DWJ Conference - Day One
I wrote this on Friday evening. I didn't have Internet at all. Chiz. But I didn't find time to write up any more either, so this will have to stand in for the whole for the time being. There was a lot to process. Look for more posts later.
Well, it seems I can has internet login screen, but the password and/or username I was given are invalid. Or I am. Whatever.
School was a flurry of relatively pointless meetings, with the Head telling us about the results of a survey from last October, by dint of shuffling through the pages to find each point in succession. We had a department meeting in which I had to assert myself as Head of Drama and explain that we would actually have to continue giving roughly 20% of our time to drama lessons next year despite no longer having specific dedicated timetabled lessons as such. I showed the others ways of accessing lesson plans on the intranet and demonstrated a few PowerPoints I made earlier. Thus I was crowned Technical Geek Expert of the department. One-eyed woman in the country of the blind, you might say.
I left before the presentations and the Lunch, which was a slight wrench, called in briefly at home to deliver some stuff to R and set off down the motorway, arriving at the UWE campus in reasonable time. I stopped for coffee at Strensham Services, much improved since my last visit, and listened to the latest Torchwood radio play en route - nice declaration of love by Ianto to the apparently comatose Jack at one point - very touching. Gareth is growing on me as an actor. Nice to have what is in essence a fandom weekend started in that way.
Finding the Uni wasn’t hard, but navigating the campus was very challenging. DWJ-lovers may know of the hotel in Deep Secret - this place is either a prototype or designed by DWJ herself! Indeed, the whole weekend was one of getting lost and discovering that the way from A to B was usually via D. Or J if you were expecting D. And that going away from where you don't want to be is not necessarily the same as going towards the place you do want to be.
I made it there before things had started, however, and instantly met intertext and owlfish, and then saw several other familiar faces from our Listserve meetup of a few years ago, so I felt right at home. And instantly absorbed as the welcome session led into a couple of interesting and thought-provoking talks, on the games DWJ plays with expectations of age and age-appropriateness and then on gender and the feminine role - intriguing references to Blyton and Ransome for comparison. It appears we have the world’s expert on Enid Blyton in our midst. Who knew there was such a person?
After a very good buffet meal I went to negotiate the Student Village, where a bunch of Italian teenagers were driving the receptionist into a frenzy and it took some while to find the guy who knew where my room was. I’m here now, though (Written Friday, remember?)- and I have to say that, as student rooms go, it’s quite swish - several notches up on F’s flat in hall at UCL in her first year, with all mod-cons. Except, currently, an Internet which recognises the password I was given. And more than one flat pillow. I had Neck Issues.
Having found the room, dumped my stuff and reparked my car in the approved place, I returned to our base, where a showing of the BBC TV series of Archer’s Goon was in progress. As with so many other things, it really benefited from being watched amongst a large number of like-minded people. After that the bar seemed a logical option, where we chatted in a group until tiredness drove us all to navigate our way back here and, shortly, to bed.
Saturday was the core day and utterly riveting. But that will have to be another post. Besides which, I have to write up TW: Day One while it's still fresh in my mind. Under spoiler cuts in another post, natch.
Well, it seems I can has internet login screen, but the password and/or username I was given are invalid. Or I am. Whatever.
School was a flurry of relatively pointless meetings, with the Head telling us about the results of a survey from last October, by dint of shuffling through the pages to find each point in succession. We had a department meeting in which I had to assert myself as Head of Drama and explain that we would actually have to continue giving roughly 20% of our time to drama lessons next year despite no longer having specific dedicated timetabled lessons as such. I showed the others ways of accessing lesson plans on the intranet and demonstrated a few PowerPoints I made earlier. Thus I was crowned Technical Geek Expert of the department. One-eyed woman in the country of the blind, you might say.
I left before the presentations and the Lunch, which was a slight wrench, called in briefly at home to deliver some stuff to R and set off down the motorway, arriving at the UWE campus in reasonable time. I stopped for coffee at Strensham Services, much improved since my last visit, and listened to the latest Torchwood radio play en route - nice declaration of love by Ianto to the apparently comatose Jack at one point - very touching. Gareth is growing on me as an actor. Nice to have what is in essence a fandom weekend started in that way.
Finding the Uni wasn’t hard, but navigating the campus was very challenging. DWJ-lovers may know of the hotel in Deep Secret - this place is either a prototype or designed by DWJ herself! Indeed, the whole weekend was one of getting lost and discovering that the way from A to B was usually via D. Or J if you were expecting D. And that going away from where you don't want to be is not necessarily the same as going towards the place you do want to be.
I made it there before things had started, however, and instantly met intertext and owlfish, and then saw several other familiar faces from our Listserve meetup of a few years ago, so I felt right at home. And instantly absorbed as the welcome session led into a couple of interesting and thought-provoking talks, on the games DWJ plays with expectations of age and age-appropriateness and then on gender and the feminine role - intriguing references to Blyton and Ransome for comparison. It appears we have the world’s expert on Enid Blyton in our midst. Who knew there was such a person?
After a very good buffet meal I went to negotiate the Student Village, where a bunch of Italian teenagers were driving the receptionist into a frenzy and it took some while to find the guy who knew where my room was. I’m here now, though (Written Friday, remember?)- and I have to say that, as student rooms go, it’s quite swish - several notches up on F’s flat in hall at UCL in her first year, with all mod-cons. Except, currently, an Internet which recognises the password I was given. And more than one flat pillow. I had Neck Issues.
Having found the room, dumped my stuff and reparked my car in the approved place, I returned to our base, where a showing of the BBC TV series of Archer’s Goon was in progress. As with so many other things, it really benefited from being watched amongst a large number of like-minded people. After that the bar seemed a logical option, where we chatted in a group until tiredness drove us all to navigate our way back here and, shortly, to bed.
Saturday was the core day and utterly riveting. But that will have to be another post. Besides which, I have to write up TW: Day One while it's still fresh in my mind. Under spoiler cuts in another post, natch.