... And so, now that I've recovered enough, it's time to report on the day and past events.

No more! An Expo virgin has broken free!!

Today, I got up early with my bag with previsions and my poster (of which I'm finishing) and my bro and I caught the train into the city. Out of the station, we were lucky enough to be one of the earliest to the convention halls. While waiting, there were a good number of cosplayers (not me included - Boo!) of which I continued with my bro to point out and grin. Kudos to them all! We waited for the doors to open for 30mins and then it came time to open the doors. We were split into smaller lines before, and we were placed in the 3rd column, and then we were in the hall with freebies thrown at us! Apparently because we were the 1st 1000 people to enter, which was a hopeful and typical procedure for expos from what I heard. Lots of Marvel stuff inside, but some anime related items too, so a decent mix.

Then the otaku in me switched onto "Ltd offer" mode, and we set off to buy things that could sell before we lost out, and I was packing with cash saved up! Ryo (my bro) got himself a wooden replica of Hitsuguya's (Bleach) sword, and it looks short for him. I then raced towards other booths, and straight away I saw some "must have" manga and figures. (That was the theme for all my spending.) After a walk around, I met up with Craig Charles and got him to sign before-mentioned poster (YES!), and bought a "Smeg Head" t-shirt. I didn't want to take up his time, as he'll have more of my kind to deal with, but I probably could of been more witty with my convo - I wished him well.
The trek around the area continued and we were pulling items off the vendors' tables, with my money flying out more than his. We even looked at the new Space Marine game, of which it left us waiting in eagerness for its release. And we went around numerous time scanning and rescanning the merchandise, until something else started. Thus, while I was finishing a transaction, Ryo headed for the Robots arena. I got a call from him saying "I'm near the wall, and I have some friends to say hello to..." The gang that agreed to meet up for the 1st time had found each other, as I saw my bro's head amongst the crowd, and I did the Fairy Tale "L" hand gesture to help me be seen. We greeted each other, some executing more frivolous speech than one would presume of them, and then watched the Robots fight. Quite a quick show, but it was nostalgic and great fun.

I was then the front-man of the group, even though I did ask if anyone else had anywhere they wanted to go. So I just went to a few more places I hadn't tried, mainly the comic village. And there I met a huge suprise - a fellow DA artist of which I never thought I'd meet in person called DestinyBlue. She's really friendly and got lots of talent, so of course I'd give her some support. I did stop by the Doujinshi vendor to see if anything wasn't hentai based... yeah... not one. I know it's rare, but I thought maybe one but I continued anyways, and for my troubles I saw a pretty bad one with Macross Frontier and then a whole section of futanari comics... Did-not-touch!

By then I was getting tired and my feet throbbing. The 11am groups were starting to flood the whole place as well, and it took ages just to get from here to there. I got my friends' mobile numbers and then headed off with one of them to the exit. Then we split from the station. My hands were also wrecked from the merchandise I bought, so I was a little unmotivated when I had to stand up on the train back. TT_TT And there was an unscheduled change when we heard the train didn't stop at our home station, which took an extra 30mins to resolve.

But I got back... And it was one hell of an experience. Plan on the London Expo next time, just so we have a larger area, meet more friends in the south and more space to walk in. And now there is no pressure for myself to chase after an experience like today.
I was able to buy:
Ryomou Armour edition figure
Sheryl Nome "Excellent model series" figure
Quebeley model (Just cuz Haman had one...)
Izumi Konata miniture (fox anthro on star base)
2 Fate/Stay Night Nendoroids - Sakura + Ilya
2 A4 images (signed) by DestinyBlue
Bamboo Blades Complete
4 .hack titles (manga) = 4Koma, Link vol.3, Cell vol. 2, A.I.Buster (to replace lost one).
"Smeg Head" Red Dwarf t-shirt
Freebies = 2x Kamui the Lone Ninja dvds, 2x Avengers comic, door hangers (Green lantern), MVM catalog with a nice Burst angels image, postcards (Akira+Eva 2.22) and other stuff.


Other news

I went out not long ago to meet my more local friends in a pub, and we rocked out to 3 bands playing a gig there. One we've heard before and looked forward to, but the others we were looking forward to. And they didn't disappoint. The 1st band was pretty good, but the vocalist was losing his voice, so I got him some water at the end to help him out. XD
Then came Down to a Science - I admit, I was eying up the lead singer... even before I realized she was just that. I wasn't the only one. But the group got on stage, and we were amazed at their music. They were throwing themselves at their instruments, and her voice really caught the right pitch while she strummed at her guitar. One of my mates has an addiction to their songs too, not surprising.
Then came the main even: Better Left Alone. The whole pub had it's foundations rocked when they came on and I was head-banging like no tomorrow. I don't have the hair for it, but my spirit was in it!
Afterwards, we met up with the members of the 2 mentioned bands (the other left early), got some t-shirts from them and chilled. We went home with smiles on our faces, leaping over barriers until we got back to the car. What a night!

Work's been pretty much the same, except I now do Sun-tues on full days. I'm still drawing between lunches, but also reading a bit too, depending how long my breaks are. I had an appraisal with my manager, and I'm happy with work and they happy with me it seems.

I'm becoming more social now, which sometimes annoys my bro when I say I'll be back at some time and not come back until an hour or more later. Other than that, I hear a lot ore stories from my mates, and I'm glad I get together with them so much. (Although at times, I want time to myself, and I end up pepping myself up to say hello to them. I know they mean well, and I'm not going to complain if they want to hang with me.)

Well, that's about it. Got a few scans to upload, but I'm in no rush tbf.
Cya l8rs.