whotheheckami | Details of the Easter weekend that was

Where did I leave you? Oh yes, I'd told you about our BBQ on Thursday night.

Not so Good Friday
I woke feeling a bit blurred around the edges with lots and lots of rushing around to do before I could head to Eastercon. IIRC I managed to:
Feed

the_mendicant breakfast in bed
Do some tidying
Rush about doing errands to Oakham
Pack my stuff

By this time

gardenpixie had dropped off

daemongirl. She was good enough to stay and look after Hugo (friend of Alexi & Ivan who had arrived on our doorstep and whose Mother had seemingly headed off on a lengthy shopping trip. The 4 of us headed off on the short drive to the delights of Hinkley, the Hanover hotel and Eastercon. This was my first SF Con and it was an eye-opener!

So much beautiful flesh on show - and that was the guys! First bit of fun was choosing our names for our badges. Daemongirl and me had it pretty easy, but Alexi and Ivan faced up to the challenge with gusto. Alexi became Al (the Saurus) and Ivan opted for Spiderman (Junior) - he's going through a typically Aspergic obsession for Spiderman at the moment. The Dealers room was soon calling us and ZZ9 relieved Ivan of 21.00 GBP for Blert the Beeblebear whilst another stall sold Alexi a lovely red dragon (Unfortunately, no one had a fire lizard). I soon lost the boys to some very weird chaps that make up Team Gimp (Hi James, Elvis and Stef - what are your LJ names?) They were helping the younger con-goers to make robots for a battle on the Sunday.

I met some LJers for the first time - Hello

green_amber and

ang_grrr and lots and lots of others.

flickgc was there too and we sat together with the boys and enjoyed the sunshine. I got laughed at by all and sundry for knowing what session items were on and actually attending sessions that did not have Buffy in the title! We stayed until 10pm when the beautiful people returned to the bar after changing into their glad rags for the Buffy Ball.

flickgc and

drpete looked stunning and on that note we headed home. I was fit to drop by the time I'd dropped Rachel off, got back to the house and put the boys to bed. I enthused about Eastercon to Mendi and before I knew it I'd invited her and the boys to join me over there for Sat/Sun.

There was then a session of emotional turmoil, the reasons for which will remain private, but were extremely upsetting and disturbing.

Eastercon again - Saturday and Sunday
Saturday saw me treading on egg-shells and picking up more chores along with getting us ready for a return to Eastercon. I was acutely aware that I had hurt people I cared for and all I really wanted to do was run away and avoid any conflict. This was not to be and we returned to Hinkley by the late afternoon. Mendi quickly fell under the spell of a the dealer room and bought a lovely pewter necklace and ear-rings and picked up an enticing BDSM catalogue :@S. We then checked into our room which, from the pink decor and mirrors on the ceilings doubled as the Bridal Suite! We set about adding to the general tattiness of the room by exploding the contents of our cases all over the place - messy - just like home :@)
Suitably refreshed I took Alexi and Ivan swimming whilst Mendi met some more people in the bar. Me met up again for more entertainment and the LJ-room, but who was Green Amber? We were all Green Amber! Time just rushed past and I staggered back to the room at a sensible time before 3am (Thanks to

sneerpout for pushing me in the right direction). How rough did I feel in the morning? Well rough! We surfaced and headed to breakfast by 09.30 and shoveling grease into my system seemed to do some good - kill or cure? Other LJers surfaced during the morning looking suitably jaded, although I did get the impression that Hinkley had been transported to Coventry
Our main event of the morning was watching Ivan battling his robot in the Ye Olde Worlde Cyber-drome (Think of a panto version of Robot Wars meets A Knight's Tale!) We had hours of fun and Ivan eventually came second with Gimp from Beyond the Grave - much yayness all round!!! I think my two will be back!

Cars exploding
I felt I needed to get away from Eastercon by the middle of the afternoon and we got underway. Things went from bad to worse very quickly when the engine lost power and eventually seized up. We came to a halt by a phone point on the M69 and I took a look at the car whilst Mendi called for recovery. Twas not good news -a hole in the radiator and a blown head gasket (and could be lots worse)! Bugger! We got recovered back home and Mendi and I considered our options: The car is 11 years old, has done 150k miles, has a slipping clutch and is pretty battered - transferring from car allowance to a company car sounds like the best option and we're pursuing it at the moment. Still, we've had it from new and it's the only car that the boys have ever known- it'll be an emotional moment to actually part with it. More things to worry about! We were all totally shattered by bed time and we were glad to get to sleep

Dogs running away
Mendi was working on Monday, so it was back to chores for me! I had help from

gardenpixie and we got through a lot of stuff. I wasn't feeling too good - I think the rape pollen was starting to get to me. We had to head over to

chaoshedgerow's farm to pick up some stuff. We were accosted by The Evil Progenitirx and a great deal of emotional turmoil ensued. I suppose I could have handled things better and I should have walked away, but I didn't like being treated as a slacker and a shirker and I bit back - sorry folks. However, the after effects of this were not so good on me - I had my first full-blown asthma attack for several years and was not a well bunny at all. It pretty much wrote off the rest of my day as I had to take things pretty easy. I felt better by the afternoon and Pixie, Alexi and I took Maggie for a walk. She caught sight of a hare and was off...across 4 fields. We followed as quickly as we could and found her hiding in the brook; knowing that she had done something seriously wrong by not coming back when she was called. However, by this time we were in a rape field in full bloom - so guess what happened? - more asthma - wonderful. Pixie helped me home and I needed more time to rest before I made a Spag Bol for the 3 of us. Pixie went home at 8pm and was replaced by Kanga who gave Maggie another walk and stopped to watch TV with us - so much for an early night.

That's enough for now - I'll bring you up to date tomorrow