Confuzzled and my Adventure in the UK: Warning super long Journal
This has been an absolutely amazing experience and I am beyond grateful to everyone who was apart of making my experience in the UK something truly special. PCD is hitting me like a bitch right now as I'm typing this. I never once thought that making silly little routines while wearing an animal costume would get me this.
I knew nearly no one up until a month before the convention, I was getting nervous, stressed. Then I got there and was instantly charmed by the weather which was apparently a bizarre week of bliss after the country had been tormented by rain, rain and more rain. Fairlight drove us through many small villages and country on the way from Manchester airport to the hotel.
That hotel was fantastic and had such a great layout for a con of this size. The triumph bar was certainly a favorite hangout destination for me. The indoor pool/Jacuzzi/steam room/sauna was a nice plus too. My room was stunning I very much enjoyed it. I’ve never had the pleasure of using a towel heater before .
Let me use my conbook to try to recall the order of things. (Which impressed me right from the start. FWA is more than twice the size but doesn’t have one. Anthrocon is the largest in the world and their conbook is filled with quite a few embarrassing works and just not as organized.)
-Opening Ceremonies. Colson, and myself are kidnapped and driven in this really scary fast little car to a field. We get there and hear the chopper coming around the corner. They just cut the grass apparently which all suddenly picked up in a huge gust of awwww shhiiiiiit! He dashed behind the warehouse building and pressed against it like it was a war movie XD. After dusting all the debris off our back we got in and took off. Some of the furs who knew about this seemed to be under the impression that Colson and I were nervous about flying. No we thoroughly appreciated being taken up and seeing the gorgeous landscape. We simply had our reserves about arriving is such over-the-top grandiose style. It felt beyond pompous when we are personally humble and modest. Other than that little detail, it was very awesome to go up there. The pilot was quite the character too and tried to get me to steer the chopper.
-Meet the GoH. Some may have seen me dashing to this cause I was in fear of running late. I was out grabbing some much needed food in town. Gosh its so hard to find things when there are no signs anywhere XD. Had some subway which tasted just a tad fresher than ours back home, ate half my sub then got back with the other half in my hand. Sooo yeah, the panel was pretty short. I appreciate the questions we got, I could certainly sense a shyness in the room. Like people had stuff to ask but didn’t want to sound bad. I wanted to start asking Colson my own questions or even turn it on the audience and learn more about the British XD
-Colson’s concert. First time I got to see him perform. I was delighted, especially with the We Are Young song and especially impressed with Neo’s little interpretation of the Portal song. I was sure to give the guy a big hug when he got off the stage.
-My set, so Colson’s concert ran pretty late and I had to duck out early to get ready for my dj set. I hope everyone who was there enjoyed it, It looked like the crowd was really into it. I was actually getting concerned with how long some of the attendees to my set were energetically dancing in that room without leaving for some water and air XD I guess the fans did keep people extra cool. They certainly were impressive even if they got louder than the music at some points.
Friday night, more drinks! As an American it was just fantastic and crazy that we are allowed to walk freely with an open drink in our hand. Oh jeez, now I remember I was chatting til 4am before I remembered I had dancing panels at 11. I got back to my room and saw the sun rising at 4:30 and thought... Wuuut?
So Saturday started off with me clutching to 4 hours of sleep I got. I would have died without confuzzled’s supplied breakfast which was fantastic (with a little salt) I wonder why people kept saying British food was terrible because I had none the whole trip ^^’ Guess I got lucky? I was rather amused by everyone so surprised at how early I was awake and looking alive. I was also amused by everyone asking me how I enjoyed their ‘bacon’ XD Heres my opinion. Its not better or worse than American Bacon because its a totally different thing. You guys are simply serving a grilled slip of ham. Its like trying to say a smoothie is the same as a slushie. They’re similar but they’re too different to compare properly. So I’m just gonna smile and keep thinking bacon is simply the word you guys use for breakfast ham.
Dance panel - Great turn out! I hope I could help out the best I could. I’m not professional and I’m not an instructor so I apologize if I seemed pretty unorganized there.
Red Carpet video- I was blown away by how many furs showed up. Theres a lot of footage and its going to be tricky to squeeze everyone into one song. I also disappointed myself because I was going to do a take with me dancing the whole song just like I did for AC but I was in suit for so long and the running on 4 hours thing was getting to me. I felt that with such a big turnout we would have enough to work with to not need me. This video is all about you guys after all. Huge thanks to the staff for allowing us to use the red carpet in that room, it ended up staying in there for the rest of the con! Also props to Mikepaws and Kiyo for assisting. There was one more guy who offered his footage which I will be using, sorry if I forgot your name. Theres about 700 new people at that con that I’ve never met before ^^’
Fortunately the rest of that day had no other events I was required to go to. Had a good long nap. Also made repairs to MonsteRoo as usual XD. (one arm almost came completely off) Another night of drinking was to be had. Room parties were right next to me which was awesome. Nick and Lacy, you guys are wonderful and like you said, great to have a familiar friendly face. Shivon, oh you are the epitome of the word Best Bud XD I’d hop between the two parties and also have a little one in my room and watch silly youtube vids. Also I’m sorry I pissed in the bidet, but that was pretty hilarious XD. Someone was using my restroom and I really had to go! Augh and then there was that shot from hell. I don’t know what was funnier, my faces when I was trying desperately to keep it down like a final boss, or the face of the guy who gave me it cause he thought he just killed one of the GoHs. Really had a great time.
Sunday!
Got a very nice sleep and some more breakfast. Didn’t attend the parade but I was there on the floor watching it, just didn’t want to get the suits out when I had very important performances coming up.
Sponsor buffet! This was so much fun! I think it turned out great. The staff was more than great with getting me what I needed. The cutouts were hilarious. I’m really excited to watch all the performances once they get uploaded. Super duper thanks to Dash Tiger for being my personal support for the show.
In case you wanted to know.
Be Our Guest - Beauty and the Beast
Sweet Transvestite - Rocky Horror Picture Show
Hopelessly Devoted to You - Grease
Cell Block Tango - Chicago.
I was super happy with all my performances, but I think my personal favorite was Hopelessly Devoted to You. The Moment I punched the Terminator cutout was so on spot.
The funniest part is, thats the one I rehearsed the least. The one I rehearsed the most I was the one I had the most mess ups XP (Cell Block Tango)
Thank you every sponsor that attended. I sat back there for a while in glow of delight to how much fun the performances were. Then Dash and I realized that Kage had been on stage and talking for the past 10 minutes. There was no way I could stay back there, I had places to be! I thought it was rather Ironic interrupting him while he was talking about airports and we were holding two huge suitcases and I had a vacation to Fhloston Paradise shirt on. Gave my fellow American a Salute and we scampered away. (Score, upstaged Kage)
Soon to come was the dance competition. Wow.
Wow wow wow wow wow. I’m sure you guys know how I felt about it. As for everyone back home. Wow wow wow wow. There is a whole ‘nother pool of talent over there that blew my mind. And just about all the song choices were great too. I loved every moment of it. I was concerned that there were only 8 acts but more than impressed with everyone that participated. Great set up too. Damnit.. Kiyo, Zak, Tygs, Tre. You’re not going to hear the end of this. Now I’m sure once all the footage from the event comes out everyones gonna start saying, ‘Don’t pull a Mangy’ when referring to getting choked up with tears in public. Inspirational. All the other acts too were amazing, Neo and Eoss really impressed me too with all their acts, just so much heart was in them.
If any of the dancers would like a through critique from me send a note and I’ll write somethin up.
Fellow judges Colson and Fox Amoore were great company too. Its definitely a good idea to have musically inclined individuals watching an event that relies on rhythm.
Got to taste Indian food for the first time soon after that. It was soooo good. Man and our motley crue in that van. You guys were crazy characters. The shit Ani and Tygs were saying cracked me up XD Snuggle bunny you are just WACKY. Kiyo and Zak, you guys felt like brothers I never had from the beginning. So many people were awesome, I can’t remember all the names.
Got back full of delicious eats. Sat in the auction for a little bit to let it settle. Thank you to whoever purchased the autographed conbook for 70£. 100% of that one went to the charity.
Chilled in my room a bit more since I could use a relax. Dash showed me some of the entertainment on the BBC till I was ready for one more night of partay. Got the courage to suit up just once more and goofed around. I felt bad that lots of people never got a proper picture with me so I hope I got to some of you who wanted one. Spent most of the night with my head off in the Triumph bar. Drank a whole pitcher of the Woof Woof that Zen got for me. So I was getting pretty loopy XD. I remember screaming somebody that I used to know into Dash’s ear just like Kimbra does in the video. Also pretend table flipping.... and stealthily stealing Ani’s beer. Then getting out of suit and coming back with a warm beer I hid behind a chair. Good times good times.
Monday it was time to leave the hotel and eventually make my way for a day in London with Mikepaws. I really appreciate everyone who came up and said goodbye. All of you were wonderful, truly. Got to London after after a few trains. Got to Mike’s flat, got some local authentic cod with chips and chatted up the Chinese man. Delicious. When it comes to food, the hardest thing for an American to get used to is probably the no-free refill thing; especially when all your soft drinks taste so much better with the real sugar. We just gulp it down like a fish. Early night rest and we’d be up for a day in the city.
Once again, big props to Mikepaws for showing me around, you really know your city. I really did love the sites, some more than others. I hope he wasn’t off put by my joking remarks on a few of the monuments. (Buckingham needs more eleganza if it wants to be called a Palace) Loved seeing the crown jewels in person, made 3 trips to peer at their shiny glory. Armory was super neat too. The whole day in London was wonderful, we kept making the joke that everything was being cleaned up just for my visit since the Diamond Jubilee is coming about. But really, how fortunate I was to experience the entire capitol in top shape. God save the Queen :)
Also, you guys don’t eat pizza right XD, I don’t care if the restaurant was a little fancy. So had to pretty much go directly to my overnight train. Quite a fiasco when you have two huge bags full of fursuits. Thanks for trying to help mike but I just couldn’t read your lips through the window. Must’ve been your accent. You should’ve just popped on for a minute anyways, there were never any guards around.
The wait at 1am to get my boarding pass at 7am was absolutely awful. Flight back was marvelous, Virgin Atlantic is the best Airline I’ve ever flown.
I’m going to really miss you guys. It was overall the greatest experience of my life to be there. I’m gonna start saving up to make it next year and stay longer now that I know so many of ya now. I can’t be gracious enough to have this opportunity especially at 23 years old. Everyone who was at Confuzzled, accept my Sincerest Thank You for welcoming me and showing me a great time in your convention and your country.
I knew nearly no one up until a month before the convention, I was getting nervous, stressed. Then I got there and was instantly charmed by the weather which was apparently a bizarre week of bliss after the country had been tormented by rain, rain and more rain. Fairlight drove us through many small villages and country on the way from Manchester airport to the hotel.
That hotel was fantastic and had such a great layout for a con of this size. The triumph bar was certainly a favorite hangout destination for me. The indoor pool/Jacuzzi/steam room/sauna was a nice plus too. My room was stunning I very much enjoyed it. I’ve never had the pleasure of using a towel heater before .
Let me use my conbook to try to recall the order of things. (Which impressed me right from the start. FWA is more than twice the size but doesn’t have one. Anthrocon is the largest in the world and their conbook is filled with quite a few embarrassing works and just not as organized.)
-Opening Ceremonies. Colson, and myself are kidnapped and driven in this really scary fast little car to a field. We get there and hear the chopper coming around the corner. They just cut the grass apparently which all suddenly picked up in a huge gust of awwww shhiiiiiit! He dashed behind the warehouse building and pressed against it like it was a war movie XD. After dusting all the debris off our back we got in and took off. Some of the furs who knew about this seemed to be under the impression that Colson and I were nervous about flying. No we thoroughly appreciated being taken up and seeing the gorgeous landscape. We simply had our reserves about arriving is such over-the-top grandiose style. It felt beyond pompous when we are personally humble and modest. Other than that little detail, it was very awesome to go up there. The pilot was quite the character too and tried to get me to steer the chopper.
-Meet the GoH. Some may have seen me dashing to this cause I was in fear of running late. I was out grabbing some much needed food in town. Gosh its so hard to find things when there are no signs anywhere XD. Had some subway which tasted just a tad fresher than ours back home, ate half my sub then got back with the other half in my hand. Sooo yeah, the panel was pretty short. I appreciate the questions we got, I could certainly sense a shyness in the room. Like people had stuff to ask but didn’t want to sound bad. I wanted to start asking Colson my own questions or even turn it on the audience and learn more about the British XD
-Colson’s concert. First time I got to see him perform. I was delighted, especially with the We Are Young song and especially impressed with Neo’s little interpretation of the Portal song. I was sure to give the guy a big hug when he got off the stage.
-My set, so Colson’s concert ran pretty late and I had to duck out early to get ready for my dj set. I hope everyone who was there enjoyed it, It looked like the crowd was really into it. I was actually getting concerned with how long some of the attendees to my set were energetically dancing in that room without leaving for some water and air XD I guess the fans did keep people extra cool. They certainly were impressive even if they got louder than the music at some points.
Friday night, more drinks! As an American it was just fantastic and crazy that we are allowed to walk freely with an open drink in our hand. Oh jeez, now I remember I was chatting til 4am before I remembered I had dancing panels at 11. I got back to my room and saw the sun rising at 4:30 and thought... Wuuut?
So Saturday started off with me clutching to 4 hours of sleep I got. I would have died without confuzzled’s supplied breakfast which was fantastic (with a little salt) I wonder why people kept saying British food was terrible because I had none the whole trip ^^’ Guess I got lucky? I was rather amused by everyone so surprised at how early I was awake and looking alive. I was also amused by everyone asking me how I enjoyed their ‘bacon’ XD Heres my opinion. Its not better or worse than American Bacon because its a totally different thing. You guys are simply serving a grilled slip of ham. Its like trying to say a smoothie is the same as a slushie. They’re similar but they’re too different to compare properly. So I’m just gonna smile and keep thinking bacon is simply the word you guys use for breakfast ham.
Dance panel - Great turn out! I hope I could help out the best I could. I’m not professional and I’m not an instructor so I apologize if I seemed pretty unorganized there.
Red Carpet video- I was blown away by how many furs showed up. Theres a lot of footage and its going to be tricky to squeeze everyone into one song. I also disappointed myself because I was going to do a take with me dancing the whole song just like I did for AC but I was in suit for so long and the running on 4 hours thing was getting to me. I felt that with such a big turnout we would have enough to work with to not need me. This video is all about you guys after all. Huge thanks to the staff for allowing us to use the red carpet in that room, it ended up staying in there for the rest of the con! Also props to Mikepaws and Kiyo for assisting. There was one more guy who offered his footage which I will be using, sorry if I forgot your name. Theres about 700 new people at that con that I’ve never met before ^^’
Fortunately the rest of that day had no other events I was required to go to. Had a good long nap. Also made repairs to MonsteRoo as usual XD. (one arm almost came completely off) Another night of drinking was to be had. Room parties were right next to me which was awesome. Nick and Lacy, you guys are wonderful and like you said, great to have a familiar friendly face. Shivon, oh you are the epitome of the word Best Bud XD I’d hop between the two parties and also have a little one in my room and watch silly youtube vids. Also I’m sorry I pissed in the bidet, but that was pretty hilarious XD. Someone was using my restroom and I really had to go! Augh and then there was that shot from hell. I don’t know what was funnier, my faces when I was trying desperately to keep it down like a final boss, or the face of the guy who gave me it cause he thought he just killed one of the GoHs. Really had a great time.
Sunday!
Got a very nice sleep and some more breakfast. Didn’t attend the parade but I was there on the floor watching it, just didn’t want to get the suits out when I had very important performances coming up.
Sponsor buffet! This was so much fun! I think it turned out great. The staff was more than great with getting me what I needed. The cutouts were hilarious. I’m really excited to watch all the performances once they get uploaded. Super duper thanks to Dash Tiger for being my personal support for the show.
In case you wanted to know.
Be Our Guest - Beauty and the Beast
Sweet Transvestite - Rocky Horror Picture Show
Hopelessly Devoted to You - Grease
Cell Block Tango - Chicago.
I was super happy with all my performances, but I think my personal favorite was Hopelessly Devoted to You. The Moment I punched the Terminator cutout was so on spot.
The funniest part is, thats the one I rehearsed the least. The one I rehearsed the most I was the one I had the most mess ups XP (Cell Block Tango)
Thank you every sponsor that attended. I sat back there for a while in glow of delight to how much fun the performances were. Then Dash and I realized that Kage had been on stage and talking for the past 10 minutes. There was no way I could stay back there, I had places to be! I thought it was rather Ironic interrupting him while he was talking about airports and we were holding two huge suitcases and I had a vacation to Fhloston Paradise shirt on. Gave my fellow American a Salute and we scampered away. (Score, upstaged Kage)
Soon to come was the dance competition. Wow.
Wow wow wow wow wow. I’m sure you guys know how I felt about it. As for everyone back home. Wow wow wow wow. There is a whole ‘nother pool of talent over there that blew my mind. And just about all the song choices were great too. I loved every moment of it. I was concerned that there were only 8 acts but more than impressed with everyone that participated. Great set up too. Damnit.. Kiyo, Zak, Tygs, Tre. You’re not going to hear the end of this. Now I’m sure once all the footage from the event comes out everyones gonna start saying, ‘Don’t pull a Mangy’ when referring to getting choked up with tears in public. Inspirational. All the other acts too were amazing, Neo and Eoss really impressed me too with all their acts, just so much heart was in them.
If any of the dancers would like a through critique from me send a note and I’ll write somethin up.
Fellow judges Colson and Fox Amoore were great company too. Its definitely a good idea to have musically inclined individuals watching an event that relies on rhythm.
Got to taste Indian food for the first time soon after that. It was soooo good. Man and our motley crue in that van. You guys were crazy characters. The shit Ani and Tygs were saying cracked me up XD Snuggle bunny you are just WACKY. Kiyo and Zak, you guys felt like brothers I never had from the beginning. So many people were awesome, I can’t remember all the names.
Got back full of delicious eats. Sat in the auction for a little bit to let it settle. Thank you to whoever purchased the autographed conbook for 70£. 100% of that one went to the charity.
Chilled in my room a bit more since I could use a relax. Dash showed me some of the entertainment on the BBC till I was ready for one more night of partay. Got the courage to suit up just once more and goofed around. I felt bad that lots of people never got a proper picture with me so I hope I got to some of you who wanted one. Spent most of the night with my head off in the Triumph bar. Drank a whole pitcher of the Woof Woof that Zen got for me. So I was getting pretty loopy XD. I remember screaming somebody that I used to know into Dash’s ear just like Kimbra does in the video. Also pretend table flipping.... and stealthily stealing Ani’s beer. Then getting out of suit and coming back with a warm beer I hid behind a chair. Good times good times.
Monday it was time to leave the hotel and eventually make my way for a day in London with Mikepaws. I really appreciate everyone who came up and said goodbye. All of you were wonderful, truly. Got to London after after a few trains. Got to Mike’s flat, got some local authentic cod with chips and chatted up the Chinese man. Delicious. When it comes to food, the hardest thing for an American to get used to is probably the no-free refill thing; especially when all your soft drinks taste so much better with the real sugar. We just gulp it down like a fish. Early night rest and we’d be up for a day in the city.
Once again, big props to Mikepaws for showing me around, you really know your city. I really did love the sites, some more than others. I hope he wasn’t off put by my joking remarks on a few of the monuments. (Buckingham needs more eleganza if it wants to be called a Palace) Loved seeing the crown jewels in person, made 3 trips to peer at their shiny glory. Armory was super neat too. The whole day in London was wonderful, we kept making the joke that everything was being cleaned up just for my visit since the Diamond Jubilee is coming about. But really, how fortunate I was to experience the entire capitol in top shape. God save the Queen :)
Also, you guys don’t eat pizza right XD, I don’t care if the restaurant was a little fancy. So had to pretty much go directly to my overnight train. Quite a fiasco when you have two huge bags full of fursuits. Thanks for trying to help mike but I just couldn’t read your lips through the window. Must’ve been your accent. You should’ve just popped on for a minute anyways, there were never any guards around.
The wait at 1am to get my boarding pass at 7am was absolutely awful. Flight back was marvelous, Virgin Atlantic is the best Airline I’ve ever flown.
I’m going to really miss you guys. It was overall the greatest experience of my life to be there. I’m gonna start saving up to make it next year and stay longer now that I know so many of ya now. I can’t be gracious enough to have this opportunity especially at 23 years old. Everyone who was at Confuzzled, accept my Sincerest Thank You for welcoming me and showing me a great time in your convention and your country.