catspaw

This is going to be a mega-long post, I can tell *g*.

First off, the journey down was highly hilarious - notable for a hysterical announcement at Edinburgh airport: picture the scene.

feather_autant and me, sitting, more than half asleep at a table at the Wetherspoons in Domestic Departures. The tannoy pipes up, "Would the person who has left their kilt at security, please return to collect it." Feather was doing the classic, "WTF? Did I *really* hear that?" I was nearly sliding under the table, thinking, "Well *he* should be easy enough to spot." LOL! Highly amusing start to what turned out to be a hysterical long weekend.

We had a good flight down to Birmingham, which is naught but a hop, skip and a jump from Edinburgh - I swear, the plane climbs to 25 000 feet and only goes on the flat for about four minutes (we timed it on the flight back *g*) before it starts its descent. We took off late, but since they allow a ridiculous amount of time for such a short hop, an hour and ten minutes actually, we weren't too bothered about being met by

sazzle_02 and

yragg at the other end - we figured they'd be there for the specified time, and they were. Although we ended up about ten minutes late over the piece, and matters were complicated by two planes coming in at exactly the same time at different terminals, which meant much running around for the two of them, frantically asking random passengers where they'd flown from to try and be at the gate to meet us. In the end, they split up, and

yragg was the lucky winnah *g*

After the kissy/huggy session and a quick smoke (much needed) we collected the car and were off. We had a couple hours' drive to the cottage we were staying in so much hilarity in the car on the way. And by the way, if you're ever in the Glastonbury area? Make a beeline for Middlewick Holiday Cottages. Best damn accommodation I've ever stayed in - honestly, you could have walked into the kitchen as stocked and cooked a meal for ten, it had *everything* you needed, right down to a garlic press. I've never ever stayed self catering anywhere before that provided the garlic press :-)

But that's a digression. We got there in reasonable time, dumped off the bags and headed off to Wells to register. A quick and easy process, fair play to the con organisers, they did their level best to make everything as smooth and straightforward as possible. However - as is the way with most cons on the first day, they were running late. We'd feared *we* were going to be a little on the late side, so we weren't complaining, and as it turned out, they were late becasue RDA and AT were giving such good value to the morning session people, which you really can't complain about :-)

The con itself was held in the Bishop's Palace, which is a lovely old pile, moated and everything. Very picturesque. We were standing in the queue when we spotted the morning attendees finishing up and coming out - including

blue_adagio, the fifth member of our party. More kissy/huggy in the queue, and making of arrangements to meet up after the afternoon session to stash her luggage in the car, maybe go to the cottage if there was time, get something to eat, etc. And a relief to find her so easily :-)

So we parted company and headed off to the venue proper, in an old building (don't ask me what exactly) at the back of the Palace complex. Past a sign that read 'Please do not walk across the croquet lawn' LOL! Not something you see every day even here ;-) We queued there for a while and I bumped into an old pal from ShittyCon, Kelspook. Had a great time catching up with her and arranging to meet up later for a proper natter :-) And then had fits of laughter at the background music: they'd hired a harpist to entertain us and she played -- wait for it -- 'Danny Boy'. LOLOLOL! The stewards were getting people in and up the stairs as quickly as they could, and eventually we got up to the room where the con was to find we were sitting in the third row from the front :-) Not quite the best seats in the house, but not too shabby either :-) Shortly after that, the MC, Thomasina Gibson, came in and explained the various rules and regs re photos, fire escapes and so on - and then the magic words - 'Please welcome Amanda Tapping and Richard Dean Anderson'.

Well that was way long, so part 2 to follow :-)