Loncon 3 - Saturday

Good morning, London!Our second full day at the con started out with a breakfast of champions! We were up eaarly to meet lovely Liz Hand.

 And as a bonus, ran into Michael Swanwick, who hadn't brought his awesome wife Marianne Porter this year. Michael was my 'original guest' meaning that he was my first ever GoH to liasson, back in 2003 Finncon. Yes, some people believe that I was in fact the liasson for Jonathan Clements that year, but that's infact not true at all. I have a soft spot for both Michael and Marianne from 11 years back - they were very lovely people to host on a very hot week in Turku.

Jonathan and Liz compare their schedules. It was lovely to get some actual time to sit down with Liz - She's a great friend of Finns and went to Finland just last year. Unfortunately we missed her then as we were in China...

 Meanwhile on the promenade these guys pass by.

 Back in the Dealers' room I bumped into a shopping Stormtrooper.

 If worldcon gets too crazy for you, I suggest to have a hug with Judith Clute. Cures everything!

 I had a full 1,5 hours to myself to do what I liked while my son was taken to the playground by his father.

 Upstairs, the line for signatures was starting to be out of the building. And here was the very obvious reason:

 George Martin I think at the moment is pretty much as popular as you can get in the mainstream scifi/fantasy fandom. Btw, if anyone is interested in seeing him in Finland next year, come to Archipelagon, who just signed him as their Guest of Honour!

Saturday at the Fan village was just starting out.

 Finland is campaigning hard for 2017. So remember to vote next year guys! I have even come to the conclusion that if Finland does win, I will stop my scifi fandom retirement and join the organising crowd.

Met one of the radiant, hard campaining Finns Senja Hirsjärvi. Her comment was: 'Yes, I'm really busy. Doing my nails'

Honorary Finn, Cheryl Morgan was of course hanging by the Finn tent.

Some people's offspring sure has grown! handsome!

My little stroll around made me also pass the shopping Jack Sparrow who was hanging out with an authentic looking Jawa, which even was making jawa noises.

 Always charming to see old friends again, this time it was Ellen Datlow, who is planning a trip to the far east and had pumped my husband for tips.

 In the lawn, a tournament was beginning.

Got to get me one of those disc world hats, how cool is that???

 By lunch time it was early enough to sit for the first Ale of the day, right? With Edward James and Judith.

 As Disc world hats were not on sale, I went with Steampunk goggles.

 My lunch ale company included a very busy GoH, John Clute.

And these two (with Joe Haldeman & Judith Clute)

 And truthfully also this one (Jonathan Clements)

Googly-up!

 These little props attracted even more attention (Delia Sherman)... it was lovely to see all the former guests of Finncon, who I once hosted. I truly wish I would have also seen Ellen Kushner. Thank you anyway for your thoughtful gift! I certainly have never had such a lovely trip to Kuhmo, than with the two of you.

 I sneaked a sit down on one specific throne...

 Fan Village's familiar faces included Dave Lally, a con veteran.

And just before our offspring almost made us leave the site, we run into some familiar Finns, Hanne & Tomi.

And that was Saturday at the worldcon for me. I think the best side of the con is really this: Meeting friends, old and new. I had such wonderful time just catching up and sitting down with great people. Yes it meant that I missed a lot of great programme - but for me, the people were always the reason to go. This year I had a small finn with me, so that meant that I couldn't really see that much program. That's alright. There will be other cons. Certainly this worldcon spiked up some of that sleepig dragon inside me - I don't think I'm done with fandom at all. These are people who I feel most comfortable with. The ease of friendships is very genuine in this society and I feel as fandom was the place where I was always accepted as I am. That's a valuable lesson to remember. Certainly there will be less busy years in my life, when Topfish is a lot bigger, I'm sure the times of organising will also return.

Lauantai Worldconissa sujui vanhoja ja uusia ystäviä tavaten. Eipä voinut kävellä paria metriä tapaamatta jotakuta tuttua. Mahtavaa oli nähdä Finnconin entisiä kunniavieraita, joita olen ollut hostaamassa vuosina 2003, 2004, 2007 ja 2010. Siinäpä onkin jo kohtuullinen läpileikkaus scifikirjailijoista... Ja tietty kun on mennyt yhden kanssa naimisiin niin eihän näistä ympyröistä pääse eroon kulumallakaan. Tämä con kyllä sytytteli uudelleen henkiin fandom innostusta - ehdottomasti mikäli Helsinki saa worldconin 2017 - siinä tapauksessa minun on kömmittävä järjestelijyyseläkkeeltäni takaisin hommiin. Suomalaiset muuten tekivät aivan uskomattoman hyvää työtä bidinsä eteen Lontoossa, nyt vaan sormet ristiin, että ihmiset äänestävät ja tarpeeksi. Ja seuraavaa Euroopan worldconia odotellessa voidaan ensi vuonna tavata Archipelagonissa...