Terry Pratchett visit
Got the layout working :D At least I think I have... let me know if it does anything crazy. Now I need to post about something very exciting that happened last week, but that I didn't get to post about because of the nasty evil exams.
I met Terry Pratchett!!!!!
("And, all those exclamation marks, you notice? Five? A sure sign of someone who wears his underpants on his head." -- Salzella, Maskerade)
How cool is that?! My favourite author ever and I got to give him a hug and have my picture taken with him :D He came to the city I live in last week and just stayed for the one day. I had an exam in the morning that finished about 12:45. He was giving a talk at my uni that started about 12 (I think) so I missed most of that, but I got to sneak in at the end and step on people's toes until I found a spare patch of stairs in the lecture room to squat in. I couldn't see or hear much but I think he was funny, probably... But through my many connections to people in high places (ie. my best friend's mum) I managed to a get a ticket to a reception for him that night. There were probably only about 150 people there. I'm dreadful at judging numbers so that's probably give or take about 100, but basically he was right there in the same room as me. For a while everyone just milled about and tried to squish their way as close to him as possible, while at the same time trying not to let those people handing out the spring rolls and zucchini balls get too far away. Then he gave a little speech type thing, and I'll try to write out as much of the main points as I can remember, so I can look back in years to come :) But I guarantee it was all much funnier when he said it :
I think he started off by saying that he never expected all this. He never expected sell a book, or be able to make a living out of writing, or have intense young women stalking him. Actually, he said, that hasn't happened quite yet, but he can still hope. He talked for a little bit I think about how he started writing the books, but I can't really remember most of that bit. He mentioned how he'd written over 30 Discworld books now, and that considering the fact that his father was still alive and still had all his faculties that we could probably expect a fair few more books to come. He said that also his grandfather had lived to be very old indeed (his 90s I think) and one evening after making his pudding he'd just keeled over, and his last known words had been "But I haven't had my pudding yet". Then he talked about how he'd almost died earlier this year when he'd had heart surgery. He said that's basically what heart surgery is - when you almost die, but not quite. He said that after he'd woken up he'd noticed that his arms were very bruised and he asked the doctor why. The doctor had said "Do you remember the sandwiches?" to which Terry had replied something along the lines of "Why yes I do! There was a man with a cart selling sandwiches". Apparently during the operation he had sat up and asked for sandwiches and the doctors had had to hold him down to stop him from trying to get at these imaginary sandwiches, and that was how he'd gotten the bruises on his arms. He said that it was very comforting to think that no matter what there was after this life had ended at least there would be sandwiches for the journey. So, if you see this man with a cart, don't go towards the sandwiches! I don't remember him saying much else except that he was very happy to be here for Discworld's 21st anniversary and hoped to be here again for it's 42nd.
So, after all that he went at sat down at a table in a slightly seperate room to sign books and things. Me and friends went and got books signed and had pictures taken, and we all offered to stalk him in case he was still looking for some intense young women for the job. I think that was pretty much it really. The photos are on one of my friends digital cameras so I might put one or two up once she emails them to me :)
I met Terry Pratchett!!!!!
("And, all those exclamation marks, you notice? Five? A sure sign of someone who wears his underpants on his head." -- Salzella, Maskerade)
How cool is that?! My favourite author ever and I got to give him a hug and have my picture taken with him :D He came to the city I live in last week and just stayed for the one day. I had an exam in the morning that finished about 12:45. He was giving a talk at my uni that started about 12 (I think) so I missed most of that, but I got to sneak in at the end and step on people's toes until I found a spare patch of stairs in the lecture room to squat in. I couldn't see or hear much but I think he was funny, probably... But through my many connections to people in high places (ie. my best friend's mum) I managed to a get a ticket to a reception for him that night. There were probably only about 150 people there. I'm dreadful at judging numbers so that's probably give or take about 100, but basically he was right there in the same room as me. For a while everyone just milled about and tried to squish their way as close to him as possible, while at the same time trying not to let those people handing out the spring rolls and zucchini balls get too far away. Then he gave a little speech type thing, and I'll try to write out as much of the main points as I can remember, so I can look back in years to come :) But I guarantee it was all much funnier when he said it :
I think he started off by saying that he never expected all this. He never expected sell a book, or be able to make a living out of writing, or have intense young women stalking him. Actually, he said, that hasn't happened quite yet, but he can still hope. He talked for a little bit I think about how he started writing the books, but I can't really remember most of that bit. He mentioned how he'd written over 30 Discworld books now, and that considering the fact that his father was still alive and still had all his faculties that we could probably expect a fair few more books to come. He said that also his grandfather had lived to be very old indeed (his 90s I think) and one evening after making his pudding he'd just keeled over, and his last known words had been "But I haven't had my pudding yet". Then he talked about how he'd almost died earlier this year when he'd had heart surgery. He said that's basically what heart surgery is - when you almost die, but not quite. He said that after he'd woken up he'd noticed that his arms were very bruised and he asked the doctor why. The doctor had said "Do you remember the sandwiches?" to which Terry had replied something along the lines of "Why yes I do! There was a man with a cart selling sandwiches". Apparently during the operation he had sat up and asked for sandwiches and the doctors had had to hold him down to stop him from trying to get at these imaginary sandwiches, and that was how he'd gotten the bruises on his arms. He said that it was very comforting to think that no matter what there was after this life had ended at least there would be sandwiches for the journey. So, if you see this man with a cart, don't go towards the sandwiches! I don't remember him saying much else except that he was very happy to be here for Discworld's 21st anniversary and hoped to be here again for it's 42nd.
So, after all that he went at sat down at a table in a slightly seperate room to sign books and things. Me and friends went and got books signed and had pictures taken, and we all offered to stalk him in case he was still looking for some intense young women for the job. I think that was pretty much it really. The photos are on one of my friends digital cameras so I might put one or two up once she emails them to me :)