SFX Weekender

Well, that was a lot of fun. Really blew out the cobwebs for the most part.

Myself, Darren, Husky, Lou and baby Rae drove down to Pontins in Camber Sands and were faced with... pretty awful accommodation. Sleeps four they said, giving us a twin room and a sofa bed in the lounge. Hmmm...




I had a great time though, the writers panels I saw were brilliant and have totally encouraged me to keep going. The actors' Q&As were wonderful. James Marsters, Liz Sladen and Tom Baker were everything I hoped for. Mac MacDonald was a little defensive at points, but watching the first episode of Red Dwarf with a pint and a room full of people was quite something.

The big revelation for me was Gareth David-Lloyd who played Ianto Jones in Torchwood. Such a funny guy, very quick with a quip. And he gave up watching the first half of the rugby to do his Q&A, which was pretty impressive. I shall feel better if doing the Swimathon means I miss the first episode of the new series of Doctor Who. Do check out Gareth's new project, The Casimir Effect.

Also saw Salvage on Friday night which was a British horror film. Certainly worth a watch - tis out on DVD on March 22nd.

I am worried the Family Huskinson didn't get to enjoy themselves as much as me, but these two photos suggest otherwise... :)




The Saturday night Maskerade Ball was overseen by DJ Pat Sharpe. THE Pat Sharpe of Fun House fame. His set was a fun mix of cheese, classic rock and modern club hits and kept the party going nicely. Saw some incredible costumes including some excellent home-made Dalek dresses (so good people thought they'd bought them); several Tenth Doctors; lots of Star Trek uniforms (say what you like about JJ's movie, but it has restored fandom's faith in dressing up like Starfleet officers); some Watchmen characters including Doctor Manhattan with fake meat and two veg; and some Na'vi. Ugh, not a fan of avatar, but they did look good.

I also finally found a use for Twitter. Don't get me wrong, I like Twitter well enough but it really came into it's own over the weekend. By searching for the hashtag #sfxweekender, myself and Lou were able to see other people's Tweets. I got a lot of useful info from other users, including the four girls from #geekcamp who I have to reserve a special shout out too.



As I was getting ready for the ball I saw they had tweeted this picture of themselves in their fantastic costumes. So when by chance I ran into them at the bar, I was able to put aliases to faces.

Yup, Twitter seems invaluable at a convention or event. I'm quite looking forward to looking up #nycc in October. :)

Right, must get on. Anyone finding this blog from Twitter, do drop me a DM on Twitter and say 'hi'. Will be doing some #followfriday mentions to some of the great people I have spoken to via Twitter over the weekend. As I say, Twitter has finally come into its own for me. Good stuff.