Chevron 7.2 - The story so far!!
Thought I'd post a little update on how the con is going from my end...
Made good time on the drive down yesterday and met up with Lahela and co to get checked in and Andrea loaned me her son to help carry my bags from the car! :lol: Then crashed for a bit in the room, as feeling kinda tired, till Rhymer arrived. We then got sorted and decided to head downstairs to register for the con and wander into town to do a bit of food shopping.
Registering for the con (and buying extra autograph tickets for Joe and Jason) didn't take long but the going into town part took about an hour... because we kept bumping into people we knew and stopping for conversations... in short order we met up with Elflinn, Queen Hathor, Elanthra, Linnzi, Sheppy D, McKayRocks, Listy, Bebop, Vecturist, Ruffles, Squonk, Lynda and Brett from P4 etc etc etc!!
We finally got headed into town, with Squonk joining us, and got only to the other side of the bridge before bumping into Mayogaelz and stopping for more chat! We eventually got our bits of shopping down and grabbed a hot panini and a cup of tea in Costa Coffee before heading back to beautify ourselves for the evening.
The queueing started even before the Welcoming Ceremony with Gold Pass holders heading straight upstairs and everyone else hovering about downstairs.. which did however mean I was in prime position to see all the guests, including a bearded Joe and a rather wild-haired Jason, arrive through the front door! Silver passes then got called to go up and we went and got seated and before long things kicked off and they announced the guests up on stage one by one, with both Jason and Joe coming in with pint of beer already in hand! :lol: Jason took his hat and glasses off and asked us what we thought and said, "I'm still pretty, right?" :lol: Joe said hi and thanked us for coming - he looked kinda tired tbh.
Then we headed back downstairs and I went to the bar while the Gold Pass people headed into the cocktail party (I will just state here and now how jeealous I am of people like Lahela who told Joe they weren't sure about the beard - so he rubbed said beard against her face to see what she thought after that!! Gah!! *dies*). I did have some fun in the bar however as Jason turned up and joined the queue for the bar and was chatting to people.. I ended up talking to him briefly about Hoegarden (the guy beside him was drinking it and Jason asked to try it) and also ended up bursting into giggles as shortly afterwards Jason randomly mused aloud.. "Hoegarden. Garden of ho's." :lol:
I spent the rest of the cocktail party time chatting to people in the bar area and then headed over to where the cocktail party was finishing up and caught up with the gang there - and also had my photo taken with Colin Cunningham who was quite happily hanging about and telling people to get their cameras out and they could have a picture with him! :lol: Oh and I also took pictures of guy in awesome full Serpent Guard costume... and of Colin Cunningham posing with him! :D We then wandered upstairs and hung out at the party for a while. I steered clear of both the con dancing (*sob*) and the bucking bronco - unlike Colin who came in and had about 4 goes in a row on the bucking bronco, including one where he was trying to ride it standing up on it! :lol:
Also met up during the party with CazzBlade - who had come with me in the car down from Leeds - and also SanGate. Eventually headed back to the room at about midnight.
So yesterday was kinda fun. Lovely meeting everyone - both people I've met before and onlike folks I am meeting for the first time. It was exciting seeing Joe again and the party was fun.
Today... today has been less fun. As seems to be standard at cons, the scheduling is chaotic and everything is over-running... and sadly, Group 8 (my group) seems to be bearing the brunt of it. My 9:30am photoshoot with Joe never happened as he arrived late and they massively over-ran and stopped at Group 6 - so my photoshoot has been pushed back till 1pm. Same thing with my photoshoot for Colin Cunningham which has been pushed back till tomorrow! All I did for most of the morning was sit around waiting (feeling *really* tired) and get autographs from Peter Williams and Alexis Cruz. The other problems are that a) they have no kind of PA or announcement system so knowing whether your group has been called depends entirely on you being lucky enough to hear some poor steward trying to shout out announcements over the general hubbub of a coupla hundred people milling about and queuing, and b) the photoshoots take place downstairs and the autograph signings upstairs... which is first of all a problem for those of us with mobility issues as it involves a lot of upping and downing (and the lifts are small and slow and crap) and when you're upstairs you don't know where they're up to/what groups they are calling downstairs and vice versa (and consulting the programme is a waste of time as the schedule is a work of fiction by now) so you're constantly worrying, as you queue for an autograph, about whether you're missing your slot for the photoshoot! Argh!!
I did finally get my photoshoot with Jason and that was kinda fun - he sort of tried to read my t-shirt as I went up and said, "Another Stargate something something..." and I told him it was "Another Stargate fan in the making" and he went "Awwwwwww!" with a big grin on his face and put his hand on my tummy and we posed for the photo like that! :lol: So sweet!
I then went and joined the queue to get my autographs from Joe. I had quite a few things to get signed - was getting my free 10x8 signed (and wanted that personalised to me by name), the photo page in my Season 2 guide signed, I bought a 10x8 of Joe and Jason in the dealer's room and wanted Joe to sign that too and I also had to get something signed on behalf of someone who couldn't come to this con. I also had to have ready my various vouchers for the signatures and the con brochures for the steward to mark that I'd had my free autograph. So I was trying to juggle all this stuff and the steward was really short and rushing me and kinda just took everything off me and handed it to Joe and I didn't get chance to put my sticky with my name on on the 10x8 so it didn't get personalised and I barely got chance to even look at Joe, nevermind speak to him, as I was so busy frantically trying to sort everything out and hand him the right stuff and open the book at the right page etc and balance the pile of things he was handing back to me! So the whole experience was pretty much a blur and I was hardly even aware of what he looked like, was so busy just trying to keep ahold of everything! :/ He did make a comment about being given money to sign (the girl from P4 who couldn't make it wanted him to sign a $10 bill!) and I kinda explained that it was for someone else and other than that I said thank you and he said thank you back and that was about it!
So now I am vegging briefly in my room before my rescheduled Joe photoshoot at 1pm. I've also put a bid in for the Guest Experience with Joe but the prices are going pretty crazy already (the winning 12 bids are all already over £100) and bidding doesn't close until tomorrow at 11:45am. I think the prices are gonna get really silly and I'll probably bow out.
Made good time on the drive down yesterday and met up with Lahela and co to get checked in and Andrea loaned me her son to help carry my bags from the car! :lol: Then crashed for a bit in the room, as feeling kinda tired, till Rhymer arrived. We then got sorted and decided to head downstairs to register for the con and wander into town to do a bit of food shopping.
Registering for the con (and buying extra autograph tickets for Joe and Jason) didn't take long but the going into town part took about an hour... because we kept bumping into people we knew and stopping for conversations... in short order we met up with Elflinn, Queen Hathor, Elanthra, Linnzi, Sheppy D, McKayRocks, Listy, Bebop, Vecturist, Ruffles, Squonk, Lynda and Brett from P4 etc etc etc!!
We finally got headed into town, with Squonk joining us, and got only to the other side of the bridge before bumping into Mayogaelz and stopping for more chat! We eventually got our bits of shopping down and grabbed a hot panini and a cup of tea in Costa Coffee before heading back to beautify ourselves for the evening.
The queueing started even before the Welcoming Ceremony with Gold Pass holders heading straight upstairs and everyone else hovering about downstairs.. which did however mean I was in prime position to see all the guests, including a bearded Joe and a rather wild-haired Jason, arrive through the front door! Silver passes then got called to go up and we went and got seated and before long things kicked off and they announced the guests up on stage one by one, with both Jason and Joe coming in with pint of beer already in hand! :lol: Jason took his hat and glasses off and asked us what we thought and said, "I'm still pretty, right?" :lol: Joe said hi and thanked us for coming - he looked kinda tired tbh.
Then we headed back downstairs and I went to the bar while the Gold Pass people headed into the cocktail party (I will just state here and now how jeealous I am of people like Lahela who told Joe they weren't sure about the beard - so he rubbed said beard against her face to see what she thought after that!! Gah!! *dies*). I did have some fun in the bar however as Jason turned up and joined the queue for the bar and was chatting to people.. I ended up talking to him briefly about Hoegarden (the guy beside him was drinking it and Jason asked to try it) and also ended up bursting into giggles as shortly afterwards Jason randomly mused aloud.. "Hoegarden. Garden of ho's." :lol:
I spent the rest of the cocktail party time chatting to people in the bar area and then headed over to where the cocktail party was finishing up and caught up with the gang there - and also had my photo taken with Colin Cunningham who was quite happily hanging about and telling people to get their cameras out and they could have a picture with him! :lol: Oh and I also took pictures of guy in awesome full Serpent Guard costume... and of Colin Cunningham posing with him! :D We then wandered upstairs and hung out at the party for a while. I steered clear of both the con dancing (*sob*) and the bucking bronco - unlike Colin who came in and had about 4 goes in a row on the bucking bronco, including one where he was trying to ride it standing up on it! :lol:
Also met up during the party with CazzBlade - who had come with me in the car down from Leeds - and also SanGate. Eventually headed back to the room at about midnight.
So yesterday was kinda fun. Lovely meeting everyone - both people I've met before and onlike folks I am meeting for the first time. It was exciting seeing Joe again and the party was fun.
Today... today has been less fun. As seems to be standard at cons, the scheduling is chaotic and everything is over-running... and sadly, Group 8 (my group) seems to be bearing the brunt of it. My 9:30am photoshoot with Joe never happened as he arrived late and they massively over-ran and stopped at Group 6 - so my photoshoot has been pushed back till 1pm. Same thing with my photoshoot for Colin Cunningham which has been pushed back till tomorrow! All I did for most of the morning was sit around waiting (feeling *really* tired) and get autographs from Peter Williams and Alexis Cruz. The other problems are that a) they have no kind of PA or announcement system so knowing whether your group has been called depends entirely on you being lucky enough to hear some poor steward trying to shout out announcements over the general hubbub of a coupla hundred people milling about and queuing, and b) the photoshoots take place downstairs and the autograph signings upstairs... which is first of all a problem for those of us with mobility issues as it involves a lot of upping and downing (and the lifts are small and slow and crap) and when you're upstairs you don't know where they're up to/what groups they are calling downstairs and vice versa (and consulting the programme is a waste of time as the schedule is a work of fiction by now) so you're constantly worrying, as you queue for an autograph, about whether you're missing your slot for the photoshoot! Argh!!
I did finally get my photoshoot with Jason and that was kinda fun - he sort of tried to read my t-shirt as I went up and said, "Another Stargate something something..." and I told him it was "Another Stargate fan in the making" and he went "Awwwwwww!" with a big grin on his face and put his hand on my tummy and we posed for the photo like that! :lol: So sweet!
I then went and joined the queue to get my autographs from Joe. I had quite a few things to get signed - was getting my free 10x8 signed (and wanted that personalised to me by name), the photo page in my Season 2 guide signed, I bought a 10x8 of Joe and Jason in the dealer's room and wanted Joe to sign that too and I also had to get something signed on behalf of someone who couldn't come to this con. I also had to have ready my various vouchers for the signatures and the con brochures for the steward to mark that I'd had my free autograph. So I was trying to juggle all this stuff and the steward was really short and rushing me and kinda just took everything off me and handed it to Joe and I didn't get chance to put my sticky with my name on on the 10x8 so it didn't get personalised and I barely got chance to even look at Joe, nevermind speak to him, as I was so busy frantically trying to sort everything out and hand him the right stuff and open the book at the right page etc and balance the pile of things he was handing back to me! So the whole experience was pretty much a blur and I was hardly even aware of what he looked like, was so busy just trying to keep ahold of everything! :/ He did make a comment about being given money to sign (the girl from P4 who couldn't make it wanted him to sign a $10 bill!) and I kinda explained that it was for someone else and other than that I said thank you and he said thank you back and that was about it!
So now I am vegging briefly in my room before my rescheduled Joe photoshoot at 1pm. I've also put a bid in for the Guest Experience with Joe but the prices are going pretty crazy already (the winning 12 bids are all already over £100) and bidding doesn't close until tomorrow at 11:45am. I think the prices are gonna get really silly and I'll probably bow out.