Sunday - Easter

Got up 7:15 so I could go to the 8:00 service at the Cathedral.However as it's less than ten minutes walk from the hotel I got there 20min before the service started. There were 14 others in the Lady Chapel and the service used the BCP style (Common Worship Two) which I haven't used for years (but it all came back). Back for breakfast by 8:50 after which back to wifi on the eee pc!

Out for the bus about 10:00 and the sun was shining! so waiting ten minutes or more was not a hardship.

Visited the dealers room and bought a Vogon T-shirt from ZZ9. Also got my first alcoholic drink of the w/e a half of Murphy's stout!

Caught up with Andrew and had a quick chat, then upstairs to the meeting rooms area. Where I caught the end of the Oliver Postgate tribute; the end of a Clangers episode and all of a Bagpuss one.

Lunch was an unexciting burger a fries (the fries being potato wedges). There was then supposed to be an Eastercon bid session for 2011 but when i got there a few minutes late, it was already finished,there had been no bids, so currently no convention! Then after 50min to Tim Powers (GoH) being interview, this was surprisingly his first visit to England, given the very accurate sense of London that e has managed in some of his books This was followed by an illustrated talk by David Lloyd how he started in comics through to the development of V for Vendetta as both a comic and eventually a film.

I did start in the Urban Fantasy panel but bailed after about 15 min

I returned to the Dealers room and finally broke down and got a book from Richard (Sign of the Dragon) then saw the4 very short tribute to V for Vendetta with mild explosions scenes from the movie and masks for everyone!

This was followed by EU1415 a feasibility study on the possibility of a Worldcon in Europe. 6 sites were looked at 3 in Holland (all were too small or otherwise unsuitable; thee Hague had been downsized since 1990. Three in the UK the front runners were Glasgow (SECC site of 2 worldcons) and London, which would only be viable due to the new facilities generated by the Olympics in 2012.

I finally got to hear some filk, but the "concert" only had 6 performers and they sang twice. It was more like a circle with microphones.

The main event was Dave Wake's new play "Insidious" a sequel to "Inveigle" where the question what if memes became intelligent, and you could kill with words. It was very professionally put together and ran for less than an hour, and left a lot of questions unanswered. Perhaps a third play could finished the story and the trilogy be put on at Worldcon 2014!

"Who Watched the Watchmen" was a very lively discussion with both pro and con panelists, and one who had seen the movie then read the graphic novel. Though that sales of the book declined after the movie's release was an interesting fact.

The last item I stayed for was a panel on ebooks which was quite interesting but had been done before the conclusion being that the iPhone is more likely to popularise ebook reading than the kindle. I think I read my first ebook over 10 years ago, I'll have to check my reading list from back then. The hotel has been selling butties (chip, bacon, egg and sausage) but i've been leaving before they went on sale. This time I was late enough so get a bacon buttie, for only £2 before leaving and finding the coach waiting. Got back to the Midland by 11:20 and in bed by 11:40! the earliest night since Thursday.

Sunday - Easter

Got up 7:15 so I could go to the 8:00 service at the Cathedral.However as it's less than ten minutes walk from the hotel I got there 20min before the service started. There were 14 others in the Lady Chapel and the service used the BCP style (Common Worship Two) which I haven't used for years (but it all came back). Back for breakfast by 8:50 after which back to wifi on the eee pc!

Out for the bus about 10:00 and the sun was shining! so waiting ten minutes or more was not a hardship.

Visited the dealers room and bought a Vogon T-shirt from ZZ9. Also got my first alcoholic drink of the w/e a half of Murphy's stout!

Caught up with Andrew and had a quick chat, then upstairs to the meeting rooms area. Where I caught the end of the Oliver Postgate tribute; the end of a Clangers episode and all of a Bagpuss one.

Lunch was an unexciting burger a fries (the fries being potato wedges). There was then supposed to be an Eastercon bid session for 2011 but when i got there a few minutes late, it was already finished,there had been no bids, so currently no convention! Then after 50min to Tim Powers (GoH) being interview, this was surprisingly his first visit to England, given the very accurate sense of London that e has managed in some of his books This was followed by an illustrated talk by David Lloyd how he started in comics through to the development of V for Vendetta as both a comic and eventually a film.

I did start in the Urban Fantasy panel but bailed after about 15 min

I returned to the Dealers room and finally broke down and got a book from Richard (Sign of the Dragon) then saw the4 very short tribute to V for Vendetta with mild explosions scenes from the movie and masks for everyone!

This was followed by EU1415 a feasibility study on the possibility of a Worldcon in Europe. 6 sites were looked at 3 in Holland (all were too small or otherwise unsuitable; thee Hague had been downsized since 1990. Three in the UK the front runners were Glasgow (SECC site of 2 worldcons) and London, which would only be viable due to the new facilities generated by the Olympics in 2012.

I finally got to hear some filk, but the "concert" only had 6 performers and they sang twice. It was more like a circle with microphones.

The main event was Dave Wake's new play "Insidious" a sequel to "Inveigle" where the question what if memes became intelligent, and you could kill with words. It was very professionally put together and ran for less than an hour, and left a lot of questions unanswered. Perhaps a third play could finished the story and the trilogy be put on at Worldcon 2014!

"Who Watched the Watchmen" was a very lively discussion with both pro and con panelists, and one who had seen the movie then read the graphic novel. Though that sales of the book declined after the movie's release was an interesting fact.

The last item I stayed for was a panel on ebooks which was quite interesting but had been done before the conclusion being that the iPhone is more likely to popularise ebook reading than the kindle. I think I read my first ebook over 10 years ago, I'll have to check my reading list from back then. The hotel has been selling butties (chip, bacon, egg and sausage) but i've been leaving before they went on sale. This time I was late enough so get a bacon buttie, for only £2 before leaving and finding the coach waiting. Got back to the Midland by 11:20 and in bed by 11:40! the earliest night since Thursday.

Monday - The End is Nigh

Down to breakfast at 8:10 and had fruit salad and yogurt rather than my normal cereal. Had a few baked beans with my scrambled eggs, bacon, sausages, and mushrooms. I also had two serving of toast and marmalade with three cups of tea (and very good tea it's been too).

I took my eee pc to the lobby to check my LJ and upload when I realised I hadn't got any notes or program so couldn't write anything! Anyway I discovered amazonfail from a number of LJ friends links all over, where gay material is being de-listed. Checked "Ethan of Athos" which didn't appear to have been. Decided to take the netbook to the Cedar Court Hotel so I could actually write stuff even if I couldn't upload. but the lack of power sockets is a bit of a problem all over.

First item I went to was the revised titled "The Search for Dark Matter in Boulby Mine" by Sean Paling who provided a history of why Dark Matter should exist and then how they are searching at the bottom of a working Potash and salt mine for it! Their new experiment, starting next month will either prove the existence of Dark Matter or will make this small team the best at not finding Dark Matter!

I then sat down to update my notes and then spent 15min listening to a talk on Punch and Judy. I should had got there before the start, as it was very interesting. I had to leave early (just as the performance was due to start) as I wanted to see Absolom Daak: Dalek Killer, which was a half hour 3D animated fan movie. Afterwards I had lunch, pasta in tomato sauce for only £2.95

I finally got to see Dr Horrible's Sing-along Blog on the big screen, though not with sub-titles so we couldn't sing-along. I sat with Valerie and Kate and chatted after, apparently neither had seen the whole thing before.

Then at 3:30 the closing ceremony where the co-chairs thanked everyone they could, and made a collection for the hotel, they finished just over an hour later, I was sitting with Kate and Andrew ands said a heartfelt au revoir, until Constitution.

Then for the first time at Cedar Court I had to wait for a coach, then we went first to Campanile, so I didn't get back to the Midland until 5:30 when I finished my LX notes and uploaded two days to LJ, before going looking for food.

Before getting home
So just after six I went looking for somewhere to eat. When I wandered around the city on Thursday I spotted a fish and chip shop with eat in for only £3.99 including tea and bread and butter. So I aimed for the shop only to discover they were only selling take away food!

My other reason for walking that way was that I decided that I wanted to see "Monsters vs Aliens" on the big IMAX screen in 3D so I went over to the National Media Museum and got my ticket for £8 and then discovered they were selling food, so I had some bread and soup, and a large slice of cake, to tide me over until after the movie.

It was a totally different experience from seeing it on a normal screen (a ninth the size) and in 3D too. In some scenes you could (like a hologram) look to either side, the sound was impressive too. There were a few 3D tricks but mostly it had the 3D reality of a theatrical performance.

It finished at about 9pm and I found my way past a McD and got a chicken sandwich, fries and drink to be eaten before I got back to the hotel, where I decided to net surf (and update my notes).

Monday - The End is Nigh

Down to breakfast at 8:10 and had fruit salad and yogurt rather than my normal cereal. Had a few baked beans with my scrambled eggs, bacon, sausages, and mushrooms. I also had two serving of toast and marmalade with three cups of tea (and very good tea it's been too).

I took my eee pc to the lobby to check my LJ and upload when I realised I hadn't got any notes or program so couldn't write anything! Anyway I discovered amazonfail from a number of LJ friends links all over, where gay material is being de-listed. Checked "Ethan of Athos" which didn't appear to have been. Decided to take the netbook to the Cedar Court Hotel so I could actually write stuff even if I couldn't upload. but the lack of power sockets is a bit of a problem all over.

First item I went to was the revised titled "The Search for Dark Matter in Boulby Mine" by Sean Paling who provided a history of why Dark Matter should exist and then how they are searching at the bottom of a working Potash and salt mine for it! Their new experiment, starting next month will either prove the existence of Dark Matter or will make this small team the best at not finding Dark Matter!

I then sat down to update my notes and then spent 15min listening to a talk on Punch and Judy. I should had got there before the start, as it was very interesting. I had to leave early (just as the performance was due to start) as I wanted to see Absolom Daak: Dalek Killer, which was a half hour 3D animated fan movie. Afterwards I had lunch, pasta in tomato sauce for only £2.95

I finally got to see Dr Horrible's Sing-along Blog on the big screen, though not with sub-titles so we couldn't sing-along. I sat with Valerie and Kate and chatted after, apparently neither had seen the whole thing before.

Then at 3:30 the closing ceremony where the co-chairs thanked everyone they could, and made a collection for the hotel, they finished just over an hour later, I was sitting with Kate and Andrew ands said a heartfelt au revoir, until Constitution.

Then for the first time at Cedar Court I had to wait for a coach, then we went first to Campanile, so I didn't get back to the Midland until 5:30 when I finished my LX notes and uploaded two days to LJ, before going looking for food.

Before getting home
So just after six I went looking for somewhere to eat. When I wandered around the city on Thursday I spotted a fish and chip shop with eat in for only £3.99 including tea and bread and butter. So I aimed for the shop only to discover they were only selling take away food!

My other reason for walking that way was that I decided that I wanted to see "Monsters vs Aliens" on the big IMAX screen in 3D so I went over to the National Media Museum and got my ticket for £8 and then discovered they were selling food, so I had some bread and soup, and a large slice of cake, to tide me over until after the movie.

It was a totally different experience from seeing it on a normal screen (a ninth the size) and in 3D too. In some scenes you could (like a hologram) look to either side, the sound was impressive too. There were a few 3D tricks but mostly it had the 3D reality of a theatrical performance.

It finished at about 9pm and I found my way past a McD and got a chicken sandwich, fries and drink to be eaten before I got back to the hotel, where I decided to net surf (and update my notes).