LJ-Fest UK -- Birmingham!!! AWESOME!!!!! :)
Hello, peeeps :) Well I'm back from Birmingham, and I've met a whole PILE of peeps I've been corresponding with on LJ for ages now, and it was absolutely AWESOME!!!
So! On Tuesday I travelled down to Birmingham by train. I was met by angus_honey, drunken_hedghog and swizzasnake at the station, and once we'd all overcome the shock of meeting a group of other people just as odd as ourselves we went off to find coffee, and chat for a couple of hours.
angus_honey and I were meant to be meeting genagirl and her pals at their hotel, but their hotel was so mind-bogglingly disorganised that they'd told me the evening before that genagirl and pals had not arrived, and we'd concluded that they must have been stuck in the snow at Chicago O'Hare airport. We eventually wandered over there to check, though, and as I was standing at the Reception desk, berating the receptionist politely, I spotted Gena on the telephone about 10 feet away! Amazing!
It turned out that Gena and her pals were in the process of arranging a much-anticipated meeting with John Barrowman, who was the main reason for so many LJers converging on Birmingham at this time. The bad news was that Aer Lingus had managed to lose Gena's luggage... doh! (She did eventually get it back, but still... nightmare!)
So, after we'd all said hello we went off for something to eat, and then the youngsters (and that's almost everybody, when y'all get to my advanced age) went off to meet the other group of transatlantic_LJers and the rest of us went off to do something else.
That evening angus_honey and I went back into B/ham to see JB in Panto, and it was great fun. My first ever Panto! angus_honey showed me what to do :) (There was lots of shouting and angus_honey promised she wouldn't tell anyone that I fell asleep, uh-oh......)
When the Panto finished I nipped over to Gena and pals to take a quick piccy of them just before they met JB...
Gena, Connie, Cathy
...and then angus_honey and I went back to her place, where we stuffed ourselves with scrambled egg on toast, chocolates and CSI. Mmmmm.... :)
The following day angus_honey made me a scrummy breakfast, and then we went back into town to meet up with genagirl, Cathy, Connie, Tammy and George again. We did various exciting things--including a visit to Forbidden Planet (where I embarrassed myself by telling the assistant, who was clearly far more knowledgeable than me, that Khan wasn't a character from Star Trek: TOS (*blush* but really... he only had a walk-on part in TOS, right? Right???!!!))...
After that we were starving, and so we set off for lunch. On the way we passed some sort of plaza thingy, and as we were doing that I heard somebody calling me, and when I looked round I saw drunken_hedghog and swizzasnake with the other bunch of LJers, some of them from the USA and others from far-flung (and not so far-flung) parts of the UK. Wow! I was thrilled to meet them, because I always love to meet online pals face-to-face and after all... I've been corresponding with tourmaline1973 for almost 2 years now, on Le LJ!
It's possible that I've got hllangel and michelleanne68 the wrong way round, in which case: apologies :) It all went so quickly, and I'm so crap at names, that I may have bogged it up. Pls to be letting me know if I've got it wrong, and--if so--I'll fix the piccy. And it's only after the event that people have explained to me that the Australian LJer was secondsilk: I thought the others had just run into her by accident! Doh...
After that we had lunch, which was AWESOME!!! We went to the Handmade Burger Co., where they make the world's yummiest burgers out of Happy Beef (that's to say, cows that have lived happy lives, rather than miserable subsistences in grotty conditions).
We all agreed it was excellent, and the Americans taught angus_honey and me how to say AWESOME!!! in American :) Here's a wee vid to record the moment (but I don't think angus_honey was really trying...)
The burgers were really yummy, and because food is one of my favourite obsessions I couldn't resist taking a closer look at just what everybody was eating.
After that angus_honey and I went back to her place again, where I fell asleep on the unfeasibly-comfortable couch while angus_honey did cunning things with her computer upstairs. I woke up when I heard angus_honey's hubby informing her that I was dead :) After that, though, we went back into town to watch John Barrowman doing the Panto thing again, and it was even better than the night before!
At the Panto we saw some of the younger LJers, and then angus_honey and I walked back to her car, saying goodbye to Gena and friends along the way.
All in all, it was a really brilliant--AWESOME!!!--2 days :) Many thanks to angus_honey and Mr angus_honey for putting up with me ♥ ♥ ♥, and feeding me, and HELLO!!! to all the great LJers I met :)
I live in hope that there might still be a House convention over in the States at some stage, because if there is then I'll get a chance to meet more of you ♥
So! On Tuesday I travelled down to Birmingham by train. I was met by angus_honey, drunken_hedghog and swizzasnake at the station, and once we'd all overcome the shock of meeting a group of other people just as odd as ourselves we went off to find coffee, and chat for a couple of hours.
angus_honey and I were meant to be meeting genagirl and her pals at their hotel, but their hotel was so mind-bogglingly disorganised that they'd told me the evening before that genagirl and pals had not arrived, and we'd concluded that they must have been stuck in the snow at Chicago O'Hare airport. We eventually wandered over there to check, though, and as I was standing at the Reception desk, berating the receptionist politely, I spotted Gena on the telephone about 10 feet away! Amazing!
It turned out that Gena and her pals were in the process of arranging a much-anticipated meeting with John Barrowman, who was the main reason for so many LJers converging on Birmingham at this time. The bad news was that Aer Lingus had managed to lose Gena's luggage... doh! (She did eventually get it back, but still... nightmare!)
So, after we'd all said hello we went off for something to eat, and then the youngsters (and that's almost everybody, when y'all get to my advanced age) went off to meet the other group of transatlantic_LJers and the rest of us went off to do something else.
That evening angus_honey and I went back into B/ham to see JB in Panto, and it was great fun. My first ever Panto! angus_honey showed me what to do :) (There was lots of shouting and angus_honey promised she wouldn't tell anyone that I fell asleep, uh-oh......)
When the Panto finished I nipped over to Gena and pals to take a quick piccy of them just before they met JB...
Gena, Connie, Cathy
...and then angus_honey and I went back to her place, where we stuffed ourselves with scrambled egg on toast, chocolates and CSI. Mmmmm.... :)
The following day angus_honey made me a scrummy breakfast, and then we went back into town to meet up with genagirl, Cathy, Connie, Tammy and George again. We did various exciting things--including a visit to Forbidden Planet (where I embarrassed myself by telling the assistant, who was clearly far more knowledgeable than me, that Khan wasn't a character from Star Trek: TOS (*blush* but really... he only had a walk-on part in TOS, right? Right???!!!))...
After that we were starving, and so we set off for lunch. On the way we passed some sort of plaza thingy, and as we were doing that I heard somebody calling me, and when I looked round I saw drunken_hedghog and swizzasnake with the other bunch of LJers, some of them from the USA and others from far-flung (and not so far-flung) parts of the UK. Wow! I was thrilled to meet them, because I always love to meet online pals face-to-face and after all... I've been corresponding with tourmaline1973 for almost 2 years now, on Le LJ!
It's possible that I've got hllangel and michelleanne68 the wrong way round, in which case: apologies :) It all went so quickly, and I'm so crap at names, that I may have bogged it up. Pls to be letting me know if I've got it wrong, and--if so--I'll fix the piccy. And it's only after the event that people have explained to me that the Australian LJer was secondsilk: I thought the others had just run into her by accident! Doh...
After that we had lunch, which was AWESOME!!! We went to the Handmade Burger Co., where they make the world's yummiest burgers out of Happy Beef (that's to say, cows that have lived happy lives, rather than miserable subsistences in grotty conditions).
We all agreed it was excellent, and the Americans taught angus_honey and me how to say AWESOME!!! in American :) Here's a wee vid to record the moment (but I don't think angus_honey was really trying...)
Click to viewThe burgers were really yummy, and because food is one of my favourite obsessions I couldn't resist taking a closer look at just what everybody was eating.
After that angus_honey and I went back to her place again, where I fell asleep on the unfeasibly-comfortable couch while angus_honey did cunning things with her computer upstairs. I woke up when I heard angus_honey's hubby informing her that I was dead :) After that, though, we went back into town to watch John Barrowman doing the Panto thing again, and it was even better than the night before!
At the Panto we saw some of the younger LJers, and then angus_honey and I walked back to her car, saying goodbye to Gena and friends along the way.
All in all, it was a really brilliant--AWESOME!!!--2 days :) Many thanks to angus_honey and Mr angus_honey for putting up with me ♥ ♥ ♥, and feeding me, and HELLO!!! to all the great LJers I met :)
I live in hope that there might still be a House convention over in the States at some stage, because if there is then I'll get a chance to meet more of you ♥