The Hub
Well that was a convention and a half! Photos are coming. I even have some photos of the guests... during, you know, talks and stuff. Yeah, I actually went to some talks, at a con! ;-)
Love to the folks who were there and for everyone else... *bounce* ...come to the next one because it's just a big ball of fun.
The guests were just so great and such wonderful fun all weekend. The atmosphere was fantastic. Lots of newbies. Lots of people dressing up for the parties. Wonderfully decorated main hall during the parties (can't have been expensive but just a few touches to create a mood, especially at the 1940's party on Sat)
Thankfully not many of the bad sort of screaming fangirls (was a little worried because the demo skewed to young newbies)... although I'm now going to have to refer to Gareth as "The Comet", because of the cloud and tail he had everywhere he went on Sunday night! Also that boy has such a filthy mouth (gotta love it). I'm not sure I should relate what he wanted to do on Sunday night on the dancefloor! OMG, I learnt a new term! Thanks once again to guests for expanding my vocab!
John Barrowman is brilliant. Such a pro, well, except when he was corpsing his way through the little playlet they did for us on Saturday. ;)
Naoki is just adorable. So smiley and just utterly "aaawwwwwwww!" lol She took so much stick being the only girl in amongst a crowd of raucous, naughty boys on Saturday.
Kai was just the fantastic person he always is. He wrote his birthday in my Torchwood calendar and all but demanded a birthday card (it's five days before mine!). I'm not sure whether he loves or hates the way he keeps getting jovially bullied into singing Hymns and Arias every time we see him. But he was happily going along with all the snogging that went on this weekend. Seriously, the snogging started out hilarious and by the end they had just done it so much it was like "They're all kissing again" "Yeah I saw." *eye roll* lol
There were loads more guests and all of them just threw themselves in so brilliantly during talks and, a lot, during the parties. Ian Hilditch (John's body double) was so into it that I didn't realise he was a guest until the Room party on Saturday night!!
Oh yeah, the Room party. heehee. There was a mock up of Captain Jack's office with photos and props. It was fantastic. The last ten/fifteen or so stragglers ended up drinking in there after everything else was done. Nicky and I left around 4am because we had to get up early for John's auto session the next day, but they were still going. :)
There were some organisational issues. The schedule they made was just far too complicated. The auto sessions weren't policed well enough. People were going through for a second or third time when others hadn't even been through once. There were some gold ticket holders that didn't get autos from John (he had to leave early to catch a flight to LA). When you've paid that much money that's just not right. I also heard that they guests weren't taken around to everyone at the cocktail party, leaving some people disappointed. Honestly, those things are just plain trouble unless they're planned like a military operation.
Queues on the photos were great though... but they were being organised by Ian. Yeah, I'm not biased at all. ;)
Our only problem was that we weren't called for anything till Sunday, so we had to dash through autos and photos pretty much at the same time. We nearly wore a hole in the carpet dashing back and forth between the bag drop room, the photo room and the auto room. Thinking about it, the bag drop room was rather annoying. The folks in there were great but having one room seperate from everything else was a total pain in the backside.
Nice bars (not stupidly expensive) but not enough places to sit. Ash trays out front would be nice too. Food from the lunch room was hideous, but the (slightly more expensive) stuff from the bar was tasty.
Sunday night was the funniest. Gareth was the last guest to leave... and all the people seemed to melt away after right afterwards. The DJ, poor bloke, started getting the music just so wrong. When there's 700-odd people around you can play heavy metal and have 100 people dancing... when there's 20 people you're lucky if you get any. The floor was empty and it was really looking like it'd be over by 11pm. So I went over to him, asked if he was taking requests and asked for con songs. He said that he'd played them and no one had danced. I told him if he'd put some on then I'd get him people. He reluctantly agreed. Jo and I ended up going table to table asking the people left if they wanted to chill out or to dance. Everyone said "Dance!!!" I told them to go up and ask for what they wanted because he had no clue. Immediately he started up on cheesy shite, the dancefloor filled. People came running in from outside. Sadly, he then put on something stupid and loads left again but some persisted and asked for more songs. I'm telling him that, at this time of the night on Sunday, just play cheesy shite and they'll keep dancing!! Finally he gets it and puts on stuff like It's Raining Men. Wasn't totally his fault, he had some technical probs with playing some stuff he'd been given. We were left with a hardcore of about fifteen of us in the end. They had up these paper streamers which (unlike the expensive looking bunting of the night before) we figured no one would miss, so we were up on chairs and taking it down to play with. It was awesome.
Unfortunately the way back to our hotel was through this park that had no lighting and a path that was broken up with overgrowing weeds. I was walking it gingerly in my 4 inch heels because I'd been in danger of tripping up sober and in daylight but somehow I still managed to put a foot wrong, trip on a broken bit and hit the ground face first. I'm covered in bruises and I busted my lower lip. I walked back into our hotel with blood all over my hands and face. It's still all swollen and I've got some nasty looking scabs. Right now I'm feeling no pain because of a large quantity of painkillers! lol. Nicky was great getting me ice and patching me up, without her help I'd probably look much worse right now. So thanks hun. *hugs*
But, despite the minor facial disfigurement, I had a totally brilliant time. Hotel's booked for next year (I understand that the hotel is already FULLY booked) and tickets will be soon. I can't wait!! *lop sided grin*
Love to the folks who were there and for everyone else... *bounce* ...come to the next one because it's just a big ball of fun.
The guests were just so great and such wonderful fun all weekend. The atmosphere was fantastic. Lots of newbies. Lots of people dressing up for the parties. Wonderfully decorated main hall during the parties (can't have been expensive but just a few touches to create a mood, especially at the 1940's party on Sat)
Thankfully not many of the bad sort of screaming fangirls (was a little worried because the demo skewed to young newbies)... although I'm now going to have to refer to Gareth as "The Comet", because of the cloud and tail he had everywhere he went on Sunday night! Also that boy has such a filthy mouth (gotta love it). I'm not sure I should relate what he wanted to do on Sunday night on the dancefloor! OMG, I learnt a new term! Thanks once again to guests for expanding my vocab!
John Barrowman is brilliant. Such a pro, well, except when he was corpsing his way through the little playlet they did for us on Saturday. ;)
Naoki is just adorable. So smiley and just utterly "aaawwwwwwww!" lol She took so much stick being the only girl in amongst a crowd of raucous, naughty boys on Saturday.
Kai was just the fantastic person he always is. He wrote his birthday in my Torchwood calendar and all but demanded a birthday card (it's five days before mine!). I'm not sure whether he loves or hates the way he keeps getting jovially bullied into singing Hymns and Arias every time we see him. But he was happily going along with all the snogging that went on this weekend. Seriously, the snogging started out hilarious and by the end they had just done it so much it was like "They're all kissing again" "Yeah I saw." *eye roll* lol
There were loads more guests and all of them just threw themselves in so brilliantly during talks and, a lot, during the parties. Ian Hilditch (John's body double) was so into it that I didn't realise he was a guest until the Room party on Saturday night!!
Oh yeah, the Room party. heehee. There was a mock up of Captain Jack's office with photos and props. It was fantastic. The last ten/fifteen or so stragglers ended up drinking in there after everything else was done. Nicky and I left around 4am because we had to get up early for John's auto session the next day, but they were still going. :)
There were some organisational issues. The schedule they made was just far too complicated. The auto sessions weren't policed well enough. People were going through for a second or third time when others hadn't even been through once. There were some gold ticket holders that didn't get autos from John (he had to leave early to catch a flight to LA). When you've paid that much money that's just not right. I also heard that they guests weren't taken around to everyone at the cocktail party, leaving some people disappointed. Honestly, those things are just plain trouble unless they're planned like a military operation.
Queues on the photos were great though... but they were being organised by Ian. Yeah, I'm not biased at all. ;)
Our only problem was that we weren't called for anything till Sunday, so we had to dash through autos and photos pretty much at the same time. We nearly wore a hole in the carpet dashing back and forth between the bag drop room, the photo room and the auto room. Thinking about it, the bag drop room was rather annoying. The folks in there were great but having one room seperate from everything else was a total pain in the backside.
Nice bars (not stupidly expensive) but not enough places to sit. Ash trays out front would be nice too. Food from the lunch room was hideous, but the (slightly more expensive) stuff from the bar was tasty.
Sunday night was the funniest. Gareth was the last guest to leave... and all the people seemed to melt away after right afterwards. The DJ, poor bloke, started getting the music just so wrong. When there's 700-odd people around you can play heavy metal and have 100 people dancing... when there's 20 people you're lucky if you get any. The floor was empty and it was really looking like it'd be over by 11pm. So I went over to him, asked if he was taking requests and asked for con songs. He said that he'd played them and no one had danced. I told him if he'd put some on then I'd get him people. He reluctantly agreed. Jo and I ended up going table to table asking the people left if they wanted to chill out or to dance. Everyone said "Dance!!!" I told them to go up and ask for what they wanted because he had no clue. Immediately he started up on cheesy shite, the dancefloor filled. People came running in from outside. Sadly, he then put on something stupid and loads left again but some persisted and asked for more songs. I'm telling him that, at this time of the night on Sunday, just play cheesy shite and they'll keep dancing!! Finally he gets it and puts on stuff like It's Raining Men. Wasn't totally his fault, he had some technical probs with playing some stuff he'd been given. We were left with a hardcore of about fifteen of us in the end. They had up these paper streamers which (unlike the expensive looking bunting of the night before) we figured no one would miss, so we were up on chairs and taking it down to play with. It was awesome.
Unfortunately the way back to our hotel was through this park that had no lighting and a path that was broken up with overgrowing weeds. I was walking it gingerly in my 4 inch heels because I'd been in danger of tripping up sober and in daylight but somehow I still managed to put a foot wrong, trip on a broken bit and hit the ground face first. I'm covered in bruises and I busted my lower lip. I walked back into our hotel with blood all over my hands and face. It's still all swollen and I've got some nasty looking scabs. Right now I'm feeling no pain because of a large quantity of painkillers! lol. Nicky was great getting me ice and patching me up, without her help I'd probably look much worse right now. So thanks hun. *hugs*
But, despite the minor facial disfigurement, I had a totally brilliant time. Hotel's booked for next year (I understand that the hotel is already FULLY booked) and tickets will be soon. I can't wait!! *lop sided grin*