So I'm back from EF now and had a day at home to think about things. A lot happened around this convention, far more so than I would have expected to. It started with picking up  zephyrue and having her stay overnight before we headed down to Heathrow. Might have slightly underestimated how difficult carrying the bags would be, but once we were on the bus and at the airport in no time.

I'd made sure that since this was my non working convention holiday I was going to have a bit of a treat and stuff the expense. So we went Club class to get the lounge, priority boarding and all the lovely extras. It was certainly worth it to pay that little bit extra, I think I will certainly be doing it again. We got picked up at the airport by  zyxwen and taken to the hotel (THANK YOU!!!!). It didn't take at all long to get the room and get registered, so it was then off to explore the place and see what was happening.

Rather than go through each day I will summarise in that I got the chance to do more suiting at a convention than I have done before as I wasn't working or volunteering for anything. This was such a nice change to be able to catch up with people, sit down and chat or just poke along to a panel. It's something I intend to do again.

I did though run one panel on basic fursuit performance which gained a lot more attendees than I was expecting to have come along. I have a feeling that if I do it again I will be asking for a bigger room, since we ran out of chairs before the line had made it into the room. I did miss a panel or two that I wanted to get along to, but that's just what happens at a convention not everything is possible to get to.

There was a bit of a problem though for me in the shape of four of my cooling vest inserts went missing from the lounge. In actuality, three went missing one morning and the forth one went in the afternoon. I had thought that perhaps someone had just taken the wrong ones as they were clearly marked with my name on them. Despite efforts to locate them by using Tweets, rechecking at conops now and then as well as checking the actual cooler to see if they turned up there was no sign of them. One did turn up in the end on the last morning, but I have no idea who put it back. I was actually quite calm when they couldn't be found. Though it's the second set of mine that has gone missing. One entire set went at the last Londonfurs party and this was the replacement sent that I just got at the convention to replace them.

I'd gone to ops again to report things developing and something quite special happened.  codewolf and  ravell were there and after explaining the whole mess that had happened they started a collection to raise some money to help replace the inserts. I don't mind saying that this moved me greatly to have such a generous gesture made. I needed to be distracted to helped out a little with queue management of the Pawpets show. I just needed to be busy and this was a good use of my time, missed out on a volunteer badge, but that didn't matter. Once that was all sorted I was able to get some food and just go suiting to be further distracted. Whilst I was in suit Code came back to me and said they had the little collection and presented me with some carefully folded notes. They had actually gotten enough to replace the inserts and with money over it went to the charity donation pot when I was out of suit.

Particular thanks too need to go to  ezwolf for juggling things around for me and being such an awesome person about the whole thing. Literally he was super nice and helped beyond any measure of what could have been asked. In addition  tigertom who helped to check several times for the inserts. I also need to thank  shay who made a sad wolf quite happy with a small gift and some earlier help. He knows exactly what and forever has my gratitude.

Once again I got to meet  darknatasha and still she is the loveliest person I've ever met. Genuinely open and friendly as well as not minding a fanboying werewolf bouncing around her table several times :) Since I got exactly what I was after in the shape of a sketch and badge I was very happy with the results of the den time. I bid on a few things in the art show, but didn't win anything so had more for other fun things to do.

Also thanks need to be put to  zephyrue for being a really great roomie, it's always nice sharing with another suiter since they always get what you're doing and the body parts left around a room. It was nice having a little room chill time too with  forfaox and  aeto It's like a little Clockwork family sometimes with all the people you meet. Happy werewolf was indeed happy.

On the way back home again we had the strangest experience. Got to Heathrow and couldn't be bothered to struggle with the tube/bus so decided to take a taxi instead. Oh boy was that not fun, didn't have enough money on me so asked the marshal about cards she said they wouldn't take then. WTF? I've seen signs everywhere on cabs advertising they take cards. So then asked a driver about making a cash point stop, they actually refused to do so on a 'local' journey. Seriously turning away money? What is wrong with these people? So anyway, I trudge back into the terminal and exchange some Euros for Pounds on a crappy rate, but at least I had money now. So back to the rank, get a taxi and the guy is an ass. Takes us the long way out of T5 to try and bump up the fare and probably thought I didn't notice. However, when we got to Hatton Cross he pulled into the station claiming to have an upset stomach and pulled in front of another cab getting the driver of that one to take us the rest of the way. Then he wouldn't take the meter fare he had and drove off. The other one got us back safely home, but that was one of the strangest things I have ever had happen. Will be avoiding cabs out of Heathrow from now on I think. From the looks of things he wanted a Central London fare and didn't want to take us back.

So all in all it's been a mixed bag, but one I think I will do again.

Now it's the time of unpacking, cleaning and storing everything away for the next event.