Eastercon 2005
Mar. 29th, 2005 11:34 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
I've been an avid reader of science fiction since I was about 10, but didn't attend my first Convention until just 3 years ago when I went to Eastercon 2003 in Hinckley. I suppose I can blame Live Journal for that as it was individuals from my FList who persuaded me to go. I had a great time and there was enough there to interest the boys and I to make us want to go again. This we duly did and we had a very silly time in Blackpool in 2004 where we got to race airships and watch Mendi being a beautiful cheer-leading stewardess. Easter 2005 rolled around and so off we went to
Good Friday
I should have realised how much I would need sleep over the weekend and stayed in bed a LOT longer on Friday morning. As it was I was up and doing packing and all sorts of other chores whilst Mendi attempted to scale the north face of our business and domestic accounts. By 15:00 we were off to the Con. I was immediately on duty - trying to make sure that everything was ready for a screening of Space Cadets the movie that Ivan was in. Martin, the film's director arrived on time and we had enough punters to make a small room feel cosy. The film was well received and the audience agreed that it looked wonderful for a film that cost less than £9k to make. Martin was particularly pleased when he was asked to leave his film for consideration for screening at Worldcon in Glasgow this summer (Worldcon is about 10 times the size of an Eastercon!).
We had a chance to relax a bit and meet people after that.
the_mendicant announced to me that I would be the driver for the return journey and proceeded to imbibe copious quantities of Gin! Well, she did until she realised that she had to pay for it! ;@) I met lots of the Usual Suspects and made sure I got plenty of hugs and kisses! (Hello, my name is Who and I am a hugaholic!). Time rolled by and we went to get ready for the slave girl auction. We all rushed to borrow
freddie_trumper's room to change and in short order a member of Essex's Iceni tribe and his unbroken Slave Girl (she was a captured Visigoth) emerged!

Numerous slave girls (and boys) were on offer. A few caught my eye, and I considered buying an addition to my harem. However, the Visigoth can be very spikey and so I decided to save my denarii for another time.

I had a great time, but couldn't find any second-hand chariots to flog

We regretted not getting a room for the Friday night when we had to drag ourselves away from a great party to drive home. Maggie was very surprised to be taken for a walk at midnight!
Saturday
An early start for the boys and I with Mendi opting to stay behind for a lie in and huge chunk of housework (Thank you sweetie). As soon as we got there we got involved in a game of Quidditch. No broomsticks - but lots of madness and mayhem with the two chasers (Alexi and Ivan) trying to wrest the Golden Snitch away from the magical force that was spiriting it around the Quidditch Pitch - that would be me! - I have plenty of bruises to prove how enthusiastic my sons were - ouch! Alexi then helped to build a human centrifuge and got his own bruises as he span off into the outer reaches of the test area!

We lost Ivan at this point, but soon found him when we noticed a Lego building display on the programme. He had a wonderful day and got to build the model of his dreams - the Millennium Falcon. He also bought a superb model of Dr Who's Tardis that was being sold by one of the Fan organisations.
The highlight of the evening was sitting down with hundreds of eager fans and hearing the "whoooosh" of the start of the Dr Who theme tune. Mendi and I loved the new series and the boys were equally impressed. They had expressed some concern at the levels of anticipation. This surprised us until we realised that they had never seen the Dr; they are part of the "lost" generation. Buoyed up with the general feeling of good will we got ready for the Bond Casino. The boys decided to opt out and get an early night whilst their parents were not so sensible. I scrambled into my DJ and armed myself with lots and lots of glo-stix whilst Mendi slinked into alittle very little PVC number. She even showed a trick that girlies can do with their boobies that I'd wondered about, but never seen demonstrated - and it's not the under-the-blouse moebius strip bra removal trick! We had a great time at the Casino because Mendi loves gambling and roulette is her table of choice. I'm not a great fan, but I found a new game - swapping glo-stix for kisses (Hello, my name is Who and I am a slut!).
After midnight I somehow let
jamesb persuade me to run a Blackjack table. I was somewhat the worse for wear as a result of alcohol, fatigue and other stuff. This led me to having trouble seeing which way up the cards were, let alone remember the rules of one of the simplest games in a Casino - I was hopeless, but nobody seemed to care :@) The casino would down at about 2am and Mendi and I let ourselves get swept up in a push to a room party. We made some lovely new friends and Mendi did a very good Meg Ryan impression whilst playing with balloons. Along the way I think we clocked up an MSG * and got ourselves invited to a festival. We finally ricocheted to our room at 4am.
Easter Sunday
I regained something only barely resembling consciousness at 08:30 and woke the rest of my family. The boys were irritatingly rested and chirpy whilst Mendi and I were of the living dead. Being of the Living Dead was quite appropriate as the boys and I went straight from breakfast to Dawn of the Eejits where we were dressed in old clothes and made up to look like zombies. In a few minutes there were half a dozen creatures of the crypt ready to be unleashed upon the unsuspecting con-goers. We shambled our way around the hotel; moaning and stumbling at people with our death-cry of,
"Braaaaiiiinnnnsssssss!" This was particularly appropriate when we made our way into the restaurant and encountered thestrangled scrambled eggs. I think we may have been more frightening than Dr Who because me made lots of small children hide behind their parents.
After all this we needed to clean off and so a water pistol fight was a great bit of programming. However, the weather had not been properly programmed and we walked out into the teeth of a howling gale. A very short water fight ensued, closely followed by warm showers. In an ideal world I would have been able to relax after my bath. However, Cons are far from ideal worlds and I was immediately involved in setting up for the Robot Wars inspired mayhem of Cyberdromicus Maximus. Alex had spent most of Saturday creating an unnatural hybrid of Barbie's Horse and Cart and a radio-controlled car - he decorated it with faux-Burberry and created...

THE CHAVIOT!

He was justifiably proud of his creation which turned out to be very effective. He'd also built a ballista during the siege making workshop that I'd run with
adelheid the day before. I did my usual trick of getting involved and before I knew it I was veiled in purple gauze and was serving as Emperor SMS' Priestesses of Neptune - Hopefully pictures of that will be few and far between! The vent was as chaotic as ever, but this only adds to the entertainment. Especially when one toddler managed to invade the arena and set off the "Plain of Peril" - a series of mouse traps! No damage done, but the sound and concern from the audience was enough to reduce him to tears
There was no peace for the wicked and before I knew it I was out helping people to launch Kites. However, the morning's gale had turned into a flat calm at ground level and launching anything was too much of a challenge. However, one little girl managed to get her kite flying to the end of it's line and then watch it float over the hotel as she let go of the handle. Needless to say there were lots of tears (Stef eventually found the kite and reunited it with its distraught pilot)
I think I managed about 45 minutes to myself then before helping out at another panel and attending my only panel of the Con - a talk on the physics behind the Weaponry in SF shows such as Star trek and Babylon 5 - most entertaining. Through it al I kept going and even managed to shovel the horrible food the brasserie was turning out into my mouth. Does anyone know how you can cook chicken to make it so tough that you could use it as armour to defeat most SF and real weaponry?
Evening rolled around and Mendi decided that about 2 hours sleep was enough for her and turned the TV on to find a new period drama about to start on the Beeb. This left Ivan and I to attend the Masquerade Ball. I was too tired to make an effort and to Mendi and I helped Ivan to get ready as the Invisible Man from the most excellent League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (the comic book - not the film!)

He spent a lot of time sitting in the function room being enigmatic whilst his Dad shmoozed with friends old and new. I eventually tempted my beloved from her nest when her TV had finished and we went in search of partiness only to find that it had finsihed early. We retired to the bar from where we attend a hilarious panel on Porn in Science Fiction, ably chaired by the extremely knowledgeable
lproven. Sadly there were no pictures, but plenty of URLS were forthcoming!
Monday
The last morning of the Con. Time for packing up rooms and saying goodbye to Mendi who was heading home to make a start on the chores; but still time for silliness. Laser tag around the COn for the boys and then I set up the Loight Sabre training with Stef and Matthew. First the participants got to build their own sabres (out of plastic pipe, pipe lagging and lots of duct tape) or they could use one of the silly toy ones that had been bought at Poooondland or they could make them out of glo-stix:

We then had coaching in style and technique before a prolonged melee and to cap it off we gave them some training in the use of the Force. This involved the Jedi padawan adopting a combat stance whilst a Training Droid (me holding a football in the air) moved around them and fired shock bolts (ping pong balls) at them which they tried to deflect! The next event for me to get involved in was Bouncy Castles, but they were delayed so Alexi and I helped with a lot of tidying up and we still had time to have a bloody good bounce! The two castles were set up opposite each other and it allowed us to play a number of extremely physical games of Capture the Flag. I ended up at the bottom of a pile of some lovely people (with my reputation!), but decided that discretion was the better part of valour when I became aware that my back was under a lot of strain. The boys and I said our farewells and headed home.
Pixie was waiting for us because she'd stayed at Chez Who to look after the menagerie. I had a lovely welcome and was able to give her some little pressies I'd picked up for her. We took Maggie for a long walk and returned into a beautiful sunset as we talked on the phone to Mendi who had nipped over to Cambridge at Pixie's suggestion and was snuggled in Robin's arms. I took Pixie home after we'd spent some time doing some stuff together and then Mendi returned and we cuddled each other to sleep as exhaustion claimed us.
A lovely Easter Weekend – Thank you to all involved :@)
Good Friday
I should have realised how much I would need sleep over the weekend and stayed in bed a LOT longer on Friday morning. As it was I was up and doing packing and all sorts of other chores whilst Mendi attempted to scale the north face of our business and domestic accounts. By 15:00 we were off to the Con. I was immediately on duty - trying to make sure that everything was ready for a screening of Space Cadets the movie that Ivan was in. Martin, the film's director arrived on time and we had enough punters to make a small room feel cosy. The film was well received and the audience agreed that it looked wonderful for a film that cost less than £9k to make. Martin was particularly pleased when he was asked to leave his film for consideration for screening at Worldcon in Glasgow this summer (Worldcon is about 10 times the size of an Eastercon!).
We had a chance to relax a bit and meet people after that.
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Numerous slave girls (and boys) were on offer. A few caught my eye, and I considered buying an addition to my harem. However, the Visigoth can be very spikey and so I decided to save my denarii for another time.
I had a great time, but couldn't find any second-hand chariots to flog
We regretted not getting a room for the Friday night when we had to drag ourselves away from a great party to drive home. Maggie was very surprised to be taken for a walk at midnight!
Saturday
An early start for the boys and I with Mendi opting to stay behind for a lie in and huge chunk of housework (Thank you sweetie). As soon as we got there we got involved in a game of Quidditch. No broomsticks - but lots of madness and mayhem with the two chasers (Alexi and Ivan) trying to wrest the Golden Snitch away from the magical force that was spiriting it around the Quidditch Pitch - that would be me! - I have plenty of bruises to prove how enthusiastic my sons were - ouch! Alexi then helped to build a human centrifuge and got his own bruises as he span off into the outer reaches of the test area!
We lost Ivan at this point, but soon found him when we noticed a Lego building display on the programme. He had a wonderful day and got to build the model of his dreams - the Millennium Falcon. He also bought a superb model of Dr Who's Tardis that was being sold by one of the Fan organisations.
The highlight of the evening was sitting down with hundreds of eager fans and hearing the "whoooosh" of the start of the Dr Who theme tune. Mendi and I loved the new series and the boys were equally impressed. They had expressed some concern at the levels of anticipation. This surprised us until we realised that they had never seen the Dr; they are part of the "lost" generation. Buoyed up with the general feeling of good will we got ready for the Bond Casino. The boys decided to opt out and get an early night whilst their parents were not so sensible. I scrambled into my DJ and armed myself with lots and lots of glo-stix whilst Mendi slinked into a
After midnight I somehow let
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Easter Sunday
I regained something only barely resembling consciousness at 08:30 and woke the rest of my family. The boys were irritatingly rested and chirpy whilst Mendi and I were of the living dead. Being of the Living Dead was quite appropriate as the boys and I went straight from breakfast to Dawn of the Eejits where we were dressed in old clothes and made up to look like zombies. In a few minutes there were half a dozen creatures of the crypt ready to be unleashed upon the unsuspecting con-goers. We shambled our way around the hotel; moaning and stumbling at people with our death-cry of,
"Braaaaiiiinnnnsssssss!" This was particularly appropriate when we made our way into the restaurant and encountered the
After all this we needed to clean off and so a water pistol fight was a great bit of programming. However, the weather had not been properly programmed and we walked out into the teeth of a howling gale. A very short water fight ensued, closely followed by warm showers. In an ideal world I would have been able to relax after my bath. However, Cons are far from ideal worlds and I was immediately involved in setting up for the Robot Wars inspired mayhem of Cyberdromicus Maximus. Alex had spent most of Saturday creating an unnatural hybrid of Barbie's Horse and Cart and a radio-controlled car - he decorated it with faux-Burberry and created...
THE CHAVIOT!
He was justifiably proud of his creation which turned out to be very effective. He'd also built a ballista during the siege making workshop that I'd run with
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
There was no peace for the wicked and before I knew it I was out helping people to launch Kites. However, the morning's gale had turned into a flat calm at ground level and launching anything was too much of a challenge. However, one little girl managed to get her kite flying to the end of it's line and then watch it float over the hotel as she let go of the handle. Needless to say there were lots of tears (Stef eventually found the kite and reunited it with its distraught pilot)
I think I managed about 45 minutes to myself then before helping out at another panel and attending my only panel of the Con - a talk on the physics behind the Weaponry in SF shows such as Star trek and Babylon 5 - most entertaining. Through it al I kept going and even managed to shovel the horrible food the brasserie was turning out into my mouth. Does anyone know how you can cook chicken to make it so tough that you could use it as armour to defeat most SF and real weaponry?
Evening rolled around and Mendi decided that about 2 hours sleep was enough for her and turned the TV on to find a new period drama about to start on the Beeb. This left Ivan and I to attend the Masquerade Ball. I was too tired to make an effort and to Mendi and I helped Ivan to get ready as the Invisible Man from the most excellent League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (the comic book - not the film!)
He spent a lot of time sitting in the function room being enigmatic whilst his Dad shmoozed with friends old and new. I eventually tempted my beloved from her nest when her TV had finished and we went in search of partiness only to find that it had finsihed early. We retired to the bar from where we attend a hilarious panel on Porn in Science Fiction, ably chaired by the extremely knowledgeable
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
Monday
The last morning of the Con. Time for packing up rooms and saying goodbye to Mendi who was heading home to make a start on the chores; but still time for silliness. Laser tag around the COn for the boys and then I set up the Loight Sabre training with Stef and Matthew. First the participants got to build their own sabres (out of plastic pipe, pipe lagging and lots of duct tape) or they could use one of the silly toy ones that had been bought at Poooondland or they could make them out of glo-stix:
We then had coaching in style and technique before a prolonged melee and to cap it off we gave them some training in the use of the Force. This involved the Jedi padawan adopting a combat stance whilst a Training Droid (me holding a football in the air) moved around them and fired shock bolts (ping pong balls) at them which they tried to deflect! The next event for me to get involved in was Bouncy Castles, but they were delayed so Alexi and I helped with a lot of tidying up and we still had time to have a bloody good bounce! The two castles were set up opposite each other and it allowed us to play a number of extremely physical games of Capture the Flag. I ended up at the bottom of a pile of some lovely people (with my reputation!), but decided that discretion was the better part of valour when I became aware that my back was under a lot of strain. The boys and I said our farewells and headed home.
Pixie was waiting for us because she'd stayed at Chez Who to look after the menagerie. I had a lovely welcome and was able to give her some little pressies I'd picked up for her. We took Maggie for a long walk and returned into a beautiful sunset as we talked on the phone to Mendi who had nipped over to Cambridge at Pixie's suggestion and was snuggled in Robin's arms. I took Pixie home after we'd spent some time doing some stuff together and then Mendi returned and we cuddled each other to sleep as exhaustion claimed us.
A lovely Easter Weekend – Thank you to all involved :@)