Wednesday, May 18, 2005

Expoday the Secondness

Comments! (for at last I can actually read them...) Shinmaru: Jeremy was incredibly excited about seeing Warrior there, heh. He had signed figures for sale for about £30 each... Jeremy just wanted to talk, though. It made very little difference to me, except actually seeing a wrestler in person made me not want to air my thoughts about it within their earshot... Annsie: Yes, many pics have and shall you see! [BTW, the better pictures of me are in today's lot ^_~] MistressRoxie: Indeedily-do! It's much easier to put them in with my nifty digital camera. Otherwise it'd take me hours... Mimmi: Certainly ^_~ Crucifix: It would have been fantastic to see you. There's plenty more time for that, though. Don't lose heart ^_~ Monkey Orange: I'm glad to hear you're doing okay ^_^ There was a fair amount of One Piece stuff at the Expo, by the way. Soundtracks, a few posters... and nothing of the dub sight ^_~ Raven8763: Heh, I'm more pleased with the ones in today's lot (even though one of them is a bit blurred). I don't think I look right when pictures are taken of me with the flash. But thank you ^_^ *hugs* Lady Lea: *hugs* Me too ^_^ rustym: Hehe, he could have been ^_~ Secret anime fan him... Panda: *squishy hug* Ah, I feel silly now. I was right next to him so many times! Ah well... if he's at the one in October I'll cathim then. It seems stupid that none of the stewards knew who he was, though. Sometime I intend to go to a convention in the US, and meet up with as many people as I possibly can ^_^ Mimmi: *salutes happily* Oh yes, it was crammed full of events. Less happened in the second day, but it's more of a talking point for me *points down* Let's PAR-TEH! I wasn't entirely sure what the party was going to entail. I'd read a couple of people's posts in the Expo's own forum to try and get an idea of what was going to happen, but it was mostt was people talking about meeting up. I didn't have enough time to join and say anything at the time (and nor did I think it a particularly good idea to jump head first into a group of people I hadn't met before), so I was still at a loss as to what the atmosphere would be. Jeremy and I sat in our bedroom for a couple of hours to wind down after the hubbub of the Expo's first day of activity. It was actually a very comfortable place, although we were only able to afford a single-bed room between us. We figured one of us should be able to sleep on the couch when we chucked our bags in before the Expo, but when we returned the sofa had mysteriously been folded into a bed. It meant only one thing... This hotel had ROOM FARIES! ... Erm, anyway, it was incredibly modern, with a bathroom that you could fit into a wardrobe. Seriously, there's no wasted space in there whatsoever. What I thought was a towel rail gave me the fright of my life when it turned out to be the door for the shower. You wouldn't have thought you could squeeze so much into one space whilst not making it feel claustrophobic. Nice one, Novotel designers. It even had a (hideously expensive) minibar. The dress code for the party was 'Smart, casual or costume'. Seeing as my clothes (my jacket specifically) could have been listed as any of the above, I decided to change my T-Shirt and pretty much go as I was. It was twilight when we stepped across the concrete path to the more posh hotel where we figumost of the stars'd be staying. It had a large foyer with two meaty (but very well-kept) looking bouncers ushering people into right places. When we got up the stairs we were greeted by a women in a red dress who ticked our names off the list (she had problems finding mine >.>) and pointed us towards the bar. A drink of orange juice later, Jeremy and I were standing in the hallway between the 'quiet' room and the 'disco'. It seemed like the kind of party I'd always dreamed of going to- no loud, raucous music, nobody (so far) being blind drunk and falling off their arse and onto someone else's- it was groups of friends talking to each other and looking as if they were having a thoroughly good time doing so. And you coult up and dance too, if you wanted. We bumped into Richard Epcar again, and Jeremy recognised a few of the Enterprise cast and spoke to a couple of wrestlers, which was quite interesting. For the most part, though, Jeremy and I watched. I must admit, there was an ulterior motive for going to a convention such as this- meeting people. I was hoping to at least befriend someone over the course of my visit, but it seemed to me that most of the people who went were either single male science fiction fans or came up with their significant other. It's probably the kind of event where you really need to meet up with someone to get the est chance of integrating with another social circle. As it was, Jeremy and I stood etty much on our own, and I watched everyone dance to the Time Warp, Tragedy, YMCA, The Macarena, and desperately wanting to instantly know the dances so that I could join in. They seem so simple... It's a feeling that I often get- it seems as if I'm always towards the outside of a group of friends I'm with. Be it at college, with the Youth Theatre, at re-enactment- I always watch, thinking that I'd only disrupt the good interaction that the better friends are giving each other. I can hardly expect to be picked up within five minutes of being anywhere, but it speaks volumes to me about my confidence in social situations. And it's probably another reason why I'm not so good at initiating relationships with people who don't already know me well ^_^; I'm sure Jeremy felt the same, so the two of us decided to go back to the hotel room and get an early night. Well, our intention was actually to go to the gym, but it had closed by the time we got there. So we planned out what we were going to spend the remainder of money on the next day. Blanket Terms It took me a while to get to sleep, not just because Jeremy kept leaping on top of me whenever I broke wind. The blankets I had weren't much thicker than a shirt; thankfully it wasn't very cold that night so I didn't have to worry too much, but the bed itself was much more squashy than I was used to. And the pillow wasn't that great, either... if we drive up next time I'll bring my own ^_^ We woke up at something past six, intent on doing half an hour at the gym before breakfast... only to re-discover that we couldn't get the gym and that we had to fill out some kind of form before we could use it. Bugger that, we thought. Breakfast was okay. A little lardy, but substantial enough to keep me going for as long as it needed to. We had another long day ahead, and the journey back with all our extra stuff wasn't going to be easy. Jeremy'd managed to win two lightsabers the day before, which were proving quite a hassle to carry about. The Underground is not a friendly place for lugging luggage... Anyway, we got into the queue at about 8:20am, and although we wreen't first we were a lot closer to the front than we were before. I didn't mind waiting there. There's something rather fulfilling about waiting in a queue for something you really want, even though you are essentially doing sod-all until it arrives. I had time to go back to the hotel and grab my CD player while Jeremy kept my place. X-Japan's Art of Live kept me occupied for a good proportion of the waiting time, and when I wasn't absorbed in music I was taking pictures of Jeremy's Bag or talking to Christie, who exactly the kind of person you want next to you in a queue. She was letting all the traders and stars in through the side entrance just in front of where we were standing, and she was absolutely lovely ^_^ Very very nice person. If you see her, smile widely at her. As soon as we got in, we were greeted by a pair of (then stationary) Daleks, who later on throughout the day were wheeling around the Expo saying random things like "Exterminate!" and "Kill all humans, whooo!" Must have been so hot in those costumes... I scabbed a free Ghost in the Shell poster from the Manga stand and then went to try and find my monetary objectives for the next day- the Black Mage' album and the three Oh! My Goddess DVDs. Unfortunately, they'd sold out of the first OVA DVD, so I didn't see much point in buying the other two. I couldn't make up my mind whether or not to buy the first Chobits DVD, either- in the end I decided against it- I still had other things to buy for my mum and sister. I found a Nightmare Before Christmas bag and baseball cap for mum and a pendant for my younger sister (as well as a stonking new one for myself, too ^_^ I loves it loves it loves it, loves), then got dragged off by Jeremy to watch some of the wrestling. This particular show was brought to us by the FWA- Frontier Wrestling Alliance. The name swooped right over the top of my head and I watched anyway, because having never actually seen a live wrestling event before, I probably shouldn't be as quick to judge the TV shows. In theory. I found it interesting with regards to its choreography- some of the moves pulled off required physical skills I can only dream of, but it was basically hamming up the slightest injury that either of them gained, and it's not something that sits well with me. I didn't think it looked realistic (although some of the falls they did must have hurt, regardless of the hugely sprung floor beneath them). Were it more subtle, I could handle it. But this just isn't my thing. At least the guy I liked won. After that, we'd pretty much exhausted everything there was to do. There were only so many times I could trawl through the anime soundtracks hoping to find something I hadn't come across before in the last three times I'd checked them, or trying to will myself to buy something I wasn't sure I'd actually like. We took some really nice photos against ADV's display wall, though. Here they are ^_^ SoloXephon and RahSolo The first one's a little blurry, but I think they do me justice, heh. After picking up our bags from the hotel, we started trudging our way back to London Victoria through the maze of Underground lines and escalators. Conveniently enough, we only needed one change and a long walk to get to the ExCeL station, so the journey was relatively simple. But it felt incredibly long carrying all that stuff. Aftermath. I took a picture of my hand to show the stamps that we were branded with to show we'd gone in. It was a good weekend. That watch of mine decided to stop working the minute I got into Jeremy's house. Ironically, Mum had only just changed the battery in my other watch, but I can't wear that easily with my metal bands. The price of fashion, eh? There's another London Expo on October 29th/30th. Jeremy wants to go again, and once I've managed to earn up enough money I think it might be nice to try again. There'll be more anime out then, I'm sure, and maybe I can find more voice actors to pester, hehe. For now though, I need to rest. I still feel ill and I can only blame myself for putting so much strain on my body over the last few weeks, heh. C'est la vie, I guess. *hugs* See you soon ^_^ P.S. I apologize for any spelling mistakes- my computer's being stupid and laggy.

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