AT3
*sigh* this time last week we were sitting in London!! And what a weekend that turned out to be. I had a wonderful time, and am still suffering a bit from the post AT3 blues ... I was a bit worried and nervous, about the flight, about meeting all the people I know online (and juggling 2 groups of peeps) and about meeting AT too. But I shouldn't have worried. It was a very relaxed weekend, everybody I met was so nice and Amanda is just the loveliest (sp?? huh) person ever. Here's a little (uhhh, now that I'm done, maybe not so little) report (and I'm sure it's boring for anyone besides me, but ... heh ... it's my journal). All pics (unless otherwise stated) by my friend Andrea. Thank you so much!!
Edit: and from
celandinehobbit!! That are the small ones, cause I couldn't get them into my edited entry.
Friday afternoon Floor and I arrived at Heathrow (after circling above London for a while) and we took the bus to the hotel. We arrived a bit later than expected, but that didn't matter. Immediately we ran into Eve and Sofie and her mom. I recognized them and introduced myself (everyone seemend a bit nervous lol). Checking in at the hotel went fine, my roommate (Dona) had arrived on thursday and had given the hotel my name. The guy who checked me in happened to speak Dutch, so that was easy. I put my stuff in the room (Dona was still nowhere to be seen) and Floor and I went to register at Gabit. By now we also hooked up with Floor´s roommate Brenda.
There it turned out they accidently gave my registrationpack to the wrong person. The woman who had done that, felt really bad. But `Kel the medic` made sure I didn´t need to worry. I also bought some raffle tickets.
Floor and I went upstairs to check things out, and I run into the gone fishing peeps (I think it was Isabelle who shouted out my name lol). Gateworld peeps nowhere to be seen, I hung out with them. Some of them, and Floor too, went to go to the cocktailparty (nope, wasn´t jealous at all :P) and we waited (and waited and waited) for the rest of the group to arrive. Eventually we went to dinner around 9 PM I think, with 9 people at the local pub. I had fish and chips, which was ok. We got a text from Andrea saying that Amanda was a brunette now .... wow, couldn't wait to see her.
Spockie, Isa and me went back to the hotel, and I hooked up again with Floor and Eve, who just got back from the cocktailparty. I think the general idea about the party was, it was nice, but the Amanda time was very VERY short. It seemed like she was sitting at other tables for a long time, but when she got to your table, she was gone way too soon. And yay, finally I got to meet my frien MegYn!! And she did a very good first impression with her stunning dress.
Somewhere along the line I had met Dona also, who was older than expected lol, but that didn't matter at all. We're both RDA and AT fans, and we had a good time as roommates.
I didn't go to bed too late, but I hardly slept. I had been sleeping bad the weeks before, because of the hospital stuff, and I guess my body was kind of used to that.
The next morning we had a way too early breakfast (me, Floor, Brenda and Eve I think). I didn't have much of a appetite, was a bit too nervous. Next we went to the mainhall, luckily Stef helped me to get my registrationpacket (the woman who got mine, was wearing my badge and didn't know "Annelies" was a name lol). Around 9 the event started for real. I was seated in the very last row, right in the middle of a group of French girls, luckily they wanted to change seats, so I could sit next to Brenda and Hannah. Last row was just perfect, cause we could stand, sit on our knees, move around a bit, cause I can't sit still very well. Of course, you can't make great pictures from that row (with my camera anyway) so I decided to not make pictures at all and just sit back and enjoy. We got a little talk and some announcements from Becky (who is such fun as well lol, she did a great job) and then we were shown some vids ... there's just something about watching a Sam / Amanda vid in a whole room full of fans. Next Amanda rushed to the stage .... YAY!!! I guess she was nervous, said "hi" a lot, with her great smile. Was so cute. I don't remember what she said otherwise. She openend the Q&A, and I have another document with as much Q&A's as I remember. Will post that seperately.
Out of the whole weekend I think I enjoyed the Q&A's most. Just sit back and enjoy Amanda. She's so open and honest, and funny too. Her brain works so fast, she throws in those little comments .... *sigh* it was just VERY VERY nice (although nice doesn't really cover it).
Every Q&A lasted about 45 minutes to an hour I think, and of course Amanda needed to be persuaded (sp??) to leave the stage when it was done. There would be a "5 minute warning" on the screen, and then a 1 minute countdown. Amanda would say "quick, ask a question" lol. After the first Q&A there was a Dalek on stage, which looked like it would explode or something. This is a pic of her looking at it ....
Amanda went to take pictures, and in the main hall we got an hour with Thomasina. She´s nice and has great stories about Stargate and RDA :D After that, they showed a couple of eps of Sanctuary, but the quality was pretty bad, people just wandered around and hang out with friends or checked the stuff from Legends out (I got a couple of more raffle tickets. For charity right?).
We had lunch (1 sandwich, I really didn't have a lot if appetite, I even lost 1 kilo that weekend YAY) and at 2 PM there was another Q&A. I think this was the one where Amanda told about her 6 pregnancies (and only Olivia, so 5 miscarriages) and that really did something to me, and I think to most people in the room. She was very open about it. It felt a bit weird to ask a "silly" question after that, but someone did and the Q&A just went on. This one ended way too soon of course, and to get Amanda of of stage, there was the 5 minutes warning and then a sign "if you don't leave the stage on time, you will be made to sing", but Amanda didn't see that, so when the 1 minute countdown started she was like 'what will happen lol", but we knew :D So after the countdown a Karaoke version of a song with incredibly difficult words was shown and Amanda was a real sport about it and sang (sung?? singed??) along.
She went to take pictures again, and they showed the movie Breakdown. Hilarious!! I had already seen bits and pieces, but this was just so much fun. I really don't remember what we did during the breaks, I hang out a bit with Gateworld peeps, and gone fishing peeps, that was no problem at all.
I had my picture taken in the afternoon, together with Brenda and Hannah. I felt stupid that I was nervous, but Amanda was really sweet. When I walked up for my picture, we kind of half hugged (my face was in her hair, I remember that), and she said "what's your name", I say "Annelies, I'm from the Netherlands", she goes "that's a pretty name, Annelies" (pronounced realy cute, but uhhh, I could be biased). So we get our first pic, I don't smile (too nervous) so, she sais "maybe you need to smile more" (lol) I say "yes, I can do better", so with our second pic I smile a bit more. We look at it, she looks at me like "is it OK like this"?? Someone sais "that's a cute pic" and we're done. She sais (I think) "bye Annelies". *sigh* I do treasure my pic.
Around 5 PM the auction started, and boy, that was just the most fun evening ever. Amanda (and Thomasina for some things) paraded around the room trying people to buy stuff. The prices were insane (at least for my budget)!! A highlight of the evening was a phonecall from RDA, right around the time a 10/15 minuties phonecall with him was auctioned off. They were so cute!! Here's a pic from Amanda on the phone with him:
And another one
*click for bigger*
Most fun part:
RDA: "So, Amanda, what are you ...."
*pause in which RDA is searcing for the right word*
AT: "wearing?"
Haha. And they went on and on about meeting up that night. If only he would've come by lol. And there were a lot of "I love you's" at the end. Very cute (and I guess they know how to play the crowd, wouldn't be surprised if there's going to be an Avalon2 soon (Thomasina said there definitely would be another one "someday")).
Amanda trying to sell a mug that has the famous Stargate / MagGuyver blooper quote (you know this one):
More from the auction:
A Sam BDU, but it turned out to be a pregnancy pants (for a photoshoot) and she was a bit emotional about it "ahhh, Olivia grew (huh?) here", she did put them on and tried to sell it to a pregnant lady in the audience lol.
*click for bigger*
Also a BDU jacket from Jack, she put it on
The jacket was pretty big, so she goes "you know what they say about men with long arms" *audience laughs* "no!! they have long sleeves!!" hehe. And she also said "this is what I would be wearing in the mornings at his cabin". SQUEEEEEEEEE.
A life size Helen Magnus ( and I think Amanda didn't know about that lol). It was great fun seeing her running around with it.
The guy from Legends bought it "for personal use" and I think it was his wife sitting next to him (he was sitting behind me, on the special guests seats) and she said "that's NOT going into the bedroom". Lol. Amanda quickly walked away after that haha.
Ohh, and at the beginning of the auction, Amanda got handed the (huge) quilt of many hugs, there was a vid that showed lots of people hugging the fabric, and Amanda was a bit overwhelmed by this. The quilt was beautiful!!
Pic from
skydiver119
Lots and lots more happened in the auction, it was just a great fun night, Amanda was tiredless (if that's an english word) and there was a LOT of money raised. Very special also, was 1 woman, who bought a couple of items and just gave them away to people sitting next to her. WOW.
The auction ran pretty late, I think till 7PM or something. After that we had the chocolate tasting with Gateworld peeps. We had soooo much chocolate lol. We all sat at a table, introduced ourselves (RL name, screenname) and told something about the chocolate we brought. It was great fun, but because of the time, we weren't really in the mood to eat lots of chocolate, so there was so much left. I took it with me and handed it out to other attendees the next day. Made new friends lol.
Floor and I went to McDonalds, I had a little happy meal, didn't taste good lol. I guess all emotions were just a bit too much.
Around 9.30 we went to the disco (themed red, I had a necklace lol). All the French girls were there, for the rest not so many people. But we danced (o yeah, I danced the Macarena haha) and I watched them doing the funniest condances. The French girls handed out candies, we had some drinks, it was a fun night. I think I went to bed around 1 PM, not that I slept well this night.
Sunday, last day .... time flies. Again a way too early breakfast, with Floor, Brenda and later also Eve. I only ate fruit I think. And it's time for the 3th Q&A. Obviously, I can't tell them apart anymore, look at my next post for all Q&A's. To get Amanda of stage this time, the 5 minute warning, the 1 minute countdown, and then a couple of "looks", a cute baby, a scary Julia lol. Was fun.
Amanda went to do the autographs and in the mainhall they showed Breakdown again (for the people who missed it saterday), we watched it again. LOL. Again we were just hangin out, I bought some sets with cards from Legends. We had lunch (same as saterday) and it was time for the final Q&A (cries). I think every Q&A started with a vid, but this one started with a very special one!! "coming in 2009 ...." we were all like, huh, what is coming? A picture from SGA (huh, that's already on TV) a picture from Sanctuary (huh, that's going to air in 2008 ..., can they mean AT4??) Pictures from Amanda .... (o yeah, it's AT4, it is, it is) and yes "coming in 2009 ..... AT4"!! Yay!! The audience went crazy. Very cool they already announced it!! I'm so there (if RL permits).
To get Amanda of off stage (last Q&A and all, I really didn't want her to leave), they had a picture of a penguin attached to some explosives "leave the stage now, or the penguin gets it", that made her leave lol!! She's such a shipper :D:D
So, off goes Amanda again, in the main hall they showed Ark of Truth (but I didn't watch it, because I didn't see S9 or 10 yet, no Jack you know). I spend some time on Gateworld (together with ChopinGal, which was great fun!) to let the shippers know about the shippy comments Amanda made (see Q&A later) and to just let everyone know what great time we were having and how Amanda ROCKS :)
I was hanging with the GW peeps and the GF peeps alternately (??) and that went fine. In the dealersroom there was a demonstration from Hearing Dogs, that was cute. I was in dubio (if that's an english expression as well) if I would get my picture signed, or my copy of Stuck. But one girl from the GF group had gotten her copy of Stuck signed, and apparantly Amanda wasn't impressed (she didn't even know mr. Bourne was selling copies, see Q&A), so I decided on my picture (and I'm really REALLY happy I did). I was the very last one to get the autographs, so Amanda asked Julia if it was OK that she personalised both my items. YAY. Here's my signed wallpaper .... Amanda didn't comment on it, in fact we didn't say anything during the autograph (stupid nerves, stupid english), so I was a tiny bit dissapointed about that (stupid I know).
The signing had run a bit late, so we hurried off to the closing ceremony. Which was pretty emotional. Wow. Becky thanked the staff etc, as did Julia. Julia gave a beautiful speech, which had many people in tears. See here for the speech. There was over 20.000 pounds raised for the 2 charities (hearing dogs and Waterkeeper), enough for 2 dogs, and legends offered to do a silent auction to raise enough money for a 3th dog.
Amanda was in tears when she thanked us, so half the audience was in tears as well. It was a beautiful ceremony.
I was very sad to see it all over, but I'm so happy we'll get to do it all again at AT4!!
After the ceremony, we had the jello and peanutbutter tasting with the GW peeps. That was ok, not as much fun as the chocolate tasting though (I guess we were all a bit sad things were over, we were hungry) but .... due to that I missed the group shot the folks from the other site took, WITH AMANDA ON IT!! Darn!! That sucked, I missed it by 2 minutes. Ah well, you can't have it all.
We waited around for some people to go to dinner with, but that all went a bit strange. So people went off in little groups (and that was fine with me, I really couldn't deal with a large group) and I had dinner with Floor and Brenda in the Pheasant. A nice pub, but I didn't like the food very much (by now, my emotions were very high, I should've cried, but I just don't in front of people). It was nice though. When back I went on Gateworld some more, with Starflight, and that was fun!! We went to bed not too late, but man I couldn't sleep. I woke up at 3 AM or something, and heard Dona was awake. We cried a bit and decided on reading (she had a Stargate magazine with her, niiice). So at 5 AM we went back to sleep lol.
In the morning I got a phonecall (at 8 AM geez) from Brenda who spoke Dutch lol. Floor and her had planned on going to London on monday, but in the end they didn't. So we had an early breakfast (I actually ate this time :D). After that we just waited, people were leaving all around us (so sad). We went to have lunch at the pub, that was nice.
*click for bigger*
And after that we REALLY had to go. Floor and I were barely in time for our flight (stupid hoppa bus dropped us off at the wrong terminal, and we were already late). But we made it. Hubby came to pick me up at the station, and so ended a GREAT weekend.
Some random pics:
Me and Dona
Group pic
Pic from
replicartertje *click for bigger*
I remember something we did when waiting ... we played pool :)
*click for bigger*
At one point, Amanda told someone asked her if the whole weekend wasn't super tiring for her, she said noooo, she gets a lot of energy from it, from all people. And the other person said "no wonder I feel so tired". Could've been me :p
*click for bigger*
Chatting at the disco with my new French friend Olivia
*click for bigger*
Me and my friend MegYn (I love this pic)
And just because I really like this pic, I'll leave you with that. It was the best weekend ever, and I will remember it forever. Met so many friends, and Amanda has me in awe. Before AT3 I didn't know if I considered myself a true fan (a bit too levelheaded for that, so I thought), now I do. AMANDA ROCKS!!! The whole weekend was so intense to me (and I think to most people there) and I do know this will make a difference in my life.
Edit: and from
celandinehobbit!! That are the small ones, cause I couldn't get them into my edited entry.
Friday afternoon Floor and I arrived at Heathrow (after circling above London for a while) and we took the bus to the hotel. We arrived a bit later than expected, but that didn't matter. Immediately we ran into Eve and Sofie and her mom. I recognized them and introduced myself (everyone seemend a bit nervous lol). Checking in at the hotel went fine, my roommate (Dona) had arrived on thursday and had given the hotel my name. The guy who checked me in happened to speak Dutch, so that was easy. I put my stuff in the room (Dona was still nowhere to be seen) and Floor and I went to register at Gabit. By now we also hooked up with Floor´s roommate Brenda.
There it turned out they accidently gave my registrationpack to the wrong person. The woman who had done that, felt really bad. But `Kel the medic` made sure I didn´t need to worry. I also bought some raffle tickets.
Floor and I went upstairs to check things out, and I run into the gone fishing peeps (I think it was Isabelle who shouted out my name lol). Gateworld peeps nowhere to be seen, I hung out with them. Some of them, and Floor too, went to go to the cocktailparty (nope, wasn´t jealous at all :P) and we waited (and waited and waited) for the rest of the group to arrive. Eventually we went to dinner around 9 PM I think, with 9 people at the local pub. I had fish and chips, which was ok. We got a text from Andrea saying that Amanda was a brunette now .... wow, couldn't wait to see her.
Spockie, Isa and me went back to the hotel, and I hooked up again with Floor and Eve, who just got back from the cocktailparty. I think the general idea about the party was, it was nice, but the Amanda time was very VERY short. It seemed like she was sitting at other tables for a long time, but when she got to your table, she was gone way too soon. And yay, finally I got to meet my frien MegYn!! And she did a very good first impression with her stunning dress.
Somewhere along the line I had met Dona also, who was older than expected lol, but that didn't matter at all. We're both RDA and AT fans, and we had a good time as roommates.
I didn't go to bed too late, but I hardly slept. I had been sleeping bad the weeks before, because of the hospital stuff, and I guess my body was kind of used to that.
The next morning we had a way too early breakfast (me, Floor, Brenda and Eve I think). I didn't have much of a appetite, was a bit too nervous. Next we went to the mainhall, luckily Stef helped me to get my registrationpacket (the woman who got mine, was wearing my badge and didn't know "Annelies" was a name lol). Around 9 the event started for real. I was seated in the very last row, right in the middle of a group of French girls, luckily they wanted to change seats, so I could sit next to Brenda and Hannah. Last row was just perfect, cause we could stand, sit on our knees, move around a bit, cause I can't sit still very well. Of course, you can't make great pictures from that row (with my camera anyway) so I decided to not make pictures at all and just sit back and enjoy. We got a little talk and some announcements from Becky (who is such fun as well lol, she did a great job) and then we were shown some vids ... there's just something about watching a Sam / Amanda vid in a whole room full of fans. Next Amanda rushed to the stage .... YAY!!! I guess she was nervous, said "hi" a lot, with her great smile. Was so cute. I don't remember what she said otherwise. She openend the Q&A, and I have another document with as much Q&A's as I remember. Will post that seperately.
Out of the whole weekend I think I enjoyed the Q&A's most. Just sit back and enjoy Amanda. She's so open and honest, and funny too. Her brain works so fast, she throws in those little comments .... *sigh* it was just VERY VERY nice (although nice doesn't really cover it).
Every Q&A lasted about 45 minutes to an hour I think, and of course Amanda needed to be persuaded (sp??) to leave the stage when it was done. There would be a "5 minute warning" on the screen, and then a 1 minute countdown. Amanda would say "quick, ask a question" lol. After the first Q&A there was a Dalek on stage, which looked like it would explode or something. This is a pic of her looking at it ....
Amanda went to take pictures, and in the main hall we got an hour with Thomasina. She´s nice and has great stories about Stargate and RDA :D After that, they showed a couple of eps of Sanctuary, but the quality was pretty bad, people just wandered around and hang out with friends or checked the stuff from Legends out (I got a couple of more raffle tickets. For charity right?).
We had lunch (1 sandwich, I really didn't have a lot if appetite, I even lost 1 kilo that weekend YAY) and at 2 PM there was another Q&A. I think this was the one where Amanda told about her 6 pregnancies (and only Olivia, so 5 miscarriages) and that really did something to me, and I think to most people in the room. She was very open about it. It felt a bit weird to ask a "silly" question after that, but someone did and the Q&A just went on. This one ended way too soon of course, and to get Amanda of of stage, there was the 5 minutes warning and then a sign "if you don't leave the stage on time, you will be made to sing", but Amanda didn't see that, so when the 1 minute countdown started she was like 'what will happen lol", but we knew :D So after the countdown a Karaoke version of a song with incredibly difficult words was shown and Amanda was a real sport about it and sang (sung?? singed??) along.
She went to take pictures again, and they showed the movie Breakdown. Hilarious!! I had already seen bits and pieces, but this was just so much fun. I really don't remember what we did during the breaks, I hang out a bit with Gateworld peeps, and gone fishing peeps, that was no problem at all.
I had my picture taken in the afternoon, together with Brenda and Hannah. I felt stupid that I was nervous, but Amanda was really sweet. When I walked up for my picture, we kind of half hugged (my face was in her hair, I remember that), and she said "what's your name", I say "Annelies, I'm from the Netherlands", she goes "that's a pretty name, Annelies" (pronounced realy cute, but uhhh, I could be biased). So we get our first pic, I don't smile (too nervous) so, she sais "maybe you need to smile more" (lol) I say "yes, I can do better", so with our second pic I smile a bit more. We look at it, she looks at me like "is it OK like this"?? Someone sais "that's a cute pic" and we're done. She sais (I think) "bye Annelies". *sigh* I do treasure my pic.
Around 5 PM the auction started, and boy, that was just the most fun evening ever. Amanda (and Thomasina for some things) paraded around the room trying people to buy stuff. The prices were insane (at least for my budget)!! A highlight of the evening was a phonecall from RDA, right around the time a 10/15 minuties phonecall with him was auctioned off. They were so cute!! Here's a pic from Amanda on the phone with him:
And another one
*click for bigger*
Most fun part:
RDA: "So, Amanda, what are you ...."
*pause in which RDA is searcing for the right word*
AT: "wearing?"
Haha. And they went on and on about meeting up that night. If only he would've come by lol. And there were a lot of "I love you's" at the end. Very cute (and I guess they know how to play the crowd, wouldn't be surprised if there's going to be an Avalon2 soon (Thomasina said there definitely would be another one "someday")).
Amanda trying to sell a mug that has the famous Stargate / MagGuyver blooper quote (you know this one):
More from the auction:
A Sam BDU, but it turned out to be a pregnancy pants (for a photoshoot) and she was a bit emotional about it "ahhh, Olivia grew (huh?) here", she did put them on and tried to sell it to a pregnant lady in the audience lol.
*click for bigger*
Also a BDU jacket from Jack, she put it on
The jacket was pretty big, so she goes "you know what they say about men with long arms" *audience laughs* "no!! they have long sleeves!!" hehe. And she also said "this is what I would be wearing in the mornings at his cabin". SQUEEEEEEEEE.
A life size Helen Magnus ( and I think Amanda didn't know about that lol). It was great fun seeing her running around with it.
The guy from Legends bought it "for personal use" and I think it was his wife sitting next to him (he was sitting behind me, on the special guests seats) and she said "that's NOT going into the bedroom". Lol. Amanda quickly walked away after that haha.
Ohh, and at the beginning of the auction, Amanda got handed the (huge) quilt of many hugs, there was a vid that showed lots of people hugging the fabric, and Amanda was a bit overwhelmed by this. The quilt was beautiful!!
Pic from
skydiver119
Lots and lots more happened in the auction, it was just a great fun night, Amanda was tiredless (if that's an english word) and there was a LOT of money raised. Very special also, was 1 woman, who bought a couple of items and just gave them away to people sitting next to her. WOW.
The auction ran pretty late, I think till 7PM or something. After that we had the chocolate tasting with Gateworld peeps. We had soooo much chocolate lol. We all sat at a table, introduced ourselves (RL name, screenname) and told something about the chocolate we brought. It was great fun, but because of the time, we weren't really in the mood to eat lots of chocolate, so there was so much left. I took it with me and handed it out to other attendees the next day. Made new friends lol.
Floor and I went to McDonalds, I had a little happy meal, didn't taste good lol. I guess all emotions were just a bit too much.
Around 9.30 we went to the disco (themed red, I had a necklace lol). All the French girls were there, for the rest not so many people. But we danced (o yeah, I danced the Macarena haha) and I watched them doing the funniest condances. The French girls handed out candies, we had some drinks, it was a fun night. I think I went to bed around 1 PM, not that I slept well this night.
Sunday, last day .... time flies. Again a way too early breakfast, with Floor, Brenda and later also Eve. I only ate fruit I think. And it's time for the 3th Q&A. Obviously, I can't tell them apart anymore, look at my next post for all Q&A's. To get Amanda of stage this time, the 5 minute warning, the 1 minute countdown, and then a couple of "looks", a cute baby, a scary Julia lol. Was fun.
Amanda went to do the autographs and in the mainhall they showed Breakdown again (for the people who missed it saterday), we watched it again. LOL. Again we were just hangin out, I bought some sets with cards from Legends. We had lunch (same as saterday) and it was time for the final Q&A (cries). I think every Q&A started with a vid, but this one started with a very special one!! "coming in 2009 ...." we were all like, huh, what is coming? A picture from SGA (huh, that's already on TV) a picture from Sanctuary (huh, that's going to air in 2008 ..., can they mean AT4??) Pictures from Amanda .... (o yeah, it's AT4, it is, it is) and yes "coming in 2009 ..... AT4"!! Yay!! The audience went crazy. Very cool they already announced it!! I'm so there (if RL permits).
To get Amanda of off stage (last Q&A and all, I really didn't want her to leave), they had a picture of a penguin attached to some explosives "leave the stage now, or the penguin gets it", that made her leave lol!! She's such a shipper :D:D
So, off goes Amanda again, in the main hall they showed Ark of Truth (but I didn't watch it, because I didn't see S9 or 10 yet, no Jack you know). I spend some time on Gateworld (together with ChopinGal, which was great fun!) to let the shippers know about the shippy comments Amanda made (see Q&A later) and to just let everyone know what great time we were having and how Amanda ROCKS :)
I was hanging with the GW peeps and the GF peeps alternately (??) and that went fine. In the dealersroom there was a demonstration from Hearing Dogs, that was cute. I was in dubio (if that's an english expression as well) if I would get my picture signed, or my copy of Stuck. But one girl from the GF group had gotten her copy of Stuck signed, and apparantly Amanda wasn't impressed (she didn't even know mr. Bourne was selling copies, see Q&A), so I decided on my picture (and I'm really REALLY happy I did). I was the very last one to get the autographs, so Amanda asked Julia if it was OK that she personalised both my items. YAY. Here's my signed wallpaper .... Amanda didn't comment on it, in fact we didn't say anything during the autograph (stupid nerves, stupid english), so I was a tiny bit dissapointed about that (stupid I know).
The signing had run a bit late, so we hurried off to the closing ceremony. Which was pretty emotional. Wow. Becky thanked the staff etc, as did Julia. Julia gave a beautiful speech, which had many people in tears. See here for the speech. There was over 20.000 pounds raised for the 2 charities (hearing dogs and Waterkeeper), enough for 2 dogs, and legends offered to do a silent auction to raise enough money for a 3th dog.
Amanda was in tears when she thanked us, so half the audience was in tears as well. It was a beautiful ceremony.
I was very sad to see it all over, but I'm so happy we'll get to do it all again at AT4!!
After the ceremony, we had the jello and peanutbutter tasting with the GW peeps. That was ok, not as much fun as the chocolate tasting though (I guess we were all a bit sad things were over, we were hungry) but .... due to that I missed the group shot the folks from the other site took, WITH AMANDA ON IT!! Darn!! That sucked, I missed it by 2 minutes. Ah well, you can't have it all.
We waited around for some people to go to dinner with, but that all went a bit strange. So people went off in little groups (and that was fine with me, I really couldn't deal with a large group) and I had dinner with Floor and Brenda in the Pheasant. A nice pub, but I didn't like the food very much (by now, my emotions were very high, I should've cried, but I just don't in front of people). It was nice though. When back I went on Gateworld some more, with Starflight, and that was fun!! We went to bed not too late, but man I couldn't sleep. I woke up at 3 AM or something, and heard Dona was awake. We cried a bit and decided on reading (she had a Stargate magazine with her, niiice). So at 5 AM we went back to sleep lol.
In the morning I got a phonecall (at 8 AM geez) from Brenda who spoke Dutch lol. Floor and her had planned on going to London on monday, but in the end they didn't. So we had an early breakfast (I actually ate this time :D). After that we just waited, people were leaving all around us (so sad). We went to have lunch at the pub, that was nice.
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And after that we REALLY had to go. Floor and I were barely in time for our flight (stupid hoppa bus dropped us off at the wrong terminal, and we were already late). But we made it. Hubby came to pick me up at the station, and so ended a GREAT weekend.
Some random pics:
Me and Dona
Group pic
Pic from
replicartertje *click for bigger*
I remember something we did when waiting ... we played pool :)
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At one point, Amanda told someone asked her if the whole weekend wasn't super tiring for her, she said noooo, she gets a lot of energy from it, from all people. And the other person said "no wonder I feel so tired". Could've been me :p
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Chatting at the disco with my new French friend Olivia
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Me and my friend MegYn (I love this pic)
And just because I really like this pic, I'll leave you with that. It was the best weekend ever, and I will remember it forever. Met so many friends, and Amanda has me in awe. Before AT3 I didn't know if I considered myself a true fan (a bit too levelheaded for that, so I thought), now I do. AMANDA ROCKS!!! The whole weekend was so intense to me (and I think to most people there) and I do know this will make a difference in my life.
