Redemption '09 - longer con report - Friday
Friday
I forget some parts of Friday morning, but a few details stand out.
I remember being barefoot from Thursday evening till Monday morning (along with a fair number of other people) because the hotel (Hurrah!) agreed to let us go around without hassle as long as we signed a waiver. We put the liability waiver on the registration and I signed at the top and several pages of other people also signed.
I gave the reg desk their float so that they'd have change for incoming members, set up a load of felt pens, coloured paper, etc on the craft table in Three Spires, proudly wore my "Vote Lethbridge Stewart" badge (Ming had a full squad, all in uniform, all with badges to hand out, posters already in place, and weapons to shoot anyone who disagreed. Fabulous campaign!)
I needed to get ready for the ceilidh workshop as I was a bit out of practice, so I played a bit of concertina and was joined by novawulfen who offered to play my bodhran. A drum is always useful for dancers, so I immediately took him up on his offer and I was later joined by indigomage (Smurf) who asked for chords he could play on his mandolin.
When playing with novawulfen, I realised something odd - well, odd if you're only moderatly musically literate like me. I can automatically count a dance pattern of four or eight steps to any of the music in my book of morris tunes (which are often used as ceilidh tunes as well), but novawulfen was having problems beating a 1,2,3,4 pattern to tunes like Wi' a Hundred Pipers. I couldn't figure out why until I looked at the time signature - it's 6/8. So, here's me racking my brains to work out how I'm counting 1,2,3,4 to a tune in 6/8 time!
Turns out that I'm counting triplets (which the tune is mostly written in).
We make a mutual decision to stick to tunes in 4/4 time for convenience. I give Smurf the chords for Bobby Shaftoe and the long suffering dancers make do with the one tune all through the workshop because that's the only one that all three of us have had time to practice!
The workshop, with the help of Misha and Gillian, goes well, however. Many dancers learn how to do things like lady's chain and strip the willow, and I am chuffed when one of the dancers comes up to me at the end of the ceilidh and says he'd never have been able to do all the dances without the workshop beforehand.
Next item for me is a panel about Girl Guiding. I go mainly to support a girl who's going out to meet other guides in Russia, but found the talk to be very interesting and told me things I didn't know before.
Then it's off to the main hall for the poi workshop. I insisted that the workshop be in the main hall as it's the only room with a high enough ceiling. We clear some chairs away from the front and I hand out the poi I brought with me and teach everyone how to do hip reels. Pretty well everyone has managed this by the end of the session (and one or two hardy souls manage a giant circle as well). Everyone finds the left hand part at the back to be tricky, but this doesn't surprise me as I find it the hardest as well. I really enjoy teaching poi, especially with a good group to work with. Well done, everyone!
I sell several sets of poi to people who came to the workshop (all to con funds as the poi were bought by the convention originally).
Then, I go off to eat.
One thing I have learnt after many years of running and going to conventions is that it is very easy to overlook meals. Hence, the first thing I now do when I get my conpack is to take out my programme book, mark up all the things I have to do (programme items I'm running, etc.) and then write 'EAT' in suitable spaces inbetween. That's how I know that I had tea at 7pm on Friday - it's all down in writing!
The evening meals at the Britannia were excellent value. For £7 I had poached salmon and a very nice cheesecake for desert. (The rooms are pretty grotty, but for good affordable food and friendly staff, I can put up with grotty rooms. After all, I'm not exactly planning to spend much time in it!)
After eating, I went to the opening ceremony, then went to have a look at the Dalek-Gallifrey time war discussion. However, no one on the panel had actually read any of the books about the time war, so I slipped out and found some friends to chat to instead.
My programme book has 'Change clothes' written here... I went and changed from my Babylon 5 uniform to clothes rather more suitable for dancing and went to the celidh at 10 and spent several very enjoyable hours dancing to Pigeon English. I distinctly recall half way down a 'strip the willow' thinking "Ah, yes, this is what being happy feels like" It was just a total absence of stress, being with good company in a good dance and having the feeling last for several hours. Sometimes, when life hits a bad patch, you can literally forget what being happy is like. I don't mean excited or squee or happy sensations that last for a few minutes. I mean that deep down feeling of contentment that comes when life becomes stable (hurrah for waveney's new job) and one is at a good convention and dancing.
What more could one ask for? (Okay, apart from a way of getting CO2 out of the atmosphere)
I forget some parts of Friday morning, but a few details stand out.
I remember being barefoot from Thursday evening till Monday morning (along with a fair number of other people) because the hotel (Hurrah!) agreed to let us go around without hassle as long as we signed a waiver. We put the liability waiver on the registration and I signed at the top and several pages of other people also signed.
I gave the reg desk their float so that they'd have change for incoming members, set up a load of felt pens, coloured paper, etc on the craft table in Three Spires, proudly wore my "Vote Lethbridge Stewart" badge (Ming had a full squad, all in uniform, all with badges to hand out, posters already in place, and weapons to shoot anyone who disagreed. Fabulous campaign!)
I needed to get ready for the ceilidh workshop as I was a bit out of practice, so I played a bit of concertina and was joined by novawulfen who offered to play my bodhran. A drum is always useful for dancers, so I immediately took him up on his offer and I was later joined by indigomage (Smurf) who asked for chords he could play on his mandolin.
When playing with novawulfen, I realised something odd - well, odd if you're only moderatly musically literate like me. I can automatically count a dance pattern of four or eight steps to any of the music in my book of morris tunes (which are often used as ceilidh tunes as well), but novawulfen was having problems beating a 1,2,3,4 pattern to tunes like Wi' a Hundred Pipers. I couldn't figure out why until I looked at the time signature - it's 6/8. So, here's me racking my brains to work out how I'm counting 1,2,3,4 to a tune in 6/8 time!
Turns out that I'm counting triplets (which the tune is mostly written in).
We make a mutual decision to stick to tunes in 4/4 time for convenience. I give Smurf the chords for Bobby Shaftoe and the long suffering dancers make do with the one tune all through the workshop because that's the only one that all three of us have had time to practice!
The workshop, with the help of Misha and Gillian, goes well, however. Many dancers learn how to do things like lady's chain and strip the willow, and I am chuffed when one of the dancers comes up to me at the end of the ceilidh and says he'd never have been able to do all the dances without the workshop beforehand.
Next item for me is a panel about Girl Guiding. I go mainly to support a girl who's going out to meet other guides in Russia, but found the talk to be very interesting and told me things I didn't know before.
Then it's off to the main hall for the poi workshop. I insisted that the workshop be in the main hall as it's the only room with a high enough ceiling. We clear some chairs away from the front and I hand out the poi I brought with me and teach everyone how to do hip reels. Pretty well everyone has managed this by the end of the session (and one or two hardy souls manage a giant circle as well). Everyone finds the left hand part at the back to be tricky, but this doesn't surprise me as I find it the hardest as well. I really enjoy teaching poi, especially with a good group to work with. Well done, everyone!
I sell several sets of poi to people who came to the workshop (all to con funds as the poi were bought by the convention originally).
Then, I go off to eat.
One thing I have learnt after many years of running and going to conventions is that it is very easy to overlook meals. Hence, the first thing I now do when I get my conpack is to take out my programme book, mark up all the things I have to do (programme items I'm running, etc.) and then write 'EAT' in suitable spaces inbetween. That's how I know that I had tea at 7pm on Friday - it's all down in writing!
The evening meals at the Britannia were excellent value. For £7 I had poached salmon and a very nice cheesecake for desert. (The rooms are pretty grotty, but for good affordable food and friendly staff, I can put up with grotty rooms. After all, I'm not exactly planning to spend much time in it!)
After eating, I went to the opening ceremony, then went to have a look at the Dalek-Gallifrey time war discussion. However, no one on the panel had actually read any of the books about the time war, so I slipped out and found some friends to chat to instead.
My programme book has 'Change clothes' written here... I went and changed from my Babylon 5 uniform to clothes rather more suitable for dancing and went to the celidh at 10 and spent several very enjoyable hours dancing to Pigeon English. I distinctly recall half way down a 'strip the willow' thinking "Ah, yes, this is what being happy feels like" It was just a total absence of stress, being with good company in a good dance and having the feeling last for several hours. Sometimes, when life hits a bad patch, you can literally forget what being happy is like. I don't mean excited or squee or happy sensations that last for a few minutes. I mean that deep down feeling of contentment that comes when life becomes stable (hurrah for waveney's new job) and one is at a good convention and dancing.
What more could one ask for? (Okay, apart from a way of getting CO2 out of the atmosphere)