Late, late, late update - inc. day 1

[dimity_blue]

I can't believe it's been a week since I posted here. This is what getting a job and ::shudders:: Real Life does to you. Though Real Life was pretty good this week.

I went solo on the phones last Wednesday, and did the same on Thursday too. On Thursday, I reminded my boss, Susan, that I wouldn't be in on Friday as I was going to this little, not-very-exciting (I'm such a liar) get-together in Warwickshire. She'd forgotten, and turned to my immediate superior, Rosie, who was standing there, and told her that I wouldn't be in the next day. Rosie was fine about it, and Susan commented that as I wasn't supposed to be online solo until the Monday (the 16th), it really wasn't a hassle.

So, on Friday, I got out of bed with the knowledge that I didn't have to go into work but, instead, I was going down to Warwickshire with luicat. ::squees loudly::

luicat arrived and, after I'd finally got ready, we headed off in her car towards the M6. Which was on a go slow that day. Once we'd got a look at exactly how slowly it was moving, luicat took the next exit, handed me an atlas, and asked me to navigate. I did, and we got to the Belfry later than we'd planned, but far sooner than the M6 would have allowed.

Once we'd checked in, we got our keycards and headed off to our room. It was nice - as befits a 4 star hotel - and we explored the amenities. It's amazing what they can fit inside a small room. Investigating the wardrobe, luicat discovered an ironing board and iron, while I found a trouser press. There was even a complimentary tray with biscuits and packets of Horlicks on a shelf in a cupboard. The shelf was above the "safe". Which was the empty space beneath the shelf. It didn't look very safe to me (as I was expecting a metal box with some kind of lock on the front) but perhaps other people have different standards.

Once we'd finished investigating the "safe", luicat and I got changed and headed back downstairs, where we discovered gillyp, who was busily heading somewhere. The somewhere turned out to be the bar where quite a few Sentinel fans were gathered - what a coincidence! :oD - so we gathered with them until moves were made to go and get some dinner.

We had dinner, and I use the term loosely, in the Atrium. I have to say, that of everything that happened that weekend, the food was the biggest disappointment. I wasn't expecting anything superbly great, which was a good job, as the Belfry obviously doesn't believe in food that even approaches the concept of "superbly great". The hotel also seems to be phobic about vegetarians.

Our choices for dinner seemed to be the French restaurant (£35 a head) or the Atrium (£25 a head), so we decided on the Atrium and wandered in. Once we were seated, we abandoned our seats and went up to the entree table which had a dish on it that seemed to be made of pasta with very small complete squid. Ick! Vegetarian though? No problem! Broccoli soup or uh...well, there's broccoli soup. I had the broccoli soup. Which tasted kinda sweet.

There were eight of us at our table, and we made up the majority of the fans who'd been in the bar. Most of them were known to me: luicat (of course), fluterbev, rhianne, suemc, gillyp and alibongo, but I got to meet the lovely angelvette67 too! Soon afterwards, Sheila (Bluewolf in the fandom) and her friend or sister (whose name I never did get!) sat at a table nearby in the restaurant, and soon after that andeincascade and Gerri arrived too! I didn't manage to see andeincascade while she was staying with fluterbev (I was working - did you hear that? I got a job!), so it was really good to catch up with her at the con. I hadn't seen Gerri since we met at Moonridge the year before last either, though I'd chatted with her via IM now and then. My one sorrow about this kind of get together is that you meet people you like and know it'll be ages before you get to see them again. But at least we had most of the weekend to have fun in!

Anyway, the dinner...refusing the staff's kind offer of wine at £20 a bottle, we requested iced water. The iced water was nice. :oD

After we'd had our entree, we went to the main dish table. Vegetarian? No problem! Pasta in tomato sauce for you! Thank God there was no sign of the very small but complete squid in the dish. o.O I had pasta in sauce, along with roast potatoes, cauliflower with cheese and carrots. It's not exactly a combination I'd considered before but I ate it. luicat had roast beef, and upset the chef by asking him for some that was actually cooked and wasn't pink in the middle!

Fortunately, the cake/dessert table was more run of the mill and didn't contain squid at all.

Can you tell I really didn't like the squid?

After all that, we headed back to the bar and sat around chatting and laughing. I'm sure more TS fans turned up (including Rae!) but I'm not sure who turned up when. It was loud, it was noisy, and we had a ball. At one point, someone pulled out a camera and took a photo of suemc, so luicat promptly did 'rabbit ears' behind her head. suemc turned and glared at luicat, who promptly denied any wrong-doing. In an attempt to help out the person who drove me all the way from Preston to Warwickshire, I backed her denial up. Then suemc stared steadily at me. Within seconds, to my shame, I caved and dobbed luicat in. Sorry, luicat. :o(

Not long after I'd sung like a canary, I went to bed. Attempting to face down suemc when she's got *that* look on her face can really take it out of you!

I'll try to post about day 2 tomorrow, though I suspect I'm days behind everyone else! :oD