My Return To Wales: Part 3, SFX Weekender 3 Hi-de-hi Campers!

Have you ever heard the expression, ‘if you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all’? Well, if I was to apply this to my opinion of the SFX Weekender 3 this would be a very short post... Along the lines of: Arrived, saw dancing girls, went home...

*Insert comedy caption here*

I can, hand on heart, say this was the worst event I’ve ever been to.

I have to confess I’d not really given SFX much thought before I actually arrived, I wasn’t even sure what guests were going to be there, but the idea of it really was appealing, a few thousand like minded geeks taking over a holiday camp for a weekend, what more could you ask for?

Check in was from the Thursday afternoon, however, if you’ve read part 2 of my Wales posts then you’ll know I was busy climbing Snowdon that day, so we decided to get there on the Friday morning and go straight into the event.

On the Thursday though the little alarm bell in my head began to ring upon hearing stories of people waiting hours to check in... Not too promising. Luckily when we got there on the Friday there wasn’t a queue so we checked in quickly and then went off to find our ‘Gold’ level chalet...

My Return To Wales: Part 2, Snow! Real Proper Snow!

So having had a wander round Ogmore Castle it was time to head north up to Snowdon. Having never been to that part of Wales I had to fully rely on Kate to get us to our destination...

Not a bad view

Kate gave us a drive time of about 6hrs so to make the most of the journey and see as much as we could we asked her to pick a route that didn’t use any major roads, the result some of the most beautiful scenery I’ve seen.

Our route took us through the middle of the Brecon Beacons, the ground was covered in a good layer of snow which just looked epic.

The most random moment was when we can across a burger van in the middle of a National Park, it just seemed so out of place! But, as there wasn’t much that resembled civilisation anywhere near it seemed as good a place as any to have a late lunch.

My Return To Wales: Part 1, I think I’ve Been Here Before...

From where I live Wales is a bit of a trek (this may be an understatement...) so as  I was off to the SFX Weekender Leanne and I decided to have a bit of a Welsh holiday beforehand, well makes sense, Wales is the spiritual home of Doctor Who...

The Millennium Centre

The original plan was to get to Wales for Tuesday lunchtime, however after a slightly disastrous train journey back from London the night before we were slightly later leaving than we’d hoped (however unexpected Peter Davison in Legally Blonde had made up for it).

So, even with Kate getting slightly lost and having a minor ‘hissy fit’ we made it to Cardiff in the early evening. After a quick cup of tea we headed down to Cardiff Bay to look at some of the Who locations based around there. It was so cold!! Normally I don’t get cold (it must the 25% Northerner in me) however even I have to confess it was a tad nippy!!

John Levene – Guest of the Weekend 2011

For those of you who have read my blog you may have heard of the ‘Guest of the Weekend Award’ that has been mentioned for many events that I’ve been to. (If you’ve no ideas what I’m on about click here!)

Me with John at Spring Memorabilia

I’d talked with Tim a while back about making an actual physical award however with the best laid plans it never actually happened...

Not to let a good idea go wasted I instead decided to create an award for the person that really stuck in my mind, call it guest of the year if you want.

Before the idea of the award had really truly formed I already knew who the winner was, there was no decision needed it just felt right.

MCM Expo London Film and Comic Con and Memorabilia - Day Two, And Relax...

Following a good night’s sleep (the free room upgrade the hotel gave me helped!) it was time for day 2 of the madness known as Expo/Memorabilia.

Wolverdoc?

I hadn’t really got anything specifically planned for day two so decided to take the day as it came.

Upon walking in I gave into temptation and bought myself photoshoots with both Alexa Havins and Arlene Tur, they had both been so nice the day before I decided it would be nice to see them again.

Also on the Sunday Tim and Laura debuted their new Cosplays, Laura as X-23 (Wolverine clone) and Tim as Dakin (Dark Wolverine / Wolverines son), I had to try out the Dakin claws and somehow managed to make having talons growing from your hands look camp... Oh well, I guess it’s a talent I didn’t know I had...

Sunday was a nice relaxed day, far less busy than the Saturday which is nice as you’re actually able to walk round and have a proper look at things as well as seeing some amazing costumes.

MCM Expo London Film and Comic Con and Memorabilia - Day One, Martha and The Doctor

My previous post got the moans and grumbles out of the way, now onto the event itself!

Expo and Memorabilia are two very different shows. Expo is all about anime, costumes and ‘free hugs’... Memorabilia is more of the classic signing event; they also differ a lot in how busy they are. Expo is manic (50K plus people) where as Mem attracts far less. Expo also seems to attract a younger crowd (well that’s how it felt to me).

The big draw for Memorabilia for me was Freema Agyeman, she’s never done an event before so this was an opportunity not to be missed. As there weren’t that many people at Memorabilia her queue wasn’t overly long (I’m done moaning about queues now). Freema was fab, she was really chatty and came across as really enjoying the whole experience. Now that she’s done an event I hope she’ll appear at more in the future.