I was going to write this last night after I got home... HOWEVER we got in at around 1am after an incredibly long and exciting day and I was just about ready to fall asleep standing up.


WARNING. STREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESS INCOMING.


So ANYWAYS, I left the house at about 1:30pm yesterday (should have left at 1pm, nevermind) to get to Kensington Gardens for roughly 2pm. I was of course slightly late and WTF WHERE IS EVERYONE. So I ring @dxd to find out where the hell everyone is, and as I am walking I see this MOB of people and figure it'll be them. Dom glomps me as per usual and I find our usual gang of deviants (`cei-, $zilla774 plus the lovely Monica and baby Zirra, `greenie, @leaf-lover...) and HUGZ ALL ROUND. Lots of other friendly faces but I can't possibly mention them all, the whole day was a bit of a blur to be honest! Dom introduces me to $spyed who is being mobbed by loads of deviants, poor guy. Genuinely nice guy, if you get the chance to talk to him (or indeed ANY of the staff, they are all awesome) do so!

When it seems like everyone who is going to turn up is there we move over towards the memorial for the Group Photo. About 8 of us armed with cameras take pictures, the group was so large we had to move people to get them all in, and this on ceri's ridiculous 16-35 too. Seriously. I'm not in the group photo as I stayed back to make sure people yelled and stuff when the photo was taken (it was on a timer, we all yelled twice it was fun ).

Then we split off into our "little" groups of expertise. Photographers, digital art, literature and traditional art I think. Dom and Alex started playfighting and Dom failed epicly and made his hand bleed. ~flaviolongato came prepared with BOOZE and sandwiches, I wish I had had the foresight to bring food and drink as by that time I was feeling a bit tired due to lack to food (breakfast? oops). So `cei-, @leaf-lover, @Narfmaster, @sine-out and I went off to Waitrose at Gloucester Road to get food and water. After we got back the groups had begun to lose a few people so they were a little more comfortable and it was easier to actually talk to each other!

$pachunka came over and demonstrated how groups and portfolios work and stuff. It was really interesting, it was wonderful to see someone be so enthusiastic and I think it really rubbed off on most of us. When ~feisar finally arrived the big group was down to about 100 people and we were thinking about going off to the pub. ~feisar and I went off to Kings Cross to pick up ~Little-River but the Aussie slacker had buggered off! So we went to the Met Bar (baker st) to meet up with everyone else. We had some foods and by the time we had eaten half of the group that had gone to the pub had left too, sadly people have things to do on week days (hope your interview went well Bini!). The rest of the evening was spent chatting to =sali-chan (who turned up late), $pachunka, $mccann and getting free stuff like awesome poster prints which btw... really nice quality, if you have older prints these are like ten times nicer... and I won a FELLA PLUSHIE, made my day! Eventually we got kicked out of the pub and hovered outside for 10 minutes before we all went our separate ways.

Some creepy dude on the bus was staring at my boobs the whole way home, never felt so uncomfortable in my life. But the Fella plushie made it all okay, I think I'll name him Fred or something I dunno really. All in all, an absolutely awesome day. I've missed out loads of stuff I know, but I am sure other journals will fill in the gaps.

And seriously, if the tour is coming to a city near you... fucking get your ass in gear and get there!