(no subject)
So I still haven’t done my Sunday update for Quor’toth (Lara, Tracey and I got up at 6am to go to Earl’s Court and meet Charisma and Adam Baldwin, they were lovely, we went back to Heathrow, the end - why did that take six months to write?) or any kind of update other than “Yay, that was fun!” for Prime, but eh. I’m going to properly update about Serenity Squared despite lots of people on my flist having already done so. And if you saw my White Room or Serenity reports … you’ll see I am very. very. detailed.
I met quinnykins at the station at 10 on Friday morning, complete with our sandwiches from Mam’s deli! Which I made Quinn carry because they wouldn’t squish into my laptop bag or suitcase and she’d managed to pack a CRAZILY small amount! So the train was a bit late, but we went across to the platform, chatted about fandomy things and also squeed somewhat, then got on the train and zoomed to London. I got my laptop out, she read fic I’d written and also AIM logs of RPs that everysingleway and I have been doing lately :D More chatting, etc, etc, then we got off at Kings Cross and waited for cicatrixtwigs and her boyfriend, and we all got the tube together. I swear the journey out to Heathrow takes longer every time, hee.
So eventually we got there, went out for the bus, and I spotted a bunch of Starfury folks at the bus stop - Andy Brown Main Hall Man Extraordinaire, kabukivice and others, so I knew we were in the right place. (Having never been to the Rad before I wasn’t sure if the Hoppa went from bus stop 12 same as the Hoppa to the Thistle, or a different one.)
Got to the hotel and walked in to see Hilary, Matt, and various others standing right there, which was nice. They watched our cases while we checked in - which took forever since we were being dead awkward and putting it on Quinn’s card even though it was in my name. And then the machine kept breaking that validates the keys. But the lady serving us was lovely! Then we went to dump our stuff in our room. This is a FIVE STAR HOTEL, people. Do you know what that means? If you saw my update when I returned, I think you probably do. Our bedroom had a DOORBELL. And I’m not talking about a buzzer, I’m talking a proper DING-DONG noise. We put the TV on - diagnosis murder yay! - and I wandered into the bathroom and got a shock. There was a noise. I went in. I came out and listened to the TV. I went back in. “Quinn,” I said. “There’s a frigging SPEAKER in the BATHROOM!” To which Quinn also got excited and went to investigate while I texted youngdavid about this very, very exciting event. Turns out there was also a volume control! So after all this excitement, we toddled off to the garage to buy Coke to put in the vodka I’d brought, and then when we got back, we registered, which was very speedy. They were giving away Doctor Who audio books, too, which was a bit bizarre.
They weren’t giving out con books or schedules, or selling 10x8s, which basically means “surprise guest!” Which, obviously, YAY! So I took the opportunity to write down the codes of the 10x8s I wanted while the table wasn’t busy (they were open for browsing but not selling, clearly because they had more to add later) and wrote Quinn’s down, too. Then we headed upstairs to try and get our bearings, figure out where the main hall was, that kind of thing. Saw Hilary again upstairs who said the rumours going round were that Jonathan Woodward was coming, which didn’t surprise me since he was in Belfast last weekend, and also she’d heard that Morena Baccarin would be there - again, I wasn’t too surprised because mairead_pt said that Morena had told her in LA she was coming, and also, it just wouldn’t be the same without her! We went over to the photo sales table and I bought my Sean/Jewel, Sean/Summer and Group photo session tickets (which also indicated there would be surprise guests, because at £60, it wouldn’t be value for money without at least 6 guests and we only knew of 5 at that point - with no surprise guests there was no WAY it’d cost £60!), noticed that there was another table not on sale yet and figured that Morena would probably almost definitely be coming, since it would make sense to have her in the Nathan/Christina session, which was the only one not on sale at that point that I could remember.
We went downstairs and I spotted Pauline, and ran to talk to her, and she said that Jonathan was here for definite, which was nice to know! She also got incredibly excited that I’d brought a friend, since I’m usually alone when I run into her, and she told Quinn that if she could say on Sunday morning that she hadn’t enjoyed herself, she’d be talking crap, hee! Then we went back to the room to watch Paul O’Grady and Neighbours before getting ready for the opening ceremony.
I watched The Simpsons while Quinn was in the shower - so of course, she listened to it. Hee, fantastic! I was getting ready for the opening ceremony when _helygen_ texted to say that the stewards meeting was happening there and then, so we legged it downstairs for that, and were given our duties. Two hours of photo distribution each day, not too bad - one of the glamour duties, in fact! Chatted to emony briefly, as well as Hilary and Wendy, and then tried to decide what to do next. I think we went and got in the queue for the main hall (after figuring out where it was!), I spoke to Zol, and Nic and Sue from CoA, and angelite, and then we went into the main hall. We had a seat nearish the back, and then moved up to the aisle when some other people moved, and then Soph came around looking for stewards and she took us up to the front and ended up sitting in the front row with Hilary for the opening ceremony. Twas great!
So we finally got to the ceremony starting, late, as always (though getting the Fresh Prince of Bel Air theme to sing along to randomly while we were waiting was great!), and Neil Roberts came out to do his MCing job. Though if you ask me he was less of an MC and more of a bonus guest, because the only remotely MC-ish thing he did was host the opening ceremony. He didn’t even introduce the guests over the weekend - Clare Kramer *usually* manages to at least do that! He was fantastic at the ceremony, though, wandering around as usual, being highly random, completely aware that most people wouldn’t know who he was and utterly not caring. He started with his “Andie MacDowell thought I was Hugh Grant story” and just went on from there. He wandered around A LOT, up and down the aisle, so the cameraman couldn’t follow him because it was dark at the back. The best part was when the tech crew put a sign up saying “Neil, we know it’s a technical thing, but the magic box of pictures doesn’t work without light!”
Often the random “funny” things the tech crew put on screen make me cringe but they definitely amused me this time! He finally started to announce the guests, starting with Jonathan Woodward - yep, I was right, and he was here. I was so giddy - mostly because Quinn got to meet him :D He came out to do his bukkake shout, which was a bit half hearted because either people didn’t know what it meant or what he expected of us since they hadn’t been at Prime and he didn’t make it obvious that we were supposed to yell it back, or because they HAD been at Prime and now knew what it meant, hee! For the record, I shouted! :D Anyway. He was so proud of himself for getting there after the passport debacle at Prime - for those of you who don’t know, he and Tom Lenk both didn’t realise their passports had expired and ended up flying out just for the Sunday (which was a fab surprise after we’d all been told they weren’t coming at all any more!) and then Jonathan went to Scotland after Prime and lost his EMERGENCY passport, the fool! He said “I got here a week and a half ago! *cheers from the audience* And I can leave … whenever the hell I want! *more cheers*” He also told us it’s the first time that he and Nathan have seen each other since they broke up and he hoped it wasn’t too awkward for us all, lmfao. After Jonathan announced he’d be holding Communion on Sunday, he left the stage.
Neil announced Christina Hendricks next, who basically came out, said, hi, and ran away again. At her talk on Saturday, someone asked her how much the other cast members had told her about what to expect, and she said “You know what? They were so lame! I asked what I was supposed to do last night and they were all ‘oh, you just go out, say hey, that’s it.’ So that’s what I did. And then they all had frickin’ SPEECHES!”
After Christina came Jewel, who thanked us for not being sick of her yet, and said that she’d brought her Mum this time and left Matty at home working “So I can do whatEVER I want!” She was very excited to be back, which was great. I love Jewel.
Then Neil introduced Morena - yay, two for two on guessing the surprises! When he was talking about her previous work and mentioned one of the plays she’d been in, there was a brief pause in which one girl sat on the floor in front of me and Quinn happened to make a ‘huh?’ noise, and Neil LOVED that! He pissed himself laughing, went “HUH? Yeah, exactly. SHAKESPEARE, love.” And then Morena came out - though he called her Morana, and made some joke about her being a whore. When she came out, she said “Guys, I don’t think Neil knows the rule! Can we tell him please?” All of us: “Nobody gets to call her a whore!” Her: “Yes, see? Nobody gets to call me a whore except for Nathan!”
Next was Sean Maher. Neil introduced him as The Bod - as Sean Harry pointed out, I think Neil is a little bit obsessed with Sean’s body ;) I LOVE SEAN. He was adorable. I was expecting him to be much shyer than he was. He came out and did this totally spaztastic dance thing, and then put his hand to his heart like “OMG TOTALLY FEELING THE LOVE!” … very overwhelmed. Then he put the mic to his heart, held his hand up to shush us and asked if we could hear how fast it was beating. He said “Finally I got invited to one of your parties!” and said how pleased he was to be there, and all the usual stuff, and then left.
Then came Summer. She looked, as always, overwhelmed by how much clapping there was and how excited we all were to see her! I can’t remember a lot of what she said, though I remember Matt shouting “we love you Summer!” and her saying that she loves him too, and I also remember her saying “xoxo” as she left. Literally, like, “ex oh ex oh” which I thought was quite cute.
Then came Nathan. What to say about Nathan…really, there’s NOTHING to say about Nathan. He’s just … Nathan. I love him. He said a lot of things, I remember him saying he had a surprise for us all - and joked that it was Sean’s butt, (I wish!) and that he was also very happy to be there.
Finally, they all came back out, got a standing ovation, Nathan did some controlling of the crowd’s clapping, they laughed and joked, they left … and then we headed off to find out where the Meet & Greet was happening. As we went down the stairs, Kev appeared as if by magic … I’m sure he must have been there when we came DOWN them, but I didn’t see him til he was in front of me. I introduced him to Quinn, noticed he was seeming a bit less tall than usual, and then left him as we headed back to our room so I could get Nathan’s gift. Then we found where they were holding the M&G, we entered, and the guests were already there, but I was more interested in finding Trudi. Or…ANYONE that I knew. Eventually I spotted Gail and Andy so went to stand up at a height with them so I could see over the room.
Then Quinn and I delved back into the world of mush to try and make our way over to Nathan. Quinn stopped by the bar and spent £6+ on a glass of wine and a coke, I talked to Neil and told him I was missing yet ANOTHER Sunderland game for the con, and then he asked Quinn if anyone was actually serving at the bar, to which she replied that yes, she was just waiting for her change. And then we migrated. We ran into crazyfruitlady, and then I saw Trudi come in - I yelled for her but she didn’t hear, and I didn’t fancy yelling it again!
I didn’t want to interrupt Nathan’s conversation, and I was telling Quinn this when kabukivice overheard and asked why, so I told her we had something for him and she suggested keeping it til the autograph session. Which I would have, but because of the complicated story behind it, I didn’t want to (for fear of holding up the queue) explained to her what it was and she told me to just go for it! So the three of us (me, Quinn and crazyfruitlady) edged closer to Nathan, til eventually he looked up from his chat, stuck his hand out to Quinn and said “Who are you?” She replied “Rachel”, to which I said “So am I!” LMAO I’m such a geek. Then he shook my hand too, said “You’re Rachael as well?” and I said yes, and then the fun started.
Me: We’ve got something for you.
Nathan: Oh?
Me: It’s a bit weird.
Nathan: Is it your underwear?
Me: No, it’s not that weird.
Nathan: Okay, go ahead!
Me: Right. Well, we *gestures self and Quinn* are both Sunderland supporters. Football.
Quinn: Soccer.
Me: Yes, but. FOOTBALL. Anyway. At the stadium, you can get bricks engraved and placed in the wall. And, uh, we got one done. *pulls certificate out of plastic folder*
Nathan: *Taking it from me* You got a brick engraved with Serenity Still Flyin’?
Me: Yes.
Nathan: Fucking A man! Wow! *holds it up against the wall, for the record it’s a bright red certificate with SUNDERLAND WALL OF FAME emblazoned across it* It’s very subtle, I love it! Can I keep it? I don’t wanna bend it…
Me: If you want we can take it and give it to you in the autograph session?
Nathan: Would you? That’d be great. Wow.
Other guy standing around: Just think, that’s going to be there for a LONG time!
Me: Yeah, and it’s a pretty new stadium!
Nathan: Wow.
Me: I was going to come up to you and say *with crazy eyes* “Nathan! Do you want a brick?? But I thought that might be a bit … odd.”
Nathan: *laughs*
Me: I was working with the guy, he was supposed to be getting the brick fitted by today so I could show you a picture but there was a delay with the delivery, and it isn’t done. He told me though that if you’re ever in the area you could have a free tour, hee!
Nathan: *still laughing as I show him a couple of pics of the ground and the brick with my name on to demonstrate* That’s great!
As I gave the folder back to Quinn to put in her bag, Nathan said he loved her bag, and grabbed hold of the strap. She was waiting for him to let go, I think, so that she could put the certificate back inside, but he said “I’m helping you!” and we both fumbled around to get it back in, hee.
And then we left him to chat to other people and went to talk to Trudi. I spotted Yara and said hi to her, then she went to talk to Nathan, and I moved over to where Beckie was standing with Morena and used her as my “in” - I wanted to show Morena the photo of Sunderland Companion’s Club which I’d taken. She took it from me, look at it, laughed, looked slightly worried and said “What the hell do they DO there?!”
After that I talked to Trudi some more, then we went up to party! Saw Kev and Melissa and a few other people on our way back up to our room, chatted a bit about Kev not looking as tall when he’s not in his suit, and then went upstairs. Collected our con books - just as they were closing up, phew! - and noticed Chiwetel Ejiofor was listed. According to the schedule he’d had to cancel on Thursday, which was a shame! I hope to meet him another time, I had wondered if he’d be invited but he’s such a busy man I didn’t actually expect it!
Went to the party with Drusilla and Quinn, they went off to dance and left me with their bags, then Kev came over to say hi and took me and their stuff back to their table, where Wendy presented him with his card. Which he loved. It was great! After he went to the bar I moved up into his chair to talk to Kirsty (doubleshiny) and tell her thanks for offering me her sofa for the North West shindig but that I wasn’t going to be able to make it. Boooo. Then we talked about height and her dancing with Joss and various other things, I moved around a bit, danced with Quinn and Trudi some more, then went and sat back with Kev and the others, talked to more people, went back to Trudi and discovered Quinn and Dru had disappeared. Told Trudi I was going to see if they were out at the bar but they weren’t, so I wandered downstairs and found them in the Polo Bar - don’t EVER buy drinks from there, people. £18 for two Malibu and cokes!
Then Trudi came past, chatted for a while, then a man told us they were closing the bar in ten minutes, we arranged to meet Dru for breakfast at 8 the next morning and then went to bed! Fun times!
Uh, over 3,000 words for just Friday. Wow.
I met quinnykins at the station at 10 on Friday morning, complete with our sandwiches from Mam’s deli! Which I made Quinn carry because they wouldn’t squish into my laptop bag or suitcase and she’d managed to pack a CRAZILY small amount! So the train was a bit late, but we went across to the platform, chatted about fandomy things and also squeed somewhat, then got on the train and zoomed to London. I got my laptop out, she read fic I’d written and also AIM logs of RPs that everysingleway and I have been doing lately :D More chatting, etc, etc, then we got off at Kings Cross and waited for cicatrixtwigs and her boyfriend, and we all got the tube together. I swear the journey out to Heathrow takes longer every time, hee.
So eventually we got there, went out for the bus, and I spotted a bunch of Starfury folks at the bus stop - Andy Brown Main Hall Man Extraordinaire, kabukivice and others, so I knew we were in the right place. (Having never been to the Rad before I wasn’t sure if the Hoppa went from bus stop 12 same as the Hoppa to the Thistle, or a different one.)
Got to the hotel and walked in to see Hilary, Matt, and various others standing right there, which was nice. They watched our cases while we checked in - which took forever since we were being dead awkward and putting it on Quinn’s card even though it was in my name. And then the machine kept breaking that validates the keys. But the lady serving us was lovely! Then we went to dump our stuff in our room. This is a FIVE STAR HOTEL, people. Do you know what that means? If you saw my update when I returned, I think you probably do. Our bedroom had a DOORBELL. And I’m not talking about a buzzer, I’m talking a proper DING-DONG noise. We put the TV on - diagnosis murder yay! - and I wandered into the bathroom and got a shock. There was a noise. I went in. I came out and listened to the TV. I went back in. “Quinn,” I said. “There’s a frigging SPEAKER in the BATHROOM!” To which Quinn also got excited and went to investigate while I texted youngdavid about this very, very exciting event. Turns out there was also a volume control! So after all this excitement, we toddled off to the garage to buy Coke to put in the vodka I’d brought, and then when we got back, we registered, which was very speedy. They were giving away Doctor Who audio books, too, which was a bit bizarre.
They weren’t giving out con books or schedules, or selling 10x8s, which basically means “surprise guest!” Which, obviously, YAY! So I took the opportunity to write down the codes of the 10x8s I wanted while the table wasn’t busy (they were open for browsing but not selling, clearly because they had more to add later) and wrote Quinn’s down, too. Then we headed upstairs to try and get our bearings, figure out where the main hall was, that kind of thing. Saw Hilary again upstairs who said the rumours going round were that Jonathan Woodward was coming, which didn’t surprise me since he was in Belfast last weekend, and also she’d heard that Morena Baccarin would be there - again, I wasn’t too surprised because mairead_pt said that Morena had told her in LA she was coming, and also, it just wouldn’t be the same without her! We went over to the photo sales table and I bought my Sean/Jewel, Sean/Summer and Group photo session tickets (which also indicated there would be surprise guests, because at £60, it wouldn’t be value for money without at least 6 guests and we only knew of 5 at that point - with no surprise guests there was no WAY it’d cost £60!), noticed that there was another table not on sale yet and figured that Morena would probably almost definitely be coming, since it would make sense to have her in the Nathan/Christina session, which was the only one not on sale at that point that I could remember.
We went downstairs and I spotted Pauline, and ran to talk to her, and she said that Jonathan was here for definite, which was nice to know! She also got incredibly excited that I’d brought a friend, since I’m usually alone when I run into her, and she told Quinn that if she could say on Sunday morning that she hadn’t enjoyed herself, she’d be talking crap, hee! Then we went back to the room to watch Paul O’Grady and Neighbours before getting ready for the opening ceremony.
I watched The Simpsons while Quinn was in the shower - so of course, she listened to it. Hee, fantastic! I was getting ready for the opening ceremony when _helygen_ texted to say that the stewards meeting was happening there and then, so we legged it downstairs for that, and were given our duties. Two hours of photo distribution each day, not too bad - one of the glamour duties, in fact! Chatted to emony briefly, as well as Hilary and Wendy, and then tried to decide what to do next. I think we went and got in the queue for the main hall (after figuring out where it was!), I spoke to Zol, and Nic and Sue from CoA, and angelite, and then we went into the main hall. We had a seat nearish the back, and then moved up to the aisle when some other people moved, and then Soph came around looking for stewards and she took us up to the front and ended up sitting in the front row with Hilary for the opening ceremony. Twas great!
So we finally got to the ceremony starting, late, as always (though getting the Fresh Prince of Bel Air theme to sing along to randomly while we were waiting was great!), and Neil Roberts came out to do his MCing job. Though if you ask me he was less of an MC and more of a bonus guest, because the only remotely MC-ish thing he did was host the opening ceremony. He didn’t even introduce the guests over the weekend - Clare Kramer *usually* manages to at least do that! He was fantastic at the ceremony, though, wandering around as usual, being highly random, completely aware that most people wouldn’t know who he was and utterly not caring. He started with his “Andie MacDowell thought I was Hugh Grant story” and just went on from there. He wandered around A LOT, up and down the aisle, so the cameraman couldn’t follow him because it was dark at the back. The best part was when the tech crew put a sign up saying “Neil, we know it’s a technical thing, but the magic box of pictures doesn’t work without light!”
Often the random “funny” things the tech crew put on screen make me cringe but they definitely amused me this time! He finally started to announce the guests, starting with Jonathan Woodward - yep, I was right, and he was here. I was so giddy - mostly because Quinn got to meet him :D He came out to do his bukkake shout, which was a bit half hearted because either people didn’t know what it meant or what he expected of us since they hadn’t been at Prime and he didn’t make it obvious that we were supposed to yell it back, or because they HAD been at Prime and now knew what it meant, hee! For the record, I shouted! :D Anyway. He was so proud of himself for getting there after the passport debacle at Prime - for those of you who don’t know, he and Tom Lenk both didn’t realise their passports had expired and ended up flying out just for the Sunday (which was a fab surprise after we’d all been told they weren’t coming at all any more!) and then Jonathan went to Scotland after Prime and lost his EMERGENCY passport, the fool! He said “I got here a week and a half ago! *cheers from the audience* And I can leave … whenever the hell I want! *more cheers*” He also told us it’s the first time that he and Nathan have seen each other since they broke up and he hoped it wasn’t too awkward for us all, lmfao. After Jonathan announced he’d be holding Communion on Sunday, he left the stage.
Neil announced Christina Hendricks next, who basically came out, said, hi, and ran away again. At her talk on Saturday, someone asked her how much the other cast members had told her about what to expect, and she said “You know what? They were so lame! I asked what I was supposed to do last night and they were all ‘oh, you just go out, say hey, that’s it.’ So that’s what I did. And then they all had frickin’ SPEECHES!”
After Christina came Jewel, who thanked us for not being sick of her yet, and said that she’d brought her Mum this time and left Matty at home working “So I can do whatEVER I want!” She was very excited to be back, which was great. I love Jewel.
Then Neil introduced Morena - yay, two for two on guessing the surprises! When he was talking about her previous work and mentioned one of the plays she’d been in, there was a brief pause in which one girl sat on the floor in front of me and Quinn happened to make a ‘huh?’ noise, and Neil LOVED that! He pissed himself laughing, went “HUH? Yeah, exactly. SHAKESPEARE, love.” And then Morena came out - though he called her Morana, and made some joke about her being a whore. When she came out, she said “Guys, I don’t think Neil knows the rule! Can we tell him please?” All of us: “Nobody gets to call her a whore!” Her: “Yes, see? Nobody gets to call me a whore except for Nathan!”
Next was Sean Maher. Neil introduced him as The Bod - as Sean Harry pointed out, I think Neil is a little bit obsessed with Sean’s body ;) I LOVE SEAN. He was adorable. I was expecting him to be much shyer than he was. He came out and did this totally spaztastic dance thing, and then put his hand to his heart like “OMG TOTALLY FEELING THE LOVE!” … very overwhelmed. Then he put the mic to his heart, held his hand up to shush us and asked if we could hear how fast it was beating. He said “Finally I got invited to one of your parties!” and said how pleased he was to be there, and all the usual stuff, and then left.
Then came Summer. She looked, as always, overwhelmed by how much clapping there was and how excited we all were to see her! I can’t remember a lot of what she said, though I remember Matt shouting “we love you Summer!” and her saying that she loves him too, and I also remember her saying “xoxo” as she left. Literally, like, “ex oh ex oh” which I thought was quite cute.
Then came Nathan. What to say about Nathan…really, there’s NOTHING to say about Nathan. He’s just … Nathan. I love him. He said a lot of things, I remember him saying he had a surprise for us all - and joked that it was Sean’s butt, (I wish!) and that he was also very happy to be there.
Finally, they all came back out, got a standing ovation, Nathan did some controlling of the crowd’s clapping, they laughed and joked, they left … and then we headed off to find out where the Meet & Greet was happening. As we went down the stairs, Kev appeared as if by magic … I’m sure he must have been there when we came DOWN them, but I didn’t see him til he was in front of me. I introduced him to Quinn, noticed he was seeming a bit less tall than usual, and then left him as we headed back to our room so I could get Nathan’s gift. Then we found where they were holding the M&G, we entered, and the guests were already there, but I was more interested in finding Trudi. Or…ANYONE that I knew. Eventually I spotted Gail and Andy so went to stand up at a height with them so I could see over the room.
Then Quinn and I delved back into the world of mush to try and make our way over to Nathan. Quinn stopped by the bar and spent £6+ on a glass of wine and a coke, I talked to Neil and told him I was missing yet ANOTHER Sunderland game for the con, and then he asked Quinn if anyone was actually serving at the bar, to which she replied that yes, she was just waiting for her change. And then we migrated. We ran into crazyfruitlady, and then I saw Trudi come in - I yelled for her but she didn’t hear, and I didn’t fancy yelling it again!
I didn’t want to interrupt Nathan’s conversation, and I was telling Quinn this when kabukivice overheard and asked why, so I told her we had something for him and she suggested keeping it til the autograph session. Which I would have, but because of the complicated story behind it, I didn’t want to (for fear of holding up the queue) explained to her what it was and she told me to just go for it! So the three of us (me, Quinn and crazyfruitlady) edged closer to Nathan, til eventually he looked up from his chat, stuck his hand out to Quinn and said “Who are you?” She replied “Rachel”, to which I said “So am I!” LMAO I’m such a geek. Then he shook my hand too, said “You’re Rachael as well?” and I said yes, and then the fun started.
Me: We’ve got something for you.
Nathan: Oh?
Me: It’s a bit weird.
Nathan: Is it your underwear?
Me: No, it’s not that weird.
Nathan: Okay, go ahead!
Me: Right. Well, we *gestures self and Quinn* are both Sunderland supporters. Football.
Quinn: Soccer.
Me: Yes, but. FOOTBALL. Anyway. At the stadium, you can get bricks engraved and placed in the wall. And, uh, we got one done. *pulls certificate out of plastic folder*
Nathan: *Taking it from me* You got a brick engraved with Serenity Still Flyin’?
Me: Yes.
Nathan: Fucking A man! Wow! *holds it up against the wall, for the record it’s a bright red certificate with SUNDERLAND WALL OF FAME emblazoned across it* It’s very subtle, I love it! Can I keep it? I don’t wanna bend it…
Me: If you want we can take it and give it to you in the autograph session?
Nathan: Would you? That’d be great. Wow.
Other guy standing around: Just think, that’s going to be there for a LONG time!
Me: Yeah, and it’s a pretty new stadium!
Nathan: Wow.
Me: I was going to come up to you and say *with crazy eyes* “Nathan! Do you want a brick?? But I thought that might be a bit … odd.”
Nathan: *laughs*
Me: I was working with the guy, he was supposed to be getting the brick fitted by today so I could show you a picture but there was a delay with the delivery, and it isn’t done. He told me though that if you’re ever in the area you could have a free tour, hee!
Nathan: *still laughing as I show him a couple of pics of the ground and the brick with my name on to demonstrate* That’s great!
As I gave the folder back to Quinn to put in her bag, Nathan said he loved her bag, and grabbed hold of the strap. She was waiting for him to let go, I think, so that she could put the certificate back inside, but he said “I’m helping you!” and we both fumbled around to get it back in, hee.
And then we left him to chat to other people and went to talk to Trudi. I spotted Yara and said hi to her, then she went to talk to Nathan, and I moved over to where Beckie was standing with Morena and used her as my “in” - I wanted to show Morena the photo of Sunderland Companion’s Club which I’d taken. She took it from me, look at it, laughed, looked slightly worried and said “What the hell do they DO there?!”
After that I talked to Trudi some more, then we went up to party! Saw Kev and Melissa and a few other people on our way back up to our room, chatted a bit about Kev not looking as tall when he’s not in his suit, and then went upstairs. Collected our con books - just as they were closing up, phew! - and noticed Chiwetel Ejiofor was listed. According to the schedule he’d had to cancel on Thursday, which was a shame! I hope to meet him another time, I had wondered if he’d be invited but he’s such a busy man I didn’t actually expect it!
Went to the party with Drusilla and Quinn, they went off to dance and left me with their bags, then Kev came over to say hi and took me and their stuff back to their table, where Wendy presented him with his card. Which he loved. It was great! After he went to the bar I moved up into his chair to talk to Kirsty (doubleshiny) and tell her thanks for offering me her sofa for the North West shindig but that I wasn’t going to be able to make it. Boooo. Then we talked about height and her dancing with Joss and various other things, I moved around a bit, danced with Quinn and Trudi some more, then went and sat back with Kev and the others, talked to more people, went back to Trudi and discovered Quinn and Dru had disappeared. Told Trudi I was going to see if they were out at the bar but they weren’t, so I wandered downstairs and found them in the Polo Bar - don’t EVER buy drinks from there, people. £18 for two Malibu and cokes!
Then Trudi came past, chatted for a while, then a man told us they were closing the bar in ten minutes, we arranged to meet Dru for breakfast at 8 the next morning and then went to bed! Fun times!
Uh, over 3,000 words for just Friday. Wow.