Don't cry because its over, smile because it happened.

Tick Tock

Fri, 31 Aug 2007 17:29:51 GMT

AmeCon

Fri, 17 Aug 2007 15:50:26 GMT

AmeCon '07.

It was okay, the timetable layout was better last year I felt though it more or less had all the same things again this year. Travelled down on thursday after work, following Dan down the A5. Dan spent most of his time speeding and went around a roundabout twice with us right behind him - apparently he only did it to see where we were and we were right behind him! So I went round it twice also. The walkietalkies weren't much help either in contacting eachother. Then he stopped at Asda and so did we, but we left him there and got to the hotel first which was helped by that we had directions on how to get there whereas he didn't know where to go from there.

Wandered in and out of things like the dealers room and the ball and the games room and fell asleep watching one of the things in the video rooms. Bought stuff, watched the omakes and the masquerade, took photos and listened to Monica Rial talk about the english dub of Tsubasa. The hotel was interesting too - met Phil, who had a bad hotel and so ended up spending two of the nights at our hotel. He was locked out of the hotel and spent some time trying to move the catch so he could get back in. Helen unlocked bathroom doors with a spoon. When asked about national anthem more or less everyone attempted to sing it. Badly. With just the tune and the occasional word thrown in there. Sounded like a room full of drunks. There was a "muffin incident" where is was used as a baseball and then a football before it exploded. And, of course, a "banana sandwich" phonecall. And the transformer bed.

So now AmeCon's over - cosplayed Ririn and Sakura, didn't bother with Yoruichi in the end. Next year Ame is on again and I need to pick cosplays for it and get started on them. So far I have Juliet planned from Romeo x Juliet as her Red Whirlwind costume. Maybe an Ouran High cosplay - whether it's one of the Ouran guys or a Lobelia girl or just a general Ouran High School girl with the long yellow dress. Maybe one or two more - one of them formal for the ball.

Missing Andrew/Link already. <3

Barmouth and a bunch of other things!

Sun, 20 May 2007 22:12:38 GMT

So. I've gone and uploaded a whole bunch of photos - one was overdue to be uploaded, been meaning to do so for almost two weeks now. There was another one to go with that Wrekin photo also, but I didn't bother uploading it to dA. It's on Flickr if people want to see it anyway.

Barmouth. As it was Yin's birthday on Wednesday just gone we decided to drag him out for the day and we ended up in Wales at one of the nearest beaches to us - about 1hr 30mins-ish drive away, all depending on weather and traffic. It was easy enough getting there, however it decided to absolutely chuck it down with rain several times so that it was difficult to see out the window. But each time that happened, it lasted for about a minute and then cleared up again. Only for it to happen say.. 10 minutes later. The car struggled to get up one of the hills a bit, but that was partly due to a slow driver with a more powerful car than mine right infront of me. Even with that and Yin pulling on my hair and Rachel attacking him to tell him not to assault the driver we managed to get there all fine.

Once we arrived we headed straight for the beach to play around in the sand and sea while the tide was in but slowly on it's way out, taking a bunch of photos while we were at it and trying not to get too wet when the waves approached us. Afterwards, we wandered off to explore the sand dunes nearby before heading back to the car to sort out sandy feet. Though that job was made difficult/awkward as Yin snuck into the passenger seat while most of us were sat in the car or leaning on it and relying on it staying still - he lifed the handbreak and made it slide forwards, eventually being in the parking space in front!

We didn't bother with the few rides that made up the small fair and went to get something to eat, where a drink of sprite fell over and then set about the task of trying to get all of us in some way. Rachel's bag, despite being on the other side of the floor to where it got spilled, managed to get a little wet. Once we ran away from Barmouth's Milk Bar we took a wander up one of the streets to take more photos and ended up going back to the beach via a pathway into some trees and a stream, then through some houses and finally to the beach front.

Dan made friends with a broken scooter that was missing it's back wheel and lost it somewhere along the way as we walked along the beach with the tide now out, taking lots more photos. After jumping over little sand islands and slipping over rocks and getting out shoes and jeans wet once again we eventually headed back for the car and off home where we had a "party". It wasn't much of a party but more of a gathering of people with food and a DVD to watch, with a few others joining us while we were there.

In all, it was fun, though I think the better part of the day, for me, was while we were at the beach.

Photos to be found on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/fishyfi/

In other news, Link needs his net/computer back so I can pester him into sorting out when he's coming over. <3

And no, Yin, it's not your house or your garage.

~

Above copied and pasted from dA, of course. Don't think we've got any more trips out anywhere planned. Monday 7th we went up the Wrekin. A week tomorrow we'll (hopefully) be visiting Dan's nan to see about boot covers for costumes. And that's about it as far as doing something at the weekend goes other than going to someones house. Although last weekend we did end up having a water balloon fight, which was certainly interesting and fun. Me and Rachel wandered off to Dan's after being unable to get around to the back of my house to the outdoor tap. His mum then allowed us to fill up two bags worth of balloons and take a milk-thing full of water - she drove us back there too!

Anyway.

AmeCon soon!

Friday - Sakura - complete.
Saturday - Yoruichi - just needs the wig adjusting, otherwise complete.
Sunday - Ririn - need a wig, boot covers and the cape-thing.
Sunday Ball - Gothic Lolita (maybe) - complete.

Hotel room is paid for. AmeCon fee is paid for. It's just the costumes that need sorting out now, then I'm all sorted. Want to try and get them done before Ame this time, rather than rushing to get those last bits and pieces.

Next weekend on the Sunday I'm off to see my half brother, Kristian. Apparently I'm going to be left with my nephew, James, who's going through the terrible twos.

Telford

Sun, 18 Feb 2007 02:44:13 GMT

Telford is a scarring place. All I wanted to do was leave the multi-story carpark. But noooo, couldn't be that simple. Damn you car with flashing hazard lights!

Anyway.

Only another 6 days until the Midlands Expo in Telford! It'll be interesting, that's for sure. I wonder how many chavs will be attracted to those in costume.

80mph winds.

Thu, 18 Jan 2007 16:52:22 GMT

I so drove on the wrong side of the road last saturday. It was in the Park and Ride carpark though, so it wasn't too bad. I did get a few weird looks from people making their way to their cars.

"You're on the wrong side of the road, Fi."
"Am I?"

Our deadline for finishing college has been moved from 9th Feb to 2nd March. Not sure which I'd rather do on my birthday - go to work or college!

Today when I switched on the radio it was going on about a man, later named as the directing manager of Birmingham airport, was killed at 6am by a branch going through his car window. It then went on about 80mph winds happening throughout the day. These winds knocked down a tree right outside college, then one down the road to the left and another off to the right which meant we were trapped at college! Or I was anyway, because I'm the only one who drives in out of the class. Shortly after they get rid of the tree that had fallen down infront of the college another one takes it's place. There was a rather bendy tree right outside the room we were in and so we were sent home early. Health and safety.

On my short drive from college to Tesco (because I went to fill the car up before going up, it was almost on the red!) I saw four or five trees on the side of the road that had fallen over. Then after I was finished at Tesco I attempted to go home down the new by-pass (because roads are closed due to road works around that area), only to find the traffic lights were out at the Park and Ride, which made that into a really horrible junction. Just as well it was only 2pm and not 5pm, otherwise it would have been ten times worse. Then, though, once I had reached the roundabout at the Two Henrys to join the by-pass I saw people were being redirected. Why? Flood.

I got home to notice we were missing a piece of fence in the back garden too. This has to be about the only time I've ever been glad we got rid of the cherry tree from the front garden.

We'll see what tomorrow's like. Traffic has been bad in general for everyone getting there because of road works and floods, now winds? Maybe they'll let us go home early again.

Saturday I'm off to see my nephew, James, in Kidderminster with my dad. If it's this windy I think I'll get him to drive instead of me!

Count Down

Tue, 28 Nov 2006 19:13:55 GMT

Leaving Machester at 11.25am, saturday 23rd.
Arriving in New York at 2:25pm.
Leave New York at 5:10pm.
Arrive in Virginia at 6:36pm.

Leave Virginia at 2:45pm, monday 1st.
Arrive in New York at 4:14pm.
Leave New York 10:10pm.
Arrive in Machester at 9:55am, tuesday 2nd.

Assuming everything goes according to plan this time, of course! All but the first are US times. Put these up here because I'm bound to be asked the times by various people - this way I have an easy way of checking so I can tell them or just direct them here!

Only four more days worth of college and one of those is supposed to be a Christmas party.

Dictionary Definition

Sun, 01 Oct 2006 17:25:09 GMT

<td align="center"> Fiona --
[noun]:

A hermit living in the big city

'How will you be defined in the dictionary?' at QuizGalaxy.com</td>

Sleepover.

Sun, 27 Aug 2006 14:49:45 GMT

Originally supposed to be camping in Rachel's back garden, but it was supposed to be wet and cold friday night. So it got moved to my house instead, considering there was only going to be me and the cat there until sunday afternoon aka today!

No one arrived on time, naturally. Rachel and Yin were the first to arrive, then Dan, shortly followed by Helen. Although due to Helen's early logging off time on thursday, she never knew what time to arrive anyway.

House got trashed pretty quick. Lots of Celebration sweets thrown everywhere. And then later popcorn, which was still popping when someone went to grab some from the bowl thing. Even after hoovering there's still some in the carpet, but not much.

Raided Tesco. Took forever to make people get ready so we could go do that, though. Did have the intention of going to Choices to rent out some kind of DVD from there. Shut. Went to Meole Brace to Blockbusters instead. Shut. Missed them by about 30mins. Went home.

Food was eaten, which kept people quiet for a time. Once that was finished with though, the madness returned. At some point me, Yin and Dan watched Silent Hill on Yin's applemac lightsabre laptop - Link was forced to watch over webcam too - and Rachel and Helen vanished off into the other room with Rachel's laptop. They aren't big fans of horror movies. At some point later that night, or early morning - whichever you wanna call it! - me, Yin and Rachel were in a convo on msn while sat in the same room, while Link, some other guy Yin knows and someone of the name Mei were in the chat also. Yin's laptop was stolen or taken over many times.

After the msn chat died down, we eventually went to sleep and shut laptops down at around 6am. It was getting light outside. Woke at 8am to Yin and Helen fighting - apparently he'd put a sign on Helen and so she was getting revenge. But it woke everyone else up in the process. The sign was on Dan at that point. I fell back asleep after a while and woke again at around 10am with the sign now on me. And Yin showing me he had taken a picture of me asleep. Shortly after that me and Dan were being "worms" on the floor while in our sleeping bags.

Everyone very slowly got dressed. Messed around some more. Complained of hunger at around 5pm, but Ben turned up a while later and so there wouldn't be enough room in the car. Instead, I let them raid the fridge which ended up with Yin and Dan trying to fry eggs. Badly. We also played on my N64 (Goldeneye and Ocarina of Time) which Link was once again forced into watching.

Grace arrived some time later. My brother's baby girl - about 15 months old now. I was to look after her for the night while he went to a wedding reception thing. She was shy at first and didn't want to be put down at all - the moment I tried to she threatened to burst into tears each time. So she sat on my knee in the end and watched as everyone else played with her toys. Even Yin. Wiggle wiggle. Grace did find Helen and Dan amusing though.

Around 7:15pm Rachel, Yin and Helen left. Leaving me with just Ben, who had arrived after being at work, and Dan. With less strangers around now, she eventually did go play with her toys and I was able to put her down - once she was finished dancing to J-pop/rock that Ben was playing on my laptop via YouTube. The moment I stepped out the room to go fetch her bottle, she threatened tears once more. That was solved by me sneaking back out while she wasn't looking. Once done with that, I attempted to put her to bed some time after. The moment she was put down in the cot though she burst into tears. Got her out and she was fine, but she didn't really recover from that first crying outburst - I kept trying to put her back in there, but none of the attempts really got much further. I sat there with her on my lap for quite a while.

Me: Gracie sleepy?
Grace nodded and put her head against me. Whenever she does that it means she's tired.
Me: Gracie go to sleep in there, yeah?
Grace looked at the cot. Tears followed shortly after as she turned back around to cling to me.

As I was the only person she knew, the cot was a travelling one I don't think she's slept in before and that she has never slept at this house before she didn't want me to leave her somewhere strange on her own. Eventually though I just had to leave her there in tears - she eventually went quiet 5-10mins later, giving me chance to finish tidying up one or two things downstairs and find all the various things left behind by people.

Simon, my brother, came back around 11:30 to collect her. I managed to get to sleep by about 12:30am sunday! If I hadn't of had this cold or the lack of sleep then I probably would have done the usual stay up til the early hours of the morning.

I also discovered Yin changed "My Computer" to "fi fails" and that Ben had changed "My Documents" to "Fi Loves Yuri". Dammit. XD

Now to go see about booking tickets to Drayton Manor for next saturday..

omgAmeCon

Tue, 15 Aug 2006 18:31:44 GMT

Thursday 10th.
After stuffing my car full, we set off. Didn't get lost. Saw a lorry that amused us for a while ("die bart"! XD) which was followed by "go faster Fi so I can take a closer photo!"
We found the hotel rather easily, though I think that was a fluke. After my Halifax cashcard, Helen's cashcard and my Tesco creditcard didn't work when it came to singing in at the hotel, Dan's HSBC one did! Unpacked (kinda), we then set off after doing a mini cosplay around the hotel room to go find the Leicester University. We were going in the right direction, we just turned left instead of right - turning right would have lead us right to the Uni! So we visited a pub for food and stared in horror at something in the loos.
We didn't really get lost on the way back. It was just somewhat dark by the time we got back to the hotel.
Dan just would not shut up that night, he was too hyper. XD Even with me and Helen were just laying there in bed ignoring him for quite a while but he continued to ramble on. I do have one thing to say about that night though, which they will get: laserjet printer!

Friday 11th.
Cosplay time! We had breakfast in the hotel and discovered how expensive it was. Got changed. Me as Link from Ocarina of Time, Dan as Vash from Trigun (we had to make him be upside down for quite a while as we attacked his hair with gel and spray) and Helen as Shia from Pita Ten.
We walked into the city centre in costume. Got lost, because we didn't go the way we went on thursday. Lots of people around. Luckily a girl named Jess found us and lead us up to the Uni - it was her first con too. We lost her some time during the day when she went to visit a different room while we went upstairs to the games room. We also spent some money in the dealers room, watched people on DDR-UK, had some food, watched the fandubs and then wandered back to the hotel in costume. Without getting lost.
This was the night we dyed Dan's hair red, as well as the shower curtain and a few patches on one of the towels.

Saturday 12th.
FMA cosplay. Dan as Alphonse, Helen as Edward and me as Roy. We took the car down this time and managed to get there easily enough, somehow. Parking the car nearby, we walked the rest of the way there. Shortly after we arrived there were cries of things to the effect of "omg it's an Alphonse!" etc and so we spent the rest of the day not being able to go very far without having our photo taken. Trying to walk from one building to the other, which should have been less than 5mins, took about half hour instead. So many photos taken!
Having arrived a bit later, we also stayed a bit later for the beginning of the J-pop party after we were done with the dealer's room and the masquerade - after that me and Helen fled to the hotel and left Dan there, as he had found someone he'd known online.
Much fun was had with the webcam, though my plushies of Roy and Kenshin are now soiled thanks to Helen making them do yaoi with her Ed plushie too. And my Mokona one watching. My poor pillow, also. Thanks, Helen! XD We also got lost picking Dan up and getting back to the hotel - it should have been about 10min drive both there and back, whereas it was more like 2 hours in total. Damn one way roads. I curse those many red lights too.

Sunday 13th.
Dan's birthday. Last day of the con. He went as Reno from FF, Helen as Sunako from The Wallflower and me as Fye from Tsubasa. Of course, we got lost on the way to the con once again. We watched a couple of the skits, people on the DDR-UK again, wandered in and out of the dealer's room, watched an episode of Samurai Champloo and then some of Fruits Basket before making our way to the goodbye ceremony. Me and Helen headed off then for the hotel to go get changed - getting lost on the way - so we could get ready for the Cosplay Ball. Amazingly enough, we didn't get lost on the way back to the con (which was typical, as it'd be the last time we needed to find the place). Her now dressed as Sunako in a different outfit and myself as Belldandy. We were there until 1am, as my parking ticket thing would run out shortly after that. And guess what. We got lost on the way back! Nothing new, really. Then, after doing some packing, we all passed out and went to sleep!

Monday 14th.
Dan was difficult to wake. We rang his phone, it only vibrated and so we put it against his back. Didn't work. Me and Helen brought up our ring tones on our phones, playing both at the same time. That didn't work. We nudged and pulled and called his name several times, too. Eventually he woke. Maybe we should have tried getting some free ice to put on his back. XD
So yeah, leaving Leicester - we got lost temporarily. We seemed to be doing a lot of that over those few days. There are also some pretty crazy drivers out on those roads - there were several times where I could see an accident happening if I had been going faster, or the other car had left it just a bit later to whatever it was they were about to do etc. One specific car that tried to over take a lorry after just leaving a roundabout, which you really should not do as cars coming up to the roundabout (like we were doing) will be moving to get in lane, got screamed at for being so damn close to my car as I was about to get in lane. If I had been in the right hand lane more than I had been at the time, surely I would have hit the damn thing. Dan even said that that car almost gave him a heart attack - Rachel got to hear it too, because she was on the phone! But, despite all that, we got home safe and tired.

Overall, it was fun, we spent a lot of money and want to go to another one. Next year, maybe.

And now to copy and paste this huge thing onto dA!