Michael's Meanderings

So the weather has been very cold, and there forecast was that there would be snow during the weekend. Despite this I packed my bag on Thursday night and took it with me to work so I could go directly (saving over an hour). I got an off peak saver return to Grantham (£59.70) and caught the 17:08 to St Pancras International, bought a pastie, and then a BK burger while I waited to get on a train going north. The first one I tried was SRO so I had to wait for the 18:56 before I could get a seat. Lucky I did as I discovered Smitty was on the same train and we shared a taxi to the hotel. It had already snowed in Grantham so there were small patches of white here and there.

Checked in and got membership badges and programs, the con officially started at 19:00 so I manages to miss and hour and a half. I did manage to catch Steffi, Some Guy Called Doug (friend of Talis) and Jackie Mitchell before crashing for the night.

Woke up in the morning to discover I was sharing with Master of Ceremonies realfranklin. Though we weren't in the room at the same time (and awake) very often.

In the morning I had breakfast with filklore_on_lj and had an interesting talk on ebooks, smoking (food) among other things. As a result I downloaded the Wen Spencer Tinker/Elfhome series to my ipod and started to re-read them in order.

Talis was in fine form as the first set of the day. I then went to see Roger in the dealers room to buy a couple of CDs Talis - Queen of Spindles, and Play it With Moxie Live! Left CDs in my room and then caught the end of the Seb Kinder (footloose filker) set. The business meeting follow and didn't quite finish when the fire alarm went off! So we all left the main room to wait outside in the snow. Fortunately it was a false alarm and we were let back in to defrost after a short while. After a reasonably priced curry for lunch and some reading the main concert started. This only allowed a single song per performer to allow the greatest number of people to sing, but while setup was occurring, the Filk Fund Auction ran in parallel (raising over £1000 in the end).

The last set of the afternoon was US GoH Mary Crowell which had more gaming related songs than I would have liked but the if you didn't listen to the words too much...

For dinner I had a nutloaf with vegetables followed by chocolate cake and cream, not the most brilliant meal I've had but not the worst for the money either.

The n'Early Music Consort started the evening (and keristor was sorely missed). And finally UK GoH Lissa Allcock with Phoenix, with the last time that Phoenix will perform.

As I left to go to bed I noticed it was lightly snowing so I went out to discover 2 inches had fallen that evening.

Sunday morning I was up early and was the first filer in the breakfast room! I wasn't sure if, with the snow, I should leave as planned in the afternoon, or stay an extra day and leave Monday morning. In the event I checked out, but did ask if I could check back in if the weather got worse.

I then read until Sponge fingers started, this was Zander and friends, including Chris, Valerie and Silke. This was followed by the bid session which was won by Quarter Tone with GoH Tom Nanson and Cat Faber triumphing over a spoof bid from Paul Bristow. The convention returns to the Ramada Grantham (and why not).

Castrophony was the last set before lunch (which was a steak bagette and chips). I had started on the third Tinker story by then. After lunch was Lissa's solo GoH set. It was actually very nice to hear her voice on it's own, as she normally sings as part of a group effort.

The Sams Awards were then presented. Seb Kinder (footloose filker) was surprised to win one.

Mary Crowell followed with a second set then the Sams Concert and closing. Since trains appears to be running on time I left and caught the 18:02 to London where I discovered that the Victoria line was closed, so travelled via South Kensington. Then a train to Gatwick where only 3 of 5 platforms were open, on to Haywards Heath and finally home by 9:45. I then discovered that the Bedford to Brighton trains were running at the week end and I could have got on at Kings Cross!

Back to the Ramada Grantham, was a good thing for lots of reasons. 1) Not getting lost / knowing where everything is (including the back stairs shortcuts). 2) The hotel knows us, maybe not as well as they should (beer ran out again!) 3) Knowing how to get there. Though since it wasn't snowing, I could have walked from the station, rather than getting a taxi.

After the official opening at 7pm Bill and Brenda Sutton started the ball rolling, in fine form.

This was followed by Piers in fine folkish style, followed by Silke then a themed circle led delightfully by Heather Dale (GoH) and then to bed before midnight. I'm just getting to old to stay up so long!

Saturday started nicely with a well balanced set by Cristo followed by an amazing performance / lecture by Clare on the history of musical instruments. From the earliest found, a bone flute from the time of the neanderthals! to the rivalry between harp and lute through the ages.

Lunch followed, Leek & Potato soup and Beef & Horseradish sandwich for £5, having cheaper meals available in the hotel was a major plus.

The nMC concert followed and was it's usual choral wonderment.

The Canadian GoHs followed them and Heather Dale does seem to smile all the time and has a real enthusiasm for music. She has a wonderful voice to and Ben and Mike's accompaniment supported this well.

The Business meeting and bid session were concluded rapidly and then the UK GoH Marilisa had her concert, she was joined by various other filkers and was wonderful (If I recall correctly she sang 1000 ships in the original Greek ;-))

Dinner was a main course followed by desert for £10 I joined Peter and Gwen, with Sue E which was very sociable of me !

There was a change to the main concert and auction format as they were combined. The auction ran while the techs were setting up the next set. This had two benefits, there wasn't any dead time between acts, and it forced anyone wanting to listen to the concert to stay for the auction.

There was a half hour tech setup gap before "From the Ashes" which was Phoenix reborn! A wonderful set of rocking filk, seeing Heather Dale while her Joan was rocked up was lovely.

And then to bed.

I popped in to the Ecumenifilk first thing but there weren't many there, and despite my christian background I felt there were too many hymns being sung for a filkcon, If I could have found a few alternatives I might have stayed but...

The second half of the main concert and auction continued and then before lunch Kamen Footloose Filker had her spot (mostly in german)

Lunch this time was a massive baked potato with beans and various other bits once again for £5.

Then in a tour de force Marilisa wrote, directed and performed in a one hour musical (whose title I can't find/remember!). Kudos to all involved, it has the makings of a studio album!

Now we are coming to the end of the con with the Sams Awards, the last GoH performance from Heather and Ben, with the Sams concert (after a break for setup) and then closing.

Dinner followed, and again I was able to join Gwen and Peter. Roger joined us be for to long and some interesting conversation occurred.

After dinner I read and kept an ear out for the Dead Mouse filk off and on til I left for bed.

Up early to catch my scheduled train to King's Cross at 10:37 only to find it delayed by 40 minutes!

And so we await next year in Grantham!