I am home, I am sitting in front of my computer and I’m tired. It was overall an excellent weekend so a quick run through of the days.

Friday
– Driving down wasn’t too bad. We only got caught up in a tailback once but it was enough to add an hour to the journey. Got there and met up with everyone and spent the night drinking. Started off in the nice cheap t and then onto way too expensive Novatel. I managed to spend around £80 in the bar in less than 5 hours. That curtailed my round buying for the rest of the weekend! Kept going till about 3.30. Got back to the hotel room to find an iron and an ironing board sitting outside our door. Tim denied all knowledge of this but told tales of a lady banging on a door down the corridor in her underwear. We stole some linen from around a corner and everyone had space to sleep just fine. Lawrence read us stories from the bible…until I a) kicked him and b) turned off the light.

Saturday
– Started badly. There were a whole lot of hungover people gathered in the pub from early, for a cheap breakfast of course. I had sampled the hotel breakfast that morning and tho it was pretty bad, it was free and had meat and pastries (what a combination) and so was fine. Wandered around the con for a while. Bought some nice things and some of the usual spandex filth. That evening we moved into Bristol to look for somewhere to have dinner. We ended up in Pizza Hut, which while it was fine and fed us hot pizza, was not the intended plan. Funny how we could not get a table for 13 at 9.00 on a Saturday night. The other group managed to pretty well. Anyway then it was back to the Novatel for a fairly restrained nights drinking.

Sunday
– A quiet day…mainly. We went to the pub at 11.00 to get some breakfast. The hotel breakfast was a great improvement on Sunday and I was fairly happy with it. We were still in the pub around 8.00 that night with most of us taking trips into the comic festival or just wandering around.

Then it got less quiet. A large group of us was at the bar ordering drinks/food when there was a riot. No, really. I got hit with what seemed to be a pretty full pint and covered in beer. Luckily the glass only hit my back and didn’t break till it reached the ground but nevertheless we all moved pretty fast. Glass and furniture was flying around and we were right at the back of the pub (imagine that!) behind all of the rioters. They appeared to be moving towards us and we dashed for the disabled toilets were we attempted to hide 20 people for about a minute until I remembered there was a fire exit a few feet away. We legged it out there to find the other half of the V pouring out a fire exit on the other side of the building.

In news that should shock no-one, we had lost Lawrence. A search party was lead back in for him until he rang to say he had been in the toilet, came back out into the main bar and not realised anything was happening until he noticed we were gone…so he walked straight out through it.

Anyway a quick shower was in order and then off to the Novatel bar where most people were making up for the quiet Saturday night we had. It got really messy and there are internet posts to prove it. Whomever comes up with a method to ensure people are not allowed to post on the internet while drunk, will become a very rich man. Let’s not even mention the drugs. So a very late one off to bed.

Monday
– A nice easy drive home, no delays on route and good time all around. A quick check on the interwebnet and then I had to get some sleep. I went to do some reading but was just falling asleep so decided not to fight it. I’m still feeling fucked and as I was smoking last night, I feel really really shit and am loosing my voice. Yay.

To carry on a long tradition, a list:
– I hate Bristol, I really really really don’t like it. I know my way around it fairly well and I was wandering through it on Saturday afternoon and I just don’t like it.
– I got some nice books from Top Shelf and am looking forward to getting into them. Reports to follow I’m sure.
– It would be really nice if some people would stop being so self-centred for just a few minutes. The degree varies a lot of course but some people just really need to get over themselves. Of course a lot of people don’t realised how bad they are being at it. I know someone who lost so many friends because she just couldn’t see (or hear) what she was doing to her friends. It was a pretty bad situation for a long long time and in the end people just gave up. Not an easy thing when you are talking years and years of friendships but there came a point where I for one just didn’t want to be around her and nothing I did over a long year to try and be there helped. It sucked. Anyway a little side-tracked there.
– I like my own company, I always have. Having little or no time to myself over the weekend go to me by Sunday evening. It was nothing at all that anyone did, I just needed to go off and have some time. So I did. Went off to the hotel room and sat on my bed reading for 90 minutes or so. I felt so much better for it when I got back into the pub later on.
– Oh yes, Jamie’s band weren’t bad at all. Typically the V sat there abusing Jamie through out with repeated calls for him to strip and chants of “seven minutes”. It was good fun 🙂
– Do you ever just not want to know how people from your past are? I almost made a phone call but I just found myself not really wanting to. There was a certain bit of laziness there as it would have taken a lot of effort to meet up (and indeed I failed to meet up with someone else who I did ring!) and a little more than that, there was not wanting to run into certain situations which I was perhaps expecting.
– I’m listening to some live Sigur Ros and it’s beautiful.
– It was really good to meet some people at last and Bristol was easily made by the people there (the visitors, not the rioting cunts). Good to chat with people that I don’t normally talk to that much too.
– Some divides down the middle over Lying in the Gutters on Saturday night. If you publish something in a magazine, no-one should have a problem with someone reading it out. Context yes, as was strongly pointed out to me last night is important but at the end of the day, it’s published work. I am very unimpressed with the first reaction being “yes I know it’s crap, I did it as a favour for a friend”.
– Complete side-step, AICN has some details up on the Donnie Darko Directors Cut. A day of releaser for sure, and one that looks like will have me sobbing through the ending.
– Tekken 3(?) was awesome fun last night. Cripple beach ball was just so WRONG! Tempers flared and crotches were bit but it was great fun.
– Oh yes, I forgot. YAY for a new issue of Strangehaven!!
– The V managed to not only find but purchase two issues of a mid-late 80’s (?) comic book series written and drawn by the one and only Chuck Austin. Called Strips, it was a porno comic. Stupidly bad which various body parts moving and bending in directions they just should not be going in. It provided massive entertainment for us all and will feature in LITG shortly with some luck.
– Tomorrow, I have an early morning appointment. I have to be out of my flat before 7.30. Only an hour earlier than usual really but I’m already shattered. As soon as I decide I have nothing better to add to this, I’m off to bed.
– This week, The Pixies on Wednesday and Thursday and Download from Friday through to Monday. Extra sleep required before all that. Cannot wait for The Pixies, it was a topic of conversation all weekend and lots of excited people gearing up for it.
– Oh yes apparently haircuts are worthy of blogging, so yes I no longer have any long hair. It was getting to me and had been for a couple of months. No idea what to do with it now, but the general consensus has been pretty good.
– It’s amazing what you can learn from a single phonecall received in error.
– Oh further comedy from the hotel room. Lawrence was disposing of the extra linen we had stolen on Sunday morning. We walked out the door to spot them dropped in the middle of the corridor about 5 days down.

Right, I have to go and get some sleep now, I think that’s enough for tonight.