Eastercon 2010 - con report.
Friday
Got up at a nice sensible 9am and got ready and went to catch our flight to London which went without a hitch. We checked into the hotel and collected our registration packs. By this time it was after 3pm and I was starving so we had some lunch in the brasserie. We went to the Newcon press book launch and then went to get some dinner before the buffet closed. The satellite3 team had agreed to serve drinks at the UK Worldcon bid party, so I got roped into that and three Scottish people were in charge of the alcohol supplies. Possibly a recipe for disaster, but everyone seemed to get a drink of unicorn wine. I had intentions of going to the ceilidh, but I met an old friend on the stairs. I hadn't seen him for 12 years so instead I decided to catch up with him in case I didn't see him for another 12 years. I went to bed about 1am.
Saturday
I hadn't slept at all well on friday night and I was pretty shattered all day. I had volunteered to run our con table for the first couple of hours. I went to Ben Goldacre, but was only in a few minutes before my phone rang. I left to answer it and then switched off the ringer so I wasn't interrupted again. I didn't go back into Ben's talk, but instead explored the art show and dealer's room for a bit. dalg and I went to Lab Lit panel in room 41. I had massive problems finding it and I am convinced that room exists in a non-spatial dimensional rift accessed from two entirely different universes. Then dalg, I, others from the satellite3 team and a few other fans played some games of "Do you worship Cthulhu?" I spent a great deal of time lying on a floor covered in cake from the Dalek cake workshop. Great fun was had by all.
We went to watch Dr Who with most of the rest of the con then had dinner afterwards then we went to the rest of the cabaret. After that we did some sitting around, talking shite and drinking. I went to bed just after 10pm as I couldn't keep my eyes open any longer.
Sunday
I found myself on the con table first thing again this morning. Then I went to Alastair Reynold's talk about the rise of Hard SF. He started late due to tech problems, but it was a great talk. Then it was a futile attempt not to spend any money in the dealer's room and Pyrotechnics which brought back memories of John Salthouse. I thought about the feminist heroines panel, but its location in the trans-dimensional room 41 put me off. dalg and I went to the BSFA lecture on the Narratology of Transcendence and despite not understanding the title of the talk we thoroughly enjoyed hearing the secret history of 2001. Then we went to the Alan Moore panel and left after five minutes having been irritated, patronised and bored in a ridiculously short period of time. I rarely walk out of program items, but in this case it just had to be done. We had con slop (TM) for dinner and then went to Ian Sorenson's Half-Cut Prince which was hilarious. I especially enjoyed "What a feeling". Then it was the incomparable Mitch Benn. He may be our tribal comedian. I may spend some amazon vouchers on his CD. As none of us were steampunked up we colonised a corner of the atrium and declared it a Scottish exclave. We went to bed about midnight which was late enough for me.
Monday
Thanks to all the helpful volunteers on the con table today I didn't have to do a single hour. I went to the icons, symbolism and archetypes panel which Christine was moderating. I went because I thought it might be a bit of a bun-fight, but everyone was very well-behaved and it was a very interesting item. Then Christine and I went to the Clanger's symposium which was extremely busy. I hung my poster on the wall and a few people were kind enough to look at it. All the talks were hilarious and I wish the proceedings of the symposium were being published, but I don't think they are. Then we went to the closing ceremony where a boy called Fire won our Guess the weight of Mars contest. We had to leave to catch our flight at 6.30 so we had final drinks in our exclave with friends and then went to the airport. We got home without incident to be met with pouring rain. I slept much better on Monday night when I was back in my own bed.
Got up at a nice sensible 9am and got ready and went to catch our flight to London which went without a hitch. We checked into the hotel and collected our registration packs. By this time it was after 3pm and I was starving so we had some lunch in the brasserie. We went to the Newcon press book launch and then went to get some dinner before the buffet closed. The satellite3 team had agreed to serve drinks at the UK Worldcon bid party, so I got roped into that and three Scottish people were in charge of the alcohol supplies. Possibly a recipe for disaster, but everyone seemed to get a drink of unicorn wine. I had intentions of going to the ceilidh, but I met an old friend on the stairs. I hadn't seen him for 12 years so instead I decided to catch up with him in case I didn't see him for another 12 years. I went to bed about 1am.
Saturday
I hadn't slept at all well on friday night and I was pretty shattered all day. I had volunteered to run our con table for the first couple of hours. I went to Ben Goldacre, but was only in a few minutes before my phone rang. I left to answer it and then switched off the ringer so I wasn't interrupted again. I didn't go back into Ben's talk, but instead explored the art show and dealer's room for a bit. dalg and I went to Lab Lit panel in room 41. I had massive problems finding it and I am convinced that room exists in a non-spatial dimensional rift accessed from two entirely different universes. Then dalg, I, others from the satellite3 team and a few other fans played some games of "Do you worship Cthulhu?" I spent a great deal of time lying on a floor covered in cake from the Dalek cake workshop. Great fun was had by all.
We went to watch Dr Who with most of the rest of the con then had dinner afterwards then we went to the rest of the cabaret. After that we did some sitting around, talking shite and drinking. I went to bed just after 10pm as I couldn't keep my eyes open any longer.
Sunday
I found myself on the con table first thing again this morning. Then I went to Alastair Reynold's talk about the rise of Hard SF. He started late due to tech problems, but it was a great talk. Then it was a futile attempt not to spend any money in the dealer's room and Pyrotechnics which brought back memories of John Salthouse. I thought about the feminist heroines panel, but its location in the trans-dimensional room 41 put me off. dalg and I went to the BSFA lecture on the Narratology of Transcendence and despite not understanding the title of the talk we thoroughly enjoyed hearing the secret history of 2001. Then we went to the Alan Moore panel and left after five minutes having been irritated, patronised and bored in a ridiculously short period of time. I rarely walk out of program items, but in this case it just had to be done. We had con slop (TM) for dinner and then went to Ian Sorenson's Half-Cut Prince which was hilarious. I especially enjoyed "What a feeling". Then it was the incomparable Mitch Benn. He may be our tribal comedian. I may spend some amazon vouchers on his CD. As none of us were steampunked up we colonised a corner of the atrium and declared it a Scottish exclave. We went to bed about midnight which was late enough for me.
Monday
Thanks to all the helpful volunteers on the con table today I didn't have to do a single hour. I went to the icons, symbolism and archetypes panel which Christine was moderating. I went because I thought it might be a bit of a bun-fight, but everyone was very well-behaved and it was a very interesting item. Then Christine and I went to the Clanger's symposium which was extremely busy. I hung my poster on the wall and a few people were kind enough to look at it. All the talks were hilarious and I wish the proceedings of the symposium were being published, but I don't think they are. Then we went to the closing ceremony where a boy called Fire won our Guess the weight of Mars contest. We had to leave to catch our flight at 6.30 so we had final drinks in our exclave with friends and then went to the airport. We got home without incident to be met with pouring rain. I slept much better on Monday night when I was back in my own bed.