Gni's Great London Adventure - Part 5: Autographs and an Expo Miracle

[gnimaerd]

Okay, so, immediately after the panel there's the autograph section, but the way in which this was organised was MADE of fail - simply because, um, it wasn't organised, at all.

andthedescent and I got out of the main theatre and looked around and saw... no sign of where we were meant to go (andthedescent was coming with me in spite of not having an autograph ticket). We'd been waved vaguely in one direction by a guy at the exit of the main stage area but the area outside that stage was so crowded that it was just impossible to tell where we were meant to be going. We wondered, asked around, went back to the main stage area, asked there, got nowhere, and finally stumbled across another group of fans who were equally as lost.

We firgured, if we stuck with them, at least we'd all be lost together.

One of the Expo staff (who didn't REALLY know where she was going either) sort of shepherded us along in the general direction of where we were meant to be and eventually we kind of walked into a wall of other Merlin fans all clustered around a cordened off booth bit and figured we'd found the right place.

Then came the shambled that was attempting to get the semblence of a line to appear. What you have to understand is that we were slap bang in the middle of the main Expo area - there was nothing seperating us from the rest of the not inconsiderble crowds and a lot of people were getting stuck behind us, so it was really,  REALLY difficult to work out who the hell was actually queuing and who was just trying to get round us and who WAS queuing but trying to get round us so that they could line-jump. A bunch of Expo-staff tried to get us to sort of curl round one side of the booth and fold the line in half, but they weren't really talking to each other because there was a LOT of confusion as to which way we were all actually meant to be facing.

Next to me, there's this girl cosplaying as Malfoy and her friend, who isn't cosplaying, and the Malfoy cosplayer mutters sarcastically about how well organised this is. I agree with her and we all have a nice comforting complain to each other which leads in to me and

andthedescent discovering that these two girls also met through livejournal. They introduce themselves as phentalon (the Malfoy cosplayer) and Alex, whose LJ name I didn't catch - but they were both awsome to chat to whilst we waited. We all compared notes on the panel and our respective shag lists for the cast, as well as talking about what other cons we'd been to, our other fandoms and generally expressing fangirl solidarity. It was awesome. We discovered that they'd actually arrived too late to get autograph tickets but had made a sign saying 'will pay for Merlin autograph tickets' and wondered round with it until they'd managed to get hold of some. I thought that was really gutsy of them - I wouldn't have had the balls to pull off something like that, particularly because at things like collectorama they're REALLY strict about stuff like that and will take the tickets off you if they think you came by them by any means other than official sources.

Anyway, we're so busy chatting that we don't even NOTICE when the Merlin cast turn up at the little booth we're standing next to - I just happen to look round and realise they're all there getting organised and sitting down. Katie has a can of diet coke and I find watching her drink it to be pretty distracting. We're all facing the right way in the queue by now and it seems to have pretty much solidified, and then it gradually starts moving. We're about half way along it, and I don't really particularly mind the wait - now we've been to the panel I'm nowhere near as nervous as I was and I'm having fun nattering to phentalon and Alex.

Half way through the wait Katie ties her hair back and I think I actually audibly whimper. XP

We get all the way up one side of the line and come back down the other and one of the Expo staff warns me not to try to get my picture of the Merlin cast signed - something about contracts with the BBC means the cast can only sign what's been provided by the BBC for them to use - I'm not hugely bothered though it seems a bit odd.

Anyway, we're nearing the point where we actually get to the cast and andthedescent prepairs to regretfully step out of the line to wait for me. She's about to leave when what i can only descirbe as an Expo Miracle takes place:

A guy standing directly behind us looks at her and says "do you not have a ticket?"

andthedescent says no, and the guy asks if she'd like one - where upon he produces, like a dove out a magician's hat, a spare green ticket from his pocket. Complete with validated stamp.

I swear to god, I heard the hallelujah chorus - it was like something out of 'It's a Wonderful Life'. We all gape at this guy like he actually HAS grown a halo and a pair of wings, as 

andthedescent manages to thank him and take the ticket.

Thirty seconds later another member of staff is taking out tickets and waving us into the clear space in front of the cast's table.

phentalon goes first, then Alex, then it's my turn. I hover behind Alex until Bradley's finished signing for her, then he looks up at me and waves me over and says hello. Okay, I wrote the following down in my notebook in a Satrbucks a few hours later, so that I wouldn't have a chance to forget any of the details:

I tell Bradley my name, and then I tell him that it contains a silent S and a silent Y.

Bradley's face does this: 0.o

Then he goes:  *pause* Right, you're going to have to talk me through this.

I spell my name for him, mention what I'm named after, we both briefly lament that my mother didn't have the food sense to just name me 'Florence', and then I move on.

Next to him is Colin-looks-bizarly-different-in-real-life-than-he-does-on-screen-Morgan. Colin says hi and then I tell him my name before he can miss-pronounce it. I ask if he's tired, and he says a little, and I say I got a bus from  Edinburgh last night so I feel his pain. He makes a genuinely sympathetic face (bless him!) when I say that I'm running on about an hour of sleep, then I say that it wasn't all at once:

Me:  More like - twenty minutes, then ten, the twenty -
Colin:  (laughing)  Well, it's good to stretch it out a bit, you know?  More effecient that way.

I grin and say yeah, as Johnny Capps grabs my sheet, signs it and shunts it over to Angel.

Angel sees the way my name is spelled and makes this face:  =/

She pronounces it the way that most English people do (since my name is quite similar to another Scottish name with a silent S, most Scottish people ALSO pronounce it wrongly, but they get further than most of the rest of the world because they know not to pronounce the S). I apologetically correct her and say that it's fine because no one ever gets it right the first time.

Katie promptly chimes in next to her to say that, believe it or not, she has the same problem. (I die a little that she's sponteniously talking to me). Alex, who Katie is just finishing signing for, suggests that there are lots of different ways of spelling 'Katie', but Katie says it's more a problem with her last name. (I remember that she doesn't pronounce the 'th' sound in McGrath - which I suppose probably means that everybody either pronounces it wrong when they read it or spell it wrong when she pronounces it).

Katie then procedes to SLAY  ME by asking if she's going to be reading on the internet about Hugo the Teddy later. I promptly feel like jumping up and down because not only has she just struck up a conversation but she actually remembers who I am from the panel and seems to have a grasp on how internet fandom actually works. Also, I no longer have to ask her to repeat the name of her tiger - she's told me it herself.

I says 'afraid so' and mention that I run a small group dedicated to the women on the show so it's going to end up on there pretty quickly. I also mention someone on there had already guessed that he was a hot water bottle.

Katie says something about how they have lots of time on their hands on set to be naming things. I point out that her fans ALSO have a lot of time on their hands, which is why we have time to wonder about these things in the first place. And she properly laughs (I think I might be about to faint).

And then she says 'well, it was nice to meet you, my dear' (or it might have been 'sweetheart' - honestly, I now can't remember, which I'm kicking myself for) and shakes my hand, and I think I might ACTUALLY die.

Her hand is very cool and very pale and actually surprisingly small (that might just be because I have quite big hands - it comes from having a rugby player for a father).

I manage to quickly ask for a photo, and she and Angel pose, I thank them (my voice is probably about an octiver higher than it is normally by this point) and then flee before my knees give way.

andthedescent follows after me and grabs my arm. "You got a handshake!"

"I got a handshake!"  I repeat, weekly, and don't really manage to do much else but whimper for the next ten minutes or so, particularly as it dawns on me (as it hadn't before) that she'd remembered me, because I hadn't brought up the tiger incident, she had.

 
You can also see the back of Colin's head in the top left hand corner. XP Also, what I notice now in the picture but didn't at the time is that Katie is wearing her grandmother's gold watch chain again!  ^_^