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kribuLet's see if I can also post... I think I'll leave making a picspam post to whenever LJ is working properly again, especially as I haven't got any picspam prepared yet. So here's just a short(ish) overview of what I've been up to. (Erm, yes, depending on one's definition of short(ish).)
DiaCon Alley: great fun! Met up withayerf at the Liverpool Street train station upon my arrival to London; we headed straight over to St Pancras from there and off to Canterbury.
It was my first con experience, so nothing to compare it to, but I enjoyed the panels/discussions I attended, met new people (*waves tovaysh*), met .. er .. I can't say old people, can I? People I knew from before? Anyway, we saw shiv5468 from the distance on Thursday, and then again on Friday morning, but didn't really manage to catch up with her (and magically25) until Friday afternoon. Went to see Deathly Hallows part 2 in the evening - my first 3D film experience (I wasn't thrilled to hear that, but as I'd seen the film in 2D at home, I did figure it's actually a good opportunity to see if I can tolerate 3D or not). I don't think the 3D added much, but on the bright side, I now know that even though it's a bit uncomfortable, it didn't lead to a massive headache or nausea or anything like that. So yay!
Bumped intocelta_diabolica at last while waiting for the film to start - I'd tried to look for her earlier, but honestly, it's rather awkward to peer at strangers' chests (er, badges) to find out if they're anyone I might know, so that didn't really work out too well. Alas, we only got to talk for a few moments (and I only found out later that we'd been literally staying right across the corridor from each other in the dormitory, but then it was too late).
On Saturday, Ayerf and I met up with Shiv in the morning and walked down to Canterbury itself (about 1,5 km from the University of Kent campus, where the con was held). We were joined bypythia_delphi and had enormous amounts of fun. I don't think I've spent a whole day laughing that much for a long, long, long time. Did some sightseeing - mostly the Canterbury cathedral - actually, I don't think we got to anywhere else, because we were too busy having fun. (Also, it's a huge cathedral.) Ayerf had lego!Hermione and lego!Snape, chained together, with her and therefore, there was BDSM lego!porn at lunch. Shiv took pictures.
On Sunday, we attended another panel (about fests and exchanges and participation etc) and then Ayerf and I took off to Canterbury again for some more sightseeing - went to the Roman museum, which was interesting, and generally just walked around a bit until heading back, getting our luggage and then heading back to the train station and from there to London.
Didn't do anything apart from checking in and having dinner (fish and chips! treacle tart! in a pub! *was busy experiencing all sorts of things that might come in handy in a fic some day*) on Sunday as we were both quite knackered.
The hotel ... as I mentioned on Buzz, it had, uh, character. In other words, the loo was nowhere to be seen, until Ayerf, who'd come with me to get me checked in first, pulled open the wardrobe door. And, well, there was the loo. (It was an ordinary-looking wardrobe with two doors - except that behind one were the clothes hangers and such, and behind the other, well ... not Narnia. But I can honestly say now that I've peed in my cupboard. Repeatedly.)
Monday... *tries to remember* Ah yes. Went to see the butterfly exhibition outside the Natural History museum - it was quite amazing. So many pretty butterflies! Big, tropical, colourful butterflies! Fluttering around everywhere, including landing on us (mostly on Ayerf - they seemed to like her better, or maybe she seemed more food-like) several times. I now have ~100 pics of butterflies to sort through. Planned to go to the Natural History museum too, but there was a long queue, and we also wanted to go to the Science Museum, so we opted to skip that and went off to see space stuff and planes and all that instead. *sniffles a bit, as I really wanted to see some dinosaurs - perhaps another time*
In the evening, Ayerf's parents had graciously invited me over to dinner, so we took the train to her place, had excellent dinner, and then I headed back to London and left Ayerf behind. Not for long though, as she was kind enough to come into London again for Tuesday. We went to the Forbidden Planet (where I exercised considerable restraint, mostly because my suitcase had limited space in it and to be honest, there wasn't anything I wanted that much - well, perhaps that set with the Third Doctor and Sontaran and Sontaran ship from The Time Warrior, but it was huge, so I sniffled a bit and decided not to - and I was terribly tempted by Three'swand sonic screwdriver as well, but again, too large), and then met up with Pythia Delphi again for an extended lunch. That was, again, a LOT of fun. I really wish Ayerf and Pythia didn't live so far away from me, because having lunch more often with those two would be absolutely awesome.
Once Pythia had to return to work, it was time to meet withelen_ancalima, Chilli's sister, and say goodbye to Ayerf. Sniffle. It was really wonderful to get to spend so much time with Ayerf! I hope she didn't get too tired of me by the end of it. :D
elen_ancalima and Chilli had decided to get me the Best (belated) Birthday Present Evah - a ticket to see Much Ado About Nothing with David Tennant and Catherine Tate at Wyndham's theatre. (It even came with a (pre-)signed programme. Yay!)
The play was great fun, although I have to admit that there were bits of monologues that escaped me, but even if I didn't quite manage to catch every word, it was still easy enough to follow. Also, most of the male cast was in shorts a lot of the time; I'm not the world's biggest admirer of Tennant, but he does have nice legs (as does Adam James, who played Don Pedro, and was extremely yummy, which I'd never have thought based on photos - not my type at all, but he had great stage presence).
And we had excellent seats. I also got some snaps (a couple of nice ones of David Tennant and a lot of nice ones of Catherine Tate's back) at the stage door afterwards, but I didn't feel like trying to fight my way to the front of the crowd, especially as my programme was signed already, so I was rather limited at what I could see. Still, that was a fun experience, too. We wandered around for a bit afterwards and had a late night snack, and then it was time to go back to the hotel and sleep.
So that was it. Wednesday it was time to leave. I left the hotel with what I thought would be plenty of time to spare, but the Gatwick Express was delayed - the previous train had broken down, so we spent forever going at snail's pace and then had to make an extra stop to pick up the people from the previous train - and then I spent an hour in the check-in queue ... I've never ever seen a queue move that slowly. I wonder if a lot of people had extra baggage / extra weight, because I can't see any other reason for it. I made it through the check-in three minutes before the original check-in deadline and there was still a massive queue behind me.
So, yeah, the plane got delayed by quite a bit (except that it wasn't announced, so I didn't think I'd have time to do any shopping - so instead I got to sit and wait, and wait, and wait, in the waiting room, after they'd already checked my passport and boarding pass, so I couldn't go back for some last-moment shopping either). So I basically didn't actually get to spend any of the money I'd planned to spend, except for getting one small bag of jellybabies from the vending machine inside the waiting room. *sniffles*
The flight, once the plane got to take off (we also had to wait forever in the plane, for the baggage loading to be finished), was uneventful. I had my Kindle, and I got a complementary rye bread herring sandwich (it's been so long since I've taken Estonian Air on a "longer" flight that I had forgotten that they still did that). We also had to wait forever once the plane had landed before they actually started letting people out (at least fifteen minutes between the plane stopping at the corridor thingy and the doors opening) - no idea why - but eventually, they let us out, I claimed my suitcase without waiting for ages, and then it was finally time to go home.
The trip was absolutely wonderful, but now I'm exhausted. Didn't do anything yesterday, and now it seems I've picked up a cold somewhere - very sore throat today and slight fever - so I don't think I'll want to go out today, either.
At least I do have stuff to do at home - will have to start betaingayerf's ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
sshg_exchange fic, the first chapter of which is already in my greedy paws. I'm so glad I got mine handed in before the trip - don't think I'd have the energy to deal with it now. (Also, that meant that I didn't have to be too scared of Shiv when meeting her. The Eye of Shiv is intimidating enough when turned at Other People.)
Right, glad I've saved this as the dozens of attempts at posting all day long haven't worked... *eyes LJ threateningly*
(Note: posting this to DW now instead, just so I wouldn't lose it. I doubt the crossposting to LJ will work either, but we'll see.)
DiaCon Alley: great fun! Met up with
ayerf at the Liverpool Street train station upon my arrival to London; we headed straight over to St Pancras from there and off to Canterbury. It was my first con experience, so nothing to compare it to, but I enjoyed the panels/discussions I attended, met new people (*waves to
vaysh*), met .. er .. I can't say old people, can I? People I knew from before? Anyway, we saw shiv5468 from the distance on Thursday, and then again on Friday morning, but didn't really manage to catch up with her (and magically25) until Friday afternoon. Went to see Deathly Hallows part 2 in the evening - my first 3D film experience (I wasn't thrilled to hear that, but as I'd seen the film in 2D at home, I did figure it's actually a good opportunity to see if I can tolerate 3D or not). I don't think the 3D added much, but on the bright side, I now know that even though it's a bit uncomfortable, it didn't lead to a massive headache or nausea or anything like that. So yay!Bumped into
celta_diabolica at last while waiting for the film to start - I'd tried to look for her earlier, but honestly, it's rather awkward to peer at strangers' chests (er, badges) to find out if they're anyone I might know, so that didn't really work out too well. Alas, we only got to talk for a few moments (and I only found out later that we'd been literally staying right across the corridor from each other in the dormitory, but then it was too late).On Saturday, Ayerf and I met up with Shiv in the morning and walked down to Canterbury itself (about 1,5 km from the University of Kent campus, where the con was held). We were joined by
pythia_delphi and had enormous amounts of fun. I don't think I've spent a whole day laughing that much for a long, long, long time. Did some sightseeing - mostly the Canterbury cathedral - actually, I don't think we got to anywhere else, because we were too busy having fun. (Also, it's a huge cathedral.) Ayerf had lego!Hermione and lego!Snape, chained together, with her and therefore, there was BDSM lego!porn at lunch. Shiv took pictures. On Sunday, we attended another panel (about fests and exchanges and participation etc) and then Ayerf and I took off to Canterbury again for some more sightseeing - went to the Roman museum, which was interesting, and generally just walked around a bit until heading back, getting our luggage and then heading back to the train station and from there to London.
Didn't do anything apart from checking in and having dinner (fish and chips! treacle tart! in a pub! *was busy experiencing all sorts of things that might come in handy in a fic some day*) on Sunday as we were both quite knackered.
The hotel ... as I mentioned on Buzz, it had, uh, character. In other words, the loo was nowhere to be seen, until Ayerf, who'd come with me to get me checked in first, pulled open the wardrobe door. And, well, there was the loo. (It was an ordinary-looking wardrobe with two doors - except that behind one were the clothes hangers and such, and behind the other, well ... not Narnia. But I can honestly say now that I've peed in my cupboard. Repeatedly.)
Monday... *tries to remember* Ah yes. Went to see the butterfly exhibition outside the Natural History museum - it was quite amazing. So many pretty butterflies! Big, tropical, colourful butterflies! Fluttering around everywhere, including landing on us (mostly on Ayerf - they seemed to like her better, or maybe she seemed more food-like) several times. I now have ~100 pics of butterflies to sort through. Planned to go to the Natural History museum too, but there was a long queue, and we also wanted to go to the Science Museum, so we opted to skip that and went off to see space stuff and planes and all that instead. *sniffles a bit, as I really wanted to see some dinosaurs - perhaps another time*
In the evening, Ayerf's parents had graciously invited me over to dinner, so we took the train to her place, had excellent dinner, and then I headed back to London and left Ayerf behind. Not for long though, as she was kind enough to come into London again for Tuesday. We went to the Forbidden Planet (where I exercised considerable restraint, mostly because my suitcase had limited space in it and to be honest, there wasn't anything I wanted that much - well, perhaps that set with the Third Doctor and Sontaran and Sontaran ship from The Time Warrior, but it was huge, so I sniffled a bit and decided not to - and I was terribly tempted by Three's
Once Pythia had to return to work, it was time to meet with
elen_ancalima, Chilli's sister, and say goodbye to Ayerf. Sniffle. It was really wonderful to get to spend so much time with Ayerf! I hope she didn't get too tired of me by the end of it. :Delen_ancalima and Chilli had decided to get me the Best (belated) Birthday Present Evah - a ticket to see Much Ado About Nothing with David Tennant and Catherine Tate at Wyndham's theatre. (It even came with a (pre-)signed programme. Yay!) The play was great fun, although I have to admit that there were bits of monologues that escaped me, but even if I didn't quite manage to catch every word, it was still easy enough to follow. Also, most of the male cast was in shorts a lot of the time; I'm not the world's biggest admirer of Tennant, but he does have nice legs (as does Adam James, who played Don Pedro, and was extremely yummy, which I'd never have thought based on photos - not my type at all, but he had great stage presence).
And we had excellent seats. I also got some snaps (a couple of nice ones of David Tennant and a lot of nice ones of Catherine Tate's back) at the stage door afterwards, but I didn't feel like trying to fight my way to the front of the crowd, especially as my programme was signed already, so I was rather limited at what I could see. Still, that was a fun experience, too. We wandered around for a bit afterwards and had a late night snack, and then it was time to go back to the hotel and sleep.
So that was it. Wednesday it was time to leave. I left the hotel with what I thought would be plenty of time to spare, but the Gatwick Express was delayed - the previous train had broken down, so we spent forever going at snail's pace and then had to make an extra stop to pick up the people from the previous train - and then I spent an hour in the check-in queue ... I've never ever seen a queue move that slowly. I wonder if a lot of people had extra baggage / extra weight, because I can't see any other reason for it. I made it through the check-in three minutes before the original check-in deadline and there was still a massive queue behind me.
So, yeah, the plane got delayed by quite a bit (except that it wasn't announced, so I didn't think I'd have time to do any shopping - so instead I got to sit and wait, and wait, and wait, in the waiting room, after they'd already checked my passport and boarding pass, so I couldn't go back for some last-moment shopping either). So I basically didn't actually get to spend any of the money I'd planned to spend, except for getting one small bag of jellybabies from the vending machine inside the waiting room. *sniffles*
The flight, once the plane got to take off (we also had to wait forever in the plane, for the baggage loading to be finished), was uneventful. I had my Kindle, and I got a complementary rye bread herring sandwich (it's been so long since I've taken Estonian Air on a "longer" flight that I had forgotten that they still did that). We also had to wait forever once the plane had landed before they actually started letting people out (at least fifteen minutes between the plane stopping at the corridor thingy and the doors opening) - no idea why - but eventually, they let us out, I claimed my suitcase without waiting for ages, and then it was finally time to go home.
The trip was absolutely wonderful, but now I'm exhausted. Didn't do anything yesterday, and now it seems I've picked up a cold somewhere - very sore throat today and slight fever - so I don't think I'll want to go out today, either.
At least I do have stuff to do at home - will have to start betaing
ayerf's sshg_exchange fic, the first chapter of which is already in my greedy paws. I'm so glad I got mine handed in before the trip - don't think I'd have the energy to deal with it now. (Also, that meant that I didn't have to be too scared of Shiv when meeting her. The Eye of Shiv is intimidating enough when turned at Other People.)Right, glad I've saved this as the dozens of attempts at posting all day long haven't worked... *eyes LJ threateningly*
(Note: posting this to DW now instead, just so I wouldn't lose it. I doubt the crossposting to LJ will work either, but we'll see.)
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no subject
Date: 30 July 2011 09:06 (UTC)And you met Celta_diabolica, *sniff, sniff
But I am glad you had so much fun! :D
Just a very Huge Unlike for the time waiting, the money not spent and the bad cold!
no subject
Date: 30 July 2011 18:21 (UTC)Not spending the money is a good thing in many ways, but I admit I was sort of looking forward to doing it, as I get to do it so rarely. *g* Oh well, maybe another time.
The cold ... yeah. Could do without that. Grrrr.
no subject
Date: 30 July 2011 09:08 (UTC)no subject
Date: 30 July 2011 18:21 (UTC)no subject
Date: 30 July 2011 09:29 (UTC)It's probably illegal to have as much fun as we did. Wish it was possible to meet up more often to have more illegal!fun.
Definitely didn't get too tired of you! It was wonderful, we'll have to do it again!
no subject
Date: 30 July 2011 18:24 (UTC)You're probably right. *looks around, waits for the police to come and arrest her* And yes, I wish so, too!
Oh, good. I did worry a bit - it's always a danger with spending so much time with someone for several days in a row, but I'm very glad to hear it didn't happen. *g* And yes, I really hope there'll be another chance!
no subject
Date: 30 July 2011 17:49 (UTC)Also, WILL THERE BE BUTTERFLY PICSPAM????
*puppy eyes*
no subject
Date: 30 July 2011 18:25 (UTC)Hee! Eventually, I hope, but I'd rather like to have the use of my LJ scrapbook for that, so I don't think I'll be looking into picspam before LJ is up and running again properly. *shakes fist at DDOS-attackers*
no subject
Date: 30 July 2011 20:00 (UTC)I can't wait for all the erection!camera pics! And I reckon you've got pretty used to peering at people's chests up close and personal now. ;-)
no subject
Date: 30 July 2011 21:28 (UTC)I'm just glad the crud kicked in now and not during the trip! It's been rainy and dull here anyway, so I'm not losing an awful lot of holiday time in that sense - would have been sitting at home doing nothing anyway. But yeah, I hope it goes away soon, I've been feeling pretty miserable today.
I do hope I'll get to come to London again some day, although probably not for a while now. Grrr.
no subject
Date: 30 July 2011 22:08 (UTC)Tennant in shorts sounds verrrrry nice.
~haz improper thoughts~
no subject
Date: 30 July 2011 22:10 (UTC)no subject
Date: 30 July 2011 22:13 (UTC)no subject
Date: 31 July 2011 02:49 (UTC)no subject
Date: 31 July 2011 15:14 (UTC)And I really hope that the DDOS attacks will end soon - I want my scrapbook! And an ability to post more than two sentences.