Discworld Convention 2014
The Palace Hotel in Manchester is the prettiest.
Also, the staff were lovely.
They got extra beer in and the convention did not drink them dry!
They made Discworld-themed cocktails: Nanny Ogg's Mojito, The Librarian's Surprise, A Mudslide , and Commander Vimes' Fruit Cooler (which was appropriately non-alcoholic :))
There was also an ice-cream stand every day
And a hot-dog stand, with the attendant wearing a CMOT Dibbler apron (I got a photo, even).
I spent many happy hours in the bars, talking to friends.
Other things I did:
visited Ops! -- both because friends were hanging out there and because I had lost my convention bag and wondered if it had been handed in.
At one point, I was visiting ops, and a tune suddenly began to play. Donal and Hunter just danced to it, but I recognised it as a phone ringing, coming from the lost-and-found box, and pointed this out. So Donal grabbed the phone and rang back, to tell them where to get their phone back :D Also to explain about his feet, for some reason.
Met Mark Oshiro of Mark Reads and Mark watches and got his autograph in my Readme.
Admired costumes - the dwarf! The clacks tower! Lady Luck, with the lights! The shoulder-dragon! and so on. Oh! Moist-von-Lipwig, who had made his own gold suit!
Bought two duck badges -- I wore them on my lanyard, then gave one away (because points mean prizes) and put one in the Con-inna-Box to be sent to Pterry.
Also I showed people that any duck can be a bunny, they just have to turn around and look up.
Speaking of Bunnies - Jacqueline Simpson, folklorist and story-teller talked about the Soul Cake Duck, And then about the Easter ... Bunny? PAH! She's a Hare.
"Have you ever kept rabbits?
What do the droppings look like?
Little Brown Eggs."
There you go, and enough time until next Easter to forget about it.
Wore this shirt: http://www.redbubble.com/people/delilahdesanges/works/4870925-fuck-that-shit-and-dance?p=t-shirt which got lots of positive reactions :D Danced to cheese and ate chocolate at the Hedgehog party. Admired Gideon's Goblin King costume (and caused a pic of it to be sent to Mark). (Also the goddess Annoia's costume.) Also ate other things, but I managed to avoid ALL the liquorice.
Learned that SQUEAK in Czech is KVÍÍK . (At least, in the Czech translation of Reaper Man).
Admired and grinned at the Angst-Lesspork model railway with a miniature working Clacks tower (shown here
https://www.flickr.com/photos/roobarbs/14866109291/in/set-72157646422209171/ and photos before and after ) It was just so beautiful and detailed and made with such care and love.
I went to hear Ben Aaronovitch talking, and that was fun .
Also he shares my opinion about lobsters, that they are huge sea-cockroaches, and as such, not really appealing as food. (That was a bit of talking on the walk in to the Gala Dinner).
Fantastically enjoyed the societies playing Knightmare, which was set up by the Monks of Cool. The societies each had their own twist and so each time it was played it was different, and creative, and fun.
Wished I could bi-locate (and/or time-travel) several times, because there were many fun things that I wanted to attend, but only one me. I tired to complain to Eelco, who was in charge of programme, then realised how much work putting together programme is, and told him he did an awesome job instead.
Met Jules Jones, finally in person. *squee*
Attended the Mitch Benn gig. He seemed to enjoy playing to geeks, I suspect he might be a geek himself. Also felt a bit smug cause our convention got Mitch Benn and 9 Worlds didn't, nya-nya . Though that is just geography, as Manchester is more convenient to Edinburgh than London.
I got the sniffles and a sore throat and basically I was sick at the convention, so, yeah, sorry.
Went to one of the worst restaurant experiences of my life. It was Zouk, and they'd been booked in advance for the ConCom post-con dinner. They have a pretty place and good strong air-conditioning. And it took them more than half an hour after everyone arrived to bring out the starters. And that was for a pre-arranged meal, no-one was deciding on food then and there.
The staff were slow, distractable and inattentive. the dinner was scheduled to start at 8:30, the mains didn't show up until after 10:20 . Also there was loud music playing, which made me despair with overload of sound, but that *was* turned off when one of us asked. The food was mediocre. Just okay. I had a non-alcoholic cocktail and it was nice.
This entry was also posted at http://ruthi.dreamwidth.org/371376.html, where it has
comments. You can comment here, or there.
Also, the staff were lovely.
They got extra beer in and the convention did not drink them dry!
They made Discworld-themed cocktails: Nanny Ogg's Mojito, The Librarian's Surprise, A Mudslide , and Commander Vimes' Fruit Cooler (which was appropriately non-alcoholic :))
There was also an ice-cream stand every day
And a hot-dog stand, with the attendant wearing a CMOT Dibbler apron (I got a photo, even).
I spent many happy hours in the bars, talking to friends.
Other things I did:
At one point, I was visiting ops, and a tune suddenly began to play. Donal and Hunter just danced to it, but I recognised it as a phone ringing, coming from the lost-and-found box, and pointed this out. So Donal grabbed the phone and rang back, to tell them where to get their phone back :D Also to explain about his feet, for some reason.
Also I showed people that any duck can be a bunny, they just have to turn around and look up.
"Have you ever kept rabbits?
What do the droppings look like?
Little Brown Eggs."
There you go, and enough time until next Easter to forget about it.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/roobarbs/14866109291/in/set-72157646422209171/ and photos before and after ) It was just so beautiful and detailed and made with such care and love.
Also he shares my opinion about lobsters, that they are huge sea-cockroaches, and as such, not really appealing as food. (That was a bit of talking on the walk in to the Gala Dinner).
The staff were slow, distractable and inattentive. the dinner was scheduled to start at 8:30, the mains didn't show up until after 10:20 . Also there was loud music playing, which made me despair with overload of sound, but that *was* turned off when one of us asked. The food was mediocre. Just okay. I had a non-alcoholic cocktail and it was nice.
This entry was also posted at http://ruthi.dreamwidth.org/371376.html, where it has
comments. You can comment here, or there.