I fucking hate allergies - Also, Expo and football
So, I was walking from my house to my mum's house, which as a five minute drive turns into a 40 minute walk. But it was okay because I had my ipod and I was humming along to music. Then there was a hill, which was less fun but totally doable. Then, I get to mum's house, see the cat, and BAM! I'm sneezing, coughing, sniffing as if there is a fucking olympic sport in it. And IT HASN'T STOPPED!!!
Ugh, but I feel horrible.
In good news I found the lead I need to get my pictures from my camera onto my laptop, and therefore onto my journal. Which, is, you know, brilliant.
And I do! Have pictures! Of BRADLEY JAMES - and Colin Morgan, Katie McGarth and Angel Coulby!!! Not many, because I seem to have a talent for taking blurry pics, but those that aren't (too) blurry I still have.
So, I got to London on Friday. Had a nice, easy train journey up to London. Well, nice except for the fact that I thought the train might be about to blow up at any time because someone had forgotten their briefcase and I couldn't help thinking how that could be a bomb and there was a plot to blow up Waterloo station with a bunch of trains all arriving at Waterloo at the same time.
Why, yes, I have read far too many spy novels and watched way too many movies and TV shows.
So, after NOT being blown up as we arrived at Waterloo, I then made my way to the hotel and after dumping my stuff, I went and walked around London. Something I love to do, but rarely get the chance to do because I'm usually doing something while I'm in London (like Merlin meets *g*). So, I walked from the hotel down to Russell Square and then past the British Museum down to Tottenham Court Road and then back up Southampton Row to get back to Russell Square and then back to the hotel. All without getting too lost, and only stopping at Starbucks once.
I was about half way back to the hotel when I realised that a) my feet hurt and b) hurting my feet before walking around Expo was probably not the best idea in the world ever.
My brother then turned up at my hotel, fresh from an exam, looking very spiffy in a suit. He is the only person I have ever known to go to exams and most lectures dressed in a suit. He is a lot smarter than me (in every sense possible, honestly).
I also found out that not only did he get 75% on his Chinese (well, Mandarin) oral exam, but he got 3% more than a girl on his course who is bilingual *g*
Well, after he went and dumped stuff (like the pizza and kitkats mum had given me to give him) in his room we went out for dinner and had a very nice couple of hours talking before Henry made sure I knew how to get to King's Cross station from my hotel for when I met thisissirius and shepsangel at an ungodly hour the next morning. After Henry walked me back to the hotel, I tried to get to sleep at a sensible hour, considering the fact my alarm was set for 5am, but I really couldn't. I ended up planning a Kirk/Spock fic that I'll never write while watching the Shaft remake (which reminds me, I saw Star Trek on Thursday night. I'll have to post my reactions to that soon).
Do you ever have that thing where, because you know you have to be up early for something important, you keep waking up before your alarm goes off? Yeah, well, I had that, I woke even hour and fifteen minutes until my alarm went off.
After having my shower and discovering that I'd managed to leave behind the hair serum that stops my hair from going all horribly frizzy behind, I walked down to meet thisissirius and shepsangel off the train.
After agreeing that we were very excited about seeing Bradley, Colin, Katie and Angel, we dumped their bags at the hotel and quickly went back to the tube and made our way to the ExCel centre.
We must have got to the ExCel centre by about 8.15/8.30 and already the queues were huge - both for those with the pre-bought tickets and those who were buying early admission tickets on the day.
thisissirius and shepsangel had to go and buy tickets (girls, next time you are so not doing that. We can't have you nearly missing out on the autographs like that *g*) while I went looking for people I knew...and stumbled across hils and nearly gave a heart attack. Well, it was before 9am and she had been up for a while, so it was really quite understandable.
We all saw krazykipper in the queue but the British in us just wouldn't allow us to queue jump that far, so we didn't, but we did all agonise whether or not we would be one of the 150 to get autographs from the cast.
While alternating between worrying and being overly impressed with some of the costumes (and wondering how some people hadn't passed out from how hot they must have been), flameofaphoenix and valderys joined us.
Con time was only running about 15 minutes behind schedule, which we all agreed was very impressive and we shouldn't have worried about the autograph ticket queue - we were way within the 150 margin. In fact, I was ticket number 24. krazykipper and shepsangel had made a mad dash to get autograph tickets - and succeeded, we all proceeded to go and queue up outside where the panel would be so we could get front row seats. Impressed by our dedication (and because they remembered thisissirius from last year) we were allowed in early (after we acquired many promises that they wouldn't clear the room before the panel because if they did, they'd be killed by about 15 pissed off fangirls). We managed to get front row seats, and took up tow rows anyway.
In the panels before hand, there was much discussion as to who would be sitting on what side, but it all turnout out right in the end.
Eventually it became time for the Merlin panel and I have no idea what they were all doing backstage, but it took AGES to get them on stage.
Bradley came on first to a huge amount of noise, clutching his video camera and making sure he panned it around the room several times. Then Katie came on, looking absolutely gorgeous. Then there was Polly scriptwriter person who's name completely escapes me, who you won't hear any more about because she didn't say a word. Not one. Then Johnny Capps, who spoke too much, and then there was Angel Coulby, who was also looking effortlessly beautiful and finally Colin Morgan who I think very nearly brought the house down.
Bradley spent a good portion of the panel filming the audience and, by the looks of things, just putting the camera down on the table, pointing it at sections on the audience and leaving it recording, which is slightly worrying because, it did seem to point in our general direction a lot of the time. Now, we were in the front, we were noisy and we did have thisissirius with us, but even so...
If that was a video diary camera, I don't think I want to see the season 2 extras (as a note of interest, I did see the camera at the football the next day, and it looked like he was filming him and Santiago before and in between matches)
People were obviously taking photos and, Katie, spotting someone taking a photo of Bradley, did rabbit ears behind his head, making us all laugh and fal head over heels in love with her. She then proceeded to pull lots of faces at Bradley, seemingly without him noticing, and she was brilliant.
So, because thisissirius and been screaming for Colin more or less the entire morning (with, it much be pointed out quite an impressive backing cheer squad), she was picked on by Stewart, who was introducing the cast and trying to control the crowd (ha!), and he asked her if she had a question. After going momentarily shy (moaning, it much be pointed out, 'why are you doing this to me?), she was reminded on a question that we all wanted her to ask - the follow up to her question last year.
(For those of you who don't know, last year she asked whether Arthur would remain so unobservant to Merlin's magic and Bradley suggested that in reality she was calling Arthur, dim)
So, she asked, but kind of managed to make the question more complicated and confused herself and then inadvertently more or less managed to call Bradley dim and he pretended to be all upset and wiped away a tear and looked all hurt and then, in a wonderful flounce, whipped out his sunglasses and put them on. All he needed was the toss of his hair, but it wasn't long enough.
Stewart then suggested that she really should go and apologise to him, which she did and got a kiss on the cheek for her trouble - meaning that the best way to get a kiss from Bradley is to insult him (but then, I guess Colin already knows that *g*)
Her victory punch in the air was classic, Katie found it hilarious and I know there is video footage of it because I saw it, so I'll keep an eye out for it (unless, j_apollo, you've already posted it and I've just missed it)
Other, random things I remember (although, I'm sure there are a lot of reports out there that remember stuff better than I did - I will admit to spending a lot of time staring at Bradley. But, you know, he was, no more than 10 feet in front of me. Can you blame me?
Colin and Bradley both has DS's now and have worked out how to link them and play Mario Carts against each other when they are on opposite sides of the room and between takes.
When asked about any quirks the cast might have Bradley said he did take his ipod everywhere with him but wondered if that was really a quirk. Katie then pointed out that he's permanently attached to his video camera.
When asked the strangest thing a fan had done, Colin remembered the vegetables he and Bradley were given last year by drjenny88. Both of them still looked truly perplexed by that *g*
Some girl asked if Colin and Bradley still had a piece of cardboard that they had been given by her and her friend. Bradley was like, 'uh...yeah, of course we have,' in that really slow tone he does that says 'WTF?' while Colin said, a lot quieter and I don't think many people heard him, 'we cut it in two and have half each' which made me burst out laughing. I like his sense of humour.
Someone asked Angel if she'd managed to get the boys back for Je suis Loser and she said she hadn't but she was definitely planning to.
When asked how they all get into character, Angel mentioned that Colin and Bradley do a warm up exercise that they both looked quite alarmed to share with the audience. Bradley looked like he was coming around to the idea of sharing it with us, when we went onto the next question. I'm kind of convinced that another 30 seconds and we could have persuaded Bradley and then Colin would have gone along with it anyway.
Bradley said that to get into character he bullied Colin - but as Arthur, obviously. He also acts generally quite arrogant, entitled and regal (I remember Katie looking as if she wanted to tell Bradley he always acts like that)
When asked what superpowers they'd like to have Katie immediately said she'd want to be Rogue (Bradley looked slightly confused and it looked as though Katie either had to explain why or explain who Rogue is). Colin would like to be Gambit and Angel would like to fly. I really can't remember what Bradley said he'd like.
Someone asked if there was ever a moment in the scripts any of the actors didn't agree with for their characters and Bradley pointed out that asking that when the script editor and producer are sitting with them probably isn't a good idea.
Katie did say that the scene she had the most problems with - in a sense of doing it justice, not having an actual problem with it - was the one in the final episode where she has to run down the steps to try and stop Arthur from going after the Questing Beast.
Asked what their favourite episodes were, Angel said Moment of Truth because the girls got to fight with swords (big cheers from all the girls there), Katie said the Beginning of the End, even if she did get acted off the screen by an eleven year old, Bradley said episode eleven - the one with the labyrinth and after much dithering, Colin said the same.
Valderys asked Bradley about the football on Sunday and if any of the cast were going to cheer him on, and Bradley suddenly looked very ill and not at all at ease, and apparently he hadn't told anyone that he was doing it. Thy all looked rather surprised by it. Johnny said he would go, but he had to write scripts, Katie said she didn't know and looked very quizically at Bradley. Johnny did suggest that if he had known, Colin would be there with a bucket and sponge for Bradley.
Bradley did tell quite a funny story about how, one time after Merlin had started to air, he'd been playing football and someone on the opposite team had viciously tackled him and as Bradley was on the floor, said, 'So where's Merlin now?'
Colin chimed in saying that if he'd known, he'd have been there, doing the Merlin magic and he even did the hand movement to go with it.
The only few complaints I would have are that they had the microphones a long way away from the actors. Not a problem with Johnny because he lent forward and so did Katie and Bradley, although they also have quite loud voices, but sometimes you could hardly hear what Colin or Angel were saying and I think some of the things they said were lost in the noise.
Also, whoever thought it was a good idea to sit the two quietest cast members together, obviously didn't think it through. Although, it was very cute watching Colin and Bradley have silent conversations across four people *g*
And also, I really thought Johnny Capps answered far too often - even questions that weren't directed to him. Quite often someone would say 'this is for X, Y or Z' and Johnny would answer. Towards the end of the panel, Bradley began to look quite bored and began fiddling with things like his name sign and sitting back on the back legs of his chair (I was slightly worried he was going to fall backwards, but apparently he's a pro as sitting back on his chair like that - not a wobble in sight) and I do wonder if that's because they were rarely given a chance to say much about the actual show.
shepsangel asked Colin and Bradley if their French had got any better, and Johnny answered! (The answer was, no, by the way)
At the signing, we were quite back in the queue, but that was fine. We got to watch them all for a while. Bradley seemed to really perk up during the signing, he was talking to a lot of people. Colin was sitting next to him and seemed very relaxed and enjoying himself. Katie was an absolute darling, she was grinning and talking to everyone and seemed to really love meeting the crazy fans.
When we finally got there, me, who have been talking more or less none stop all day (and there are several people who will atest to that), lost all power of speech as soon as I was standing in front of Bradley James. I managed to say 'hi'and then at was it. My brain just powered down. I am totally blaming Bradley for this; he shouldn't be so damn gorgeous. I was fine after that; asked Colin if I could have a photo of him and Bradley, who he poked. It's actually not a bad photo (I had sorted out the zoom before had so I didn't faff about and get all flustered, so that was something, I guess). Both of them look utterly adorable. Colin then have me a charming smile and a little wave before I moved on to Johnny.
By then I had regained my brain, so I managed to ask Johnny is Nimeh would be back. He said, in a rather mysterious way, I have to say, 'I couldn't possibly comment'. I told him that I have this belief that in any show with magic, just because you die, doesn't mean your dead. He nodded and Angel, who was listening, grinned at me and said said...something, but that I think sounded rather like she thought it was a good philosophy, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that that was producer talk for, yeah, she'll be back.
I then got a photo of Angel and Katie and it's a gorgeous and adorable photo of them.
Katie then said that she recognised me from the front row, which I suppose isn't that surprising since I was sitting more or less in front of her and kept laughing whenever she pulled faces at Bradley. I said, I just couldn't stop laughing (which if you know me, is true regardless of whether I'm at a Con or not. I'm horribly easy to amuse) and she said it was great because she loved and it had kept her amused throughout. I couldn't decide it that was a good thing or a bad thing, but finally settled on good.
Then, because it was getting to be rather boiling in the ExCel centre and we were all tired and hungry, we left Expo. Gareth Lloyd David was there and so was Craig Charles and while I saw them both, by the time all the Merlin stuff was over and done with, I was way too knackered to go and stand in more queues to get things signed.
And, if you follow this link, then you will find j_apollo's youtube videos from the panel - go and look. They are much fun *g*
So, most of us (valderys had to disappear, but it was okay, because she was back for the football on Sunday) then went over to Fleet Street to find the pub where rageprufrock and others would be. We got there really rather early and we all fell upon the bar like we were dying of thirst - or I certainly did *g*
We sat around eating and drinking and then the other's arrived and we sat around drinking some more and laughing and talking about porn, Merlin, the cast, and other topics. I know that j_apollo took a register again, so keep an eye out and see who was there because I really can't remember everyone's name.
We got really damn good seats - relatively near the front, and, as it turned out, the pitch that Bradley ended up playing the most on. Luck was definitely on our side *g*
The most I can do with the football is direct you to photos that should show the delights we got to witness. Not only did we have Bradley being all commanding and very damn good at football, but we also had Santiago going a wee bit shirtless. Between the two of them they got 99% of the goals - and some damn fine ones they were, too.
We were very loud, cheered a lot. I don't think many there believed that they could get so caught up in a football game, but by the semi-final pretty much every single one of us was yelling advice and jumping up screaming every time they scored.
As the day went on, Bradley definitely got more into playing up to the crowd and was always encouraging us to cheer and encourage the team - something we were more than happy to do. At one point we, as one voice, yelled Bradley's name and he rather embarrassedly nodded at us. We also did it for Santiago as well, and he looked rather bemused by it and also acknowledged us,too.
Other people that it was rather cool to see were Danny Dyer, Tamer Hassan (who, Bradley actually shouldered off the pitch at one point - I was worried about him surviving that - the guy is huge), Dominic Cooper, Lee Mack, Omid Djalili and Russell Howard.
The vast majority of people, I had no idea who they were. It made me feel very old.
Oh, and JLS were there, too. Lots of teenage girls being, well, teenage girls. But I think the much more experienced Merlin fandom screamed them out of the water *G*
Here are a couple links to hils photos
part one
part two
All in all, it was quite the brilliant weekend. So much happened that I'm quite sure I've forgotten something I was convinced I'd remember. I can't believe it's over *cries*
I can't wait for the picnic in June *g*
Ugh, but I feel horrible.
In good news I found the lead I need to get my pictures from my camera onto my laptop, and therefore onto my journal. Which, is, you know, brilliant.
And I do! Have pictures! Of BRADLEY JAMES - and Colin Morgan, Katie McGarth and Angel Coulby!!! Not many, because I seem to have a talent for taking blurry pics, but those that aren't (too) blurry I still have.
So, I got to London on Friday. Had a nice, easy train journey up to London. Well, nice except for the fact that I thought the train might be about to blow up at any time because someone had forgotten their briefcase and I couldn't help thinking how that could be a bomb and there was a plot to blow up Waterloo station with a bunch of trains all arriving at Waterloo at the same time.
Why, yes, I have read far too many spy novels and watched way too many movies and TV shows.
So, after NOT being blown up as we arrived at Waterloo, I then made my way to the hotel and after dumping my stuff, I went and walked around London. Something I love to do, but rarely get the chance to do because I'm usually doing something while I'm in London (like Merlin meets *g*). So, I walked from the hotel down to Russell Square and then past the British Museum down to Tottenham Court Road and then back up Southampton Row to get back to Russell Square and then back to the hotel. All without getting too lost, and only stopping at Starbucks once.
I was about half way back to the hotel when I realised that a) my feet hurt and b) hurting my feet before walking around Expo was probably not the best idea in the world ever.
My brother then turned up at my hotel, fresh from an exam, looking very spiffy in a suit. He is the only person I have ever known to go to exams and most lectures dressed in a suit. He is a lot smarter than me (in every sense possible, honestly).
I also found out that not only did he get 75% on his Chinese (well, Mandarin) oral exam, but he got 3% more than a girl on his course who is bilingual *g*
Well, after he went and dumped stuff (like the pizza and kitkats mum had given me to give him) in his room we went out for dinner and had a very nice couple of hours talking before Henry made sure I knew how to get to King's Cross station from my hotel for when I met thisissirius and shepsangel at an ungodly hour the next morning. After Henry walked me back to the hotel, I tried to get to sleep at a sensible hour, considering the fact my alarm was set for 5am, but I really couldn't. I ended up planning a Kirk/Spock fic that I'll never write while watching the Shaft remake (which reminds me, I saw Star Trek on Thursday night. I'll have to post my reactions to that soon).
Do you ever have that thing where, because you know you have to be up early for something important, you keep waking up before your alarm goes off? Yeah, well, I had that, I woke even hour and fifteen minutes until my alarm went off.
After having my shower and discovering that I'd managed to leave behind the hair serum that stops my hair from going all horribly frizzy behind, I walked down to meet thisissirius and shepsangel off the train.
After agreeing that we were very excited about seeing Bradley, Colin, Katie and Angel, we dumped their bags at the hotel and quickly went back to the tube and made our way to the ExCel centre.
We must have got to the ExCel centre by about 8.15/8.30 and already the queues were huge - both for those with the pre-bought tickets and those who were buying early admission tickets on the day.
thisissirius and shepsangel had to go and buy tickets (girls, next time you are so not doing that. We can't have you nearly missing out on the autographs like that *g*) while I went looking for people I knew...and stumbled across hils and nearly gave a heart attack. Well, it was before 9am and she had been up for a while, so it was really quite understandable.
We all saw krazykipper in the queue but the British in us just wouldn't allow us to queue jump that far, so we didn't, but we did all agonise whether or not we would be one of the 150 to get autographs from the cast.
While alternating between worrying and being overly impressed with some of the costumes (and wondering how some people hadn't passed out from how hot they must have been), flameofaphoenix and valderys joined us.
Con time was only running about 15 minutes behind schedule, which we all agreed was very impressive and we shouldn't have worried about the autograph ticket queue - we were way within the 150 margin. In fact, I was ticket number 24. krazykipper and shepsangel had made a mad dash to get autograph tickets - and succeeded, we all proceeded to go and queue up outside where the panel would be so we could get front row seats. Impressed by our dedication (and because they remembered thisissirius from last year) we were allowed in early (after we acquired many promises that they wouldn't clear the room before the panel because if they did, they'd be killed by about 15 pissed off fangirls). We managed to get front row seats, and took up tow rows anyway.
In the panels before hand, there was much discussion as to who would be sitting on what side, but it all turnout out right in the end.
Eventually it became time for the Merlin panel and I have no idea what they were all doing backstage, but it took AGES to get them on stage.
Bradley came on first to a huge amount of noise, clutching his video camera and making sure he panned it around the room several times. Then Katie came on, looking absolutely gorgeous. Then there was Polly scriptwriter person who's name completely escapes me, who you won't hear any more about because she didn't say a word. Not one. Then Johnny Capps, who spoke too much, and then there was Angel Coulby, who was also looking effortlessly beautiful and finally Colin Morgan who I think very nearly brought the house down.
Bradley spent a good portion of the panel filming the audience and, by the looks of things, just putting the camera down on the table, pointing it at sections on the audience and leaving it recording, which is slightly worrying because, it did seem to point in our general direction a lot of the time. Now, we were in the front, we were noisy and we did have thisissirius with us, but even so...
If that was a video diary camera, I don't think I want to see the season 2 extras (as a note of interest, I did see the camera at the football the next day, and it looked like he was filming him and Santiago before and in between matches)
People were obviously taking photos and, Katie, spotting someone taking a photo of Bradley, did rabbit ears behind his head, making us all laugh and fal head over heels in love with her. She then proceeded to pull lots of faces at Bradley, seemingly without him noticing, and she was brilliant.
So, because thisissirius and been screaming for Colin more or less the entire morning (with, it much be pointed out quite an impressive backing cheer squad), she was picked on by Stewart, who was introducing the cast and trying to control the crowd (ha!), and he asked her if she had a question. After going momentarily shy (moaning, it much be pointed out, 'why are you doing this to me?), she was reminded on a question that we all wanted her to ask - the follow up to her question last year.
(For those of you who don't know, last year she asked whether Arthur would remain so unobservant to Merlin's magic and Bradley suggested that in reality she was calling Arthur, dim)
So, she asked, but kind of managed to make the question more complicated and confused herself and then inadvertently more or less managed to call Bradley dim and he pretended to be all upset and wiped away a tear and looked all hurt and then, in a wonderful flounce, whipped out his sunglasses and put them on. All he needed was the toss of his hair, but it wasn't long enough.
Stewart then suggested that she really should go and apologise to him, which she did and got a kiss on the cheek for her trouble - meaning that the best way to get a kiss from Bradley is to insult him (but then, I guess Colin already knows that *g*)
Her victory punch in the air was classic, Katie found it hilarious and I know there is video footage of it because I saw it, so I'll keep an eye out for it (unless, j_apollo, you've already posted it and I've just missed it)
Other, random things I remember (although, I'm sure there are a lot of reports out there that remember stuff better than I did - I will admit to spending a lot of time staring at Bradley. But, you know, he was, no more than 10 feet in front of me. Can you blame me?
Colin and Bradley both has DS's now and have worked out how to link them and play Mario Carts against each other when they are on opposite sides of the room and between takes.
When asked about any quirks the cast might have Bradley said he did take his ipod everywhere with him but wondered if that was really a quirk. Katie then pointed out that he's permanently attached to his video camera.
When asked the strangest thing a fan had done, Colin remembered the vegetables he and Bradley were given last year by drjenny88. Both of them still looked truly perplexed by that *g*
Some girl asked if Colin and Bradley still had a piece of cardboard that they had been given by her and her friend. Bradley was like, 'uh...yeah, of course we have,' in that really slow tone he does that says 'WTF?' while Colin said, a lot quieter and I don't think many people heard him, 'we cut it in two and have half each' which made me burst out laughing. I like his sense of humour.
Someone asked Angel if she'd managed to get the boys back for Je suis Loser and she said she hadn't but she was definitely planning to.
When asked how they all get into character, Angel mentioned that Colin and Bradley do a warm up exercise that they both looked quite alarmed to share with the audience. Bradley looked like he was coming around to the idea of sharing it with us, when we went onto the next question. I'm kind of convinced that another 30 seconds and we could have persuaded Bradley and then Colin would have gone along with it anyway.
Bradley said that to get into character he bullied Colin - but as Arthur, obviously. He also acts generally quite arrogant, entitled and regal (I remember Katie looking as if she wanted to tell Bradley he always acts like that)
When asked what superpowers they'd like to have Katie immediately said she'd want to be Rogue (Bradley looked slightly confused and it looked as though Katie either had to explain why or explain who Rogue is). Colin would like to be Gambit and Angel would like to fly. I really can't remember what Bradley said he'd like.
Someone asked if there was ever a moment in the scripts any of the actors didn't agree with for their characters and Bradley pointed out that asking that when the script editor and producer are sitting with them probably isn't a good idea.
Katie did say that the scene she had the most problems with - in a sense of doing it justice, not having an actual problem with it - was the one in the final episode where she has to run down the steps to try and stop Arthur from going after the Questing Beast.
Asked what their favourite episodes were, Angel said Moment of Truth because the girls got to fight with swords (big cheers from all the girls there), Katie said the Beginning of the End, even if she did get acted off the screen by an eleven year old, Bradley said episode eleven - the one with the labyrinth and after much dithering, Colin said the same.
Valderys asked Bradley about the football on Sunday and if any of the cast were going to cheer him on, and Bradley suddenly looked very ill and not at all at ease, and apparently he hadn't told anyone that he was doing it. Thy all looked rather surprised by it. Johnny said he would go, but he had to write scripts, Katie said she didn't know and looked very quizically at Bradley. Johnny did suggest that if he had known, Colin would be there with a bucket and sponge for Bradley.
Bradley did tell quite a funny story about how, one time after Merlin had started to air, he'd been playing football and someone on the opposite team had viciously tackled him and as Bradley was on the floor, said, 'So where's Merlin now?'
Colin chimed in saying that if he'd known, he'd have been there, doing the Merlin magic and he even did the hand movement to go with it.
The only few complaints I would have are that they had the microphones a long way away from the actors. Not a problem with Johnny because he lent forward and so did Katie and Bradley, although they also have quite loud voices, but sometimes you could hardly hear what Colin or Angel were saying and I think some of the things they said were lost in the noise.
Also, whoever thought it was a good idea to sit the two quietest cast members together, obviously didn't think it through. Although, it was very cute watching Colin and Bradley have silent conversations across four people *g*
And also, I really thought Johnny Capps answered far too often - even questions that weren't directed to him. Quite often someone would say 'this is for X, Y or Z' and Johnny would answer. Towards the end of the panel, Bradley began to look quite bored and began fiddling with things like his name sign and sitting back on the back legs of his chair (I was slightly worried he was going to fall backwards, but apparently he's a pro as sitting back on his chair like that - not a wobble in sight) and I do wonder if that's because they were rarely given a chance to say much about the actual show.
shepsangel asked Colin and Bradley if their French had got any better, and Johnny answered! (The answer was, no, by the way)
At the signing, we were quite back in the queue, but that was fine. We got to watch them all for a while. Bradley seemed to really perk up during the signing, he was talking to a lot of people. Colin was sitting next to him and seemed very relaxed and enjoying himself. Katie was an absolute darling, she was grinning and talking to everyone and seemed to really love meeting the crazy fans.
When we finally got there, me, who have been talking more or less none stop all day (and there are several people who will atest to that), lost all power of speech as soon as I was standing in front of Bradley James. I managed to say 'hi'and then at was it. My brain just powered down. I am totally blaming Bradley for this; he shouldn't be so damn gorgeous. I was fine after that; asked Colin if I could have a photo of him and Bradley, who he poked. It's actually not a bad photo (I had sorted out the zoom before had so I didn't faff about and get all flustered, so that was something, I guess). Both of them look utterly adorable. Colin then have me a charming smile and a little wave before I moved on to Johnny.
By then I had regained my brain, so I managed to ask Johnny is Nimeh would be back. He said, in a rather mysterious way, I have to say, 'I couldn't possibly comment'. I told him that I have this belief that in any show with magic, just because you die, doesn't mean your dead. He nodded and Angel, who was listening, grinned at me and said said...something, but that I think sounded rather like she thought it was a good philosophy, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that that was producer talk for, yeah, she'll be back.
I then got a photo of Angel and Katie and it's a gorgeous and adorable photo of them.
Katie then said that she recognised me from the front row, which I suppose isn't that surprising since I was sitting more or less in front of her and kept laughing whenever she pulled faces at Bradley. I said, I just couldn't stop laughing (which if you know me, is true regardless of whether I'm at a Con or not. I'm horribly easy to amuse) and she said it was great because she loved and it had kept her amused throughout. I couldn't decide it that was a good thing or a bad thing, but finally settled on good.
Then, because it was getting to be rather boiling in the ExCel centre and we were all tired and hungry, we left Expo. Gareth Lloyd David was there and so was Craig Charles and while I saw them both, by the time all the Merlin stuff was over and done with, I was way too knackered to go and stand in more queues to get things signed.
And, if you follow this link, then you will find j_apollo's youtube videos from the panel - go and look. They are much fun *g*
So, most of us (valderys had to disappear, but it was okay, because she was back for the football on Sunday) then went over to Fleet Street to find the pub where rageprufrock and others would be. We got there really rather early and we all fell upon the bar like we were dying of thirst - or I certainly did *g*
We sat around eating and drinking and then the other's arrived and we sat around drinking some more and laughing and talking about porn, Merlin, the cast, and other topics. I know that j_apollo took a register again, so keep an eye out and see who was there because I really can't remember everyone's name.
We got really damn good seats - relatively near the front, and, as it turned out, the pitch that Bradley ended up playing the most on. Luck was definitely on our side *g*
The most I can do with the football is direct you to photos that should show the delights we got to witness. Not only did we have Bradley being all commanding and very damn good at football, but we also had Santiago going a wee bit shirtless. Between the two of them they got 99% of the goals - and some damn fine ones they were, too.
We were very loud, cheered a lot. I don't think many there believed that they could get so caught up in a football game, but by the semi-final pretty much every single one of us was yelling advice and jumping up screaming every time they scored.
As the day went on, Bradley definitely got more into playing up to the crowd and was always encouraging us to cheer and encourage the team - something we were more than happy to do. At one point we, as one voice, yelled Bradley's name and he rather embarrassedly nodded at us. We also did it for Santiago as well, and he looked rather bemused by it and also acknowledged us,too.
Other people that it was rather cool to see were Danny Dyer, Tamer Hassan (who, Bradley actually shouldered off the pitch at one point - I was worried about him surviving that - the guy is huge), Dominic Cooper, Lee Mack, Omid Djalili and Russell Howard.
The vast majority of people, I had no idea who they were. It made me feel very old.
Oh, and JLS were there, too. Lots of teenage girls being, well, teenage girls. But I think the much more experienced Merlin fandom screamed them out of the water *G*
Here are a couple links to hils photos
part one
part two
All in all, it was quite the brilliant weekend. So much happened that I'm quite sure I've forgotten something I was convinced I'd remember. I can't believe it's over *cries*
I can't wait for the picnic in June *g*