h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

The h2g2 London Mini-meetup 2013: A87795382

Had an AMAZING day yesterday in London with Laddy Pennywhistle and SashaQ from h2g2. (MMF alas couldn't make it!)


Rolled up the the last stop on the tube with the entire cast of Borderland's 2, I knew this was going to be a day to remember.
I had agreed to meet Lady Pennywhistle by the Tardis outside Earl's Court, after introductions and a brief moment of excitement of helping an elderly man who took a fall outside, we left him in the care of a nurse and trooped over to check out the Comic con.

Assailed by Storm Troopers and Dark Knight Jokers (custom clothing nothing in his pockets but knives and lint) , I felt seriously under-dressed for the occasion. However I had come armed with my camera (see below) and the event was a good opportunity for taking photos. Queue to get in was long but fast-moving, even so I did get a little bit baked in the noon-day sun, (note to self: buy a hat)

Inside the convention we passed by Ecto 1 complete with a quartet of Ghostbusters - and passing by some Borg and princess Leia giving a young 10th Doctor lessons on how to use a sonic screwdriver and some orange juice - we set off into the crowd.

I'm not sure what to expect from such things, what there was was lots of stalls plying various wares self-published comics, trinkets, signed photos of whomever. There were long queues to see celebrities. Avoided those, and stuck to taking photos of Predator chatting amiably with a Scientist from Portal (and gun).

Sasha was late coming (MMF couldn't make it after all) was surprised when we learnt Sasha had come all the way with Pam from Liverpool!
We had a good nosey round some of the stalls then stopped for some lunch, opposite a new quque had formed snaking it's way into another signing event. Saw a Khan Era Star-Trek formal wear queuing behind a Middle-aged-spread Hawkeye.

Had to say goodbye early to Sasha and Pam who had to leave early to make it back home. It was great to meet them both. And I'm gald they had a good time!

Myself and Lady P stayed around for the Cosplay parade which was a bit amateurishly organised, we nipped round the back to see the lines of hopeful performers, After realising there was no third doctor amongst the video-game trifecta of Starfox, Assassin's Creed and Mortal Kombat characters, we bid our retreat.

I had plans to visit St Dunstan's in the East (a ruined church built by Wren bombed and destroyed in a fire, since converted into a peace garden) to look for better angles to take photos from when I'm back again in a fortnight.

We agreed it would be a good idea to go in search of food, thanks to the internet we found out there was a Chinese restaurant just around the corner.


Disappointingly, the Fengshui Chinese restaurant did not tell us how to arrange our meals so as to increase prosperity and well being.
So instead we arranged the food into our stomachs, handed them £20 for the priviledge and increased their prosperity and our well-being for cosuming such a nice food (Lady P had shrimp, I had crispy beef with mango - YUM! )

At Lady P's suggestion, we then hopped on the tube and headed over to the Mall to The Royal Society and their Summer of Science exhibition.

This was brilliant!!

Wile Lady P set about trying to exterminate The World's population by evolving her own deadly virus in a web app. I nipped about the stalls from various university departments in a public engagement mode, and learnt all about programmes to use tidal energy to generate electricity, 3D organ printing (got into a discussion about how to integrate nerves into tissues) - had a wonderful time chatting to the folks over on the stand whose research project was decoding the colouration of fossilised beetles. (insects use refraction to generate colour and fossiled beetles still retain this abaility, however the process of fossilisation changes the shape of the surface layers, altering the colour by shifting it towards the short-wavelengths of light. Also got chatting about how feathers evolved. Also I chatted for a while with the folks who were promoting the European Space Agency missions to the ice moons of Jupiter.

It was somewhat sobering to realise that the projected arrival date of 2031 means I shall be 50 years old by the time they get there.

Anyway, I had a fabulous time yesterday, so thanks to Lady P for organising it.


I got back to my flat a little after 11pm utterly exhausted but very happy.


And now the bit you've been waiting for - photos:


http://flic.kr/s/aHsjGF51oS


Clive.

Great write-up!

Glad you enjoyed the rest of your day. Mine was a bit whistlestop, but even though I thought I'd missed you, it all worked out (thank goodness for technology )

I didn't find the Earls Court Tardis and was much later than noon in actually arriving anyway, what with train delays and traffic, then inside Earls Court I got shunted off to the left in the midst of the very crowded crowd but eventually managed to squeeze through to the right hand side of the room and made the rendezvous!

Great photos, too! (Although it was a bit sneaky to take one of Wolverine's elbow unawares, it was a rather good candid shot ).

Happy you liked it Sasha!

Yeah good job we had a signal in the convention hall.

I also came out the 'other' side of Earl's court and had to loop back around to find the TARDIS. Me and Penny waited for about 20 minutes and checked on line to see if anyone had posted to the threads, but after that we figured we should move on. So it was good when you texted me to say you were there and it was great to meet you and Pam.

I realised I had that photo of you when I came to process the image of Wolverine, and I had to 'fuzzify' the background with you in it to make him stand out - so I just went back and undid that then cropped it to make you the subject.

I liked that photo - just because it caught you smiling (at what I've no idea) but clearly you were happy about something.

It is a good photo of me - candid shots are often easier than posing, and I was rather happy! The Wolverine was excellent and I was probably smiling at the fact that it was quite surreal to see characters from Star Wars taking photos of characters from X-Men and so on - fascinating!

I wasn't sure what to expect from the Comic Con either - it was difficult at times being so crowded, and I didn't fancy standing in any long queues, but I did enjoy browsing the stalls, and seeing the Cosplayers - fantastic variety of costumes they created!

Not the sort of thing I'd normally do, but definitely worth it

Sorry for taking a while to reply - I've been having pretty busy days, trying to check out lots of London stuff. Walking so much, these last few days!
But it's fun.

Anyway, just wanted to say once again that it's been a really excellent time. Loved meeting both of you (plus Pam!) and only wish I could've met more. But hey, maybe you can come to Jerusalem one day.

Hey Yael - well that might be fun!

If you ever make it to Cambridge, UK, I'll take the sofa.

I'm fine with sleeping on sofas, but appreciate the offer. I do hope to see some more of the UK, someday...

Oh, also meant to say that I'm back home, and that. I suppose that might be obvious.

Its a sofa bed about 1/100 the thickness of my real mattress but passable.

Well, if I ever make it to Cambridge, we shall figure it out...

Also, before I forget again, here's that song I told you about - Just Glue Some Gears On It And Call It Steampunk:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFCuE5rHbPA

Glad you had a good week (and glad to see you met MMF too although it was a shame he couldn't be at the mini-meet). Now I've participated in my first meet and all went well, I'm likely to try another one in future, though

Thanks again for arranging a great day out