Sanctuary Experience Vancouver 2010 - Part One
*Please do not snurch any pictures in this report without my consent. Please understand I went to a lot of effort to take these (including a significant amount of swearing at my poor camera) so I would appreciate being asked for permission first. Thank you.
For those of you who don't know (!) Jumble and I travelled this year to Vancouver to attend the first ever Sanctuary based convention, The Sanctuary Experience 2010. The weekend is over now, although we are still enjoying the delights of Vancouver and I plan on writing a couple of reports, one for the weekend itself and one for all the sight-seeing we have been doing!
The first thing to say is that Vancouver is just an incredible city. The atmosphere, the people and the city itself are all beautiful. Out of our hotel room window we can see the mountains around coal bay and if we were a little higher up would be able to see Stanley park itself.
This is the first time I have been across the Atlantic and what struck me most when arriving is how straight all the streets are. It's been a subject of discussion between us and the Americans and Canadians that everything here is measured in blocks which is something we just don't have in the UK. That's taken some getting used to definitely but I think we are both just about coping with getting around now! I'll talk more about the Wednesday, Thursday and Friday morning activities plus the rest of this week in the second part of the report so those of you who aren't interested in the ramblings of a tourist can skip!!
But for now, we started our first ever convention experience with the Meet & Greet on Friday night. This took place in the Pavilion Ballroom of the Sheraton Wall Centre. The room was laid out in tables of about 10 which we each left one space at for the guests as they came round to talk to us. What was amazing about this was that the organisers were only expecting 3 or 4 of the guests to turn up, in the end all 9 of them came!! The guests in the end were:
Martin Wood
Amanda Tapping
Damian Kindler
Robin Dunne
Christopher Heyerdahl
Agam Darshi
Chuck Campbell (Two Faced Guy and Crew)
Robert Lawrenson (Declan, Head of London Sanctuary)
Lee Wilson (Visual Effects Supervisor and all round John Wayne type character)
When the Meet and Greet started I had actually chosen that moment to pop outside, good timing indeed! I was out there with a couple of others and we spotted the guests walking round the suspended floor above us and high-tailed it back up the stairs! There they were all waiting to be announced and obviously we couldn't go in so had to hang around outside looking decidedly sheepish. At that point though, Christopher Heyerdahl came over to us and shook my hand. I was practically too flabbergasted to speak but managed to squeak out a hello before focusing on not falling over! He is sooo tall, I mean I always knew he was tall but he's just...guuhh. Really. And he has this piercing eyes that just stare at you but not in a weird way. He's really incredibly warm and charming and what struck me is that he didn't have to do what he did but this is what we started to learn about all the guests - they are all so giving and friendly and you just don't get the chance to be nervous or shy.
The guests all lined up in the Pavilion Ballroom to be introduced where I managed to get a few pictures although I was still getting used to the camera settings so I'm sorry for the quality :P.
(Chris Heyerdahl and Lee Wilson)
It was also extremely dark in there!
The guests all then split up to go round the tables for a couple of minutes each. We were without a guest for a few minutes, and I'm not 100% on who came to us first but I think it was Ryan. He was lovely, very friendly and very cute ;). I was amazed how much all the guests remembered certain attendees from other cons! I really don't know of any other show where the actors and creators make such an effort to stay grounded and in touch with their fans. Just amazing. All this time Jumble was tracking a certain Mr. Wood around the room (I believe at this point he was only on the table next to us, sporting an extremely fetching white shirt/shorts combo).
At that point Martin stood up from the table he was at, turned to Jumble and pointed at her, saying "You, you've made me famous!" Needless to say we were all a little flabbergasted and obviously Jumble most of all, although only she can tell you how she was feeling. I know I had the hugest grin on my face and was trying my absolute hardest to connect finger to camera! In the end the only two pics I managed to get of the whole exchange were the ones where he came over, and that was because he was just too close. Trust me though, there are maybe 7 or 8 people who have come up to us over the weekend to tell us they got good pictures of that moment and will be emailing them to Jumble! So he came over and the first thing he say to Jumble "I've been waiting to meet you for about 2 years!"
and then gave her a huuuge (and very long!) hug!
By this point I'm afraid to say the tears were in full flow down my face as Martin told Jumble he knew what had happened to her in the past year and had some bits to send her. He just didn't have to do that, that's what gets me and I'm welling up now just thinking about it. Let's face it, we knew he was amazing before but this just cements it. What a true gentleman and all round wonderful, wonderful man.
I think at this point he realised there was a whole table of people hanging on his every word and he started to speak a little about season 3 which was really cool. He said episode 5, Breach, is his absolute favourite and it sounds amazing! He did say more but I'm a little hesitant to tell you as I really don't want to spoiler anyone too much.
After Martin left Jumble went outside to "calm down" (I think there was a touch of screaming :P) and we got the rest of the guests. Just read that last part again, and I want to stress that the rest of the guests were awesome!! It's just the way I put it sounds like it was Martin and then them, which it may have been for some people (!), but really they were all fantastic and so friendly. A couple of the moments that stand out are of course...Amanda because everything about her is just incredible and she really is gorgeous!
That was Amanda at our table talking to Laurie's roommate, Lisa. She spent most of the five minutes talking about her daughter, Olivia, which was lovely because we don't hear a lot about the family for obvious reasons. I didn't take many pictures as the guests were so close and I really didn't want to bother any of them too much. Amanda also remembered Sue who was at our table, Sharon (Eh-T) and Laurie (llp) and spoke to them about the set tour. It was funny because she said they weren't allowed to do Thursday as it was her day off and then said to everyone "Is Wednesday good for you" as if it wouldn't be!!
Christopher was just gorgeous, I can definitely sense some artwork coming on. We switched the seats around so he sat next to me (squee!) and a Dutchie called Jo (very lovely lady). I really can't remember a lot about his conversation except the deep baritone voice, *happy sigh*.
Damian stands out for me a little as he asked us all where we were from and he knew Leeds as he has The Who's "Live at Leeds" album which was recorded where I used to work! Robert Lawrenson who plays Declan was born in Blackpool so we had a little Lancashire/Yorkshire banter then he said he used to drink a lot in the Leeds University bars (eek!!!!!) . That was where I used to work!! He talked a little about that and some other stuff which I really can't remember (sorry :P).
Lee Wilson and Chuck Campbell were there but we didn't get to chat with them which was a bit rubbish but the other guests did make up for that a little bit.
After this the organisers of G4 had planned a little entertainment and got up and did a Bollywood dance!! Exhbiting some serious balls I thought to do that in front of all the guests and attendees! It was awesome though, and really funny.
I took the opportunity to do a bit of sneaky paparrazzi style photography:
After that Martin's showmanship gene must have kicked in as he got Robin out to the front to demonstrate some of the Kali dance which was awesome:
That was about it for the Friday night, the guests left and I walked whilst Jumble floated on a cloud back to our hotel room where copious amounts of wine were consumed and we stayed up til 1am even though we had to get up at 7 for the next days events.
Saturday and Sunday reports to follow, I have to go shopping with Jumble for new tops!!
*huggles all*
:D
For those of you who don't know (!) Jumble and I travelled this year to Vancouver to attend the first ever Sanctuary based convention, The Sanctuary Experience 2010. The weekend is over now, although we are still enjoying the delights of Vancouver and I plan on writing a couple of reports, one for the weekend itself and one for all the sight-seeing we have been doing!
The first thing to say is that Vancouver is just an incredible city. The atmosphere, the people and the city itself are all beautiful. Out of our hotel room window we can see the mountains around coal bay and if we were a little higher up would be able to see Stanley park itself.
This is the first time I have been across the Atlantic and what struck me most when arriving is how straight all the streets are. It's been a subject of discussion between us and the Americans and Canadians that everything here is measured in blocks which is something we just don't have in the UK. That's taken some getting used to definitely but I think we are both just about coping with getting around now! I'll talk more about the Wednesday, Thursday and Friday morning activities plus the rest of this week in the second part of the report so those of you who aren't interested in the ramblings of a tourist can skip!!
But for now, we started our first ever convention experience with the Meet & Greet on Friday night. This took place in the Pavilion Ballroom of the Sheraton Wall Centre. The room was laid out in tables of about 10 which we each left one space at for the guests as they came round to talk to us. What was amazing about this was that the organisers were only expecting 3 or 4 of the guests to turn up, in the end all 9 of them came!! The guests in the end were:
Martin Wood
Amanda Tapping
Damian Kindler
Robin Dunne
Christopher Heyerdahl
Agam Darshi
Chuck Campbell (Two Faced Guy and Crew)
Robert Lawrenson (Declan, Head of London Sanctuary)
Lee Wilson (Visual Effects Supervisor and all round John Wayne type character)
When the Meet and Greet started I had actually chosen that moment to pop outside, good timing indeed! I was out there with a couple of others and we spotted the guests walking round the suspended floor above us and high-tailed it back up the stairs! There they were all waiting to be announced and obviously we couldn't go in so had to hang around outside looking decidedly sheepish. At that point though, Christopher Heyerdahl came over to us and shook my hand. I was practically too flabbergasted to speak but managed to squeak out a hello before focusing on not falling over! He is sooo tall, I mean I always knew he was tall but he's just...guuhh. Really. And he has this piercing eyes that just stare at you but not in a weird way. He's really incredibly warm and charming and what struck me is that he didn't have to do what he did but this is what we started to learn about all the guests - they are all so giving and friendly and you just don't get the chance to be nervous or shy.
The guests all lined up in the Pavilion Ballroom to be introduced where I managed to get a few pictures although I was still getting used to the camera settings so I'm sorry for the quality :P.
(Chris Heyerdahl and Lee Wilson)
It was also extremely dark in there!
The guests all then split up to go round the tables for a couple of minutes each. We were without a guest for a few minutes, and I'm not 100% on who came to us first but I think it was Ryan. He was lovely, very friendly and very cute ;). I was amazed how much all the guests remembered certain attendees from other cons! I really don't know of any other show where the actors and creators make such an effort to stay grounded and in touch with their fans. Just amazing. All this time Jumble was tracking a certain Mr. Wood around the room (I believe at this point he was only on the table next to us, sporting an extremely fetching white shirt/shorts combo).
At that point Martin stood up from the table he was at, turned to Jumble and pointed at her, saying "You, you've made me famous!" Needless to say we were all a little flabbergasted and obviously Jumble most of all, although only she can tell you how she was feeling. I know I had the hugest grin on my face and was trying my absolute hardest to connect finger to camera! In the end the only two pics I managed to get of the whole exchange were the ones where he came over, and that was because he was just too close. Trust me though, there are maybe 7 or 8 people who have come up to us over the weekend to tell us they got good pictures of that moment and will be emailing them to Jumble! So he came over and the first thing he say to Jumble "I've been waiting to meet you for about 2 years!"
and then gave her a huuuge (and very long!) hug!
By this point I'm afraid to say the tears were in full flow down my face as Martin told Jumble he knew what had happened to her in the past year and had some bits to send her. He just didn't have to do that, that's what gets me and I'm welling up now just thinking about it. Let's face it, we knew he was amazing before but this just cements it. What a true gentleman and all round wonderful, wonderful man.
I think at this point he realised there was a whole table of people hanging on his every word and he started to speak a little about season 3 which was really cool. He said episode 5, Breach, is his absolute favourite and it sounds amazing! He did say more but I'm a little hesitant to tell you as I really don't want to spoiler anyone too much.
After Martin left Jumble went outside to "calm down" (I think there was a touch of screaming :P) and we got the rest of the guests. Just read that last part again, and I want to stress that the rest of the guests were awesome!! It's just the way I put it sounds like it was Martin and then them, which it may have been for some people (!), but really they were all fantastic and so friendly. A couple of the moments that stand out are of course...Amanda because everything about her is just incredible and she really is gorgeous!
That was Amanda at our table talking to Laurie's roommate, Lisa. She spent most of the five minutes talking about her daughter, Olivia, which was lovely because we don't hear a lot about the family for obvious reasons. I didn't take many pictures as the guests were so close and I really didn't want to bother any of them too much. Amanda also remembered Sue who was at our table, Sharon (Eh-T) and Laurie (llp) and spoke to them about the set tour. It was funny because she said they weren't allowed to do Thursday as it was her day off and then said to everyone "Is Wednesday good for you" as if it wouldn't be!!
Christopher was just gorgeous, I can definitely sense some artwork coming on. We switched the seats around so he sat next to me (squee!) and a Dutchie called Jo (very lovely lady). I really can't remember a lot about his conversation except the deep baritone voice, *happy sigh*.
Damian stands out for me a little as he asked us all where we were from and he knew Leeds as he has The Who's "Live at Leeds" album which was recorded where I used to work! Robert Lawrenson who plays Declan was born in Blackpool so we had a little Lancashire/Yorkshire banter then he said he used to drink a lot in the Leeds University bars (eek!!!!!) . That was where I used to work!! He talked a little about that and some other stuff which I really can't remember (sorry :P).
Lee Wilson and Chuck Campbell were there but we didn't get to chat with them which was a bit rubbish but the other guests did make up for that a little bit.
After this the organisers of G4 had planned a little entertainment and got up and did a Bollywood dance!! Exhbiting some serious balls I thought to do that in front of all the guests and attendees! It was awesome though, and really funny.
I took the opportunity to do a bit of sneaky paparrazzi style photography:
After that Martin's showmanship gene must have kicked in as he got Robin out to the front to demonstrate some of the Kali dance which was awesome:
That was about it for the Friday night, the guests left and I walked whilst Jumble floated on a cloud back to our hotel room where copious amounts of wine were consumed and we stayed up til 1am even though we had to get up at 7 for the next days events.
Saturday and Sunday reports to follow, I have to go shopping with Jumble for new tops!!
*huggles all*
:D