Pegasus 3 - Jan 2008 London

[Alipeeps]

By the way, I don't suppose anyone could tell me what time con stuff finishes every evening? People keep talking about going to McD's or the pub for dinner but around what time do they do that? I'm reluctant to leave the hotel in case I miss a party or something

I barely ate last time... and certainly never had time to go *out* to eat! I lived of snack food and pot-noodle type things that I brought with me!

The days events are supposed to finish around 4pm I seem to recall.. but you have to factor in convention relative time (which means that nothing starts or ends quite when it's supposed to! ) so usually somewhere between 4-5pm. Evening events start at about 8pm... BUT on either the Saturday or the Sunday, depending on what ticket number you have, you will be spending a LARGE chunk of that time waiting around for, queuing for and in the process of getting your autographs! Last year I think I was ticket no 200-and-something and I finally got done with the autographs at around 7pm I think! Up until then I was waiting around in the foyer for my ticket number to be called (they call you up to join the queue in groups of about 50 ticket numbers), then queuing for a loooong time and then getting autos (with more queueing inbetween! ).

On the Sunday there was a lot more time (unless you're getting your autographs on the Sunday of course!) and I probably could have gone out to eat but I chilled out in the room instead. The evening disco goes on pretty much until the last person staggers out.. easily 3 or 4am!

[Klenotka]

By the way, I don't suppose anyone could tell me what time con stuff finishes every evening? People keep talking about going to McD's or the pub for dinner but around what time do they do that? I'm reluctant to leave the hotel in case I miss a party or something

We dared to leave in the afternoon to our room for snack and came back in twenty minutes...and we almost missed photosession with Chuck.

I had ticket nr. 415 and I got my last autograph on Sunday around 8 PM.
So no, there isn´t much time to go anywhere

The only time we got into McD was Friday evening and it was because we didn´t have Meet and Greet tickets.

I think Alipeeps´ description is perfect

[firefly827347]

Right. So pretty much no eating then I can handle that.

[surfinmuffin]

Right. So pretty much no eating then I can handle that.

You can always eat the Thistles ridiculously overpriced sandwiches that they sell in the main area at lunchtime..... they are scrummy *smirks* not!!

Also if you feel like throwing your money away you could eat in the Thistles resturant, I've eaten there before when they gave us these discount coupons and apart from being overpriced it was alright! LOL

I think we will be in the pub this time!

[sueKay]

The pub's extortionate though...

I'll be dining in style at McDonalds for the weekend

Or if there's any free time I could try and get a bus to Harrow...has to be cheaper there lol!

[firefly827347]

Thanks for the info guys, but I'll probably stay in the hotel

[Alipeeps]

I've just done a tiny bit of pre-con shopping with my weekly shop - cup-a-soups and instant noodle/couscous/etc pots. Basically, anything that can be made with hot water from a kettle!

[firefly827347]

Being a student, I already have food like that

I ordered my scrubs online on Friday Hopefully they'll arrive on Monday. I'm also looking to buy an Atlantis-y black jacket to sew my patches onto

[sueKay]

I'm debating whether or not to bring Haggis for Burns' Day...I hate the stuff but I think it'd be funny

[shadow-of-atlantis]

Sorry, it's me again. I'm still thinking about going to the convention and yet I found more pros than cons

But one problem is, to find a good but cheap accommodation near the Convention location. Can anyone recommend me a hostel or B&B?

Thanks
shadow

[teknikal]

@firefly..im debating whether or not to bring my blue scrubs with me and a get a turtle stuffed toy

[firefly827347]

@firefly..im debating whether or not to bring my blue scrubs with me and a get a turtle stuffed toy

The scrubs I've ordered are blue
I'm also bringing the lab coat I use for my chemistry labs I'm gonna look out for a toy turtle too
You should bring yours! I'm not sure if I'll even get to wear mine.

[pavaneofstars]

Yepper! London won't know what hit them! Hey- Monday after con, do you wanna do Stonehenge that day? We could try to fit it in on Thursday, but that might be pushing it. If the tickets are not mailed out in time, we may have to stand in line for a while Thursday.

I was thinking Thurs but this thing with the tickets has me nervous. I hope they get mailed to us before we have to leave. That will one less thing to worry about. Of course, Monday would be fine too.

I'd love to hang out with you and Pavane at some point before the con, if it's alright with you guys.

Hi PuddleJumper, we'd love for you to hang with us!

By the way, I hope I won't have the same trouble as last year with the key cards for the doors. Somehow they always lost their encoding (or whatever this is called) and the door to our room wouldn't open.

Bummer. I've been told that if key cards get next to a cell phone it can 'delete' the coding on the card. Something about magnets. I don't know if that's what happened in your case, but something wiped the coding off of it.

Meesh posted a small update on the wolf boards that tickets should begin to be posted from the end of next week. And also that day tickets will be available on the door.

Thanks for the info.

[Borg Queen]

Bummer. I've been told that if key cards get next to a cell phone it can 'delete' the coding on the card. Something about magnets. I don't know if that's what happened in your case, but something wiped the coding off of it.

I heard that.
I'll put my cell phone in a phone sock and keep the card in protective sleeve and posibly in a phone sock aswell. I don't know if it would help.

[Arlessiar]

Arlessiar, where will you in the Airport? We will go there, because we will arrive from Victoria Station to Heathrow by the tube. Which terminal?

Oh fun. I just found out that my flight plan has been changed! That means I'll be in London much earlier than I planned to! It seems I'll already arrive at 11am! That means I'll have to wait two hours until my friend arrives. Will spend the time reading and buying food, I guess.

I guess I'll be in Terminal 1 as I'll arrive there, thing is, I don't know yet where my friend will arrive, maybe I'll have to go elsewhere to meet here. She might arrive at terminal 2. Until she confirms that I can only say that I'll wait in Terminal 1. That's where I waited for her last time, the place isn't as big as I feared at first, in fact it's amazingly small, and we found each other immediately.

I love flying, I really do, but I hate all the preparations for a flight, the flight plan changes, the stress and problems with finding the correct terminals, the big airports, and the constantly changing hand baggage rules and who knows what else.

BUT on either the Saturday or the Sunday, depending on what ticket number you have, you will be spending a LARGE chunk of that time waiting around for, queuing for and in the process of getting your autographs!

I have a question: I've been to two smaller cons and to a big one (P2). On the smaller cons it didn't really matter when you went to get the autographs, you could do that on Saturday or Sunday. I usually did that on Sunday as it's something like the icing on the cake for me, the moment I like most on conventions, so I try to keep the best for last. On big cons, such as P2, you get the autographs according to your ticket number. I had a ticket number under but close to 300 and waited many hours on Saturday until they told us that we'd have to come back on Sunday. Well, I liked that of course and was happy, and on Sunday we were among the first 50 who were let into the room.
I might have a ticket number around #200 this time, so I might get into the autograph room on Saturday this time. Since I don't really want that my question is, if you miss the autograph session on such a big con on Saturday, be it by accident or because you'd rather go on Sunday, is there still a possibility to get the autographs on Sunday? Or do you just have this one chance and when you miss it (again, by accident or intentionally) it's game over for you?

Great
Powerbars it is then! When does McD's stay open until?

Fortunately a long time. Don't know the exact time though.

Yes, I'll also eat there again I guess. I like eating there but not that often, but I'll make an exception for the con out of necessity. Last year I've been there two times, on Saturday and Sunday evening, and especially on Sunday it was fantastic, the whole stress was over (no more queues, ticket problems, excitement), we were completely relaxed and enjoyed our meal. I sat together with some friends and we just talked about the con and about fandom related stuff - it was wonderful, I didn't want the evening to end!

Oh, and when we walked to McDonald's on Saturday evening, a car passed by and Jane and David were in that car and waved to us! That was funny!

I barely ate last time... and certainly never had time to go *out* to eat! I lived of snack food and pot-noodle type things that I brought with me!

Yeah, I brought snacks from home, too, cookies and such, no real food though because that's of course not allowed on the plane.

Here are two tips though:

Tip #1: If you arrive by plane, buy some food at the airport. Sure, there are less expensive places to buy food, but it has not been as expensive as I thought, and really, it's good to have something to eat on Friday evening. You can get sandwiches of all kinds at the airport, and other snacks of course, and something to drink. That helped me a lot on Friday evening.

Tip #2: When you have breakfast at the hotel, take something along for later, some provisions so to speak. I mean, you pay for breakfast, so I think it's ok. I usually 'steal' some water or juice (I just put it into the bottle I bought at the airport) and take a bun/sandwich with me in a napkin. That helps a lot as there's usually no time for lunch (or no place to go).

Bummer. I've been told that if key cards get next to a cell phone it can 'delete' the coding on the card. Something about magnets. I don't know if that's what happened in your case, but something wiped the coding off of it.

It can't have been my cell phone as I never carried it around with me. The magnet theory is very good though (as it's the same with credit cards) but I have no idea where I would have gotten near one with the card. And apparantly I wasn't the only one with the problem, the woman at the reception desk said that it had happened to others, too, and from the way she reacted when I came to her with my problem you could tell that she's been familiar with that problem already, she looked so bored and immediately knew what to do, before I could even explain the whole problem to her she already pulled my key card out of my hand.

Bye, A.