LFCC - not SDCC but hey, Musketeers! RDA!
Jul. 18th, 2015 08:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
amberdreamsSo today I had a little trip to London to the London Film and Comic Con. It's like SDCC but not. It's smaller (obviously) and cheaper, but it was crowded enough for me, and I think queuing for an hour and a half to get in is as much as I can manage.
This was part of the queue (far left is near the back, far right near the front). It stretched way behind me in two directions, on opposite sides of the road, and round the back of Olympia behind us. Thankfully once the doors opened it moved fairly swiftly.
But I'm happy to say, I went with a mission which was 100% successful, and moreover, I came away with my feet and sanity (mostly) intact, having told Richard Dean Anderson off twice.
I woke up early so decided to get an earlier train after reports of massive queues yesterday, so I was on the 06:09 train to London, and arrived at Olympia a bit before 8am - to find the queue was already humungous. So I joined it, and shuffled round the improvised sheep pens for an hour and a half before finally gaining entry around 9:30. I took my friend Ally's advice and went straight (or as straight as was possible in that weird layout over 4 floors with insufficient staircase access and too few lifts) to grab a virtual queue number for Richard Dean Anderson's autograph. I made that my priority because it was the main reason I was there - to get RDA to sign a pic for my Aunty Marg's 79th birthday, which was on 14th July. Ally had tried to get an auto on Friday, and failed because the daft bugger only managed to get through 70 people... so I was a little worried before I got my VQ number, and even more worried after I saw it was 265! I had visions of staying until the place closed (like I'd done at Sherlocked!)...
I'd pre-booked photo ops with RDA, Luke Pasqualino (D'Artagnan) and Tom Burke (Athos), so Tom's photo was where I went first. It was pretty clear getting RDA's auto early wasn't going to happen, and he was only signing till 10am when he had to do photos. Got my Athos pic without too much hassle but bloody hell, it was hot as sin on that level and yuck, I was totally sweaty, even with my trusty fan. I meant to make good use of the fan in the photo but unfortunately I failed to raise it high enough to hide my double chin. Also, you can't see that Tom is defending me with a toy pirate scimitar...Curses, foiled again!
After this, I managed to find the signing room for Luke Pasqualino and joined the very small queue for his auto - so small they hadn't started with virtual queuing so that meant when Luke turned up we were first in line - easy peasy lemon squeezy. He was charming, really nice. And yeah - totally as hot in person as on screen. Yum. So he signed for me and my friend Renate, and Showmasters were totally relaxed about us taking photos (some folk were even getting selfies with the guests).
So obviously, I took advantage while waiting for my turn with Tom. I only had my phone with me (didn't want the extra weight of my proper camera) or I might have gone on the prowl to take more pics.
Anyhow, I kind of skipped the VQ with Tom too, because though they were handing out virtual tickets, because I stayed nearby to eat my lunch the queue died down way before my number was due, so they just called over anyone who was still around. Yay! Right place, right time!
So that was three things off my list, and looking at my watch, I reckonned RDA would still be photo-opping, so I buzzed on down to the ground floor (with a detour thanks to the fact that certain stairs and lifts ended up in the Gold entrance on the ground floor from which area there was no exit except outside on the street (duh??). Anyhow, they were just calling my batch number as I arrived - bonza!
Cue my first opportunity to boss RDA around, poor boy. I told him to pretend to be Jack O'Neill chilling out fishing, and he had no clue what to do, so I had to manhandle him into position and all I could hear was him grumbling that he didn't know how to fish LOL. He was totally adorable.
And hell's bells, just look at that perfect Jack expression on his face!
So I exited that Photo shoot area and found Luke's area was just next door, so yep, tick D'Artagnan off the list (and yay! managed to cover the double chin this time!)
And come on, who's looking at me when you have THAT gorgeousness in front of you?
That left Mr RDA's autograph and the obstacle of the 265 VT number. Oh and finding the bloody signing area again in the morass of staircases and levels and galleries... to cut a long (boring) story short - I wangled it. The telling off part came when I got him to sign Ally's auto and explained she hadn't been able to get it signed yesterday - why? says RDA - because you didn't sign enough, says I. Poor boy, he then tried to tell me he must have signed at least 200 autos yesterday and I had to tell him, nope, nowhere near, matey! LOL
Got to say, I thought he was a total sweetheart, and though he's a tad wider than he used to be, he's still got that O'Neill/McGuyver twinkle.
So I had everything I'd set out to get all done and dusted by 12:45. Fandabbydoozie. I could have stayed and had a look round the merchandising stalls - which, from the brief glimpses I'd seen as I'd fought my way through to find the nearest staircase queue (yes, it was that bad, people were queuing to get onto a flipping staircase), did look brill - but it was so hot, and so packed, I couldn't face it. So - early train home for me.
This was part of the queue (far left is near the back, far right near the front). It stretched way behind me in two directions, on opposite sides of the road, and round the back of Olympia behind us. Thankfully once the doors opened it moved fairly swiftly.
But I'm happy to say, I went with a mission which was 100% successful, and moreover, I came away with my feet and sanity (mostly) intact, having told Richard Dean Anderson off twice.
I woke up early so decided to get an earlier train after reports of massive queues yesterday, so I was on the 06:09 train to London, and arrived at Olympia a bit before 8am - to find the queue was already humungous. So I joined it, and shuffled round the improvised sheep pens for an hour and a half before finally gaining entry around 9:30. I took my friend Ally's advice and went straight (or as straight as was possible in that weird layout over 4 floors with insufficient staircase access and too few lifts) to grab a virtual queue number for Richard Dean Anderson's autograph. I made that my priority because it was the main reason I was there - to get RDA to sign a pic for my Aunty Marg's 79th birthday, which was on 14th July. Ally had tried to get an auto on Friday, and failed because the daft bugger only managed to get through 70 people... so I was a little worried before I got my VQ number, and even more worried after I saw it was 265! I had visions of staying until the place closed (like I'd done at Sherlocked!)...
I'd pre-booked photo ops with RDA, Luke Pasqualino (D'Artagnan) and Tom Burke (Athos), so Tom's photo was where I went first. It was pretty clear getting RDA's auto early wasn't going to happen, and he was only signing till 10am when he had to do photos. Got my Athos pic without too much hassle but bloody hell, it was hot as sin on that level and yuck, I was totally sweaty, even with my trusty fan. I meant to make good use of the fan in the photo but unfortunately I failed to raise it high enough to hide my double chin. Also, you can't see that Tom is defending me with a toy pirate scimitar...Curses, foiled again!
After this, I managed to find the signing room for Luke Pasqualino and joined the very small queue for his auto - so small they hadn't started with virtual queuing so that meant when Luke turned up we were first in line - easy peasy lemon squeezy. He was charming, really nice. And yeah - totally as hot in person as on screen. Yum. So he signed for me and my friend Renate, and Showmasters were totally relaxed about us taking photos (some folk were even getting selfies with the guests).
So obviously, I took advantage while waiting for my turn with Tom. I only had my phone with me (didn't want the extra weight of my proper camera) or I might have gone on the prowl to take more pics.
Anyhow, I kind of skipped the VQ with Tom too, because though they were handing out virtual tickets, because I stayed nearby to eat my lunch the queue died down way before my number was due, so they just called over anyone who was still around. Yay! Right place, right time!
So that was three things off my list, and looking at my watch, I reckonned RDA would still be photo-opping, so I buzzed on down to the ground floor (with a detour thanks to the fact that certain stairs and lifts ended up in the Gold entrance on the ground floor from which area there was no exit except outside on the street (duh??). Anyhow, they were just calling my batch number as I arrived - bonza!
Cue my first opportunity to boss RDA around, poor boy. I told him to pretend to be Jack O'Neill chilling out fishing, and he had no clue what to do, so I had to manhandle him into position and all I could hear was him grumbling that he didn't know how to fish LOL. He was totally adorable.
And hell's bells, just look at that perfect Jack expression on his face!
So I exited that Photo shoot area and found Luke's area was just next door, so yep, tick D'Artagnan off the list (and yay! managed to cover the double chin this time!)
And come on, who's looking at me when you have THAT gorgeousness in front of you?
That left Mr RDA's autograph and the obstacle of the 265 VT number. Oh and finding the bloody signing area again in the morass of staircases and levels and galleries... to cut a long (boring) story short - I wangled it. The telling off part came when I got him to sign Ally's auto and explained she hadn't been able to get it signed yesterday - why? says RDA - because you didn't sign enough, says I. Poor boy, he then tried to tell me he must have signed at least 200 autos yesterday and I had to tell him, nope, nowhere near, matey! LOL
Got to say, I thought he was a total sweetheart, and though he's a tad wider than he used to be, he's still got that O'Neill/McGuyver twinkle.
So I had everything I'd set out to get all done and dusted by 12:45. Fandabbydoozie. I could have stayed and had a look round the merchandising stalls - which, from the brief glimpses I'd seen as I'd fought my way through to find the nearest staircase queue (yes, it was that bad, people were queuing to get onto a flipping staircase), did look brill - but it was so hot, and so packed, I couldn't face it. So - early train home for me.
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no subject
Date: 2015-07-18 07:37 pm (UTC)Looks like you had a enjoyable and successful con (is it bad that I've never heard of LFCC? I'm not too great with remembering all the cons)
no subject
Date: 2015-07-18 08:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-07-18 09:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-07-18 09:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-07-19 02:41 am (UTC)TLCC layout sounds like an absolute nightmare. Can't they find a venue big enough to at least have only 1 floor??? We have our own smaller versions (maybe 15,000 people per day) of ComicCon and though crowded they are pretty well organised and have expanded the floor space each year.
no subject
Date: 2015-07-19 09:02 am (UTC)That layout was ridiculous - and definitely a huge fire risk. I don't know how many tickets they sold but the simple answer was - for that venue, too many!
no subject
Date: 2015-07-18 10:28 pm (UTC)Did you get a chance to read Luke's t-shirt? I can't see what it says - well, that's my excuse for staring at him anyway!
no subject
Date: 2015-07-19 09:07 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-07-18 10:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-07-19 09:05 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-07-19 12:42 am (UTC)and holy shit is that boy d'artangan HOT. Lucky girl, getting to stand so close!
no subject
Date: 2015-07-19 09:03 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-07-19 03:20 am (UTC)But I'm so glad you had fun! Looking good bb <3
no subject
Date: 2015-07-19 06:42 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-07-19 03:58 am (UTC)Pretty cool photos, girl!
no subject
Date: 2015-07-19 09:04 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-07-19 11:37 am (UTC)