I will say now that I didn’t enjoy this con as much as I have in the past. It had nothing to do with the guests - they were all lovely and great fun. And it had nothing to do with the venue, even though food was ridiculously priced. It did have a lot to do with me being rather alone and lonely a lot of the time…and a lot of run ins with some very rude Europeans and generally being ignored a lot. I’m shy I know, and I know part of that is my fault…but attendee’s did not seem as approachable as they once did - I was too nervous to speak to strangers and they never spoke to me. But, anyways…here is the weekend along with the pics!
Friday - February 19th 2010
My train actually got in early for once (yay!) but then I couldn’t find the phone or the bus stop for the free shuttle thing to the hotel from the station (boo!) I wandered around for a bit, looking for it, then thought to hell with it and got a cab! And when I got to the hotel I was met by a huge line waiting to check in!! That took a fair while to get through - saw a few friends waiting in line too and my old friend, Nina came over to say a quick hello. I finally got checked in, only to be told the rooms weren’t ready (erm, it was almost 5pm by this time - why were rooms not ready?!) so I had to go down to register for the con with all my luggage - pain in the ass that was!! Got registered there, got my pack and then bought an extra autograph voucher for Jamie (for my friend!) and then decided to go see if my room was ready now so I could dump my luggage - it was - yay!!
I had planned on having a nice hour to chill out and freshen up before having to go back downstairs for my Jamie Campbell Bower signing. Since he had to leave early on Sunday (as we later found out to attend the Bafta’s) his signing started on the Friday evening. By the time I got to my room, it was a case of unpacking some bits, a quick fresh up and then back down to go meet Jamie! Had to dash to the dealers room to find another Jamie photo to get signed for Roz (why it had not dawned on me before that I’d need one, I don’t know :p) and I had a quick glance around at all the other merchandise on offer - sort of disappointed as there was nothing all that new, but then kinda glad because it might mean I didn’t spend tooo much all weekend!!
Jamie was lovely…he had originally been the only guest I was really excited about (though I know from past experiences never to judge anyone beforehand!) and he didn’t disappoint. Perhaps it was because it was the start of the weekend and it was quiet and he wasn’t rushed, but I managed to have quite a chat with Jamie whilst he was signing - the most from anyone during the autograph sessions all weekend this time. The photo I wanted signing for Roz was first on the table and he thought that was me at first, so I had to explain I wasn’t her, she was my friend. So he wanted to know who she was and where she was and why she wasn’t here. I told him she was very probably my best friend and she really wanted to come, but her husband wouldn’t let her this time, he was like ‘aaw’ and then I told him she was coming to the next one in October and he signed the photo, mumbling to himself something about the lovely Roz! Then he took my photo and said I must be Claire and signed that for me too and I thanked him, he thanked me and said goodbye as I left his table.
After that I think I nipped upstairs to put my signed photos away safely and then wandered back down to wait in line for people to be seated for the opening ceremony. And I know some people have said this hotel is too big for the con and they got tired of walking places - but honestly, are they wimps? It wasn’t as though you had a 10 mile trek everywhere - all the con stuff was on the same hallway just about and it was easy to navigate once I got my bearings. And I liked that you weren’t all on top of one another all the time and I could find somewhere to sit down between signings and stuff.
So, the opening ceremony was short and sweet. The owners of Massive Events welcomed us all to the convention, and introduced all the guests on stage. The didn’t say too much on the really, just a quick hello and introduction of themselves - I remember Christopher being funny and changing all the seats around as Jamie was in the middle and he wanted to sit in the middle (it was all done in fun - not malice!) and then I remember Charlie and Jamie being silly about the photo of Edward and Bella behind them - saying he looked nice and that Charlie looked good with Edward (since he was sat next to his picture) It wasn’t very long though and they all left, then the gold ticket people went off for their wine reception thing with them. And then we were allowed out.
Opening Ceremony - Chris, Tinsel and Charlie
Opening Ceremony - Charlie and Jamie (fawning over the Edward pic!)
After that I went back to my room to get something to eat (from the self bought food - the Hilton is too expensive for food!) and then I got my stuff ready to go to the party. I suddenly felt really shy about going in costume though, because I didn’t know of anyone else that was wearing one. So I sent Nina a text and asked if I could possibly meet up with her and her friend to go to the party…and they said they would meet me at the lifts in a bit.
The party was…okay. Hmm…I should reword this, I loved, loved the photo op with the set for the saloon thing, though I had to wait all night for it to be free and persuade Nina to take my photo over there! I liked the touch with the red, white and blue balloons - in order, wasn’t as keen on the confederation flags on the tables since I had googled them before (had considered putting one on my hat) and discovered that basically it was seen as a racist thing these days. But they do make an effort with the decorations. The ‘dance’ room was too noisy, too dark and when they used the damn smoke machine, too cloudy!! And some of the music was, well….pants!! And then you couldn’t really talk in there - but there wasn’t really anywhere else to sit - unless you stood around the lobby bit outside the room. No one would dance with me, so I spent the night sat at the table, listening to the music, yelling at friends when I could and that was about it!! I did see a couple of other friends (Claire and Kendra) and said hello to them and had a quick conversation. And there were some great costumes….but then there were some who made no effort whatsoever!
Posing by the 'saloon' in my Civil War - Confederate Soldier costume
I think we left at about 12.30 and went up to our rooms, to bed since it was an early start in the morning!!
Day 2...coming soon!
No comments:
Post a Comment