Exactly seven days ago, I was sitting in the Main Hall in the Norbreck castle waiting for the numbers to be called for the Nick Brendon & Emma Caulfield photo session....

Good grief time is going by really quickly - must be getting old or something!

I haven't done much of a report on the convention yet have I? Probably something to do with the fact that my brain has been wired since last week so I'm finding it really difficult to process things properly. Anyway, before I forget it all completely I really should type something up shouldn't I? I'm sure if I forget anything obvious then Beck, AC and smileawhile will let me know.

Wednesday morning last week I started to hear the rumours that Nick had gone into rehab for treatment relating to alcohol dependency and while I was very very proud of him for recognising it was a problem and being proactive about it I was also being selfish and really worried it meant he wouldn't be coming to Fusion. I spent most of Wednesday hunting across the web for confirmation that he was going to be there. I didn't find it except for one little hint on the Starfury message boards saying that he was already in the UK

So I spend most of Wednesday really stressed about one thing or another and by Thursday I was actually already a nervous wreck and probably shouldn't have been driving for long distances... ah well!

We get booked into the hotel after a nice little diversion around Blackpool (I wasn't lost, I was slightly situationally misplaced granted, but that doesn't mean I was lost! *grin*) And I texted Beck to see if she was around yet - she, Dru, AC and John were still on the road and were going to head straight for the Norbreck to register for the convention so smileawhile and I headed on down to register and meet up with them. It was only at that point that I finally found out that Nick was definitley there and I gotta say I was pretty damn relieved!

I actually cannot remember what we did for the afternoon to be honest - the brain cells that hold those memories were probably killed off the next night... Oh yeah, we bought photo session tickets for the next day and went for chinese food - that much I do remember, as well as buying a spare set of chopsticks for Beck to use as crossbow bolts...

Friday, up nice and early (horribly so considering this was meant to be a holiday!) and we all headed over to the Norbreck and got straight into the queue for autographs with Nikolaus Brown and Clare Kramer - both of them were very sweet and peppy for it being so early in the day! Then we got into the main hall and managed to get really good seats - something like 3 or 4 rows back (somehow we managed to get seats in more or less the same place for the entire weekend which considering there were over 1800 attendees was no mean feat!) First on stage were Juliet Landau and Robert Patrick. I've been reading a lot of people saying that they were very impressed with how approachable Robert Patrick was but I gotta say I actually found him off-putting. I think someone said it was his first convention so maybe that's what it was. He didn't say anything offensive and he answered every question fully but there was just something that struck a mischord with me. Ah well.

James Leary was on stage later (Clem) and my God that man is funny! To my shame I can't remember who he was with at that point - I know he wasn't on his own but I cannot think who it was. I'm sure someone will hit me over the head and tell me who it was and I'll stand up saying "How could I forget that?!!" Anyway, brain not working properly right now and last Friday's a looooong time ago so...

The one thing that I do remember more than anything is the photo session for that day. And even then I wasn't really taking it all in. I got my photo done with Nick Brendon. Let me tell you, he's looking a whole lot better than he has done for a while. Really healthy and grinning from ear to ear the entire time. I didn't notice the nail polish to be honest, I was too busy concentrating on not saying anything really stupid! I have it on very good authority that he had one hand painted bright pink/red and the other was luminous orange. No, really. In the pic I have he has his arm over my shoulder and you can see the pink/red nails. See?


Not all the guests did a spot on the Friday and after we'd bought yet more photo session tickets for the Saturday we all headed back to the hotel to get ready for the opening ceremony/school disco. After a huge fight with my hair I gace up on the idea of putting it in bunches and just settled for the plaits to go with my uniform and soon Beck, Denise and I are walking along this respectable Blackpool suburb wearing school uniform. I still can't quite believe I did that! Anyways, the opening ceremony basically consisted of Clare Kramer introducing everyone and them all coming out and saying hi. It was the first time we got a chance to see most of them in the flesh and my God I hated Summer Glau and Jewel Staite at that point! So slim and tall and annoyingly cute! See?


Anyways, copious amounts of alcohol were consumed by us to the extent where I actually got up onto the dance floor and danced to Kylie. Believe me, I don't dance. I definitely don't dance to pop.

Next day, vastly hungover, we hit the main hall again and saw most of the morning sessions - Jewel and Summer were nervous but once they got into it they were very funny. Nathan Fillion and Elizabeth Anne Allen came on and they really sparked off each other. Nathan is a genuinly funny guy and it actually seemed that the most difficult thing would be to get him to shut up long enough for Elizabeth to answer anything!

And then Nick and Emma came on together. Nick was very nervous, he spent a whole lot of the time rocking in his seat and fidgeting a lot. Emma surprised me with how forthright she was - if that girl thinks something she says it and damn the consequences. She really doesn't like Fox and made no bones about telling everyone that. Nick was really quiet at that point which makes me think he's still under contract with them or maybe that one of the meetings he has this week are with them. They did a little bit from "I'll Never Tell" (twice, someone came in late and asked them to do it again - plus Emma couldn't remember all the words at first). Nick also did the Snoopy dance (again twice, damn these people who came in at the end of it and made him do it again - who am I kidding? It's funny!) I was a bit surprised that they didn't seem all that comfortable together. Obvioulsy Nick's going through a whole lot of highly personal stuff right now but I dunno, I just always had the impression that he and Emma were pretty good friends. From their one hour stint on stage together it seemed they hadn't really spoken much since last year. Or at least that's the impression I got.

Right, this entry is getting really long now so I'm going to finish it here and pick it up again later on.