CosmicAvatar

Oh, yes. I have a few friends with disabilities, some of which are visible, some of which are not. One is a US friend with fibromyalgia. She loves me showing her around London when she comes to visit, but gets so exhausted she has to use a wheelchair a lot these days, and it really is an eye-opener seeing how far you can (or rather, can't) get with one. It is gradually getting better, mind, but there's a way to go.

Love the lightsabre poses!

It was wonderful to finally meet him! So nice and very polite. Lovely warm handshake. He also looked great with his red T-shirt setting off his tan. (Yesss, I was swooning a bit. ) I hope he felt comfortable enough to come back to a future event sometime.

Any news about Paige, please? Did she get back OK? It was lovely meeting her on Saturday and I was saddened to hear she'd fallen ill.

Sorry, yes, the cards with VQ details/guest status have been around for a fair while, but this is the first time I remember seeing them so high up so it was easier to see the details from a distance (although it's possible I'm being senile on that score too ). And agree, the photoshoot schedules seemed to be in better (and more?) locations - I found it really easy getting close to double-check stuff.

The signage was better this year. I appreciated the use of poles at the front of the areas for signers with VQT systems in place, which had a laminated card hanging from the top with details of the VQT number or whether said guest had gone for a shoot/break (often with estimated return times), so you could see it over peoples' heads. I'm sure that was new as I don't recall seeing that last year. The card with the price was lower down, but you could see that once you knew to join the queue and got closer. Having the photoshoot schedules printed out in various locations was excellent (I think that started last year, so good to see this continue). But yes, photo areas were still a bit problematic at times, meaning one had to wriggle through the throng to ask a crew member what was happening. It's getting better, but I agree that the area letter needs to be higher - I was sure I was waiting at E at one point before realizing it was F. So that and having something on which to write guest names and batch numbers that one can hold high above the crowds would be excellent. Someone (not sure if it was a crew member or not) was doing that in G or thereabouts and it meant I could see what was happening without having to fight my way closer.

I enjoyed mine! (Er, might post it. Might not.)

Heee, you big geek. My feet estimate that I did somewhere in the region of 20K today.

Lovely. *sigh*

OK, now everyone I met was delightful, but I'll point out some highlights: Staz Nair was so friendly and chatty. I was wearing an Adam Lambert T-shirt on the Friday so we chatted about that (he's worked with Adam!) and on the Sat when I had my photoshoot he recognized me but was not sure from where/when, and when I said we'd met on Friday he said, "Lovely to meet you!" and kissed the top of my head, bless his cotton socks. He was adorable. Jack O'Halloran said, "Hello, lovely," in my photoshoot. Heeeee. James Callis wrote an amusing quote on my auto so I ribbed him about it, which was fun. I'm ashamed to say that I didn't notice until much later that Iwan Rheon wrote Cariad on my auto (I'm sure he did it for everyone, but it's still a nice thing). Diolch yn fawr, Iwan! Awwww. He was sweet in person too. I've met Matt Smith before but wanted another photoshoot as he looked great but I looked terrible in my last one, and he was doing finger-point poses and whatnot and his hair was very shiny (I complimented him on it the last time we met so was glad to see it was on form). Much happier with this photo! Paige Turco was insane, but in a good way. She was doing the most incredible poses and hugging people in her photoshoots (I was vanilla as usual but we're both grinning like Cheshire Cats). I'm sad to hear she took ill overnight and hope she recovers soon. It was lovely to meet her. Rory McCann! One of my top GoT wants. He wrote Woof Woof! among other things on the auto, which I found hilarious, although not so hilarious as the back of the DP, which had a shot of the Clegane/Brienne brawl on it - the expressions on their faces! I'm giggling just thinking about it. Peter Capaldi was amazing. Despite how popular he was, he took time to chat and not only personalize but write additional stuff on autos. He wrote Cosmic to meet you! and I was thinking, "HOW DID HE KNOW MY USERNAME- oh, wait, never mind." *snort* He was brilliant with kids too (and I'm not in the least maternal so being purely objective here). Smashing bloke. Christopher Eccleston was understandably busy, considering he was there for the one day, but he was so, so nice. And oh, boy, he looked so good in person! I thanked him for coming as it was so wonderful to meet him and he said, "Thank you for having me." (My mind went to Bad, Bad places. I'm just glad I didn't drool on him.) Never thought I'd get to meet him so that was a fantastic (pun intended) way to end the day today.

I can't comment on Friday opening as I rocked up at 10:30-ish, but I got in quickly, all my DPs were waiting for me, very nice. Saturday was the testing one, and OK, I was closer to the start of the queue than previous years thanks to the SWR strike forcing me to get there earlier than usual, but they let us in at least 15 mins early. I got in there and there was not a Standard to be seen! It was brilliant. Got my VQTs with no stress whatsoever, strolled out to the gallery where the entrances are and saw Standards pouring in at 9:55, thought, "Oh, no, they've done it again, thank goodness I got there early," then saw that there was no-one coming in from the Gold side. So that went perfectly. Well done! Other shout-outs: Phil was doing his usual class act in photo area A on Sat and the guy doing B was EXTREMELY organized in his calling of the batches while I was there (even the Diamonds were called in order). On Sunday I have to give kudos to the dude handling area C - Matt and Christopher's Diamond queues alone were monstrous (I couldn't even queue for the latter at first - I had to join a pre-queue queue!) and he was so incredibly cheerful in that one. One of the crew who knows me (I want to say Christa) kindly let me queue for Peter Capaldi without snipping my Diamond Pass until the absolute last minute, as I had a photoshoot coming up and wasn't sure whether I'd get through the queue in time (thanks also to the lovely couple who let me go in front of them - I ended up going from there to the aforementioned shoot in C, only to find that it was delayed, and I had two simultaneous shoots in F and G coming right up, so had to power-hobble to the opposite hall, do those and then got back to C just in time for the original shoot! Couldn't have done it without them). I can't remember which photoshoot areas were best at this (it got a bit of a blur at times), but I made a point of thanking at least one of the areas for their swift handling of the bags as mine was ready and waiting for me in the expected place - not easy when there are loads being dumped there. Well done to whoever sorted the layout this year so that this time there wasn't a row of guests facing the ones at the end of the main signing area (as happened last year, causing horrendous interlocking queues). It was still very hot in there (particularly on Friday - dear lord, free sauna!), but movement was definitely easier. I think I did a record amount of chattage with both fellow attendees and crew members while waiting for my turn with guests at the auto tables this year. Very convivial. If I've missed anyone out, my apologies, but pretty much everyone with whom I interacted was a pleasure as always. This was the first time I did all three days (a late decision thanks to Nathalie Emmanuel's announcement) and I thoroughly recommend it - getting my DPs sorted on Friday (plus several autos) took a lot of stress out of Saturday and Sunday. Quite possibly my most relaxed LFCC, despite its size and the amazing calibre of guests this year. Speaking of which - nicely done, SM! I always buy my ticket before any guests are announced because I know there'll be people I want to see, and this was a corker. Rory McCann! David Duchovny! Iwan Rheon! Matt Smith! Peter Capaldi! CHRISTOPHER ECCLESTON! (And quite a few other lovely people.) Fantastic event.

Hear, hear! This was quite possibly my best event yet. The crew did a marvellous job, occasionally under very trying circumstances.

My Gold Pass let me through (for which I am very thankful as I was shattered by then), but at the end of the day I'd have thought it would be all right to let anyone out that way. Felt bad for those who had to go the long way round. Oh, well.

Oh, no. *prays it won't affect journey*

Oh, dear lord, please let it be someone I don't want. *trembles*

Oh, yes. That time when they were on different levels was a nightmare as the lifts between levels were so busy (and one level could only be accessed that way IIRC). So much better this way. And one can bypass the main guest signing room by going through the doors either side of the main stage in the West Hall and going via the balcony area directly to the National Hall if needs be.

Awwww, rats. Hope she feels better soon.

I'm so glad you wrote that because of course TfL was being snippy about that too and telling me I had to go to Shepherd's Bush via Southern and walk back to Olympia - if I break my journey into two halves, it quite happily lets me get to KO via Overground too. Grrrr! I think I've rewritten my travel schedules about four times each over the last few days!

Oh, thank goodness! (I was trying to arrive too early by the looks of it - might as well save myself the trouble.)

It's not going TO KO on Sunday in the morning. But in theory it should be OK to go FROM KO in the afternoon once the bike ride is over (roads are estimated to reopen at 14:45). I've done a test for 3pm and the line is running then.

OK, thanks, both, that ties in with what I've got. The Southern line appears to be going to Milton Keynes from Clapham Junction as usual on Sat, and KO is one of the stops, so in theory it should be OK for that day. If not, the next stop is Shepherd's Bush anyway so I can (I hope) jump off there. Sunday I'm going to be all over the place.

Oh, bother, really? TfL won't let me to go to Kensington Olympia on Friday (the Underground Map says that part of the District Line is closed except for weekends) or Sunday, but it will let me go on Saturday. I am so confused. Had better aim for Shepherd's Bush all three days then...

What with Kensington Olympia not being open on Friday and Sunday's part of Prudential Ride closing routes I'm getting rather stressed about travelling there every day. Saturday appears to be OK, thank goodness, but Sunday I'm going to have to go around the houses a bit to get to Olympia from Shepherd's Bush. Ugh.

Hoping the floor plan will be out on Monday with the revised schedule (unless it's already out somewhere and I've missed it?). I do find it useful for working out where the photoshoot areas are - I think I'm going to be visiting all of them at some point this weekend...!

Great that one can pick up DPs and Gold Passes at the same place; it'll be interesting to see how that pans out. This year I'm coming on Friday anyway to minimize stress on that score, so on Sat all I have to worry about is getting in early enough to nab good VQTs for those Diamond guests for whom I have no DP, but next year I may have to deal with GPs, DPs and VQTs all at once...