Gah - I'm back...

Zoe curls up on my stuff...

The future is shaping up nicely since my exhausting three week round the world trip. It was tough. Well – the only real difficult part was the flight back. The adrenalin wore off on the way back. Ok – call me soft. World leaders and sports people can do it. I can’t. But I can open up lots and lots of action figures in an afternoon to keep myself from falling asleep. Photos attached.

Stage One: Gallifrey One was interesting. I can’t write up too much about the convention without upsetting a lot of Americans. So talk to me instead. I’ll give you some anecdotes that mainly start with “I was just wondering…”

Stage Two: Hawaii appears to have been bought up large by Japanese people. How ironic. Interesting highlights included a days shopping where I discovered I had shoppers block. I bought zilch the whole day – but redeemed myself the next couple of nights. I couldn’t find any exciting nightlife during the week – so I went on down to the Nashville Waikiki which was readily accessible from the hotel. I volunteered to be some Navy bloke’s wingman for the night after the poor bugger told me about his failed marriage. He (I have never been good at remembering names) kept buying me drinks on his tab – so I was happy. We met some lovely girls but unfortunately all of them were married or had their boyfriends with them. Wade ain’t the sort of guy that married girls go for – hardly lots of danger and excitement with me – even when I have my knack back and my all natural ‘sexy European accent’. There was one nice girl – but I can’t remember her name so I’ll leave it at that. As normal – I went and did my own thing while the fat people lazed about on the beach. I found three comic shops, walked up the top of cliffs and even ventured into a Walmart.

Wade and a married girl from Ohio

Stage Three: NZ was the same as I remember it. Even the toy shops still had the same crap clogging up the shelves as they did a year ago. It was nice to finally drive again – albeit I’ll have to wait a while before I get my next car. Graham & Robyn’s wedding was very nice – I have never seen Graham lost for words – but the Big G was “nervous as buggery” (to pinch a Graham-phrase). However, I was suddenly afflicted with a sinus infection about halfway through the proceedings – which pretty much buggered me up for that night. I was a bit unpleasant as well for which I must apologise. And for those that didn’t turn up – I can promise that you didn’t miss much. Wade doesn’t make a good patient.

Back to normality:

The dates for various UK comic book conventions have been announced so the year will go fairly quickly again. The dates are:

Bristol Comic Expo: 9/10 of May
London Film & Comic Con: 18/19 July
Cymru Con (Wales?) 8 August
BICS (Birmingham): 3/4 October
Dublin City Comic Con: 13/14/15 November
Thought Bubble (Leeds): 21 November

With Bristol being downsized this year, BICS will be the largest UK comic event. I am looking forward to the guest list being announced. I wonder if the hostel I stayed in last year will have me back following last years debacle. Do they even know what happened? I certainly can’t remember.

There is a Transformers convention (Auto Assembly) in Birmingham 15/16 August. In general, Transformers fans are world renowned for being some of the most obnoxious people around. I hope I get the chance to disprove this.

Orbital Comics have got some great signings announced up until August – so pretty pumped up for that as well. I can start planning a few more weekends away around all these dates. How geeky is that? Too geeky!