UK Poly Day
uberredfraggle was right: this event was great fun, and well worth all the running around to go to it, even the cost of the flight I needed to buy to get around the Chunnel.
There were only two threads, but like with any con, there were times that I wanted to be at both sessions and other times I wasn't particularly fussed about either.
I ended up going to the Intro to Poly one, simply because the poly activism session opposite it was UK-centric enough not to be worth me going to. The con was small (fewer than 100 people) but a lot of people were in pretty full-on poly arrangements, sharing property and multiple partners having kids and things. The crowd was also much younger than I was expecting: a good proportion of 40-somethings and a few 50+ people, but mostly 20- and 30-somethings.
I went to sanjibabes' time management workshop and then to a session with a couple of personality matching games. The most successful workshop of all, I think, was the 'agony aunt' one, where people broke up into groups of 6 or so to talk about each other's problems and questions, and the group as a whole answered other anonymous questions. Some people were apparently in very difficult situations, and I'm sure the compassion that the 50 or so people in the room showed for them, and the variety of reflections and advice, proved helpful.
I met lots of fabulous new people, like the aforementioned and awesome sanjibabes and the curvacious, delicious and utterly lovely valkyriekaren. I'm pretty sure I ran into skibbley as well, but despite us chatting via LJ once or twice he didn't seem to know who I was. I got a chance to know nitoda a bit better and hang out with a_musing_amazon a bit, and I was absolutely delighted to see reddragdiva make it, and finally meet redcountess after all these years. That's her and me in the photo below, with a few shots of the rather nice view from the pub (complete with the famous butt plug building), and the pub itself at night.
The most fun of all was the poly role-playing speed dating game in the evening. The way the winners were chosen was rather arbitrary, but I think that was the first time in my life I've ever pretended to be somebody else without feeling completely awkward and stupid. I played an intersexual, single poly musician with aspirations for being a diplomat, who never had any problem picking up but was looking for longer-term relationships. Some of these aspects were given and others were made up by me. It's also only the second speed dating I'd ever done, and much, much, much more enjoyable than the first time. Lots of people expressed interest in me, and it was fun catching up with them after the game to see which were role-played attractions and which were real.
There are plenty of poly cons in California, but I've been too busy actually being poly to go to any. I might make an extra effort some time. But certainly, if I happen to be in Europe at this time of year again, I'll definitely go to the UK Poly Con again.
Out of the window of this plane I see we've just crossed the Mediterranean and are now over Africa. Beneath me in the night are seastar-like sprawls of towns like Annaba and Constentine. This is my first time over this continent. It's exciting!