I'd just like to preface this and say, because I didn't in my last post, that after a few laughably irrelevant comments I'd received on my Destiel post (and for some reason, the first one of these) I've turned comment moderation on. I didn't want to, because I don't get many comments on this blog (mainly because what, five people read it? Except for the Destiel post that I did whore out a little, obviously) and I'd been asked to turn off that 'prove you're not a robot' crap I did have because one of my friends who did want to comment was too lazy for that. I'll probably turn it off soon enough, but for now, that's the way I'm keeping it.
Anyway, so Saturday! We queued up and then filed into the room we'd been in for the tube station party, which during the day was the panel room. Misha's panel was up first, after a quick opening ceremony, but first they announced the raffle winners they'd had so far for the coffee lounges. I'd joked before that sod's law, I would get Jared and Misha's coffee lounges on the Saturday (they were on at the same time) but I didn't expect to win, at all. There were around 1,500 fans there, and about 15 spots in each lounge. But I won Misha's one. Which I was shocked about but psyched too, because Misha is, as I said in the Destiel post, a bit of a hero of mine. The girl next to me also won, so we went together to pay for the lounge in the vendors room, and when we were in the room, paying, Misha walked through to talk to his charity. A few girls did freak out a little, but I wasn't. I know that sounds strange, but for me the whole thing felt really surreal? I did check for the Jared lounge too, because sod's law may have been in effect, but I was a few numbers out. Which is probably lucky, because that one was £120! Misha by comparison was £50. I know, ouch.
Anyway, we got back in the panel room and the opening ceremony was already over, and Misha came on stage, being the crazy, yet wonderful, yet intelligent person he is. And despite that, it's kinda when things ballsed up a bit. They had screens either side of the stage so that showed a close up of what was on stage for those of us too far back to see. They also used those screens to announce when people were supposed to go, in group order, for their pictures and autographs. It started okay, announcing Amanda's photos (and when all the upgrades at the front stood up for it, Misha called them all Destiel-haters, haha!) and it went from group F to final calls, instead of all the alphabet. I think everyone panicked, because after Misha's panel everyone kind of freaked!
Anyway, because of the way the schedule was fitted out, with the lounge and all, I went to get my photo with Misha first, where I told him I'd be at the lounge and he totally bluffed a 'looking forward to it' before insisting on a big hug, like he was doing to everyone. He's a good hugger ;) and then I went to the lounge room, where I started talking with a girl who interrupted after five seconds to ask if I was me, and it turned out to be Holly, a girl I've befriended on the page who's trying to write a modern version of Game of Thrones. I've read two chapters, and about four people have already, very graphically died. One of them twice. She's gruesome, and awesome! My friend Natalie was also there, who I'd spoken to at dinner the night before, and the girl I'd sat with in the Misha panel, so it was cool knowing other people who were in the room.
I'll talk more about the lounge in another post, but it was seriously cool. After the photo op I was starting to get excited, and after about ten minutes in the room I was feeling seriously chilled out. Like the nervous excitement that had barely started had gone. I know Holly's been looking back since and thinking she opened mouth and inserted foot a few times, which makes me sad because she looks up to him too. I've tried reassuring her that it wasn't as bad as she thinks, but it can be hard when someone's formed a negative opinion to convince them that there's a positivity there (and now I feel like I'm repeating a conversation I had with someone this morning over a negative perception about someone) but I hope in time, she can look over it and think it wasn't so bad, and maybe Misha was teasing her. She said in her autograph and photograph he was jokey and friendly as well, so I think maybe her nerves got the better of her. I hope, anyway.
So, after the lounge, it was the end of Mark Sheppard's photo session, and I admit, Holly and I played the system a little. We said someone by our lounge had said it was okay for us to go in after the lounge, some random mythical steward (the official line was we got our photos first, then the lounge, but they were running behind at the time and someone who had tried to follow it missed the lounge, and when Misha heard that he was like 'she's coming to tomorrow's one then, right?' like it wasn't even an option that she'd miss out) and they let us straight in. Everyone was kinda screwing up the system, it meant way too many people were milling around, but also that everyone was missing the panels to panic. Whoops. After that, we filed in for Jared's panel, which was freaking awesome. He's everything people say he is and more. Even though he'd been in London, then Paris, then New York for two days, then back in London, he was full of energy and jokes and he was such a cool guy.
It was about lunchtime, so I went to get my Baby photo, and then we heard from Hayl where Jared was doing his autographs. We started queuing up, but then an op came up that both Hayl and I had, so we went to find out what was going on with that, but they finally started trying to control people by groups. And then Hayl decided she was going to get some autographs and I realised I meant to buy a book from a vendor I'd been chatting to for my autos, so I went to the vendors room instead. It was busy, but I managed to get the book I'd fallen in love with online and agreed with the guy, Will, to come back and chat when it was less busy. And then I saw the line for Jared was seriously short, and bumped into the girl from the panel room/Misha lounge and we queued together for our autographs. She was telling me how she had no interest in her RE exam for GCSE so applied every answer to Sam and Dean. Love it!
I was a complete dork, and bought a couple of books for Misha and Jared's kids, Tom and West, so when Jared did my autograph I gave him the copies … I got them the pooping dinosaur books. Jared looked at them like 'what the fuck are these' but he took it pretty well. His minder was talking them up, so thank you Rogue Worker who loves those books too! He was like 'Guess I'm reading about dinosaur poop tonight, thanks.' lol, I love the sarcasm.
So after that, I went to check on the queue for the photo I mentioned early, with AJ Buckley (the guy who retweeted my Ghostfacers comment a few weeks ago) and the queue was low so I got in, and did an awesome Ghostfacers pose with him and Travis, who was on the phone. AJ was so chilled out, he was awesome! On my way back, I bumped into one of the Hannah's, and we sat there talking for a while with someone I think was called Christina, about the day so far and our experiences with the other fans and it was pretty cool to bump into her and chat. She looks scarily like someone I used to work with, which threw me off a little, but otherwise, I love her no-nonsense attitude.
I think next I went to get some autographs, which included being one of the ones who told Mark Pellegrino when the hell he was meant to be doing his photo ops, which kept getting moved! My memory is hazy as to whether I got my picture with Jared next, or my picture with him, but they were my last two pictures. And at the end of the day, three of my pictures (Misha, Mark S and Baby) were ready, so I picked those up, and then we went back to our hotel for food and to 'have an early night' (I can't do them, I seriously can't!)
And that was, in essence, my Saturday! I'll probably write up my Sunday on Thursday, which is my next day off. That cool? Cool!
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