Ayacon report of doom.
Well another Ayacon has come and gone and yet again the committee put on a superb show with queues and delays practically nonexistent. So in honour of the good time I had this weekend just gone I thought I’d do a proper con write up for a change as I have not done one in a while.
Thursday
A day that started ridiculously stressful for me but ended in a most excellent fashion. I’d been up till stupid o clock in the morning putting the last hurried editing touches to our skit video but had not as yet had a chance to find or add a music track. This was causing me some concern as I had only been able to get Thursday afternoon off work to pack up our Team Giblets stuff and travel to the convention. And the music stuff would take me at least that time to sort out, meaning a ridiculously late journey to Coventry. Taking into account the relatively little sleep I’d had it would have made for a potentially dangerous travel situation.
Fortunately my awesome lady Claire stepped up to the plate and told me she would handle it while I was at work. Being a total control freak about these things normally it was quite a mark of how stressed I was that I had no problem with this and was glad to let her get on with it.
So I when I left work at midday and got back home I was delighted to discover that she had sorted all the backing music for the video and had also come up with a couple of ideas and solutions for a few issues I’d been having trouble with. She then looked at me with pride in her eyes and asked if I thought it would be ok. Somebody who had not been coming down from my stressed state and who had also had a bit more sleep would probably have said:
“That’s fantastic sweetie, you’ve put together an excellent backing score in a far quicker time than I would have done and you’ve come up with some ideas that never occurred to me”
However what I said was:
“Well there’s bugger all we can do now if it sucks ass, people will just have to deal with it”
I’m such a classy guy. One sincere apology later I made the last few tweaks to the video, burned it off and then packed our crap in the hire van. We dropped by Tabs to pick up his stuff and then we were on our way at the time I’d originally intended. After hitting Leicester to get our NomCon stock we headed back to Coventry and were sorted and settled in by 10:30pm which allowed us to finish the day eating pizza and talking toot with the reprobates we knew from Scotland, awesome times.
Friday
After breakfast spent the morning and early part of the afternoon unpacking and sorting our stock out in the dealers room while Claire got some quality marker drawing time in.
With our table sorted we wandered over to the opening ceremony where we had an enjoyable time griefing on twitter and watching Mr Fahey, fresh back from Japan, deal with hecklers in his usual entertaining fashion.
The guest introductions were great fun and Mr Mercer started as he meant to go on showing he was still the same kick ass entertainer as he was two years ago.
After the opening ceremony we headed to the Duck to enjoy some drinks while I tried not to get to worried over the panels I was due to be doing for most of the evening. While nowhere near as bad as skit stress I still get hella nervy before any kind of public speaking.
But I needn’t have worried as everything seemed to go very well. I had no trouble filling my 90 minute timeslot for the skits 101 panel and everyone who went seemed to enjoy it. Courtesy of Zelly a video of the full thing can be found here.
Hosting the extreme Cosplay was also a hoot and the inventiveness of the teams was horrifying to behold, with “Butt Girl” being a worthy winner of my hastily cobbled together event theme. Again thanks to Zelly a video of the event can be found here.
Once all that was done we got some food and drinks and while Claire sensibly decided to go and get some rest I hit the party at the students union and got ridiculously drunk.
Saturday
Thanks to my ill advised drinking the night before I started the day with a stinking hangover that would last a large chunk of the day. Not much fun but only myself to blame.
Other than that it was quite a simple day for us. Trade was brisk in the dealer’s room as Kneebone surveyed his kingdom with a steely stare, and at numerous points we got to talk with the various awesome people that we know.
Once trade was done for the day we grabbed some dinner in the Duck and the rest of the evening was spent chatting and drinking with friends and generally relaxing. As the hour got later Claire headed off with Hati to engage in art related activities and I hit the students union once more. Though this time I was a tad more sensible with my alcohol consumption to avoid another morning of pain.
Sunday
I awoke mercifully hangover free and after some tasty breakfast we took our positions in the dealer room once more. An extra aura of class was added to the whole affair when Kneebone took it upon himself to go to sleep on the floor covered in money with a homemade sign reading “hand jobs £5”.
Made a brief trip to the SNL rehearsal to make sure our video would work ok and jotted down some dialogue for an introduction which I’d then spend the next few hours trying to learn.
Trade was slower on the Sunday but still brisk and when we tallied the final takings it turned out we’d had a very successful convention indeed. With SNL taking place after the closing ceremony it meant we had a good couple of hours after the dealer’s room shut to pack everything up and get ready. This turned out to be just enough time and we got everything packed in the van with enough time to change and shower before getting over to the closing ceremony.
With that done there was a 15 minute break before SNL was due to run so I went backstage to get changed and do the usual pre-performance stress. As seems to be the running theme these days I was put on last so I had the whole event to worry through but the lovely backstage gophers were kind enough to grab me a Guinness from the bar to calm my nerves (cheers guys, you rock).
Wasn’t really able to see the acts very well from backstage but I’ve been watching through them on YouTube but the overall quality was awesome. Massive respect to Mark for putting together a great event and he and Mr Mercers hosting was excellent.
Fortunately much to my relief our skit went down very well, full performance can be viewed here and the video used during the skit here. I know people say I don’t need to worry but by the time I get to the end of making the video for a skit I’ve watched the damn thing so many times that I can’t find it funny anymore.
With SNL done I could finally relax and we ended up grabbing some food from the café outside the auditorium as the Duck had somewhat annoyingly sold out of food. Suitably refuelled we had some quiet drinks and then partied into the wee hours of the morning at the Time Travellers dance. After that was done we had some quality loitering time in the amphitheatre talking toot with the huge post convention crowd that had gathered before heading to bed.
Monday
Somehow managed to get out of bed and packed in time for the 9:30am room kick out. We then spent the remainder of the morning chatting and saying goodbye to people in the Rootes building.
Before heading for home ourselves we had a leisurely pit stop in a local harvester with piri piri Partridge, Ali, Johnny, Hati, Chloe and Kneebone, where despite shitty service a good meal was had. Food consumed we abandoned the Scots to the horror of the M6 gauntlet north while we had a far easier journey back down south. The journey did prove to be more entertaining than I expected as a gradually escalating war of pranks started taking place each time a vehicle in our mini convoy overtook the other.
Finally got back to Southampton where everyone kindly helped unload the van before we said our final goodbyes and concluded a glorious weekend.
Thursday
A day that started ridiculously stressful for me but ended in a most excellent fashion. I’d been up till stupid o clock in the morning putting the last hurried editing touches to our skit video but had not as yet had a chance to find or add a music track. This was causing me some concern as I had only been able to get Thursday afternoon off work to pack up our Team Giblets stuff and travel to the convention. And the music stuff would take me at least that time to sort out, meaning a ridiculously late journey to Coventry. Taking into account the relatively little sleep I’d had it would have made for a potentially dangerous travel situation.
Fortunately my awesome lady Claire stepped up to the plate and told me she would handle it while I was at work. Being a total control freak about these things normally it was quite a mark of how stressed I was that I had no problem with this and was glad to let her get on with it.
So I when I left work at midday and got back home I was delighted to discover that she had sorted all the backing music for the video and had also come up with a couple of ideas and solutions for a few issues I’d been having trouble with. She then looked at me with pride in her eyes and asked if I thought it would be ok. Somebody who had not been coming down from my stressed state and who had also had a bit more sleep would probably have said:
“That’s fantastic sweetie, you’ve put together an excellent backing score in a far quicker time than I would have done and you’ve come up with some ideas that never occurred to me”
However what I said was:
“Well there’s bugger all we can do now if it sucks ass, people will just have to deal with it”
I’m such a classy guy. One sincere apology later I made the last few tweaks to the video, burned it off and then packed our crap in the hire van. We dropped by Tabs to pick up his stuff and then we were on our way at the time I’d originally intended. After hitting Leicester to get our NomCon stock we headed back to Coventry and were sorted and settled in by 10:30pm which allowed us to finish the day eating pizza and talking toot with the reprobates we knew from Scotland, awesome times.
Friday
After breakfast spent the morning and early part of the afternoon unpacking and sorting our stock out in the dealers room while Claire got some quality marker drawing time in.
With our table sorted we wandered over to the opening ceremony where we had an enjoyable time griefing on twitter and watching Mr Fahey, fresh back from Japan, deal with hecklers in his usual entertaining fashion.
The guest introductions were great fun and Mr Mercer started as he meant to go on showing he was still the same kick ass entertainer as he was two years ago.
After the opening ceremony we headed to the Duck to enjoy some drinks while I tried not to get to worried over the panels I was due to be doing for most of the evening. While nowhere near as bad as skit stress I still get hella nervy before any kind of public speaking.
But I needn’t have worried as everything seemed to go very well. I had no trouble filling my 90 minute timeslot for the skits 101 panel and everyone who went seemed to enjoy it. Courtesy of Zelly a video of the full thing can be found here.
Hosting the extreme Cosplay was also a hoot and the inventiveness of the teams was horrifying to behold, with “Butt Girl” being a worthy winner of my hastily cobbled together event theme. Again thanks to Zelly a video of the event can be found here.
Once all that was done we got some food and drinks and while Claire sensibly decided to go and get some rest I hit the party at the students union and got ridiculously drunk.
Saturday
Thanks to my ill advised drinking the night before I started the day with a stinking hangover that would last a large chunk of the day. Not much fun but only myself to blame.
Other than that it was quite a simple day for us. Trade was brisk in the dealer’s room as Kneebone surveyed his kingdom with a steely stare, and at numerous points we got to talk with the various awesome people that we know.
Once trade was done for the day we grabbed some dinner in the Duck and the rest of the evening was spent chatting and drinking with friends and generally relaxing. As the hour got later Claire headed off with Hati to engage in art related activities and I hit the students union once more. Though this time I was a tad more sensible with my alcohol consumption to avoid another morning of pain.
Sunday
I awoke mercifully hangover free and after some tasty breakfast we took our positions in the dealer room once more. An extra aura of class was added to the whole affair when Kneebone took it upon himself to go to sleep on the floor covered in money with a homemade sign reading “hand jobs £5”.
Made a brief trip to the SNL rehearsal to make sure our video would work ok and jotted down some dialogue for an introduction which I’d then spend the next few hours trying to learn.
Trade was slower on the Sunday but still brisk and when we tallied the final takings it turned out we’d had a very successful convention indeed. With SNL taking place after the closing ceremony it meant we had a good couple of hours after the dealer’s room shut to pack everything up and get ready. This turned out to be just enough time and we got everything packed in the van with enough time to change and shower before getting over to the closing ceremony.
With that done there was a 15 minute break before SNL was due to run so I went backstage to get changed and do the usual pre-performance stress. As seems to be the running theme these days I was put on last so I had the whole event to worry through but the lovely backstage gophers were kind enough to grab me a Guinness from the bar to calm my nerves (cheers guys, you rock).
Wasn’t really able to see the acts very well from backstage but I’ve been watching through them on YouTube but the overall quality was awesome. Massive respect to Mark for putting together a great event and he and Mr Mercers hosting was excellent.
Fortunately much to my relief our skit went down very well, full performance can be viewed here and the video used during the skit here. I know people say I don’t need to worry but by the time I get to the end of making the video for a skit I’ve watched the damn thing so many times that I can’t find it funny anymore.
With SNL done I could finally relax and we ended up grabbing some food from the café outside the auditorium as the Duck had somewhat annoyingly sold out of food. Suitably refuelled we had some quiet drinks and then partied into the wee hours of the morning at the Time Travellers dance. After that was done we had some quality loitering time in the amphitheatre talking toot with the huge post convention crowd that had gathered before heading to bed.
Monday
Somehow managed to get out of bed and packed in time for the 9:30am room kick out. We then spent the remainder of the morning chatting and saying goodbye to people in the Rootes building.
Before heading for home ourselves we had a leisurely pit stop in a local harvester with piri piri Partridge, Ali, Johnny, Hati, Chloe and Kneebone, where despite shitty service a good meal was had. Food consumed we abandoned the Scots to the horror of the M6 gauntlet north while we had a far easier journey back down south. The journey did prove to be more entertaining than I expected as a gradually escalating war of pranks started taking place each time a vehicle in our mini convoy overtook the other.
Finally got back to Southampton where everyone kindly helped unload the van before we said our final goodbyes and concluded a glorious weekend.