Fannish *squee*

Having a marvellous time at The 11th Hour.

Arrived on Friday evening (drove straight up from work), and found the hotel okay (with the help of Brian Blessed). Checked in, then joined the opening ceremony in the main hall, before going in to the Meet & Greet, which was for Gold Ticket holders only. There were about eight people per table, and then in turn we had a Guest join us. We were joined at various occasions by Dan Starkey (Sontaran), Frances Barber (Madame Kovarian and also Billie Trix in Pet Shop Boys' Closer to Heaven), Jim Swallow (writer), Mark Sheppard (what do you mean, "who"?) and later his dad W Morgan Sheppard. Also spent a bit of time getting to know the various people on the table, which was enjoyable.

Saturday saw me having photos taken with Frances Barberm Neve McIntosh (various Silurians, but notably Madame Vastra) and Catrin Stewart (Madame Vastra's, *ahem* friend, Jenny), and sitting in on the panels with Tony Lee & Jim Swallow (maddest convention question ever: "which would you rather fight, a horse-sized duck or five duck-sized horses?". WTF?), and Neve & Catrin (Neve's accent makes me melt...), met a woman in a fabulous red Dalek themed dress and a couple dressed as Madame Vastra & Jenny (they seriously impressed Neve), and although it took a couple of hours queueing got autographs from all the Guests who were here yesterday. Oh, except for Tony Lee. So that's Dan Starkey, Christina Chong, Frances Barber, Simon Fisher Becker, Mark Sheppard, W Morgan Sheppard, Neve McIntosh, Catrin Stewart, Jim Swallow...I've a vague feeling I might have missed someone out from that. Got chatting to someone in the queue about the Hitch-Hiker's Live show (he'd been to the one in Birmingham earlier in the week, and said most of the cast were happy to sign stuff outside the stage door. Sarah...I'm just saying...).

Then today I've just been to photo sessions with Mark Sheppard and Matt Smith (yay! He's here!), and I'm just about to head down for autographs from Matt and Stuart Milligan (a last minute surprise guest who was only announced on Friday - pity, if I'd known ahead of time I'd have brung a Jonathan Creek DVD for him to sign), and then afternoon panels and the closing ceremony.

Because I'm not much of a night owl I've not done the discos and parties, but I might try and stay up for at least part of tonight's one, although I'm heading straight down to work tomorrow morning so I can't be too silly.

It's been a fun weekend. Starfury, the guys who organise this, have another Doctor Who con in November (called Midnight), and also a Leverage con in November too (they do loads of conventions). Both look tempting. May have to beg Sarah...or save money, whichever is easier...

Right, off to get Matt Smith to scribble on stuff. He's wonderful. :-)

My tweets

• Sun, 11:18: Fannish *squee* http://t.co/kOklnY8i
• Sun, 11:20: RT @bigtitch: Just spotted Matt Smith at #11thhour You can tell its Matt Smith because he's not dressed as the Doctor!

Addendum to this morning's post...

Have now had stuff scribbled on by both Matt Smith and Stuart Milligan. Both absolute gents! Matt listened to me gush lots about how wonderful I think he is in Doctor Who, and I also wished him a long and successful time in Doctor Who and - when he eventually decides to hang up his fez and bow tie - a long and successful career afterwards; and I asked if he'd send fandom's best wishes on to Jenna (I don't know if I speak for all of fandom on that one, but I'm sure I speak for a large chunk of it); Stuart listened to me gush loads about Jonathan Creek - as I've said elsewhere, and said to him, it really is one of those marvellous programmes where, even though I know what's happening, I still enjoy re-watching it, and despite having the DVDs if I'm flicking through the digisatcable channels on a Saturday night and find it on one of them, I'll watch it. Sadly, Stuart thinks more episodes are unlikely, but he did say that if David Renwick wants to write more, he and Alan are more than happy to do them.

I now feel, in the words of Arthur Dent, like a military academy (bits of me keep passing out) and am going to nap for a while.

Writer's Block: Hot Topic

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I tend to be happy with Livejournal. I've branched out into Twitter (which is sometimes useful for micro-blogging on the move) and Facebook (useful for keeping up with friends), and I cross-post to both, but I prefer LJ 'cos it's a blogging platform rather than a social networking site per se. I've not yet bothered with Google+, Pinterest, or Tumblr, but never say never.