Just got back...
to the armpit of England, Middlesbrough.
Now due to the fact I don't have the internet in my apartment (Oh posh!) yet, it is really a few days after I first wrote this down in my random stuff on Monday afternoon.
Well Dimension Jump XIII (Red Dwarf convention) was great! So I must congratulate the Red Dwarf Fan Club for that.
Let's start from the beginning on:
Friday:
After catching two trains to get to Peterbrough, the last of which was near to empty (ah! lots of space. Hmmm...nice!), so that was great as well because normally a train bound of London tend to be packed...erm...anyway, I managed to walk part way to the hotel, which was very hard with all the heavy stuff I had taken with me *Owie!*. So I phoned a taxi to take me the rest of the way and when I get there I find I can't check in yet, so I wait in the bar to watch Red Dwarf with a people I met.
Sometime passes and I see someone check in so I try again, but no luck, my room isn't ready yet. So back to the bar.
Just before two o'clock a group of us go to get the fan club to start giving our packs because we were just too excited to wait and to our joy it works.
After that I try again to check in, but this time I can't due to my card...*cries*... the machine says incorrect pin.
*What!?*
*I had just got that new pin!*
So I can't check in, but after a plee for help Graham (Pitbull on the webboard) takes a group of us in his car to Asda. So I manage to get money out of the cash machine with the pin, which was correct! And also 12 cans of Carling.
*I had 4 cans for myself, 3 for the SF guys, 1 for my Ex, 2 for Donie Girl and 4 for Rory of the Fan Club team because I couldn't handle anymore after saturday*.
So finally I get back to the hotel and get my room and find I have an executive room (Nice! How lucky!) with a mini bar, which I can keep my cans cool and the sandwiches I have taken there with me. :)
The night started with Hattie doing the quiz, which was great, but we lost on table H. Table B won, which was the table I was meant to be at for the quiz *Smeg!*.
Oh well!
The karaoke started up after that and the first lass to get up to sing won, because she was really good.
Chris Barrie was next with Q&A where he gave us tips about the media industry, got embassed about being asked to sing, told his tongue in cheek story (Craig's cheek), got annoyed with everyone one else at the scose heckler and then signed stuff for us before disappearing off to avoid singing at the second half of the karaoke.
The second half of the karaoke was still fun and Aimi and me got up and sang ABBA - Take a chance on me. Well, Aimi sang and I messed up the words, even though they were in front of me.
Saturday:
Oh my! This day was long but extremely fun, exciting and interesting.
Robert was first up even through he was late and surpringly Danny was early. Which amazed many, but it was his brother (Charles) who was driving so he must must been the one to get Danny to be ready early for starting the car jorney there.
...Anyway, Robert was first. He came rushing in with his camcorder and tripod because he's hoping to get his Q&A up on youtube.com, so I'll wait till his has gone up on youtube and then I'll put up mine...just search for rdpenny and you'll find me vids.
Robert actually got threated by my camcorder because it was bigger than his. *Giggles*
Danny was next with his nefuew, Alexander, who played baby Lister in series 7, episode 3, Ouroboros.
Alexander is now 10 years old and seemed quite bored up on stage while Danny answered questions, but he did get some questions which were answered with the maximum of two words.
Danny did a lovely little cat dance for us all in his Q&A too.
Lunch followed and then Norman with his lovely dead pan comedy self did his Q&A.
The autograph session was next, which due to how many of the cast there were there it took much longer than it was meant to.
Everyone of them was very chatty:
- Hattie told me abit about "The little Prince" because my signing book has a "The Little Prince" theme.
- Danny gave Norman a massage which cheered Norman up until he realised he had signed my Quantine script from Red Dwarf when he wasn't even in that episode.
- Robert was very talkive too (shame I can't remember what he said to me. Darn, my memory can be bad!)
- The Special Effects guys(Alan Brannan, Peter Tyler and Rocky) were talkive too and even more so later that night after the many drinks they were consuming.
- Alexander on the other hand was nearing a daydream while waiting to see if anyone would like his autograph.
For a while after that I joined a conversion with Charles John-Jules, who is Alex's dad and brother of Danny. He was a lovely bloke and was hoping that Alex would keep the convention as a happy memory.
Dinner was next or in my case, sorting my costume for the Fancy Dress and getting a free drink from...erm...well, like I said, I don't have a good memory.
So the special effects guys came on for their Q&A. It was very interesting to find out about how they get their ideas, what things they use to make models, how they filmed, etc, etc. I liked their techinal stuff because it's very informative and interesting to me. I like creativeness.
Fancy Dress was after that. I helped Aimi bring down her costume, "Crushed Kryten". I dressed up as part of the Dibby family with a mini motorised Dibby skutter. Nether Aimi nor me won, but it was still fun.
Norman's Cabaret after that with his wonderful slides, but I think he may have got a little annoyed with my Dibby skutter that was zooming about the table I was at because I gave the contrals to some bored teenages (Thingy, Whatit and Bacon - I don't remember their names so I called them those ones.)
The Disco was next and my skuter was popular, it could have got lucky with someone if it wanted to, but it came home with me.
I don't drink much, yes, I can down a pint, but I don't really go out drinking so Saturday night was a rare thing for me...infact, I was about to stop drinking before midnight till Tristan decided to put one in front of me through out the rest of the night and other friends. (So next year if you are skint, he's the guy to blag a drink from).
I stayed up till 5 o'clock in the morning playing pool and talking to Rocky about the Bond film as well the types of television programmes on TV now and how our generation should get off our asses to make better comedy (I totally agree with him, so it has motivated me to write my ideas down and think about writing a test script).
Sunday:
After just two hours of sleep I was knackered! It was hard to keep awake but I managed.
Hattie Q&A was in the morning, which I don't seem to remember much of because I was mostly consentrating on staying awake.
The presentation of "Beat the Geek" was after that, which looks great! I can't wait to get it.
Smeg or No Smeg (Deal or No Deal) was good fun with me with number 13 and Andrew beening the choosen one. This game really helped wake me up for Craig's Q&A, which was great.
Autographs were next and Craig is such a lovely bloke!
After the auction the convention finished up.
That night the fans who were left migrated to the bar to talk in their little groups about the past few days.
Monday:
Had breakfast, talked with other fans and then left by taxi to catch my train at 12:20.
Overall, a brilliant weekend, which felt like a whole week full of fun.
posted by Rdpenny @ 3:44 PM
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