just after midnight. After all, we did need to get up early so as we could get in line for the registration for tickets for the next Twilight convention in October!! The one morning I thought I could sleep in a little as I had nothing scheduled until 10.30 and I had to get in line before 8pm to buy my next ticket since we had priority booking and I wasn’t risking losing out on another silver ticket!

Day 3 in next blog...