moorereppion

Just over a week ago we returned from Dublin where we attended the 6th annual Phoenix Science Fiction Convention ( P-Con VI to you and me) . It was a packed weekend which left both of us totally wiped out for half of last week but a great time was had by all. I shall try to construct some kind of report from my fragmented memories of the weekend!

Friday 27th March we spend a couple of hours sat in Liverpool airport, it seems disproportionate when the flight itself rarely exceeds 45 minutes, the weather is windy and grey and looks set to give us a good shaking as we cross the Irish Sea to Dublin.

Surrounded by yet another Hen Party off to wreak some kind of pink havoc on Dublin’s menfolk, we managed to get through security without any problem, unless you count having to wait for one of the security staff to get one of the hen party’s phone number a problem.

Ryanair lived up to expectations, with very loud adverts for cheap vodka being played as you board the plane. We tried to drown it out by listening to HP Lovecraft’s ‘ The Shadow Out Of Time’ on our headphones, but were asked to remove them when the stewardesses wanted to do the safety demonstration. She did not demonstrate what to do in the case of the Old Ones appearing and driving us all mad. maybe that was on the safety leaflet, and maybe it involved cut price Vodka. If you badly need Irish Lotto tickets then Ryanair can always oblige, and there is some sport to be had watching the stewardesses try to sell as much as is humanly possible in the 25 minute flight.

Once we landed, we hopped on the 747 bus into town, which dropped us on O’Connell Street, only 5 mins from our Hotel. The Maldron Hotel Parnell Square (formerly the more prosaic Confort Inn Granby Row) turns out to have modern decor, really friendly concierge staff, and really comfortable rooms. the water pressure was amazing, the bed heavenly and the breakfast was huge. Don’t mention the price, as the whole Euro to Pound exchange rate still give me cold sweats, but this is by far the best hotel I have stayed in in Dublin.

We intended to eat before the opening ceremony but instead just lay about drinking cups of tea until we realised it was about to start and we were the wrong side of the river still. we raced down O’Connell Street and made it to the Central Hotel at about 7:15 only to discover the opening ceremony wasn’t until 8pm! We dropped off our books for the con to sell for us, and found friends to talk to in the bar (of course). When we did eventually head into the main room for the ceremony we were both really surprised to see dozens of people we knew and have them all greet us in unison. Yes it’s called a convention for a reason but never before have we been so thoroughly convened upon! After Peters warm welcome to the con, Juliet McKenna launched her new book and we were treated to a live radio play scene from Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. After that the bar called, and we were soon ensconced in a cosy corner with a gaggle of chums, and some liquid refreshment. You might have noticed that we haven’t yet eaten anything, and we are tempted on the walk back to our hotel by several of the take-aways. Luckily a steady stream of scantily clad drunk women and fighting/vomiting men prevent us from slowing down at all, and we instead get pizza from directly opposite our hotel. A 16″ monster called The Cartwheel which goes down a treat and send us both into carbohydrate oblivion.

Morning of Saturday 28th, we have a huge buffet breakfast and waddle down to the con. I have a panel at 11 am with Maura McHugh and Derek Gunn about retelling folk stories. We are all vampire nerds, so it turns into a more specific discussion on Dracula, vampires, and the validity of retelling vampire stories. It was (at least to me) a really interesting panel, and brought up lots of good stuff for future discussion.

John was then on a panel called “What scares you?” with Catie Murphy, Maura McHugh, Brain J Showers and Derek Gunn. This was a really revealing panel which may have been quite therapeutic I think. It should be a staple of conventions everywhere…

We then stayed seated for the Guest of Honour Interview, the GOH being of course the very lovely and talented Paul Cornell, who was very entertaining and remained nice even when provoked by his interviewer (!)

After that I was on the Evil Emperors panel, which amongst others featured Kim Newman, Eugene Byrne and Juliet McKenna in a kind of role play where Juliet was the emperor, Kim the Minister for Happiness and I was Lady Leah (not Princess Leah you’ll note…) and we kind of ruled a country for an hour. Fun but confusing! (Apologies to the other panel members for forgetting their names! I have a brain like a sieve!)

we had a short break and then John, Maura and Catie dispensed pearls of wisdom on sci-fi nerd love, and romance. Or the ways of perhaps getting more nerd love. It was quite informative, but the overwhelming response was rather predictably “BATHE!” which always helps.

by this point we were hungry and knackered so we went for a coffee with Pádraig O’Mealoid, Deidre Walsh, Paul Cornell, Juliet McKenna and Chas Brenchley and then onwards for dinner at a really nice Italian place. I am vegetarian, so I regard Italian restaurants as safe havens when I travel. In Prague we ate Italian, in Portugal, we ate Italian. Boring I know but reliable!

We then ventured back to the hotel bar, where we spent a lovely few hours talking and laughing (’til we wept) about snow monkeys. You kind of had to be there, but there wasn’t a dry eye in the house. We then managed to leave at about twelve O’clock and managed to run the O’Connell street gauntlet again, stepping round pools of urine, heaps of unconscious hen night participants and lairy boys.

Sunday 29th started again with good shower good food, etc. then we checked out and trundled our way back to the con.

I was on a panel about Illustration with Oisín McGann, Catie Murphy and Eugene Byrne which was lots of fun and then we all made our way to the main room for A Toast To Life, a memorial of Frank Darcy, who played such a huge part in running the con in previous years, and welcomed so many people to Irish fandom.

We then went to the bar which was beautifully sunny and paid almost £3 for a glass of water. It was fizzy though…not that it hurts less for that. It cost so much I took a picture of it.

We then were loosely grouped by gender and played the traditional game of Pictionary, in which the boys lost and the girls won, but this was of course a foregone conclusion! I was particularly pleased to get “The Unbearable Lightness of Being”

After that it was the “mutiny on the Phoenix” panel which John suggested, as we found a free for all panel at the end of the convention is a really nice way to tie everything up, and a chance to discover juicy facts about one another. Some of these facts must have made me blush as we have the evidence to prove…

Once the Pictionary was done with, there was the closing ceremony, which led to several people being presented with certificates, marking them as Honoured Friends of the Phoenix Convention. There was the Frank Darcy Award for 100 word fiction written and submitted at the con, and then there was the lovely Brian Nisbett and the never ending Raffle of doom. Everyone had been buying many raffle tickets over the days, and the prizes were stacks and stacks of science fiction books, games, DVD’s and other things donated by the Darcy family. No-one went home empty handed, and we managed to dash off in time to catch our bus.

The bus got us to the airport nice and early, so we had two hours to fill. We were hungry (again) so decided to get something to eat near our gate. We then spent a good wedge of the money we made selling our books at the con, on a single sandwich each, and one chocolate muffin. The muffin was nice but good lord it’s only a small cake! Let’s hope the pound is a bit stronger next time!

we spent a long time waiting because our flight was late, so it was almost 10.30 pm by the time we boarded, but on the plus side we did spend those extra hours sitting opposite two nuns who regarded us with suspicious smiles, and next to Derek Acorah of TV’s ‘Most Haunted’ fame. He didn’t seem to be sensing anything paranormal unless you count a delayed plane as paranormal?

we flew home really fast and jumped in a black cab home. Apparently Liverpool John Lennon airport charge black cabs £1 a time for picking people up at the airport, which the cabbie said he had to pass on to us. It could well have been a scam, but such a weird one that we just gave him the pound anyway. After that bloody muffin it seemed like a bargain.

We have been invited back to P-Con VII in 2010, and hopefully we will be there to do it all again!