moonlettuce | The wombats are attacking!

I went to Memorabilia yesterday, mainly to see Eliza Dushku. Which meant getting up at stupid o'clock, so I could be on a train that would get me to Birmingham at a respectable time. I get to Central Station, expecting to find it empty, only to find it packed with rugby fans who are heading down to Twickenham to watch the Falcons play Sale Sharks in the final of the English Cup. (We won, btw.)

The nice thing was, my train stopped off an Birmingham International, so I didn't have to change at New Street.

So, the day went like this:

The train is kinda quiet, which isn't surprising considering it's not 7am yet. Play 'spot the fen' on the way down. I'm thinking the woman who gets on with a Spike t-shirt, a 'Jackson' flak jacket and bat'leth badge is a gimme.

Discover we aren't the geekiest people on the train, when the bloke across the aisle pulls out a list of train numbers and studies them intently. We have been geek!gazumped by the train spotters.

The walk from Birmingham Internation to the NEC was massive. When they said it was connected by an internal walkway, I didn't expected that it would take 17 years (okay, slight exaggeration) to get there!

I got to the hall about 10:30, and decided just to cave and pay the extra £5 to get early entry. It's a good job I did. Eliza was doing her signings by ticket number to avoid queues. I went and got a ticket and looked in dismay to find my number was 572. Sigh.

Walked around and found the table where Patricia Quinn was signing. Meeped, and then got a gorgeous black and white still from Rocky signed.

Noticed that Danny John Jules was there even though he wasn't on the guest list. At least he hadn't been on it when I last looked. Grabbed his auto, because it's a mission in life to get the entire cast of Red Dwarf for a friend of mine.

Craig Parker is so damn adorable! I was busy trying to work out if I could fit him in my bag and smuggle him out while we talked about Shortland Street. He looked at my shirt and commented "Hey, cool shirt!", which means he's propbably a Superman fan, since it was the 'Property of Smallville High' one I was wearing. Then he asked me where I'd come from. I said 'Newcastle', and he asked if that was local. It's quite difficult to explain Newcastle geography to someone not from here, so I went, "Well, we're kinda just down from Scotland." His eyes widened, and he grabbed my hand. "You came that far!" At this point I'm thinking that if I put my phone, book and purse in my pockets, and squish him into a really small ball, he'd so fit in the backpack. We then spent a few minutes talking about how New Zealand had about 5 actors and they're all in Lord of the Rings, Xena/Hercules and Shortland Street. He also seemed amused that we get SS over here, and that people watch it.

I so want a life-sized Yoda.

Got a Robert Llewellyn signed photo for Mark. Discover Criag Charles can't make it there until the Sunday. Am denied in my completion of the Red Dwarf cast.

Get quite amused at the people there for the sports stars, who are giving the guy dressed as a Klingon and wheeling a pushchair a funny look.

Met up with leyenn and we wandered around, looking at the stalls and deciding we're coming back tomorrow if one of us wins the lottery on Saturday night. (I didn't, which means the life-sized Yoda is still not mine. *pout*)

There's an announcement saying that Eliza has gone for lunch and will resume signing at 1:30pm. The hall closes at 5pm. She's up to number 125. It's not looking good.

I got a signed Marc Wolfe Wolverine print. In fact, I got this signed Marc Wolfe Wolverine print *grin*

Saw katemonkey, whose funky silver sparkly nails are very much of the impressive.

Didn't buy season 2 of OZ, now matter how much it pouted prettily at me.

Eliza comes back from lunch and announcements of numbers seem to be speeding up. Still not holding out hope, though.

Wander around stalls wishing I had more money.

Found a stall that had Viggo Mortensen's album for sale, so I bought it.

Hmm... Eliza announcements getting even quicker. There is hope at the end of the shrimp.

For those of you who did Connotations last year and recall a certain conversation about Bobble-Heads and Woobies. Well, let's just say the con this year is having mascots...

Success! Announcement for Eliza goes up to ticket 575. Slide into queue and get signed photos for myself and temaris. Up close, she is amazingly pretty and has lovely eyes. Start to wonder if I can fit Eliza in my bag next to Craig.

leyenn and I wander back to Birmingham International and catch a train to New Street. After buying cookies, we head down to platforms to await trains going in opposite directions.

Get on train, collapse into seat, manage not to kill the three lads signing football chants and banging on their table all the way from Birmingham to Darlington. Get home, collapse, feet dead. So knackered, but so very, very worth it.