Comic-con – summary so far.
Travel there – At 4am driving my car down quiet country roads I got swarmed by a herd of rabbits, (Not sure what the correct word for a group of rabbits is – maybe Dave West can answer that?) 🙂 I couldn’t stop in time and felt at least one of the cute fluffy bunnies crunch and pop under my front wheel – yuk – makes me cringe thinking about it.
My engine warning light came on shortly after that so I was worried about actually making it to the airport but all was well in the end. Flights were cramped and long. Had to change planes at Denver due to a technical problem which delayed the flight for a couple of hours, better late than dead I suppose.
At San Diego I shared a minibus/cab with a few others and the crazy driver didn’t seem to know what he was doing – word of advice if you’re ever in the queue for a taxi at SD airport and somebody offers you a “shuttle” instead don’t take it unless you want to be led on a wild goose chase and arrive at your destination slower than you could have walked it. I needed my bed – hotel is cheap and adequate but that’s all I need – oh and free wireless internet of course that allows me to do this at 4am.
Okay whinge over:D – First day of the Con was good. Collecting my pass went smoothly and I was allowed to pick up My Friday & Saturday passes at the same time – saves me queueing again apart from Sunday. I didn’t find it as overwhelming as last year (My first visit). I wandered around first to take it all in – there is a lot to see and do. Most stands looked the same as last year though I haven’t seen everything yet – still 3 days to go.
I met up with Chris Reilly who was signing for SLG and we hung out for a while. We’re collaborating on a book entitled Grand Theft Robot so it’s good to discuss this in person rather than emails for a change. I bought some books and my bag got a bit heavy, my shoulder is a bit red raw from carrying the Man Bag all day – Neil any recommendations so solve the bag problem? 🙂
I spotted Jane Goldman in front of me in the food queue, she’s quite easy to spot with her pink hair, then I realised she was with hubby Jonathan Ross. Jonathan is not recognised in the US as much as in England so I think he was a bit surprised to hear a call of “Alright Rossy” in an English accent behind him. He politely acknowledged me though before leaving with his order of pizzas.
In the evening I met up with a few of Chris’s friends for a Mexican. Big burrito I had, followed by the strangest party I have ever been to. First of all it was the first free party with free drinks I’ve ever been to that cost $10 dollars to enter & $6 dollars a bottle – bad advertising there guys. The party was outdoors on a large balcony of the Westgate hotel (Quite posh). There was loud music and video being projected onto an adjacent building showing a lot of monkeys amongst other things. We were surrounded by tall buildings and planes were flying in the near distance as they landed at the airport. On a small podium girls with zombie make up and skimpy outfits took it in turns to pose while several people stood around and sketched them. I have pictures. I’ll upload them when I get a chance.
That’s all for now!