The room was cool, the bed was comfy, even the shower was great, yet we still didn't sleep well. Grumble.

After breakfast was the Nicholas Courtney tribute panel. We discussed the Brigadier's tenure and Courtney's appearances at conventions. Following that, went to a panel discussing "The Future of Reading." Talked about e-books, self-publishing, libraries needing to take up new technologies, etc. This was in the boardroom, and, oh, my, were the lights bright...but the chairs were comfy!

James joined me in progress for the Q&A with Sophie Aldred. She talked about her rapport with Sylvester McCoy, the fact that she was chosen as a companion at the last minute, conventions and other subjects, although we missed some of it due to nipping out for a hot dog (me) and a burger (James).

Next was the panel I'd waited for, discussing Sherlock Holmes (chiefly modern iterations like the Robert Downey Jr film and the modern-set Sherlock, which is filming three new episodes) with Louis Robinson, along with small and entertaining digressions. He suggested we should have an afternoon next year. I'll second that!

A funny: a woman in the audience said she'd taken her son to see the Downey movie and now he was crazy about Holmes. At the end of the panel they raffled off Holmes-ish things and the woman won the leather-bound collection of Holmes' stories.  Louis said if he'd written that in a story, it would be considered unbelievable.

James went to a panel about a writer's trip to Antarctica, so I went upstairs, got Willow, brought her outside, then walked her about the convention floor. Everyone wanted to pet her, including Andy Runton, creator of Owly.

I'm always talking to him about Schuyler when I see him at Dragoncon, so I took Willow back upstairs and carried Schuyler (in her big, awkward cage, of course—how I wish she'd ride in the carry box!) downstairs. She did so well! She looked about warily, then relaxed when Andy whistled to her. So I sat her cage on one of the hassocks in a little conversation pit, and she looked around interestedly as if it was the biggest TV ever ("Look! 3D teevee!"). She flirted with Bill Ritch and a young man who was accompanying a female 9th doctor, and finally sat with one foot up, fluffed and content.

Finally I took her back upstairs.  Yesterday it was too hot, now the A/C is running continuously and it's cold. Sigh. Better cold than hot, though. Then I went to the Blake's 7 panel, with Kim Holec as one of the panelists, where we discussed favorite eps, characters, etc. Small but entertaining.

After that we had some supper--no buffet tonight, but probably just as well--and waited for the cabaret, which was smashing. Professor Satyre (Mike Langford) was emcee, with funny commercials, movies and TV "mash-ups," and other humor, plus a recreation of President Kennedy's moon speech which gave me goosebumps; The Ken Spivey band (father and son) did two songs based on Doctor Who, a bouncy one starting "Amy's got a new boy!" and a second about the difficulties of a companion after the fact; Louis Robinson did two songs on guitar, an amusing one on middle-class life and a sad one about an IRA member; and Sophie Aldred sang a music hall song she learnt from her father and an old Scots ballad about Bonnie Prince Charlie.

Following was a giveaway (we won nothing; oh, well) of some nice things including a region-free DVD player, and finally the masquerade. Some nice contestants: two River Songs, a Mercy Hartigan in the vivid red gown, a second Doctor who had the personality down pat, a nurse from "Empty Child" complete with gas mask, Rory in his wedding morning coat and top hat, several Amy Ponds (one running), one of the feline nurses, and more, including a truly outstanding Tharil.

And here we are upstairs at 10:30 on Saturday night, as we are well and truly wiped out. I've had a sinus headache since earlier in the evening, but taking off my glasses really helped.

Labels: conventions, friends, television

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 10:33:00 PM

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