-------Friday-------
After a "WTF WHERE DID MY PASSPORT GO?!" scare on Thursday, Friday went off without a hitch. ~sora1992 dropped us off at Heathrow airport with plenty of time to spare, and the flight was delightfully on time. There was no decent bar I could find in Terminal 3 (I always start my flights with a few drinks. Tradition), so we had Starbucks instead before boarding.

Arriving at Montréal, we had our first scare. The wonderful Scott, who was picking us up, overestimated how long we'd be stuck in Customs, and was late to pick us up. With no contact number, we panicked juuuuust a little bit! Luckily, Jenn soon spotted him, and we were off!
We were dropped off to Le Nouvelle Hotel, with an offer to go out for dinner and drinks with the con staff later that evening. The hotel was lovely, and the rooms really big (perfect for cosplayers!). Later that day, around 7 or 8pm, our friends ~candyheartcollector and ~jazznotes turned up, as they were room sharing with us until Sunday. Come 10pm, we received a call to the room asking if we were ready to go out. By this time, Jenn and I were still running on UK time, at it was around 3am for us and we were exhausted. We opted to stay in, get a full nights rest, and be ready to go for the convention the next morning.

My 8.30am alarm went off... at 8.30am UK time.... 3.30am Montréal time. Oops XD

-------Saturday-------
Up bright and early, and dressed well ahead of schedule (myself as Scarlet Witch, Candy as Poison Ivy, Jazz as Catwoman, and Jenn as QotD Lestat), we were picked up by the wonderful Anne-Marie, who became our beautiful shadow for the weekend! We were driven to the convention, given our guest passes, and led in. And WHAT a convention! The hall was huge, beautifully laid out with plenty of room inbetween the rows of artists and dealers, and our table was with the other guests towards the back, close to the guests room. We were led straight to our panel, which unfortunately was so early that a fair few people didn't manage to get through the queuing system in time to catch it. To those who did make it, thanks so much for coming! Several people really kept the ball rolling with their questions, and two awesome guys in the audience seemed to share my ReBoot love... which I guess should be expected when in Canada!!

After the panel, we hung out at our table for a while and signed stuff, had photos and generally hung out with people who came to see us. The table essentially became the "cosplayers hangout" for the weekend, which was awesome as it meant we got to spend a fair deal of time with some wicked people! At 1.30, I was due for my photoshoot with Stan Lee. A *HUGE* thank you to Phil, who sorted getting me into the shoot swiftly so that I could then dash off to do Masquerade judging. I got to have a brief chat with Stan, who I was amazed could have such a hectic day and still be smiling. Stan Lee had his arm around my waist. ffffffffff. Day was made.

Dashed off to make the judging, where we met some awesome cosplayers! I can't remember them all off the top of my head, but I do remember:
- Panty and Stocking pair, who won Best in Show
- A "omfg so awesome o.o" Matrix, from ReBoot... with his gun magnetically attached to his leg! UNNNF. His stage performance had me in fits of glee!
- Sexy Gambit and Rogue pair, who we got the pleasure of speaking to more on Sunday
- Tira (I think that's the right name?) from Soul Caliber, who was awesome and did a great stage performance
- A Hobgoblin, with two kids as Hawkeye and Green Arrow, who were adorably awesome
- A wicked Sucker Punch group with brilliantly made costumes
- A Ghost Rider and Predator, with Pred covered in various "trophies" stolen from slain comic book heroes!
- A Robin with a wonderful costume, who we then hung out with more on Sunday

There were so many, but those are the ones I remember off the top of my head.

After the Masquerade, we went back to the table for a bit to hang out with people again, as well as caught the last part of Vic Mignogna's concert (we'd already met him during the day, and proceeded to bug him at various intervals throughout the weekend. He remembered us both, was lovely, and took it all in his usual good humour. A brilliant chap.)

A wonderful congoer came to say hi, and ended up being kidnapped by me to show me where the ReBoot table was. I ended up getting an official ReBoot artbook (signed by Jim Su, who also had a chat with me about the artists behind ReBoot) as well as a keychain that I might mod to sit on a wristband. We also got given some big lollypops (mostly consumed by Jenn) and some Nutella (a bit of an in-joke involving marmite XD). Candy and Jazz also got me this awesome little stand-up Ellis model which I looove 8D OH and we got given some buttons, but I think Jenn still has those. OH and some maple syrup and high volume cider, for helping judge the masquerade!

The day ended. We went back so that we could kit down (my corset and boots were killing me, and Candy needed to wash off all her green bodypaint), so people waited for us in the lobby so we could all go out to dinner together. I tried poutine, which was pretty good (I was bugged until I agreed to give it a go!) and we all went out to an Irish bar afterwards. I was prepped for a long night of drinking as per my usual con-method... but Jenn was totally wiped out, so after a while, the fabulous LouLou (or Lulu? Not sure how you go about spelling your name, dude!) dropped us back to the hotel. Jenn passed out almost instantly

-------SUNDAY-------
The better day, in my opinion. Jenn and I were in our Nick and Ellis costumes, with Candy and Jazz going as UNNNF CAIN AND ABEL (Star Fighter).

Jenn and I had to cover the panel alone, as Jo-Ellen had some costume issues that resulted in her being too late to make it. It went pretty well, I think! We had more energy than the previous day, and more people turned out to listen to us. We had some really good questions asked, too, which was great! After that, we wandered around the hall briefly before going back to our table. We also visited ~DROOphotographer, who was totally AWESOME and gave us a free photo shoot! Jenn's already posted one of the pictures he snapped of us. He's a really fantastic guy. Check out his dA to see if he's doing a photo shoot at any convention near you, as he's wonderfully talented.

The day was spent mostly between hanging about with people at the table, or wandering around the hall. We filmed a brief skit towards the end of the day with some of the awesome chaps we'd met over the weekend. I also got another chance to speak to Stan Lee, this time for... about 20 seconds. Sounds short, but seemed much longer! He remembered me from the previous day, which made me more pleased than I let on. I also spoke briefly to Jeremy Bulloch (Boba Fett) and got his autograph, which was a pleasure. He was a really nice guy.

I got the chance to spaz out over an awesome pair of friends cosplaying Rogue and Gambit, who were both super nice, and the Gambit had a WICKED pair of sclera contact lenses that just finished the job so nicely. Our skit ended up including Nick and Ellis, with cameos from Rogue, Gambit, a Galactik Football character (i don't know the characters individual names) and a Snape. I think that was it? I need to re-watch it before Jenn edits it XD  We then did a small shoot within the convention centre with *Henrickson, who is a brilliantly dedicated photographer.

Anne-Marie finished the con off perfectly for me by presenting me with a bunch of ReBoot buttons!! Someone also gave me a red ReBoot button during the con... but I can't remember who.

OH! And someone's dad gave me this AWESOME LotR Return Of The King baseball cap after I fangasmed over it. I couldn't believe that! *rolls around with it* We also got given several pieces of artwork and a few letters, all of which will be kept and added to mine and Jenn's scrapbook of things people have given to us Candy and Jazz had to leave during the con, which sucked, but it was so great to get to see them again and have more time to really hang out with them. <3

We went out that evening (in cosplay) to the Old Port. We had Beaver Tails, which despite the odd name ended up being some of the most delicious stuff I'd ever eaten! We then went off again for another photo shoot with *Henrickson ... and damn does this guy go the distance to get good photos! Jenn and I honestly could have kidnapped him for hours to become our photo-taking SLAVE if we had the chance to! But instead, we wandered around for a fair while, got some AWESOME shots (which, when we receive them, we'll share with you) before parting ways with some of our friends, and going back to the hotel with some of the others for pizza and hanging out before turning in for the night. Jenn, once again, passed out first XD

-------MONDAY-------
Our final day.

Our junior liason and fellow shadow, Laura, met up with us, along with Bert and Matthew (and, briefly, Matt's friend Carlo) and we went for a speed-tour of Montréal. We did a whole lot of stuff, including going to the top of the mountain (I nearly died on the way up XD) and it was a really lovely way to end the day before we went back to the hotel to meet Scott, who was dropping us back to the airport. We were sad to be going, but fingers crossed, we'll be back there again soon!


-------THANK YOUS-------
I'm at risk of forgetting/missing out a whole bunch of people here, as my memory is SHIT, but let's give this a go...
In no particular order....

~ Josianne, for all her hard work in getting us to MCC, and for being a generally lovely person.
~ Anne-Marie and Laura, our liasons, who never left our side throughout the convention. They made it a stress-free and wonderful experience for us.
~ Phil, who helped out hugely with getting my Stan Lee shoot, was great fun through the weekend, and bought me a drink. I'll repay you next time!
~ Candy and Jazz, for just being yourselves <3
~ Chris, who was our makeshift Hunter for our night-time L4D2 photo shoot with Henry
~ Bert, who was a makeshift zombie for the shoot, as well as came to see us on Monday
~ Matthew, who along with Laura, toured us around Montréal on Monday.
~ Loulou, for the rides!
~ Fred, for getting both Jenn and I wanting to watch Galactik Football.
~ Manu, for the massages!
~ Scott, for the airport chauffeur service, and the MCC shirts.
~ Vic Mignogna, for being good fun, once again!
~ A member of con staff whose name I don't remember, who bought Jenn a couple of coffees. Lifesaver!
~ The awesome cosplayers we met, including (but not limited to), Rogue and Gambit, the Harry Potter cosplayers, Tira and her friend, original design Sasuke, a whole bundle of various Kingdom Hearts cosplayers, the awesome Bleach cosplayer with posable wings, the Naru and Sasuke who interviewed us... and a whole tonne of others who I'm no doubt forgetting!
~ Shawnna, who took me to the ReBoot table
~ Everyone who came out to dinner/the bar/back for pizza
~ Droo, for the shoot and cd's!
~ Henrickson, for both the shoots (and the pics, when we get them! *hint hint*)

~and everyone else who should be here, whose names I've forgotten or face's I've misplaced in my mind in a jetlagged haze.

I want to go back. Now.



(Edit: Apologies for mis-spelling Hendrickson's Henrickson's name! )

Thanks to ~Ariyaunna for the avatars!

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Events I'm Attending
• 2nd - 5th Feb = SFX Weekender, UK
• 13th - 15th Apr = Kitacon, UK
• 26th - 27th May = MCM Expo, UK
• 15th - 17th Jun = Metrocon, FL, USA

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Thought For The Journal

"If you enter this world knowing you are loved
and you leave this world knowing the same,
then everything that happens in between can be dealt with."
- Michael Jackson -