Kelvin - Please paint some B7 figures.
Ron still has not confirmed when he will be arriving, but still says he wants to come.
For Judith all is right with the world: Ron Thornton has finally confirmed and says he will let us know tomorrow when he will arrive. Kelvin is told to get some B7 figures painted so that people at the con can see them and buy them.
Kelvin is told to get some B7 figures painted so that people at the con can see them and buy them.
I get up at a normal 7am, normal(ish) day at work, borrow the trailer from the company's DIY club and come home. The lounge now has about 12 boxes of zines and half a ton of other stuff when I get home.
Kelvin goes off to his college to borrow the Digital Camera - when he gets there someone else had borrowed it 20 minutes before... After he returns we go Camera shopping... After a while we select one, that is out of stock and then finally after a while end up with another one.
In the evening, I finish the price lists which are printed by about midnight. I also print a few extra badges that have been requested, and just before bed, enable the paying for Redemption '03 on the website, I get to bed around 12:15am, by which time the lounge has about 20 boxes and a ton of other stuff.
20 minutes later we arrive at the hotel. Judith goes into the hotel to checkin and is not seen for a long time. Meanwhile the boys and I unload the car and trailer, one trolly load of boxes, another trolly load of boxes, a trolly of cases and junk, more boxes, then the porters offer to help for the last trip to the room. It is a good thing we have an executive suite - after everything is loaded there is as much space left in the room as ordinary rooms!
Kelvin - Please paint some B7 figures.
A quiet(ish) evening as fans arrive and conversation starts. I see Judith for at least an hour this evening.
Kelvin gets out the paint for painting B7 figures, finishes a Travis and then
becomes part of the Tech crew.
Open the dealers room - sell, rush, sell, grab, sell, get books, sell, phew!! The dealers were only open for 4 hours but that was a very very hectic 4 hours. The biggest order was just short of £200! The Oxfam table now has books on edge across most of it. At the end I closed the doors and opened a safe deposit box...
An hour or so was then spent in the bar, before going to the opening ceremony and Pub Quiz. Our table won (I got 10 Drazi points) though I only knew a few answers (1 Blake's 7 and all the Harry Potter questions).
The Freedom City party started well, but after an hour many people left to the
zine launch event and in the end it was rather empty. Servalan was drinking
Creme de Menthe because she liked the colour - she did not really like it. A
brief tour de convention, broke my glasses and got to bed at about 1:30 -
Judith? Who's she?.
Kelvin nearly finishes a Vila and an Avon. I manage to take an order even without a fully painted figure to demonstrate.
Sometime last month I got volunteered in to doing another website
panel. I then suggested Simon Partridge (of
Blakes7.co.uk) as a good
person to also be on the panel - they have a good site and I knew from Nexus he
also would spell out the theme of KISS - Keep It Simple Stupid. This was a much
higher level discussion than last time, as many (most?) of the audience had
websites.
An hour of sitting down then the fancy dress and Caberet. Afterwards I was Vila in Wobblevision, this was fun - I borrowed Judith's Liberator Gun, Teleport Bracelet and part of her "Blake" costume. Michael Sheard eats some moondiscs and destroys the set.
The Disco was not as good as last time - there was too much dead music that just was not what the con wanted. Perhaps the funniest items were the can-can and the "Tiller Girls" - I hope someone has some photos.
Got to bed at about 2:30 am. - Judith? Who's she?
Up just after 8, breakfast open the dealers room. I give up waiting for
Judith to price the Oxfam books and for the fanish books put a price on them
and they start to sell - I don't price up the hard back / non fanish books.
Trade is slower today but only completely stopped during the closing
ceremony. During the day I find "volunteers" to sell raffle tickets. Around lunch time
suddenly remember to get boys' stuff packed and into our room and them checked
out (they are going back with Rob). Get the raffle tickets divided up and
shuffled.Start packing boxes. Small rush after the closing and then the first of 4 trips with the trolly to the room. Search for and find our ghetto blaster and take that to the room (trip 5) Just finish, stick my head in the stewards party and pickup a biscuit - "Richard can you put those unused stewards prizes away" (trip 6), Kelvin wants to get his stuff from the room (trip 7) I thought he took Henry's, trip 8 is to get Henry's stuff. Return to the stewards "party" now 6 people, I get some food out then some apple juice is spilt over me (trip 9 to change trousers), return eat 3 peanuts - "I missed the stewards raffle can I get a prize from your room" (trip 10), eat a little, then Harriet and I decide to move the uneaten food and drink to Ops and tidy up after the stewards party (trips 11 and 12).
Its now quiet as many are in the "slash debate" however I join a table in the
restaurant for a relaxed meal - the first since Thursday, with Michael Sheard,
Ivan and Sasha, the Haslams and a couple of others - nice conversation about
music publication and royalties, the effect of foot and mouth on vets (Sasha is
a vet), good and bad conventions, and 1001 other topics, then drift into the
boulevard for the wind down.
The wind down includes spaceships, and monkeys. Richard the Klingon
discovers that he can buy plastic monkeys by the pint from the bar. After a
while, plastic monkeys are hanging from glasses, in peoples hair, in beards,
and in many other dubious places. Louise's Bagpus and Judiths's Augustus get
very "friendly". Lots of people give me thanks to pass on to Judith, I even see
her for 10-15 minutes. Eventually sleep gets the better of me and I rather
reluctantly get some sleep. I am used to jetlag - I can cross the Atlantic and
just carry on, but conlag is far far worse - it lasts for days.
Natter, goodbyes, hugs, thanks and start bring the stuff down from the room. Along side Julia's and Kathryn's who are coming back with us, it looks suspiciously large.
More goodbyes and it is just us. Pack the trailer and car - no it does not fit - I hope it does not rain on the trip home, as the trailer cover does not cover the edges.
Finally we rather reluctantly leave and drive home. Halfway home it starts to rain... When we get home we jump, empty the trailer tip all the zines, books and junk out and sort into dry (quiet a lot), damp (most of the rest) and wet (a few zines and books) - the result is nothing like as bad as the trip to Redemption '99. Collapse and have a cup of tea. I am not going to say we were tired, but I was last to bed at 9pm...
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