Italian adventure!

[angelkitty101]

I have returned from my Italian adventure. There is still part of me that can't believe that I actually went, people like me don't do made things like that, we sit at home and wish that we could do things like that. But I did it. And it was fantastic :-)


The flights were fine, as usual take-off and landing were the best bits and I got into Florence with no issues. There was a slight wibble as my case was one of the last onto the belt and sadly my brand new, leather luggage tag on the carabiner did not make it to Florence *suspicious face*. Met up with Line and Askar with no issues, and then allieandra's flight was early, so we ended up getting to the hotel before 7! Checked in with no issues, and then had a guy insist on taking our suitcases up (with Allie and I muttering 'I hope he isn't expecting a tip' :-) ).

We couldn't get any WiFi in the room, so toddled down to the reception to try and get sorted (using the terrifyingly bouncy lift, we took the stairs until we had to check out!). Turns out we could get WiFi everywhere but our room! Found wrigglerosie, Melly, Mika, and Lou in the resturant, where after a lot of talking at cross purposes, we managed to have a table and an English menu. The food that we had in the hotel in the evenings was fantastic. I had a mussels dish, fish (like a sole, but not), lamb, and pork. All delicious and surprisingly filling. I only had pudding twice (and the chocolate fondue was to die for). The waiters were fantastic, and never seemed to sleep. They were there at breakfast, then doing the bar at lunch, then serving dinner and doing the bar till gone midnight. They are supeheros and utterly lovely to boot.

Friday was day one of con proper. Getting the pass was a total melee, and I missed the shouting of 'Slayer, Vampire, Scooby' that would have happened in the UK. I got my pass and all my extras with no issues tho. Rosie had a sneaky word with the organisors to see if we could sneak at the end of the Slayers photos with James on the Friday as we didn't want to do all our photo ops on the one day. Allie went for a swim and I floated about until the opening ceremony. As usual everything ran to con time, plus Italian time :-) or late, very late. It was nearly at Pagan Time levels :-) The boys were their usual selves in the opening ceremony, daft, irreverant, silly and trying to make the translators crack up. Nick's impression of Joss 'Is that a spray?' became the catchphrase for the weekend.

Rosie and I managed to get onto the Friday photos, and it was very interesting to watch the various people coming out of the photo ops and bursting into tears (bless). The photos were interesting, they were held in the one room and the door was shut with each person. We were told beforehand not to touch anywhere inappropriate and not to hug too hard. Rosie and I looked at each other and went 'He's hugging!'

I ended up getting 2 hugs from James in photos (the second one is the better pic), and he was lovely and charming and I babbled inanely at him (I would LOVE my brain to work at times like this), I also got hugs from everyone else, which was super-fabby :-) And after the criticisms of the photos on Sat, they were changed on Sun, which meant I got a better photo from Nick :-)

Friday was also the cocktail party, Although we did get a bit sped up towards the end, and the second James said that he had bought his daughter a tiara, all I could hear was Amy Farrar Fowler going 'Oh my god, it's a tiara!'. We had lovely chats with all the guests, I managed to confuse Nick with Star Wars, J was utterly charming and Mark was beautifully surreal. Oh and J and Rosie arranged a dancing tutorial that happened on Sat. He beckoned and the dancefloor parted. Rosie said she felt like a Hollywood star!

The parties were..............well, put it this way, I take back EVERYTHING I have ever said about Hub parties. The Friday was so disappointing that I didn't bother with Sat's. And apart from boogie-ing with J and Mark, I didn't miss much. Friday was like the worst school disco I have ever been to. With a constant strobe. And karaoke.

The gig reminded me of so many of Blue Gillespie's early gigs. Those of us that were standing ended up being penned in, and what started out as being able to see and dance turned into being the only one moving in a press of people filming and staring, completely motionless. When they started playing 'Button Down Vandals', I lost my temper with the people who were pressing and pressing and pressing, and with a (louder than I planned) 'Fuck this shit!', I came out of the 2 rows of insanity and danced in the acres of space at the back. Allie told me, when she came out after being blown on by the girls behind her to make her move, that James had heard my flounce and gave a huge grin when he saw us dancing. He also said 'You guys at the back rock!' to which I replied 'It's a gig, you're supposed to dance!' which got picked up on Rosie's vid. For those interested, I was wearing the correct skirt for flouncing :-)

The apres gig was insane. James managed to escape swiftly, but Sullivan stayed and was besiged by girls, all wanting their photo with him. I was chatting to Rosie, Allie et al and watching Sullivan go from 'All these girls' to 'ALL THESE GIRLS!'. Didn't have a photo cos that would be weird. They should shedloads of merch tho. Not quite as insane as at the autos, where Sullivan was signing, selling merch and giving the shirt off his back to Melly *grin*. Poor boy. He did keep stealing his dad's pen tho, so that was amusing.

By Sunday, I had reached con exhaustion point. I got to have a lovely chat with J and Mark in the autos, J remembering my name from somewhere (no idea where). Nick had remembered me from WCC, and asked if jooles34 was there. He also remembered Allie from HW (tho tbh, she's stunning and therefore hard to forget). I got to flail all over Jacqui, who was utterly lovely about it, and knew who I was on The Twitter.

The guys were beyond daft on the Sunday, Nick breaking the translater by miming soup shooting out of his fingers, and saying that his super power would be perfect breasts of persuasion (I think he may be a boob man *grin*), Mark 'First Flying Prime Minister of Canada' leaping off the stage (Rosie has a fabulous photo of that), and J being an utter sweetie and holding it all together :-) He had been 'got' on Sat by the organisors had found his first job on the Cosby Show, and his reaction was brilliant.

It was an absolutely brilliant weekend, the staff were great considering everything had to be in Italian and English. I've met people from Germany, Israel, Denmark, Portugal, the US, and the Cech Republic, and everyone has been lovely. I'm so glad I was brave and did it. It was a fabulous experience!

Comments

[singedbylife.livejournal.com]

Thanks for sharing. Sounds wonderful. So JM and Sullivan were not present Sunday or ?

[angelkitty101.livejournal.com]

Nope, they were only there Friday and Sat. Sunday they got to explore Florence for themselves :-)

[span-tastic.livejournal.com]

A fabulous time was indeed had by all!
I concur :)
I, if not my 'plus 1' other half, loved it immensely and I miss you guys terribly already!
Tracey

[angelkitty101.livejournal.com]

Miss you too :-( If GOTR tour Europe next year, we may have arrange something :-)

[span-tastic.livejournal.com]

Bloody marvellous idea!

I do feel as though I didn't get enough 'Jules'!

(Or James lol)

[angelkitty101.livejournal.com]

*giggles* It's the bad thing with cons, you never get enough time, even when you spend tons of time with people :-)

And I don't think anyone gets enough James

[deborahw37.livejournal.com]

Lovely report! Thank you


And yay for dancing at the back! That's often the best place to really enjoy a gig from!

[angelkitty101.livejournal.com]

Thank you :-)

I know what you mean about being at the back at gigs, I hate being at the front, I don't like being hemmed in, get very nervous about mosh pits and generally want more room to shake my funky thang :-)

And the gig (for me) got infinately better once I could move!

[deborahw37.livejournal.com]

You often get a better view from the back too... otherwise off to the side is good but front row centre is the worst place to be... unless you like being squashed whilst getting a stiff neck from gazing up at the singer's ankles and nostril hair

[moonie666.livejournal.com]

Hey babe, it's Isis. Sounds like you had a fantastic time! Wish I could have been there to hang with you!