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Enjoying Eastercon
Here I am at Eastercon at 12:45 am, checking my email and determined to get the most out of the almost US$50 I had to pay to get wireless access (made even more outrageous by the fact that it was out on Friday afternoon when I tried to check my mail right before sunset). I knew intellectually that the exchange rate was appalling but applying it to simple things like dinner out and hotel charges has been an eye opener (US$22 for moderately ok vegetarian Chinese food). The hotel is just as isolated as I had been warned but I've managed to get out for dinner and have been skipping lunch thanks to ingesting obscenely large amounts of food at the free breakfast so the food situation is not quite as dire as I had feared.
I've been having a better time than I expected, mainly because I know more people here than I realized I would. Had a lengthy fannish expedition dinner including, among others,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
frostfox, whom I hadn't seen in way too long and who entertained us with more details about Max the Criminal Cat, mkillingworth and timill, who kindly served as my Sabbath enablers, and miramon, among others. I knew I'd be paying more than my vegetarian meal was likely to be worth but as the estimate of £15 went up to £20 per person, it turned into a lot more, especially as the food was so-so and made me ill once I was back at the hotel. However, it was nice to get out with people so I am chalking it up to money well spent.
I actually went to a programme item today, called "Where Have All the Fanzines Gone?", where I found myself appealed to as the resident Yank a couple of times. It resulted in *surprise* my receiving copies of some fanzines that I'd never previously encountered, plus a bribe of excellent chocolate to pose for a photo for a "CD zine." An audience participation version of Jasper Fforde's suggested RICHARD III was very well done and even the author approved - I lucked out and got to chat with him when he came up to chat with one of the cast members with whom I was talking. Smart *and* cute (and also married with children *sigh*).
I also was part of a unique UK experience: watching the first broadcast of the new Dr Who. I was told I was the target audience because I'm not all that familiar with the original show and was still able to follow this first episode. I also stayed to hear the Hugo nominations revealed, including the first time ever that all the Best Novel nominations have been from UK authors. Congratulations to the Plokta Cabal and tofishlifter for the nominations.
Otherwise, I've been mostly hanging around in the non-smoking bar or the lobby chatting with people, and having a nice relaxing con. That should change tomorrow with an Interaction committee meeting, which is my main reason for being online as my Division head is supposed to be sending me info on what I'm supposed to tell everyone else! I must admit that it's somewhat disorienting not working a convention and not being on any panels. It's been a long time since I was just an attendee but I've been managing to fill the time quite nicely.
I've been having a better time than I expected, mainly because I know more people here than I realized I would. Had a lengthy fannish expedition dinner including, among others,
frostfox, whom I hadn't seen in way too long and who entertained us with more details about Max the Criminal Cat, mkillingworth and timill, who kindly served as my Sabbath enablers, and miramon, among others. I knew I'd be paying more than my vegetarian meal was likely to be worth but as the estimate of £15 went up to £20 per person, it turned into a lot more, especially as the food was so-so and made me ill once I was back at the hotel. However, it was nice to get out with people so I am chalking it up to money well spent.I actually went to a programme item today, called "Where Have All the Fanzines Gone?", where I found myself appealed to as the resident Yank a couple of times. It resulted in *surprise* my receiving copies of some fanzines that I'd never previously encountered, plus a bribe of excellent chocolate to pose for a photo for a "CD zine." An audience participation version of Jasper Fforde's suggested RICHARD III was very well done and even the author approved - I lucked out and got to chat with him when he came up to chat with one of the cast members with whom I was talking. Smart *and* cute (and also married with children *sigh*).
I also was part of a unique UK experience: watching the first broadcast of the new Dr Who. I was told I was the target audience because I'm not all that familiar with the original show and was still able to follow this first episode. I also stayed to hear the Hugo nominations revealed, including the first time ever that all the Best Novel nominations have been from UK authors. Congratulations to the Plokta Cabal and to
fishlifter for the nominations.Otherwise, I've been mostly hanging around in the non-smoking bar or the lobby chatting with people, and having a nice relaxing con. That should change tomorrow with an Interaction committee meeting, which is my main reason for being online as my Division head is supposed to be sending me info on what I'm supposed to tell everyone else! I must admit that it's somewhat disorienting not working a convention and not being on any panels. It's been a long time since I was just an attendee but I've been managing to fill the time quite nicely.