(no subject)
So. Part one of my NFA report, and this only covers Thursday and Friday. Ridiculously detailed, as always, but more than anything it's so that I can go back in a few months time, or whenever, and read over it and remember all the things I forgot! (3670 words, for the record!)
Thursday was travelling hell, dudes. Hell. The heat! It was so HOT! And I was journeying for bloody hours. I left the house at 10.25, caught a Metro, got into Newcastle around 11ish, got on the next train to York (the 11.22, but luckily it was already in the station so I got in and got sat down with plenty of time and space for my suitcase), then got into York just in time to leg it across the road for the (late) 12.23 bus to Leeds, which gets in just before 1.30. I texted Dad and he told me he’d be there to meet me for a snack and a chat at 1.30, then he said that the traffic from Bradford was bad and he wouldn’t be there til 2ish. At 2.10, he strolls in and tells me that he was ACTUALLY back in the office at 1.30 but wanted time to eat the sandwiches he’d brought for himself before he came down. HUMPH, Dad, HUMPH!
So I had an apple strudel-y thing and we talked about the latest news on the Quinny takeover (June 16th at the earliest, according to the Sunderland echo) and various other things (some story about how some guy he went to school with who died in an apparently amusing way, which I can’t remember now) and then at 3, I got on my coach to London. Which arrived about 20 minutes late, at 7.45. That’s many hours on a BOILING HOT COACH with no air conditioning. And I didn’t dare go to sleep because I knew I’d just wake up hotter. So when I finally got to London, I was knackered. Dragged my suitcase through the underground, which is too expensive, too hot and has too many stairs, and because I’d got the coach in to Victoria instead of the train to Kings Cross, I ended up having to change at Green Park to get onto the Piccadilly line, and DUDE. That’s a LONG WALK considering its all inside the one station. Especially with a suitcase and a laptop bag. Anyhoo.
Finally got to the hostel just after 8, and it’s rubbish, nobody there speaks English. After waiting 20 minutes for ONE GUY in front of me to get checked in, I got done quite quickly, got given my bed linen and went to find my room and make my bed. Then I went on the internet (and wasn’t allowed the full hour, had to settle for 20 minutes, bah humbug!) and then went back to my bed to watch my download of Mammoth (starring the lovely Summer Glau, hee!) which I’d had downloaded for ages. Oh, Summer. You’re so much better than shitty movies with terrible CGI where they expect you to pass for a 16 year old.
Then I went back online for a little while, found out the new season ticket prices had been announced for SAFC, and then went to bed, since it was after 12. Got a nice night’s sleep, got up at 9.30, just in time to get dressed and check out for the 10am check out time. Left my luggage in a storage room with a dude, and went for a wander round London.
Went to Forbidden Planet, and then went vaguely looking for the Cinema Store. Then I got kind of lost, but it was the kind of lost where I wasn’t in a hurry and I was killing time anyway, and I knew I wasn’t far from where I needed to be so I wasn’t bothered. Eventually I found the Cinema Store, quite flukily, and spent ages in there trying to convince myself not to buy a talking Dalek bottle opener. I succeeded, only because I didn’t want to become an alcoholic because I would always be wanting to open bottles to make it yell EXTERMINATE!!! at me (I ended up buying one on Monday, but that’s neither here or there right now).
Headed back across, went to Burger King for lunch, and then began the debacle of the hostel guy looking for my luggage and calling me “DALIN!” (darling, but he was foreign…) for about 20 minutes. It was a different guy to the one I’d checked my luggage IN with, and it appeared my bags had been put in different places. My laptop bag, which is bright yellow, took about 5 or 10 minutes to find. Then I said I had a black suitcase, and he said “Black suitcase! Yellow bag is easy, don’t do this to me dalin!” I was like, if that’s your version of EASY, wtf is hard?! Eventually we found my suitcase on a shelf, and he pulled it down and said “DALIN! This is so heavy! You are so small! DALIN! There you go dalin!” Mmm hmmm. Yeah. Scary as anything.
So I fiiiinnally headed back into the tube, got on one across to Heathrow, and then got the bus to the Thistle. fray101 (Hilary) was in the reception queue when I arrived, so I joined her, we checked in (though they neglected to tell us about breakfast, which we didn’t realise at first, so we went back later and they sorted us out) and then we just chilled in our room for a while. And then fresleyforever (Mary) and her friend Michelle came up and sat for a bit, we chatted, them mrbuttmonkey (Ryan) came up too, and eventually we all wandered off downstairs to go to reg. We registered, nice and quickly (and with all names spelt correctly, yay!) and then stood around for a while, and then came back to the hotel room so that I could get some cash for 10x8s, and then spent the next three hours or so getting confused about what money I had, where I’d put it, which bits I’d put where and what it was for. After I’d bought my photo session tickets I got extra confused because I’d found an extra £20, and then lost it again, and then FOUND it again. I still don’t know where it came from. I think I’d put it aside for a Kane CD and then forgotten I’d done it. So we got our tickets for individual shots with J, Amy and Andy, and then it was back to the room again, after some random stopping on the way to chat to people like _helygen_ (Gail), who had been waving at me and I didn’t notice it was ME they were waving at until Hilary and Ryan asked if people were pointing at us...
Theeeen at some point, ficbitch82 (Christie) and bittersweet_art (Therese) came up and sat/stood around for a while - I was better at introductions than usual, I remembered to introduce Christie and say “and I don’t know who this is”, though I did forget to introduce Hilary and Ryan to them, but it all got figured out… usually if there’s somebody I don’t know in the mix, I don’t like to say that I don’t know, so I just do NO introductions and let people figure it out for themselves - and then we all went downstairs so that Hilary and I could go to the stewards meeting… except when we’d been sitting in our room? It had started with some serious thunderstorming. So we LEGGED it across into reception (because we had to get there! Stewards meeting!) and got rather drenched considering it was a 5 second run across the car park, and then got handed our duties (photo dis, yay! The glamour job! It pays to want to steward with me…), and then joined Ryan, Christie and Therese in the queue for the main hall.
We stood talking for about an hour waiting to be let into the hall, and ended up in a discussion with some people in front of us, too. There were lots of people and usually two conversations going on at once, so I could pick and choose and turn around to a different conversation when they started talking about Veronica Mars, lmao. We discussed many things. All sorts of shows, even Tru Calling was discussed in a positive light! Most of us like it, yay!
Then eventually we got into the hall and they had the chairs set out in “talk” format instead of round tables, which makes it 4-4 in terms of cons I’ve been to and which layout they used for the opening ceremony! I don’t seem to remember it taking long to start, though they did show us a looong outtake reel from season two which I don’t think I’ve seen before.
So Sean came out and welcomed us to the last Angel event, and the first thing he said garnered a huge groan/gasp from the audience. “J isn’t here.” Eep! “That’s not to say he isn’t coming. He was supposed to finish filming on his new show Conviction on Wednesday and fly out this morning, but they overran and we had to delay his flight. We’d been putting off the opening ceremony because J’s plane was supposed to get here at 8.30, but we’ve just heard that he won’t be getting in until 9.30 now, so we’re going to go on without him. He’ll be here tomorrow, and he’s looking forward to seeing you all.” Phew! He then said that it wouldn’t be a Starfury event without an event MC… Clare Kramer! Not a huge shock, because it’s CLARE, but at the same time, Sean had categorically said that not only was Clare not coming, there wouldn’t be a celeb MC. Of course, Sean never tells the truth, so I don’t know why I was surprised.
First out was Dayne. Always great to see Dayne back, though I’d decided against another Lindsey makeup shoot. Quite proud of myself on that score, I’m usually hopeless when it comes to resisting temptation like that, despite the fact that I already have one from the shoot he did at the White Room. I just don’t like ME in it. When I saw them after they came back, though, I was quite pleased, because the new photographer had shot them so that you can’t even really see the tattoos on a lot of the pictures, which is just a waste. Again, not relevant right now. This is why my con reports take so many words, I start talking bollocks. ANYWAY.
Next out was Steve Carlson, Kane guitarist. Again, not a huge shock that he was there, but he was still unannounced. He and Christian were doing acoustics shows Thursday and Monday so we’d all pretty much assumed he’d be there, which is good because I didn’t get a photo with him at the White Room and I wished I had!
Next up was Adrienne Wilkinson. She was also known as Random Xena Girl - appeared in one scene in one episode of Angel, but never the less, I knew I’d end up getting a picture with her, because I always do. I wanted a picture with Elisabeth Harnois at Prime even though I couldn’t afford it and didn’t know her from anything (I didn’t, in the end, but she was just lovely and I’ll be getting one at the Witching Hour!). She came out and said that despite it being the last Angel con, it was *her* first Angel con, so we had to squish all the years of fun into one weekend. She seemed like she was going to be lots of fun.
Next up was another surprise - Keith Szarabajka. Can’t really remember what he said, but he got a pretty loud round of applause because he wasn’t expected. Lovely man. Wish I’d got a picture with him now, too….
Then came Andy Hallett. There’s really nothing to say about Andy, he’s just ANDY! He came out and gave Clare a hug, and said that he owed Clare everything for getting him here. He’d told her that he was ready, and she came to his house to pick him up and he was the furthest from ready that you could imagine, so she had to help him get all packed. Bless!
Then we got our third and final surprise… one that gave Hilary’s wallet a heart attack, I’m sure! Vincent Kartheiser! Vinnie is one of the best con guests… so friendly, always being chatty in the autograph sessions, making sure to talk to everyone individually. He really gets into the con spirit, so it was great to see him back! He got an even bigger round of applause than Keith (unsurprisingly!) and loved every second of it!
Next up, Christian Kane, with a beer in his hand. Wouldn’t be Christian if he didn’t! Came out, told us for sure we were getting another acoustic set on Saturday night (yay!) and said he was glad to be there… then went back in.
Then out came Amy, who talked about how happy she was to be there, and how she was at the event last year when Sean had announced he was doing the last Angel con with J and Christian, and she was like “But I wanna go!” so she begged him to let her come. Bless her! I love Amy. And she doesn’t look remotely six months pregnant.
After the opening ceremony, we went and pushed into the photograph tickets queue for pictures with Vincent, as his had obviously only just gone on sale, since he was a surprise guest. Then our numbers got called for the Friday night autograph session - Hilary and I had been hoping we wouldn’t get called since it all seemed a bit rushed doing it on the first night, but it worked out well in the end. We went across to our room and collected things to be signed, then rejoined the queue and gave Ryan our £20 for a Vinnie photo ticket each so that we wouldn’t miss out or be really late in the numbers.
Then we discovered that Andy was in this signing room after all, so I ran back across to get my Lorne action figure, and we were about to go in when I realised I’d left my Illyria cover comic that I wanted Amy to sign in my suitcase, so I ran BACK across to get my comic, having dumped my things onto Hilary so that I didn’t have to run with all the stuff.
This session was Amy, Keith, Vincent, Dayne and Andy. We queued up the stairs for a while to get in, and ended up being amongst the last people to get in, which made for a nice relaxed atmosphere. I ummed and ahhed over getting a Keith 10x8 for him to sign, especially as there was one of him in Charmed with Rose McGowan that I could get Rose to sign at the Witching Hour, but I decided that I want a nice Rose 10x8 from that rather than one of her and Keith, so I skipped out on Keith. He seemed to have a bit of a queue, so I didn’t feel too bad, though of course his queue had gone by the time we got in the general area and he was just sitting with nothing to do. And as he was a bonus guest, I had to buy a 10x8 in order to get a signature at all, so I went without.
Amy was our first guest. Hilary had 6 items that she wanted signing, so I agreed to take one through for her, since the limit is 5. As she was getting her first few things signed, I slipped the one I was getting done down onto the table and said to the guest assistant “That one’s to Hilary too, she had 6 items so I’m using one of my allowance for her” and the liaison lady smiled and said it was fine. She was signing Hilary’s Illyria action figure when I heard Hilary commenting that I wouldn’t let her take it out of the box, and I said “No! It’s not to be taken out of the box!” and Amy laughed. Then she signed Hilary’s Illyria cover of the comic and said that she hadn’t seen any of that stuff, and that she’d actually thought that the comics had ended before Fred came into it. I showed her that I had a different one, and she seemed pretty interested. Hilary mentioned that Gunn was still alive in it, only with an eye patch, and Amy said that Gunn was going to survive if they’d made a movie, and she thought it was okay to tell us since it didn’t look like the movie would be getting done now. He was going to be the villain, probably turned into a vampire, she said. We felt all special that she’d shared this with us, until she told everyone at the talk on Sunday…
Then I said “We’re looking forward to seeing your episode of How I Met Your Mother!” and she sort of pulled a face and said “Yeah, that was… an experience! I don’t think I’m very funny. Alexis is great, but I don’t know…” so Hilary asked if she was playing an ex of Barney’s or an ex of Ted’s, because we’d heard both, and she said it’s Barney, which made it even weirder for her as Neil Patrick Harris is one of her best friends. She asked if it airs over here yet, and we said that it had just started and then I said “But we’ve been a bit illegal and we’ve seen them all.” A bit illegal? I’m obviously a crazy person. Then Hilary asked if there was any chance of some Peyton/Sark action in Alias, and Amy pulled a face that implied “yes” and said “Well, you’ll just have to watch and see!” Hilary moved onto Vincent’s table (skipping past Keith) as Amy signed my things, and mentioned to him that she’d seen him in New York.
As I moved over to the table he was saying that she shouldn’t worry, he’s had real stalkers and he knows that she’s not one! Bless him! So as she moved on to Dayne, I handed him my 10x8 and he asked how I was, and then started singing “Such a beautiful laaaaaaaaady” and me, before writing “So beautiful” on my 10x8. I know Vincent is a serial flirt, but it’s still a fun experience, having him say things like that to you! Then he asked if I was going to the party, and I said “That’s the plan”, and he said “That’s my plan too.” I said “As long as I don’t fall asleep…” and he gave me a “Pah! Sleep! Who needs SLEEP look?!” before I moved onto Dayne.
I got Dayne to sign my photo of me with James Leary in his Clem makeup from Prime, as hopefully James will sign it for me at Dragon*Con. I mentioned to Dayne that I wanted to get James to sign it at D*C, and Dayne said “Oh yeah, he’s going to that, isn’t he?” Then his friend (who was sitting with him at his table) pointed at the picture and said “He’s doing a makeup demonstration of that demon tomorrow!” and Dayne was like “No, not THAT demon. Different demon.” “Oh.”
Then it was Andy. He always seems very focussed during the auto sessions, not much of one for chatting. I said that I heard he was going to Dragon*Con, and he said “Uh, I think so,” and I said “I might see you there, then.” He asked me when it was, and I told him, and his assistant asked what it was, and I said “Dragon*Con,” thinking she hadn’t heard, but she said “But what is it?” And Andy said “It’s this event in Atlanta, Georgia…” and was explaining as I walked away. I was just amused because Dayne knows that James Leary is going, but Andy doesn’t even know that ANDY is going!
So we were about to leave the room when Hilary and I had reclaimed our bags and stuff, and Hilary realised she had a Lemon Law badge on her bag, and the queue was gone… so we nipped back across to Amy’s table just as she was signing for the last guy. We were standing there getting a slightly odd look from the assistant lady and said that we’d be quick, and it wasn’t something for signing. “So what is it, then?” “It’s a gift…” The lady was intrigued… “Is it an Angel thing?” Me: “No… it’s a How I Met Your Mother thing…” Amy looked up and looked like, wtf? These girls are back again! Enough with the HIMYM! But at least she was still smiling.
So we gave her the badge and she didn’t seem to understand, so Hilary suggested that she give it to Neil, and Amy said she would.
Whether she does or not, we saw that badge go in Amy’s jeans pocket, and that’s what’s important here!
After that we went back across to our hotel room and waited for Ryan to come back across, and then went down to the party for a while. We hung with Christie and Therese, and Mary and Michelle, sat at the table etc, and then after a while realised that Vincent had indeed come to party. He was literally BOUNCING up and down like the lunatic that he truly is. Hilary’s aim was to not go to bed until he landed on her, but alas, it didn’t happen. He did perform some kind of dance in front of the two of us that looked like a mating ritual, though, and kept collapsing into the chair beside Hilary in a manner that made it keep moving closer and closer to her…
Eventually he got up and left (bar or toilet, I think!) and we decided to head for bed before he came back, because if he came back, we would never leave….
Thursday was travelling hell, dudes. Hell. The heat! It was so HOT! And I was journeying for bloody hours. I left the house at 10.25, caught a Metro, got into Newcastle around 11ish, got on the next train to York (the 11.22, but luckily it was already in the station so I got in and got sat down with plenty of time and space for my suitcase), then got into York just in time to leg it across the road for the (late) 12.23 bus to Leeds, which gets in just before 1.30. I texted Dad and he told me he’d be there to meet me for a snack and a chat at 1.30, then he said that the traffic from Bradford was bad and he wouldn’t be there til 2ish. At 2.10, he strolls in and tells me that he was ACTUALLY back in the office at 1.30 but wanted time to eat the sandwiches he’d brought for himself before he came down. HUMPH, Dad, HUMPH!
So I had an apple strudel-y thing and we talked about the latest news on the Quinny takeover (June 16th at the earliest, according to the Sunderland echo) and various other things (some story about how some guy he went to school with who died in an apparently amusing way, which I can’t remember now) and then at 3, I got on my coach to London. Which arrived about 20 minutes late, at 7.45. That’s many hours on a BOILING HOT COACH with no air conditioning. And I didn’t dare go to sleep because I knew I’d just wake up hotter. So when I finally got to London, I was knackered. Dragged my suitcase through the underground, which is too expensive, too hot and has too many stairs, and because I’d got the coach in to Victoria instead of the train to Kings Cross, I ended up having to change at Green Park to get onto the Piccadilly line, and DUDE. That’s a LONG WALK considering its all inside the one station. Especially with a suitcase and a laptop bag. Anyhoo.
Finally got to the hostel just after 8, and it’s rubbish, nobody there speaks English. After waiting 20 minutes for ONE GUY in front of me to get checked in, I got done quite quickly, got given my bed linen and went to find my room and make my bed. Then I went on the internet (and wasn’t allowed the full hour, had to settle for 20 minutes, bah humbug!) and then went back to my bed to watch my download of Mammoth (starring the lovely Summer Glau, hee!) which I’d had downloaded for ages. Oh, Summer. You’re so much better than shitty movies with terrible CGI where they expect you to pass for a 16 year old.
Then I went back online for a little while, found out the new season ticket prices had been announced for SAFC, and then went to bed, since it was after 12. Got a nice night’s sleep, got up at 9.30, just in time to get dressed and check out for the 10am check out time. Left my luggage in a storage room with a dude, and went for a wander round London.
Went to Forbidden Planet, and then went vaguely looking for the Cinema Store. Then I got kind of lost, but it was the kind of lost where I wasn’t in a hurry and I was killing time anyway, and I knew I wasn’t far from where I needed to be so I wasn’t bothered. Eventually I found the Cinema Store, quite flukily, and spent ages in there trying to convince myself not to buy a talking Dalek bottle opener. I succeeded, only because I didn’t want to become an alcoholic because I would always be wanting to open bottles to make it yell EXTERMINATE!!! at me (I ended up buying one on Monday, but that’s neither here or there right now).
Headed back across, went to Burger King for lunch, and then began the debacle of the hostel guy looking for my luggage and calling me “DALIN!” (darling, but he was foreign…) for about 20 minutes. It was a different guy to the one I’d checked my luggage IN with, and it appeared my bags had been put in different places. My laptop bag, which is bright yellow, took about 5 or 10 minutes to find. Then I said I had a black suitcase, and he said “Black suitcase! Yellow bag is easy, don’t do this to me dalin!” I was like, if that’s your version of EASY, wtf is hard?! Eventually we found my suitcase on a shelf, and he pulled it down and said “DALIN! This is so heavy! You are so small! DALIN! There you go dalin!” Mmm hmmm. Yeah. Scary as anything.
So I fiiiinnally headed back into the tube, got on one across to Heathrow, and then got the bus to the Thistle. fray101 (Hilary) was in the reception queue when I arrived, so I joined her, we checked in (though they neglected to tell us about breakfast, which we didn’t realise at first, so we went back later and they sorted us out) and then we just chilled in our room for a while. And then fresleyforever (Mary) and her friend Michelle came up and sat for a bit, we chatted, them mrbuttmonkey (Ryan) came up too, and eventually we all wandered off downstairs to go to reg. We registered, nice and quickly (and with all names spelt correctly, yay!) and then stood around for a while, and then came back to the hotel room so that I could get some cash for 10x8s, and then spent the next three hours or so getting confused about what money I had, where I’d put it, which bits I’d put where and what it was for. After I’d bought my photo session tickets I got extra confused because I’d found an extra £20, and then lost it again, and then FOUND it again. I still don’t know where it came from. I think I’d put it aside for a Kane CD and then forgotten I’d done it. So we got our tickets for individual shots with J, Amy and Andy, and then it was back to the room again, after some random stopping on the way to chat to people like _helygen_ (Gail), who had been waving at me and I didn’t notice it was ME they were waving at until Hilary and Ryan asked if people were pointing at us...
Theeeen at some point, ficbitch82 (Christie) and bittersweet_art (Therese) came up and sat/stood around for a while - I was better at introductions than usual, I remembered to introduce Christie and say “and I don’t know who this is”, though I did forget to introduce Hilary and Ryan to them, but it all got figured out… usually if there’s somebody I don’t know in the mix, I don’t like to say that I don’t know, so I just do NO introductions and let people figure it out for themselves - and then we all went downstairs so that Hilary and I could go to the stewards meeting… except when we’d been sitting in our room? It had started with some serious thunderstorming. So we LEGGED it across into reception (because we had to get there! Stewards meeting!) and got rather drenched considering it was a 5 second run across the car park, and then got handed our duties (photo dis, yay! The glamour job! It pays to want to steward with me…), and then joined Ryan, Christie and Therese in the queue for the main hall.
We stood talking for about an hour waiting to be let into the hall, and ended up in a discussion with some people in front of us, too. There were lots of people and usually two conversations going on at once, so I could pick and choose and turn around to a different conversation when they started talking about Veronica Mars, lmao. We discussed many things. All sorts of shows, even Tru Calling was discussed in a positive light! Most of us like it, yay!
Then eventually we got into the hall and they had the chairs set out in “talk” format instead of round tables, which makes it 4-4 in terms of cons I’ve been to and which layout they used for the opening ceremony! I don’t seem to remember it taking long to start, though they did show us a looong outtake reel from season two which I don’t think I’ve seen before.
So Sean came out and welcomed us to the last Angel event, and the first thing he said garnered a huge groan/gasp from the audience. “J isn’t here.” Eep! “That’s not to say he isn’t coming. He was supposed to finish filming on his new show Conviction on Wednesday and fly out this morning, but they overran and we had to delay his flight. We’d been putting off the opening ceremony because J’s plane was supposed to get here at 8.30, but we’ve just heard that he won’t be getting in until 9.30 now, so we’re going to go on without him. He’ll be here tomorrow, and he’s looking forward to seeing you all.” Phew! He then said that it wouldn’t be a Starfury event without an event MC… Clare Kramer! Not a huge shock, because it’s CLARE, but at the same time, Sean had categorically said that not only was Clare not coming, there wouldn’t be a celeb MC. Of course, Sean never tells the truth, so I don’t know why I was surprised.
First out was Dayne. Always great to see Dayne back, though I’d decided against another Lindsey makeup shoot. Quite proud of myself on that score, I’m usually hopeless when it comes to resisting temptation like that, despite the fact that I already have one from the shoot he did at the White Room. I just don’t like ME in it. When I saw them after they came back, though, I was quite pleased, because the new photographer had shot them so that you can’t even really see the tattoos on a lot of the pictures, which is just a waste. Again, not relevant right now. This is why my con reports take so many words, I start talking bollocks. ANYWAY.
Next out was Steve Carlson, Kane guitarist. Again, not a huge shock that he was there, but he was still unannounced. He and Christian were doing acoustics shows Thursday and Monday so we’d all pretty much assumed he’d be there, which is good because I didn’t get a photo with him at the White Room and I wished I had!
Next up was Adrienne Wilkinson. She was also known as Random Xena Girl - appeared in one scene in one episode of Angel, but never the less, I knew I’d end up getting a picture with her, because I always do. I wanted a picture with Elisabeth Harnois at Prime even though I couldn’t afford it and didn’t know her from anything (I didn’t, in the end, but she was just lovely and I’ll be getting one at the Witching Hour!). She came out and said that despite it being the last Angel con, it was *her* first Angel con, so we had to squish all the years of fun into one weekend. She seemed like she was going to be lots of fun.
Next up was another surprise - Keith Szarabajka. Can’t really remember what he said, but he got a pretty loud round of applause because he wasn’t expected. Lovely man. Wish I’d got a picture with him now, too….
Then came Andy Hallett. There’s really nothing to say about Andy, he’s just ANDY! He came out and gave Clare a hug, and said that he owed Clare everything for getting him here. He’d told her that he was ready, and she came to his house to pick him up and he was the furthest from ready that you could imagine, so she had to help him get all packed. Bless!
Then we got our third and final surprise… one that gave Hilary’s wallet a heart attack, I’m sure! Vincent Kartheiser! Vinnie is one of the best con guests… so friendly, always being chatty in the autograph sessions, making sure to talk to everyone individually. He really gets into the con spirit, so it was great to see him back! He got an even bigger round of applause than Keith (unsurprisingly!) and loved every second of it!
Next up, Christian Kane, with a beer in his hand. Wouldn’t be Christian if he didn’t! Came out, told us for sure we were getting another acoustic set on Saturday night (yay!) and said he was glad to be there… then went back in.
Then out came Amy, who talked about how happy she was to be there, and how she was at the event last year when Sean had announced he was doing the last Angel con with J and Christian, and she was like “But I wanna go!” so she begged him to let her come. Bless her! I love Amy. And she doesn’t look remotely six months pregnant.
After the opening ceremony, we went and pushed into the photograph tickets queue for pictures with Vincent, as his had obviously only just gone on sale, since he was a surprise guest. Then our numbers got called for the Friday night autograph session - Hilary and I had been hoping we wouldn’t get called since it all seemed a bit rushed doing it on the first night, but it worked out well in the end. We went across to our room and collected things to be signed, then rejoined the queue and gave Ryan our £20 for a Vinnie photo ticket each so that we wouldn’t miss out or be really late in the numbers.
Then we discovered that Andy was in this signing room after all, so I ran back across to get my Lorne action figure, and we were about to go in when I realised I’d left my Illyria cover comic that I wanted Amy to sign in my suitcase, so I ran BACK across to get my comic, having dumped my things onto Hilary so that I didn’t have to run with all the stuff.
This session was Amy, Keith, Vincent, Dayne and Andy. We queued up the stairs for a while to get in, and ended up being amongst the last people to get in, which made for a nice relaxed atmosphere. I ummed and ahhed over getting a Keith 10x8 for him to sign, especially as there was one of him in Charmed with Rose McGowan that I could get Rose to sign at the Witching Hour, but I decided that I want a nice Rose 10x8 from that rather than one of her and Keith, so I skipped out on Keith. He seemed to have a bit of a queue, so I didn’t feel too bad, though of course his queue had gone by the time we got in the general area and he was just sitting with nothing to do. And as he was a bonus guest, I had to buy a 10x8 in order to get a signature at all, so I went without.
Amy was our first guest. Hilary had 6 items that she wanted signing, so I agreed to take one through for her, since the limit is 5. As she was getting her first few things signed, I slipped the one I was getting done down onto the table and said to the guest assistant “That one’s to Hilary too, she had 6 items so I’m using one of my allowance for her” and the liaison lady smiled and said it was fine. She was signing Hilary’s Illyria action figure when I heard Hilary commenting that I wouldn’t let her take it out of the box, and I said “No! It’s not to be taken out of the box!” and Amy laughed. Then she signed Hilary’s Illyria cover of the comic and said that she hadn’t seen any of that stuff, and that she’d actually thought that the comics had ended before Fred came into it. I showed her that I had a different one, and she seemed pretty interested. Hilary mentioned that Gunn was still alive in it, only with an eye patch, and Amy said that Gunn was going to survive if they’d made a movie, and she thought it was okay to tell us since it didn’t look like the movie would be getting done now. He was going to be the villain, probably turned into a vampire, she said. We felt all special that she’d shared this with us, until she told everyone at the talk on Sunday…
Then I said “We’re looking forward to seeing your episode of How I Met Your Mother!” and she sort of pulled a face and said “Yeah, that was… an experience! I don’t think I’m very funny. Alexis is great, but I don’t know…” so Hilary asked if she was playing an ex of Barney’s or an ex of Ted’s, because we’d heard both, and she said it’s Barney, which made it even weirder for her as Neil Patrick Harris is one of her best friends. She asked if it airs over here yet, and we said that it had just started and then I said “But we’ve been a bit illegal and we’ve seen them all.” A bit illegal? I’m obviously a crazy person. Then Hilary asked if there was any chance of some Peyton/Sark action in Alias, and Amy pulled a face that implied “yes” and said “Well, you’ll just have to watch and see!” Hilary moved onto Vincent’s table (skipping past Keith) as Amy signed my things, and mentioned to him that she’d seen him in New York.
As I moved over to the table he was saying that she shouldn’t worry, he’s had real stalkers and he knows that she’s not one! Bless him! So as she moved on to Dayne, I handed him my 10x8 and he asked how I was, and then started singing “Such a beautiful laaaaaaaaady” and me, before writing “So beautiful” on my 10x8. I know Vincent is a serial flirt, but it’s still a fun experience, having him say things like that to you! Then he asked if I was going to the party, and I said “That’s the plan”, and he said “That’s my plan too.” I said “As long as I don’t fall asleep…” and he gave me a “Pah! Sleep! Who needs SLEEP look?!” before I moved onto Dayne.
I got Dayne to sign my photo of me with James Leary in his Clem makeup from Prime, as hopefully James will sign it for me at Dragon*Con. I mentioned to Dayne that I wanted to get James to sign it at D*C, and Dayne said “Oh yeah, he’s going to that, isn’t he?” Then his friend (who was sitting with him at his table) pointed at the picture and said “He’s doing a makeup demonstration of that demon tomorrow!” and Dayne was like “No, not THAT demon. Different demon.” “Oh.”
Then it was Andy. He always seems very focussed during the auto sessions, not much of one for chatting. I said that I heard he was going to Dragon*Con, and he said “Uh, I think so,” and I said “I might see you there, then.” He asked me when it was, and I told him, and his assistant asked what it was, and I said “Dragon*Con,” thinking she hadn’t heard, but she said “But what is it?” And Andy said “It’s this event in Atlanta, Georgia…” and was explaining as I walked away. I was just amused because Dayne knows that James Leary is going, but Andy doesn’t even know that ANDY is going!
So we were about to leave the room when Hilary and I had reclaimed our bags and stuff, and Hilary realised she had a Lemon Law badge on her bag, and the queue was gone… so we nipped back across to Amy’s table just as she was signing for the last guy. We were standing there getting a slightly odd look from the assistant lady and said that we’d be quick, and it wasn’t something for signing. “So what is it, then?” “It’s a gift…” The lady was intrigued… “Is it an Angel thing?” Me: “No… it’s a How I Met Your Mother thing…” Amy looked up and looked like, wtf? These girls are back again! Enough with the HIMYM! But at least she was still smiling.
So we gave her the badge and she didn’t seem to understand, so Hilary suggested that she give it to Neil, and Amy said she would.
Whether she does or not, we saw that badge go in Amy’s jeans pocket, and that’s what’s important here!
After that we went back across to our hotel room and waited for Ryan to come back across, and then went down to the party for a while. We hung with Christie and Therese, and Mary and Michelle, sat at the table etc, and then after a while realised that Vincent had indeed come to party. He was literally BOUNCING up and down like the lunatic that he truly is. Hilary’s aim was to not go to bed until he landed on her, but alas, it didn’t happen. He did perform some kind of dance in front of the two of us that looked like a mating ritual, though, and kept collapsing into the chair beside Hilary in a manner that made it keep moving closer and closer to her…
Eventually he got up and left (bar or toilet, I think!) and we decided to head for bed before he came back, because if he came back, we would never leave….