Expo report
Ugh, I'm still so tierd!! But even with getting very little sleep and spending 4 1/2 hours of the day standing in lines, I had the best time!!
This year I was wearing a matching outfit of my punk Hello Kitty doll. I got the idea from overhearing a conversation some guys had on a train at the last expo. Hardly anyone recognised me but I looked faboulous. Vicky was dressed as Nami from One Piece, complete with bloody bandages and Katie was Princess Snow with a really cute outfit and a huge bow that wouldn't stay on her head!!
So as usual I went to bed early and couldn't sleep. I did my hair and nails the night before to save a bit of time. So we got the 6:15 train and since I was dressed as a cat, I communicated in mews. At one point near the end I did a 'guess which song I'm mewing' game. I even played around with Vicky's I-Pod, giving a commentary on the episode of Merlin she downloaded until I got bored and listened to her music.
When we got to London, we ran into some other cosplayers pretty early. A girl asked me to help fix her costume but I did a really bad job of it and it probably fell apart straight away. I feel so bad! But I did use my kitty prowess to help us find the way when we were lost.
So we got there and the que - Oh my god the que!! I mean it's always big but this was otherwordly big! It stretched all the way from one end of the Excel centre to the other, and they've just built an extension! But it's still really fun looking at everyone's costumes, giving people high 5's and squeeing 'oh, it's that person from that show!' It's so exciting! You don't really mind that you're standing in line. The nice guy in front of us took a group picture of us. Right before his friends got in line in front of us....
The que took about an hour and we were worried we wouldn't get tickets to the panel and masquarade. But we did and we just barely got the Merlin tickets. Phew!
So from that moment on it was total expo anarchy. Usually I have some sort of structure to what stands I hit first but I was just wandering around, distracted by shiny things.
One of the first stalls that grabbed me was the yaoi stand. They had so many and the two guys were so nice and friendly. I've never met anyone who knew more about yaoi, and they were guys!! I got Sensitive Pornograph, and it was great meeting those strange silly people!!
After that I wandered around for a long long while, buying things but steering myself away from any big stupid purchases. I recently got back into Star Trek and saw big cardboard cut outs of some characters! I was like 'uwah! Must take picture! uwah! uwah!' And at the SFX stand they had captain Kirk's chair! (not the real one, a replica) so I had Vicky take a picture of me in it, with Kitty as my number one! I think I'd make a good captain....
Around midday I had a panini for lunch (I'm hooked on those). A man asked me what the convention was all about so I explained to him. He said 'so can you only attend if you're under 20?' It was a joke but I should probably be offensive.
After that, I went to que up with Vicky for the Merlin panel. The DS record ran over so we were all squashed up for ages and ages and I was worried that I'd get anemic and faint since I haven't taken my vitamins in days. We got in eventually and my fishnet tights got stuck to the keyring on Vicky's bag! We were simultaniously running to find a seat and trying to get untangled!! But we ended up getting great seats, a couple of rows back at the right hand side!! The loudspeakers were positioned so we couldn't hear them clearly, but when I'm feet away from Colin Morgan's cheekbones, I'm not complaining much!! He looked a little thinner to me. Maybe because his job is so demanding he's losing weight. I hope he's ok....I feel like a mama worrying about him!
Why oh why must stupid fangirls mention slash to them?! The fundamental rule of fandom is you don't mention it! You could make the actors uncomfortable or worse, the writers will cut down on the slash content!!
After that I just did more wandering around and buying things. I didn't go outside this time since it was way too cold! I saw the new Merlin figurines which are so cool, but so expensive!! I also wanted some sort of 'I love yaoi' t-shirt but couldn't find one. I got a pin though so it's ok.
By late afternoon we were knackered and we got in line for the masquarade. They were really behind so were were there for like an hour and a half. But we just sat down, read some manga, played with random balloons that appeared out of nowhere and a giant furry thing tried to eat Vicky's Chiqorita plush.
Masquarade was great! I got some blurry pictures and some good pictures! (I hope, I haven't seen them yet). There was Merlin and an awesome Haku dragon and Garnet from FF9 and the entire Digimon cast and Cardcaptor Sakura and Stitch and BUSO RENKIN!! I am such a fangirl for that series. I have no idea why.
The masquarade didn't even start until the rest of the expo had closed and went on until 8!! We was so knackered on the way home. We all wished we could do it all again, even though we had no energy left between us! It's just over so quickly.
I was hoping there would be some Alice in Wonderland cosplayers and there were lots! I love how friendly and mad everyone is. Makes me wish the real world was like that.
I spent lots of money but avoided stupid expensive purchases. This year I got:
- Sunshine Sketch volume 4
- Kaboto volume 1. Not even released in the UK yet!!
- Sensitive Pornograph
- V.B.Rose volume 3. From the Tokyopop stand.
- Romeo X Juliet volume 1
- X volume 1
- Star Trek pin
- I heart yaoi pin
- Merlin poster
I'll post some photos when I get home (and steal all of Vicky's of course).