Henchman

The five types are Bridges, Tercentenary, Famous Scots, World Heritage and RBS. The first two pairs are made by BOS and Clydesdale respectively, but they look totally different to each other so would complicate the issue for people not familiar with them. As for the forgery tests, older Scottish notes that are still in circulation (Bridges definitely, possible Famous Scots) would not necessarily pass current forgery tests, as I believe they are missing the metal thread and the UV fluorescent ink. This means that the go/no go type tester that you hold the note under and it test for the magnetic strip, fluorescent ink and dimensions would register these notes as forgeries. The pen type testers would work, but people can relatively easily make forgeries that pass this test anyway by using paper that doesn't contain starch. Also, you end up with that yellow smear across the note which I really hate, and have ended up getting stains on a shirt when I put a tested note in my chest pocket so I really hate them. Personally I am of the opinion that if we are a United Kingdom we should have one series of bank notes for the whole of the UK as to me the current system seems a bit fascicle. If they can be used in any place in the UK, why bother printing different ones locally? It isn't like Scotland is an OST so there is no logistical problem, hell they could just print the same notes locally if that is the issue. I can understand that Scottish/Northern Irish may object to the notes saying "England" but I guarantee that if this was changed to UK you still would want to keep your own notes. As a concession you can whack whatever random figure you want on the back, but I think the format and the front should be the same for any note in the UK, how about that? As for what would happen to Scottish currency after potential independence, the UK has already ruled out a currency union between an independent Scotland and the UK, and Alex Salmond has said that his plan in this case would be to unilaterally keep using the pound any way in a process call "sterlingistation" which would have massive negative financial implications for Scotland and Scottish companies. As for the Euro thing, Salmond has said that Scotland would stay in the EU after independence, but this is not true and several EU nations have said they would veto this, meaning that Scotland would have to reapply and hence would be forced to accept the Euro. This is not "Tory propaganda" these are facts, as opposed to Salmond's hopes and wishes.

The Scots have 5 current series of bank notes whereas England just has the one. For an Englishman living in the South of England it is pretty unlikely that they will have ever seen a Scottish note, let alone be familiar with all of the different variations that there are so I don't think it is surprising or unacceptable that they would be questioned at a London venue. From a practical standpoint in terms of an event, staff will not have handled Scottish bank notes with enough regularity to be able to spot an obvious forgery (forgery testing machines would be impractical at an event like this as they would slow everything down and you would need a large number of them, along with the fact that some Scottish notes currently in circulation would not pass standard automated forgery tests) so I do not think it is unfair that they would take a bit longer to question and scrutinise them. If Scots are so steadfastly of the opinion that they are separate and should have their own notes, then following that logic along you must then think that England should have its own notes, and surely then if you want to spend money there you should expect to use English notes, right? If you see them as different countries that require different currency, then you should get out local money just like you would if travelling to another country like France. Granted I am biassed on this issue as when I have travelled to Scotland I have had no problem using English notes whatsoever. I imagine this is due to the fact that there are vastly more Bank of England in circulation than any of the Scottish bank ones, and also Scotland has cross pollination of notes from England as opposed to the other way round where only people in the North of England may have come into frequent contact with them. Lastly, just pointing out that all of this talk about "English" notes is not really correct, as although they are issued by the Bank of England this is the central bank for the UK. These "Bank of England" notes should really be seen as the official "UK" notes with the NI and Scottish ones being just regional variants that are additionally issued in specific areas. Who knows though, maybe by next year it will be irrelevant and the Scottish visitors will have to trade in some of their boring, continent standardised Euros for some good old great British Pound Sterling notes .

I can't remember what day this was, but did anybody see that big argument with a photographer next to his table? Not sure what was actually going on but there was a photographer ranting and raving at a couple of people right next to him, and Michael had stopped halfway through signing an auto and was just staring at this guy looking really pissed off, and immediately after he still looked annoyed about it. I'm not sure if it was that the photographer was told he couldn't take photos and was pissed off about that, or whether it was that someone simply walked across his shot pretty easy to do by accident when somebody is trying to take a photo in the middle of the main walkway) but either way he was massively over reacting. Even if this event was unrelated I imagine being on the end like this can add an extra level of stress for the guest, as not only is it noisier and less private, but you are constantly getting camera flashes out of the corner of your eye as people can take a photo from only about 6 foot away.

I can understand that some people may be annoyed by this on an initial emotional level as they had to pay for it and somebody else has gotten it for free, but in reality what do you expect them to do? They obviously had a surplus of programs, so would you rather they just threw them in a skip? It costs SM time/effort/money to dispose of them, if they just hand them out for free then they are getting rid of them in such a way that at least some people are benefiting from it. There are things that I am annoyed about in the program (mainly the raffle but could also have done with some more relevant info like maps, schedules, price lists and the like but I can see the POV for wanting to keep it vague), but they fact that they were giving them away for free at the end of the Sunday when I had previously paid for one is not one of them. If somebody had already bought a programme it did them absolutely no harm (as for better or worse the raffle was apparently over at this point) for spare programmes to be given out to others, so I do not really understand why people seemed to have such a big problem with this. I think this is quite a standard thing anyway, I have been to previous event of all types where they have done exactly the same thing.

There was also the couple that got engaged during the Cosplay Masquerade on the Saturday. I have forgotten, but can anybody else remember who they were dressed as? I was at the Kevin Smith Hollywood Babble-On show in London where somebody got engaged as well, which made this the 2nd event in as many weeks that I have gone to where this has happened.

I hadn't heard this part before but if that is true (not implying that you are wrong, but what you were told may have been wrong), then that is particularly galling, as immediately after the prize draw was the Stan Lee talk which I (along with a pretty sizeable proportion of the rest of the attendees as well I would guess) attended, and then immediately after this finished i headed back to EC2 to find that the numbers were not there any more. Not sure exactly what time this was, but according to my phone I got a final autograph (Stephanie Leonidas, very lovely) at 17:11, and this would have been shortly after I had passed the table to find the numbers had been taken away. Also, as it seemed that they were giving away all of the prizes in the prize draw talk, I don't know what you could have gotten anyway if you arrived there from 15:30 onwards (or whenever the draw was). The thing that probably annoyed me most about the draw was the fact that the hat they were trying to draw the winners for the big prizes from only had a couple of dozen pieces of paper in (which I think most if not all that were drawn were actually under 100, or at least under 1000) so it kind of gave the impression that it was rigged, or at best totally botched.

Well, a previous one that I posted this same information on got locked so it seems likely. The main defence that people are having for this raffle is that it was a free prize draw that came with the programme. The problem is though, this was not legally the case as this would only be true if there was no price difference between a programme with or without the raffle ticket, and if it was possible to enter without actually buying a programme (if you have ever read the terms and conditions of a free prize give away you will quite often see them say something like "no purchase necessary" and this is what this is referring to as you can also enter the competition by phoning a number or sending away a letter). It would also help SM if they hadn't actively been describing this as a "raffle", which is a legally defined term for something that cannot be run for private profit and must be licensed and regulated. A simpler more legally airtight system would be (if SM ever wanted to do it in the future) to turn it into a competition whereby there was a quiz or something in the programme which was completed and turned in, which then in turn the correct answers were drawn from a hat. These are entirely unregulated, with the difference being that a raffle like was included in the programme is rather transparently a form of gambling with no skill or knowledge involved whatsoever. On a more general point about the raffle, what sort of range were peoples numbers and when did they buy their programme? Mine was from late on Friday night and was in the early 4000s, and the only reason I ask about this is that the vast majority of the numbers listed on sheets were below the 4000 mark, and some of the programmes for sale on the desk were well below this number as well. It seemed to me that for whatever reason I had been given a programme out of a later batch, and as the SM volunteers on the desk were just making up the numbers based on what they though was appropriate rather than what had actually been handed out, this meant that I had a much diminished chance of getting anything. In fact, I am probably wrong but I think the highest number I saw was something like 4227, which was lower than my number and I know that there must have been a hell of a lot of programmes sold on the Saturday/Sunday that should logically have had a higher number than mine. I believe that most of the prizes were given out, but certainly not to the correct ticket holders. There were supposedly 1000s of prizes and there were probably only a few hundred numbers on the sheets. Of these, probably only a few dozen (if that) had actually been crossed out so these are the only people that legitimately "won" anything from the raffle. The rest of the prizes were just given out randomly at that disastrous event in the evening. The big ticket prizes of the gold passes for LFCCW and the Stan Lee photo shoots were given out based on random questions to the audience, coupled with you being near the from and the person in charge liking the look of you and picking you of course. Was anyone else at this event? If so can you remember if the Gold Passes were actually given away, as from what I remember they tried to draw for them out of a hat, gave up, tried to draw photo shoots out of the hat, and then gave up on those and did them based on questions. I do not remember them ever going back to the Gold Passes, so were they never actually given out, or did I miss it?

I think it is true that this is one of the reasons that you tend to get more colds with events like this. There are over 200 different cold viruses, and the way it works is that once you have caught one you develop an immunity to it. If you travel to different areas you are more likely to come in contact with a virus you do not have an immunity to, and hence will suffer symptoms from it. With cons like this not only do you have a lot of people in a confined space increaseing normal transmission rates, but you also have people coming from different areas (even different countries) bringing in different cold viruses, and it is even worse if you are travelling there as the local cold viruses have a higher chance of being ones you have no immunity to.

There are still a couple of things that I think could do with some additional information. Firstly, as others have said, what happened with the raffle? Was it meant to work this way? If not, what went wrong? Were all of the "1000s" of prizes handed out? Will the winning numbers ever be published to claim prizes or is it totally over? Was it actually legal (I do not expect you to post an answer to this if not which I believe is the case, but I really think it is something that needs to be looked into if you intend on doing this again). Secondly, there may have already been discussion about this and if so I apologise but I haven't seen it, but what was going on with the comic stage in EC2? I dont think I ever saw a talk actually ocuring in there throughout the whole weekend, just people sitting down resting. It might have just been my timing, but the only comic talk which I intended on going to was the Gail Simone one, and part way through the Sunday she put a sign up on her table saying that the talk had been moved "to the left of this sign". What this meant was that it was just a table in the corner outside the green room that about a dozen people just huddled around. It turned out this was actually a blessing in disguise though, as the fact that there were not many people there and it was so intimate meant that whe actually showed us pages on her ipad from unanounced stuff she is working on, and we were the first people to be told about a few things. What was the reasoning for the comic talks being moved, was there a problem with the stage or did people just see it as a hastle to move from one hall to the other and not bother?

I am a non smoker and have never even touched an e-cig, and I didn't have a problem with people smoking them there. I think this was the first time I had even been near them, and I didn't notice any particular unpleasant smell over and above the general mass of people smell. E-cigs don't give off any of the toxic chemicals that are produced by burning a real cigarette, the only thing they release in common is nicotine which is in far lower concentrations than from a real cigarette, and the nicotine is not the most dangerous par about second hand smoke anyway. I think the more unknown factor with these is whatever the chemical is that is used to produce the vapour is (I forget its name). However, this is the same chemical that is used in smoke machines which have been around for years and haven't been banned and cause no ill effect even in a room that is saturated with it to the point where you can't see your hand in front of your face. Particularly in a space as large as a conventional hall I do not think the would ever causing a legitimate health problem. I think more of the problem with e-cigs is that people do not like them from an emotional standpoint as it is still viewed as smoking and people just don't like it. Regardless, I imagine that the vast majority of people who attended the event inhaled far larger amounts of toxic chemicals on their journey there than from the e-cigs in the hall so it pales into insignificance from a health standpoint.

I have a theory as to why you may have observed so many men who weren't washing their hands. The way the toilets are layed out in EC2 is that in one half there is all the urinals, and in the other is the stalls and the sinks. Quite often you would have people queueing for the stalls which meant it was sometimes hard to get to the sinks so I imagine some people decided they just couldn't be bothered with the hastle. I remember the first time I went in there when I arrived on the Saturday morning, after squezing my way in and using the urinal, it took me a minute to actually find the sinks, and then another minute to get to one. Also, just by the way as people have been talking about the temperature being mainly to blame for the smell, heat induced sweating does not really produce body odour. The kind of sweat that reacts with bacteria is produced by glands sensitive to adrenaline, so it is "stress sweating" that makes the odour worse.

Got her autograph on the Sunday, she was very friendly with a big smile on her face. I was surprised to be able to get it though, as I saw the time and realised the GOT panel which she was supposed to be at had just started but went up to the queue anyway to see what number they were up to and whether there was a "will be back at ..." message, but then when I got there she was still there signing. When I looked at my ticket though I was 575 and the sign was 550, but as I was checking the guy there asked what number I was and when I said he told me to just join the queue anyway, as there were only abut 5 people ahead of me anyway. I don't know why she wasn't at the GOT panel (whether the advertising was wrong or whether she should have been there but wasn't for whatever reason) but it wasn't because she was busy signing as after i got my auto there were less than 10 people in the queue (maybe people who wanted her auto were at the panel hoping to see her there). Whoever the guy who was with her was a bit much though (I think he was with her and not SM as he was American wearing normal clothes and there was a blue shirt SM person there as well). When I was getting my auto somebody in the queue space to my right (which I think was empty at the time) was taking a photo, which caused this guy to start waving his hands in the air shouting "NO, NO, NO, you aren't aloud to take photos, get rid of her now!" After a SM person who was standing in front of the table ushered her away this guy started shouting at the SM guy saying "Why didn't you stop her?! Just tell them to f**k off! You have one f**king job to do, just do it!" Lena looked briefly mortified at this point, but I just started laughing at this point as due to my weird sense of humour I found the way this little guy with a really camp American accent shouted and raved about it really funny, and this broke the tension and Lena started laughing as well and it was all fine. I really have no problem with swearing, but there were quite a lot of kids around that day as well as adults who might no appreciate that kind of language so I though he was a bit out of order really. To reiterate though, Lena herself was absolutely lovely.

I don't think you can reasonably expect Showmasters to do this. As the counter argument, if it was going to be so hot then people should have bought their own water and sun cream. It would have been a massive expense and logistical problem to have people carting thousands of bottles of water and sun tan lotion up and down that queue, and also a big drain on their already stretched personnel numbers. It is like when it is hot on the London underground they do not go around handing out free water, they tell you to bring your own water.

I had an issue with this too, I went into EC2 first and got stamped on exit, but it wan;t very good and had rubbed off by thre time I wanted to leave EC1. I tried to leave by the stairs first only to find that there was nobody at this exit, so I had to go back up to the main floor, and then back down in the lift (I could see no other way of getting back to the lobby as the escalator only went up) only to find that they guy on the exit door didn't have a stamp so I had to go to the entrance door and get restamped there. It seemed that they were only stamping people on the way in to EC1, but they didn't seem to be doing this earlier on in the day. On the Sunday it was better, as the guy at the exit of the mian lobby had a stamp, but this was still not actually the exit that the majority of people used as to come out this way you had to use the lift, if you went down either of the stair cases then they would take you out through un-policed fire exits.

I was dreading what the Stan Lee talk was going to be like in terms of sond, and when the compare started talking I thought my fears were reaslised. However, when Stan was actually talking I could hear every word he was saying, obviously the way he was holding the mike or the qualities of his voice just worked out better in that enviroment. It may have also been the fact that I was prety much smack bang in the middle, as before when I was in the super stage I was at the edges near speakers, which was almost deafening at times.

It does depend on what line you are using on the underground though and what station you are coming from, as there are some stations where there are only stairs or escalators which might br troublesome getting you trolley up/down. You might want to look at the underground map to see if the station has disabled access, as this means it has lifts (elevators). Earl's Court does, but depends on where you are coming from.

Thanks for the replies, that is what I had assumed.

I have just received my tickets and unfortunately two of them in the pile are wrong. Rather than receiving a pair of tickets for the BSG talk I have been sent a pair for the saturday GOT talk. Does anyone know if emailing them now would do anything to solve this, or would they simply say bring the tickets and the invoice to the ticket counter on the day and they will sort it out then?