The Con Report - Saturday

Saturday

Once again up for breakfast! Two days in a row! The end times must be drawing near!

I ended up having breakfast with... oh, who was it that morning... Sod it, next time I’m getting a brand-new notebook and chaining it to my pocket. Or a timesheet. Or possibly both.

Another guild meeting, then off to watch The Weakest Guild. Again, terrific fun – and really, Vetinari has to be more scary than Anne Robinson. “Don’t let me detain you...”

Off, then, to Time Bending With Lupine. I’m not sure I believe the backstory behind the fluffy pink pillow, but it was a fun show on the whole. Even though I could see the black ball in the kid’s hand all the way from the nth row.

Oh, and of course I was the one who shouted “Armoured Personnel Carrier”. I’m predictable sometimes.

Then I scurried off to see Guilty of Literature, and Stacie’s segment was interesting and well presented – she did seem a bit nervous, though, which is perhaps understandably given that she was speaking about Discworld to obsessed Discworld fans. Anyway, the next speaker wasn’t quite so interesting – I couldn’t quite figure out what she was talking about, to be honest – so I nipped next door to watch a few minutes of Walk The Walk, then headed to the bar for lunch.

I had chips, of course. I’m not sure how napkins can get quite that grubby, but never mind – for chips, I only need the fork. Sod it. So I had lunch, chatted to someone, got up to head to Disc Is Your World – and realised I urgently needed to be somewhere else.

After lunch, y’see, I had hoped to attend Disc Is Your World, History of Medicine and Meet the Crew, but it seems I had eaten something that didn’t agree with me[1], and so spent an uncomfortable couple of hours back in my room. Reading over the con reports, it seems I wasn’t the only one...

Still, it was a considerable disappointment, and an unusual lapse for my usually cast-iron stomach. I’d been particularly looking forward to DIYW and HOM, so at the moment I’m rather hoping that they’ll be on the DVD... Oh, and the Live Thud – I’d been waiting for that since I heard we were planning it, I’d even signed up to be a troll, and then... struck down in me prime, and I never called me mother! Aaah, bollocks.

Anyway, once my stomach settled down I headed back downstairs, watched a round or two of Werewolf, signed up to see who killed the Abbot of Cool, then went to watch the Aerial Challenge.

About then I spotted the time, and wandered over to the Dysk in time for, at a guess, about the last two thirds of the Maskerade. I’ve always found costume competitions rather silly, but to my surprise found I was thoroughly enjoying myself. The Not Mac Feegle in particular, though I’m still trying to figure out how the Assassins did the sword thing. Oh, and Pat Harkin was a great MC, and I really hope the quacking thing takes off... I know I and several others had some fun with it during the rest of the Con.

Then of course came the Hedgehog Party, which was unusually tame. Some balloon fencing with the Swedish contingent, working the spinner for a few games of Twister[2], and then I retired to the bar.

While I sat there, chatting to the D’Arcy sisters, Constable Haddock appeared. One of the sisters let slip that they’d been wanting to talk to Stephen Briggs but hadn’t dared approach him, so he said “Oh, come on, I’ll introduce you. They followed him over, got their introduction, and spent the next hour or so chatting to Stephen Briggs while Haddock and I watched with amusement. One seemed particularly starstruck, and there’s a photo somewhere unless she staked Otto Chriek when nobody was looking...

Anyway, Constable Haddock and I sat chatting about police work for a bit, a few other interlocutors came and went, the sisters came back, Mad Hamish terrorised the locals, Butcher turned up and conked out, and much fun was had by all.

I suspect a singalong occurred at some point, but my memories are somewhat hazy.

Then at some point I looked at my mobile and realised that the restaurant was about to open for breakfast, so there didn’t seem much point in going to bed.

[1] The chips last night, I suspect.

[2] One of these days I shall have to play. When my ingrowing toenail’s not oozing. I used to be pretty good at Twister, so it’d be fun to see if I still am...