Belfast - Apocalypse!
I needed Belfast. After the last week, and the tragic news about Selena received on Friday, it was a good release from the stress.
Decided Friday afternoon that the outfit I was going to wear Saturday night post fancy dress didn't have a skirt to go with it. The skirt I was going to wear wasn't cute enough for the velvet corset & jacket. So after a quick trip to BH's fabric shop I got some really good sheer black fabric, and some high quality black suiting style stuff. 4 hours later, one cheerleader-style skirt made from black suiting, with sheer panels underneath. It's very, very cool, and is my new all-time favourite skirt. And it looked fabulous on the dance floor because it swirls really well. Lots of girlies asked about it.
Only got around 3 hours sleep before getting up at 4:30am Saturday morning and heading for Gatwick. Flight was fine, though I was hoping to sleep on it and didn't. It was pissing it down when I got to Belfast, so got bus and a taxi to the con centre. Liz was naviagting from the con and claimed to be "standing under the big tree by the car park entrance" waiting for me. When we pulled in I realised the hotel has 3 car park entrances and 12 big trees, so found where she was, met Mo, got registered & went to see Neil Roberts. Laughed myself sick all through the talk, he showed some very dodgy material he's worked on, and the cough mixture Bond-style advert he was in a while back. Again, laughed myself sick.
Keith Szarabajka was very good, doing his Holtz voice and swearing blind he was the good guy cos "He ate my kid! C'mon! Who's the real bad guy here?"
Spent some time talking to a girly from the local college, who was running sewing & costuming courses. She was very nice, interested in what I was doing, and had some very cool bits and pieces on display. She asked if I'd be interested in being a guest speaker at one of her courses in September (very cool!), which if I do Denis has said I can stay with him for. It's definitely something I'd love to do, so I gave her a card and we'll see what happens.
Liz and I headed back to the b&b we were staying at for showers (her), a nap (me) and much costume-doing. Then we headed into town for a pair of trousers for me in case we headed out after the party and it was cold. I was able to teach Liz the art of impulse buyingat an Ann Summers sale, so we now both have shiny tops and I have a pair of shorts to go with one of my other tops. I got a pair of trousers & 2 matching tops in black and white, and a belt, all from Primark. One thing I was looking for was a ring or necklace as a kind of momento of the trip, and of the first completely independant thing I've done in nearly 4 years. I now have a silver Macintosh rose ring which I love very much, and a blue stone set in a Celtic design as an added bonus.
Liz and I spent a lot of time talking over the day, and we're pretty clear now on both sides of the last year or more. It's always interesting, what you find out from the other side. We've set things straight, and we're pretty much at the same point now so good times will be had from here on in.
The fancy dress was interesting - Anya was well received, there were a good set of entries and Claire's (Good & Evil girly at Fusion) 'Lorne Reborn' entry won a much-deserved first place. She had full Pylean (can't think of the right spelling for that!) make-up, a nurses outfit and a baby Lorne-doll in an incubator. The legs moved, it was unbelievabley cool!
The party went off well after a couple of false starts, Neil showed up and joined in with a lot of the convention dances and then danced with most of the attendees on the dance floor. Liz and I were being eyed up by a 13yr old Spike which was more than a bit scary. There was a very gay 18 yr old guy who's dancing was superb, and who spent one track that cleared the dance floor of everyone but he and the girl he was dancing with doing very disco moves. See Pulp Fiction for examples. He was very friendly, bless him, and loved the outfits Liz and I were wearing. Most people did.
Dennis drove us back to the b&b at around 2am, and Liz and I spent the next couple hours talking instead of sleeping. We got up at 4:30am and headed to the airport, figuring it'd take longer than it actually did.
Ate at the airport, slept through the flight back and arrived at Gatwick to much better weather. My bedroom had been painted a really good purple by the time I got back after Dad picked me up, and the bed had its new purple sheets. All this was noticed with a grunt of interest cos I pretty much walked in, got pajama-ed and crashed out. For 11 hours.
All in all I had an absolute blast, and Denis, Mo & co were brilliant. Will definitely be going back in the future!