Fandom meet, cont'd...

Actually posted the last entry just as the people mentioned (plus milenalupin arrived. They brought chocolate. Mmmm... Many threats to steal Evil Time clock. We chatted for a bit before heading into town for the meet proper.

We got to the Eagle and Child shortly before midday, although the pub wasn't open at that point - cygnusfap was waiting outside. Tried playing "spot the fandomers" by their house scarves - until someone in a blatantly Gryffindor scarf walked straight past our expectant looks. D'oh. We headed straight in the moment the door opened and occupied a large section of the back of the pub as various other people started to arrive and started ordering food and drink. Oh, and making sure that everyone had name labels. We fairly quickly started getting strange looks from the staff (increasingly so as the day went on) and got very good a scaring off anyone who came to our end of the pub without even trying.

Random Recollections 1:
• Hermione is not a sex kitten! - several of us shouting this at the same time. More strange looks. ali_wildgoose drawing Sex Kitten Hermione.
• marysiak's collection of HP Lego figures being put to good (read: pervy) use, and undergoing numerous head/body/hair/etc swaps. Harry's hair disapparating, triggering bemused search.
• darthfi reading out loud a long article about Pervy Hobbit Fanciers (no, real ones) complete with a bit of Frodo/Sam slash. This got the strangest looks of the afternoon.
• owlman in Tine's Chinese jacket, covered in glitter.
• Theft of The One Spoon (wooden spoons with numbers on are given out when ordering food. Ours was number 1)

Most of the 30 of us left the Bird and Baby some time around 4, and did an impromptu tour of Oxford between the pub and Cygnus' indecently large college room where we settled in for the next couple of hours. We did a mass LJ post, t00bed around on Y!M, scaring people with large amount of people on webcam all screaming Squeee! at the same time. Took vote on which film people wanted to see (CoS won - just). Took vote on how many people actually wanted to go to the cinema (none). Decided to go and find more food, although some people had to leave (many hugs).

Ask was full, so we ended up in the House of Spice for a spot of curry. Service was rather slow (although there were still 22 of us at this point), but the food was good. Much discussion of various things, none of which particularly spring to mind. A few more people had to leave at this point (more hugs), but the rest of us ambled a couple of hundred yards up the road to G&D's for ice-cream. B-52 flavour - Cointreau, Kahlua and Baileys. Mmm.... Next stop was Sainsbury's to stock up on various alcohol before heading to olympia_m's flat for the rest of the evening

Random Recollections 2:
• Q: How many people can you fit on a bed? A: At least eight...
• The Tickle Wars - eventually several people ganged up on titanic_days and tickled him off the bed and into an almost catatonic state on the floor. Later, helped hold him down while Ali delivered one of her mighty raspberries. After this, he became the fandom pet. Awww...
• anatsuno mixing wicked-strength drinks (not that the ones I did were much weaker) and continuing to photograph every aspect of the proceedings.
• Cygnus' "Erotic Umbrella Dance". After hours of bulling from Cassie et al, he finally gave in, with Ali as t00by assistant and shoving dollar bills down his trousers and lasultrix throwin bras. You had to be there...
• Body art. Lots of it:
  • Cassie started it with the near-tattooing of "Draco" across Ali's ... uh ... lower back in biro. After that, semi-permanent markers were used to less painful effect.
  • Many people got Dark Marks (as kay_taylor pointed out, helpful to remind you what happened the night before), Cyg got two (one on foot, one on arm)
  • On my arms: Cyg and Cassie provided me with SwitzTERLAND (sic) plus flag, Ali gave me an I love Mom heart, on the other arm, snitch and snatch Naked Woman (see the userpic on this post). Not really sure who it is - Pansy and Fleur were suggested, but Hermione seemed to be the most popular choice.
  • Cassie got various things scrawled on her, including the immortal "Help! Ron is taking over my life!"
  • Marysia got a face on her foot, plus rather fine angel wings on her back.
• The Book - this went round and various people scrawled in it. Cassie managed about three drunken lines, Alex contributed a slash picture featuring Harry and Draco in bunny ears.

The party started breaking up at around 2:30am with various people heading off in various directions and hastily arranged plans for the next days. Thankfully, a bus was waiting so we didn't have to hang around in the pouring rain for too long. I did get a strange look from the driver when I asked for 7 singles to Kidlington, though. Managed to find suitable bedding for Ina, Tine, Holly and Marysia - we all crashed out pretty much straight away.

We started getting up some time around 11. Nobody was in much of a mood for breakfast, and eventually we headed back into town, getting to Olympia's at around 12:45. We t00bed around there while waiting for other people to turn up (due to mobile reception/battery issues, search parties had to be sent out for the New Yorkers). By this time, lunch seemed a good idea so we headed up to the Radcliffe Arms. None of the advance party really knew where it was, so I was deputed to run down side roads to look at pub signs until we found the right one.

The pub was packed when we got there, so we hung around outside for a while until some tables became free (although still only fitting 16 of us in with difficulty) Food was good and cheap, got to chat with some different people. Eventually, about half the group had to head off to London (even more hugs), while the rest of us hung around eating cake and looking through the photos from Saturday on Anatsuno's laptop. Finally it was time to head back to Olympia's for people to pick up bags before saying final goodbyes. I saw Anatsuno and tobymalfoy off to the station then headed home

It was a great weekend, got to meet all sorts of fandom folk, those mentioned over that last two posts, plus benjj, frayer, hanacandi, jlh, mortari, oldmystic, pinguthegreek, pot_pal_ashley and more - as loffley a bunch of people as ever I've met.

I suspect an early night is needed. Must remember to wash nude!Hermione off my arm before work tomorrow, though...