Loncon3 - Sunday

On our last day of Worldcon, Sunday, I did something very stupid. I had been charging my camera battery overnight and of course forgot to put it back to my camera - no professional pictures from Sunday then! How irritating... So you need to tolerate poor iphone quality for my third and last day of the worldcon reportage.On Sunday at noon, my husband was doing his main speech of the con, so that meant that me and half finn were hanging out together in the Excel corridors. Plenty of exciting people to meet on the boulevard again, including a friendly(!) Cyberman and a woman dressed as the Tardis...
Small Finn and I spent some more time hanging around at the Finn hut on the fan village.

 And toured the last minutes of the Dealer's room. This lovely lady says she will go where ever the con goes - so hopefully in two years time - to Finland.

 She sold me this collection of t-shirts for my friend.

 In the Dealers' room, weird guys loom.

 BUt if you ask my son, the best place in this con was the pink steps in between the Fan village and the Dealers' room. He would have played 'catch me if you can' with mum on those all day long. Up to a point where we were asked to leave a couple of times by the security...

 Dr. Who though, not really my son's favourite thing. Or perhaps it's the annoying mother who wants a picture with all kinds of weird backgrounds.

 On Sunday morning at the con, Quidditch took place on the fan village lawn.

 They went at it for 2 hours! And I can say that muggle way of playing qudditch includes a lot more running around with a stick in between your legs than the wizard way... Which means that these guys really worked for their keeps. Speficically the girl who was playing the Snitch! Blimey she got a lot of excersise. But if you think fandom doesn't do sports - just go and see qudditch.

Meanwhile on the promenade, A Doctor had showed up to deal with the friendly Cyberman.

 Whereas upstairs in Capital Suite 15, I saw the only half an hour of a program item... That's how much my son allowed... (I know, he won't be 3 years old forever) This talk was of course my husband's speech 'The State of the Anime Industry'. Which of course was dealing with the looming shut down of Studio Ghibli... I'm sure the rest of it was also very interesting but unfortunately me and Tops made our excuses out for the second half of the talk, thanks to the crankyness of the small listener...

 But that's alright, since while waiting for a small boy to run out his energy at the corridor - I got to hang out with this girl, Karoliina Leikomaa, who has recently moved to London with her spouse. In worldcon it really doesn't matter where you stand, as friends will be at grasp. Thanks for the chat, it was really nice to catch up on work-wise too!

 After mr. Clements's speech ended, we decided to pull our small family out of the con due to most of us still being under the summer cold that I picked up somewhere in between London and Walberswick. So many friends, so little time...I really wish I had seen Ellen Kushner, Megan Lindhom (& Fred) as well as Pat Cadigan. But I guess I just have to see you guys again in Helsinki 2017!

 On the way back home, the Tuesday night Norwegian was filled with rather hangovering Finns. Certain Tero Ykspetäjä and Eemeli Aro were at least seen on the spot. If you were not in this worldcon - how about meeting in Helsinki 2017?

 For me this worldcon might not have been the biggest 'party con' ever, since I missed ALL the fantastically sounding parties, mainly due to this small travelling companion below. However, this won't be the case forever. Children grow up... Perhaps in the future I will have time to do some con organising as well. Thank you everyone for a great con!

Sunnuntaina minulle kävi perinteinen, eli unohdin kameran patterin laturiin ja eipä siinä sitten auttanut muuta kuin turvautua iphonekuviin - pahoittelut siis surkeasta laadusta! Sunnuntaina oli mieheni pääohjelmanumero (no tähän asti hän oli siis jo haastatellut John Clutea kunniavieraspuheessaan ja vetänyt kaksi paneelia...) mutta joo puoliltapäivin hän piti luennon aiheesta Japanilaisen animaation nykytila. Joka lyhyestisanottuna on aika 'shit'. Ehdin itse kuunnella tästä luennosta puolet, kiitos pieni avustaja, joka jopa puoli tuntia jaksoit pelailla iphonella ennen kuin varsinainen melt-down alkoi ja hipsimme käytävään purkamaan pienen miehen energiaa juoksemalla edestakaisin. Hyvä puoli Worldconissa on se, että missä kulkeekin niin tuttuja kyllä tulee vastaan todella joka kulmalla. Niinpä käytin mukavan puolituntisen Leikomaan Karon kanssa jutustellen. Karo on muuten Helsinki In 2017 projektipäällikkö ja on myöskin muuttanut juuri Lontooseen. Jos ei tästä vielä löytynyt sopivasti puheenaiheita niin olemme myös hyvin samantyyppisillä aloilla töissä, joten lapsen juostessa ympyrää, äiti seurusteli mukavasti vanhan tuttavan kanssa:) Jonathanin puheen jälkeen oli aika pistää pieni perhe pakettiin ja jättää coni taa, koska olemme olleet kaikki samaisessa kesäflunssassa ja nyt oli selkeästi oikea aika häipyä. Valitettavasti tämä tarkoitti sitä, että muutama vanha tuttava jäi näkemättä... Mutta seuraavalla kerralla sitten. Varsin hieno coni, josta sain irti aika paljon (koska odotin aika vähän lapsenhoitotilanteen ollessa aika nolla) - jonakin toisena vuonna sitten luuhaan kaikki partyt läpi, lupaan, tällä kertaa perhe-elämä vei voiton. Heippahei ja toivottavasti v. 2017 Helsingissä nähdään!

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...

Loncon 3: Friday

 

Welcome to Worldcon 2014 in London, this convention is also called Loncon 3.

Our convention actually started at Thursday night when mr. C had checked all three of us in and brought me the badges and stuff. I was burning a fever on that day, so I barely managed to transport Tops through London (and have lunch with my family members) with the aid of my brother-in-law: Uncle Maz you are the best, thanks so much. So we met mr C at our Docklands hotel, where I witnessed the most peculiar sight of the evening in our suite(!!!) where two men just fell on their knees infront of me. Honestly I don't think this has ever happened to me before.

Back in the convention on Friday morning - first run into this Australian-Finn...

 The Dealers's room is quite dangerous place to loose a lot of money.

 Or to loose a half-finn.

 Money and little Finns best kept at one's neck.

 Possibly the most charming part of the Dealers' room: John Clute's Study! I mean, look at the outfit... Judith told me that the jeans she donnated to decorate this exhibit made Clute look franticly some of the pairs gone...

Half Finn enjoyed this part of the Dealers' room the most.

Specifically the butterflies.

 I enjoyed this part the best. What cuties!

 And what care: The Flowerbed decorations used the words that (possibly only(!)) Clute uses regularly.

 Daddy was getting a lot of affections.

Just before plotting of some more naughtyness. Topfish has a bit of a bad two days so far as he as well as me has had a cold:(

 More familiar faces at the Fan Village behind the Helsinki 2017 bid table... So actually managed a three sentence conversation with Tero. More than I did in Finncon, so that's good...

 In the con you step five metres and then there's another familiar face. Cheryl was elegant as always.

 Tops is getting on the mood for hulahoops.

 Some kids eat meatballs. Mine eats noodles.

 Mainly Worldcon for a three year old is one big playground to run around. At least there is space!

 And people to see.

 People like this one.

 Lots can be said about my husband. One of the issues is that he can make other people do this pose:

 Works with most women...

 Sometimes even Finns... is that a smile?

No matter how much you suffle around the con, you always end up in the dealers' room again.

Tops and I tried to go and see one program item.

Which was the guest of Honour interview - JC vs. JC.

 Some excited audience included Liz Hand, Joe and Gay Haldeman and Judith of course.

 My JC was interviewing John Clute, the guest of Honour.

 These two are like the incarnations of each other. Both into encyclopedias. And knowledge. And words. And they do like each other very much.

 And fortunately for the audience when they are on the stage with each other, they become a very entertaining combination:)

 Our first day at the con was nice, lots of time hanged out in Fan Village. There was even some people who had sent themselves there remotely... What a wonderful idea - how science fictiony!

 I went home with two bags of t-shirts.

 And that was the last from Excel London on Friday.

 

Olemme tällä hetkellä Loncon 3-tapahtumassa, joka on maailman suurin kerran vuodessa järjestettävä Science Fiction tapahtuma eli Worldcon. Kyseinen tapahtuma on ollut Euroopassa viimeksi v. 2005 Glassgowissa, jossa olimme myöskin paikalla. Eli 9 vuotta edellisestä Worldconista, huh huh! 

Tällä kertaa olen ollut hieman puolikuntoisena kesäflunssassa ja poikanen on ollut myös juoksentelemassa mukana. Conissa on muutenkin aika paljon lapsia ja heitä varten on myös paljon telmimistilaa varattuna. A:lla ei ole ollut ehkä parhaita päiviä, koska hänelläkin nenä on vuotanut ja välillä on yskittänyt.

J on tehtaillut puheita ja paneeleita - nämä kuvat ovat perjantailta, jolloin tapasimme joitakin lähinnä Finnconin entisiä kunniavieraita, joista on sittemmin tullut hyviä ystäviä... Minulle Worldcon on parhaimmillaan juuri sitä - uusia ja vanhoja ystäviä, hyvää keskustelua ja uusia ajatuksia.