Ok, I couldn't wait to talk about Amecon so here I am, blogging about it.
Thursday - (Does a Sonic t-shirt count as cosplay?)Left Bristol at 9:58 (Train was late, when isn't it?) and arrived in Leicester at 11:50, where I was met by my friend Dave and we checked on things in the house to make sure it was all still there for Sept, and then hung around in town for hours. There was only one problem on Thurs, and that was the girl I was supposed to be rooming with got very, very lost and so I ended up rooming with another Amecon goer, whose badgename was Mangamad. (Thank you very much :))
We went out for Japanese food with a load of Ameconers and that was fun, I got to know a load of people and got to relax after I'd got all stressed out cause I didn't know where I was going to be sleeping cause the Estate Agents refused to give me the keys to the house for more then a day.
Went back to Mangamad's room and talked and I played games while he finished his jacket, and late into the night someone who was rooming next door offered us pizza cause he was full. (Guess what I had for breakfast)
Ended up sleeping on the floor, but it wasn't too bad.
Friday - Kairi (Kingdom Hearts)Woke up at 6ish and had you guessed it, cold pizza for breakfast and got changed.
Me and Mangamad were miles early for registration, so we were sat outside talking to a Gopher for about an hour and a half, before they opened the doors, and then we were still miles early and they needed help so I offered to give them a hand.
There was a bonus side to being miles early, I was first in line for registering and got my badge, offically becoming Keaira for the weekend. I went up to ops to hand in my CD for the Omake and then found some of my friends from my old college, plus the people I'd met on the forums.
Plus I had a Sora cosplayer shout "Kairi!" and glomp me.
That was the first of many glomps that weekend.
I was looking for the girl I was supposed to be rooming with all morning, but I couldn't find her, so I headed up to the Games room, where they had a Yu-Gi-Oh! Tournament going on, (Mangamad was there) DDR, Nintendo Wii, Smash Bros Melee, Guitar Hero 2 and more, and when I headed down for lunch, my room mate was there, having been in the Dealer's Room all morning because she had a stall for the weekend.
Having found my room mate I was able to completely relax and kick quite a few
peoples arses at Smash Bros, the Pikabitch strikes again muahahaha. (Read earlier blogs to understand this reference.) I also ran into (and I do mean ran into) a Seto Kaiba cosplayer, who I just had to get a photo of (and yes, I glomped him)
We left the Con quite late, (though not as late as some), and got tea. There was a resonably priced KFC type place jut across the road from our hotel and we got food from there, and then we went back to our room to eat and sleep :)
Saturday - Kairi (Kingdom Hearts 2)Got up and had breakfast at 8:30 at the hotel (provided in the price).
I think I preferred the cold pizza. It wasn't a bad breakfast size wise but it was a little greasy and though I ate a lot so I didn't need to eat much over the course of the day, I was rather glad that I only had it for Sat, Sun and Mon and no longer than that.
I got to Ame a considerable amount later then I had the day before, but didn't miss much as I joined up with a whole group of Kingdom Heart 2 cosplayers, and spent most of the day with them.It was brilliant, and I ended up in the Masquerade with a Sora cosplayer which was great fun, except for the part where because of a technical glitch we were made to wait in a boiling hot corridor for an extra hour and a half. Once that was sorted, the fun started and while we were at the back of the Kingdom Hearts group, (something I got a laugh out of since we were the only ones with a Sora, the main character) it didn't seem to take that long once we got going.
There were professional photos taken but we haven't seen them yet because their printer broke down so they couldn't give them to us.
After the Masquerade, me and my room mate and her friend went back to our hotel cause I had to be up early on Sun for the Omake.
I think it was gone midnight by the time we got to sleep as I had to practise for the following day.
Sunday - Yuna (Final Fantasy X)
Sunday I got up, got changed, went down to breakfast at 8:30 which was the earliest they served it. (Again greasy :()I could have sworn that we were supposed to meet for Omake rehearsals at 9:00, so when I asked what the time was and was told, 8:50, I swore rather venomously and ran for it, luckily having picked up everything I needed.
I made it to the place at 9:01.
And found that it wasn't starting until 10:00.
Grrr.
Rehearsals went fine, checked I'd brought the right CD with me and and had a couple of goes on the stage. Went for lunch, came back in time to see some of the other rehearsals, and then we were all sent out the back so we could get back stage.
What fun that was.
They hadn't given us decentinstructions so every single Omake paticipent got lost on the way because we had to leave the hall and then go down and around and then we had to go back upstairs again...
It was scary, I was fourth in the line and was one of the first called to wait in the line.
When it was my turn, I was called out on stage by badge name and the presenter told them what I was singing, then he vanished off stage and the music started.
I had to make the backing music myself, so it wasn't brilint but I sang as best as could and once Iwas done, I lowered the mike...
And the hall erupted into applause, it was fnatastic, I am definatly doing i again next year.
For anyone who wants to see a bit of it, here's a vid. Somewhere on my laptop I have the whole Omake, but I can't post it here. But it' definatly worth a watch as there were some pretty awesome skits.
Once I'd come off stage, I raced around the back to the balcony so I could see the other skits (Metal Gear 24, Anime ight Live and Cookie :) ftw). I had quite a few compliments as I managed to find somewhere to sit down.
I really wish I could find a picture of Chair-chan.
Someone needed a chair for thier skit and the people running the back started the music too soon, so all that was on stage was a chair.
And someone shouted out, "BEST CHAIR COSPLAY EVER!"
Well that just started it off, didn't it.
I think that had it been left to the people watching, I think Chair-chan would have won the Omake. It didn't matter how good you were, even the winners were outclassed by Chair-chan who was made an honerary memebr of Team Beautiful.
After the Omake, I raced back to the hotel and got changed into a dress andmy last cosplay, which I don't have a photo of. I made ears and tails and wore those with the dress I had to borrow, because the dress I was making wasn't finished in time.
Then I got contact details from the friends I'd made and once the ball was over headed back.
It was easily 1:00 monday morning when we got back.
Monday - (Sonic t-shirt again, not the same one I might point out)
Not much to say, just that I had my last greasy breakfast from that hotel and went out for one last drink with my room mate and her friends, and then got on a train back to Birminham New Street and from there to Bristol.
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Well that's pretty much it, I am definatly going back next year and in a stroke of dumb luck, ran into some people who were at Ame and were staying in my hotel when I was in work, who asked if I was going to do the Omake next year and I said definatly. (I hope to be a bit more organised next year though).
Plus next year I have some friends coming with me so it should be great.
Me and Robin are already planning out cosplays for next year, muahahaha.
Beware Amecon 2008, here we come.
Joey/Keaira
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"If you have time to worry, then run."
