So! I am back now! Actually I got back yesterday, but I'm now all kinda sorta organized and settled back in and stuff, so time to tell y'all about what happened! Great big Confuzzled report incoming!
Sooo... the trip there was a mess! Getting to the airport was smooth, I had already checked in online and printed out my boarding pass, and I just had carry-on luggage so going through check-in and security was totally smooth as well. And there was nothing difficult about waiting for about three or so hours before the flight would leave - that was just boring, hee! But when we finally got to the time where they were going to start the boarding process... they couldn't get the gate doors open.
Yeah, you heard that right. They. Couldn't. Get. The. Gate. Doors. Open. I mean, seriously? They couldn't get the freaking gate doors open! They messed with that for like twenty minutes after boarding time started, and eventually resorted to letting us get through the gate and down to the bus that would take us to the airplane via the emergency door. Eeyup. But of course it didn't stop there. Because when we finally got to go through with the boarding process, the little beepy boopy thing couldn't read the bar codes of the boarding passes that people, me included, had printed out at home after checking in online. So for each and every one of those, they had to unlock the device at the computer behind the desk instead. One. By. One.
Sooo, to say we left on time or anything... yeah, not so much *chuckles* The flight was smooth though, as was the landing and meeting
at Bristol airport and getting to his car. Even getting to the Premier Inn we would be staying for the night was... uhm... reeelatively smooth. He only got lost once, hee! >~_^<
Next day we undertook the drive towards Birmingham and the hotel where the convention was. And it was... welllllllll... a little damp. Or, in other words... it was freaking bucketing down! It was raining so hard you could hardly see five yards in front of you! Sheesh! We were expecting some delay because of lots of roadworks, but we weren't expecting delays because of pootling along the highway because the rain was so horrendous it was like driving inside a cloud!
Oh well, but we got there okay, and even without getting lost a single time! Shocking! We were pretty quick into the registration as well, so that was very smooth as well. But since checking in for the room wasn't going to be until a few hours after that, we were going to do the set-up for the art show and dealer's den first instead. And ohmigosh, we just about died. I know I did, at least. Rorschfox and myself are bonafide greymuzzles, and ever since my health took a nose dive after the troubles I got with my lungs, there's been just way too much truth going into that phrase "I'm getting too old for this stuff". Man, while we were waiting for the dealer's den to let us in for setting up - which opened of course a little late because that's just Confuzzled tradition - I actually had to get out of the queue to sit down because my back and my legs physically were unable to support my weight any longer. So much for catly grace, huh? =P
But well, we got it done eventually and pretty smoothly, got checked into the hotel, and we got the chance to bring our stuff up to the room and pretty much collapse. We lounged on the beds... aaaaaand pretty much fell asleep by about a quarter past five, ha! At least that is more catly, so I'm all good with that! Even though Rorschfox is a fox, but yeah >~_^<
The next days went by way too fast. Rising early, having a good early breakfast, spend some time in the room preparing stuff, go down to the dealer's den, set up for the day and start selling stuff! Rorschfox had a bunch of different books to sell, some new ones as well, Red/Silver 2 had only gotten published just three weeks prior, and he had an awesome animation done for that as well! He wrote and directed it, Freyfox/Keenyfox did the whole animation, and they got none other than Kelly Sheridan to do the voice acting for the main character Red!
Incidentally, you can watch that animation RIGHT OVER HERE. Go watch it! It's awesome! You won't regret it! >^_^<
You do get a lot of time to do stuff for yourself while you're just sitting behind a table in the dealer's den for like seven hours, too, so I actually got a lot of writing done! Over the course of the convention, I wrote two entire stories for the Fangle Farmstead series and got a good way into a third one, too! I will be typing those up soon so I can post them!
Also, I will be working on putting together a moog - a magazine/book type of thingie, that will have a couple short stories in it, a bunch of pictures, an interview with a character plus a photo spread of that character, and some other humorous things. These will be printed, and the aim is to have at least the first one ready to be sold at next year's Confuzzled! Keep your eyes pealed for that, folks!
So yeah, what else. Oh yeah, the food! Oh meow the food! They did the street vendor stands in the lobby again, and they had an even bigger and more extensive selection than last year! Plus the option to get like your hotdog or burger or what have you as a meal deal with fries and a drink and an ice cream! And they had these burgers they called Sloppy Joe Burgers... man they were great! I had those every day! A great thick fresh grilled beef burger with a slice of cheese on it and then a big splop of sloppy joes on top of that! It was delicious! *chuckles* It was also a challenge to eat without ending up wearing most of it, hee!
Of course we were sponsors again, we always do that, and there was lots of awesome stuff in the goodie bag this year too! *chuckles* The one thing that came in amazingly handy and which I utilized right away was a wrist sweatband. The weather was pretty good the whole week, some rain now and then and a little bit of thunder during the weekend, but it was mainly sunny and nice, but also quite warm, so yeah, that sweatband certainly got put to good use!
Sales went pretty darn well, at the table, and also from the art show - only two originals were not sold. So we luckily had a lot less weight to lug back to the car when it was all over, hee. Of course it was raining pretty decently on the way back to Bristol as well, but not as horrendously bad as it did on the way to Birmingham, fortunately. And despite an early flight to Amsterdam being cancelled, the next flight to Amsterdam which was my flight went off without a hitch, no delays or nothing, smooth flight, and I got pretty decent connections for the train and then the bus home as well. I even made it back a little before dinner time, hee!
So, yeah! It was absolutely wonderful! Then again it always is! Hee! Definitely going back next year! And like I said, I may even have some stuff to sell myself next year! That is the plan, anyways! >^_^<
