Better late than never - Malmö Report
As I said, I typed it while I was away, so I might as well post it
When I went to bed on Friday night - or should we say early on Saturday morning - I’d been trying to work out when I needed to get up in order to make my flight at 6.50 am. In the end I set my alarm for 5.00 am which in my not-completely-sober state made perfect sense. When the alarm went off three hours later I was sober enough to realise that it was a bloody tight schedule - I had to get showered and dressed, put the final bits into my backpack, drive to the parking area where I’d booked a spot, get on the bus to the airport, get through security, the works. Arghh!!! Well to cut the long story short, I was lucky and made it just in time. And promptly fell asleep on the plane.
Arrived in Copenhagen and got on the train to Malmoe where I arrived 20 minutes later. Walked to the hotel and was lucky again - they let me check in even though it was only 10.30 am. So I could drop my luggage and then walk to one of the cafes I had spotted on the way…and then breakfast in the sun! The weather was absolutely gorgeous.
I felt a lot better after I’d eaten something and had had a coffee so I strolled through the park and towards the convention centre. I knew kohaku1977 and llanowar1977 were going to be another hour or so and when I arrived at Malmoe Maessan it was really quiet so I went to see Craig straightaway. When I got to his queue I saw…green. Bright green. Very bright green. Quite…unusual colour for Craig to wear! While I was still pondering whether Mark Ferguson is now doing Craig’s clothes shopping for him it was my turn. I got a very lovely hug and we had a bit of a chat. Craig said he was going to stay until Monday and maybe visit Copenhagen; and that he was going to fly to New Zealand on Wednesday to start working on Glide Time. He really likes Sweden but is not likely to do the third convention which is in Stockholm in autumn, but it might well be that he is going to be at RingCon (yay!). He talked to Elijah about it in Gothenburg and Elijah indeed has all the best intentions to make it to RingCon as planned (yay!). He’s looking forward to going to New Zealand and he said that Glide Time is good fun but not very "deep". I told him I was going to be in Singapore at the end of June and that I might just decide to come over to Auckland since I was already halfway there. Can’t remember exactly what he said to that but the word "crazy" was mentioned ;-)
I left to meet kohaku1977 and llanowar1977 who had arrived by then and we browsed the (not very many) stalls for pretty pics and had a look at all the geekboys that were running around the place. kohaku1977 got an autograph from Carl Weathers for her hubby and then we went back to Craig. I was holding the picture of Carl Weathers and I had to tease Craig a bit about his lack of muscles in comparison with that guy. He laughed and said he was far too lazy to build muscles like that. But actually, his arm muscles might not be big, but they feel like steel. I checked ;-)
That done we had enough of the convention center so we drove to the hotel, and had coffee and cake, and a nice long walk through the park and to the beach. On the way back we stopped for a beer and then decided to go back to the hotel, get some warmer clothes (the sun was gone and it was getting chilly) and return to the "lilla torg" (small square) for food. We went to a steak house and followed that great Swedish tradition of eating outside when it is freezing cold. Which is entirely possible since all places have blankets and gas heaters - though from hindsight it was probably not good enough, as I ended up having a cold. It was a busy evening and the food took a while to arrive so by the time we had eaten we were absolutely knackered and went back to the hotel and crashed.
We woke up to another sunny day and after a lenghty breakfast went to buy some magazines and provisions for kohaku1977 and llanowar1977 as they had to leave for their long drive home. I did some shopping (found some of the photoalbums I like that I could not find in the UK - now I can finally put my NZ pictures somewhere!), and then back through the park and down the beach. There is a pier with an old wooden "bathhouse" (and indeed people were swimming!) and I stopped in the café there for a glass of wine. When I walked back I thought for a moment that I must have gotten v. drunk from the one glass because I saw naked men suddenly! But it seems part of the beach is indeed nudist, I never knew that before!
I walked through the harbour area which is being redeveloped, and the part I came through is really very nice, with lots of trendy appartment blocks, restaurants and bars. From there you can walk along the Twisting Torso and from there to Malmoe Maessan, the convention centre. It was almost 4 pm but there were still people in Craig’s queue which was great - in fact I think that of the five "stars" at the con he must have most visitors during the weekend. He was lovely to everyone as usual, and the people standing behind me commented on the fact that he was "mingling" with the visitors rather than sitting behind the table.
We had another quick chat, I told him I’d just come by to tell him how gorgeous the weather was outside, and that I had needed to get out of the sun as my face was burning, to which he said "no, you just have a lovely glow" (yeah…). Told him what I had been up to and he said he was glad that at least one of us had not spent all day at the convention centre - though they had let him out for lunch at least and he was hoping to go back to the harbour area when the con was closing.
I asked him what else he was up to apart from theatre in Auckland and he said that he was going to come back to London and there was some stuff he was hoping to do later this year - TV. No details unfortunately! I told him about the Gathering of the Fellowship newsletter and how they’d mentioned his "busy acting schedule" and he thought that was hilarious. I told him that I thought so too but that someone had appearantly not liked me making fun of it in my LJ and told me I was being disrespectful…and he was laughing his head off! And then said very clearly that he *wants* to be picky (and for example, doing two year’s worth of Casualty was just not what he wanted to do) and apart from his parents he does not need anyone to worry about him, thank you very much. And since he does not look like a starving artist either (on the contrary, he was tanned and happy and glowing) at least I am not worried about him in the least!
There were still people waiting behind me so I left and said "well might see you in Auckland then" (to which he answered "but it is really not a very deep play!!!" - as if that made a difference :-) ). I went back to the harbour and found a place with very yummy ice cream so I sat in the sun some more and then slowly made my way back to the hotel to pick up my belongings and then to the train station. I almost fell asleep on the train, I was so tired from all the walking!
Rest of the trip went smoothly and I was home in time to pack my suitcase for South Africa…did not make a particularly good job of that but that’s another story!
When I went to bed on Friday night - or should we say early on Saturday morning - I’d been trying to work out when I needed to get up in order to make my flight at 6.50 am. In the end I set my alarm for 5.00 am which in my not-completely-sober state made perfect sense. When the alarm went off three hours later I was sober enough to realise that it was a bloody tight schedule - I had to get showered and dressed, put the final bits into my backpack, drive to the parking area where I’d booked a spot, get on the bus to the airport, get through security, the works. Arghh!!! Well to cut the long story short, I was lucky and made it just in time. And promptly fell asleep on the plane.
Arrived in Copenhagen and got on the train to Malmoe where I arrived 20 minutes later. Walked to the hotel and was lucky again - they let me check in even though it was only 10.30 am. So I could drop my luggage and then walk to one of the cafes I had spotted on the way…and then breakfast in the sun! The weather was absolutely gorgeous.
I felt a lot better after I’d eaten something and had had a coffee so I strolled through the park and towards the convention centre. I knew kohaku1977 and llanowar1977 were going to be another hour or so and when I arrived at Malmoe Maessan it was really quiet so I went to see Craig straightaway. When I got to his queue I saw…green. Bright green. Very bright green. Quite…unusual colour for Craig to wear! While I was still pondering whether Mark Ferguson is now doing Craig’s clothes shopping for him it was my turn. I got a very lovely hug and we had a bit of a chat. Craig said he was going to stay until Monday and maybe visit Copenhagen; and that he was going to fly to New Zealand on Wednesday to start working on Glide Time. He really likes Sweden but is not likely to do the third convention which is in Stockholm in autumn, but it might well be that he is going to be at RingCon (yay!). He talked to Elijah about it in Gothenburg and Elijah indeed has all the best intentions to make it to RingCon as planned (yay!). He’s looking forward to going to New Zealand and he said that Glide Time is good fun but not very "deep". I told him I was going to be in Singapore at the end of June and that I might just decide to come over to Auckland since I was already halfway there. Can’t remember exactly what he said to that but the word "crazy" was mentioned ;-)
I left to meet kohaku1977 and llanowar1977 who had arrived by then and we browsed the (not very many) stalls for pretty pics and had a look at all the geekboys that were running around the place. kohaku1977 got an autograph from Carl Weathers for her hubby and then we went back to Craig. I was holding the picture of Carl Weathers and I had to tease Craig a bit about his lack of muscles in comparison with that guy. He laughed and said he was far too lazy to build muscles like that. But actually, his arm muscles might not be big, but they feel like steel. I checked ;-)
That done we had enough of the convention center so we drove to the hotel, and had coffee and cake, and a nice long walk through the park and to the beach. On the way back we stopped for a beer and then decided to go back to the hotel, get some warmer clothes (the sun was gone and it was getting chilly) and return to the "lilla torg" (small square) for food. We went to a steak house and followed that great Swedish tradition of eating outside when it is freezing cold. Which is entirely possible since all places have blankets and gas heaters - though from hindsight it was probably not good enough, as I ended up having a cold. It was a busy evening and the food took a while to arrive so by the time we had eaten we were absolutely knackered and went back to the hotel and crashed.
We woke up to another sunny day and after a lenghty breakfast went to buy some magazines and provisions for kohaku1977 and llanowar1977 as they had to leave for their long drive home. I did some shopping (found some of the photoalbums I like that I could not find in the UK - now I can finally put my NZ pictures somewhere!), and then back through the park and down the beach. There is a pier with an old wooden "bathhouse" (and indeed people were swimming!) and I stopped in the café there for a glass of wine. When I walked back I thought for a moment that I must have gotten v. drunk from the one glass because I saw naked men suddenly! But it seems part of the beach is indeed nudist, I never knew that before!
I walked through the harbour area which is being redeveloped, and the part I came through is really very nice, with lots of trendy appartment blocks, restaurants and bars. From there you can walk along the Twisting Torso and from there to Malmoe Maessan, the convention centre. It was almost 4 pm but there were still people in Craig’s queue which was great - in fact I think that of the five "stars" at the con he must have most visitors during the weekend. He was lovely to everyone as usual, and the people standing behind me commented on the fact that he was "mingling" with the visitors rather than sitting behind the table.
We had another quick chat, I told him I’d just come by to tell him how gorgeous the weather was outside, and that I had needed to get out of the sun as my face was burning, to which he said "no, you just have a lovely glow" (yeah…). Told him what I had been up to and he said he was glad that at least one of us had not spent all day at the convention centre - though they had let him out for lunch at least and he was hoping to go back to the harbour area when the con was closing.
I asked him what else he was up to apart from theatre in Auckland and he said that he was going to come back to London and there was some stuff he was hoping to do later this year - TV. No details unfortunately! I told him about the Gathering of the Fellowship newsletter and how they’d mentioned his "busy acting schedule" and he thought that was hilarious. I told him that I thought so too but that someone had appearantly not liked me making fun of it in my LJ and told me I was being disrespectful…and he was laughing his head off! And then said very clearly that he *wants* to be picky (and for example, doing two year’s worth of Casualty was just not what he wanted to do) and apart from his parents he does not need anyone to worry about him, thank you very much. And since he does not look like a starving artist either (on the contrary, he was tanned and happy and glowing) at least I am not worried about him in the least!
There were still people waiting behind me so I left and said "well might see you in Auckland then" (to which he answered "but it is really not a very deep play!!!" - as if that made a difference :-) ). I went back to the harbour and found a place with very yummy ice cream so I sat in the sun some more and then slowly made my way back to the hotel to pick up my belongings and then to the train station. I almost fell asleep on the train, I was so tired from all the walking!
Rest of the trip went smoothly and I was home in time to pack my suitcase for South Africa…did not make a particularly good job of that but that’s another story!