'London Baby'
Norty corner.
Originally uploaded by fechtbuch Man alive am I tired?
I made it to Bookcrossing Convention base camp just in time to see the lovely Atenea-Nike before she left. I immediately spotted some familiar faces in German Bookcrossers Wyando and Delfinetti. I saw CEO Scott looking official and busy as well as the strained faces of the organisinational team trying to look relaxed and friendly under great stress.
From there I ushered a stray allbookedup to the The London Eye excursion organised by weebly_one and sat with a Norfolk based Bookcrosser Snoopy(something) taking photos like a proud mother at a fun fair :) I had to dash off and grab some food before my 'real life interupts the Convention' appointment but made it back to the Drinks Reception by 9ish to see the Americano contingent, my maniacal Dublin partner in crime and the lovely Scottish lasses. It was so mind blowingly wonderful that so many of the Charelston girls made it across the pond and we were as wonderfully loud and obnoxiously fun this time round as we were then. I even got to see yokospungeon (who is shining with pregnancy and future promise) and sirroy (who is beaming with pride), for the first time in what feels like almost a year, which made me very happy indeed.
Having bunked the night on the floor of lizmopuddy who was generous with her friendship, craic and hotel room for the weekend, I darted back to the boat (in Greenford) for a quick change and got back to the Convention late. I missed the dodgy photos of us in various stages of disintegration in the morning presentations (thank god) and I missed the Site News and the Announcements, LOL, all the good stuff basically. In a spot of pure nepotism, Bryony Evans (friend to all Renegades and Harry Potter fan), inadvertantly gave me the 'spot prize' after her talk which did make us laugh and fechtbuch, aka 'quiz boy' won the quiz which made us laugh even more :)
By Sunday, I gave up any pretense of going home and started referring to gizmopuddy's hotel room as 'our hotel' and even left my back of books LOL! Again, coming late after having breakfasted on 'half a pig' aka 'the full English' with verenka I managed to miss the controversial Future Conventions presentations and the naked CEO and Chief Nerd, so again 'all the good stuff'. Okay, I didn't quite miss all the good stuff. I was there for the talk by Doll author Tracy Sinclair which made her my new 'favourite person in the world ever'. I actually forgot to buy her book which gutted me as I'd like to have fawned over her while purchasing but I might send a gushing fan style email and make amends :)
As usual, so much went on that most of it is a wonderful blur but the relaxed pub dinner and drinks at the The Volunteer and the forming of The Norty Corner were some of my favourite moments. I am going to start working on drutt and swan-scot to host the Unconvention in Scotland somewhere in order to spend more time in their company as they are both sensational women I don't get to see often enough.
p.s. elhamisabel was late for something and the world is still turning ;)
edited to add: OH MY GOD. Shame on me. I forgot to say how much I enjoyed and excellently dry humourtastic company of my good friend and fellow inmate of 'Team Norty', nukem aka 'Newt', who actually shepherded me to the Convention on the Saturday but was himself found wandering, lost, on the Southbank when he was supposed to be queueing for The Eye. Bewdy.